In a certain sense we may include under this head their becoming acquainted with foreign languages, particularly the Greek.

To this latter language, of course, the Latins generally were strangers, as was shown by their enactment in respect to the Sibylline oracles;( 7) but an acquaintance with it must have been not at all uncommon in the case of merchants.
The same may be affirmed of the knowledge of reading and writing, closely connected as it was with the knowledge of Greek.( 8) The culture of the ancient world, however, was not based either on the knowledge of foreign languages or on elementary technical accomplishments.

An influence more important than any thus imparted was exercised over the development of Latium by the elements of the fine arts, which were already in very early times received from the Hellenes.

For it was the Hellenes alone, and not the Phoenicians or the Etruscans, that in this respect exercised an influence on the Italians.

We nowhere find among the latter any stimulus of the fine arts which can be referred to Carthage or Caere, and the Phoenician and Etruscan forms of civilization may be in general perhaps classed with those that are hybrid, and for that reason not further productive.( 9) But the influence of Greece did not fail to bear fruit.