CHAPTER III
THE ICONOCLASTIC REFORMS
Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the Eastern portion of the Roman Empire centred at Constantinople than its repeated revival after what may well have appeared to be hopeless decay and ruinous devastation. We shall make a great mistake if we think of it as simply characterised by Gibbon's classic title. This is by no means merely the story of a "Decline and Fall." First we have Constantine founding his new city on the Bosphorus and going far to make it the centre of the civilised world. Then, although the Germanic tribes repeatedly sacked and desolated Old Rome, they could do little more in the East than make raids into Greece, leaving Constantinople on one side as beyond their reach. Two hundred years after the founding of this city which stood for all that was most splendid and powerful in Eastern Europe, in a time of revival, while the great General Belisarius was regaining the lost territory of the empire in Africa and the southwest, his master Justinian was beautifying Constantinople and other Greek cities with unparalleled architectural splendour. Another hundred years passes, and we see the Eastern Empire ravaged by Persia and brought to the brink of ruin. Then the gifted Heraclius turns the tide of victory,
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