The Franco-German Frontier

Extract

Only a few years ago Professor Carcopino of the Sorbonne published a book entitled Ce que Rome et l'Empire remain doit à la Gaule. For the classical scholar brought up under the Victorian régime this was turning the tables with a vengeance: from time immemorial, people, and classical historians in particular, had looked to Rome and Greece as the origin of all that was worth mentioning in the inheritance of western European culture from the ancient world. And now a famous scholar, and a classical one at that, unexpectedly wrote a book on what Rome owed to Gaul, and put up such a very good case for Gallic civilization that it is no longer possible to ignore it. Since then further researches have shown that the Gallic contribution to Gallo-Roman culture and through it to our heritage down the ages was considerable. While it is still too early to give a reasoned and detailed account of this Gallic contribution, we can at any rate state that Professor Carcopino's book and the work of other historians both before and after him have forced us to reorientate our ideas about the early influences which combined to form what we call modern western European culture. To-day we hear all kinds of fancy theories put forward to suit the national consciousness of various peoples, which all attempt to show that one or the other people has contributed most to the building up of our modern world. I do not think it will ever be possible to divide up and allot the various component parts of our culture to the different formative elements; but it is true that there are certain historical facts which will not admit of negation and simply cannot be ignored, however much this or that national consciousness might like to ignore them.