Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/325

* EUROPE. l'.s;; EUROPE. racy. In the struggle of their leading Slates for predominance, as on tlie larger theatre of Europe 2000 years later, a refined diplomacy, so licitous to maintain the balance of power, knit and dissolved alliances; and when, weakened by these internal conflicts, Greece was subjected to the military monarchy of Macedon, an era of in perialistic expansion began. In art and in letters this precocious people similarly anticipated every form of expression which European civilization lias since employed; and Greek builders, sculp- tors, poets, and orators produced masterpieces that have not been surpassed. In philosophy also the Greeks have foreshadowed, if they did not anticipate, all the chief tendencies of mud ctii thought. By colonization the Greek civiliza- tion was extended to Asia Minor. Sicily, southern Italy (Magna Grcecia), and many other points in the Mediterranean. By the conquests of Alex- ander the Great, it became dominant in Egypt and southwestern Asia. As far as Europe was concerned, the only lands which the Greeks brought into closer touch with Mediterranean civilization were those bordering on the Black Sea. In that sea the Phoenicians had had trad- ing posts, but the Greeks founded colonies and built cities. A trade route was gradually estab- lished between the Black Sea and the Baltic, and the direct influence of the Greek civilization upon eastern Europe did not cease until Constanti- nople was captured by the Turks (a.d. 1453). See Greece; Greek Art; Greek Literati/re: Greek Philosophy. Roman Civilization. Inferior to the Greeks in alertness of mind and in versatility, but superior in poise and in judgment, the Romans slowly de- veloped a civilization of a higher type in matters of government and law. They first devised a work- ing combination of power and freedom. In the third century B.C. Rome had made herself mistress of Italy ; and when, in the struggle with Carthage (q.v. ), she added sea-power to her land-power, she was able to extend her authority over the entire basin of the Mediterranean. After the conquest of Greece (a.d. 140 ) the Greek culture became dominant at Rome in art, letters, and philosophy: and the civilization which the Ro- man Empire carried into lands heretofore barba- rous was a Grseco-Roman civilization. In the eastern portion of the Empire, the direct influence of Greece was naturally greater: in the western portion, that of Rome. In western and central Europe the Greek culture was introduced and perpetuated, until the fourteenth century, mainly through the Latin imitations of Greek forms and Latin popularizations of Greek thought. The third great force that has shaped the modern world. Christianity, was sensibly affected by Greek thought and Roman institutions. Paul and the early Fathers, trained in the learning of the Greeks, put the doctrines of the new religion into the form best adapted to appeal to the Grseco-Roman world; the formulation of its dog- mas was sensibly influenced by Roman legal ideas ; and the hierarchic organization with which the Christian Church came into mediaeval Europe was modeled on the administrative sys- tem of the Roman Empire. If it is broadly true, as Maine has said, that the modern civilized na- tiniis are those that derive their law from Rome, their art from Greece, and their religion from Judea. it is also true, as Freeman has said, that "of all European history Rome is the centre;" vol VII. — 19. for the Roman Empire summed up the chief results of the ancient civilization and transmitted them to the modern world. See Rome; Chris- tianity; Civil Law. Europe Under the Roman Empire, i nder i stus the Roman Empire attained the boun- daries which it successfully defended for four centuries. (Sec Map of the Roman Empire, under Rome.) In Europe Hum' were the Rhine and the Danube, and the territory between the upper courses of these livers. In only two di- rections was there subsequent expansion. During the first century the greater part of Britain wa subdued; and at the beginning of the second cen- tury the territory beyond the Lower Danube. Dacia (modem Rumania), was organized as a province and held for ITO years. Military roads and fortified camps not only facilitated the de- fense' of the Empire, but stimulated trade and the growth of cities. Except in the mosi mountainous regions, the barbarians whom Rome had subju- gated gradually accepted the Grseco-Roman civil- ization. In Spain and Gaul and in the British cities Latin supplanted the native languages. From the close of the first century the provinces supplied the Empire with the majority of its civil and military officers and with nearly all its emperors. Through this increasingly homoge- neous empire the Christian religion made rapid progress ; and when, in the fourth century, Chris- tianity became the State religion, the provincials accepted that creed which had finally obtained the recognition of the Imperial Court — the creed formulated by Athanasius (q.v.). Of the bar- barians beyond the Roman borders, the nearest and most dangerous were the Germans. The almost incessant conflicts which were necessary to hold the line of the Rhine and the Danube forced Rome steadily further into military mon- archy, until, under Diocletian, the Empire was reorganized on lines which contemporaries re- garded as 'Persian.' The burden of a great standing army, bad management of the Imperial finances, and an elaborate system of State social- ism impoverished the Empire, and its native popu- lation diminished. In order that the soil might be tilled and the legions kept at full strength, barbarians, especially Germans, were imported in increasing numbers. At the time of Augustus the population along the west bank of the Rhine was substantially German. In the following centuries German captives were settled in Brit- ain, in Gaul, in Italy, and in the Danubian Provinces, at first as serfs, after the close of the third century as tributary communities. From these and from tribes across the frontier in alli- ance with Rome, an increasing proportion of re- cruits was drawn, until, in the fourth century, the legions settled on the frontier were largely composed of Germans. After Constantine, Ger- mans rose to the highest positions in the army and the central administration, and "the last century of Roman history may boldly be charac- terized as the century of German rule"( Brunner). Upon the Germans beyond the frontier the most important effect of these centuries of conflict was the gradual formation of those larger tribal unions which, in the fifth century, overthrew the West Roman Empire and divided among them its prov- inces. The tribes in closest contact with Rome were converted to Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries. The missionaries who accom- plished this work were followers of Arius (q.v.),