CAriTULATIONS AND FOREIGNERS. I45 foreign element, taken altogether, so alien and so incapable of entering into the feelings of the governing race as in the Constantinople of to- da}'. Yet in no other city has the foreign element played — and the remark is true of modern Constantinople — so important a part in its history. Constantinople, indeed, can hardly be said ever to have had a population belonging almost exclusively to one race. It is a seaport, and has derived its importance from that fact, and from its having been chosen, on account of its commanding position, to be the seat of government. Like all large sea- ports, it attracted foreigners, but unlike other cities somewhat similarly circumstanced, it attracted them in greater numbers than it was able to absorb. Modern observers who note how readily the United States and our own colonies convert Eng- lish, Irish, German, and other immigrants into American citi- zens or English subjects, may require to be reminded how long it was before the colonies of Huguenots who were received into England became merged into the general population, and that the Welsh still retain their ancient language. The Greek-speaking races, like the English and the French, possess through their language and religion a great power of absorb- ing peoples wdio come within their influence. But while they succeeded in the south of the Balkan peninsula in making races, who, according to Fallmerayer and his school, were alien in race, religion, and language, more Greek than the Greeks themselves, the capital was unable to assimilate the masses of people who poured into it during each century after it Iiad been chosen by Constantino. The marvel is, not that the people of the capital failed, but that they succeeded to the extent they did during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The people of Byzantium were not Greek in race, or exclu- sively Greek-speaking, at any time. The transfer of the im- perial government to the New Rome made it appear likely for a while that Latin might become the dominant language. The immigrants from Italy spoke Latin. Those from the north of the Balkan peninsula spoke a language more akin to Latin than to Greek. Latin was the language of the court. Greek ultimately triumphed, but it was only after a struggle analo- 10
