ABSTRACT
The internal administration of the empire profited from Isaurian measures. The dangerous frequency of attempts to seize the throne before their rise to power led Leo and Constantine to make every effort to establish a dynastic succession in their own family. The iconoclast controversy begun under the Isaurian emperors is recognized as not merely a quarrel about the use of icons, but as a symptom of the orientalization of the eastern empire in the eighth century. Byzantine relations with the Slavs are mainly dealt with in chapter xxv: the wars of the Amorians and the early Macedonians with the Arabs were felt at the time to counter the greater danger and to be the supreme Byzantine task. The first two Macedonian sovereigns gave much attention to the restoration of orderly government and the reform of the law. The Macedonian period in Byzantine history saw the fine flower of a culture.
