Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/51

b CHAPTER III PHASES OF PAGAN DECADENCE The fact that Christianity drew into its currents much of the intellectual strength of the fourth cen- tury may have checked any distinctive pagan progress. On the other hand, the Greek and Latin races, apart from the Christian inspiration which was about to touch them, were in a state of decadence. Evidence of this appears on every hand. For instance, it was necessary continually to recruit the Roman army with new barbarian strength. At the fall of the Western Empire (476) the army had become so completely barbarian that its revolt appears as a barbarian in- vasion. Odoakar was but the chief barbarian in the Roman army, till he chose to have no more imperial shadows in Ravenna or Rome. Further symptoms of decay may be seen in the gradual extinction of civic life in the cities, until municipal organization becomes mere apparatus for assessment, and civic honors become burdens from which there is no escape. Still more con- clusive evidence is afforded by the diminishing popu- lation of Italy and the older provinces. Very striking also is the decay of art ; and, lastly, the decadence of the Greek and Latin pagan personality appears in the decline of literary faculty and literary taste. In general this literary decline was a decline from