GAULS AND BRITONS BECOME ROMAN. Although the Gauls had fought stubbornly against Caesar they soon became as Roman as the Italians themselves. They ceased to speak their own language and began to use Latin. They mastered Latin so thoroughly that their schools were sometimes regarded as better than the schools in Italy, and Roman youths were sent to Gaul to learn how best to speak their own language. The Britons also became very good Romans. Even the Germans frequently crossed the Rhine and enlisted in the Roman armies. When they returned to their own country they carried Roman ideas and customs with them. THE INTEREST OF AMERICANS IN ROMAN SUCCESSES. For Americans the influence the Romans exerted in Spain, Gaul, Germany, and Britain is more important than their work in the eastern Mediterranean, because from those countries came the early settlers of America. The civilization which the Romans taught the peoples of western Europe was to become a valuable part of the civilization of our forefathers. [Illustration: THE ROMAN EMPIRE AT ITS GREATEST EXTENT IN 395 A.D.] SIZE OF THE ROMAN WORLD. We may realize how large the world of the Romans was by observing on a modern map that within its limits lay modern England, France, Spain, Portugal, the southern part of Austria-Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, the Turkish Empire both in Europe and Asia, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. For a time they also ruled north of the Danube, and the Rumanians boast that they are descended from Roman colonists. The peoples in southern Russia were influenced by the Greeks and by the Romans, although the Romans did not try to bring them under their rule. No modern empire has included so many important countries. If we compare this vast territory with, the scattered colonies of the Greeks, we shall understand how useful it was that the Romans adopted much of the Greek civilization, for they could carry it to places that the Greeks never reached. [Illustration: RUINS OF THE ANCIENT GAULS AT CARNAC, IN BRITTANY, FRANCE] QUESTIONS 1. After the Romans had conquered the lands about the Mediterranean, into what other countries did they march? 2. Who once lived where the French now live? Tell how the Gauls lived. 3. How did the manner of living of the Germans differ from that of the Gauls? Were the Britons similar to the Germans or to the Gauls? 4. What names do we get from the names of the German gods? 5. Who was Julius Caesar? Why did he go among the Gauls? What was the result of his wars with the Gauls? Tell the story of Vercingetorix. 6. After the conquest of the Gauls, into what countries did Caesar go? [Illustration: A ROMAN COIN WITH THE HEAD OF JULIUS CAESAR] 7. What was the fate of the Roman army in Germany in the time of Augustus? 8. In which of these countries did the peoples become much like the Romans?