The best evidence of Rome's imperial rule is found in the
monuments she raised in every quarter of the ancient world. Some of the
grandest ruins of antiquity are not in the capital city itself, or even in
Italy, but in Spain, France, England, Greece, Switzerland, Asia Minor, Syria,
and North Africa. Among these are Hadrian's Wall in Britain, the splendid
aqueduct known as the Pont du Gard near Nîmes in southern France, the
beautiful temple called La Maison Carrée in the same city, the Olympieum
at Athens, and the temple of the Sun at Baalbec in Syria Thus the lonely
hilltops, the desolate desert sands, the mountain fastnesses of three
continents bear witness even now to the widespreading sway of Rome.
ROMANIZATION OF EAST AND WEST
The civilized world took on the stamp and impress of Rome.
The East, indeed, remained Greek in language and feeling, but even there Roman
law and government prevailed, Roman roads traced their unerring course, and
Roman architects erected majestic monuments. The West became completely Roman.
North Africa, Spain, Gaul, distant Dacia, and Britain were the seats of
populous cities, where the Latin language was spoken and Roman customs were
followed. From them came the emperors. They furnished some of the most eminent
men of letters. Their schools of grammar and rhetoric attracted students from
Rome itself. Thus unconsciously, but none the less surely, local habits and
manners, national religions and tongues, provincial institutions and ways of
thinking disappeared from the ancient world.
