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Barbarian and Noble
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Barbarian and Noble
Nobles
and barbarians, civilized nations and uncivilized tribes, conquered and unconquered,—so the world was divided in the
golden age of the Roman Empire, when the city on the seven hills ruled the world, when it was the proudest boast a man
could make to say, "I am a Roman citizen," and he who could claim that right looked on the subject peoples of the north
and west and south and east and called them barbarians, while under his breath he termed them slaves.
Thus it was in the days of the great Cæsars, and it was a wise order of things for a time, for so the whole known world
was drawn together into a huge framework of law and civilization; so it came about that the great waters were guarded by
Roman transports, and merchants might journey over them in safety, and commerce prospered; and so it was that great
highways were built across the continent of Europe, until the saying was that "all roads led to Rome."
But there was one region where Roman roads did not penetrate, and where, though legions of trained
soldiers marched and countermarched, they did not stay nor hold a lasting place. Down through the map of Europe run two
rivers, in the north the Rhine and in the south the Danube, forming a natural boundary which separates the great forests
of Germany and Austria and Hungary from the western plains and peninsulas; and this boundary stood as the frontier, the
limit of the Roman Empire.
It had not been the wish of the great mistress of the nations that she should stop here; it was the dream of Roman
emperors that she should rule the world from the rising of the sun to its setting; but here she had been forced to
pause, and the reason why she stopped her imperial progress is told in the first story of the conflict between barbarian
and noble.
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