Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of the Students and Teachers, of the Sciences Related to Medicine, During the Middle Ages (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Old-Time Makers of Medicine: The Story of the Students and Teachers, of the Sciences Related to Medicine, During the Middle Ages

Just as soon as Rome was cut ofi from intimate relations with the provinces by the inwandering of barbarians, intellectual decadence began. The im perial city itself had never been the source of great intellectual achievement, and the men whom we think of as important contributors to Rome's literature and philosophy were usually not born within the confines of the city. It is surprising to take a list of the names of the Latin writers whom we are ao customed to set down Simply as Romans and note their birthplaces. Rome herself gave birth to but a very small percentage of them. Virgil was born at Mantua, Cicero at Arpinum, Horace out on the Sabine farm, the Plinys out of the city, Terence in Africa, Persius up in Central Italy somewhere, Livy at Padua, Martial, Quintilian, the Senecas, and Lucan in Spain. When the government of the city ceased to be such as assured opportunity for those from outside who wanted to make their way, deca dence came to Roman literature. Large cities have never in history been the fruitful mothers of men who did great things. Genius, and even talent, has always been born out of the cities in which it did its work. It is easy to understand, then, the deca dence of the intellectual life that took place as the Empire degenerated.

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