1259, who himself received the crown 1 Jan. 1260. In 1261 Michael took Constantinople from the Latins. He labored to unite himself with the Latin Church, but his son, Andronicus II. (1282), renounced the connection. Internal disturbances and foreign wars, particularly with the Turks, threw the exhausted empire into confusion. Andronicus III., his grandson, obliged him to divide the throne, and at length wrested it entirely from him (1328). He waged war unsuccessfully against the Turks, and died in 1341. His son, John Palæologus, was obliged to share the throne with his guardian, John Cantacuzene, during the first years of his reign. The son of the latter, Matthew, was also made emperor. But John Cantacuzene resigned the crown, and Matthew was compelled to abdicate (1355), when John Palæologus, the son of Andronicus III., became sole emperor. Under his reign the Turks first obtained a firm footing in Europe, and conquered Gallipoli (1357). The family of Palæologus from this time were gradually deprived of their European territories, partly by revolt, partly by the Turks. The Sultan Amurah took Adrianople (1361). Bajazet conquered almost all the European provinces except Constantinople, and obliged John to pay him tribute. The latter was, some time after, driven out by his own son, Andronicus, who was succeeded by his second son, Manuel (1391). Bajazet besieged Constantinople, defeated an army of western warriors under Sigismund, king of Hungary, near Nicopolis (1396), and Manuel was obliged to place John, son of Andronicus, on the throne. Timur's invasion of the Turkish provinces saved Constantinople for this time (1402). Manuel then recovered his throne, and regained some of the lost provinces from the contending sons of Bajazet. To him succeeded his son John, Palæologus II. (1425), whom Amurath II. stripped of all his territories except Constantinople, and laid under tribute (1444). To the Emperor John succeeded his brother Constantine Palæologus. With the assistance of his general, Justinian, a Genoese, he withstood the superior forces of the enemy with fruitless courage, and fell in the defense of Constantinople, by the conquest of which (29 May 1453) Mohammed II. put an end to the Greek or Byzantine empire. In 1461 David Comnenus, emperor of Trebizond, submitted to him, and at a subsequent period was put to death. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'; Pears, Fall of Constantinople' (1885); Bury, 'The Later Roman Empire' (1889); Oman, 'Byzantine Empire' (1892); Harrison, Byzantine History in the Early Middle Ages' (1900).

Byzantine Literature.- The Greek literature of the period of the Byzantine empire is almost entirely destitute of originality, and derives importance almost entirely from the mass of valuable historical material embodied in it. Among the historians proper the more notable are Procopius of Cæsarea; Agathias, who wrote an account of Justinian's reign; Nicephorus Gregoras; Anna Comnena, daughter of the Emperor Alexius I., author of a highly laudatory life of her father; Pachymerus; George Codinus; Constantine VII., Porphyrogenitus, from whom we have many works on history, law, politics, and science; John Cantacuzenus, emperor and historian; and at the very end of the

period, Michael Ducas. Poetry, in the proper sense of the word, can scarcely be said to have existed at all. Theodorus Prodromus, who flourished in the later 12th century, is the chief of the versifiers, among his works being a long romance having Rhodanthe and Dosikles as its heroine and hero, some dramas, historical poems, epistles, etc. Georgius of Pisidia, in the early 7th century, wrote war poems; Nicetas Eugenianus, a contemporary of Prodromus, wrote a work in imitation of the latter's romance; and among other writers of verse were Theodosius, of the latter half of the 10th century, Tzetzes and Joannes Pediasimus, the latter two being better known as annotators of the Greek classical writers. Manuel Philes of Ephesus (about 1280-1330) has left many dramas; and we have hymns from Germanus, a patriarch of Constantinople; Theodorus Studites; Porphyrogenitus; Cosmas, an 8th-century writer; Joannes Damascenus (John of Damascus); and Theophanes Ho Graptos. Among writers of grammatical and similar works the most notable are Tzetzes (about 1180), who annotated Homer, Hesiod, Eschylus, and especially Aristophanes; Eustathius, archbishop of Myra in Lycia in 1174, best known for his commentary on Homer; Manuel Moschopulus, a 13th-century scholiast; Joannes Pediasimus, of the latter part of the 14th century, chiefly known for his scholia on Hesiod's poems; and Demetrius Triclinius, a scholiast contemporary with Pediasimus. Their work is less valuable in itself than as a link with the more reliable work of their predecessors, or as containing much that would, but for them, have been lost to us. Of the lexicographers Suidas, who lived during the 10th century, is much the most important; but the works of Photius in this department are also of value. Joannes Doxopater, of the later 11th century, wrote on rhetoric; and in the department of philosophy we find the names of Michael Bellus the younger (about 10181105), who also wrote historical and other works, and Joannes Italus. The theologians include Joannes Damascenus, already mentioned, author of Sacra Parallela, a collection of passages from the fathers; and Nicephorus Callistus, a 14th-century writer on ecclesiastical history.

Byzantine Art.-The style which prevailed in the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire, as long as it existed (395-1453) and which has prevailed since in Greece, in the Balkan Peninsula as far as allowed by the Turkish conquerors (as for instance, in convents), and in neighboring lands, such as Moldavia and the Russian lands north of it, and Armenia with other parts of Asia Minor. Byzantine architecture may be said to have assumed its distinctive features in the church of St. Sophia, built by Justinian in the 6th century, and still existing as the chief mosque in Constantinople. It is more especially the style associated with the Greek Church as distinguished from the Roman. The leading forms of the Byzantine style are the round arch, the circle, and in particular the dome. The last is the most conspicuous and characteristic object in Byzantine buildings, and the free and full employment of it was arrived at when by the use of pendentives the architects were enabled to place it on a square apartment instead of a circular or polygonal. In this style of building