... strength and prosperity and was gradually permeated by the barbarians, its art and literature fell far below the standard of the great writers and artists of the golden age of Augustus. The sculpture ... rule of Rome. One great state embraced the nomad shepherds who spread their tents on the borders of Sahara, the mountaineers in the fastnesses of Wales, and the citizens of Athens, Alexandria, and ... fainéants, as the French call them. The AustrasianMayor of the Palace, Pippin of Heristal, the great-grandfather of Charlemagne, succeeded in getting, inaddition to Austrasia, both Neustria...