In comparison to the west the Byzantine Empire had a higher literacy rate due to a large number of primary schools, urban academies, aristocratic salons, and private tutors. These institutions and instructors passed on traditions of classical Greece and Greek Christianity. Scholars remained devoted to the works of the ancient writers such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Euclid. They would rarely create their own works and mainly focused on producing commentaries on these writers. When they would create original works it would be based on classic models, the Byzantine historian Menander the Protector, composed a lengthy history of the years 558 to 582. Menander followed the Greek practice of writing a detailed, analytical history of specific
