eeks, the last largely through the colonies which were established in
Italy. Archaeology points conclusively to the fact of early Greek
influence.

In later development the conquest of the Greeks brought to Rome the
religion, art, paintings, and philosophy of the conquered. The Romans
were shrewd and acute in the appreciation of all which they had found
that was good in the Greeks. From the time of this contact there was a
constant and continued adoption of Grecian models in Rome. The first
Roman writers, Fabius Pictor and Quintus Ennius, both wrote in Greek.
All the early Roman writers considered Greek the {262} finished style.
The influence of the Greek language was felt at Rome on the first
acquaintance of the Italians with it, through trade and commerce and
through the introduction of Greek forms of religion.

The early influence of language was less than the influence of art.
While the Phoenicians and Etruscans furnished some of the models, they
were usually unproductive and barren types, and not to be compared with
those furnished by Greece. The young Romans who devoted themselves to
the state and its service were from the fifth century B.C. well versed
in the Greek language. No education was considered complete in the
latter days of the republic, and under the imperial power, until it had
been finished at Athens or Alexandria. The effect on literature,
particularly poetry and the drama, was great in the first period of
Roman literature, and even Horace, the most original of all Latin
poets, began his career by writing Greek verse, and no doubt his
beautiful style was acquired by his ardent study of the Greek language.
The plays of Plautus and Terence deal also with the products of Athens,
and, indeed, every Roman comedy was to a certain extent a copy, either
in form or spirit, of the Greek. In tragedy, the spirit of Euripides,
the master, came into Rome.

The influence of the Greek philosophy was more marked than that of
language. Its first contact with Rome was antagonistic. The
philosophers and rhetoricians, because of the disturbance they created,
were expelled from Rome in the second century. As early as 161 A.D.
those who pursued the study of philosophy always read and disputed in
Greek. Many Greek schools of philosophy of an elementary nature were
established temporarily at Rome, while the large number of students of
philosophy went to Athens, and those of rhetoric to Rhodes, for the
completi