REVOLUTIONS IN THE POPULATION OF GREECE. 43

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colonists in the country.1 It must, however, be observed, CHAP. I. that this change from Hellenic to modern Greek appears almost as complete in some portions of Greece into which we have no evidence that the Sclavonians ever penetrated, as in the heart of the Peloponnesus, where for ages they lived in a state of semi-independence. In Euboea, the change is almost as great as in the Morrha of Elis. By what process, therefore, the ancient Hellenic population were melted into Byzantine Greeks—or, as they long called themselves, Romans-may therefore, by many, be considered as an unsolved problem.

The vicissitudes which the great masses of the nations of the earth have undergone in past ages have hitherto received very little attention from historians, who have adorned their pages with the records of kings, and the personal exploits of princes and great men, or attached their narrative to the fortunes of the dominant classes, without noticing the fate of the people. History, however, continually repeats the lesson that power, numbers, and the highest civilisation of an aristocracy, are, even when united, insufficient to insure national prosperity, and establish the power of the rulers on so firm and permanent a basis as shall guarantee the dominant class from annihilation. On the other hand, it teaches us that conquered tribes, destitute of all these advantages, may continue to perpetuate their existence in misery and contempt. It is that portion only of mankind which eats bread raised from the soil by the sweat of its brow, that can form the basis of a permanent national existence. The history of the Romans and of the Jews illustrates these facts. Yet even the cultivation of the soil cannot always insure a race from destruction, "for mutability is nature's bane." The Thracian race has disappeared.

1 Sklavokhorion, Phrangokastron, Arnaoutli, and Turkovryssi have been mentioned. Hebraiokastron (Jew being put as a term of contempt for stranger,) Phrangolimiona, Phraugovryssi, Venetiko, Vlakhiko, Turkokhorion, and many Albanian and Turkish proper names, might be added.

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CHAP. I. The great Celtic race has dwindled away, and seems hastening to complete absorption in the Anglo-Saxon. The Hellenic race, whose colonies extended from Marseille to Bactria, and from the Cimmerian Bosphorus to the coast of Cyrenaica, has become extinct in many countries where it once formed the bulk of the population, as in Magna Græcia and Sicily. On the other hand, mixed races have arisen, and, like the Albanians and Vallachians, have intruded themselves into the ancient seats of the Hellenes. But these revolutions and changes in the population of the globe imply no degradation of mankind, as some writers appear to think, for the Romans and the English afford examples that mixed races may attain as high a degree of physical power and mental superiority as has ever been reached by races of the purest blood in ancient or modern times.

CHAPTER II.

CAUSES OF HOSTILE FEELINGS BETWEEN THE BYZANTINE GREEKS AND THE WESTERN EUROPEAN NATIONS.

SECT. I.-POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

THE Byzantine empire was brought into direct collision with the western Europeans towards the end of the eleventh century. As the representative of the Roman empire, it counted a longer political existence, free from radical revolution, than had ever been attained by any preceding government. Alexius V., whom the Crusaders hurled from the summit of the Theodosian column, was the lineal political representative of Constantine and Augustus.

The wide extent of territory over which the Greek race was dispersed, joined to its national tenacity of character, and the organisation of the Eastern Church, enabled the Roman administration in the Eastern Empire to quell the military anarchy that rendered the western provinces a prey to rebellious mercenaries and foreign invaders. The Goths, Huns, Avars, Persians, Saracens, and Bulgarians, in spite of their repeated victories, were all ultimately defeated. When Constantinople was apparently on the point of yielding to the united assaults of the Avars and Persians in the reign of Heraclius, the empire rose suddenly as if from inevitable ruin, and the imperial arms reaped a rich harvest of glory. Again, when assailed by the invincible Saracens in the first fer

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CHAP. II. Vour of their religious enthusiasm, the administrative organisation of imperial Rome arrested the progress of their armies under the walls of Constantinople, and gradually rolled back the tide of conquest till Mount Taurus became the barrier of the empire. The Byzantine armies had stopped the full force of the torrent before Charles Martel encountered one of its minor rills. At a later period the Bulgarian kingdom was destroyed, and many of the lost provinces in Europe recovered, so that the Danube, in the eleventh century, became again the frontier of the Eastern Empire. Age succeeded age without witnessing any sensible decline in the fabric of this mighty empire; and while the successors of Haroun Al Rashid and Charlemagne were humbled in the dust, and their power became as completely a vision of the past as the power of Alaric and Attila, the Byzantine government still displayed the vigour and energy of mature age.

The great concentration of power systematically exercised in the hands of the emperor, the necessity imposed by the organisation of the government of selecting Emperors of talent, the systematic form of the administration, the regular and scientific dispensation of justice, the subservient position of the Greek church, some remains of the municipal and local institutions of the population, and the tenacity of national habits in the Greek race—all exerted their influence in maintaining the longevity of the Eastern Empire. The relations of these various elements to one another were, of course, like all things human, constantly undergoing change. The troubled government of the Iconoclast dynasties presents the imperial power striving to subject the church to the state, and to make the central government absolute in the local administrations. History boasts that the Iconoclasts failed to impose their pure religious forms of worship on their subjects, but it overlooks the fact that their policy was successful in as far as it subjected the church to the state,

LONGEVITY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE.

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and annihilated the political importance of local institutions. The legislative and administrative system of the Basilian family consolidated the despotism planned by the Iconoclasts. Extensive reforms were effected in every branch of the government, and their fruits are visible in the vigorous administration which for a century and a half characterises the Byzantine annals. warriors, the statesmen, and the legists of this period are worthy of a higher place in the world's history than they have attained; but their personal renown is obscured, and their individuality lost, in the monotonous movements of a mighty administrative machine, which shows its own power sufficient to command results that even valour and wisdom are sometimes incompetent to secure.

Yet even at the time the Byzantine empire exhibited the most striking evidence of its power, we perceive many marks of internal weakness. There was no popular energy in the inhabitants directed to their own improvement. But to solve the contradictions in the political and social condition of the Byzantine empire would require a review of the moral as well as the political civilisation of its varied population, extending far beyond the strict limits of historical research, into the field of analogy and conjecture. Some of the antagonistic principles at work in the Byzantine society must, however, be noticed. The government, the church, and the people were all three, for a long period, in constant opposition; their material interests were so different, that no tie of common faith or national feeling could incorporate them into one body. The Emperor as head of the administration, and the Patriarch as chief of the clergy, frequently acted in direct opposition to the interests and feelings of the Greek nation. Yet the want of all popular municipal organisation emanating directly from, and responsible to the people, prevented the Greeks from creating within themselves the moral power of public opinion, and

A. D.

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