Read "The Greatest Story in the World, Period 2" by Horace G. Hutchinson online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
It never was any part of the Empire's plan to drive out the native / people from lands that it subdued. What it wanted of these people / was that they should stay where they were and follow their own / customs and provide the necessities and the luxuries of life for / their conquerors. The Romans were what we should call a very / practical nation. Roman laws, of course, had to prevail in the lands / so conquered, but otherwise it does not seem that there was much / upsetting of the national habits of the people. But the influence of / the conquerors, their way of thought, their discipline and so on, of / course worked among the conquered, and the natives of the provinces / so became Romanised, as it is called.
In order to understand and to follow the course of this greatest of / all stories we ought to try to form a picture in our minds of the / world at this time, say from A. D. 100 to 200.