rsion, (Critica, tom. iii. p. 873, tom. iv. 37.) * Note: The
whole original work of Leo the Deacon has been published by Hase, and
is inserted in the new edition of the Byzantine historians. M Lassen
has added to the Arabian authorities of this period some extracts from
Kemaleddin's account of the treaty for the surrender of Aleppo.--M.]

Chapter LIII: Fate Of The Eastern Empire.--Part I.

Fate 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.--
Tactics 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 darkness of the tenth
century. We open with curiosity and respect the royal volumes of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus, [1] which he composed at a mature age for
the instruction of his son, and which promise to unfold the state of the
eastern empire, both in peace and war, both at home and abroad. In the
first of these works he minutely describes the pompous ceremonies of the
church and palace of Constantinople, according to his own practice, and
that of his predecessors. [2] In the second, he attempts an accurate
survey of the provinces, the themes, as they were then denominated, both
of Europe and Asia. [3] The system of Roman tactics, the discipline and
order of the troops, and the military operations by land and sea, are
explained in the third of these didactic collections, which may be
ascribed to Constantine or his father Leo. [4] In the fourth, of the
administration of the empire, he reveals the secrets of the Byzantine
policy, in friendly or hostile intercourse with the nations of the
earth. The literary labors of the age, the practical systems of law,
agriculture, and history, might redound to the benefit of the subject
and the honor of the Macedonian princes. The sixty books of the
Basilics, [5] the code and pandects of civil jurisprudence, were
gradually framed in the three first reigns of that prosperous dynasty.
The art of agriculture had amused the leisure, and exercised the pens,
of the best and wisest of the ancients; and their chosen precepts are
comprised in the twenty books of the Geoponics [6] of Constantine. At
his command, the historical examples of vice and virtue were methodized
in fifty-three books, [7] and every citizen might apply, to his
contemporaries o