> in some parts of the empire, however, the old roman traditions were preserved. in italy, gaul, illyria, and spain, the old idea of the family was still put into practice. the ladies even did their hair in the old-fashioned way, long discarded by those who lived in the city. the sons of these women went to rome, succeeded to high office, and controlled the empire. they entered the senate and restored some of its old authority. from this provincial stock came trajan, hadrian, and the antonines. > it is often supposed that in the second century the roman empire was at its strongest. these provincials were the men who gave it strength, conditions in the provinces being such as to produce social energy. then in their turn the provincials reversed the habits of their fathers by extending their sexual opportunity. paederasty also was not unknown. the lack of energy displayed by their sons and grandsons is apparent in the records of the third century. > yet once more there emerged a group of men who had spent their early years in an atmosphere of compulsory continence. i mean the christians. they had survived many violent persecutions ; eventually they dominated the empire, which in the fourth century recovered the strength it had shown in the second century. the edict of milan may have been a political move, but constantine was right in thinking that the christians were the men on whom he should rely. then the christians in their turn changed their habits. in the matter of post-nuptial regulations they compromised with the civil authorities; they also encouraged, even commanded, their finest women to be sterile. then the teutons overran the western empire. these teutons possessed, in regard to sexual regulations, the same absolutely monogamous ideas that the sumerians, babylonians, athenians, and romans had once possessed, and later discarded.
Lithuania