4 IS NATURAL HISTORY OF 



of Esau." If any relics of the Roman physiognomy 

 be now traceable within the boundaries of the once 

 mighty state, they must be sought among the mob 

 population of the city beyond the Tiber, known as the 

 Transteverini ; for they still bear the animal square 

 built form, observable in the statues of ancient Ro- 

 mans, with the aquiline features and deep set eyes, 

 bespeaking power and daring. Elsewhere they have 

 vanished, and they never can have been numerically 

 prominent where there was more of a class population 

 than a real nationality. Rome, during the degrada- 

 tion of the empire, becoming a city of foreigners, and 

 the older civic inhabitants scattered over every part of 

 the empire, in search of lucrative office, or possessing 

 all excepting the military, which was exclusively in the 

 hands of strangers. The true Romans had therefore 

 disappeared before the state itself was extinguished, 

 and even in Constantinople, scarcely a family of Ro- 

 man descent appears prominent during the eastern 

 empire. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS, 



OFTEN designated by the appellation of Gomerians, 

 may be regarded as amongst the very earliest migra- 

 tors that left the high lands of central Asia, and 

 moved not only in tribes towards the west, but like- 

 wise, as we have before shown, penetrated to the 

 extremity of India ; and if we accept as theirs the 



