In certain respects, political and ethical, Alexander and the Romans were the causes of a better
philosophy than any that was professed by Greeks in their days of freedom. The Stoics, as we have
seen, believed in the brotherhood of man, and did not confine their sympathies to the Greeks. The
long dominion of Rome accustomed men to the idea of a single civilization under a single
government. We are aware that there were important parts of the world which were not subject to
Rome--India and China, more especially. But to the Roman it seemed that outside the Empire
there were only obscure barbarian tribes, who might be conquered whenever it should be worth
while to make the effort. Essentially and in idea, the empire, in the minds of the Romans, was
world-wide. This conception descended to the Church, which was "Catholic" in spite of
Buddhists, Confucians, and (later) Mohammedans. Securus judicat orbis terrarum is a maxim
taken over by the Church from the later Stoics; it owes its appeal to the apparent universality of
the Roman Empire. Throughout the Middle Ages, after the time of Charlemagne, the Church and
the Holy Roman Empire were world-wide in idea, although everybody knew that they were not so
in fact. The conception of one human family, one Catholic religion, one universal culture, and one
worldwide State, has haunted men's thoughts ever since its approximate realization by Rome.
The part played by Rome in enlarging the area of civilization was of immense importance.
Northern Italy, Spain, France, and parts of western Germany, were civilized as a result of forcible
conquest by the Roman legions. All these regions proved themselves just as capable of a high
level of culture as Rome itself. In the last days of the Western Empire, Gaul produced men who
were at least the equals of their contemporaries in regions of older civilization. It was owing to the
diffusion of culture by Rome that the barbarians produced only a temporary eclipse, not a
permanent darkness. It may be argued that the quality of civilization was never again as good as in
the Athens of Pericles; but in a world of war and destruction, quantity is, in the long run, almost as
important as quality, and quantity was due to Rome.
IV. The Mohammedans as vehicles of Hellenism. In the seventh century, the disciples of the
Prophet conquered Syria, Egypt, and North Africa; in the following century, they conquered
Spain. Their