Elegantiarum Linguae Latinae Libri Sex

[...the] food of the mind? For it instructed those races and all peoples in all the arts that are called liberal; it taught the best laws; it paved the way to all wisdom; and finally, it ensured that they could no longer be barbarians for long. Wherefore, what impartial judge of affairs would not prefer those who cultivated the sacred arts of letters to those who were famous for waging horrible wars? For you would most justly call the latter royal men, but the former divine; by them was not only the republic increased and the majesty of the Roman people aggrandized (as is done by men), but also—as if by the gods—the salvation of the entire world. This is all the more true because those who were accepting our rule supposed that they were losing their own, and—what is more bitter—that they were being despoiled of their liberty; and perhaps they were not wrong. But they understood that from the Latin language, their own was not diminished, but in a certain way refined; just as wine, discovered later, did not cast out the use of water, nor did silk cast out wool and linen, nor did gold displace other metals from their place, but added an accession to the remaining goods. And just as a gem enclosed in a golden ring is not deprived of ornament, but rather adorned, so our language, when added to the vernacular speech of others, conferred splendor upon it, but did not remove it. For it did not attain dominion by arms, or bloodshed, or wars, but by benefits, love, and concord. The seedbed of this matter (so far as one may conjecture) was, if I may so speak, the following: first, because our ancestors themselves were incredibly diligent in cultivating every kind of study, so that not even in military matters did anyone seem to be outstanding unless he was also distinguished in letters, which was no small incitement to emulation for the rest; secondly, because they proposed truly outstanding rewards for the professors of letters themselves; finally, because they encouraged all the provinces to become accustomed to speaking Roman, both at Rome and in the provinces. And (not to speak at greater length) regarding the comparison of the empire and the Roman language, this is enough to have said. The former the races and nations have long since cast off as an unwelcome burden; the latter they have deemed sweeter than any nectar, more splendid than any silk, and more precious than any gold or gem, and they have kept it among themselves like some god sent down from heaven. Great, therefore, is the sacrament of the Latin language; it is truly a great divinity, which is kept holy and religiously among foreigners, among barbarians, and among enemies for so many centuries, so that we Romans have not so much to grieve as to rejoice, and to boast even while the whole world listens. We have lost Rome, we have lost the kingdom, we have lost the dominion, although not through our own fault but that of the times; nevertheless, through this more splendid...