INTRODUCTION.
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constant intercourse with the West; and the soft and yielding character of these times presented a plastic surface, to every, even the slightest touch. In the early part of the fourth century the foundation of Constantinople, which drew from Italy such a large population, would facilitate the interchange of literature; for it is not improbable, that many of the Asiatics[1], driven from their settlements by the influx of the foreigners, would hasten to occupy the homes which the others had vacated. At all events, the new settlers in the East had friends and connections in their father-land, with whom it was natural, and even necessary, that there should be a certain
- ↑ I use this term, and one or two following, with some latitude. Gibbon calls the little town of Chrysopolis, or Scrutari, "the Asiatic suburb of Constantinople:" and the extreme approximation of the two shores; the constant and easy intercourse from, and before the time of Xerxes, &c. downward, not omitting the Asiatic population which has been so long naturalized there, sufficiently authorize the expression.
