land (France) into their own strong, rough keeping.

In the year 323, the Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian. The
Empire threw off its old Greek paganism and adopted Christianity.

Constantine determined to remove his capital far into the East, away from
the terrible Goths. There was on the shores of the Bosphorus an old Greek
city named Byzantion. This he chose for his capital, and called it
Constantinople. So the Empire was divided into an "Eastern" and a
"Western" Empire, with two Emperors, one at Rome and the other at
Constantinople, or, as it was sometimes called, Byzantium.

Although the Empire was now richer in emperors, and had two Cæsars instead
of one, it rapidly became a mere shadow of what it once was; and all
because of those terrible, ignorant, but iron-willed Goths, who not only
would not be conquered, but were not satisfied until they had hammered to
pieces the greatest Empire the world had ever seen.

The Eastern Empire with its beautiful Constantinople was in the country of
the Ancient Greeks. The Greek language was the one spoken there; and while
it had not the glory of the old imperial city of Rome, it had another sort
of splendor.

It became the centre of the most brilliant intelligence of the world at
that time. There were men great in learning, in art, in literature, and a
polished civilization which was chiefly Greek and became less and less
Roman.

All this was very dazzling in a way. But the days of the great ascendency
of the Roman Empire were gone. A new star had arisen in the West.