The Culture of the Roman Empire

Posted by Susan Carter on August 15th, 2019

The story of Ancient Rome concerns a civilization that was founded on the Italian Peninsula in the ninth century. It grew into a large empire from as a small agricultural community. During its existence for only 12 centuries before collapse, the Roman civilization had grown into a vast empire stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the entire Western Europe. It shifted from a combination of democracy and oligarchy into an autocratically governed empire. Notwithstanding the majesty of this empire, it started declining in the fifth century with Italy, Gaul, and Hispania having obtained independence. Consequently, a small kingdom referred to as Byzantine remained. Nonetheless, the history of this empire encapsulates every aspect of inspiration, and its downfall offers inexhaustible lessons.

It is notable that the culture of this Empire is not only an immensely rich topic by itself, but also a vast field that has been a conduit to modern culture. The Roman Empire’s culture has had vast effects on modern cultures; they have vastly copied it in shaping their modern social structures. Indeed, studying the Roman Culture is equivalent to beginning an understanding of man’s civilization, since it is marked with profound impact that the Roman culture had on modern mathematics, education, literature, astrology, philosophy, and art among others. Roman culture is also an invaluable tool in understanding modern interactions within the global context, given its diverse interactions with other cultures, especially the Greek one. This study seeks to understand the culture of this ancient empire in light of modern needs and observations such as global citizens and the American society. Thus, the study will interrogate the culture of the Roman Empire in the context of its contribution to the modern world through its social, political, and economic systems.

Social System

Perhaps, the most outstanding aspect of this great empire was the culture of a social order and governance. The Roman Empire had clear distinction among classes of people, which followed a patronage system that was referred to as clientele. Under this system, a relationship between a patron and clients was established in a hierarchical manner, but the obligations were in a mutual manner. It is, thus, clear that the culture imposed responsibility on individuals at different levels where the patron was supposed to sponsor and protect the inferior client through his wealth, rank power, and prestige. This social aspect was extended into the empires’ political and governance systems, where a general patronized the soldiers, a conqueror patronized his dependant state, and a founder patronized his colonists.

Nevertheless, the culture of this society was hugely complex and characterized by unequal treatment of people through stratification. Indeed, aspects of this stratification could be seen in the Hindu caste system. The culture stipulated a variety of classes which included slaves, plebeians, equestrians, and patricians. The mode of entering into slavery was either by birth, abandonment by parents, or war. However, slavery was not limited to those aspects, as a father had a right to sell a dependant into slavery for financial gains. Furthermore, slave ownership existed and prescribed the manner in which a slave was treated and whether he could gain freedom later. However, the culture had an ugly side of mistreating slave. For instance, those who were working in mines were chain-bounded and locked at night. The slaves who were lucky to escape slavery had to be freed by their masters through a ceremony upon which they received masters’ family names and became clients.

The other class within the social system was known as plebeians; this class was hugely constituted by the conquered Latin state citizens and had no right to be in the Roman senate but could accumulate wealth. The next class above the plebeians was the equestrians, who were mostly wealthy knights and roman horsemen. This class could vote or join the Roman army, where they were paid thrice the common troops but lost the prestige sometime later. At the apex of the society, there was the patrician class, who were either heads of Rome’s old tribes or families; they also lost their positions and prestige with the decline of the kingdom.

In gender aspects, Roman women and children had a low place in the social ladder, since they could not participate in political matters and could only leave their houses on occasional basis. There was little mingling between the genders unless banquets were held, and neither boys nor girls could dance until enrolment in official dance lessons. The Roman culture did not allow women to vote, be witnesses in a case, or posses anything; as young girls, they were under their father’s possession, and upon marriage, they fell under their husbands’ possession. They could not divorce or confront their husband on promiscuity, but their husbands could murder them in case of being adulterous. This dependence extended in the culture until death of husband, since even under widowhood, a woman had to remain under a tutor.

With regards to children, the culture of the Roman Empire asserted them to be the possession of their fathers. Despite the father’s absence on birth occasion, they reserved the exclusive rights of deciding whether their children had the right to live or not. There is rich evidence indicating that in cases of poor families, the man would deny the child upon which he/she would either be killed or sold into slavery. This was applied in same way to deformed children or illegitimate ones. Indeed, the culture gave the father the right over his sons until death, and even marriage did not free them unless a father chose to emancipate them. On the other hand, the father reserved a right over young women known as patrias potetas (parent power) until they became married and became a manus (hand) of the husband.

It is also notable that within the Roman culture, fathers reserved the right to teach their children different skills from reading to using firearms. However, an admirable aspect of this ancient culture was a place for education, being incorporated into a formal system of education in the third century. Through this system, children learnt Latin and Greek literature, and it was organized in levels where children of 13-15 years learnt reading, arithmetic, and writing. Indeed, the modern world has learnt and copied vastly many aspects from the culture of the Romans. Moreover, the advantages of education may have been tested by them first, as seen through the achievement of Caesar; who, having been born in a patrician family in 100BC, took part in the education system and travelled to Rhodes under Apollonius Molon, the Greek orator. He later became a priest, an organizer of festivals, a governor to Spain, and finally the consul of Rome in 49BC. From Caesar’s example, it is evident that the benefits of education in the Roman culture are not limited to bequeathing the modern world a taste of civilization and encouragement to learn but offer actual benefits from which one derives satisfaction. For instance, the achievement of reforming the Roman calendar is the testimony, since it is the very calendar that is used today.

Political System and Culture

In addition to the social organization, which the modern world used in shaping refined and less unequal society, the Roman culture had a lasting legacy on political systems of governance. The Roman rulers, deriving from the wisdom informing their social structures, created a form of government upon which many countries are partly based, including the United States. Rome first installed its system of governance, which is now referred to as a republic, in 509 B.C.E when they overthrew their former colonialists, the Etruscans. Upon gaining freedom, the Romans created a system that would allow them to be self-ruling through representation by elected officials. Thus, culture of Rome not only offers insights into modeling governance but also contributeі richly to understanding the process of an evolving state. This is what is now referred to as growing democracies. At first, as indicated in their social system, only descendants of original roman tribes could vote, but this gradually moved to other non-full citizens up to all free people in the year 212 CE. It is notable that their dressing was also an indication of the status of citizenship and social class: first class citizens wore white togas, while the emperors wore purple togas.

In its aristocratic system, the Roman culture and system of governance formed a senate, which was composed of the patrician class. This class chose two consuls who held the highest positions in the empire. At first, the senate was the advisory body to the Roman kings, which was composed of only 100 members; later on, it was expanded to over 300 members and became a governing body by itself through electing the consuls. These senators exercised ruling through oratory and persuasion of the members of the ruling class; they passed laws in a building that was known as the curia. It is notable that it is not only their system of governance that bears resemblance to the modern structure but also the very institutions such as the senate and the curia, which are akin to the modern parliament.

Consequently, the Roman Empire had such a rich culture that by the standards of those times, it allowed the existence and ensured the sustenance of a government. The culture, however, offers an invaluable lesson concerning self-governance through elected representatives by interrogating how the senate deteriorated from a ruling body to a group of affluent but powerless individuals. It is notable that subsequent emperors and rulers increased the size of the hugely coerced the senate, which, until the collapse of the kingdom, was simply a ceremonial body. The lesson from this culture is indeed evident in that it informs the modern doctrine of separation of executive and legislative branches.

In addition to the culture of the Roman Empire as seen through its governance structures, the society also had a rich culture that supported the rule of law. This was seen through this ancient civilization’s innovation of the twelve tables. The tables represented the first Roman rules in writing, which the governing individuals carved in a bid to ensure equal treatment of all citizens under the law of the land. Despite their harshness by modern standards, they offered, in fact, an equal place for all under the law. In addition to these aspects, it is also notable that the Roman culture was full ingenuity; their culture was characterized by practical application of thoughts, especially in the field of architecture. Today, vast lessons can be learnt from this empire’s culture through its work in art. The Pantheon and the Coliseum remain outstanding testimonies of this culture. Moreover, its literature has survived its countless wars and is the means by which the modern world was enlightened and civilized.

In conclusion, therefore, this study attests that the Roman Empire’s culture represents a rich heritage for humanity and civilization. Lessons which can be learnt from it are vast and endearing. A good example is the fact that though Romans conquered many empires, and instead of ruling over them, they gave them a choice to be the citizens of the Empire. Thus, it became a multicultural community. This multicultural aspect is essential in understanding modern multicultural interactions and how they can produce positive results. The dynamism of Roman culture has been compared with America’s Pax Americana concept. As a product of multicultural interactions, this hybrid culture defies any generalization and indeed will continue to inform modern thoughts on how a multi-ethnic and multicultural society, such as the US, may cope. Being the world’s most powerful state, with resemblance to the Roman Empire, the US must seek some answers in the culture of Rome. The culture may offer vast answers to the phenomenon that is now referred to as “different dreams of the same bed”. This follows, since a multicultural society is bound to produce different meanings, value judgments, and unique interests.

Indeed, the culture of the Roman Empire permeates every social setting and system of governance; it was manifested in the US 1980’s and 90s although through the Asian, Spanish, and Afro-American minorities. However, it is safe to state that the cultural legacy of the Roman Empire has no equals, and although this empire flourished over 1500 years ago, its impression on the modern world in an economical, cultural, and social sense endures. Given their creations and conquests in time of less technology and lower literacy, it is indeed a culture to behold. Furthermore, the fall of the Roman Empire may be touted as the greatest thud in history, but their ideas flourish in all majesty.

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