76 HISTORY OF GREECE, ROME, AND ASIA 



results in the Roman and Greek fields. But if the philologists have 

 rejoiced in the discovery of the texts of Aristotle, Bachylides, and 

 Timotheus, the Latinists must be satisfied with a long series of con- 

 tracts, leases of rustic farms, constitution of dowry, contracts of 

 loans and emphyteuses. There is no hope of finding a book of Polybius 

 or of some other historian, precious for us, but less cared for by the 

 ancients on account of the style in which it was written. We have 

 this discouraging outlook also from the examination of the archaeo- 

 logical excavations made in the ancient world. 



The soil of ancient Italy is certainly not exhausted, but nothing 

 makes one hope for discoveries similar to those of Greece and Asia 

 Minor; and the interest of the studious now turned to the oriental 

 world does not find it worth while to explore the adult forms of the 

 Grseco-Roman civilization which alone is offered by the Peninsula. 

 We deduce from this that the study of Italian history at the time of 

 the free republic does not present anything new for investigation, 

 while all the periods of Greek history have been, one might say, 

 transformed, and the history of Hellenism, thanks to the works of 

 Mahaffy, Belocph, Niese, Strack, Bouche"-Leclercq, and many others, 

 has been rebuilt from the very beginning. Let us guard ourselves, 

 however, from drawing too pessimistic conclusions. 



The study of social and political life in the Roman Republic has not 

 presented any material for new treatises nor any original proceedings, 

 for the reason that the problems which contain the conclusion of 

 the subsequent corollaria had not been well solved. The life of the 

 Roman people, far from constituting a characteristic phenomenon, 

 as it was conceived for centuries, and in part was understood by 

 Mommsen himself, is but the last and quite mature phase of that 

 civilization which continued and transformed the preceding activity 

 of the East. Laying aside the Roman annals which offer a premature 

 originality obtained through falsification, there remains only a late 

 civilization which grafts itself on the developed Greek world. 



In Roman civilization there does not exist a political institution 

 or situation where there has not been repercussion or modification 

 of the anterior civilization of Sicily or Magna Grseca, and later of 

 Greece itself and of the Hellenistic states. Only the full and perfect 

 knowledge of the Greek world permits a clear understanding of the 

 Roman one. Thus it is clearly understood how a Roman history can 

 be properly related only when the great problems of Greek and 

 Hellenistic history will be solved. If, however, in the half-century 

 which has succeeded to the first appearance of Mommsen 's book, there 

 have been published at rare intervals some works which have en- 

 larged the field of our knowledge, this is not due to a lack of material 

 adapted to problems, but to the want of preparation to solve them. 

 We lack a good history relating to the period of the Gracchi, as well 



