THE RACE PROBL EM OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE ol 

country. Facts show that this is manifestly erroneous. What was the 
American continent before its discovery, and what has it become 
since its occupation by the European peoples? The country around 
the Hebrus is much the same as that around the Axius, yet the 
Macedonians created a great empire, while the Thracians were hardly 
able to form a state’ at all, although HEroporus says that the Thra- 
cians and the Indians were the greatest peoples of his time. The 
natural features of Southern Italy and Sicily are very similar to those 
of Greece, but the original inhabitants of these. countries created no 
culture; the Greeks brought it to them. The Greek people, not the 
Greek country, created the culture which is and ever will be the basis 
of Western civilization *. - 
The hereditary dispositions of: different races are very different, 
although we cannot yet grasp these distinctions in detail. There are 
hereditary dispositions of greater and lesser value. There are dispo- 
sitions which enable a people to organize a state and create a culture. 
In ancient times the Greeks and the Romans did this, and only they 
on a large scale. They were the peoples that created ancient civili- 
zation and the Roman Empire; the fate of these depended on them. 
I have not here to speak of civic problems or problems of cul- 
ture. It is well known that the different rights of the inhabitants 
of the Empire were levelled down, and that the Greco-Roman culture 
spread throughout all the provinces. The question was w hether the 
Romans were to raise the provincials to their level and assimilate 
them with themselves or to be assimilated by the provincials, which 
would include a levelling down of the culture. In the first two cen- 
turies the process was in general the former, in the later centuries 
it was inverted. With this we must not confound the superficial 
diffusion of the Latin language, which at last embraced the whole of 
western Europe. For a discussion of this question I refer to my 
forthcoming book on the Roman Empire *, and turn now to the bio- 
logical problem which lies at the basis of the problem of cultures. 
If the Romans were to assimilate the provincials with themselves, 
the foremost condition was a sufficient multiplying of their numbers, 
i. e. a sufficiently high birth-rate. The Romans had once before 
carried through a similar task on a smaller scale 
of Italy. Roman colonies were spread throughout the whole country, 
the Roman people multiplied in numbers, the almost unlimited supply 
of soldiers from the colonies gave Rome the victory over the superior 
genius and strategy of HaxniBaz. After the Social war the kindred 

the Romanising 
