ABSTRACT
In the second and third centuries the broadest unit was still the Roman Empire. From the Atlantic seaboard of Spain and Gaul to the Black Sea, from the Tyne, the Rhine, and the Danube in the North to the Sahara in the South, the provincial organization of the Roman Empire stood intact and hundreds of cities reproduced in miniature the life of the City itself, Rome. The Roman roads, which are often such marvels of engineering skill, are quoted as evidence of Roman grandeur; but in fact they are pathetic monuments to a society which knew little real trade, whose towns were arbitrarily established as units in an administrative hierarchy, joined together by a network of predominantly military communications. The Roman world of the third and later centuries was composed of more enduring material: language and religion.
