Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/189



Here, too, the attention of historians has been obstructed by points of detail, to the detriment of the broader vision, while national prejudices also have prevented them from taking a clearer observation of the general position.

I will begin with the most typical example of a « Romania » estranged from its first tradition and transformed into an exponent, on the shores of the Adriatic, of a very different historical existence: Ragusa, known to its Yugoslav masters today as Dubrovnik, — formerly an important harbour and centre of commerce, a city of rich pageantry, the cradle of poets and writers — is today a decayed borough (one might almost say a «rotten borough» if its intrinsic value as a political constituency be considered). Today, it is an oasis of historical records, holding within its high walls the beautiful remnants of a mediaeval Gothic art, surrounded by a splendid African vegetation and, unfortunately, in the course of the last few years, has become a haunt chosen by the idle rich of various European States in search of sunshine.

The Illyrian village which gave it its first name was hellenised as Epidaurus, later to be Romanized into the civitas preserved in the present-day name of Captat. For some time Byzantium retained the mastery of the Adriatic coasts, the Imperial fleet giving her the decisive advantage in the conflicts with Narenta corsairs. As soon as the vast hordes of Slavs, deserting their eastern Danubian homes, poured into the Balkans, however, this province was completely overrun by the barbarians. It is all too commonly supposed that the barbarian invasion signified conquest, domination, direct rule, and, in short, a complete transformation of all conditions of life if not, as in Ragusa itself, the immediate abandonment of the language hitherto employed. On the contrary, here, as everywhere else (and the