THE DECLINE AND FALL

250

CHAP.

LXVIII.

might have been decorated with the trophies ofthe New and the Ancient Rome *

* As I am now taking an everlasting farewell of the Greek empire,I shall briefly mention the great collection of Byzantine writers,whose names and testimonies have been successively repeated in thiswork. The Greek presses of Aldus and the Italians were confined tothe classics of a better age ; and the first rude editions of Procopius ,Agathias , Cedrenus , Zonaras , ire. were published by the learned dili-gence of the Germans . The whole Byzantine series (36 volumes infolio) has gradually issued (a. d. 1648, <kc.) from the royal press ofthe Louvre, with some collateral aid from Rome and Leipsic; but theVenetian edition (a. d. 1729), though cheaper and more copious, is notless inferior in correctness than in magnificence to that of Paris . Themerits of the French editors are various; but the value of Anna Com­ nena , Cinnamus , Villehardouin , &c. is enhanced by the historical notesof Charles du Fresne Ducange. His supplemental works, the GreekGlossary, the Constantiuopolis Christiana, the Familias Byzantinac,diffuse a steady light over the darkness of the Lower Empire.