ABSTRACT
As I commence this work, I have not the least idea what the Roman Spirit may be, and I propose to do no more than consider certain of the successive aspects of the religious, intellectual, and artistic life of the Roman people. This survey will perforce be very incomplete; in particular, it will not touch upon all that legal activity which is treated in a separate volume in this series. 1 But perhaps in the end some general ideas will emerge, which may in a measure justify the title of this book. The reader must not, however, expect a systematic theory of the qualities, nor even of the development, of the Romans. Not in the abstract, but in the living reality of men and their works, following a strictly historical plan, we shall look for the Spirit of Rome.
