Time was
precious, and thrift and economy were necessary to success. The father
was the autocrat in the household, and exercised his power with stern
rigidity.
Art was backward and came from abroad; of literature there was none,
long after Greece had passed its period of heroic poetry. The dwellings
of the citizens were low and insignificant, though as time passed on
they became more massive and important. The vast public structures of
the later kings were comparable to the task-work of the builders of the
Egyptian pyramids, and they still strike us with astonishment and
surprise.
The religion of these strong conquerors was narrow, severe, and dreary.
The early fathers worshipped native deities only. They recognized gods
everywhere--in the home, in the grove, and on the mountain. They
erected their altars on the hills; they had their Lares and Penates to
watch over their hearthstones, and their Vestal Virgins kept
everlasting vigil near the never-dying fires in the temples. With the
art of Greece that made itself felt through Etruria, came also the
influence of the Grecian mythology, and Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva
found a shrine on the top of the Capitoline, where the first statue of
a deity was erected. The mysterious Sibylline Books are also a mark of
the Grecian influence, coming from Cum?, a colony of Magna Gr?cia.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96