If a man
whose ideas are drawn wholly from the modern map should sit down to
study the writings of Constantine Porphyrogennetos, he would perhaps be
startled at finding Turks and Franks spoken of as neighbors, at finding
_Turcia_ and _Francia_--we must not translate [Greek: Tourkia] and
[Greek: Phrangia] by _Turkey_ and _France_--spoken of as border-lands. A
little study will perhaps show him that the change lies almost wholly in
the names and not in the boundaries. The lands are there still, and the
frontier between them has shifted much less than one might have looked
for in nine hundred years. Nor has there been any great change in the
population of the two countries. The Turks and the Franks of the
Imperial geographer are there still, in the lands which he calls Turcia
and Francia; only we no longer speak of them as Turks and Franks. The
Turks of Constantine are Magyars; the Franks of Constantine are Germans.
The Magyar students may not unlikely have turned over the Imperial
pages, and they may have seen how their forefathers stand described
there. We can hardly fancy that the Ottoman general is likely to have
given much time to lore of such a kind.
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