Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/364

 3o6 Outlines of European History Reliance on mere text- books more great men of letters arose. Few of those who understand and enjoy Latin literature to-day would think of reading for pleasure any of the poetry or prose written in the later centuries of the Roman Empire. During the three hundred years before the barbarian inva- sions those who studied at all did not ordinarily take the trouble to read die best books of the earlier Greek and Roman writers, but relied upon mere collections of quotations, and got their information from textbooks put together by often ignorant compilers. These textbooks the Middle Ages inherited and continued to use. The great Greek writers were forgotten alto- gether, and only a few of the better known Latin authors like Cicero, Horace, and Virgil continued to be copied and read. Constantine : foundation of Constan- tinople Simple organization of early Christianity Section 49. The Triumph of Christianity Like so many of the emperors of his time Diocletian had risen from the ranks of provincial troops and felt little attach- ment for the city of Rome. The pressure of dangerous enemies on the oriental frontier and the threatening flood of German barbarians along the lower Danube kept him much in the East, and still further detached him from Rome. Similar conditions led Constantine to forsake Rome altogether, to shift his residence eastward, and to establish a new seat of government on the Bosporus at the old Greek city of Byzantium (see map, p. 146). The Emperor stripped many an ancient city of its great monu- ments in order to secure materials for the beautification of his splendid residence. Some of these monuments from older places still stand in Constantinople (Fig. 130). By 330 a.d. the new capital on the Bosporus was a magnificent monumental city, whence the Emperor might overlook both Europe and Asia. Meantime one of the most important changes in the whole career of man was slowly taking place within the Roman Em- pire. The long struggle of Christianity among the older reli- gions of the Mediterranean and the Orient (p. 300) had steadily