"Just as the Greeks in their beginnings benefited from multiple relations with the culture of earlier civilizations, which flourished in the eastern Mediterranean basin, from which both directly and indirectly they drew elements of all kinds [...] so the The Romans, coming later, were able to carry out a further phase of history, namely, not to submit, but to succeed the Greeks, bringing before them in their turn that flood of universal culture that moved from the East to the West. They were not wrong, but indisputable in merit of accepting Hellenism of assimilating it, while reacting – as no other ancient people knew how to do – by means of their own virtues and aptitudes, so as to insert a new flowering on the old trunk. (p. 8)"