Rome / the Roman empire

the other has been the influence, direct and indirect, of the Roman Empire, drawing with it an activity in legislation unknown to the parts of the world which were never subjected to it.

The evidence has been found on all sides of us, dimly seen and verifiable with difficulty in countries which have undergone the enormous pressure of the Roman Empire, or which have been strongly affected by its indirect influence, but perfectly plain and unmistakeable in the parts of the world, peopled by the Aryan race, where the Empire has made itself felt very slightly or not at all.

I think I may lay down that, wherever we have any knowledge of a body of Aryan custom, either anterior to or but slightly affected by the Roman Empire, it will be found to exhibit some strong points of resemblance to the institutions which are the basis of the Brehon law.

Let us obtain from her this one thing by public vows and prayers—if she has not yet resolved to make an end of the human race, if she still looks with favour upon the Roman name:

Yet I cannot, now that I have gone round all the Caesars from whom Fortune snatched away brothers and sisters, pass over this one, who must be set apart from the whole company of the Caesars—him whom Nature brought forth for the destruction and reproach of the human race, by whom the empire was scorched and utterly overthrown, and which now the clemency of the gentlest of princes restores.