Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Seneca: His Character and Environment
endured so long because it was upheld by the patri
otism of its citizens. This was often narrowly selfish,
and frequently grossly unjust to foreigners, but it
was effectual in maintaining the supremacy of
Koine
against all attempts from within or without to sub
vert it. The Romans that were drawn toward philos
ophy pursued
it in a half-hearted manner because the
state occupied the first place in their minds. To
serve the state was the ultimate goal of their ambi
tion. The emperors, even the most corrupt, still rep
resented the government and as such received the
homage of good men. If we keep this fact in mind
we shall be able to understand the bravery and devo
tion to duty of many of the officers and even soldiers
in the imperial forces. More or less out of reach of
the contaminating influences that were so powerful in
the capital, they performed the services expected of
them as became Romans.
Long, long afterward, and when
nally a Christian city,
Rome was nomi
a German monk left its walls
as he was returning to his northern home, a far less
zealous churchman than he had entered it.
Strange
coincidence! The city that had become the head of a
spiritual empire was no less corrupt and corrupting
than it had been as the head of a temporal empire.
More than sixteen centuries of experience, some of it
of the bitterest kind, had wrought no perceptible
change. The Christian followed in the footsteps of
the heathen.
For us who have been brought up
18
in the belief that