Be prepared for befuddlement
Submitted by A.I Watcher on March 5 2002 18:19:40
In reply to You make me eager to plunge right into Rome :) submitted by Heather on March 4 2002 20:11:34
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Another characteristic Rome shared with the U.S. was its diversity. There was an aristocracy, of course. (In fact, there were two, distinct aristocracies during mid and late republican times - both jealous of their rights and privilages. There might have beeb a third - that's up for grabs.) There were the Roman citizens of the classes. There were the capite censi - or the classless Roman citizens. There were Italian Allies. Friends and Allies of the Republic. There were slaves and freedmen. Some of them were respected and admired philosphers and orators. Some of them were typical laborers with average, not unpleasant lives. A few were doomed to manual labor in mines that would gradually kill them. (no slaves actually rowed galleys to the death, however, contrary to what one generally believes today.) Women were utterly without direct political power yet could live lives of exceptional freedom and ease compared to their Greek counterparts - unless the woman was a Patrician, which made things more difficult for her. Romans lived everywhere from the center of Rome to the heart of Athens to Alexandria, Gaul, Spain and the north of Africa. A person can gain general ideas of Roman culture at particular times in history but one could never pigeonhole the society into a particular set of beliefs or values. Petronius looked at life one way and reports events that he believes are accurate. Yet that doesn't jive with the experiences of Cato the Younger, Cicero or even Caesar - who were not all that far off from being his contempararies. The reality is probably that different groups of people simply held different values. The question is - which values predominated, if any? |
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