and contempt of letters has difgraced the princes CHAP. of the Heraclean and Ifaurian dynasties 105. LIII. Greek In the ninth century, we trace the firft dawnings Revival of of the restoration of science 6. After the fanati- learning. cifm of the Arabs had fubfided, the caliphs afpired to conquer the arts, rather than the provinces, of the empire: their liberal curiofity rekindled the emulation of the Greeks, brufhed away the dust from their ancient libraries, and taught them to know and reward the philofophers, whose labours had been hitherto repaid by the pleasure of study and the pursuit of truth. The Cæfar Bardas, the uncle of Michael the third, was the generous protector of letters, a title which alone has preserved his memory and excused his ambition. A particle of the treasures of his nephew was fometimes diverted from the indulgence of vice and folly; a fchool was opened in the palace of Magnaura; and the presence of Bardas excited the emulation of the mafters and ftudents. At their head was the philofopher Leo, archbishop of Theffalonica; his profound skill in aftronomy and the mathematics was admired by the strangers of the East; and this occult science was magnified by vulgar credulity, which modeftly supposes that all knowledge. fuperior to its own must be the effect of inspiration 105 The alopia of Zonaras, the appia nas apatia of Cedrenus, are ftrong words, perhaps not ill-fuited to these reigns. 106 See Zonaras (1. xvi. p. 160, 161.) and Cedrenus (p. $49, 550.). Like fryar Bacon, the philofopher Leo has been transformed by ignorance into a conjurer: yet not fo undeservedly, if he be the author of the oracles more commonly ascribed to the em peror of the fame name. The phyfics of Leo in MS. are in the `library of Vienna (Fabricius, Bibliot. Græc. tom. vi. p. 366. tom. xii. p. 781.). Quiefcant! or LIII. CHAP. or magic. At the preffing intreaty of the Cæfar, his friend, the celebrated Photius '07, renounced the freedom of a fecular and ftudious life, afcended the patriarchal throne, and was alternately excommunicated and abfolved by the fynods of the Eaft and Weft. By the confeffion even of prieftly hatred, no art or fcience, except poetry, was foreign to this univerfal scholar, who was deep in thought, indefatigable in reading, and eloquent in diction. Whilft he exercifed the office of protofpathaire, or captain of the guards, Photius was fent ambaffador to the caliph of Bagdad 10. The tedious hours of exile, perhaps of confinement, were beguiled by the hafty compofition of his Library, a living monument of erudition and criticifm. Two hundred and fourfcore writers, hiftorians, orators, philofophers, theologians, are reviewed without any regular method: he abridges their narrative or doctrine, appreciates their style and character, and judges even the fathers of the church with a dif creet freedom, which often breaks through the fuperftition of the times. The emperor Bafil, who lamented the defects of his own education, entrufted to the care of Photius his fon and fucceffor 197 The ecclefiaftical and literary character of Photius, is copiously difcuffed by Hanckius (de Scriptoribus Byzant. p. 269396.) and Fabricius. 108 El Agus can only mean Bagdad, the feat of the caliph; and the relation of his embaffy might have been curious and inftructive. But how did he procure his books? A library fo numerous could neither be found at Bagdad, nor tranfported with his baggage, nor preferved in his memory. Yet the last, however incredible, feems to be affirmed by Photius himself, oras autwy ǹ Mun S. Camufat (Hift. Critique des Journaux, p. 87-94-) gives a good account of the Myriobiblon. Leo LIII. Leo the philofopher; and the reign of that prince CHA P. and of his fon Conftantine Porphyrogenitus forms one of the most profperous æras of the Byzantine literature. By their munificence the treasures of antiquity were deposited in the Imperial library; by their pens, or thofe of their affociates, they were imparted in fuch extracts and abridgments as might amuse the curiofity, without oppreffing the indolence, of the public. Besides the Bafilics, or code of laws, the arts of husbandry and war, of feeding or destroying the human species, were propagated with equal diligence; and the history of Greece and Rome was digefted into fifty-three heads or titles, of which two only (of embaffies, and of virtues and vices) have escaped the injuries of time. In every station, the reader might contemplate the image of the paft world, apply the leffon or warning of each page, and learn to admire, perhaps to imitate, the examples of a brighter period. I fhall not expatiate on the works of the Byzantine Greeks, who, by the affiduous ftudy of the ancients, have deserved in fome measure the remembrance and gratitude of the moderns. The scholars of the present age may ftill enjoy the benefit of the philofophical common-place book of Stobæus, the grammatical and historic lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, which comprise fix hundred narratives in twelve thousand verses, and the commentaries on Homer of Euftathius archbishop of Theffalonica, who, from his horn of plenty, has poured the names and authorities of four hundred writers. From thefe originals, and from 1 LIII. CHAP. from the numerous tribe of fcholiafts and critics 109, fome estimate may be formed of the literary wealth of the twelfth century: Conftantinople was enlightened by the genius of Homer and Demofthenes, of Ariftotle and Plato; and in the enjoyment or neglect of our present riches, we must envy the generation that could still perufe the hiftory of Theopompus, the orations of Hyperides, the comedies of Menander 110, and the odes of Alcæus and Sappho. The frequent labour of illuftration attests not only the existence but the popularity of the Grecian claffics: the general knowledge of the age may be deduced from the example of two learned females, the emprefs Eudocia, and the princefs Anna Comnena, who cultivated, in the purple, the arts of rhetoric and philofophy ". The 109 Of these modern Greeks, fee the refpective articles in the Bibliotheca Græca of Fabricius; a laborious work, yet susceptible of a better method and many improvements: of Euftathius (tom. i. p. 289-292. 306-329.), of the Pfelli (a diatribe of Leo Allatius, ad calcem tom. v.), of Conftantine Porphyrogenitus (tom. vi. p. 486-509.), of John Stobæus (tom. viii. 665–728.), of Suidas (tom ix. p. 620–827.), John Tzetzes (tom. xii. p. 245—273.). Mr. Harris, in his Philological Arrangements, opus fenile, has given a sketch of this Byzantine learning (p. 287-300.). 110 From obfcure and hearsay evidence, Gerard Voffius (dePoetis Græcis, c. 6.) and le Clerc (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom. xix. p. 285.) mention a commentary of Michael Pfellus on twenty-four plays of Menander, still extant in MS. at Conftantinople. Yet fuch claffic ftudies feem incompatible with the gravity or dulnefs of a schoolman, who pored over the categories (de Pfellis, p. 42.): and Michael has probably been confounded with Homerus Sellius, who wrote arguments to the comedies of Menander. In the xth century, Suidas quotes fifty plays, but he often transcribes the old fcholiaft of Ariftophanes. III Anna Comnena may boast of her Greek style (To Eaan 96 anpor coπudanvia), and Zonaras, her contemporary, but not her flatterer, LIII. The vulgar dialect of the city was grofs and bar- CHAP. barous a more correct and elaborate ftyle diftinguifhed the difcourfe, or at least the compofitions, of the church and palace, which sometimes affected to copy the purity of the Attic models. In our modern education, the painful though neceffary attainment of two languages, which are no longer living, may confume the time and damp the ardour of the youthful student. The poets and orators were long imprisoned in the barbarous dialects of our Western ancestors, devoid of harmony or grace; and their genius, without precept or example, was abandoned to the rude and native powers of their judgment and fancy. But the Greeks of Conftantinople, after purging away the impurities of their vulgar fpeech, acquired the free ufe of their ancient language, the most happy compofition of human art, and a familiar knowledge of the fublime mafters who had pleafed or inftructed the first of nations. But these advan tages only tend to aggravate the reproach and fhame of a degenerate people. They held in their lifeless hands the riches of their fathers, without inheriting the spirit which had created and improved that facred patrimony: they read, they praised, they compiled, but their languid fouls feemed alike incapable of thought and action. In the revolution of ten centuries, not a fingle discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote the hap flatterer, may add with truth, ghwτlav exev axpißos Atlınığsoav. The princefs was converfant with the artful dialogues of Plato; and had ftudied the reтpanus, or quadrivium of astrology, geometry, arithmetic, and mufic (fee her preface to the Alexiad, with Ducange's notes). VOL. X. M piness Decay of taste and genius: |