The Byzantine Empire from much the same causes as the Roman became in its turn gradually less and less European and more and more Oriental until it, too, withered and expired.
Regarded in the light of the facts the fall of Rome ceases to be a mystery. The wonder is that the State lived on after the Romans were extinct and that the Eastern Empire survived so long with an ever fading Greek population. In Rome and in Greece only the language of the dominant race survived.
So entirely had the blood of the Romans vanished in the last days of the Empire that sorry bands of barbarians wandered at will through the desolated provinces. Cæsar and his legions would have made short work of these unorganized banditti but Cæsar’s legions were a memory, though one great enough to inspire in the intruders somewhat of awe and desire to imitate. Against invaders, however, brains and brawn are more effective than tradition and culture, however noble these last may be.
Early ascetic Christianity played a large part in this decline of the Roman Empire as it was at the outset the religion of the slave, the meek and the lowly while Stoicism was the religion of the strong men of the time. This bias in favor of the weaker elements greatly interfered with their elimination by natural processes and the fighting force of the Empire was gradually undermined. Christianity was in sharp contrast to the worship of tribal deities which preceded it and it tended then as now to break down class and race distinctions.
The maintenance of such distinctions is absolutely essential to race purity in any community when two or more races live side by side.
Race feeling may be called prejudice by those whose careers are cramped by it but it is a natural antipathy which serves to maintain the purity of type. The unfortunate fact that nearly all species of men interbreed freely leaves us no choice in the matter. Races must be kept apart by artificial devices of this sort or they ultimately amalgamate and in the offspring the more generalized or lower type prevails.
X
THE NORDIC RACE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE
We find few traces of Nordic characters outside of Europe. When Egypt was invaded by the Libyans from the west in 1230 B. C. they were accompanied by “sea peoples,” probably the Achæan Greeks. There is some evidence of blondness among the people of the south shore of the Mediterranean down to Greek times and the Tamahu or fair Libyans are constantly mentioned in Egyptian records. The reddish blond or partly blond Berbers found to-day on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains may well be their descendants. That this blondness of the Berbers, though small in amount, is of Nordic origin we may with safety assume, but through what channels it came we have no means of knowing. There is no historic invasion of north Africa by Nordics except the Vandal conquests but there seems to be little probability that this small Teutonic tribe left behind any physical trace in the native population.
There seem to have been traces of Nordic blood among the Philistines and still more among the Amorites. Certain references to the size of the sons of Anak and to the fairness of David, whose mother was an Amoritish woman, point vaguely in this direction.
References in Chinese annals to the green eyes of the Wu-suns or to the Hiung-Nu in central Asia are almost the only evidence we have of the Nordic race in contact with the peoples of eastern Asia, though there are statements in ancient Chinese or Mongolian records as to the existence of blond and tall tribes and nations in those parts of northern Asia where Mongols are now found exclusively. We may expect to acquire much new light on this subject during the next few decades.