There were, certainly, exceptions.  The circles of the rural towns, and particularly those of the larger landholders, had preserved more faithfully the old honourable habits of the Latin nation.  In the capital, however, the Catonian opposition had become a mere form of words; the modern tendency bore sovereign sway, and though individuals of firm and refined organization, such as Scipio Aemilianus, knew the art of combining Roman manners with Attic culture, Hellenism was among the great multitude synonymous with intellectual and moral corruption.  We must never lose sight of the reaction exercised by these social evils on political life, if we would understand the Roman revolution.  It was no matter of indifference, that of the two men of rank, who in 662 acted as supreme masters of morals to the community, the one publicly reproached the other with having shed tears over the death of a -muraena- the pride of his fishpond, and the latter retaliated on the former that he had buried three wives and had shed tears over none of them.  It was no matter of indifference, that in 593 an orator could make sport in the open Forum with the following description of a senatorial civil juryman, whom the time fixed for the cause finds amidst the circle of his boon-companions.  “They play at hazard, delicately perfumed, surrounded by their mistresses.  As the afternoon advances, they summon the servant and bid him make enquiries on the Comitium, as to what has occurred in the Forum, who has spoken in favour of or against the new project of law, what tribes have voted for and what against it.  At length they go themselves to the judgment-seat, just early enough not to bring the process down on their own neck.  On the way there is no opportunity in any retired alley which they do not avail themselves of, for they have gorged themselves with wine.  Reluctantly they come to the tribunal and give audience to the parties.  Those who are concerned bring forward their cause.  The juryman orders the witnesses to come forward; he himself steps aside.  When he returns, he declares that he has heard everything, and asks for the documents.  He looks into the writings; he can hardly keep his eyes open for wine.  When he thereupon withdraws to consider his sentence, he says to his boon-companions, ’What concern have I with these tiresome people? why should we not rather go to drink a cup of mulse mixed with Greek wine, and accompany it with a fat fieldfare and a good fish, a veritable pike from the Tiber island?’ Those who heard the orator laughed; but was it not a very serious matter, that such things were subjects for laughter?”

CHAPTER XII

Nationality, Religion, and Education

Paramount Ascendency of Latinism and Hellenism