What Do You Like The Most About The Romans ?
Here is an open topic to see what each of us likes the most about the Romans. This can be anything related to the Romans (social, political, cultural, economical, or whatever). You can include reasons or whatever that make you choose such a thing.
For me, what caught my attention the most was how the Romans used the concept of citizenship. For the Romans, citizenship was a very important tool to achieve a lot of things. The Romans felt very proud of being citizens of the Roman empire. It was amazing how the citizinship gave some kind of prestige to the Romans, and how citizens got several rights just because of their Roman citizenship. In fact, outsiders had to go through different stages in order to achieve a full Roman citizenship. The Romans fought bravely for the sake of their empire and their citizenship. So, being a Roman at that time was a special thing.
posted by BaDaR @ 10:51 PM
3 Comments:
simply, their buildings. I've always been impressed with buildings that have stood for so long. Just touching a building with that much history I can't help but wonder if Octavian or Hadrian stood there and leaned against the same wall. It's almost like being there.
I find it interesting how open they were about their sexuality. But I think this mostly applied to the patricians. Or were women as sexually open? Anyway, it's interesting to see that some upper-class family nowadays are ashamed if their son is gay. When we think of gay guys, we naturally assume the person must be weak and flamboyant. The Romans didn't put that kind of label though, did they? So I think in some ways, the Romans were more accepting in that regard. Their sexuality wasn't that big of a deal (depending on their class).
The most interesting thing about the Romans to me would have to be their original family structure. The Pater Familias was the head of the house hold and possessed power over life and death. The value of a legacy was a requirement of males in prestigious households. The death masks ailing the interior were a constant reminder to be successful and even supersede their male relatives. Children in the Roman house hold would receive peculium, an allowance so to speak, yet until the child’s father died the money would be under the control of the father. This was also the way that slave’s money was handled, all through the pater familias. Roman fathers arranged marriages for their children often instigated by the mother. The father had the right to sell his children into slavery to absolve debt or if they dishonored his family name. A father might also separate his child from his house hold as a reward, allowing son to be independent to start his own, business or family, this was called emancipation. The family structure was a mini government, every house hold had one and this would allow for disputes to mainly be settled in the home by gathering a consilium instead of a formal court system like we see later in Rome. This was all during the time of the seven kings of Rome when the state was still primarily an agricultural site and the two main classes had a patron-client relationship. The simple written laws known as the Twelve Tables and the legal system was constructed and advised by the parties involved. This type of family structure and power system disappeared when Rome out grew it, formal courts and power of the consuls replaced the all powerful Pater, to form Rome into the familiar one we all recognize today.
Post a Comment
<< Home