Rome Episode 4
Added 2022-11-06 00:37:49 +0000 UTCIf you have a bad memory, NOTHING kicks your ass like a bi-weekly upload schedule. Almost got me this time. LOL
Comments
My guess is the people in power are full of crap no matter what era we're living in.
Dexter Goad
2023-03-08 21:51:12 +0000 UTCThat seems on brand for the Romans
Dexter Goad
2023-03-08 21:49:01 +0000 UTCThe Romans seem to have been sexist with infidelity. If a guy cheated on his wife that seems to have been expected, but if a woman cheated she'd get punished. As most marriages were arranged, it was not expected you would love your wife, that you would get those feelings of love from a mistress. Sometimes the sources even use a guy not taking mistresses, as evidence he was probably a homosexual!
paul cook
2023-03-08 20:22:16 +0000 UTCOne of the things that surprised me the most when i started reading roman sources, is how much they seem to have actually believed in omens and portents. They seemingly treated it like we treat science, even otherwise very rational people (who mocked stuff like astrology) believed entail reading. Though there was a lot of variation in how seriously they took it, the same as with how seriously we take religion; Julius Ceaser seems to have been rather irreligious and non-superstitious for example (I'm glad the augur in this episode calls Julius out on this in the episode!). The sources are wary of entrail reading 'scammers' who lie about what the entrails mean, but they did seem to think the entrails actually meant something (it's like we don't deny medicine when we deny quacks pretending to be doctors). It's also hard to tell how much those at the top cared about entail reading, and how much it was just used to manipulate the masses who did care; there was at least one general who repeated sacrifices in battle until he got the result he wanted then showed that off to his troops to show 'the gods are with us on this' and motivate them (though i doubt he bought into it himself if he kept repeating the sacrifice!). There are various stories where the person telling it MUST have been lying (of walking talking statues, trees that rise up in a single night, Titan-sized people descending from heaven to lead the troops) unless the old gods are actually real, so they can't have taken it that seriously themselves, but did the people? It seems like north korea or ww2 era japan - the leaders who say they don't pee or poo know this is untrue, but do the masses? Tacitus even describes an occasion when a general knew(from astronomy) that an eclipse was going to happen and staged a speech to coincide with it, to manipulate his superstitious troops, which implies the men really did believe it but the general probably didn't. One of the funnier things is the spin doctoring the romans did with omens, things that could clearly be bad omens will be twisted into good omens by people who want to twist them (or vice versa).
paul cook
2023-03-08 19:45:32 +0000 UTC
