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180 DESTRUCTION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE CHAPTER. VIII CAUSES LEADING TO DECAY OF EMPIEE : NOT DUE TO DE- MORALISATION OF COURT; INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CAUSES; LATIN CONQUEST AND FORM OF GOVERNMENT HAD PRODUCED INTERNAL DISSENSIONS AND CHECKED ASSIMILATION OF HOSTILE RACES ; METHOD OF TURKISH CONQUEST AND ITS FATAL CONSEQUENCES ; RAVAGES OF BLACK DEATH J POPULATION OF CAPITAL IN 1453 ; ITS COMMERCE ; RELATIONS OF PEOPLE WITH GOVERNMENT J RESEMBLANCE TO RUSSIA ; DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING IDEA OF DOMESTIC LIFE. As the later Koman empire is now drawing to a close, it is worth while endeavouring to realise what were the im- mediate causes of its weakness, and what was its actual condition immediately preceding the final siege. The empire to which Constantine Dragases succeeded on the death of his brother John was over the city and a strip of land behind it which may be estimated roughly at about a hundred miles in length from its walls towards the north and west. To this and about half of the Peloponnesus still held by his brother had the realm of Theodosius been reduced. How far It has often been stated that the fall of the Empire was lation de- due to, or at least largely contributed to by, the demoralisation moralised? q{ the Court> the no bl es , and the citizens. This view had its origin largely, though not exclusively, in the religious animosity of Latin Churchmen. The Court has been described as given over to gorgeous displays, to meaningless ceremonies, to luxury, and to effeminacy; the nobles as partakers in such displays and themselves effeminate ; the