THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
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. The ancient dialects of Italy, the Sabine, the Etruscan, and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion; but the eastern were less docile than the western provinces to the voice of its victorious preceptors. This obvious difference marked the two portions of the empire with a distinction of character, which, though it was in some degree concealed during the meridian splendour 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 opened 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 andPannonia, that the faint traces of the Punic or Celtic idioms were preserved only in the mountains or among the peasants. The Celtic was indeed preserved in the mountains of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica; and it may here be observed that Apuleius reproaches an African youth, who lived among the populace, with the use of the Punic, whilst he had almost forgot Greek, and neither could nor would speak Latin. The greater part ofSt.Austin’s congregations were strangers to the Punic. Education and study insensibly inspired the natives of the countries just mentioned with the sentiments of Romans; and Italy gave fashions, as well as laws, to her latin provincials. They solicited with more ardour, and obtained with more facility, the freedom and honours of the state; supported the national dignity in letters and in arms; and at length in the person of Trajan, produced an Emperor whom the Scipios would not have disowned for their countryman. Spain alone produced Columella, the Senecas, Lucan, Martial, and Quinctilian.
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, theyaffected to despise the unpolished manners of the Roman conquerors, whilst they were compelled to respect their superior wisdom and power. The Greeks seemed to be entirely ignorant that the Romans had any good writers; and it is believed that there is not a single Greek critic, from Dionysius to Libanius, who mentions Virgil or Horace. 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 conquests, 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. The slothful effeminacy of the former, exposed them to the contempt; the sullen ferociousnessof the latter, excited the aversion of the conquerors. 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 Ptolemys, before an Egyptian was admitted into the Senate of Rome, the first instance of which happened under the reign of Septimius Severus.