IMPERIAL ROMAN PARALLELS TO MODERN AMERICAN PROBLEMS

 So my last blog post was about modern social problems. This post will look at similarities between those and social problems of the Imperial Roman era, with a focus on Juvenal's Satire III. Let's compare!

Breakdown of Families

"Besides all this, there is nothing sacred to his lusts: not the matron of the family, nor the maiden daughter, not the as yet unbearded son-in-law to be, not even the as yet unpolluted son. . ." This excerpt from Satire III is one example of how the family was broken in Rome. Everyone was lusted after, even family. That's just gross. Another example of how the family was becoming dysfunctional is the large amounts of children being born to prostitutes. These children suffered extreme disadvantages socially and educationally. "Who ever was approved as a son-in-law if he was short of cash, and no match for the money-bags of the young lady? What poor man ever gets a legacy, or is appointed assessor to an aedile?" says Juvenal after addressing the fact that many a son was born to a "pander", or the man who ran a brothel. In our society I don't believe there is rampant incest, but there certainly are an outrageous number of single mothers. 

Lust

We could bring up the quote from the previous paragraph about lusting after the matron, daughters, sons, etc. That example applies to the social problem of lust as well as the breakdown of families. Then there's lusting after possessions, which I identified last time as one of America's problems. "The first question asked will be as to his wealth, the last about his character: 'how many slaves does he keep?' 'how many acres does he own?'. . . A man's word is believed in exact proportion to the amount of cash which he keeps in his strong-box." From this excerpt from Satire III, we can see that this was a problem in Imperial Rome as well. Cash was valued above character. Slaves and property were lusted after. 

Idolization of celebrities

• If you smile, your Greek will split his sides with laughter; if he sees his friend drop a tear, he weeps, though without grieving; if you call for a bit of fire in winter-time, he puts on his cloak; if you say 'I am hot,' he breaks into a sweat. Thus we are not upon a level, he and I; he has always the best of it, being ready at any moment, by night or by day, to take his expression from another man's face, to throw up his hands and applaud if his friend gives a good belch or piddles straight, or if his golden basin make a gurgle when turned upside down.

This lengthy excerpt from Juvenal talks about how people act fake in order to please their friend. He mentions the Greeks, but has said that Roman culture is stolen from the Greeks, as you can see from this quote,”I cannot abide, Quirites, a Rome of Greeks; and yet what fraction of our dregs comes from Greece?" So, following the order of Greek drama, if your friend cries, you cry, if he's hot, you break into a sweat. Not because you feel the same way, necessarily, you conform and oblige to the wishes of those around you. This reminds me of how in our culture, we have celebrities on advertisements for consumer products. Taylor Swift was the Covergirl girl for a while. This was shooting at the target that if a girl liked T Swift, she'd have to wear Covergirl to be like her. Or if a popular male celebrity is endorsing certain cologne, a man must wear that cologne in order to be like the celebrity. We are always doing things to mimic and to please others. We idolize them, and they can never do anything wrong. Like Juvenal says, if they burp loud, we congratulate them, and if . . . well I won't continue with Juvenal's crude examples, but you get the point. 

Policy Making and Politics

 "No man will get my help in robbery, and therefore no governor will take me on his staff" here Juvenal (through the voice of Umbricius) points out that in order to be involved in politics at all you must work dishonestly. A good man cannot get a job in politics. I would argue that this is beginning to be the case today. Trickery is valued over honesty. What can make you the most money is preferred over that which will help the most people. "The man whom Verres loves is the man who can impeach Verres at any moment that he chooses." This is another example of how politics worked dirty in Imperial Rome. Those kept closest to the powerful were there because they knew condemning secrets. Everything is under the table; there was hardly any, if any at all, transparency. I feel this is true in today's politics as well. 

Demoralization

"What of this again, that these people are experts in flattery, and will commend the talk of an illiterate, or the beauty of a deformed, friend, and compare the scraggy neck of some weakling to the brawny throat of Hercules when holding up Antaeus[12] high above the earth; or go into ecstasies over a squeaky voice not more melodious than that of a cock when he pecks his spouse the hen?" This quote from the satire could apply to the previous two problems as well as this of demoralization. I have chosen to place it here because it is in blatant opposition to honesty and sincerity, two morals which, in my opinion, should be most highly praised and sought after in a society. Both in Imperial Rome and in our day, people tell other people what they want to hear, even if it's totally faulty and misleading. I love Juvenal's exposition of this "flattery", where the illiterate are praised for their orations, the ugly are fooled into thinking others think they are beautiful, and so on. This is a good example of society was demoralized. 

In examining both our own culture and Imperial Roman culture (at least through the eyes of Juvenal) I believe that many of society's problems stem from sexual impurity and dishonesty. If those two root problems could be eradicated then most other problems would cease as well. That's just my opinion. What do you think?