In the first place, while villagers beginning to conquer a forest may be feeble and isolated, and liable to rapid change of domination and of culture relations, the process of closer settlement brings them into relation with one another, at any rate over small areas, and gives language a much greater hold on a larger number of people. In the second place, closer settlement generally implies the evolution of markets, substituted in some cases for the seasonal fairs that were sufficient in times of smaller needs and sparser population. And the market with its settled population of tradesfolk and lawyers makes a language centre. With this goes also some development of communications, or at least of their use, and the possibility of the rise of language beyond mere localism. The crusaders, pilgrims, students, and minstrels of the Middle Ages need to be in the student's mind in this connexion. In the third place, the development of the art of writing and its increased use are great factors of language fixation, and associated with this is the development of a settled legal system. We should have these points in mind in trying to understand the evolution of the modern distribution of the languages belonging to the three great families, an evolution which has occurred to a large extent since the fall of the Roman Empire. {21} 3 _The Peoples of Romance Speech_ Rome may be said to have gathered up the heritages of antiquity and to have passed them on to that part of Europe which the Empire administered, profoundly influencing for a time at least the intimate life, and therefore the language, of the people in all parts in which it found people not as yet accustomed to writing. In the Aegean, Greek was old established, and intercourse had developed a unified language out of the variants and dialects of earlier times; hence Latin did not impose itself, and a modified Greek has persisted down to modern times, with the serious limitation that the written language is very different from the conversational one, and that therefore the vitality of literature is much reduced, and the life of the people held back thereby. It has often been noticed that whereas Latin spread far and wide from Rome to Portugal, the Rhine and Rumania, Greek did not spread, or at least did not maintain the majority of its temporary spreads, from the Aegean.