the empire as a whole one must
consider events in the provinces. By subjecting all peoples, the
Romans had suppressed war in the interior of their empire. Thus was
established the Roman Peace which a Greek author describes in the
following language: "Every man can go where he will; the harbors are
full of ships, the mountains are safe for travellers just as the towns
for their inhabitants. Fear has everywhere ceased. The land has put
off its old armor of iron and put on festal garments. You have
realized the word of Homer, 'the earth is common to all.'" For the
first time, indeed, men of the Occident could build their houses,
cultivate their fields, enjoy their property and their leisure without
fearing at every moment being robbed, massacred, or thrown into
slavery--a security which we can hardly appreciate since we have
enjoyed it from infancy, but which seemed very sweet to the men of
antiquity.

=The Fusion of Peoples.=--In this empire now at peace travel became
easy. The Romans had built roads in every direction with stations and
relays; they had also made road-maps of the empire. Many people,
artisans, traders, journeyed from one end of the empire to the
other.[155] Rhetors and philosophers penetrated all Europe, going from
one city to another giving lectures. In every province could be found
men from the most remote provinces. Inscriptions show us in Spain
professors, painters, Greek sculptors; in Gaul, goldsmiths and Asiatic
workmen. Everybody transported and mingled customs, arts, and
religion. Little by little they accustomed themselves to speak the
language of the Romans. From the third century the Latin had become
the common language of the West, as the Greek since the successors of
Alexander had been the language of the Orient. Thus, as in Alexandria,
a common civilization was developed. This has been called by the name
Roman, though it was this hardly more than in name and in language. In
reality, it was the civilization of the ancient world united under
the emperor's authority.

=Superstitions.=--Religious beliefs were everywhere blended. As the
ancients did not believe in a single God, it was easy for them to
adopt new gods. All peoples, each of whom had its own religion, far
from rejecting the religions of others, adopted the gods of their
neighbors and fused them with their own. The Romans set the example by
raising the Pantheon, a temple to "all the gods," where each deity had
his sanctuary.

Eve