Roman Civilization



Roman civilization and the ancient Romans: Roman civilisation from the 753 B.C.E. to the C.E.476.

Quotes:

 * - Who? Who painted these images? What race of men was so glorious as to fill our world, as you have just said, with indescribable beauty? – I have been told, sire, that you served in the court of the Emperor Charlemagne, which I myself visited. I therefore cannot believe that you do not know what I know. These images were painted by the Romans. They conquered these lands long ago, like the entire world. But they were pagans. They worshiped false gods. – You must never tell anyone else about our conversation today. No one else could understand. They would be afraid of it. They accept the explanation that a race of giants once lived here, and that we have nothing to do with them. The fact is, Athelstan, we have lost more knowledge than we ever gained. The Romans knew things we will never know. Their pagan gods allowed them to control the world. And what is the lesson we can draw from it? (Vikings)
 * Just as the Greeks in their beginnings took advantage of multiple relationships with the culture of previous civilizations, which flourished in the eastern Mediterranean basin, from which they drew elements of every kind both directly and indirectly [...], so the Romans, coming later, were able to develop a further phase of history, that is, not to submit to, but rather to succeed the Greeks, bringing forward in turn that flood of universal culture that moved from the East towards the West. They had not the wrong, but the indisputable merit of welcoming Hellenism. to assimilate it, while also reacting - as no other ancient people knew how to do - through their own virtues and attitudes, so as to insert a new flowering on the old trunk. (Augusto Rostagni)
 * It is curious to note - and I insist on this point, because it seems to me to be of capital importance, and because, although it is known, it does not seem to me to be underlined enough - it is curious to note the almost total indifference of the Roman world towards science and philosophy. The Roman citizen is interested in practical things. Agriculture, architecture, the art of war, politics, law, morality. But search throughout classical Latin literature for a scientific work worthy of the name, and you will not find it; a philosophical work, even less. You will find Pliny, that is, a set of anecdotes and gossips; Seneca, that is, a conscientious exposition of Stoic morals and physics, adapted – which means simplified – for the use of the Roman public; Cicero, that is, the philosophical attempts of an amateur man of letters; or Macrobius, an elementary school textbook. It is truly astonishing, if you pay attention, that the Romans, producing nothing themselves, never even felt the need to obtain translations. In fact, apart from two or three Platonic dialogues (including the Timaeus) translated by Cicero - a transduction of which nothing has survived - neither Plato, nor Aristotle, nor Euclid, nor Archimedes have ever been translated into Latin. At least in the classical age. Because if it is true that Aristotle's Organon and Plotinus' Enneads were, it is equally true that ultimately this happened very late and by Christians. (Alexandre Koyré)
 * The ancient Romans appear inhuman to the point of incredible for people like us, formed by Christian civilization. Their great distractions are the slaughter of the gladiators, their pleasure the massacres of the circus. Roman "beautiful Sundays" are bloodbaths. (Georges Roux)
 * The robust Quirites had a loose tongue, and when it came to having their say there was no way to keep them quiet. This, it can be said, is one of the most characteristic sides of the Roman nature. The slander, boundless and obstinate, had its roots in an inveterate spirit of freedom; the hardest sacrifices could be imposed on the people, tested in a thousand battles, and on the field, the most rigid discipline; but not to hold one's tongue when the obligation of silence would have appeared useless compression and intolerable insult to the pride of the lords of the world. The italum acetum is a vernacular product, which has its own and unmistakable characteristics; and the power of mockery in Rome is infinite. (Ugo Enrico Paoli)
 * The Romans were a positive people and therefore not very inclined towards art. Because the men who call themselves positive are those who have no imagination and judge the world in naked reality [sic], in the way it presents itself to their senses; therefore they cannot be artists because in addition to a fund of common sense, the artist must be sensitive and possess an inflammable imagination. Conversely, the Greeks, possessing to an eminent degree this imagination, which we called inflammable, were an artistic people par excellence; and with the smile of art he won the affection of the people, while the Romans conquered the people with overbearing force. (Alfredo Melani)


 * The Romans were not made for philosophical speculation, for which, indeed, as pure speculation, they often showed a certain disdain; they welcomed and loved philosophy above all [sic] for its practical usefulness, as it provided principles of conduct or even training for discussion. And moreover this was the characteristic of Greek philosophy itself at the moment in which the Romans became acquainted with it. The Romans had little and imperfect knowledge of the great speculative systems of Plato or Aristotle until later, in the age of Cicero. (Carlo Giussani)
 * The world of the Romans, from clothes to houses, is truly a colorful world, much more than ours which is instead made of white walls and dark clothes. (Alberto Angela)
 * The main success of the Romans was that they managed to create a sense of identity, romanitas. From Portugal to Iraq, from Scotland to Libya, over enormous territorial extensions the Romans pushed people to convince themselves that they were part of the same culture. In London we are lucky, we have people who speak three hundred different languages, it's fantastic, it enriches us. But I want ours to be a united city, I want it to have a shared identity, to be loyal to the community, to have everyone speak English, to understand our values. (Boris Johnson)
 * Roman civilization appears to us today, at the end of the centuries, as an essentially urban civilization. Yet this is not how the Romans themselves used to consider themselves. Throughout their history, despite the denials that the facts provided them, they loved to consider themselves "peasants". (Pierre Grimal)
 * Roman power rests on ancient customs and men. (Fifth Ennius)
 * But it was Rome that I loved, imperial Rome, this beautiful queen who wallows in the orgy, soiling her noble dress with the wine of depravity, proud of her vices more than of her virtues. Nero! Nero, with his diamond chariots flying in the arena, his thousand cars, his tiger loves and his giant banquets. (Gustave Flaubert)
 * But you, my Romans, rule the world | with empire and with weapons, and with your arts | let's be just in peace, undefeated in war; | forgive the subjects, welcome the humble, | defeat the proud. (Anchises: [ [Publius Virgilio Marone]], Aeneid)
 * Common mother | of every people is Rome and in her womb | welcomes everyone who longs | be part of her. Her friends she honors; | forgive the vanquished; and with sublime virtue | he exalts the oppressed and oppresses the proud. (Pietro Metastasio)
 * The Romans lacked the agility, versatility and imagination of the Greeks; their merits consist in the sobriety and sharpness of thought, in the firmness and constancy of the will. Their ingenuity was directed towards the useful and also degenerated into selfishness and cunning, as their firmness into obstinacy and rigidity. In the field of politics and law these qualities produced great and lasting things; they were absolutely unfavorable to art and literature. (Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel)
 * By C.E.300, the Romans extended their empire from Arabia to Britain... but they craved more... more lands, more people loyal and subservient to Rome. (King Arthur)
 * For over three hundred years Rome had supremacy in the West, and later, when Constantinople was founded, it shared it with it. It is curious that during this long span of time she did not produce anything great in the realm of thought, as ancient Greece did in a short time. Indeed, Roman civilization appears to have been in many respects a pale shadow of Hellenic civilization. In only one thing did the Romans play an eminent leading role. This is the right. Even today, lawyers in the West must learn Roman law, because it is claimed to be the foundation of much of the law in Europe. (Jawaharlal Nehru)
 * When the whole world became Roman citizens, Rome no longer had citizens; and when a Roman citizen was the same as a cosmopolitan, neither Rome nor the world was loved: Rome's love of country, having become cosmopolitan, became indifferent, inactive and null: and when Rome was the same as the world, it was no longer the homeland of no one, and the Roman citizens, having the world as their homeland, had no homeland, and they showed it with their deed. (Giacomo Leopardi)
 * If it was the Greek genius who rose, in his maturity, to the conception of human unity, it was the Roman genius who translated this conception, in itself empty and abstract, into an organic system of life. (Ernest Barker)
 * If there was no Roman history, where we learned a common homeland, if I hadn't wandered as a young man among the rubble of the giant of earthly greatness, I wouldn't know I was Italian. And where is, what is this Italy without Rome? Can there possibly be an animal without a heart? or last a gangrenous heart? (Giuseppe Garibaldi)
 * Among the various types of poetry, drama portrays most of the Roman popular character. Like all Italians, the Romans also had a keen eye for what falls under the senses, the gift of fine observation, of lively imitation and rapid reproduction. (Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel)

Attila

 * Until now I have fought the enemies of Rome to save what remains of it, its prestige, its greatness, the civilization that it has created in many centuries of history. But from this moment on, I will fight for her people, so that they can work freely, happily, because they are the true heir of the traditions of Rome.
 * Law and order, freedom and justice, a god who promises us resurrection, this is our civilization. They are not material things, but moral values, and many Huns understood this. [...] As for me, I will fight to the death for these ideals.
 * – But the Romans do not betray their agreements! – You are naive, because you trust! Not everyone is like that. We must crush the Romans! If we don't do it now, they will push us back to the muddy banks of the Danube!
 * Romans, for fifty years, the defense of the borders has rested on the shoulders of Rome's allies. Since then, no one has asked you to risk your life for the safety of your families, your homes, your lands. Today salvation depends on you or it will be the ruin of everything. It will be death and slavery for you and yours, but I have faith. I have faith that Roman soldiers will not be beaten by a bunch of barbarians. Your ancestors conquered the world. Show yourself worthy, and above all remember that there is no one left behind you to save your homeland. Romans, everything today depends on you.
 * Huns and Romans can live fraternally close. I hope that they do not take up arms against each other, and that they can instead fight together against common enemies. To this I drink, to the peace between the Huns and the Romans.

Ben-Hur

 * Where there is greatness, great government and power, or great feelings and understanding, the error is also great, it progresses and matures by defeating, but Rome invites you to bind your fate to hers in a great future. [...] Full freedom does not exist and the adult man knows what world he lives in, and currently the world is Rome.
 * The world belongs to Rome: if you want to live in it you must be part of it.
 * Rome is an affront to God! Rome strangles my people, my land, the universe! But not forever. And I tell you that when Rome falls, there will be a cry of relief such as the world has never heard before.

Gladiator

 * There was a dream once that it was Rome; it could only be whispered: anything louder than a sigh would have made it vanish. He was so fragile. I fear she won't survive the winter.
 * The beating heart of Rome is certainly not the marble of the Senate, but the sand of the Colosseum, he will bring them death, in return they will love him.
 * Rome has changed, it takes an emperor... to govern an empire!
 * Rome won!
 * Is Rome worth the life of a right man? We believed it once. Make sure we can believe it again.

Bibliography:
Frost Abbott, Frank (C.E.1911). A history and description of Roman political institutions. Harvard Univ. Press. ISBN 0-543-92749-0.
 * Beard, Mary (C.E.2015). SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. New York & London: Liveright Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87140-423-7.
 * Bloch, Raymond (C.E.1969). The ancient civilization of the Etruscans. New York: Cowles Book. ISBN 9780402101918.
 * Boak, Arthur Edward Romilly (C.E.1921). A history of Rome to C.E.565 New York: Macmillan.
 * Bonfante, Larissa, ed. (C.E.1986). Etruscan Life and Afterlife: a Handbook of Etruscan Studies. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.
 * Bonfante, Larissa (C.E.1990). Etruscan. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07118-2.
 * Bonfante, Larissa (C.E.2006). Etruscan Inscriptions and Etruscan Religion in The Religion of the Etruscans. Austin: University of Texas Press.
 * Bonfante, G.; L. Bonfante (C.E.2002). The Etruscan Language. An Introduction. Manchester University Press.
 * Bury, J.B. (C.E.2009). History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I. BiblioLife. ISBN 978-1-113-20104-1.
 * Döge, F.U. (C.E.2004) "Die militärische und innenpolitische Entwicklung in Italien C.E.1943–1944", Chapter 11, in:Pro- und antifaschistischer Neorealismus. PhD Thesis, Free University, Berlin. 960 p. [in German]
 * Ekonomou, Andrew J. C.E.2007. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, C.E.590–752. Lexington Books.
 * Gregorovius, Ferdinand. History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages.
 * Fields, Nic (C.E.2007). The Roman Army of the Punic Wars 264–146 B.C.E. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-145-8.
 * Theodor Mommsen The History of Rome, Books I, II, III, IV, V.
 * Goldsworthy, Adrian (C.E.2006). The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265–146 B.C.E. London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-304-36642-2.
 * Kertzer, David (C.E.2004). Prisoner of the Vatican. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-22442-4.

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