THE RACE PROBLEM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 387 

of the process, and it has been shown that in the Roman Empire it 
was carried out on the largest scale. 
A bastardizing to this extent results in the mingling of better and 
worse races into a motley and indefinite mass without firm mental 
or moral characteristics. This is a sufficient explanation of the decline 
and fall of the ancient culture and the Roman Empire. But even 
if the bastardizing and mixing up of the races leads by its immediate 
effects to chaos, this is not the ultimate result. New races may emerge 
from the chaos and be able to reconstruct that which was destroyed. 
We know the conditions for such a development. They are that 
the bastardizing shall cease and the people shall be isolated so that 
the mixture gets its chance and has time to become settled and puri- 
fied. In this way are given the conditions for developing a new race 
from the motley blend, the nature of which depends on the circum- 
stances. 
The above-mentioned conditions were realised at the commence- 
ment of ancient history. The ancient culture peoples, the Greeks 
and the Romans, invaded their countries from without and settled 
themselves among peoples of foreign races. The Greeks and the Ro- 
mans of history are a product of a blending of races. Our knowledge 
of the Romans is very scanty. If the oldest population of Rome was 
a blend of Latins and Sabines, that does not matter much, because 
these tribes were already very closely akin. But it is certain that 
the Etruscans held sway over Rome some time towards the end of 
the period of the kings, and their culture exercised a profound 
influence on the city. They lived next-door, on the other bank of 
the Tiber, and it may be supposed with certainty that the Romans 
had-a considerable admixture of Etruscan blood. 
Greece is better known than Italy and her history enables us to 
follow the process more closely. Recent discoveries have revealed to 
us the wonderfully high culture of the early and middle second millen- 
nium B. C., which is known as the Minoan and Mycenaean culture. 
It is certain that the people which created this culture was not Aryan; 
it was perhaps akin to some peoples of Asia Minor, though others 
maintain that its kinsfolk are to be found in northern Egypt. The 
invading Aryan tribes, the Greeks, settled among the original inhabi- 
tants of Greece in the same second millennium and at last destroyed 
the old culture. The centuries between the decay of the Mycenaean 
culture and the commencement of the historical age are a_ blank. 
We know only that the culture was utterly debased. The small di- 
