Note z — Chapter IX · [a] (continued 4)

The honour of restoring ancient or heathen literature is due to the Cæsar Bardas, uncle and minister of Michael II. Cedrenus speaks of it in the following terms: ἐπεμελήθη δὲ καὶ τῆς ἔξω σοφίας, (ἢν γὰρ ἐκ πόλλου χρόνου παραῤῥυεῖσα, καὶ πρὸς τῇ μηδὲν ὅλως χωρήσασα τῇ τῶν κρατοῦντων ἀργίᾳ καὶ αμαθίᾳ) διατρίβας ἑκάστῃ τῶν επιστήμων άφορισὰς, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ὅπῃ περ ἔτυχε, τῆς δ' ἐπὶ πασῶν ἐπόχου φιλοσοφίας κατ' ἀυτὰ τὰ βασίλεια ἐν τῇ Μαγναύρᾳ · καὶ οὕτω ἐξ ἐκέινου ἀνηβάσκειν αἱ ἐπιστημᾶι ἤρξαντο. κ. τ. λ. Hist. Byzant. Script. (Lutet.) t. x. p. 547. Bardas found out and promoted Photius, afterwards patriarch of Constantinople, and equally famous in the annals of the church and of learning. Gibbon passes perhaps too rapidly over the Byzantine literature, chap. 53. In this, as in many other places, the masterly boldness and precision of his outline, which astonish those who have trodden parts of the same field, are apt to escape an uninformed reader.