Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/679

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY. XVIII

PART III. GENERAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY

CHAPTER VII. THE SOCIAL FRONTIERS (CONTINUED)

SECTION VIII. THK DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE FORMATION OF THE FEUDAL REGIME (CONTINUED)

G. DE GREEF Rector of the Nouvelle Universite, Brussels, Belgium

The historians have observed that this partition was dis- tinguished from earlier partitions of the Prankish empire by the fact that it took account in part of ethnic and topographical affini- ties, but the conclusions which they have attempted to draw in favor of so-called natural political frontiers are false. It was no more the thought of Charlemagne than of Pepin to set up obstacles between the hereditary portions, but rather to assure co-operation and the necessity of an understanding between their successors; when they adopted mountains or rivers as indicating the boundaries of each portion, these mountains and rivers were only outlines easier of recognition, and their effort was, on the contrary, to assure relationships among their heirs.

In this Charlemagne imitated his father; that which pre- occupied his mind was the security of the whole patrimony. It was for this reason that he came to give to his eldest son the most extensive, if not the richest, portion, including the valley of the Aosta, one of the gates of Italy, and even added to Aquitaine the valley of Susa. Thus the two kingdoms had access to Italy, and could aid it in case of need.

As to the third empire, the Byzantine, its frontiers were being continually displaced. At the beginning of the seventh century the Persians took from it Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotania ; it succeeded in retaking them, but only to see them again taken by the Arabs. The Mussulman conquest reached successively Arme- nia, Cyprus, Rhodes, and Crete. Three times repelled, the Mus- sulmans arrived under the walls of Constantinople. Egypt,

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