Not Rome destroyed the ancient nations, but their own wild passions and internecine civil strife. The Greeks could nuike notliiug of the liberty Flamininus gave them, the Gauls were no better, and even Israel — the one living nation Rome did crush — was in no very dillerent case in Judiea. Rome came in as often as not to keep the peace ; and when the Empire settled down, it seeiiiea quite natural that 'all the world ' should be sul)ject to her. Virgil and Claudian sing witli equal en- thusiasm her everlasting dominion ; and even the Christians firmly believed that nothing bvit Anti- christ's coming would end it (2 Th 2"'-). So, thougli she had mutinies enough of armies, Israel was almost the only rebel nation. She could mass her legions on the great river frontiers, and leave a score of lictors to keep the peace of Asia, a garrison of 1200 men to answer for the threescore States of Gaul. She no more ruled the world than we rule India by a naked sword.
Hence there was a vast variety even of political itatus within the Empire. Some cities had the Roman civitas (see Roman), others only the jus Lata ; some, like Athens, were in theory free and equal allies of Rome, while others h;ui no voice in their own taxation. Italy had the ciinta.i, and was supposed to be governed by the Senate, whereas a senator could not even set foot in Egyjit without the emperor's permission. Some provinces were governed by senatorial proconsuls or pro-
fjrsetors, others by legati Aiigusti pro jyrrrtore, or, ike Egypt or Judsa, by a pr/r/eclus augustnll-^, or a procurator of lower rank. Some regions, again, had client kinjjs, like Mauretania, .hula'a under the Herods, or Dirace. True, the Empire was steadily levelling all this variety. The client kingdoms disappeared — Galatia as early as B.C. 25, ChaUis (held by Agrippa II.) as late as 100. riie autonomy of the urbes liberty was commonly respected — Hadrian was archon twice at .Mhens; but the Roman cimtns was steadily exteiiilf<l till Caraoalla gave it in 212 to all free iuhabitauta of the Empire.
Broadly speaking, the Eastern half of the Empire was Greek, the Western Latin. The dividing line may run pretty straight from Sirmium to the altars of the Philaeni. But Greek
wa-s dominant in parts of the AVest, — Massilia, Sicily, and the coasts of Southern Italy, — and was in most places the language of culture and of commerce, whereas Latin in the East was not much more than an official language. Nor was either Latin or Greek quite suiueme in its own region. Latin had perhaps displaced by this time the Oscan and other dialects of Italy ; but it hiid only well begun the conquest of Spain, Gaul, and the Danube countries. Greek was opposed by the rustic languages of Thrace and the interior of Asia Minor, such as the Lycaonian (Ac 14") and tlie Galatian. Further East it had tougher rivals in Aramaic and Coptic, whi(^h it was never able to overcome, though Alexandria was a Greek city, and G.alilee almost bilingual in the apostolic age. The distribution of the Jews resembled that of tlie Greeks in being chiefiy Eastern, and in following the lines of commerce westward : but their great centres were Syria and Alexandria within the Empire, Babylonia beyond it.
Rome was never able to make a solid nation of her Empire. In Republican times her aim was utterly selfish — to lie a nation ruling other nations, and getting all she could out of them. The Re- public broke down under the political corruption this caused, and the proscriptions completed the destruction of healthy national feeling. The Empire had higher aims from the first, and the sense of duty to the conquered world increased on it as time went on ; Imt it could neither restore nor create the patriotism of a nation. The old Roman nation was lost in the world ; and if the world was lost in Rome, it did not constitute a new Roman nation. Greeks or Gauls mitjlit call tlieiiiselves Romans, and seem to forget tlieir old people in the pride of the Roman civitas • but Greeks or Gauls they remained. Every province of the Empire had its own character deeply marked on the society of the apo.stolic age and on the Churches of the future. Galatia was not like Asia, and Pontus or Cilicia diliered from botli. There were peoples in great vaiiety ; but the old nations were dead, and the one new nation was never born.
Yet the memory of nations put the Empire in a false position. It belonged, like the Christian Church, to the universalism of the future; but the circumstances of its origin threw it back on the nationalism of the past. Augustus came in after the civil wars as a 'Saviour of Society,' susl. lined by the abiding terror of the proscriptions. Hence he was forced into a conservative policy very unlike the real tendency of the Empire to level class dis- tinctions, to replace local customs by uniform laws and administration, and to supersede national worsliips by a universal religion. The Empire waa hampereil by Republican survivals, degraded by tlie false universalism of Civsar-worship. Augustus had to conciliate Rome by respecting class-feeling, and by leaving Republican forms of government almo-st unaltered. He was no king, forsooth (not rex, though called pa.<n\fis in the provinces, Ac 17', 1 P 2^'- "),— only /Jrince;)^, the first citizen of the Republic. Theconsuls were still the highest magistrates, though those who gave their names to the year were replaced during the year by one or more pairs of ccynsules sujfecti. Prietors, quies- tors, etc., went on much the same, and even the anarchical power of the tribunes was not limited by law till the reign of Nero, though the popular assemblies vanished after that of Augustus. The Senate deliberated as of old under the presidency of the consuls, and the emperor himself respect- fully awaited their Nihil vo.i mttrniimr at the end of the sitting. It still governed Italy and hall the provinces, and furnisiied governors for nearly all— <leep ofi'ence would have been given if any one