t that part of the inhabitants of the peninsula which became
Latin, while the Greeks remained Greek, and the Illyrians remained
barbarian. Their lands, Mossia, Thrace specially so called, and Dacia,
were added to the empire at various times from Augustus to Trajan.
That they should gradually adopt the Latin language is in no sort
wonderful. Their position with regard to Rome was exactly the same as
that of Gaul and Spain. Where Greek civilization had been firmly
established, Latin could nowhere displace it. Where Greek civilization
was unknown, Latin overcame the barbarian tongue. It would naturally
do so in this part of the East exactly as it did in the West.[4]

Here then we have in the southeastern peninsula three nations which
have all lived on to all appearances from the very beginnings of
European history, three distinct nations, speaking three distinct
languages. We have nothing answering to this in the West. It needs no
proof that the speakers of Celtic and Basque in Gaul and in Spain do
not hold the same position in western Europe which the Greeks,
Albanians, and Roumans do in eastern Europe. In the East the most
ancient inhabitants of the land are still there, not as scraps or
survivals, not as fragments of nations lingering on in corners, but as
nations in the strictest sense, nations whose national being forms an
element in every modern and political question. They all have their
memories, their grievances, and their hopes; and their memories, their
grievances, and their hopes are all of a practical and political kind.
Highlanders, Welshmen, Bretons, French Basques, whatever we say of the
Spanish brethren, have doubtless memories, but they have hardly
political grievances or hopes. Ireland may have political grievances;
it certainly has political hopes; but they are not exactly of the same
kind as the grievances or hopes of the Greek, the Albanian, and the
Rouman. Let Home Rule succeed to the extent of setting up an
independent king and parliament of Ireland, yet the language and
civilization of that king and parliament would still be English.
Ireland would form an English State, politically hostile, it may be, to
Great Britain, but still an English State. No Greek, Albanian or
Rouman State would be in the same way either Turkish or Austrian.

On these primitive and abiding races came, as on other parts of Europe,
the Roman conquest. That conquest planted Latin colonies on the
Dalmatian coast,