Page:A History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 2.djvu/430

414 BYZAJSITINE ABCHITECTURE. Pakt U. BOOK IX. BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. CHRONOLOGY. DATES. Constantine founds Constantinople a.d. 324 First Council of Nice 325 Julian the Apostate 361 Theodosius the Great 379 Theodosius II 408 Marcian 450 DATES. Fall of Western Empire a.d. 476 Jastiiiian I , . 527 Justin II. 565 Heraclius 610 The Hejira 622 THE term Byzantine has of late years been so loosely and incor- rectly used — especially by French writers on architecture — that it is now extremely difficult to restrict it to the only style to which it really belongs. Wherever a certain amount of colored decoration is employed, or a peculiar form of carving found, the name Byzantine is applied to churches on the Rhine or in France ; although no similar ornaments are found in the Eastern Empire, and though no connection can be traced between the builders of the Western churches and the arcliitects of Byzantium, or the countries subject to her sway. Strictly speaking, the term ought only to be applied to the style of architecture which arose in Byzantium and the East after Constantine transferred the government of the Roman Empire to that city. It is especially the style of the Greek Church as contradistinguished from that of the Roman Church, and ought never to be employed for any- thing beyond its limits. The only obstacle to confining it to this definition occurs between the ages of Constantine and Justinian. Up to the reign of the last-named monarch the separation between the two churches was not complete or clearly defined, and the archi- tecture was of course likewise in a state of transition, sometimes inclining to one style, sometimes to the other. After Justinian's time, the line may be clearly and sharply drawn, and it would