That was the work of the Empire; the form it took was Romanization.
This Romanization has its limits and its characteristics.

First, in respect of place.

Not only in the further east, where (as in Egypt) mankind was non-European, but even in the nearer east, where an ancient Greek civilization reigned, the effect of Romanization was inevitably small.

Closely as Greek civilization resembled Roman, easy as the transition might seem from the one to the other, Rome met here that most serious of all obstacles to union, a race whose thoughts and affections and traditions had crystallized into definite coherent form.

That has in all ages checked Imperial assimilation; it was the decisive hindrance to the Romanization of the Greek east.