Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/81

 of art which perished, but roads, aqueducts, and public buildings were so utterly destroyed, that the country was condemned to a long period of poverty. The fortifications, indeed, of Constantinople, and the fortunate situation of the city, could defy Alaric, and save it from the ruin which he was soon to bring upon Rome. But the Eastern world, though it arrested the barbarian, was rudely shaken, and sustained fearful loss and damage. The civilization of Greece received a shock from which it never recovered, and the Greek race itself, to the capacities of which mankind owe so much, now grew feebler, and began to dwindle away into insignificance.

Meanwhile the capital presented a striking contrast to all this misery and desolation. Constantinople was plentifully supplied with gold and silver from the regions of Thrace and the Pontus, and its coinage was particularly famous. Its merchants, too, almost monopolised the commerce of the world, and its wealth and luxury seem to have become prodigious. There is every reason to believe that many of the countries under the sway of the Eastern empire were richer and more populous than at present. Along with all this material prosperity there went, according to the writers of the time, a deplorable corruption of life and manners. It is very possible that they may have exaggerated the luxury and depravity of the Romans under Theodosius, though we may admit the force of Gibbon's remark, that the perils of the age and the presence of the rapacious Goths may have inspired them with "the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a siege or a shipwreck." And so, amid