to the southeast in the interior of Italy were the Samnites; and in Southern Italy the Greek civilization was firmly established.

The Romans in time extended their power over all the countries round about the Mediterranean Sea and even occupied a part of the British Isles, so that eventually they ruled from Scotland to the Sahara Desert and from the Atlantic to the Euphrates. This empire, when at the height of its power,

was in length, breadth, and population nearly the same as the United States, Italy alone being more than twice the area of the State of New York. So many people had never before been under one government, nor been governed so well.

Northwards the Rhine and Danube rivers formed a strong defense behind which civilization was secure from the German

1 See map following page 62 and note the names of the countries ("provinces ") governed by Rome.

barbarians beyond. The only other dangerous enemies were the Persians in the distant East, and these were successfully held in check. All the vast empire was connected with Rome by a network of wonderful roads along which travelers and traders moved with a freedom and security such as were unknown for many centuries after; and the Romans, through their language, customs, and laws, went on to make the peoples whom they governed to be in greater or less measure like themselves.

This Roman civilization was greatly indebted to that of the Greeks, with its noble literature and art. A second powerful influence upon the Roman civilization was Christianity, which, under the Emperor Constantine (324-337 A.D.), was accepted as the established religion of the Empire.

The Latin language was spoken throughout Western Europe and Northern Africa; east of Italy the common speech remained Greek, but the official language was Latin. The differences between the East and the West finally resulted in the division of the Empire into the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire.

Roman history, strictly speaking, covers twelve centuries (from 753 B.c. to 476 A.D., when, with the capture of Rome by the Goths, a German tribe, the Western Roman Empire fell). The Eastern Roman Empire continued for nearly a thousand years longer till the capture of its capital, Constantinople ("the city of Constantine"), by the Turks in 1453 A.D. The great period of Roman literature, the Golden Age, was from about 80 B.C. to 17 A.D. Then lived the great writers whose works we are preparing to read, - Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, and Horace.

Afterwards, in the Middle Ages, which came between Ancient and Modern times, even the invading tribes that had crossed the Rhine and Danube and broken up the Western Empire learned the Roman language and ways, along with the Christian

1 A student of Latin is strongly advised to study Greek.

religion; and what they learned from Rome has been handed

on to us.

Thus the Romans have contributed to modern civilization the influence of their law, language, literature, architecture, art, and religion.

2. Latin in the Middle Ages. - In the Middle Ages Latin was at first spoken everywhere in Western Europe, and also along the lower Danube, but in the course of a few centuries it was gradually changed in the various lands into the separate languages of French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Roumanian.

Roman Bridge over the Tagus at Alcántara, Spain; built 105 A.D.

These languages, called Romance languages because of their Roman origin, are simply "Latin in modern guise," and are easily learned by those who understand Latin. Latin was driven from England by the invading Anglo-Saxons, but in a modified form was brought back later (1066 A.D.) by the conquering Normans, who spoke a kind of French. These two elements of Anglo-Saxon and Norman-French are mingled along with others in Modern English.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Latin remained, in Western Europe, the language of the church and of the universities. Science, literature, law, and religion became thoroughly assoIciated with it.

3. How Latin Lives To-day. -To-day also Latin is truly a living language. Besides, being understood by educated men all over the world, it is the official language of the Roman Church. It is used in the service and by the clergy. Some of the most beautiful hymns are in Latin.

More than 200,000,000 people of the present day speak the Romance languages. In two of these languages, Spanish and Portuguese, Americans are especially interested as being the speech of our neighbors in Mexico, Central America, and South America.

In a certain sense we ourselves speak Latin, for more than half the words in our language come directly or indirectly from Latin. Some of these words have come down from the Roman occupation of Britain, many are derived indirectly through the Norman-French, and many others directly as the inherited vocabulary of literature, science, and philosophy. Especially for the professions of theology, law, and medicine is Latin important. So Latin is not a "dead language." "In fact the livest part of our language to the educated man is the Latin part."1

The importance of Latin is shown by the fact that it is "the one language, except English, which is most generally studied in our high schools and academies."2

II. DIVISIONS OF ROMAN HISTORY

The following divisions of Roman history may be profitably remembered:

1. 753-509 B.C., Period of the Kings, of whom the last, the Tarquins, were probably Etruscan rulers to whom Rome was

1 Dr. W. T. Harris, late U. S. Commissioner of Education. 2 Value of the Classics (Princeton University Press, 1917), p. 360.

unwillingly subject. They were said to have been expelled by the Liberator Brutus in 509 B.C. The Roman people thereafter, in place of a single life-long sovereign, elected annually two consuls as chief magistrates with equal power. The main 'law-making body was

to be the senate.

2. 509-31 B.C., Period of the Republic. This period was, in the beginning, marked by strife between the plebeians, or common people, and the patricians, or nobles. Steadily the plebeians improved their position in the state. Steadily also the external power of Rome increased. The period was closed by civil wars, in which the greatest figures were Julius Caesar (102-44 B.C.) and Augustus (63 B.C.-14 A.D.), the latter of whom by the great naval victory

of Actium (31 B.C.) be

came the Emperor, or sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

3. 31 B.C.-476 A.D., Period of the Empire. During this time Rome was ruled by Emperors, who for the last 300 years of the period had to struggle vigorously with dangerous barbarian invasions, till the Fall of the Western Empire in 476 A.D.

1 The patricians ("sons of the fathers") are believed to represent the earliest families of Rome; the plebeians, the later comers to Rome.