98 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. In the eighth century Leo III., the savior of Constantinople and reformer of the empire, gave a new impulse to the Byzantine world. In the ninth century Basil I. crowned the work of Justinian I. by his final codification of Roman law, and exalted the power of the em- pire, which under him and his successors enjoyed a lengthened period of greatness and prosperity. In the tenth century Nikophorus II., John I., and Basil II. (the Bulgar slayer) fought glori- ously against the Mohammedans and the Bul- gars. In the twelfth century three successive mon- archs of the house of the Komnenes, Alexis L, his son John II., and his grandson, the heroic Manuel I., in the midst of every variety of plot and distraction, saved the dignity of the throne and preserved the safety of the state. In the thirteenth century Theodore I. and John III. rallied the national forces in the midst of calamities and shed lustre upon the imperial crown, till the day when Michael VIII., by the recon quest of Constantinople, opened the way to a new period in the history of the East- ern Empire. And these are not the only Byzan- tine emperors whose names shine gloriously in history. Ignorance and spite have for a long
