ABSTRACT
When the Roman Empire became heir to the universal imperial idea of Alexander Nikolaevich, the civilization of Hellenism became the cultural foundation for the new political unity. The Roman Empire had converted the orbis terrarum, the whole earth, into one city, with a common history in which all participated, with a common civilization in which all shared and to which all contributed, with a common law in which the influences of Roman, Greek, and Oriental law mingled. The city-state of Rome, having established its hegemony over the whole of Italy in the third century b.c., started in the second century b.c. to develop into a world power. The Roman Empire under Augustus brought peace to mankind. The Emperor became the living symbol of the new world civilization which, according to its philosophers, was based upon peace and justice. The new Roman Empire was instituted as an instrument of religious universalism.
