The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-08-28

heresy Of q vanquished people. That such
was not the fate OF Europe We owe to the
| Byzantines whom Gibbon taught us to do
spise. and our debt to Leo the Isaurian is
intellectually greater than that which We owe
to Charles Martel. Europe could never have
| been conquered by way Of the Pyrenees. mas
| much as the Saracen assailants had to receive
| orders and draw supplies from the seat OF
| Moslem power in Asia By the immensely long
and clrcuitous route through Spain. north
western Africa. and Egypt. On the other hand.
what tho Turks accomplished after 1903
shows that Europe could easily have besn con-
quered by way OF Constantinople In the hrst
quarter OF the eighth century.
At this time "a. d. III the reigning Caliph
was Suleiman. the seventh OF the house OF the
Ommeyades. He had strained. as We have
said. all tho resources Of his empire to provide
q feet and army adequate to tho enterprise
which no had undertaken. The chief COM
mand Of the expedition was given to his
brother M%oslemah. who led 10000 men from
Tarsus through Asia Minor to the Hellespont.
Meanwhile, q feet OF 1900 sail. under the
viEier Suleiman. namesaks Of the Oaliph.
sailed from Syria to the Egean. carrying a
force equal to that which had marched by
land. In the month Of August. Leo the lsau-
rian beheld the vessels Of the Saracens sail
Ing up inc tFOpOntib. Wuilo tueir ihuu MI
had crossed into Thrace and was approach
ing the city from the western side. Moslemah
caused his troops to build a line OF
olroumvalatlon from the sea to the Gold
en- Horn. outing Constantinople of from
all Communication with Thrsce. while sulei-
man blocked the southern exit OF thu Bos-
porus. and tried. though Intellectually. to close
its northern entrance also. so rs to prevent
any supplies coming by water from the Euxtne.
Throughout the ensuing autumn and winter
the city was beleagured. and with the spring
all hope OF successful resistance seemed to be
cut of by the arrival OF q supplement fleet
from Egypt. and OF a second large army which
came up by land from Tarsus and occupied
the Asiatic shores OF the Bosporus. iot even
now Leo did not despair. and In tho summer
he took the offensive. His fire ships stole out
and burnt the Egyptian squadron as It lay at
anchor. A body Of his troops. lying In Bithy-
mia. surprised and cut to pieces the Saracen
army which watched the Aslatic side OF tho
strait. He prevailed upon the BulGarians to
pour down over the Balkans and rout the
covering army which observed Adrianople
and protected tho sioge on the west. The
result Of those operations was the retreat OF
Moslemah. who got back to Tarsus with only
10000 out OF the 100000 men who had started
with him or rejoinod him as achievements.
The fleet Jared worse. for. having been caught
by a tempest In the lEgean. it was SO fearfully
shattered that out OF the whole armada only
1--WE vessels got back to Syria unframed.
Thus ended the last great endeavor OF the
saracens to destroy Constantinoplc. By them
the task was never again essayed. although
for $50 years longer wars necessarily broke
out between tho Emperor and tho Caliph. Yet
SO little have we been taught by the purveyors
OF Gibbon-and-wate to appreciate the tre-
mendous exploit Of Leo the Isaurian. that he
Is remembered rather as the Iconoclast, or
breaker OF images. than as tho deliverer Of
Christendom.
The Macedonian dynasty began with Basil
l.. who became Emperor in A. L. S87. Basil
himself is chiefly distinguished for his codil-
cation Of the laws OF the empire. known as the
Basiiika, which superseded the Ecloga OF Leo
tho Isaurian. just as Leo's compilation had
superseded the work OF Justinian. The Basil
ika Of Basil. with the additions made by his
son. Leo VI. formed the code of the byzantine
empire down to its last days. no further rear
rangement being ever made. The eighty years
which followed the death Of Basil the Macedo-
MAN were entirely taken up by the two long
reigns OF his son and grandson. Loo the Wise
and Constantine Porphyrogenitus. the latter
being so called because he was born In the
Purple Chamber. the room In the palace set
aside for the Empress. So far as foreign wars
and dangers to the empire from without were
concerned. these eighty years were the most I'M
e~ventiul and monotonous In Byzantine his
tory. Thoy witnessed. however. U remarkable
intellectual revival. the two rulers themselves
being professional men OF letters. to whom wo
are indebted for some OF the most useful and
;pt,rocftnn u,nrka in RvZanfipa litarafura In
their reigns took place the elimination OF the
Byzantine renaissance. which had begun un-
der the quickening influence of the political
and social reforms OF Leo the lsaurian. The
darkest age in byzantine literary history WAS
from 600 to $50. q period from which We have
hardly any contemporary annalists. no poetry.
save the lost Heracliad of George Of Pisidia.
and very little even OF theology. On the other
hand, by the end Of the eighth century writers
became far moro numerous. and in the ninth
century we can trace the existence Of a large
literary class. including Q few really first
rate authors. among whom should be
particularly mentioned the patriarch Pho
thus. whose breadth of culture was
astonishing. and whose library catalogue
is tho envy OF modern historians. A curious
feature OF the Byzantine literature Of this
epoch was the epics. or romances Of chivnlry.
as thcy may properly DO called. These were
written toward the close OF the times Of the
Macedonian dynasty. and a type Of tho class
Is tho epic Of Digenes AEritas. which Gele-
brates the adventures OF q hero who lived in
the latter half OF tho tenth century. DiGenes
was n mighty hunter both Of bears and Sar-
acens. who sloped with tho fair Eudocia
Ducas. daughter Of the General OF the Cappa.
dociHn theme. whom he carried or In spite OF
her father and seven brethren. Pursued by
the irato family. he rode them down one by
one at vantage points In the passes. but spared
their lives and was reconciled to them at the
intercession OF his bride. The story Is evident
" in the same vein as the tales Of chivalry in
western Europe. most OF which. however. be-
long to a considerably later period.
between A. D. 900 and 300 art followed much
the same course as literature In the byzantine
empire. 1t was In a state Of decay for the first
century and a hall. and the surviving works Of
that time are often grotesquely rude. For sheer
bad drawing and bad execution nothing can
be worse than the coins OF the seventh and
eighth centuries-a Frankish or Visigothio