. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. he Mediterranean littoral. But his early death prevented the fulfilment of his task and the half of him that was Greek ! made him consider the planting of new Greek cities the only 1means for fulfilling it. Here then was the part which Rome had to play. She had to do for the West what Alexander had attempted for the East. In some respects her task was harder, for her work lay j among warlike barbarians, but easier in that she had not to face ! the corrupting influence of a rival and more ancient civilisation. 1 Rome too
. The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:. he Mediterranean littoral. But his early death prevented the fulfilment of his task and the half of him that was Greek ! made him consider the planting of new Greek cities the only 1means for fulfilling it. Here then was the part which Rome had to play. She had to do for the West what Alexander had attempted for the East. In some respects her task was harder, for her work lay j among warlike barbarians, but easier in that she had not to face ! the corrupting influence of a rival and more ancient civilisation. 1 Rome too began as a city-state and it was while she was | still in that condition that Greek civilisation came to her and j took her by storm. It was the new wine that burst the old ibottle when Rome attempted to transform herself into a Greekdemocracy, and failing became a monarchy once more. It was not, therefore, a case of decline and fall when Rome j ceased to be a republic. No liberal need heave a sigh for the !departed republic. It was an oligarchy that had for a century6. INTRODUCTIONdeserved to be replaced by something better, and the changewas even an upward step in liberty for all but a few hundreds ofRoman nobles. If we can but turn our minds away from thegossip of the court and the spite of the discontented aristo-cracy to a just survey of that majestic and enduring systemof provincial government, we shall be able to discern progresswhere historians would have us lament decay. It was progress again when Rome gradually ceased to bea city-state with a surrounding territory and became succes-sively the capital of an empire and then one of half a dozengreat centres of government. Finally it was progress, as weought by now to be able to see, when the artificial rampartson the Rhine and Danube broke down and the new nationscame into their inheritance. By that time Rome hadaccomplished her work and the phase of the city-state wasover. Some such convictions as these are, I think, i
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