One to go...
Posted on 07/02/2007 12:09:07 PM PDT by NattieShea
The Kings of Rome were abolished because of the last King's immorality and tyranny. The replacing government, a Republic, balanced the powers and responsibilities between the people and the upper class. The surrounding tribes recognized the Romans' generosity: some surrendered to Rome because they would be better treated by the Romans than their existing government. As the state grew, the Romans became self-absorbed, and created enemies instead of allies. The upper class used entitlements to absorb the people's responsibilities and gained political superiority by manipulating the law and people’s elected representatives. Slave labor destroyed the peoples' need to be productive and thus the apparent need to be virtuous. They became self-indulgent, avaricious, and depraved. Augustus concentrated authority in one emperor, increasing the severity of civil wars. The people's lack of industry and unwillingness to serve in the army amplified the expenses of the Empire, depleting individual elite leaders. The Empire split into the Christian Eastern Empire and the Western Empire. Rome fell to its enemies in 476 AD
This paper analyzes how the degree of individual virtue was critical to the rise of Rome, the Republic, and the eventual collapse of the Western Empire.
The principles in this paper share common attributes:
After a description of our sources, we have a historical summary of Rome’s progression from its creation by Romulus, to the collapse of the Western Empire.
Our analysis of the thesis, which composes the body of the paper, is about how virtue was critical to Rome's rise and how its lack caused its fall. It is divided into fifteen sub-sections, which provide examples of actions prompted by adherence to individual principles or the lack thereof throughout Rome's history. After the analysis are our conclusion and references.
Below is a list of the primary and secondary sources used in this paper, in order of importance:
The Early History of Rome, by Titus Livius (Livy, 59 BC -17 AD), illustrates the time span from the time of Rome’s birth until the Gallic sack in 386 BC Livy’s text corrected many mistakes and assumptions about the transition from the monarchy to the early Republic.
Tacitus wrote The Histories about "The Year of the Four Emperors," 69 AD and The Annals of Imperial Rome, which gives a detailed description the reigns of the Emperors Augustus through Nero. His works provided a somewhat detached view of the politics in Rome and the military turmoil throughout the empire.
A collection of the sixteen Satires written by Juvenal supplied information on the state of Roman affairs during the reigns of Hadrian and Trajan. He primarily reflected upon how the Roman moral, economic, and political system was progressively failing. It supplies a view of the general conditions of Roman life, particularly of the emperor and patricians, and corruption in Imperial government.
Makers of Rome is a series of biographies by Plutarch about prominent figures of the Roman Republic. His most useful information illustrated some of the moral values during the rise of Rome and about the introduction and influence of the Greek culture upon Rome.
We read selected works of Cicero including speeches such as Against Verres and The Second Philippic Against Antony. There are also twenty-three letters and several of his other works. The speeches provide penetration into the beliefs of many of Rome’s politicians and the general conditions for Roman lawyers.
Julius Caesar intended The Gallic Wars to be a reference for future historians. Although the notes were self-aggrandizing, they were so direct and unique that the Roman historians did not improve upon them. Their content is of a military nature and does not explain political reasoning behind the campaigns. However, the notes gave useful firsthand military accounts and illustrates Caesar’s attitude towards his troops, the barbarians, and, indirectly, the patricians in Rome.
A History of the Romans, by Frank Bourne, is a modern college text. It covers the span from pre-Rome to the fall of the Empire and beyond. His work covers the economic, political, and military developments of Roman history.
Chronicle of the Roman Republic, by Philip Matyszak, is a contemporary biographical text of Rome’s Kings and key figures throughout the Republic. His book provides military, political, and individual aspects throughout the history of the Roman Kings and Republic.
Roman Homosexuality, by Craig A. Williams is a modern text based upon recent research into the Ancient Romans’ sexuality. It provided the majority of the facts about ancient homosexuality and the stages in which it escalated.
Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price wrote Roman Religions, a scholarly book on the numerous Roman religions, the impact of foreign cults, and the Christian influence.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, is an 18th century classic text covering Roman religious and moral views extensively, especially Christianity’s influence towards the Empire’s divide, and the lack of virtuous structure in Rome. We read only the abridged version as far as the fall of the Western Empire.
In 753 BC, Romulus founded a barbarian town, called it Rome, and ruled as King. It was located at the center of many trade routes into Italy, probably as a defensive measure against the surrounding Etruscan tribes. Romulus populated his city with any criminals, runaway slaves, or travelers who moved to Rome. To maintain order in the city, he wrote strict laws and enforced them severely. Romulus collected many of Rome’s citizens into specific families, and had 100 ‘Heads of Clans’ to form a Senate to advise him.[1]
The king led the army, made financial decisions, organized the army and people, and managed foreign policy. The Senators advised and elected the kings. The Kings’ ethnicity commonly alternated between Latin and Sabine. However, the last Kings were of Etruscan origin and had immigrated to Rome, bringing Etruscan customs with them. The throne became a disputed possession when the Etruscan queen, Tanaquil, illegally transferred the Kingship to Servius Tullius. Her son, Tarquin the Proud, seized the throne from Servius in 579 BC
The son of Tarquin the Proud, Sextus, raped Lucretia, the chaste wife of his friend. Lucretia committed suicide after confessing to her husband and Lucius Iunius Brutus, a former companion of Tarquin’s sons.[2] Brutus led the people in revolt and expulsion of the imperial family. In the place of the kingship, the Romans instituted the Republic, a historically Etruscan form of government. [3]
The following officials composed the Republican Senate:
The patricians raised the interest rates, enslaved the plebeians for debts, and tried to seize complete political power. As a result, the economic condition of the early Republic declined rapidly.[4] In 494 BC, plebeians left the city en masse and led the surrounding countryside in hostility towards the Senate and patricians. The Senate and the people agreed to institute the tribunes, a board of elected plebeians, having the ability to veto any law, propose legislation, and prevent the levying of the troops. In the early Republic, they frequently used the veto during times of war to force a concession from the Senate.[5]
The early Republicans retained the Kings’ law. Because it was vague, the patricians used it against the people. The plebeians demanded clear, written, laws that everybody could know and understand.[6] In 450 BC, the Senate sent three patrician representatives to Athens to study the Greek culture and bring it to Rome, and subsequently sent ten other patricians (the Decemvirs) to study Athenian law. When they returned, they spent a year codifying the Roman law. They rotated a force of twelve lictors, symbolic guards representative of their authority over the people. They all held consular authority and carefully remained available to the people. At the end of the year, they presented ten tables of completed law to the people and took suggestions and omissions. The people’s power over government forced government respect for the people. They elected other Decemvirs (some were new, at least one was reelected) to write the two tables necessary for the new laws’ completion.
Once the Decemvirs’ subsequent term had begun, they appeared in the forum, each leading their own twelve lictors. The rods borne by the lictors, fasces, were now bound around axes, thus denying anyone the right of appeal.
After a year of tyranny, the leader of the Decemvirs, Appius Claudius, attempted to publicly abduct a betrothed virgin to the custody of a client, who owned a brothel. During the dispute, the girl’s father killed her and fled to the army where he joined his daughter’s fiancé. They led the army and the people against the Decemvirs. The Decemvirs were found guilty at trial. As the condemned men were led away… Appius Claudius claimed his right of appeal! Some historians claim that the Tribunes killed Appius while they had the chance. Others recorded that the people imprisoned him and he soon committed suicide.
The patricians still manipulated the laws to gradually usurp the people’s power and expanded their powers with later laws. When they had bribed the tribunes, such as with Marcus Octavius in 133 BC, and effectively controlled all legislation, the patricians consolidated power without fear of restraint by the people.
The patricians led armies in military conquests for land, money, and increased personal power. They sold their prisoners of war as very cheap slaves. Even in the early Republic, there were large slave rebellions, which were only calmed with military force. The slave population continued to increase in number and rebelled frequently. To cover the cost of subduing the revolts, the patricians raised the provincials’ taxes.
The plebeians increasingly relied upon and expected entitlements: defense, cheap grain, roads and public works, potable water, and arena shows.[7] These entitlements spoiled the people, and they became non-productive, avaricious, and decadent. The political leaders that funded the public games were more likely to be elected to a higher office than those who had not. In 102 BC, Cornelius Sulla was not elected praetor because he did not provide rare animals for the arena. Foreign and slave production depressed prices against which small local producers could not compete. They closed their businesses and joined the dependent lower classes.
To cover the cost of the entitlements, the patricians led armies in wars of conquest for land and money. Rome’s extravagant spending repeatedly bankrupted the individual patricians who maintained the Republic, though tribute and tax revenues funded the state itself.[8]
In 88 BC, Gaius Marius persuaded a friend to propose legislation that gave Marius command of Cornelius Sulla’s army. When Sulla declared the law unconstitutional, Marius used mob tactics to force its ratification. Sulla entered his army’s camp and explained that Rome was in the mob’s control and that the only logical action was to conquer Rome and forcefully restore order, which he soon did. The conquering of Rome crippled the Republic, and proved to all of the Romans that anyone having sufficient troops could conquer Rome.[9]
Julius Caesar followed Sulla’s example almost forty years later. He declared himself perpetual dictator, though he actually prepared the Roman people for imperial control. In 44 BC, his opponents in the Senate assassinated him to "liberate" the Republic and empower themselves. The dictatorship of Caesar marked the end of the Republic and the beginning of chaos and the Empire.
After Caesar’s death, Octavian, Antony, and other top members of the Senate battled for control in the first major civil war. Octavian won the struggle in 31 BC, declared himself emperor, and changed his name to Augustus. During his reign, the Empire was at its peak, the people had cheap grain, the army had payment raises, and every one was satisfied. The following emperors concentrated imperial power for themselves. The subsequent strife for that power ultimately weakened Rome.
In 96 AD, Roman armies joined camps and rebelled for higher salaries.[10] The reigning emperor was not strong enough to counter the rebellion. Two mutinous factions declared a patrician general to be emperor. The factions were on opposite borders of Rome and did not know of the other’s actions. Upon learning of opposition, they fought each other until they were near enough to Rome for one to take control. The other then invaded the city and executed his opponent.
In the second century AD, the emperors lacked heirs, and feared the struggles for Imperial power, and adopted who they thought was most qualified to be successor. The army became undisciplined while barbarians repeatedly raided the empire’s borders and provinces revolted. Rome established cities along the border for military protection. Each city needed grain, water, semi-permanent defense, and other costly entitlements. The armies became attached to their posts and difficult to transfer.
As the Empire aged, the plebeian classes grew increasingly reluctant to serve in the military. The plebeians, spoiled by entitlements, did not want to work twenty years of constant military service and hated the legions.[i] [11] The army hired auxiliary troops from the provinces and client kingdoms. The foreign troops’ only ambitions in joining were promotion and citizenship, which qualified them for political office. When the Romans consistently gave the auxiliary troops the worst fighting, most of their native tribes revolted. The rebellions concentrated the Roman armies, leaving other areas even more vulnerable to attack.
Christianity became a prominent religion because it spread and thrived among the poor and Orientals due to the Christians’ charity and the tolerance of the cultures around them. The Christians repeatedly defied imperial orders and pagan customs.[12] The danger of prosecution for their defiance brought the widespread Christian church closer together and made it more highly organized. The internal strife between religions eventually impaired the unity of the Empire as a whole.
Barbarian attacks from without and civil wars from within were destroying local agricultural production. Rome became dependant upon its provinces for the majority of its food. The emperors began to lack money, because they were spending all of it on the people, armies, and themselves. They regularly held extravagant feasts, built large and expensive palaces, lived in luxury, traveled to far away parts of the Empire, and gave money to their favorites.
In 285 AD, the emperor Diocletian divided the Empire between himself, another emperor, and two princes to better represent, religiously supervise, and control each part of the empire.[13] When Diocletian retired, the strife between the four successors narrowed imperial control back to one emperor.
Christianity continued to ascend in importance.[14] The religious nature of the Empire increased and finally split Rome into two pieces: the more Christian Eastern Empire, and the Roman Western Empire.
The Western emperors did not discipline their armies or boost morale, consequently requiring higher salaries and thus increasing the imperial expense. Enemy forces began to attack the Western Empire repeatedly in 410 AD The armies could not withstand the constant attacks, and Rome finally collapsed around 476 AD
After the people of early Rome had expelled their Kings, the plebeians did not organize to act collectively, had few leaders to create and enforce laws, and lacked the money to fund military protection and public works. The leading patrician class needed workers to build, defend, and produce. Together, the patricians and the plebeians established a government of patricians with police power over individuals, limited by the plebeians’ collective actions.
In the early Republic, most tribes viewed Rome as a threat to their existence, but any immigrant was welcomed and included into Roman society. The generosity of the Roman people often induced defeated soldiers to flee to Rome and remain there through love for the people. Upon occasion, nations attacked by Rome would surrender, knowing that they would be welcome in Rome and possibly better off than as they were. When the Romans began to view themselves as superior above all others, they created enemies more often than they created allies.
The patricians used government’s power, by manipulating the law and the people’s intentional ignorance, to absorb the plebeians’ responsibility to provide for themselves. They used the army and slaves to create inexpensive goods against which small businesses could not compete. That destroyed the need to be productive, and thus the need to be virtuous. The plebeians became lawless, greedy, and lazy, and did not feel the same need to protect their country.
The patricians taxed the plebeians to fund the welfare state, but trapped them economically with high-interest loans. The people thus relinquished their political power to the patricians, who ruined themselves trying to provide for the insatiable demands of the plebeians, maintain an expanding infrastructure, and fund military action, whether civil wars, defense, conquests, or quelling rebellions.
A society needs enforced common laws to serve as standards to facilitate constructive agreements and discriminate against the corrupt. Individual virtue is critical to personal liberty because virtuous people need fewer, simpler laws and require minimal police power to maintain order. Honesty, industry, and responsibility under law are necessary to productive commerce by which to build wealth in society. Responsible individuals keep agreements and own total outcomes not in their agreements, thus minimizing expensive enforcement and wasteful disputes.
The following sub-sections analyze the thesis and provide examples of actions prompted by individual moral virtue or the lack thereof. Any bolded and underlined endnote reference-numbers link to notes or quotes.
After the Analysis are the Conclusion and References.
The patricians retained their superior status when the kings were repulsed.[15] Most patricians shunned the lower castes and mocked them. In the early Republic, they repeatedly attempted to control the plebeians, though they only succeeded by concealed illegal actions. The people eventually elected political officials based only upon their family legacy and hereditary authority. Ancient historians rarely mentioned patricians’ social elitism in the empire, limiting the examples and information available.
One member of the Brutus family led the creation of the Republic and another later assisted the assassination of Julius Caesar. [16] The patrician Claudian family oppressed and extorted the Roman people from the beginning of the Republic to the late Empire.[17] The Valerians were a major family when the early Kings ruled and continued to be powerful until around 100 BC[18]
After Iunius Brutus died in battle against the Tarquins, the remaining consul became an object of public suspicion because he had not replaced Brutus and he was building a huge costly house upon one of the strongest hills in Rome. Hearing the rumors about himself, he leveled his house, built a new one at the bottom of the hill, and had an election for another consul.[19]
When Appius Claudius the Decemvir was in power, he had mockingly described the jail as the working men’s quarters. When the Decemvirs were overthrown, Appius Claudius was thrown into the same jail. [20]
After the Republic was established, the people demanded relief from debt and the abolishment of enslavement for debt. During the famine of 491 BC, Caius Marius (Coriolanus) proposed that the patricians withhold grain from the plebeians until they denounced their rights to have tribunes. The Senators refused to starve their own countrymen.[21]
The tribunes then initiated the longstanding debate over land distribution. Many patricians had displaced plebeians on private land and many others lived on public lands and thus evaded taxes. The plebeians demanded that the Senate grant them parcels of land or that they be allowed to colonize other areas. The Senate occasionally allowed them to colonize, but the dispute over the distribution of land lasted well into the mid Republic.
In 445 BC, the tribunes proposed legislation that would allow marriages between classes, the plebeians to hold the consulship, and the people to elect the superior candidates regardless of class.[22] The people claimed that "so long as nobody who had conspicuous ability was despised, whatever their origin, Rome’s power grew." The Senate countered: "The religious distinctions and rights of the different classes would be muddled, that patrician blood would be contaminated, that the consulship would be sullied by having the low-born for its components, and that the people would confiscate the patricians’ political power completely."[23] The patricians and plebeians eventually agreed that, with the Senate’s consent, the people would elect military tribunes. The new tribunes were usually five in number, of any class, and replaced the consuls.
The patricians believed the plebeians were inferior because of their lower caste and therefore did not qualify for the same political offices. The plebeians may have made better financial officers than the patricians because they were accustomed to operating as though there were a limit to the treasury. However, they could also be prejudicially superfluous to benefit the plebeians.
In 119 BC, when Gaius Marius was tribune, the patricians looked down on him and his relationship with the Senate was always reserved. He stated that he came from humble origins, which gained him popularity with the people, but not with the patricians. He gained status when he became consul, but the Senate still disliked him.[24]
In the early Empire, patricians often invited plebeian clients to dinner parties, only to have nasty servants serve them very little, poor-quality food. At the same time, they and their close friends reclined together at the head of the table, each eating several platters of the finest delicacies bought at the highest prices, served by ‘beautiful slaves’ used for homosexual purposes afterwards.[25]
The patricians who most hated he plebeians as an inferior race, were in turn the most distrusted by the plebeians. The cultural divide provided an excuse for political debates that often were abandoned by, or proved too lethal to, their supporters. Each political party operated to benefit the individuals of each. When Rome’s enemies prepared to exploit Rome’s division, individuals of both parties led compromises between the factions to preserve the nation’s existence. As the Romans increasingly operated to most benefit themselves at the present, the number of such altruistic political go-betweens decreased exponentially.
In the Early Republic, the Romans thought of themselves as a country helping others, and gave foreigners citizenship. They gradually became self-centered, believing themselves flawless and able do anything they liked without consequence. They ceased to allow foreigners citizenship, and instead socially shunned them. The Romans’ opinion of themselves justified their mistreatment other peoples, causing other countries to despise them and their dominion.
Romulus, the founder of Rome, absorbed conquered peoples and used them to enlarge Rome’s population and establish Rome as a military power among the other tribes. Most of the conquered tribes were fully incorporated into the Roman military, society, and public duties.[26] Later Kings usually sacked a conquered city and either sold its inhabitants into slavery or allowed their troops to take them for slaves and hostages. The city leaders were executed and their possessions seized as booty.
In the early Republic, the Romans did not disdain to integrate immigrants into their society. When the Romans defeated the Sabines, the tribes people conflicted among themselves. One of their citizens, Appius Claudius, fled to Rome and received citizenship and land from the State. The Claudian clan was later noted for its greed and dishonesty.[27]
The Roman people of the mid Republic refused to share their rights and political abilities with other tribes. Most notable was their refusal to give land to a roaming Gallic tribe from over the Alps. The Gauls attacked several Etruscan towns and cities in their quest for land and wealth. Rome insulted them when they requested aid and refused them justice when one of Rome’s envoys killed the Gallic leader. That same tribe soon sacked Rome.[28]
The Romans raped their enemies during and after battle, causing the other nations to rebel:
The British Queen Boudicca encouraged her army declaring that the Romans were "sleeping with lads, and out-grown lads at that" and that they served an emperor (Nero) who was "a lyre player, and a bad one at that."[30]
Rome’s enemies were so angered at the Romans’ despise of their and other’s countries that they tried to attack Rome as soon as there were signs of weakness in the army or society. The Huns tried, and the only reason for their failure was their leaders’ death. However, when all of the countries around Rome attacked, it weakened and fell.
The patricians acted as creditors to each other and the people. In the early Republic, when they tried to force high interest rates upon the plebeians, the plebeians retaliated. After the political situation calmed, they gradually raised the rates again. The patricians were more patient and forgiving of each other’s debt, but did not allow the plebeians to pay their debts over the time limits. The common penalty for unpaid debt was enslavement of the debtor. The patricians in power occasionally instituted legislation that relieved some of the debt of the plebeians, but also did not put them out of favor with the Senate.
In the early Republic, when the patricians raised the interest rates and enslaved the plebeians for debt, the plebeians and their tribunes retaliated by refusing or vetoing enlistment when a foreign army threatened Rome.[31] The patricians contemplated installing a dictator to control the plebeians by force.[32] Rome had neglected to grow food during those times, and the Romans were endangered by a large famine. Some of the Senators proposed that they sell grain at a huge price, or not sell it at all, and starve the Roman plebeians into resigning their rights and abandoning the tribunician office.[33]
The patricians allowed each other time to earn money to pay the debts.[34] Many candidates, who had to spend money upon public shows for their popularity, were financially ruined before they could pay the expenses of the elections. Caesar’s campaign for consul left him massive debts that provoked him to ravage Spain for five years. He developed a habit of pillaging towns after they had surrendered, not endearing him to his enemies. The spoils paid off his debts and bought the loyalty of his army.[35]
The Emperor Hadrian, to improve the Roman economy and show concern for the Roman poor, cancelled all of the debts to the treasury, and had all of the records burnt. Because of the threat of the patricians’ disfavor, he also made it impossible for a Senator to be removed unless it was by the Senate itself. [36]
The patricians raised the interest rates and enslaved their debtors to gain money and free labor. The plebeian debtors did not need to be paid and already had land and houses, so they did not need to be housed, minimizing the cost of maintenance for the creditors. The plebeians retaliated because of abuse while working for the patricians. The tribunate, representatives for the people, was created, and slavery for debt was banned. The patricians still had high interest rates, the worst were well above 8 percent.
In the Early and Mid Republic, the plebeians and patricians together punished conspirators when they uncovered plots to gain power. The patricians feared the plebeians’ retaliation over seizures of power. Then the patricians slowly gained control over the peoples’ representatives to gain political power over all legislation, and candidates used rumors to gain votes for political office.
While Tarquin the Proud had ruled the throne, the princes’ patrician friends had enjoyed access to anything they wanted. Several envoys from Tarquin demanded the return of his property. As the Senate debated their claim, they then looked for young nobles to aid them from within Rome. They conspired to open Rome’s gates at a set time for Tarquin’s army.[37] A slave overheard the conspirators, and revealed the plot to the consuls. The Senate refused the envoys the return of Tarquin’s property. The traitors were whipped and beheaded, including Brutus’ only sons. Tarquins’ property was divided among the plebeians, and the slave was liberated, well paid, and given citizenship.
After Brutus, a consul, died in battle, the remaining consul delayed replacing Brutus. He became an object of public suspicion because he held sole consular power and was building a palatial house upon one of the most fortified hills in Rome. Hearing the rumors about himself, he promptly leveled his house, built a new one at the bottom of the hill, and held an election for the vacant consulship.[38]
In 480 BC, the Senate recognized that they needed to have the support of the tribunes to recruit troops and defend Rome. To do so, the Senators and consuls began to build friendships and loyalties with the tribunes and ask them to act ‘patriotically’ regarding the recruitment.[39] They gained the support of four of the five tribunes and successfully proceeded with recruitment.
In 133 BC, the tribune, Tiberius Gracchus, proposed legislation to reform land distribution in favor of the plebeians. A fellow tribune, Marcus Octavius, an ally of the patricians, vetoed almost every law Tiberius proposed. In retaliation, Tiberius vetoed every piece of official business in Rome and declared that either Octavius would remove his veto or the plebeians would remove Octavius from office. When Octavius persisted, the plebeians duly voted him from office, at the fierce resistance of the patricians. In retaliation, the Senate restricted the funding issued for Tiberius’ measures. When he ran for re-election, the Senate assassinated him and killed three hundred of his supporters during a planned riot.[40]
Gaius Marius began his political career as a plebeian opponent of the Senate in 123 BC, but changed when he became a patrician. As an officer under Metellus Numidicius, his opponent for consul, Gaius Marius spread rumors that Metellus was prolonging the campaign for his own profit. In Rome, the rumors developed into the popular opinion that only Marius could end the war. Metellus let Marius return to Rome with only 12 days until the consular election. Marius had planned his support very carefully and a triumphant majority elected him.[41]
Clodius Pulcher joined his brother-in-law’s military campaign in 70 BC in anticipation of promotion and booty. When the campaign proved unsatisfactory, he stirred his fellow troops to mutiny. The Senate replaced his brother-in-law with Pompey as commander.[42]
When the emperor Tiberius was rising to power, his opponent, Germanicus, suddenly ‘fell ill’, and died a few weeks later. Some suspect that he was poisoned, which is supported by the fact that a suspected poisoner who traveled with him was a friend of Tiberius.[43]
The patricians kept testing the plebeians to see how much political power they could take. After they made the plebeians lazy and uninterested in politics, they seized power completely, even if they pretended to give power to the plebeians.
During the early Roman monarchy, the King wrote and enforced the laws. When the Romans established the Republic, they retained the Kings’ vague legal framework, allowing the patricians opportunities to use it against the plebeians. When the people instituted the Twelve Tables, a strict set of laws, politicians (both patrician and plebeian) twisted the new laws to accomplish their motives. When Augustus created the Empire, the legal conditions of the Kingship returned with redoubled force.[44]
The following subsections list the purposes of the patricians (and some plebeians) who manipulated the law. After each item, a set of examples illustrates how the perpetrator achieved their aforesaid objective.
Table VIII of the Twelve Tables prohibited assembly after dark.[45] The plebeians commonly worked all day, after dark was the only practical time that they could convene as a political force. Otherwise, they could only assemble in the Forum, on election days, or when the tribunes assembled them to clarify their understanding of the people’s wishes.
Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune, used public and private speeches to gain Senatorial support of his controversial legislation. Leading patricians manipulated their tribunician ally, Octavius, against Tiberius. Octavius vetoed all of Tiberius’ land legislation, even when Tiberius threatened to remove him from office. He ignored Tiberius’ warning, and the plebeians duly removed him from office. In retaliation, the Senate refused to fund Tiberius’ program. The citizens and Senatorial mobs killed Tiberius and 300 of his supporters. Many others were executed for "revolutionary" political ideals, some denied the right of appeal.[46]
Licinius Lucullus attempted to prevent Gaius Marius from becoming consul by retaining him as long as possible outside of Rome, because candidates had to be present within Rome to qualify, unless the Senate granted them candidacy in absentia (outside Rome’s city limits).[47] Though he released Marius from service in Africa only twelve days before the elections, the people elected Marius consul.
Clodius Pulcher was an extremely wealthy patrician. His political abilities were limited to offices held by the patricians, but he wanted to hold the tribunate, which was an office for the plebeians only. The first Triumvirate was formed as a mutual agreement between the consuls (Caesar and Crassus) and Pompey. With their help, a plebeian family adopted Pulcher, who became a people’s tribune.[48] He maintained his political power through large bands of armed supporters.
In the late Republic, Sulla declared that the tribunes had to have the approval of the Senate to pass their legislation, then he restricted the use of the veto, and declared the tribunes ineligible for any other office.[49] He practically gave the Senators tribunician powers as well as their own. After Sulla died, Crassus and Pompey repealed the restrictions on the tribunes.
After Caesar’s death, Mark Antony used Caesar’s will, which was in his control, to politically manipulate the people. "As Caesar’s [legal] executer, Antony began to govern on the basis of laws allegedly detailed in the papers that Caesar had left. On the same basis he appointed people to key positions."
In 43 BC, Mark Antony campaigned against the consuls Hirtius and Pansa. Both died such that historians speculate that Octavian planned their deaths to vacate the consulship. He became consul upon his return to Rome. The second Triumvirate was an alliance of three patricians with consular powers each holding five-year terms. It formally ended the Republic.[50]
The Emperor Claudius wanted to remarry after his adulterous wife, Messalina, committed suicide. His ex-slaves argued over who could choose his next wife; for though Claudius did not care whom he married, women had the greatest possible influence over him. Eventually, he married his niece, Agrippina.[51] The Empress Agrippina and her ally, Lucius Vitellius, manipulated the Emperor Claudius to eliminate Silanus, a competitor to Agippina’s son for the hand of Claudius’ daughter and thus the throne, from the Senate and exile him and his sister from Rome.[52]
After a crushing defeat by a Spanish tribe, a Roman general, Galba, proposed to the victorious tribe that they make a peace treaty. In return for the safe release of himself and his army, Galba promised to lead the tribes to fertile lands. When they accepted, he divided, disarmed, and killed them all.[53]
Rome made a treaty with Hasdrubal, a Carthaginian prince, that neither army would cross the river Ebro, thereby granting the Carthaginians a "free hand" to the South. The Romans were allies of the town Saguntum, under Carthaginian authority, but it is unclear whether they created their alliance before or after their agreement with Hasdrubal. When Hannibal, Hasdrubal’s brother, attacked Saguntum, many Romans immediately declared that Saguntum was North of the Ebro. The military dispute triggered the Second Punic War.[54]
The Roman Senators were monopolizing the grain markets by owning the overseas shipping companies. The consul Gaius Flaminius legislatively restricted Senators such that they could own only two moderate-sized merchant ships. The people agreed with him, and the Senators, who had already disliked them, then loathed him.[55]
As tribune, Clodius Pulcher exiled Cicero and dedicated his land to the goddess Libertas to prevent him from coming back and claiming his land. After Pulcher’s death, Pompey recalled Cicero, who claimed that his land had been illegally confiscated. The Senate agreed, declared the dedication invalid, and returned it to him.[56]
Outlying farms around Rome did not produce enough goods to support the city’s population. Local farmers could not pay taxes with their goods or profit from their products in competition with the patricians’ supply of foreign goods. Without manifest competition, the patricians virtually controlled the price of food. The local farmers abandoned their farms and moved. The patricians slowly accumulated the wasted land for themselves and kept the plebeians dependent upon the government.
The patricians manipulated the law for their own profit or political gain. In the Empire, the Emperor was the law, and the emperor's allies could vilify their political enemies to the emperor. The Emperors often ignored the patricians’ lawlessness, and instead focused their ire on the plebeian taxpayers.
The patricians manipulated elections in favor of political manikins. They used underhanded means, such as the control of who qualified for and obtained candidacy, and which tribes could vote. Initially, the people thwarted them by retaliating against any impropriety; but by the time of the Empire, elections were just an empty formality.
Control of the people’s officials gave patricians the power to act as they pleased without fear of legal retribution. The patricians bought the favor of political candidates and impressed voters with a wealthy and "noble" heritage. The Senate controlled candidacy and used their power to manipulate the voters’ regard of the parties. For each election, seventeen of the thirty-five voting tribes were chosen by lot, and only those tribes could vote.[57]
In the election of military tribunes, the Senate included several loathsome plebeian candidates to induce the voters to abhor them in general. In the next election, they included multiple extremely qualified patricians to over-whelm the plebeian candidates.[58] Both elections favored the patricians.
When legal options failed, patricians provoked mobs of their supporters to attack their opponents. Appuleius Saturninus was a tribune, not long after the Gracchan brothers. His measures to benefit the people made him unpopular with the Senate. Both the aristocracy and plebeians disliked many of his later laws. In 99 BC, when he campaigned for re-election, the patricians hired mobs that pursued and eventually stoned him to death.[59]
Only wealthy candidates could afford to run for office. The people expected the candidates to fund massive public shows, give public speeches, and make expensive offerings to the gods.[60] Many candidates went bankrupt before they could pay all the expenses of the elections and office. Once the candidates had paid their way into office, the officials then had to be able to afford political expenses. Caesar’s campaign for consul left him massive debts that induced him to ravage Gaul for five years.[61]
Augustus attempted to institute a balanced government with the people and patricians shared power. The people refused to accept the responsibilities that would make it possible for the government to exist, and the popular elections became a formality.[62]
The only elections in the empire were for candidates chosen by the Emperor, and the people had to vote for the Emperor’s favored candidate, often a prince. The Emperors retained the consular elections because they chose the governors from ex-consuls, then they would have experience and have proved themselves.
The elections were manipulated throughout Roman history for political gain. The plebeians at first could control the patricians’ manipulation, but became careless about their candidates, and let the patricians do what they liked. The people did not care who their leaders were because the outcome was pre-determined by the patricians and Emperor.
The patricians used the Roman media, primarily the Forum, to distribute propaganda about political persons. The people were ignorant and unable to find the truth, thus political proclamations and hearsay were their only sources of information. Most candidates used bribes, rumors, and speeches to gain the public’s favor and undermine an enemy’s position.
In 180 BC, Gaius Marius claimed that he was of ‘humble’ origins to gain the support of the plebeians; some historians believe he was of a local equestrian family. Marius needed to be of patrician status to qualify for office above the rank of tribune. By gradually increasing his wealth and military status, he slowly rose in society until he received command of Rome’s armies. He exploited foreign threats of war and used military force to become consul a total of seven times, more than any other Roman.[63]
Publius Clodius Pulcher, brother-in-law of his commander, Lucullus, was disappointed in the lack of booty and stirred Lucullus’ army to rebellion. He claimed that Lucullus was "prolonging the war for his own enrichment and glory." In Rome, the rumors prompted the Senate to replace Lucullus with Pompey.[64]
The people enhanced and encouraged rumors whenever the patricians tried to suppress their progress or had the Guard punish gossips. Crassus Dives tried to silence rumors about the slave rebellion of Spartacus.[65] The band of seventy thousand armed men had repeatedly defeated Roman armies, including seasoned veterans who had fought under Cassius Longinius. Crassus defeated the majority of the rebels, and Pompey captured and crucified 5000 slaves fleeing the battle.
The patricians also suppressed information from the people to enhance their acceptance of the patricians’ actions. Sextus Pompey, Pompey the Great’s youngest son, was an excellent general and defeated Octavian several times. The people of Rome supported Sextus because he called himself the "son of Poseidon" at public games, although he freebooted in the Mediterranean.[66] He had an opportunity to become master of the world, but spared his fellow Roman’s lives instead. Octavian declared him a public enemy. He killed Sextus in a Spanish campaign against the ‘old-fashioned Republicans.’[67]
When Emperor Vitellius conquered Rome, rumors spread that his opponent, Vespasian, and his army were marching on Rome. The efforts of Vitellius’ soldiers to quiet the gossips only encouraged the rumors’ progress.[68] Vespasian soon conquered Rome and executed Vitellius, temporarily ceasing the civil chaos.[69]
As Rome grew in size, the nature of the political information discussed by the patricians became primarily foreign. The plebeians neither could nor cared to know how the Roman officials were using their authority. The lack of communication to Rome enabled the governors to abuse their powers in relative safety.
The Romans’ gods were emulated as supreme models of virtue.[70] The Romans worshipped their first deities for very specific and personal aspects of standard Roman life, particularly farming and war. They became immortal objects by which the Romans preserved or inspired concord, victory, hope, faith, and honor. The Roman youths did engage in wild festivals for religious reasons, but the adults were devoted to their families, also for religious reasons.[71]
The Roman historian Polybius theorized that religion should be seen as a means by which the ruling elite manipulated and disciplined the plebeians. Many of his observations of the Republic were contradictory.[72]
The Roman people avoided any omission of traditional religious sacrifices, even when under attack. When the Gauls sacked Rome and besieged the Romans n the citadel, a soldier, Gaius Fabius Dorsuo, walked through the enemy lines to perform a ceremony to Jupiter annually performed by his family. The Gauls, who revered their gods and respected worshipers, allowed him safe return to the citadel.[73]
The Romans had official diviners to interpret ‘omens’ and report them to the Senate. The Romans scarcely took any action without favorable omens and did exactly what the interpreter told them. The Roman priests in power influenced the reading of ‘omens’ and interpretation of signs for the political advantage of others.[74]
In 249 BC, Publius Appius Claudius Pulcher commanded 120 ships. He left Rome to attack Drepanum, a Carthaginian island. Before entering battle, he checked the omens, which were derived from the appetites of ‘sacred’ chickens. If the chickens ate well, then the battle was supposed to be successful. If they didn’t, then the Romans were to return to the harbor. The chickens refused to eat. Pulcher had them thrown overboard, and attacked anyway. He was behind all of the other ships, and therefore did not see that the enemy had ambushed them from both sides. The Roman ships collided, destroying most of them. Only twenty-seven returned to the harbor.[75]
When they thought it necessary, the Romans took part in human sacrifice:
Human sacrifice became illegal under the Christian emperor Constantine, though later some Romans illegally sacrificed human heads to Jupiter.[77]
Most priests were patricians, giving the upper class the ability to control the people’s beliefs and views, both religious and political. In 59 BC, when Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, Caesar’s former consular partner, Bibulus, claimed that what Caesar was doing was illegal, and that he had seen ill omens every day. However, the claims were ignored.[78]
The Romans added more religions and deities as Rome’s power and dominion grew. Though the Romans continually added gods and cults to their society, they never discarded any unless the Senate banned them. In the Republic, religious festivals and games occupied a total of 77 days. In the empire, they commonly monopolized 177 days, due to the increased number of gods.[79]
The later Roman emperors had to spend more time upon the borders in the north because of the barbarian invasions, and could not focus as much attention upon the religious problems in Rome.[80] The patricians feared and persecuted any religion whose members were too numerous or closely organized. The more erotic cults in Rome only convened at night with careful secrecy, naturally tightening the groups’ organization. The Bacchanalians were hard to trace or control, and engaged in wild festivities at night.[81]
The Emperor Constantine conquered Rome and melded Christianity with aspect of paganism, becoming the first Christian Emperor. He created the papacy, which indirectly gave him religious control of the people. The conversion of the Romans marked the end of widespread prosecution of the Christians.[82]
The Romans of the early Republic had an education system similar to that of Athens. The schools were a series of institutions maintained by high-class teachers, to prepare upper-class children for political careers.[83] A large market of private tutors, schools, and apprenticeships developed:
The teachers were not eager to improve their own or their students’ skills. As a result, the quality of the Romans’ education dropped.[84] The schools created standardization rather than an educated populace.
Roman philosophers advised that young men and boys be taught separately in school to prevent forced sodomy of students. However, despite the protection, the teachers themselves often violated their pupils. [85]
The emperor Vespasian tried to gain popularity and control of the populace by instituting a free education system that targeted the entire free population of Rome. Teachers were declared exempt from all taxes.[86] Vespasian’s system taught the young freeborn generations what the Emperor wanted the populace to know. Standardization reduced the value of an individuals’ labor.[87]
The patricians’ schooling for their political careers took years because of the broad number of subjects that were necessary.[ii] [88] In Satire VII, Juvenal describes the patricians’ disinclination to pay their tutors. The government’s system was free, and thus more desirable.
The government’s efforts to create a public entity by which to give everyone an education relieved the Romans (patricians and plebeians) of their responsibility to teach their children, thus confiscating opportunities for parents to bond with their children.
Throughout the eras of the late Kings and the Republic, Roman armies took conquered people as slaves and hostages and executed their leaders.[89] The Romans enjoyed slave labor and the ratio of slaves to freeborn grew rapidly. By the mid-Empire, the Roman slave population may have equaled about one half of the inhabitants of the Roman world, which might in turn have exceeded the population of Europe in the 1800s.[90] High numbers of slaves concentrated into small areas frequently revolted from their masters’ control, requiring expensive military campaigns.
Many patricians developed slave farms and training grounds. The slaves were skilled in almost every trade and rented or sold for great profits. Crassus Dives gained much of his wealth by buying rundown properties, sending his hordes of highly trained slaves to restore them, and then leasing the properties and the slaves at a profit to himself. By 80 BC, he allegedly owned most of the buildings in Rome.[91]
Other wealthy Romans freed many of their slaves, knowing that social pressure and helplessness would force the freedmen to remain very close. Since laws governing the treatment of slaves did not protect freedmen, most freed slaves became the equivalent of servants for whom their masters were not responsible.
Repeated slave rebellions augmented the turmoil in Rome throughout the Republic. Most of the rebellions were located in the provinces surrounding Rome where large numbers of slaves worked in groups. In 196 BC, the Roman army quelled 5 rebellions throughout Rome all of which consisted of more than 4,000 slaves, and one in the great Etruscan plantations of more than 20,000 slaves.[92]
Slaves rebelled in 72 BC, lead by a gladiator and ex-auxiliary named Spartacus. He defeated five consuls in succession, all of whom led inadequate numbers of troops. Finally, Crassus Dives defeated them, and, as a warning to other slaves, he crucified 6,000 of them along the Apian Way, a Roman military road from Capua to Rome. Pompey had rushed to Rome because of the rebellion, and executed another 5,000 fleeing slaves.[93] Both of the generals who destroyed the slave rebellion increased their personal power and social standing.
Slave labor was much more available and inexpensive than that of citizens. Unemployment monopolized the job market and swelled the dependent population for which the patricians had to care.[94] Because the eligibility of citizens for the army was measured by the individuals’ wealth, fewer of the populace qualified. To cope with the lack of recruits, the Emperors each lengthened the required term of active military service and increased the salaries of the existing soldiers.
Through the Kings’ reign and the early Republic, hostile tribes surrounding Rome represented a constant military threat. As Rome successively conquered the attacking tribes, it gradually increased in size, population, and rank among its neighbors. Since the plebeians had repeatedly preserved their liberty against political advances, and legislation apparently favored them, they gradually adopted a "Couldn’t care less" attitude towards politics. The patricians used this intentional ignorance to gradually usurp the people’s power and replace the active principles of the Republic with authority for themselves.
The plebian classes increasingly expected and demanded entitlements from the patricians.[95] They soon became dependent and spoiled. Yearly, the patricians made hundreds of allotments of cheap grain to the public. The plebeians also received potable water, the rented use of public buildings, and free public games, all for a comparatively small tax.
The outlying farms did not produce enough goods to support the city’s population. Local farmers could not pay taxes with their goods or profit from their products in competition with the patricians’ supply of foreign goods. They abandoned their farms and moved. The patricians slowly accumulated the wasted land for themselves and kept the plebeians dependent upon the government.
The Senate used inactive Roman soldiers to construct expensive buildings and other public works. [97] The army grew lax in their training and preparation for barbarian attacks. The employment of the army for construction restricted the availability of local jobs to the plebeians and maintained their dependency upon the state.
During the public games, thousands of animals and gladiators fought each other for survival at the pleasure of a bloodthirsty crowd. The people ceased caring what their government did so long as it kept them happy. The number and length of the public games created judicial predicaments for Cicero during an extortion trial. A total of 47 days during the trial were set aside for various games. If he could not hurry the trial, the presiding judge would change, and Cicero would almost certainly lose his case.[98]
Sulla campaigned in Africa as Gaius Marius’ quaestor, a financial officer equivalent to treasurer. He returned to Rome in approximately 100 BC and campaigned for praetor (leader of a province, judge, general, or leader responsible for the supervision of foreigners in Rome). He relied upon the voters remembering and reward his military service. Instead, they only remembered that he had served in Africa and not shown any rare animals in the arenas. They consequently did not elect him.[99]
In 86 BC, Mithridates, King of Pontus, the southeast end of modern Turkey, attempted an attack on Aquileia, one of Rome’s major ports in Gaul. He invaded Asia and almost entered Greece.[100] If he had succeeded in conquering Greece, Mithridates would have controlled Rome’s closest naval supply of goods, particularly grain.
When Augustus became Emperor, the Roman people refused to accept political responsibilities from him and asked "their master" what he desired them to do. Augustus left his successor the suggestion that popular elections be a formality.[101]
Although the plebeians remained dependents at the mercy of the government, the patricians feared that the people would realize and use their physical force, the Roman army, against them. If the plebeians had rebelled against the patricians as they had in the Republic, the hostile barbarian tribes might have simultaneously attacked. If the plebeians did not rely upon the patricians to lead them in defense, and instead reinforced and lead their army, the patricians would have remained a hated and helpless island among their enemies. Instead, the patricians forestalled the plebeians’ demands by supplying the practical maximum of luxuries and staples for the plebeians to acquire with minimum effort and expense.
Any bolded endnote references indicate quotes or further information in the endnote.
The early Romans tried to be fair in their punishments and temperate in indulgence. With the introduction of Greek practices, the Romans became nonproductive, an added burden to the economy. The patricians spent vast sums of personal wealth on their houses and estates, beautifying and enlarging them at high costs. In the early Empire, unemployment among the plebeians resulted from the use of cheap slave labor.
"Romulus left the city of Rome, if we are to believe those who state the very greatest number, with only three gates, and no more." -Pliny[102] The early Romans made or locally obtained what they needed and did not spend their wealth upon displaying their individual superiority. As Rome’s size, worth, and security grew, the people and Kings could afford to expand and beautify the city.[103]
Romulus punished a treacherous Alban King by tearing him apart with two chariots. None of the surrounding soldiers could bear to watch. The Roman historian Livy said that that was the only occasion in Roman history when a man was executed with less regard to humanity; no other nation had ever contented themselves with milder punishments.[104]
Although most patricians routinely feasted late into the night, others remained at work. The latter were considered honorable and virtuous far beyond the revelers.
In the third century BC, the Roman general Marcellus deliberately planned and executed the Roman adoption of Grecian practices.
As Rome aged, its inhabitants, primarily the patricians, frequently competed over the honor of having the most luxurious house and extensive lands. Individual patrician families gradually gathered wealth enabling them to beautify Rome, increase their estates, and amass ornamental riches. When the Romans beautified their city, it was most often through personal donations, taxes, or decoration of their own property.
Many Romans killed, stole, or damaged the property of others to amass wealth.[108] When Sulla took control of Rome, he posted a list of over 500 people whom his soldiers were to execute for their crimes. Many of his sub-officers added the names of people who owned lands and wealth that they wanted.[109]
Arena spectacles became popular throughout the Late Republic and Empire. Although most plebeians grew fascinated and delighted to watch others die, some detested the delight in bloodshed and despised the arena spectacles.
In the mid Empire, Naevolus, friend of the historian Juvenal, listed his requirements for a modest life as having: idols, incense, silver dishes, house servants, litter bearers, an engraver, and maybe a portraitist.[111]
In 69 AD, the military emperor Vitellius temporarily controlled Rome while his enemy, Vespasian, approached and entered Rome. While a portion of the people opposed his army, the remainder watched as though it were an arena spectacle: "Whenever one side gave way, men would take refuge in some great house. Then they were dragged out and killed at the insistence of the mob… for the soldiers were bent on bloodshed and massacre, and the booty fell to the crowd." -Tacitus[112]
The Romans’ competition for the ‘greatest estate’ caused patricians to spend much of their wealth upon self aggrandizement. The potential wealth to be earned from such a market concentrated business production towards luxuries. The lack of interest in necessities slowed technological advances toward increasing productivity. This effectively destroyed wealth, and made it harder for the plebeians to procure basic comforts. Their inability to provide for themselves forced their reliance upon the patrician controlled welfare system, supplied by foreign based businesses owned by those same patricians.
Throughout the Republic, the Romans imported and adopted the Grecian culture. As the Roman patricians accumulated hereditary wealth and standing, their need to actively create additional personal wealth diminished, they inherited slave-based businesses that were managed by servants. The resulting idleness increased their need for self-indulgence. They became addicted to dominant sexuality, which quickly developed into a depraved cruelty. Throughout the Empire, the Romans’ sexual use of slaves and hostages disgusted their enemies and promoted their hatred of the Romans.
When the Romans abducted the Sabine women for their wives, Romulus personally reassured each of them with the promise that their husbands were fine men, not vagabonds, that they would love them, and their children would be freeborn citizens.
The last king of Rome, Tarquin the Proud, was a tyrant of Etruscan origin. His son, Sextus Tarquin, raped Lucretia, the chaste wife of a friend. She committed suicide after confessing to her husband and Iunius Brutus.[113] Lucretia became a symbol of chastity and goodness for women.
When Cato the Elder’s wife died, he engaged in sexual practices with a female slave. This disgusted his son and Cato promptly remarried, though he was far older than was customary. His son then asked whether he had irked his father, "to have a stepmother foisted upon him in this way."[114]
The ancient Grecian culture was over-indulgent, particularly concerning wine, expensive food, and sex, including homosexuality and pederasty. The Romans originally believed that pederasty and nudity were disgraceful and encouraged sexual decadence.[115] When the Romans adopted the public gyms and games, played nude, the Roman moral standards gradually shifted to include sexuality and homosexuality as expressions of masculinity.
The Athenians viewed men’s homosexual relationships with adolescents as standard. [116] The first recorded occurrence of Roman pederasty was in the early third century BC, when Gaius Cornelius was prosecuted for penetrating a freeborn youth. In the empire, however, the Romans were generally reluctant to condemn any homosexual practices.
Roman homosexuality differed from that of the Greeks. The Romans viewed the masculine partner as the superior and raping the passive partner. Although the Greeks sexually engaged only at mutual consent, the Romans felt sexual dominance to be a measure of status. The Romans tolerated any freeborn man’s active sexual practices unless they were over-indulgent, a sign of effeminacy.[117]
The Romans’ sexual debauchery increased the mobility of venereal diseases. With the rise of Greek influence, some Romans became doctors, though the majority of Roman doctors studied during the Empire. Hippocrates, a Greek physician born in 460 BC, wrote about moist ulcers, particularly of the mouth and genitals. In the De locis affectis, he describes a form of herpes, probably venereal.[118]
The Romans used contraceptives, spermicides, abortion, or infanticide to avoid having children. The most common methods of contraception originated in the Eastern Mediterranean.[119] Rome traded with the Persians and frequently conducted military campaigns in neighboring countries. Since the Romans imported many Oriental religions, and that their contact with the Greeks had had such a large effect, it is reasonable to infer that the Romans also imported foreign contraception.
The first record of Roman brothels dates barely after the second century, though there were pimps in Rome at the time of the Decemvirs. Prostitution became common throughout the late Republic and Empire. One brothel sold the services of two noblewomen and one youth.[120] Once a person became a prostitute, they could not legally work any other job for the rest of their life, making pregnancy a possibly life-threatening hindrance. Prostitutes probably used contraceptives because of their increased risk of becoming pregnant.
Promiscuity in Rome spread to the Roman troops, causing a lack of discipline during battle throughout the mid-to-late Republic and empire. During the mid-Republic, Scipio Aemilianus removed up to two thousand prostitutes, of both genders, per division, from his troops.[121]
Adultery was barely common among the patricians by 150 BC[122] Throughout the empire, many of the wealthy urban patricians and upper-class plebeians in Rome thought that adultery was fashionable.[123] Augustus futilely tried to ban adultery in an attempt to improve the legitimacy of children and increase the freeborn Italian population.[124]
Adultery, committed with the mutual understanding of both parties of a future marriage, backfired if the Senate refused the couple permission to marry or their families disapproved. Some adulterous couples divorced their respective spouses and then left each other for wealthier marriages.[125] Octavius Sagitta had an affair with a married woman, Pontia, and promised to marry her if they both divorced their spouses. However, once they had divorced, she delayed marriage because her father disapproved. Octavius murdered her in anger at her procrastination.
"Beautiful youths" were sold as slaves specifically for homosexual practices, particularly during the Empire.[126] The emperors sometimes had sexual relationships that were decadent even by the Romans’ standards. After the majority of his reign, the Emperor Tiberius lived on Capri reportedly "seducing young boys in his private room, the Blue Grotto, and hurling those who displeased him from a 300 meter-high cliff while boatmen below beat them with oars as they plunged into the sea."
Roman males, who wished to be penetrated, were called deviants.
[127] Any one who was publicly submissive became a social outcast. [128] Some patricians paid male prostitutes to discreetly visit, anally penetrate them, and hide the truth. One patrician paid "a miserable five thousand" for three visits.[129]
The criterion of most Roman philosophers and play-writers for sexually erotic behavior stemmed from the legitimacy of children or effeminacy.[130] Throughout the Empire, many writers compared the desirability of boys to that of women in poetry. Although books of poetry were rated for the sexuality of their content, some lauded homosexual penetration and pederasty in sections considered appropriate for everyone.
The Roman people viewed children as an inconvenience and/or a burden. Since many plebeians could not afford to raise children, the early Emperors financially rewarded them for raising more than two children. The high price of food, in spite of imperial grain, together with heavy taxes rendered it generally ineffective.
A Roman law governing stuprum (defilement, dishonor, or violation) prohibited a homosexual relationship with a freeborn. Beginning in the mid-Republic, the Romans increasingly ignored the law in preference to the satisfaction of their lust. The Romans defined passive adult freeborn homosexuals as effeminate, they regarded the victims of pederasty as mere proof of the others’ masculinity. Many political opponents charged each other with effeminacy, which occasionally condemned defendants at trial.[131] Some men engaged in homosexual weddings without severe criticism by the rest of Roman society.[132]
Myths described the gods’ sexual punishment of thieves and adulterers. The Romans used this almost as an excuse for their own actions: it made them more "divine." Although men could legally divorce or kill an adulterous wife, they usually raped the adulterer.[133]
In 69 AD, during the sack of Cremona, soldiers killed each other fighting over desirable victims.[134][135] Hostages and slaves taken by the victorious armies were forcibly penetrated in Rome and cast-off when they were no longer desirable. Later in the empire, leaders of rebellions encouraged and emboldened their troops with stories of the Romans’ decadence and weakness, and thus Roman inferiority.[136][137]
Juvenal described how the niece of Emperor Domitian "gobbled pills," brought on an abortion, and how the aborted child was "the living spit of Uncle." [138] The niece died soon after the abortion.
As venereal diseases became a widespread problem, doctors reported their occurrences more frequently and accurately as they attempted to cure them. Galen, a Roman physician, 130-201 AD, described "penile ulcers and reported anogenital excrescences," probably genital warts (human papillomavirus (HPV)). In De locis affectis he described a disease that he called gonorrhea (not the same as the modern strain) as a persistent leakage of semen with or without erection.
Soranus of Ephesus, a Greek gynecologist in the early 2nd century AD, noted that repeated abortions could cause sterility, and that there were times when women were infertile. Many modern side affects, including infection, ripping of the uterus, and heavy bleeding,[139] were probably common in ancient Rome and a possible cause of death.
The most common causes of infertility today are PID, infections due to nonsterile abortions, frequent abortions, and adhesions within the uterine cavity. All of which, due to the Romans’ promiscuity and their lack of sterile instruments and materials, were inferably more common and destructive than in the modern day.[140] The Romans likely suffered from post-operative and opportunistic infections (the latter from lack of hygienic care of open wounds due to STDs).
The Romans’ strongest antidote to sexual debauchery was a close family structure. Each time a person committed an erotic act outside of wedlock, they decided, consciously or not, that the welfare of their family was less important than their own momentary pleasure. The tendency of the subsequent generations to copy and surpass their ancestors, proved destructive to the Roman civilization as a whole.
The fundamental principle of this section is how politicians holding great power exercised their authority and how their self-governance affected the people of Rome and the army. The majority of the examples in the section occurred in the Empire because our sources principally listed what went wrong. We placed this section last as a predecessor to the Conclusion, due to the passive nature of its content.
When the Romans established the Republic, the people’s control over government demanded government respect for the people. After several defeated attempts, the patricians ceased to openly legislate against the plebeians and instead granted themselves minor powers that linked to greater authority. During the Empire, the patricians used the Emperor’s favor to gain wealth and influence.
Tarquin the Proud’s son, Sextus, treacherously aided his father to conquer Gabii. He entered under the pretence of fleeing his father to gain the townspeople’s sympathy. He then began to methodically eliminate the city’s elders and political figures. When the Tarquins fled Rome, Sextus entered Gabii as though it belonged to him. Within days of his arrival, the townspeople assassinated him.[141]
In the early Republic, the patrician creditors poorly treated the plebeians, who were often in debt. They revolted against the patricians, who contemplated installing a dictator to control the plebeians by force.[142] The plebeians had neglected to grow food, political strife was too great a threat to spare men for the fields, and they created a local famine. They plebeians were already in debt to the patricians, so they could not afford to buy any outside grain. Some patricians proposed withholding imported grain to starve the plebeians into relinquishing their rights and abandoning the tribunician office.[143]
The Senate resorted to monopolizing the people’s power by manipulating the Tribunes. In 480 BC, the consuls recognized that they needed to prevent the tribunician veto passing the legislation they needed. To do so, the Senators and consuls began to build friendships with the tribunes and asked them to act ‘patriotically.’[145] The grandson of Appius Claudius the Decemvir proposed to the Senate that they attempt to win over some of the tribunes and convince them to veto the measures of their colleagues.[146]
At the end of the year, two of Rome’s allies pleaded for the consuls to decide a land dispute that had divided their tribes for years. An old man convinced the Romans plebeians that the disputed land was rightfully Roman. The consuls were unable to convince the people and the tribunes that the man’s claim was unworthy and should be ignored, and declared the land Roman property.[147]
The Romans elected a Dictator to lead them against the Etruscans, but when the Etruscans maintained their peace, the Dictator turned his attention to political reform. He shortened the term of censorship from five years to one-and-a-half, because he did not believe in one person holding an office for so long, and then immediately laid down his office. Once he was out of office, the censors retaliated by degrading him to the lowest class, octupling his taxes, and striking his name from the register of his tribe.[148]
The emperors, who often competed in the games, stationed Praetorian Guardsmen[iii], urban police, in the crowds to observe who was present (and absent) and observe the expressions on the spectators’ faces. They also placed professional applauders in the crowd to lead cheering. However, the country people, who were not familiar with applauding, disorganized them.[149] When Nero competed in the Neronian Games in 65 AD, many of the crowd remained in the arena day and night in fear of being marked absent, some spectators collapsed and died.
Rome’s size dictated how well the central government knew the needs of the provincials. Nero ignored most of the provinces, particularly Greece and Britain. In 60-1 AD, a mishandling of the Britannic client states and the greed of moneylenders provoked a revolt. Seventy thousand Romans died before the legionaries quelled the rebellion.[150]
In 193 AD, there were three contenders for the throne: Claudius Albinus, in Britain, with three legions, Pescennius Niger in Syria, with nine legions, and Septimius Severus in Pannonia, with twelve.[iv] Septimius was the nearest to Rome and entered as emperor. He declared Albinus a temporary emperor while he defeated Niger. When Albinus attempted to seize the throne, Septimius returned and killed him in battle. His two sons inherited the throne, but the elder killed his brother and removed all public records or monuments of him.[151]
In 222-235 AD, Alexander Servius was Emperor. His personal troops assassinated him when he made peace with the Germans and installed Maximus in his place. Gordian, the governor of Africa, and his son, Gordian II, declared themselves joint emperors. The troops of Numidia killed Gordian II, provoking his father to commit suicide. They declared Decius emperor, against his will. The Goths near the lower Danube killed him and his son. Then the troops of Lower Moesia raised Trebonianus Gallus to the throne. The general Valerian challenged Gallus and his son for the throne. The armies then gave their loyalty to Valerian and killed their emperor.[152]
As abuse of power became more common within the Roman government, the definition of "fair use" expanded to tolerate freedoms originally thought extreme. Although the Roman people rarely considered their government’s behavior to be abnormal, it still disgusted and repelled the nations and tribes within and around Rome.
When necessary, the Senate issued a declaration of war, whereupon the plebeians voluntarily joined to defend Rome. As the Rome’s territory expanded, a standing army was more plausible. However, the people became increasingly debauched and careless, they did not want or care to defend Rome, the army would do that; voluntary recruitment was increasingly difficult. The army hired auxiliary troops, which lacked motivation, and would rebel in their homeland if they were consistently given the worst fighting.
When there was political trouble within Rome, many of the supreme Roman military commanders were unable to lead their own troops. [154] In 471 BC, Appius Claudius led an army against the Volscians. However, Appius vented his utter hatred of the plebeians upon his troops without restriction from the tribunes. The troops rebelled against his tyrannical discipline and punishments by retreating to camp as they organized for battle and otherwise disobeying and provoking him.[155] In contrast, his consular colleague acted as a father to his troops and was so close to them that their enemy refused to fight.[156]
Rome besieged the city of Veii for ten years. Troops from the Etruscan towns of Falerii and Capena sent large numbers of troops to aid the Veientes against the Romans. The new troops attacked the smaller of the two Roman camps around Veii and routed the Romans to their larger camp and to Rome. The commander of the small camp was too proud to call for aid from the other commander, his personal enemy, and the other commander was too self-centered to send troops unless the commander of the small camp personally asked. The Senate stripped both commanders of their office and had them fined and replaced.[157]
If the citizens could afford quality weapons and support their families, then they served in the army.[v] The people grew unconcerned about controlling their government because it gave them what they wanted. They did not see the need for an armed populace, and neither did the patricians.
In 72 BC, the gladiator Spartacus led a slave revolt against Rome. The Roman provincials were unwilling and unable to defend themselves against the rebellious slaves. After defeating several armies, Spartacus and his men retreated into the toe of Italy, where Crassus Dives finally annihilated his army and crucified 6,000 prisoners along the Via Appia.[158]
In 69 AD, the military emperor Vitellius temporarily controlled Rome while his enemy, Vespasian, steadily advanced.[159] Mobs plagued the marches of Vespasian’s army by burning their fields and destroying the military’s source of food. Once Vespasian’s army was near enough to Rome, the mob once again armed itself with fire and any farm tools, and opposed Vespasian’s advance. The remainder of the plebeians watched the scene as though it were another fight in the arena: "Whenever one side gave way, men would take refuge in some great house. Then they were dragged out and killed at the insistence of the mob… for the soldiers were bent on bloodshed and massacre, and the booty fell to the crowd." Vespasian’s troops rid the streets of all their opponents.[160]
When the Emperors lacked troops, the army levied auxiliary troops from the provinces. Most Roman armies had as many auxiliaries as legionaries. In approximately 5 AD, an Illyrian rebellion threatened Rome. Since the army lacked troops, Augustus had to recall veterans and enlist freed slaves. Barely after the revolt had been quelled, a German ambush annihilated three veteran legions under Quinctilius Varus, an indispensable general.[161]
Foreign auxiliaries’ only ambitions in joining were promotion and citizenship, which made it possible to earn money. When the Romans consistently gave the auxiliary troops the worst fighting, most of their native tribes revolted. The rebellions concentrated the Roman armies, leaving other areas open to attack. The Empire’s borders fluctuated according to Rome’s ability to repulse various barbarian attacks and quell rebellions besides enduring long conquests. Circa 120 years after the Empire divided, barbarians conquered the Western Empire in 496 AD
Social responsibilities preserved the need for individual virtue, necessary to maintaining a productive economy. If the plebeians had preserved their personal virtue and exhibited the energy and courage to exercise power over their government, the Republic would not have collapsed. The state would have grown and prospered by the liberation of other countries, not conquests. Instead, the patricians fed and cared for the plebeians virtually free of charge. The people learned to accept the patricians’ actions and traded the control of their power for entitlements, pleasures, and fewer responsibilities.
Political and economic power originates from individuals acting collectively, whether patrician or plebeian. The patricians then used dishonest means to consolidate power for themselves. Once the people were passive, they did not know how to fight for their liberty, nor did they care. The patricians subsequently used intimidation to force the people into submission. The patricians’ disregard for the laws reduced the plebeians’ respect for their government. The people’s lawlessness prompted the patricians to enlarge the police force to maintain order. The military grew in importance, their political weight increased, and their salaries were tremendously expensive because the people did not volunteer. The military threat was not strong enough to affect the plebeians’ actions. The patricians fought for complete control of a chaotic Republic and established the Empire.
After a pause in Rome’s decline, the internal greed for power and freedom increased. The strife created an economic cycle of increasing taxes, debt, war, and slavery that bankrupted the Empire. A non-productive and dependant people fed the cycle with their lust, cruelty, ignorance, dishonesty, gluttony, laziness, and greed. The people of Rome attacked reformers and Christians that confronted their decadence. Their dependency upon the patricians so spoiled them that they neglected their own defense. The patricians could not bear the entire burden of maintaining the Empire and it collapsed. Whether Rome was a Republic or Empire, neither government could endure over a morally corrupt society.
Copyright No. TXu 1-280-064 © 2006 by Natalie and Katherine Vande Pol. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be transmitted, archived, or reproduced in any manner or form without written permission, except as directed by the fair use doctrine under United States Copyright Law.
[i] Any Roman general could immediately confiscate a disobedient soldier’s property and citizenship, and/or sell him into slavery without trial or the right of appeal. (Gibbon p68) When regular quarters were unavailable, soldiers could temporarily commandeer one third of any house. The army was also prone to extortion, persecution, and bribery. It was essentially the police force of the Empire and served as political spies, exactors of late taxes, and arrestors of suspects for the emperor. Half of the plebeians’ tax money funded the army. (Bourne p470-1)
[ii] "Like Isocrates, Cicero believed orators should be educated in liberal arts subjects such as grammar, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, and astronomy. He also asserted that they should study ethics, military science, natural science, geography, history, and law. Quintilian, an influential Roman educator who lived in the 1st century AD, wrote that education should be based on the stages of individual development from childhood to adulthood."MSN History of Education
[iii] The Roman police was a force of nine cohorts, each a thousand strong, three of them patrolled urban Rome; the other six guarded the surrounding Italian municipalities. In 41, 238, and 306 AD, the Praetorian Guard elevated its own favorites to the throne. Those who relied upon them for power and authority increased their already enormous salaries.
[iv] Each Roman legion was divided into 10 cohorts and 55 companies; the whole body of legionary infantry was 6,100 men. The first cohort had 1105 soldiers and the rest had 555 soldiers. The cavalry was divided into ten troops; the first had 132 men and the others had only 66. A regiment contained 726 horses, connected with its respective legion. Thus, a legion was equal to 6,826 fighting men, including the cavalry.
[v]Any man having fewer than 11,000 lbs of copper was exempt from military service. Men with 11-25,000 lbs had slings and acted as horn-blowers, etc. Those with 25-50,000 lbs had spears and javelins. Men with 50-75,000 lbs bore spear, sword, oblong shield, and helmet. Men with 75-100,000 lbs had sword, spear, and oblong shield, wearing greaves and helmet. Men with at least 100,000 lbs, had spear, sword, and round shield, wore helmet, mail coat, and greaves; also in this sect were the engine workers. Livy History of Rome 1.42
[1] Titus Livius, (A translation by Aubrey De SJlincourt); The Early History of Rome; Penguin Books, © 1960; p40; ISBN 0-140-44809-8; Also available at www.perseus.tufts.edu.
[2] Ibid., p101-2
[3] Matyszak, Philip; Chronicle of the Roman Republic: The Rulers of Ancient Rome from Romulus to Augustus; Thames and Hudson Inc., ©2003; p34-5 ; Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2002111074; ISBN 0-500-05121-6
[4] Ibid., p54
[5] Op. cit, Livy, p160-2
[6] Op. cit, Matyszak, p61-2
[7] Bourne, Frank C.; A History of The Romans; Heath & Co., © 1966; p174; Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-11588
[8] Ibid., p327
[9] Op. cit, Matyszak, p166-7
[10] Tacitus, (A translation by Kenneth Wellesley); The Histories; Penguin Books, ©1972; p41; ISBN 0-14-044150-6; Also available at the Internet Classics Archive: Tacitus, The Histories
[11] Gibbon, Edward; The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; Penguin Classics, ©200; p67-8; ISBN 0-14-043764-9
[12] Op. cit, Bourne, p443-4
[13] Ibid., p530-2
[14] Ibid., p545-6
[15] Ibid., p52
[16] Op Cit. Matyszak, p43-45, 209-211
[17] Op. cit, Bourne,p389-92
[18] Op Cit. Matyszak, p27
[19] Op Cit. Livy 2.7-9
[20] Op Cit. Matyszak, p64
[21] Ibid., p54-5
[22] Op Cit. Livy, 287
[23] Ibid., p288-295
[24] C 149-59
[25] Juvenal Satire 5
[26] Ibid., 1.29
[27] Ibid., 2.16
[28] Ibid., p411-27
[29] Op. cit, Tacitus The Histories
[30] Op. cit, Williams, p82
[31] Op. cit, Livy p171-184 193-200
[32] Ibid., 137-144
[33] Ibid., 149-50
[34] Op Cit. Bourne, p206, 324
[35] Op Cit. Matyszak., p206
[36]Ibid., p428-9
[37] Op. cit, Livy 2.3
[38] Ibid., 2.7-9
[39] Ibid., p162
[40] Op. cit, Matyszak, p126-132
[41] Ibid., p151
[42] Ibid., 198-99
[43] Tacitus (A translation by Michael Grant); The Annals of the Roman Republic; Penguin Books, ©1971; p112-13; ISBN 0-14-044060-7; Also available at the Internet Classics Archive: Tacitus, The Annals
[44] D. Iunius Iuuenalis (Juvenal), (A translation by Peter Green); The Sixteen Satires; Penguin Books, © 2004; p32, 109, 114; ISBN 0-140-44704-0
[45] Ibid., p65
[46] Op Cit. Bourne, p219-22
[47] Op Cit. Matyszak., p151
[48] Ibid., p214-15
[49] Ibid., p170
[50] Ibid., p228
[51] Op Cit. Tacitus Annals, p252-3
[52] Ibid., p253-5
[53] Op Cit. Matyszak., p118
[54] Op Cit. Bourne, p125-7
[55] Op Cit. Matyszak., p91-2
[56] Ibid., p199
[57] Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Press; Religions of Rome; Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, © 1998; p100; ISBN 0 521 31682 0
[58] Op. cit, Livy, p355-6, 358
[59] Op Cit. Matyszak., p148
[60] Op Cit. Bourne, p206, 324
[61] Op Cit. Matyszak., p206
[62] Ibid., p343
[63] Ibid., p149-55, 158-9
[64] Ibid, p193
[65] Ibid., p177
[66] Op Cit. Bourne, p312-13
[67] Op Cit. Matyszak, p226
[68] Op Cit. Tacitus Histories, p142
[69] Op Cit. Bourne, p406-07
[70] Op. cit, Beard, p62
[71] Op. cit, Livy, p34-5
[72] Op. cit, Beard, p108, 150
[73] Op. cit, Livy, p422-3
[74] Op. cit, Beard, p117
[75] Op Cit. Matyszak, p84-5
[76] Op. cit, Beard, p80-1
[77] Ibid., p383-4
[78] Op Cit. Bourne, p283-5
[79] Op. cit, Beard, p262-3
[80] Ibid., p364
[81] Ibid., p95-6
[82] Ibid., p365-75
[84] Ibid
[85] Craig A. Williams, Roman Homosexuality; Oxford University Press, ©1999; p76; ISBN0-19-512505-3
[86] Op Cit. Bourne, p441
[87]Ibid., p441 "However, the urge to reach more and more people, no matter how insensible or unprepared they might be, made for standardization and popularization rather than for first-rate literary work."
[89]Op. cit, Livy, p126-7
[90] Op. cit, Gibbon., p49
[91] Op Cit. Matyszak, p176-177
[92] Op Cit. Bourne, p216
[93] Ibid., p275
[94]Ibid., p 215
[95] Ibid., p244-5
[96] Ibid., p226
[97] Ibid., p467
[98] Cicero (A Translation by Michael Grant); Penguin Books, ©1971; p35-6, 48-9; ISBN 0-14-044099-2; Also available at the Internet Classics Archive: Cicero
[99] Op Cit. Matyszak, p165
[100] Op. cit, Bourne p260
[101] Ibid., p343
[102] Pliny the Elder Natural History III.v.66-67
[103] Strabo 64 BC-21 AD- We may remark that the ancients [of Republican times] bestowed little attention upon the beautifying of Rome. But their successors, and especially those of our own day, have at the same time embellished the city with numerous and splendid objects. Pompey, the Divine Caesar [i.e. Julius Caesar], and Augustus, with his children, friends, wife, and sister have surpassed all others in their zeal and munificence in these decorations.
[104] Op. cit, Livy p1.29
[105] Op. cit, Livy, p1.57
[106] Plutarch, (A translation by Ian Scott-Kilvert); Makers of Rome; Penguin Books, © 1965; p107; ISBN 0-14-044158-1; Also available at the Internet Classics Archive: Plutarch
[107] Pliny the Elder (23/4-79 CE): [From Natural History XXXVI.xxiv. 101-110 (Adapted and excerpted)]
[108] Op. cit, Juvenal, Satire 11, Lines 170-175
[109] Op. cit, Matyszak, p169
[111] Op. cit, Juvenal, p75
[112] Ibid., Tacitus Histories, p203-06
[113] Op. cit, Livy p101-2
[114] Op. cit, Plutarch, p146-8
[115] Op. cit, Williams, p69-70
[116] Ibid., p40
[117] Ibid., p20
[118] No disease has more varied symptoms than strangury. It is most commonly found in youths and old men. In the latter it is more rebellious, but nobody dies of it." International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections, Free Online Newsletter, Newsletter since removed: only recent publications are available.
[119] Before enjoying sex, Egyptian women might carefully insert a rag coated with honey and crocodile dung, as a contraceptive and spermicide, or mop up the seminal fluid afterwards by inserting a spongy or absorbent fabric into their vaginas. Persian women took sea sponges, soaked them in liquids they believed killed sperm (alcohol, iodine, quinine and carbolic acid or perfumed vinegar water) and then inserted the sponges into their vaginas after intercourse. [119]
[120] Op. cit, Williams, p106
[121] Ibid., p41
[122] Op. cit, Matyszak, p165
[123] Op. cit, Williams, p113
[124] Op. cit, Bourne, p365
[125] Op Cit. Tacitus Annals, p305-6
[126] Op. cit, Williams, p163
[127] Ibid., p7
[128] Ibid., p138-139
[129] Op. cit, Juvenal, p72
[130] Op. cit, Williams, p35
[131] Ibid., p62
[132]Op. cit, Juvenal, p12-13, 131
[133] Op. cit, Williams, p48
[134] Op. cit, Tacitus The Histories, Book III, 28: Neither age nor rank were any protection from indiscriminate slaughter and [sexual] violation. Aged men and women past their prime, worthless as booty, were dragged off for sport. Did a mature maiden or youth of marked beauty fall in their way, they were torn in pieces by the violent hands of ravishers; and in the end the destroyers themselves were provoked into mutual slaughter.
[135] Op. cit, Williams: Sallust Catiline 51.9: Maidens and boys were raped; children were torn from their parents’ embrace…everything was filled with weapons, bodies, blood, and lamentation.
[136] Op. cit, Williams: Dio reports: The British Queen Boudicca encouraged her army declaring that the Romans were "sleeping with lads, and out-grown lads at that" and that they served an emperor who was "a lyre player, and a bad one at that," referring to Nero’s self-degradation to act on the stage. Op. cit, Williams, p82
[137] Op. cit, Livy 26.13.15: … nor will I look upon my country being destroyed and burned, Campanian mothers, maidens, and freeborn boys being seized for stuprum.
[138] Op. cit, Juvenal, Satire II, Lines 32-3
[139] The nine most major complications that commonly occur at the time of an abortion are: infection, excessive bleeding, embolism, ripping or perforation of the uterus, convulsions, hemorrhage, cervical injury, and endotoxic shock. The most common "minor" complications include: infection, bleeding, fever, second-degree burns, chronic abdominal pain, vomiting, gastro-intestinal disturbances, and Rh sensitization.
[140] Without effective treatment (the Romans did not have any treatment at all), ascending infection could extend to the epididymis, testes, or prostate causing symptoms such as scrotal pain or swelling. Rare cases of epididymitis (inflammation of the epididymis) can cause male infertility. Approximately 8% of modern couples have infertility problems due to only to the male.
[141] Op. cit, Livy p94-5
[142] Ibid., 137-144
[143] Ibid., 149-50
[144] Op Cit. Bourne, p228
[145] Ibid., p162
[146] Ibid., 346-7
[147] Ibid., p283-4
[148] Ibid., 315-6
[149] Op Cit. Tacitus Annals, p383-84
[150] Ibid., p394
[151] Op Cit. Bourne, p448
[152] Ibid., p516-18
[153] Op Cit. Gibbon, p378
[154] Op. cit, Livy p161
[155] Ibid., p185-6
[156] Ibid., p 183-4
[157] Ibid., p377-8
[158] Op Cit. Matyzak, p177; Bourne, p275
[159] Op Cit. Tacitus Histories, p48-75
[160] Ibid., Tacitus Histories, p203-06
[161] Op Cit. Bourne, p351
To those of you who participated on this thread, I have news that should please you.
It went down to the wire, but it was Stanford that beat out Cornell in the “NattieShea Derby.” She will be starting there this fall as a junior, seeking a degree in civil engineering with an environmental engineering emphasis coupled with a minor in biology. The objective is graduate study in soil microbial biology.
It was Stanford's ‘wet track’ in civil engineering that gave them the advantage over Cornell (she was accepted to both) because it takes advantage of the biology, organic chemistry, and physics she has already completed. She’s already made some great relationships in the respective departments of both schools, as they were very happy with her helpfulness in providing them accurate and searchable information. This is important, as she seeks to go to Cornell for graduate school. Both schools think this is the correct choice for now. She will probably have to give up her position as board secretary of the Los Gatos Community Concert Association, because she'll need to work part time to help pay for it.
As to PowerBaby, she will be entering Utah State with a full academic scholarship in animal science. Little do they know, but she also made the California State Junior College finals in the 400m, not bad considering that it is only her second year running and she is still just 18, having completed three years at De Anza Junior College. She has been tutoring calculus for two years.
I want to thank each of you who have touched these girls with your encouragement along the way. I thought a little good news would please you in these dark days. Don't know exactly how we're going to pay for it, but we'll make it work somehow. This family always has.
FReegards, CO
Congratulations to you and your family. May God continue to bless you and your family.
I spent some time at Stanford back in the early ‘90’s. Wasn’t academic, it was in the hospital going through a lumbar fusion so I can’t proclaim a Stanford education. :^)
Cheers!
Thanks, in this economy we're definitely going to need His protection. I'll let you know how things turn out.
Very interesting. It is just like reading about our own problems. History repeating itself. You might want to use this research in one of your college courses. You guys are amazing of course. Love you both.
You don’t know the half of it. These girls are both geniuses, and beautiful to boot. Carry_Okie is a slave driver too (just kidding).
So...I finally get to your announcement about Stanford. I’m sure that she has made the right choice. And congratulations to both the girls. I’m looking forward to seeing K in the Olympics one of these days. Tell Nattie I’m surely proud of her. And tell her that I just read the whole paper......again. It was even better this time because of what is happening before our very eyes. Hugs all around.
Dave, I wish you could meet this family. They are great people. Carry has done a fantastic job raising the girls. You couldn’t believe how intelligent they are. I fell in love with the whole family when Nattie was just 14 and started corresponding with me via Freepmail, then e-mail. Finally two years ago, they came to WV and we enjoyed a wonderful visit with them. So I can say that I am also busting my buttons over the girl’s successes.
I am proud to announce that FReeper PowerBaby will be valedictorian of the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences at Utah State University. She was 4.0 there, the last semester taking 21 units, running on the track team, and serving as a teaching fellow. Most impressive to me was that she endured a summer as the lead hand on a sheep dairy. She was handling bales, delivering and bottle-feeding lambs, milking twice a day and did it while living with a very hard lady in charge in the midst of an ugly divorce.
PowerBaby, you earned every bit of it. Congratulations!
Congratulations to K. Yes, I am sure she earned the title. She is such a “power” girl. Goes to show you what you can do when you love what you are doing. The girls continue to make you both proud. I have read their Roman Empire paper twice and I plan on reading again. I have it bookmarked from long ago.
!!!I was pleased enough, when my daughter squeaked into Phi Beta Kappa!
A "Sheep Dairy?" I don't know why I never thought of milking sheep before! It just never occurred to me!! I knew they milk cows, goats and a few others like camels, etc., but SHEEP never entered my numb skull!!!
Somehow, I'm pleased but not too surprised since I spent that one weekend with the four of you on that monument to environmental sanity and righteousness. You are blessed with truly brilliant and beautiful daughters, who are also FReepers that make all of us quite proud!!!
Powerbaby, atta boy, girl!!!
My oldest went on to become a weapons manufacturer after leaving CalPoly and my youngest still works at UCSB as a program manager.
Good to see some of the old gang still alive and lurking.
Hey Amerigoman .... are you still in FResno?
Haven’t seen you for awhile.
Still here. Rarely post. Always lurk. Miss the dinners. Assume Jim’s health doesn’t permit the socialising.
One to go...
Congratulations to all. Well done!
Congrats, Mark.
I’ve got two in school...
My son is going to Cornell...
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