Rome's Problems

Please sing again, O Muse!  This time, we sing of the perils of imperial Rome, and how they are like our own.

Like America, Rome had a drop in morality in marriage, with people succumbing to unhealthy appetites: "...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; if none of these be there, he will debauch his friend's grandmother" (Juvenal 109-111).  I wish I could feel this were a mere exaggeration, but I fear it's all too true in both this generation and that.  It sickens the heart to see the people sink so low that they can't control their passions.

There were many Romans who lived in poverty, and whose pleas for help fell on deaf ears: "Of all the woes of luckless poverty none is harder to endure than this, that it exposes men to ridicule" (Juvenal 148-149).  Despite their many needs, those whose duty it was to help them did nothing in their defense.

Men poisoned themselves with drink just as willingly then as they do now: "Your drunken bully who has by chance not slain his man passes a night of torture...hot with wine and young blood" (Juvenal 278-280).  Theft was another fear of man, not to mention murder.  "When your house is shut, when bar and chain have made fast your shop, and all is silent, you will be robbed by a burglar; or perhaps a cut-throat will do for you quickly with cold steel" (Juvenal 302-304).  O that we could live in the Golden Age, when locks and thefts did not yet exist, and all was young and innocent!  Before the gods decided in their wrath to punish us with Pandora, and her jar of evil.

Before Augustus, there is mention of political corruption in the form of competition, lies, and even murder, as in the death of Julius Caesar.  "...a group of patrician senators, fearing Caesar's popularity, conspired against him.  Suetonius tells us that they stabbed Caesar 23 times on the steps of the Theater of Pompey..." (Augustus page 1).  Though things are not quite as violent as that now, there is still plenty of metaphorical stabbing, both in the back and in the front.  Even when great Augustus became princeps, ushering in an era of peace, he began by hunting down and murdering the conspirators against Caesar, going to war with Cleopatra, and murdering the son of that queen and Caesar, to avoid the competition (Augustus pages 2-3).  Cruel and fierce Augustus was ruthless in his conquest.

The problems Rome did not have, to my knowledge, are with paranoia, and litter.  In their day, Rome was the supreme power of the world; what did they have to fear from other countries?  None could stand against the might of the Roman Empire, save the Gaulish people of a small village by the sea (Asterix comics, by Rene Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo).  There was less need for paranoia in their time.  As for litter, there is no apparent mention of it; besides, the Romans were very hygienic for their era.  They created their own sewer system, and believed in bathing regularly.  Besides, they didn't have aluminum, plastic, or many of the materials we have today that can be used to clutter the beaches.  I'm sure back then, the oceans were more blue, and the forests far more plentiful.

And once again, the Muse's song ends, as she leaves on her dainty feet to acquire some throat spray.