The doctrine of natural right, as it appears in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries,
is a revival of a Stoic doctrine, though with important modifications. It was the Stoics who
distinguished jus naturale from jus gentium. Natural law was derived from first principles of the
kind held to underlie all general knowledge. By nature, the Stoics held, all human beings are
equal. Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations, favours "a polity in which there is the same law for
all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and a kingly
government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed." This was an ideal which
could not be consistently realized in the Roman Empire, but it influenced legislation, particularly
in improving the status of women and slaves. Christianity took over this part of Stoic teaching
along with much of the rest. And when at last, in the seventeenth century, the opportunity came to
combat despotism effectually, the Stoic doctrines of natural law and natural equality, in their
Christian dress, acquired a practical force which, in antiquity, not even an emperor could give to
them.
CHAPTER XXIX The Roman Empire in Relation to CultureT HE Roman Empire affected the history of culture in various more or less separate ways.
First: there is the direct effect of Rome on Hellenistic thought. This is not very important or
profound.
Second: the effect of Greece and the East on the western half of the empire. This was profound
and lasting, since it included the Christian religion.
Third: the importance of the long Roman peace in diffusing culture