THROUGH WILD EUROPE 211 



Venetian or Byzantine. For here, as in the Balkans 

 generally, various powers have held the place and 

 given way to others. Durazzo itself has been in turn 

 Greek, Roman, Venetian, Bulgarian, and Turkish. 

 The whole of the Balkans is, in fact, one gigantic 

 battlefield, and there can hardly be a square inch 

 of soil which has not soaked up its quantum of 

 human blood. For thousands of years Romans, 

 Greeks, Turks, Huns, Goths, Tartars, and Serbs 

 have struggled and fought and died ; and it is 

 curious to reflect that before the Norman invasion 

 of England there was a vast Bulgarian Empire 

 governed by a Czar, whose realms included what 

 are now Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Servia, 

 Albania, and a goodly portion of Turkey and 

 Greece. 



But this ancient Bulgarian Empire fell, as did every 

 Christian state south of the Danube, except Monte- 

 negro, into the all-devouring power of the Turk. 

 They even attacked Vienna, and until comparatively 

 recent times Budapest was a Turkish town. The 

 petty jealousies of the various Christian sects could 

 make no stand against the united strength of the 

 followers of Mohammed. 



Even to this day the bickerings and jealousy 

 between the Greek and the Roman Catholic 

 Churches, as well as the jealousy of one great 

 power of another, all help to keep the Turk in 



