Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/521

 CHAP. II. THE ROMAN COKQUEST. 515 The Greeks had not for Rome that hatred which is usually borne towards a foreign master. They admired it ; they had a veneration for it ; of their own accord they devoted a worship to it, and built temples to it as to a god. Every city forgot its protecting divinity, and worshijiped in its place the goddess Rome and the god Cajsar ; the greatest festivals were for them, and the first magistrates had no higher duty than celebrating with great pomp the Augustan games. Men thus be- came accustomed to lift their eyes above their cities; they saw in Rome the model city, the true country, the prytaneum of all nations. The city where one was born seemed small. Its interests no longer occupied their minds; the honors which it conferred no longer satisfied their ambition. Men thought themselves noth- ing if they were not Roman citizens. Under the em- perors, it is true, this title no longer conferred political rights; but it offered more solid advantages, since the man who was clothed with it acquired at the same time the full right to hold property, the right to inherit, the right to many, the paternal authority, and all the l^rivate rights of Rome. The laws which were found in eaeh city were variable and without foundation ; they were merely tolerated. The Romanis despised them, and the Greeks had little respect for them. In order to have fixed laws, recognized by all as truly sa- cred, it was necessary to have those of Rome. We do not sec that all Greece, or even a Greek city, formally asked for this right of citizenship, so much de- sired; but men worked individually to acquire it, and Rome bestowed it with a good grace. Some obtained it through the favor of the emperor; others bought it. It was granted to tlioso who had three children, or who served in certain divisions of the army. Some-