Taking the Measure of the Ancient World heart,breadoftheinnermouthofmysoul,thepowerwhichbegets
lifeinmymindandintheinnermostrecessesofmythinking.The question expressed the irresolvable tensions between the two tradi-
tions,Judaeo-Christianandclassical,whichnowmadeupthecultureofthe
Graeco-RomanEmpire—which,attheverytimewhenAugustinewaswrit-
ing,wasreaching,in..,thefirststepintheeventualdivisionofLatin
WestandGreekEast.
WhereweshouldseethestoryofGraeco-Romancultureasendingisof
courseaninsolubleproblem.Inonesensetheanswer,ofcourse,isnever.In
another,andthefallofConstantinople.OrperhapstheIslamicinvasions
of the seventh century. Or perhaps, if wewish to choose a terminal date,
withthereignofJustinianinConstantinople,in–.Fornotonlydid
hisreignseethelastattempttore-unifyEastandWestbymilitarymeans,
butitalsoproducedoneofthegreatestmonumentsof Latinproseandof
Romanculture,theDigest.Itseemsodd,again,that,inaneducationalcon-
text,noone(tomyknowledge)everusesextractsfromit.For,first,whatever
Justinianmayhaveintended,whatthecompilersoftheDigestactuallypro-
ducedwassomethingveryfamiliartousall:asourcebook.Whattheydid
wastoselectextractsfromthemainwritersofclassicalRomanlaw,primarily
thoseoftheearlythirdcentury..,Ulpian,Papinian,andPaulus,andar-
rangethemunderheadings.ThroughtheDigestwethusgainaccesstoavast
corpusofRomanprosewritingfromtheheightoftheEmpire,thebestpart
ofmillionwordsinall.Notonlythat,themainmanuscriptoftheDigest,
nowinFlorence,waswritten,inLatinofcourse,somewhereintheGreek
worldinthelatesixthortheseventhcentury..Itisthusextremelyclose
intimetotheoriginalcompilation.
SupposethatweimaginedthatthewritingofthisvastLatinmanuscript
had taken place in.., the year of Mahomet’sHegirafrom Mecca to
Medina.Wemightthenchoosetousethesetwoeventsasmarkingasym-
bolicterminusfortheancientworld.Thatdatebelongsalmostexactly,
yearssincethefirstGreeksettlershadarrivedinPithekoussai,andsincetheir
immediatesuccessorsbroughtwiththemanawarenessof‘‘Nestor’scup’’and
Homericepic.Theintervalconcernedhappenstobeslightlylongerthanthe
timespanfrom..tonow.Indefendingoursubject,andinemphasis-
ingitssignificanceinhumanhistory,anditssheerscaleinspaceandtime,
weshouldnotbetoomodest.
Atthesametime,weoughttobepreparedtoaskourselvessomeques-
tions.Forastart,whyhaveweallowedour‘‘canon’’ofwhatisworthreading
inGreekandLatintobenarrowedtowhatevercountsas‘‘literature’’?Might