The Beginning of the Middle Ages Author:Richard William Church General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1900 Original Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co. Subjects: Middle Ages Europe Middle ages History / General History / Europe / General History / Medieval Juvenile Nonfiction / History / Medieval Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It ... more »has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Shap. vi. Civilization in the Eastern Empire. 93 CHAPTER VI. THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE EAST. While in the West civilized order was disturbed and broken up, to be reconstructed on a new basis, in the East it went on continuously from the days of Constantine till its temporary interruption by the crusaders (1203-1261), and its destruction the Eastern " empire. by the Ottomans (1453). Constantine had transplanted the Roman name, the centre of Roman power, and much of what was Roman in ideas and habits, to Byzantium, the New Rome. There, without losing its deeply impressed imperial character, it also became Greek, and it became Christian. The result was that remarkable empire, which, though since its fall it has become a by-word, was, when it was standing, the wonder and the envy of the barbarian world, the mysterious ' Micklegarth' 'the Great City, the Town of'towns' of the northern legends. It inherited and it retained the great Roman traditions of centralization, of scientific jurisprudence, of elaborate and systematic administration. It worked upon an unbroken experience of government, on unbroken habits of organization, as familiar and easy to it, as it was difficult in the West. It improved and perfected the great legacy which it had received of republican and imperial law. It often exhibited what seemed to be hopeless feebleness and decay ; but beneath these appearances were the permanent elements of v...« less