History Chapter 16 - The Classical Romans PDF

# Chapter 16 - The Classical Romans Perhaps one of the most defining features of the Roman Republic was the belief of its own senators, tribunes, patricians, and plebeians that Rome was the quintessential form of human culture and civilization. But just what was it that set Romans apart from their...

# Chapter 16 - The Classical Romans Perhaps one of the most defining features of the Roman Republic was the belief of its own senators, tribunes, patricians, and plebeians that Rome was the quintessential form of human culture and civilization. But just what was it that set Romans apart from their neighbours near and far? *Self-rule* was certainly a large part of that image, but it wasn't democracy that Rome's legions brought to its conquered nations - it was a provincial dictatorship under a Roman magistrate. Therefore, the apparent will of the Romans to impart their knowledge on everyone else equated fundamentally to egotism and Rome-centrism. Indeed, the belief of Rome in its innate correctness persists in Western culture to this day, in that the Romans are considered to have been the pinnacle of cultural enlightenment. Nowhere was this culture better exemplified than in the city of Rome itself, which was home to perhaps one million people during this period. A strictly patriarchal society, Roman men ruled at home as well as in the Senate, holding legal ownership over their wives, daughters, and, even in some cases, the wives of their sons. The men also held ownership of slaves who were usually purchased from traders who procured them during military raids in foreign lands. Sometimes, children were sold by parents who desperately needed money. Slavery was not based on the color of one's skin or their national heritage but simply on their own misfortune at having been captured in the first place. Slavery was rampant in Rome and was by no means confined to the household or the fields. Slaves learned any number of jobs and roles and performed these at the bidding of their masters. From sewage maintenance to accounting, any job could be held by a slave so long as his master wished it; as such, slaves were an integral part of the Roman economy and infrastructure, and without this huge source of labor, the city and Republic would not have been the same. Because of their diverse heritage, Roman slaves were often difficult to discern from a free man or woman. They wore the same tunics and togas of free plebeians and therefore blended within the society. In the senate, a law calling for all slaves to wear a specific uniform was debated heavily, but it was ultimately dismissed. Many senators believed that if the slaves could see how they outnumbered free men, it would cause a revolt. There were, however, many incidents of slaves being legally freed by their masters, after which their children would be considered free citizens of the Republic, able even to serve in the Senate (in the case of males). Though freemen could not run for office, they could vote and hold some government jobs. City life was mostly centered on the Forum and the central business district. Citizens could shop for clothing, textiles, spices, fresh and preserved foods, meat and fish, fruits, vegetables, and luxury items like shoes and books. Most people went to the market at the Forum, but patricians often shopped in specialty stores where they could buy meat, home furnishings, and slaves. Poor Romans and slave families usually shopped in a different market that sold mostly vegetables, milled bread, and lentils, the most affordable foods. In the central business district, one could find banks, barbershops, and other professional services necessary for daily life. Interspersed between shops, marketplaces, commercial buildings, and other edifices were the auctioneers and street vendors, pushing their wares here and there along the cobbled streets between crowds of pedestrians and aristocrats carried on canopied couches. The building and city planning skills of the ancient Romans must have been a marvel to behold in action. The architects and laborers of the city weren't just there to build walls and dig drainage ditches; they intended to revolutionize urban wastewater management altogether. The man behind the brand-new technology was Appius Claudius Caecus. Appius designed and built Rome's very first aqueduct, the *Aqua Appia*, in 312 BCE, and it was so effective that the realm built another ten of them over the course of the next century. The premise of the new sewage system was simple, as it was based on gravity pulling fresh water from its source through pipes and tunnels to wherever the architects wanted it to go. Putting that idea into concrete, stone, and brick, however, took an incredible amount of forethought and even more hard labor. Once the designs had been laid out to bring fresh water into the city and siphon away wastewater, the great work of building remained to be done. The invention of Roman concrete was essential to the contemporary architecture of the Roman Republic, especially for the aqueducts. Instead of quarry rocks or flimsy mud bricks, concrete was a wet mix of small rocks, ceramic, and other building debris with gypsum, quicklime, and pozzolana. Pozzolana is a type of volcanic ash found throughout Rome and especially in the region of Campania, as it surrounds Mount Vesuvius. Thanks to the special properties of pozzolana, the concrete hardened into a durable brick or filler that would withstand cracking even better than modern cement. It also set while damp, which gave builders the opportunity to work in the rain and even underwater. Seawater reacted with the concrete perfectly to create fixed, durable structures that outlasted any other type of contemporary construction. Builders used these cement bricks as the foundation of their aqueduct bridges and tunnels, then layered on clay bricks for further strength and support. It was with simple cement and brick that Appius' teams transformed Rome and its countryside into a land of giant, double-arched bridge-ways, some of which are still standing and in use today. One of these ancient structures, known as the *Aqua Virgo*, feeds the 18th-century Trevi Fountain in Rome. While the aqueducts flowed and the bridges held fast, trade and business were the daily focus of Rome's patriarchs. For wealthy children, however, it was school. Rome's informal educational system was meant to teach young children grammar and basic numbers. From the age of about six, both girls and boys of wealthy families attended lessons that taught them how to count, write, and read. When those students reached the age of twelve, the boys continued on, learning Greek, Latin, literature, and public speaking. At that point, the vast majority of girls was excluded from further education, though a rare few were allowed to continue on in their lessons. Normally, noble girls were married off after the age of twelve, which took precedence over schooling. It was a system heavily borrowed from the ancient Greeks, from whom the Romans took a great many pieces of culture. In deference to the empire that had come before, Rome's tutors and aristocrats put a great deal of emphasis on learning Greek letters and classical poetry from authors of previous centuries. The works of Homer and Hesiod, some of the earliest Greek poets, were frequently used in private and public classrooms for students to read and memorize. Schooling was neither mandatory nor state funded by the Roman Republic, but it was nevertheless a cornerstone of their national identity. Public classes, considered more affordable to the non-wealthy, lacked structure in terms of hours of attendance or knowledge tests; however, oral reports, question-and-answer sessions, and presentations were commonly used to determine the extent of students' knowledge. Despite the commonplace employment of tutors, households were often also taught at the knee of their patriarch. Considered the most intelligent member of the family, fathers wanted to be the one to impart knowledge onto their children and in so doing claim the praise rewarded them for good intellect. Teenagers who were compelled toward higher education were most likely to travel to Greece for lessons in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. Even in the centuries following the decline of the Greek civilization, the best philosophers were considered to be found only in Athens. Within the Republic, fully-educated men went on to become architects, senators, and generals. Each of these careers was an integral pillar to Roman culture: architects put their mark in solid stone and beautiful, shining marble; senators attested to the greatness of the Republic and its democratic system; and generals kept the army fit, sharp, and at the ready to strike or defend as needed. Between them, they made the most lasting features and impressions of the Roman Republic: the arches, domes, and concrete structures that would last a millennium; the forums whose lectures influenced entire civilizations; and a territory that nearly entirely encapsulated the Mediterranean Sea.