unwisely and unmercifully, they helped commerce by upholding the integrity of the coinage. The gold _Byzants_ of the Emperors were the common medium of exchange among merchants, and, amidst all the vicissitudes of palace revolutions, were never seriously depreciated in value. The manufactures of Greece still commanded the markets. [Sidenote: Constantinople.] Constantinople was still the greatest city in the world, and excited the astonishment of all the barbarians who visited it. Its administration, poor-law system, and philanthropic organisations anticipated much that we are apt to regard as exclusively modern. Liutprand, the Lombard bishop, has left a record of the profound impression made on him by its wonders. Even in the twelfth century, when its splendours were somewhat decayed, it was still unique. The Franks of the Fourth Crusade could not believe that there was so rich a city, until they saw its high walls and strong towers, gorgeous palaces, lofty churches, and vast extent. Though Thessalonica was also a famous place of trade, the interests of the capital were becoming so great as to absorb unduly those of the provinces. This was partly counteracted by the growth of a great landholding aristocracy, which approached the character of the feudal noblesse of the west, save that it never attained any political influence over the centralised despotism of the Basileus. [Sidenote: Letters and Arts.] Nor were the arts and literature forgotten. Constantine VII.’s example was followed by a crowd of men of letters, and the labour of compilers like Suidas have preserved for us much of what we know of more ancient times. A new school of romance writers showed more original genius. Painting, architecture, and all the arts wonderfully revived. [Sidenote: The Conversion of the Slavs.] Constantinople now became again a source of civilisation to ruder peoples. The Servians and other Slavs called upon its help to protect them from the terrible Simeon of Bulgaria. In the ninth century, Methodius and Cyril had converted the Southern Slavs to Orthodox Christianity. In the tenth, Greek missions, radiating from the great monasteries on Mount Athos, secured the Christianising of Bulgaria. In the next century, the distant Russians received their faith from the same source. Thus Slavonic Europe became for the most part Orthodox rather than Catholic. Never was the influence of Constantinople more widely felt than in carrying out this great work.