Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/89

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 69 prayer and emaciated the body by fasting ; and the multitude of convents and festivals diverted many hands and many days from the temporal service of mankind. Yet the subjects of the Byzantine empire were still the more dexterous and dilii^ent of nations ; their country was blessed by nature with every advan- tage of soil, climate, and situation ; and, in the support and restoration of the arts, their patient and peaceful temper was more useful than the warlike spirit and feudal anarcliy of tLurope. The provinces that still adhered to the empire were repeopled and enriched by the misfortunes of those which were irrecover- ably lost. From the yoke of the caliphs, the Catholics of Syria, Egypt, and Africa, retired to the allegiance of their prince, to the society of their brethren : the moveable wealth, which eludes the search of oppression, accompanied and alleviated their exile; and Constantinople received into her bosom the fugitive trade of Alexandria and Tyre. The chiefs of Armenia and Scythia, who fled from hostile or religious persecution, were hospitably entertained ; their followers were encouraged to build new cities and to cultivate waste lands ; and many spots, both in Europe and Asia, preserved the name, the manners, or at least the memor}', of these national colonies. Even the tribes of barbarians, who had seated themselves in arms on the territory of the empire, were gradually reclaimed to the laws of the church and state ; and, as long as they were separated from the Greeks, their pos- terity supplied a race of faithful and obedient soldiers. Did we possess sufficient materials to survey the twenty-nine themes of the Byzantine monarchy, our curiosity might be satisfied with a chosoi example : it is fortunate enough that the clearest light should be thrown on the most interesting province, and the name of Peloponnesus will awaken the attention of the classic reader. As early as the eii^hth centui-v, in the troubled reiirn of the state of - PslopODIlBSIlB ! Iconoclasts, Greece, and even Peloponnesus,^-^ were overrun by sciavonianB some Sclavonian Iwnds, who outstripped the royal standard of Bulgaria. The strangers of old, Cadmus, and Danaus, and Pelops, had planted in that fruitful soil the seeds of policy and learning ; ^^ 'EaO^afiiuOri Hk irna-a t xu>pa <co"i yeyovt pdpSapoi, says Constantlne (Thematibus, 1. ii. c. 6, p. 25 [p. 53, ed. Bonn]) in a style as barbarous as the idea, which he con- firms, as usual, Vjy a foolish epigram. The epitomizcr of Strabo likewise observes, Kai i*vv 5e irafTav *HTreipor Ka 'EAa5a (rxd'ov Kai "MaK^&oviav, Ka'i. Jli^^OTroj'i'tj'Toi' ^KvBai 2<cAa|3oi cc'noi'Tni (1. vii. p. 98, edit. Hudson) : a passage which leads Dodwell a weary dance (Geograph. Minor, torn. ii. dissert, vi. p. 170-191) to enumerate the inroads of the Sclavi, and to fix the date (A. I). 980) of this petty geographer. [On the Slavonic element in Greece, see Appendi. 7.]