Through the survival of Romanic languages in the Balkan peninsula an excellent glimpse is obtained of the conditions preceding the Slavic migrations which, beginning at the end of the third century, burst into full strength at the opening of the sixth. The Slavic flood was both heavy and prolonged. Its strength can be surmised from the survival of Slavic place names in the sections of Balkan territory under Greek, Rumanian or Albanian control. But the Slavs mastered only the drainage area of the Danube and its tributaries. The twin basins of the Save and Drave afforded them westerly routes of penetration without, however, providing channels of southerly advance. The watershed coinciding roughly with easterly longitude 21° in Albania and attaining the Pindus mountains therefore remained closed land to the Slavs. As a result Albania and Macedonia are to be considered as areas in which Romance speech once prevailed. The signs of this linguistic relation are numerous in Albania because the country is less open to invasion than the Macedonian basin. A territory of Romance languages extending continuously from the Atlantic to the Black Sea probably existed prior to the immigration of Slavs into southeastern Europe. The areas of Romansh, Friulian, Ladin, Albanian and Rumanian are remnants of this ancient language zone. Even the Slavic language of the Macedonian peasant is a layer superimposed on the linguistic stratum prevailing before the period of Slavic invasion. It is therefore about thirteen centuries old. The changes undergone by the earlier form of Macedonian in this span of centuries have been so sweeping as to obliterate altogether the character of the pre-Slavic tongue. Rumanian vernaculars of the Pindus extended therefore to the east and not improbably into Thrace. A claim upon Macedonia based on this assumption has even been put forward by Rumanians.[172] [Illustration: FIG. 43--The easterly sweep of Romance languages. The dotted areas are lowlands. Romance languages are spoken in the diagonally ruled areas. Cross-ruling represents the connecting areas between eastern and western Romance languages. Pindus localities in which Rumanian is spoken are indicated by R. Scale, 1:12,500,000.] No fair conception of the character of the Rumanian population can be attained without thorough realization of the extent to which the land has been open to the invasions of Asiatic nomads of the steppes. The intensity of this movement can be ascertained for the historical period. Back of that time, however, the interminable stretch of centuries must have been characterized by the same inflow from the east, else the Rumanian population would not betray today such distinctly Tatar earmarks. The eastern sections of the country, those nearest to, and forming practically a continuation of Russia, teem with settlements of pure Tatars.