Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/34

 12 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. reign, which in the West had forced many na- tions to adopt the Latin, had not been able to interfere with the continuation and the cultiva- tion of the Greek, for Grcecia capta feruin victor em cepit, Rome itself was made a grceca urbs. The Roman Empire ceased to be. Other na- tions did not emigrate into Greece, at least not in large numbers. If there had been an inva- sion numerous enough, it would have left traces in the people's language; that is, in the dialects. The language of the continental part of Greece, however, remained as free from such foreign elements as did the language of the islands, of which it is known positively that they were not invaded by foreigners, especially southern Laconia and Maina, for instance. Besides, it is to be taken into consideration that the for- eigners who did come before the thirteenth cen- tury did not come as conquerors, they were simply nomads, people without culture and rela- tively not numerous ; they came among a nation of high culture. It stands to reason that they would adopt the Greek culture, religion, and language rather than that the Greeks would adopt anything of the kind from them. An interruption of Greek culture and of. the use of the pure, fine literary language has never