Code_, page 14.]

While the Greeks were thus forging rapidly ahead, their ancient kindred,
the Latins, were also progressing, though at a rate less dazzling. The
true date of Rome's founding we do not know. Her own legends give B.C.
753.[17] But recent excavations on the Palatine hill show that it was
already fortified at a much earlier period. Rome, we believe, was
originally a frontier fortress erected by the Latins to protect them
from the attacks of the non-Aryan races among whom they had intruded.
This stronghold became ever more numerously peopled, until it grew into
an individual state separate from the other Latin cities.

[Footnote 17: See _The Foundation of Rome_, page 116.]

The Romans passed through the vicissitudes which we have already noted
in Greece as characteristic of the Aryan development. The early war
leader became an absolute king, his power tended to become hereditary,
but its abuse roused the more powerful citizens to rebellion, and the
kingdom vanished in an oligarchy.[18] This last change occurred in Rome
about B.C. 510, and it was attended by such disasters that the city sank
back into a condition that was almost barbarous when compared with her
opulence under the Tarquin kings.

[Footnote 18: See _Rome Established as a Republic_, page 300.]

It was soon after this that the Persians, ignorant of their own
decadence, and dreaming still of world power, resolved to conquer the
remaining little states lying scarce known along the boundaries of their
empire. They attacked the Greeks, and at Marathon (B.C. 490) and Salamis
(B.C. 480) were hurled back and their power broken.[19]

[Footnote 19: See _Battle of Marathon_, page 322, and _Invasion of
Greece_, page 354.]

This was a world event, one of the great turning points, a decision that
could not have been otherwise if man was really to progress. The
degenerate, enfeebled, half-Semitized Aryans of Asia were not permitted
to crush the higher type which was developing in Europe. The more
vigorous bodies and far abler brains of the Greeks enabled them to
triumph over all the hordes of their opponents. The few conquered the
many; and the following era became one of European progress, not of
Asiatic stagnation.

(FOR THE NEXT SECTION OF THIS GENERAL SURVEY SEE VOLUME II.)

DAWN OF CIVILIZATION

B.C. 5867[20]

G.C.C. MASPERO

It is a far cry to hark back to 11,000 years before Christ, yet
borings in the valley of the