Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/368

 3IO Outlines of Eiiropean History In these provisions of the Theodosian Code the later medie- val Church is clearly foreshadowed. The imperial government in the West was soon overthrown by the barbarian conquerors, but the Catholic Church converted and ruled these conquerors. When the officers of the Empire deserted their posts, the bishops stayed to meet the oncoming invader. They continued to rep- resent the old civilization and ideas of order. It was the Church that kept the Latin language alive among those who knew only a rude German dialect. It was the Church that maintained some little education even in the times of greatest ignorance, for with- out the ability to read Latin the priests could not have performed the religious services and the bishops could not have carried on their correspondence with one another. Retrospect Final orien- talization of the Medi- terranean Section 50, Retrospect As we stand here at the close of the career of ancient civili- zation, we may look back for a moment and glance over the vast vista traversed by early man. For some fifty thousand years he struggled upward through the Stone Age, from which he emerged into civilized life for the first time in the Orient. There we found the first home of civilization in the valley of the Nile, where it arose over five thousand years ago, appear- ing later also along the low^er Euphrates. From these early homes it contributed for ages to the civilization of the Medi- terranean world, till Greek genius arose to assert its owm inde- pendent individuality and the supremacy of mind. At Salamis and Marathon Hellas repulsed the sovereignty of the East and of eastern ideals of government and thought. That victory was not in vain, for it stirred free Athens, as we have seen, to the greatest intellectual achievements in her history. But we have said before that the repulse of Persia was not final (p. 237). The tide from the East could not be stayed by a successful battle or two. It swept through the Mediterranean with in- creasing power, till Rome, the last great state of the ancient