Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 53 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 53 takes up fate of the Eastern Empire in the Tenth century—Extent and division—Wealth and revenue—Palace of Constantinople—Titles and offices—Pride and power of the emperors—Tactics of the Greeks, Arabs, and Franks—Loss of the Latin tongue—Studies and solitude of the Greeks. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.