ii.]

[Footnote 331: The right of Latium conferred an
exemption from the government of the Roman praefect. Strabo states this
distinctly, l. iv. p. 295, edit. Caesar's. See also Walther, p. 233.--M]

[Footnote 34: Spanheim, Orbis Roman. c. 8, p. 62.]

[Footnote 35: Aristid. in Romae Encomio. tom. i. p. 218, edit. Jebb.]

[Footnote 36: Tacit. Annal. xi. 23, 24. Hist. iv. 74.]

So sensible were the Romans of the influence of language over national
manners, that it was their most serious care to extend, with the
progress of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue. [37] The ancient
dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into
oblivion; but in the provinces, the east was less docile than the west
to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference
marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of colors,
which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian
splendor of prosperity, became gradually more visible, as the shades
of night descended upon the Roman world. The western countries
were civilized by the same hands which subdued them. As soon as the
barbarians were reconciled to obedience, their minds were open to any
new impressions of knowledge and politeness. The language of Virgil
and Cicero, though with some inevitable mixture of corruption, was so
universally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul Britain, and Pannonia, [38]
that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved
only in the mountains, or among the peasants. [39] Education and study
insensibly inspired the natives of those countries with the sentiments
of Romans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her Latin
provincials. They solicited with more ardor, and obtained with more
facility, the freedom and honors of the state; supported the national
dignity in letters [40] and in arms; and at length, in the person of
Trajan, produced an emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for
their countryman. The situation of the Greeks was very different from
that of the barbarians. The former had been long since civilized and
corrupted. They had too much taste to relinquish their language, and
too much vanity to adopt any foreign institutions. Still preserving the
prejudices, after they had lost the virtues, of their ancestors, they
affected to despise the unpolished manners of the Roman conquerors,
whilst they were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and power.
[41]