To be just to the empire as a whole one must
consider events in the provinces. By subjecting all peoples, the
Romans had suppressed war in the interior of their empire. Thus was
established the Roman Peace which a Greek author describes in the
following language: "Every man can go where he will; the harbors are
full of ships, the mountains are safe for travellers just as the towns
for their inhabitants. Fear has everywhere ceased. The land has put
off its old armor of iron and put on festal garments. You have
realized the word of Homer, 'the earth is common to all.'" For the
first time, indeed, men of the Occident could build their houses,
cultivate their fields, enjoy their property and their leisure without
fearing at every moment being robbed, massacred, or thrown into
slavery--a security which we can hardly appreciate since we have
enjoyed it from infancy, but which seemed very sweet to the men of
antiquity.
=The Fusion of Peoples.=--In this empire now at peace travel became
easy. The Romans had built roads in every direction with stations and
relays; they had also made road-maps of the empire.
Pages:
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424