LITERATURE. 80S 
Latin Poets; Aufonius; and Claudian, of whom a good 
Englifh tranflation is much wanted. In this lame period 
appeared fome Arabic bards, the chief of whom was Abu 
Tamar; fome of whofe pieces, with other fragments of 
Aiiatic poetry, have been publifhed by Schultens, Reilka, 
and fir Win. Jones. Here Meufel places Oflian as an 
ancient Caledonian poet ; whofe l'uppofed works, from 
M'Pherfon’s Englilh verfion, have been tranflated into 
molt European languages ; into German by Wittenberg ; 
into Italian verfe by Cefarotti ; into French by Le Tour¬ 
neur; and into Latin by M‘Farlan. 
The orators and rhetoricians of this period were—St. 
Chryfoftom; Ariftides; Maximus Tyrius; Philoftratus 
the Elder and Younger; Athenaeus ; Libanius ; Julian ; 
Himerius; and Themiftius Euphrades. Hermogenes, 
Longinus, Alciphron, Aphthonius, Theon, Ariltenetus, 
Demetrius Phalereus, the younger Pliny, Seneca, Quin¬ 
tilian, and Symmachus, were rather rhetoricians than ora¬ 
tors. On ftatiftics, M. Meufel gives the names of only 
three writers; Columella, JEmilianus, and Apicius. In 
the knowledge of natural hiltory, the following were mod 
renowned ; Apollonius Difcolas of Alexandria, Phlegon, 
./Elian, and Seneca. 
Medical fcience was fupported by Galen, Themifon, 
Soranus, and Caslius Aurelianus. Rufus of Ephefus and 
Morinnus wrote on anatomy. On the materia medica, 
Menecrates, Damocrates, Philo of Tarfus, Pharmacion, 
Scribonius Largus, Andromachus, who invented the the- 
riaca ; and, above all, Diofcorides. Towards the end of 
the firft year of this period, a divifion took place among 
the phyficians, which gave rife to two fe£ls, the pneuma- 
tifts, and the eclectics. Of the former, the moft re¬ 
nowned was Athenasus, a Cilician, who praftifed with 
celebrity at Rome ; of the latter, Agathias of Sparta, and 
Archegenes of Apamaea, who praftifed at Rome in the 
reign of Trajan. At the fame time, Ariltseus feems to 
have flourilhed ; who was the molt exaft obferver, after 
Hippocrates, of all the ancient phyficians. He wrote in 
Greek. 
The principal jurifts of this period were, Antiftius 
Labeo, Sempronius, Proculus, Ateius Capito, Mafurius 
Sabinus, and Salvius Julianus; which laft made a collec¬ 
tion of the preceding Praetorial Edifts, under the title of 
Edidum perptiuum ; firft publiflied at Paris in 1597. It be¬ 
came a text-book to future jurifts, who commented on it; 
of whom the moft remarkable were, Sextus Pomponius, 
/Emilius Papinianus, Ulpian, Julius Paulus, and Heren- 
nius Modeftinus. The fragments of thefe may be feen 
in Labitt’s Index Legum, Paris, 1557. Under Conftan- 
tine the Great, Gregorius collefted the Casfarean Re- 
fcripts from Hadrian to Dioclefian: this collection is 
called Codex Gregorianus, and was publifhed in Schultens’s 
Jurifprudentia Ant. Juftitias. It was followed by Codex 
Hermogenianus ; which is a fupplement to the Codex Gre¬ 
gorianus. 
The growing influence of Chriftianity gave a new turn 
to theology. The great founder of this religion left no 
writings himfelf; his pretended letter to Abgarus being 
an evident forgery. The moft ancient hiftorical Chriftian 
writers are the four evangelifts ; and the other l'acred 
writers are—James, Peter, Paul, Jude, and John. To¬ 
wards the end of the firft year of this period, their writ¬ 
ings had been collefted, and were now in the hands of 
moft Chriftians. This colleftion was called the New 
Teftament, or Covenant. On the progrefs of the Chrif¬ 
tian religion, thefe books, as well as the books of what 
was then called the Old Teftament, were tranflated into 
various languages, and diffufed all over the Roman em¬ 
pire. The Chriftian writers, commonly called the church- 
fathers, who wrote in this period, were, Juftin Martyr ; 
Irenseus ; Clement of Alexandria ; Athenagoras ; Origen ; 
Athanafius; Bafil ; Gregory of Nazianzen ; and John 
Chryfoftom. All thefe were Greeks. The Latin fathers 
were, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, 
Laftantius, called the Chriftian Cicero; Ambrofe ; Au- 
guftine, or Auftin 5 Jerome, the moft learned of all the 
fathers; and Eufebius of Casfarea, of whom it is much 
to be lamented that no complete edition has yet been pub- 
lifhed. 
IV. From the Irruption of the barbarous Nations to the Crufades ; 
i.e.from 500 to 1100. 
During this period, the fciences fuffered a confiderable 
decay. The fine tafte of Greece was no more, the radi¬ 
ance of philofophy was diminilhed to a glimmering twi¬ 
light, hiltory became a dry uninterefting chronicle, and 
the dark night of fuperftition at length expanded her fable 
wing overalmoft every objeft of human knowledge. The 
chief caufes of this degeneracy were the exceflive luxury 
among the great, and the general depravity of the people; 
the many civil wars; the blind zeal of the Chriftians 
againrt what was termed Pagan lore; the want of a mid¬ 
dle rank of citizens; and, laftly, the rife of papal defpo- 
tifm. Yet, even this period could boaft of many men of 
learning, of a certain kind. The tenth century itfelf, 
furnamed the dark and iron age, was not quite fo obfeure 
as it has been fometimes reprefented. 
The principal promoters of learning were, .Theodofius 
II. Leolfaurus; Juftinian I. Charlemagne; Leo IV. Con- 
ftantine IX. the firft three Othos; Dieterich king of the 
Oftrogoths ; the Saxon king Alfred ; and pope Silvefter II. 
The writers, whofe influence was moft general on the 
ftate of fcience, were Auguftine, the African bifliop of 
Hippo; Boethius; Cafliodorus; Ifidore of Hifpala; Bede; 
Alcuinus; Rabanus Maurus; John Erigena; Photius; 
and Michael Pfellus. 
The fchools of the Jews, during this period, declined 
much. The fchools of the Pagans gave place to thofe 
of the Chriftians; and thefe, at laft, were chiefly confined 
to monafteries, where devout ignorance and barbarifm 
prevailed. Ireland and England were, in fome degree, 
exceptions, and exhibited a better mode of inftruftion 
than was to be feen in other Chriftian countries. Theo¬ 
dore archbifhop of Canterbury contributed much to this 
pre eminence. The fchools of the Arabs were in a more 
flourifliing ftate, particularly at Damafcus and Bagdad, 
then the centre of Arabic fcience. The Arab-Moors had 
alfo fchools in Spain, of which the moft celebrated was 
that of Cordova. In France, the palace of Charlemagne 
was the chief feminary of learning, under the direction of 
Alcuinus; who alfo eftablifhed a fchool in the abbey of 
St. Martin of Tours, (of which city he was bifhop,) which 
became the parent of many others. In Germany, the 
principal fchools were thofe of Fulda, Hirfhau, Ervey, 
Paderborn, Triers, Mentz; and, more latterly, thofe of 
Utrecht, Bremen, and Cologne. The common courfe of 
ftudies in all thefe fchools was, grammar, logic, rheto¬ 
ric, mufic, arithmetic, geometry, and aftronomy. The 
firft three were called Trivium , or trifling ftudies; the laft 
four Quadrivium, or high ftudies. During a great part of 
this period, Italy was the moft barbarous country of Eu¬ 
rope ; and confequently had few or no fchools of any 
note; nor was Greece in a much better condition until 
the time of Conftantine IX. The Neftorians had a confi¬ 
derable Greek fchool at Edefla; which produced feveral 
Syriac verfions of the Greek authors. 
In the firft half of the fifth century, twenty-nine pub¬ 
lic libraries were eftablilhed at Rome ; but the various 
misfortunes of the ftate occafioned them to be much ne- 
gledted. The library founded by Auftin, at Hippo, was 
deftroyed by the Vandals before his own death. The li¬ 
braries of Conftantinople, and thofe of the Greek monaf¬ 
teries, were either burnt or mangled by Cofroes, and the 
fury of the iconoclafts and iconolaters. The emperor 
Bafil, and the Comneni, endeavoured to reltore them ; 
but the richeft library at Conftantinople was that of the 
patriarch Photius. Although the Arabs burned the fa¬ 
mous library of Alexandria, they found it convenient, in 
time, to form a new one there, which was gradually en¬ 
riched with a confiderable number of manuferipts; and the 
khalif 
