ve or six hundred years after the founding of Rome came
several disastrous wars which killed off a great majority of her
sturdy fighters. Rome was the victor in all of these wars, but she won
them at tremendous cost to herself. With the killing off of her best
and bravest men, a great deal of the old time honesty was lost. Very
soon, we begin to hear of Roman governors who, when put in charge of
conquered states, used their offices only to plunder the helpless
inhabitants and to return to Rome after their terms were finished,
laden with ill-gotten gains. Roman morals, which formerly were very
strict, began to grow more lax, and in general the Roman civilization
showed signs of decay.

To the north and east of the Roman Empire dwelt a people who were to
become the leaders of the new nations of Europe. These were the free
German tribes, which occupied the part of Europe bounded, roughly, by
the rivers Danube and Rhine, the Baltic Sea, and the Carpathian
Mountains. In many ways they were much less civilized than the Romans.
They were clad in skins and furs instead of cloth. They lived in rough
huts and tents or in caves dug in the sides of a hill. They, too, like
the Romans, held human life cheap, and bloodshed and murder were
common among them. As a rule, the men scorned to work, leaving
whatever labor there was, largely to the women, while they busied
themselves in fighting and hunting, or, during their idle times, in
gambling. Nevertheless, these people, about the time that the Roman
honesty began to disappear, had virtues more like those of the early
Romans. They were frank and honorable. The men were faithful husbands
and kind fathers, and their family life was very happy. They were
barbarous and rough, but those of them who were taken to Rome and
learned the Roman civilization made finer, nobler men than Rome was
producing about the time of which we speak.

[Illustration: Germans Going Into Battle]

To the east of these German tribes were the Slavs, a people no better
civilized, but not so warlike in their nature. As the Germans, in
later years, moved on to the west, the Slavs, in turn, moved westward
and occupied much of the land which had been left vacant by the
Germans.

[Illustration: A Hun Warrior]

The inhabitants of western Europe, that is, France, Spain, and the
British Isles, were largely Celts. In fact, all Europe could be said
to be divided up among four great peoples: There were the Latins in
Italy