Nor was the influence of the Grecian language and sentiments
confined to the narrow limits of that once celebrated country. Their
empire, by the progress of colonies and conquest, had been diffused from
the Adriatic to the Euphrates and the Nile. Asia was covered with Greek
cities, and the long reign of the Macedonian kings had introduced a
silent revolution into Syria and Egypt. In their pompous courts, those
princes united the elegance of Athens with the luxury of the East, and
the example of the court was imitated, at an humble distance, by the
higher ranks of their subjects. Such was the general division of the
Roman empire into the Latin and Greek languages. To these we may add a
third distinction for the body of the natives in Syria, and especially
in Egypt, the use of their ancient dialects, by secluding them from the
commerce of mankind, checked the improvements of those barbarians. [42]
The slothful effeminacy of the former exposed them to the contempt,
the sullen ferociousness of the latter excited the aversion, of the
conquerors. [43] Those nations had submitted to the Roman power, but they
seldom desired or deserved the freedom of the city: and it was remarked,
that more than two hundred and thirty years elapsed after the ruin of
the Ptolemies, before an Egyptian was admitted into the senate of Rome.
[44]

[Footnote 37: See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 5. Augustin. de Civitate Dei,
xix 7 Lipsius de Pronunciatione Linguae Latinae, c. 3.]

[Footnote 38: Apuleius and Augustin will answer for Africa; Strabo
for Spain and Gaul; Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, for Britain; and
Velleius Paterculus, for Pannonia. To them we may add the language of
the Inscriptions. * Note: Mr. Hallam contests this assertion as regards
Britain. "Nor did the Romans ever establish their language--I know not
whether they wished to do so--in this island, as we perceive by that
stubborn British tongue which has survived two conquests." In his note,
Mr. Hallam examines the passage from Tacitus (Agric. xxi.) to which
Gibbon refers. It merely asserts the progress of Latin studies among the
higher orders. (Midd. Ages, iii. 314.) Probably it was a kind of court
language, and that of public affairs and prevailed in the Roman
colonies.--M.]

[Footnote 39: The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales,
Cornwall, and Armorica. We may observe, that Apuleius reproaches an
African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic;
w