. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. tive of Roman History THENS and Rome stand side byside as the parents of Westerncivilisation. The parental meta-phor is almost is so obviously masculineand robust, Greece endowedwith so much loveliness andcharm. Rome subjugates byphysical conquest and govern-ment. Greece yields so easilyto the Roman might and thenin revenge so easily dominates Rome itself, with all thatRome has conquered, by the mere attractiveness ofsuperior humanity. Nevertheless this metaphor of mascu-line and feminine contains a se
. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. tive of Roman History THENS and Rome stand side byside as the parents of Westerncivilisation. The parental meta-phor is almost is so obviously masculineand robust, Greece endowedwith so much loveliness andcharm. Rome subjugates byphysical conquest and govern-ment. Greece yields so easilyto the Roman might and thenin revenge so easily dominates Rome itself, with all thatRome has conquered, by the mere attractiveness ofsuperior humanity. Nevertheless this metaphor of mascu-line and feminine contains a serious fallacy. Greece, too,had had days of military vigour. It was by superiorcourage and skill in fighting that Athens and Sparta hadbeaten back the Persian invasions of the fifth centurybefore Christ, and thus saved Europe for it was by military prowess that Alexander the Greatcarried Greek civilisation to the borders of India, HellenisingAsia Minor, Syria, Persia, Egypt, Phoenicia and evenPalestine. This he did just at the moment when Rome was A I. THE GRANDEUR THAT WAS ROME winning her dominion over Latium. Instead, then, of lookingat Greece and Rome as two coeval forces working side byside we must regard them as predecessor and is scarcely revealed as a world-power until she meetsGreek civilisation in Campania near the beginning of thethird century before Christ. The physical decline of Greeceis scarcely apparent until her phalanx returns beaten in battleby the Roman maniples at Beneventum. Moreover, inaddition to this chronological division of spheres there is alsoa geographical division. Greece takes the East, Rome theWest, and though by the time that Rome went forth togovern her Western provinces she was already prettythoroughly permeated with Greek civilisation, yet the Westremained throughout mediaeval history far more Latin thanGreek. When Constantine divided the empire he was onlyexpressing in outward form a natural division of cul
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