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ib.

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ib.

ib.

1396....1398. Crusade and Captivity of

the French Princes

1355....1391. The Emperor John Pala-
ologus

470 1391....1425 The Emperor Manuel
ib. 1395....1402. Distress of Constantinople ib.

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State of the Eastern Empire in the Tenth Century....Extent and
Division.... Wealth and Revenue....Palace of Constantinople....
Titles and Offices.... Pride and Power of the Emperors....Tac-
tics of the Greeks, Arabs, and Franks....Loss of the Latin
Tongue.... Studies and Solitude of the Greeks:

A RAY of historic light seems to beam from the dark- CHAP. ness of the tenth century. We open with curiosity and re

LIII.

spect the royal volumes of Constantine Porphyrogenitus,' Memorials

which he composed at a mature age for the instruction of of the his son, and which promise to unfold the state of the East-Greek empire. ern empire, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. Works of In the first of these works he minutely describes the Constanpous ceremonies of the church and palace of Constantino- phyroge. ple, according to his own practice and that of his predeces- nitus. sors. In the second, he attempts an accurate survey of the

pom

1 The epithet of Пop¶upoyevntos, Porphyrogenitus, born in the purple, is elegantly defined by Claudian:

Ardua privatos nescit fortuna Penates;

Et regnum cum luce dedit. Cognata potestas
Excepit Tyrio venerabile pignus in ostro.

And Ducange, in his Greek and Latin Glossaries, produces many passages
expressive of the same idea.

2 A splendid MS. of Constantine, de Cæremoniis Aulæ et Ecclesiæ Byzanfine, wandered from Constantinople to Buda, Frankfort, and Leipsic, where it was published in a splendid edition by Leich and Reiske (A. D. 1751, in fo

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tine Por

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