330 GREECE AND ROME. 



be considered to have arisen out of the decisions of judges, and the 

 interpretations of civilians. From the reign of Hadrian to that of 

 Justinian, numerous alterations and additions were made by succes- 

 sive emperors, and several codes were published by private lawyers, 

 or by the imperial authority. The edifice of Roman jurisprudence 

 was completed by Dorotheus, Theophilus, and Tribonian, under the 

 auspices of Justinian ; and, ever since that time the three works 

 which they published, under the title of the Code, the Digest, and 

 the Institutes, together with some subsequent edicts, collected under 

 the title of the Novels, have remained the only authentic exposition 

 of the civil law. What share then can Greece claim in this glorious 

 monument of Roman wisdom ? Long before the promulgation of the 

 code of Justinian the rigid maxims of the twelve tables were in dis- 

 use, and the multiplicity of legal fictions, invented by the ingenuity 

 of successive praetors for their evasion, is the only symptom of their 

 being at all regarded ; and even of these twelve tables, the only con- 

 nected portion which we can prove to have been borrowed from 

 Greece, relates to a subject of no greater importance than the regu- 

 lation of funeral ceremonies. 



There still remains to be taken into the account the facility which 

 the universal dominion of Rome must have given to the progress of 

 Christianity; after the cessation of the miraculous gift of tongues, the 

 existence of an universal dialect would be a powerful auxiliary to the 

 propagation of the Gospel. Through the whole extent of the Roman 

 empire the Latin or Greek language was understood and spoken, 

 and thus the ambition of Rome became subservient to the cause of re- 

 ligion. In this merit at least, Greece can claim no share ; the cap- 

 tious infidelity of the Platonic school, and the subtilizing spirit of 

 Greek theology have more obstructed the reception of Christianity 

 than all the open persecution of the Pagan emperors. If then, it ap- 

 pears, from a careful examination, that the two surest bases of civi- 

 lization, pure religion and judicious laws, owe more to Rome than 

 to Greece, it will be sufficiently obvious to which the preference must 

 belong: it cannot be denied that Greece is the parent of arts and 

 literature, of sculpture and architecture, of poetry and philosophy ; 

 bu, however conducive these may be to exterior refinements, how- 

 ever conducive that refinement may be to the advancement of civili- 

 zation, they must still yield the superiority to the more solid and 

 permanent benefits conferred by Rome. 



