Rome, determined its changeful fortunes.
It bears the strongest likeness to the epic in all save its unversified form; in both are found, as fixed essentials, simplicity of plot, chronological order of events, set phrases used even in describing the restless play of emotion or the changeful fortunes of a fight or a storm, while in both the absence of digression, comment or intrusion of the narrator's person is invariably maintained.
These separate despotisms owned no common social tie, were founded on no common j us or right, but were connected in a network of conflicting interests and changeful diplomatic combinations.
