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underlies the greater part of Europe.

Now I am going to tell you about the Ottoman Empire, or Turkey. And yet I
find I must begin by talking about other things, and chiefly about that
old dead Roman Empire, with which everything else is tangled up.

It was during the reign of Augustus Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, that
Christ was born. So the Roman Empire was always just the age of the
Christian era.

For the first three centuries, and while it was fiercely fighting the new
Christianity, its power seemed invincible. It spread upon every side,
toward the East as far as Asia, and in the West as far as the Atlantic.
Gaul (or France and Spain) and Britain were gathered in by this insatiable
power.

But the Romans could not conquer Germany. Instead of that, the Germans or
Goths were always pressing down into Italy, and even thundered at the
gates of Rome.

So harassed were the Romans by these terrible barbarians that at last they
could no longer spare their legions in distant provinces. So Britain was
dropped. And then, as she grew more decrepit and feeble, France got away
from her too, and the Germans (who were already in Spain) took that fair
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 Caesars 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