Among prose works written in the vulgar tongue, or at least in a compromise with it, may be mentioned the Greek rendering of two works from an Indian source, the _Book of the Seven Wise Masters_ (as _Syntipas the Philosopher_ by Michael Andreopulus), and the _Hitopadera_ or _Mirror of Princes_ (through the Arabic _Kalilah and Dimnah_ by Simeon Sethus as [Greek: Stephanites kai Iknelates]), a fish book, a fruit book (both skits on the Byzantine court and official circles). To these must be added the Greek laws of Jerusalem and of Cyprus of the 12th and 13th centuries, chronicles, &c. In spite of many individual successes, the literature written in the vulgar tongue succumbed, in the race for existence, to its elder sister, the literature written in classical and polished Greek. This was mainly due to the continuous employment of the ancient language in the state, the schools and the church. General significance of Byzantine literature. The importance of Byzantine culture and literature in the history of the world is beyond dispute. The Christians of the East Roman empire guarded for more than a thousand years the intellectual heritage of antiquity against the violent onslaught of the barbarians. They also called into life a peculiar medieval culture and literature. They communicated the treasures of the old pagan as well as of their own Christian literature to neighbouring nations; first to the Syrians, then to the Copts, the Armenians, the Georgians; later, to the Arabians, the Bulgarians, the Serbs and the Russians. Through their teaching they created a new East European culture, embodied above all in the Russian empire, which, on its religious side, is included in the Orthodox Eastern Church, and from the point of view of nationality touches the two extremes of Greek and Slav. Finally the learned men of the dying Byzantine empire, fleeing from the barbarism of the Turks, transplanted the treasures of old Hellenic wisdom to the West, and thereby fertilized the Western peoples with rich germs of culture. BIBLIOGRAPHY.--1. General sources: K. Krumbacher, _Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur_ (2nd ed., 1897), supplemented in _Die byzantinische Zeitschrift_ (1892 seq.), and the _Byzantinisches Archiv_ (1898 seq.), which is intended for the publication of more exhaustive matter. The Russian works in this department are comprised in the _Vizantiisky Vremennik_ (1894 seq.). 2. Language: Grammar: A. N. Jannaris (Giannaris), _An Historical Greek Grammar_ (1897); A. Dieterich, "Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der griechischen Sprache von der hellenistischen Zeit bis zum 10ten Jahrhundert," in _Byzant. Archiv_, i. (1898). Glossary: Ducange, _Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae Graecitatis_ (1688), in which particular attention is paid to the "vulgar" language; E. A. Sophocles, _Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods_ (3rd ed., 1888).