As there is no evidence of the existence at the time of any bookselling machinery, it is probable that for the multiplication and distribution of his volumes, Boëthius depended upon the scribes of the Church and upon the connections with each other of the convents throughout Europe. It is undoubtedly through the libraries of the convents (the only places in Europe which were to any extent protected against ravages of war) that the _Consolation_ was preserved. After the death of Theodoric, Italy became the camping ground and the fighting place for successive hordes of Lombards, Saracens, and Franks. Social organization must have almost disappeared. Of scholarly or literary production there is again for some centuries hardly a trace. _Inter arma silent styli._ What intellectual life, outside of the monasteries, was still active in Europe must be looked for at the Court of the Greek Emperors of Constantinople. [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. Constantinople. WHEN Constantine, in the year 328, removed to Byzantium the capital of the Empire, he doubtless took with him from Rome, or was followed by, a large proportion of the leaders of the social and intellectual life of the city. It is said also that Greek scholars from Magna Græcia, and from other parts of the Empire, foreseeing the probable revival of interest in Greek learning, speedily gathered themselves at Constantinople, and through their presence hastened the replacing of the Latin tongue by their own vernacular. For a century or more, however, after the establishment of Constantinople, literary production appears to have been slight and unimportant. There is some evidence of collections being made of copies of the great classics, collections which later, unfortunately, in large part perished at the hands first of Crusaders and afterwards of Turks, and it is probable that a certain number of scribes were kept employed in the production of such copies. Of new works or of new editions of importance there is no record, while there is also no evidence as to the existence of any bookselling machinery for keeping the public supplied with the old classics. The first revival of literary productiveness appears to have come from the Court. About 440 A.D. the Empress Eudocia published a poetical paraphrase of the first eight books of the Old Testament and of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah. This was followed by a cento of the verses of Homer, applied to the life of Christ; by a version of the legend of St. Cyprian; and by a panegyric on the Persian victories of her husband Theodosius.