Second Section. Byzantine Philosophy.^{1}

210. General Characteristics. -- Banished from Athens by the decree of Justinian in 529, and driven out of Alexandria by the invasion of Arabs in 640, Grecian philosophy betook itself to the capital of the Eastern Empire (89-91). There it lived on all through the Middle Ages, but its development was slow and irregular, like that of the Byzantine genius itself. Although the tradition of ancient philosophy was caught up at first hand, and in its ancient form, by the Byzantine current, still its influence on this current was far more superficial than on the streams of Arabian speculation which it reached and permeated through other channels (Third Section). On the whole, the Byzantine philosophy is meagre; it is encyclopedic rather than fertile and original; its leading exponents shelter their not very striking personalities under the great names of Plato and Aristotle.

{1} See pp. 119, 125.