XL] THE RACES OF THE DANUBE. 229 



dom was perhaps as civilised as any in contemporary 

 Europe, if literary culture alone were to be taken as 

 a criterion. Their noble youth studied Aristotle and 

 Demosthenes in the schools of Constantinople, and 

 the subtleties of theological controversy occupied 

 their attention no less than the practice of military 

 arts. In a quarrel with the emperor, their Czar 

 Simeon laid siege to the capital and dictated terms of 

 peace at the Golden Horn. But in the next century 

 all this was changed. Such arrogant vassals were 

 not to be tolerated. In a masterly campaign, though 

 sullied by diabolical cruelty, the Emperor Basil II. 

 overthrew the power of the Bulgarians, and subduing 

 the Serbs likewise, re-established the immediate au- 

 thority of Constantinople as far as the Danube. 



From this time forth the contest for supremacy was 

 carried on chiefly between the emperors and the Ser- 

 bian chiefs. The pre-eminence of Serbia began about 

 the end of the eleventh century, when Urosh was 

 crowned grand duke. By the middle of the four- 

 teenth century the whole country, with the excep- 

 tion of Rumelia or Thrace, was in the hands of the 

 Serbians, and it really seemed as if the degenerate 

 Greek empire were about to pass into the hands of 

 the Slav. Stephen Dushan, of the house of Urosh, a 

 profound statesman and consummate general, was 



