Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/112

90 CHRISTIAN GREECE AND LIVING GREEK. with its gay life, a place where wealth could be gained, became attractive to many Greeks from the islands, from Asia Minor, from Macedonia, from Thessaly, Epirus, and Achaia. This reg- ular immigration increased during the first two centuries of its existence while northern bar- barians invaded Greece and devastated the coun- try and smaller cities. History shows that, in relative opposition of the Graecized peoples to the Greeks of the old Greek colonies, and all Greeks in the ethno- graphic sense of the word, the genuine Greeks have always maintained a predominating posi- tion : first, on account of their influence on the ethnographic and linguistic composition of the mixed Hellenism in the population of the capital ; secondly, on account of the strength peculiar to their nation (this strength having by no means been lost, nor has it been to this very day) ; and, finally, on account of their excellent influence in politics, most marked and significant during the time of the Kom- nenes. Through these a new phase of the empire was developed. Those who, when Constantinople fell, fled from the ruin, bearing with them the treasures of the wisdom of their ancient forefathers, well de-