Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/27

 CONDITION OF EMPIRE. 9 The old municipal spirit had never become altogether extinct. In so far as the empire consisted of men of tlic Influence of. '^ . ., , Greek nmni- GrrecK racc it could ncvcr be wholly extinguished. And a large proportion of the subjects of the em- pire to the last were of the Greek race. The home of the Greek has always been the islands and shores of the ^gean and the neighboring seas. The Greeks have always been rather a mercantile than an agricultural people. The islands of the ^gean have scarcely been influenced by the waves of invaders which have swept over the mainland on each side of it. The features of the race have, by the genius of its artists, been moulded into shape for all time in bronze or chiselled in marble, and the living counterparts are still to be found in abundance among the islanders of the ^gean and even on the mainland.^ The spirit of the Greek was too much steeped in individualism to allow it to give the unquestioning obedi- ence which is rendered by Slavs, Its traditions and its in- telligence alike made it take an interest in the course of gov- ernment, and thus to this extent made the condition of things in the Byzantine empire different from that which exists un- der the ruler of Russia. Thus it happens that while, when we reach the twelfth century, we find ourselves with abundant traces of a tradi- tional sentiment in favor of absolute right, we find also equal- ly abundant evidence of the dawn of the modern idea that the ruler holds a trust for the benefit of the people, and is re- inflnence Sponsible to them. Trade and commerce had con- of trade. ti'ibuted largely to the introduction of this new view of government, though Christianity and ancient phi- losophy had also had a share in bringing about the change. The people of the capital were essentially a commercial peo- ple. The inhabitants of the leading cities of the empire were principally engaged in trade. Salon ica, Smyrna, Nicomedia, Kodosto, and a host of other cities, derived their prosperity from the fact that they were seaports frequented by mer- Fallmerayer and his school, that there can hardly be said to be any de- scendants of the ancient Greeks.
 * This is, after all, the strongest argument against the conclusions of