GO THE DECLINE AND FALL
chap. So sensible were the Romans of the influence
_of language over national manners, that it was
Division of their most serious care to extend, with the pro-and tiie gress of their arms, the use of the Latin tongue/Vinces/ ' 0 Th c ancient dialects of Italy , the Sabine, theEtruscan , and the Venetian, sunk into oblivion ;but in the provinces, the East was less docilethan the West, to the voice of its victorious pre-ceptors. This obvious difference marked thetwo portions of the empire with a distinction ofcolours, which, though it was in some degreeconcealed during the meridian splendour of pro-sperity, became gradually more visible, as theshades of night descended upon the Romanworld. The western countries were civilizedby the same hands which subdued them. Assoon as the barbarians were reconciled to obe-dience, their minds were opened to any new im-pressions of knowledge and politeness. Thelanguage of Virgil and Cicero , though withsome inevitable mixture of corruption, was souniversally adopted in Africa, Spain, Gaul, Bri-tain, and Pannonia / that the faint traces of thePunic or Celtic idioms were preserved only inthe mountains, or among the peasants/ Edu-cation and study insensibly inspired the natives
“ See Plin. Hist. Natur. iii, 5. Augustin, de Civitate Dei , xix. 7.Lipsius de pronunciatione Linguae Latinae, c. 3.
p Apuleius and Augustin will answer for Africa; Strabo for Spain and Gaul; Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, for Britain; and VelleiusPaterculus for Pannonia . To them we may add the language of theInscriptions.
’ The Celtic was preserved in the mountains of Wales, Corn-wall, and Armorica. We may observe, that Apuleius reproaches an