nations: the former is the habit of a life, the
latter the glance of a moment; and the battles won by lessons of tactics
may be numbered with the epic poems created from the rules of criticism.
The book of ceremonies is a recital, tedious yet imperfect, of the
despicable pageantry which had infected the church and state since the
gradual decay of the purity of the one and the power of the other.
A review of the themes or provinces might promise such authentic and
useful information, as the curiosity of government only can obtain,
instead of traditionary fables on the origin of the cities, and
malicious epigrams on the vices of their inhabitants. Such information
the historian would have been pleased to record; nor should his silence
be condemned if the most interesting objects, the population of the
capital and provinces, the amount of the taxes and revenues, the numbers
of subjects and strangers who served under the Imperial standard, have
been unnoticed by Leo the philosopher, and his son Constantine.
His treatise of the public administration is stained with the same
blemishes; yet it is discriminated by peculiar merit; the antiquities of
the nations may be doubtful or fabulous; but the geography and manners
of the Barbaric world are delineated with curious accuracy. Of these
nations, the Franks alone were qualified to observe in their turn, and
to describe, the metropolis of the East. The ambassador of the great
Otho, a bishop of Cremona, has painted the state of Constantinople about
the middle of the tenth century: his style is glowing, his narrative
lively, his observation keen; and even the prejudices and passions of
Liutprand are stamped with an original character of freedom and genius.
From this scanty fund of foreign and domestic materials, I shall
investigate the form and substance of the Byzantine empire; the
provinces and wealth, the civil government and military force, the
character and literature, of the Greeks in a period of six hundred
years, from the reign of Heraclius to his successful invasion of the
Franks or Latins.

After the final division between the sons of Theodosius, the swarms
of Barbarians from Scythia and Germany over-spread the provinces and
extinguished the empire of ancient Rome. The weakness of Constantinople
was concealed by extent of dominion: her limits were inviolate, or at
least entire; and the kingdom of Justinian was enlarged by the splendid
acquisition of Africa and Italy. But