the dominant power.

But it is a change, on the whole, for the better. It is accompanied by a revival of art, by improvements in architecture; it inaugurates a religious revolution which has advantages. Above all, it saves the East from stagnation. It is one among many of those salutary shocks which, in the political as in the natural world, are needed from time to time to stimulate action and prevent torpor and apathy.— RAWLINSON.

THE fame of Alexandria as a seat of learning has been referred to under the third century before Christ. It continued till the beginning of the Christian era; but that celebrated philosophy called Neo-Platonism arose towards the end of the third century, flourished with some modifications until the fifth century, and then rapidly declined.

The term "Alexandrian School" is applied, in a loose sense, to the whole body of eminent men who, in all the departments of knowledge, conferred lustre on the capital of the Ptolemies; but, as a characteristic designation, it is more strictly confined to that particular section of its philosophers known as the Neo-Platonists. — Encyclopædia Britannica.

FOURTH CENTURY.

(300-400.)

THE final division of the Roman dominion into the Eastern Empire and Western Empire (395), and the beginning of the migrations of the northern nations, are the national movements of the greatest importance in this century.

ROME. Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, unites the whole empire in 323, and makes Byzantium (since called Constantinople) the seat of empire in 330. Under Valentinian I. the division of the Roman territory into the Eastern and Western Empires is first effected in 364. The Roman dominion is reunited under Theodosius I., who is the last emperor who rules over the whole empire; and after his death the division of the empire is completed, between his sons, in 395, into the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire.

NORTHERN NATIONS. Important migrations of the northern tribes which have long been threatening the Roman Empire and involving the Romans in constant wars, begin in the latter part of the century. One of these tribes, the GOTHS, are in the latter part of the century pushed on by the Huns (a Turanian tribe from Asia, who in the latter part of this century begin to invade Europe), and in 376 are permitted to pass the Danube and settle within the Roman dominion. They afterwards spread westward towards Italy. Another Teutonic tribe, the SAXONS, begin to attack Britain in the latter part of the century, but are repulsed by Theodosius.

HUNS. See above, under NORTHERN NATIONS.

PERSIA is a powerful state, though an unequal rival of Rome.