The Effect of the Race Change The change of race that took place
in Rome and Italy by the 1st century (and further strengthened
in the next three centuries until the time of Constantine) is
one of the main reasons for explaining why the people of the
western part of the Roman Empire accepted the teachings of Simon
Magus and his successors so easily. When Simon Magus went to
Rome to perform his heretical practices and to submit his
teachings to them, he was going among people who were very near
in race and temperament to himself. The Rome and Italy of the
1st century were very different in racial make-up than the
Latins who were the people of the Republic. As the Cambridge
Ancient History puts it: "What of the enormous change in
intellectual outlook and spiritual atmosphere between Augustus
and Constantine? Is not the result something more eastern than
Greek or Roman in type and temper?" The answer is plain. It was
not the ancient Roman gradually changing his basic temperament.
This observable alteration of at