16 A GLOSSARY OF LATER 



BYZANTINE PERIOD. 

 § li- 



From the Removal of the Seat of Government from Rome to Constantinople (A. D. 330), 

 to the Conquest of Constantinople hy the Turks (A. D. 1453). 



When Constantine the Great removed the seat of empire to Byzantium, he called 

 it JVew Rome, and also Constantinople. The Greeks, as well as the other subjects of 

 the Roman emperor, were now called Romans, and sometimes Eastern Romans, to 

 distinguish them from the Western Romans, that is, the genuine Romans.*^" With regard 

 to the name Hellenes, which the ancient Greeks gave themselves, it is to be observed 

 here that, during the preceding periods, the Jews of Alexandria ^nd of other places out 

 of Palestine often used it in the sense of jyagans, heathens, gentiles, idolaters, apparently 

 because the Greeks were the most prominent gentile people with which they were 

 acquainted. This signification passed into the works of the Christian authors. The 

 name Tp a (/CO?, from Polybius downward, represents the Latin G r a e c u s , a Greek, 

 not the mythical FpaiKO'; . The Byzantines, when they speak of the' inhabitants of 

 Greece, usually designate them by the term Helladikoi.^^ 



Byzantium or Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman world, Avas now the 

 great literary centre. The language during this long period passed through several 

 stages, and therefore it will be necessary to divide it into a number of subordinate 

 periods or epochs. We propose the following. 



First. From A. D. 330 to 622, the year of the Hegira^ 



Second. From 622 to 1099, the year of the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders. 



Third. From 1099 to 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinojile. 



§ 15- 



First Epoch. From A. D. 330 to 622. 



Constantine was the first Roman emperor that publicly declared in favor of the 

 new religion. But although Christianity, that is, the externals of Christianity,'^ 



^^ See Pufii;, Vafialos, Pw/iSvof, KavcTTavTivov Tro'Xir, in the Glossary. 

 ^* See TpaiKos, 'EWaSiKos, "eXXi/i/, ill the Glossary. 



^- From the following epigram of Palladas it may be mferred that statues of Greek gods were sometimes 

 transformed into Christian saints, and kept in churches. Anthol. XIII, p. 661 : 



