The Races of the Danube. 239 



commission from the government at Constantino- 

 ple. In reality the identity of interests between 

 the Teutonic settlers and the imperial system 

 became more and more manifest during the three 

 following centuries, until it was definitely declared 

 in 800 in the coronation of Charles the Great, 

 whereby the headship of the western world was 

 restored to Rome, while the connection with the 

 East was finally severed. 



If we consider the eastern half of the Empire at 

 this time or, at least, so much of it as was com- 

 prised in Europe, the remainder having been 

 mostly torn away by the Saracens we find it 

 undergoing a gradual process of Slavonization 

 quite analogous to the Teutonic reconstruction 

 which was just culminating in the West. Pretty 

 much the whole of what is now European Turkey 

 had become filled with a Slavic population. For 

 the most part this population had been converted 

 to the Greek or so-called Orthodox form of Chris- 

 tianity, though in remote parts of Serbia pagan- 

 ism lingered till the thirteenth century. There 

 was probably some sense, though slight, of a com- 

 munity of race throughout the peninsula. The 

 interests of the Slavs, on the whole, were con- 

 cerned in the protection of the imperial system 

 against external attack, although the various 



