THE BYZANTINES. 89 the Komnenes, of the Dukas, of the Angelos, of the Palseologi were real Greeks. It was not until after the decline of the Byzan- tine Empire that the Byzantines began to call themselves Hellenes and their monarchy em- perors of the Hellenes. Up to that time the autocrats were called August! and the subjects Romans. This custom has proved so deep- rooted that it not only still survives as the uni- versal usage of the East, but even in such writers as Byron we find the Hellenic language termed "Romaic." At the same time the in- habitants of Hellas proper were not called Hel- lenes but Helladikoi, and the ancient and glori- ous word Hellene was employed (by usage pos- sibly imitated from the New Testament) in a deprecatory sense, to indicate an idolater. Constantinople had been founded not as a Greek, but as a Latin city. From the begin- ning, however, Greeks were in considerable numbers among the inhabitants. Greek cities and provinces had been forced to give a great many of their magnificent works of art to orna- ment the new capital. In the development of the empire the whole population assumed a more and more Greek character. Exactly as it is to-day, the beautiful city on the Bosphorus
