62 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. We have thus seen that during centuries the capital had had to contend with a stream of Asiatic barbarians pouring into Europe as well as into Asia, and with uncivilized races which were already established in the Balkan peninsula. At the end of the twelfth century the Wallachs and the Ser- Pro'-ressof "^'^^^ divisiou of the Slavs, the two races which had under em-^^^ bccn placcd uudcr Eoman rule at the time when P^'"^- Constantine chose Byzantium as his capital, had so far progressed as to have adopted Christianity and to have w^on national independence ; the Huns, the first of the Asi- atic races who had obtained a permanent settlement in the empire, and the Bulgarians had similarly progressed, and had likewise become independent ; the more barbarian of the in- vaders had either been totally destroyed or, like the Patchi- naks, the Uzes, and the Comans, still retained their nomadic habits and were still either Mahometans or pagans, and had not come under the civilizino; influence of the New Rome. Though we read of Hungarian, AVallachian, and Bulgarian kingdoms, of Servian or other principalities, yet it must be remembered that these were all rather states in the making than countries under established rule and settled govern- ments. Their boundaries changed continually. One year they acknowledged the suzerainty of the New Rome and the next they claimed to be independent. New claimants for power were constantly rising in their midst. They were continually at war with their neighbors, while behind each and all of them was always, until later than the twelfth cent- ury, the constant stream of Asiatic immigrants, fresh from barbarism and liostile alike to all who had adopted Christian- ity or who had ceased to be nomads. The history, in truth, of the Byzantine empire is in great part the history of the education of barbarous races. The population of the capital and the Greeks of the south of the peninsula and of the islands still retained the traditions of art, of science, and of philosophy. The student of theology and of Roman law, as developed under Justinian and liis succes- sors, docs not require to be reminded how acute was the in- tellect which dealt with these two great subjects, how great
