Thesis Statement
The life aspects of political, social and political are elements of consideration. Research suggests that the Roman civilization is the basis of modern, western civilizations, because western civilization still uses some of the social structures, political structures, economic structures and religious structures. There are numerous areas of concern in researching about the ancient Romans in areas such as such as kinship ties, burial, education, literature, art and many other aspects that make up this civilization (Zoch, 2000, p.5).
A detailed look into these four topics will give form to the social stratification existing in this empire, what determined this stratification, the effects of such a class distinction and what benefit such distinction brings to the people. In terms of political structure, the findings will be explained in line with the kind of political structure that existed and how efficient this structure was. The religious attributes of the ancient Romans will include a discussion of their deity, the associations they made to this deity, their places of worship and their religious leadership (Bailey, 1907, p.12). The discussion on their economy will include the livelihood of the people, advances in technology and agriculture among other things. The influence of their civilization to today’s world will also similarly be discussed.
Several arguments also arose on the varied forms of aspects of life. The romans followed a way of life that differed in a way from other forms of life that are presently. Several authors arose to make their point known.
Body
- Social stratification
The city of Rome was considered to be the largest urban center in those days, with an average population of about one million people (Chrisp, 2003). Twenty percent of the population was under the immediate jurisdiction of Rome. The city was held in such high esteem because it was where everything began. The Roman society was a largely hierarchical society. It consisted of overlapping status groups. These hierarchies determined a many things in the lives of ancient Romans. People were categorized into slaves, freedmen and freeborn citizens. The slaves occupied the lowest position, followed by the freedmen and then the freeborn citizens (Carcopino, 1956, p.52).
The freeborn Romans were determined by several aspects, a . Among the most important is their ancestry, which was expected to be purely Roman. They may also be identified through census ranks, honors and citizenship. Citizenship, in this case, is by birth only. Full citizens were given a host of rights and privileges. The non-citizens included the slaves and the visitors. They had different legal rights from the common citizens. The slaves for instance were considered to be property and had no rights whatsoever. They could be sold from one owner to another, their efforts used for the gain of their masters or owners. The freed slaves were a little different from the slaves in that they were given some form of recognition by the Romans. They possessed some rights and privileges. To some extent, they had almost the same status as any other common person in the ancient Roman Empire.
The ancient Roman society is a patriarchal society – the man is the head of the household at all times. He held very special powers and privileges over the other members of the family. He exercised a patron–client relationship with his family members. This patron–client relationship implicates that the patron is at all times at a superior position than the client. The patron is at liberty to have many clients. A paternal power was necessary for a strong social order as stated by Bodin.
In the ancient roman social aspect of life, the fathers were allowed to demonstrate authority to their children through corporal punishment. The romans did not object to this form of punishment but displayed a debate about it. An argument arose about this, where other argued for while others argued against. But what went through was that the children are not meant to be beaten. However, others followed a different logic that termed it to be an act of honorable practice that was meant to instill reasoning.
In the 14th century there saw a rise of the Avignon Papacy and the western Schism that allowed the granting of papal indulgence. This was an important source of income for the church and went through most of the church officials till to the pope, was termed to as a form of corruption by the church. It was a rule for the church to call a council it was to be done by the pope. It was later argued that no papal approval was necessary for one to call a council meeting since the church was an element of faithful individuals.
- Politics and Leadership
The ancient Roman Empire underwent three stages of leadership: the monarchy, the republic and finally the empire. The country’s leadership was based on mythical stories of kings and emperors. These mythical stories have truth in them; they were based on facts. Among these kings were Romulus, Numa, Julius Ceasar. The kings were all ousted during the end of the 6th century bringing in a crop of new people to rule the kingdom. These people were referred to as consuls. It started with the overthrowing of the kings who were ruling the empire at the end of the 6th BC. They were replaced by two magistrates, which were referred to as consuls. The privilege to rule was given to the patricians, wealthy men and land owners who were members of the aristocracy. The plebeians, who had also accumulated wealth, were included into the leadership of the country after a social conflict had ensued.
The 12 tables became the first written laws of the land. They formed the basis for living in Rome, guiding all the actions of the Romans. It was under these laws that justice was implemented. The senate ruled the towns and cities.
The term barbarization was a word that was used to refer to the soldiers that had their origins from external parts of the Roman Empire. It was arguable that this attributed the army to be inefficient. The term barbarization is divided into two forms, where the first one was based on recruiting ‘barbarians.’ A large number of the recruits were from external parts of empire. So far no evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the battle was affected. There other form of barbarization was the short term one that involved the application of tribal groups of barbarian allies. This added to the roman forces in wars. With them becoming allies it was hard to destroy them though their occupation removed the Roman tax base, this later lead to a reduced size of the empire to stand for itself.
Internal conflicts were brought about by class differences and leadership. It was apparent that the ruling class was the richest. They used absolute power to rule the land. These consuls gave power to their kin and dictated by force what was to be done. Class differences brought conflicts that threatened to tear apart the land and its leadership. These occurred conflicts were among the upper class and the lower class political class.
Julius Caesar took over the leadership of the land during a tumultuous time. He was a very powerful leader, having fought and won many battles with neighboring empires. He was a tough king, entertaining no deceit from his members. He implemented severe punishments, including hanging and excommunication. He assassinated in 44 BC. The republic ended in the 27th BC with the reign of Augustus.
Aldo argued that the political system was in no position to change into a modern society. It valued the use of slaves in the varied form of activities it undertook. The Roman Empire valued it as a source of livelihood, slaves were sold for money. It however changed with the economic crisis and the liberalization laws in place.
The Empire
The empire was ruled under very distinct class divisions. The senators were the rulers and included the chief magistrates and military posts. The equities, also referred to as the equestrian class, consisted of the civil careers and the military (General books LLC, 2010, p.74). The lower class consisted of the junior ranked people in the army.
The senate was the center of administration in the empire. The consuls and the exconsuls were entitled to become senators by default. The wealthy and rich people of the land still held the position of leadership in the land. At the age of eighteen, the equestrian class became wealthy business men. It is at this age that they gained recognition as citizens. The emperor determines the age at which such people would receive such recognition of prosperity.
From the 2nd century BC, there were tribunals that were set up for crimes against the state. These crimes included treason, embezzlement of state funds and property, murder, adultery and electoral bribery. The punishment for such crimes was based on the class to which one belonged. The upper class of people was punished by being exiled whereas the lower class were either crucified or received a public beating, among other undesirable punishment methods.
The emperor Augustus changed the form of leadership in the state to an autocratic one. This better served the interests of the people better than the previous styles of leadership practiced by the other kings and emperors. The free born women in the land were considered to be citizens, although they had no right to vote in any election. In addition, they were not allowed to hold any political office. Marriages were conducted in a civil manner. The requirement for a Roman marriage was that both parties had to be proper citizens of Rome before the marriage could be recognized. The legal status of the mother was a determining factor to the legal rights and citizenship of her son. The son was considered to be a citizen of ancient Rome if her mother was a pure citizen of Rome.
Slaves were not citizens of this country. They were considered as property to their masters. Slaves were usually descendants of debtors and prisoners of war. The freedmen were freed slaves. The freed slaves were usually highly educated people providing the bulk of services to the civil sector. They had many of skills and were quite important in the service sector. They accumulated wealth through bribery and corruption.
Edward Gibbon termed the decay of Rome as inevitable. He argued as to why the empire stood for a long period of time without tumbling. He attributed the falling to a divided rulership, an abuse of the Christians, growth of the Barbarians and the loss of Military power.
- Economics
A well advanced argument was that the central argument that led to the fall of the Roman Empire was as a result of structural economic weakness inside the empire. Ancient Rome consisted of vast acreage of land with numerous human and natural resources. The economy of the empire was primarily based on farming and trade (Adkins & Adkins, 2004 p.178). Their main products included grapes and olives. The major exports were olive oil and wine. Egypt and North Africa provided grain that was consumed and sold to other territories (Breyer, 2004, p. 12).
The industrial as well as manufacturing activities were smaller than the agricultural attributes. The largest of this were mining and stone quarrying. Manufacturing was done on a smaller scale having small shops whereas the mining industry was large scale, employing numerous people.
The economy of the ancient Roman Empire was based on small holdings and paid labor. Slaves got from conquests and foreign wars, provided the necessary cheap labor for the state (Hanson-Hardin, 201, p. 24).
Barter trade was also used before the use of the coinage system. Barter trade was used majorly for tax collection by the state. The coinage system came with the use of copper, brass, precious metals and bronze metals (Dunstan, 2010, p. 98).
Horses were used for transportation although they were quite expensive. The other pack animals were cheap but slow. Roads were constructed for such animals and not for wheels. They connected military posts and not markets. Trade was promoted by the coming up of the roman maritime trade in the 2nd century BC (Louis, 2007, p.77). This is because transport by sea was far much cheaper than by land. Ancient Rome had a market economy. Ancient Rome was also characterized by property-based classes. The accumulation of wealth has been a source of major differences the world over. A census conducted in Rome divided people into six categories based on their economic capability.
The senators were the richest people in the country. This class of people had large agricultural estates under their names. The sesterlii was the second in command. This class of people consisted of influential business people. The equities were third in line. They were the political class of the land. They were tasked with making laws and implementing them. The least of all was the proletarii who owned the least property of all. This category of persons had the least influence in the land, ranking very low in all matters.
Arguments arose of the manner in which the romans made their wealth, it was an old manner. It exploited the profitable activity of the ancient Rome in warfare. The wealth was invested for expansive warfare and slaves. This gave point to Aldo Schiavone, an Italian professor and an expert in law that the economic system was not in any position to change and grow to become a modern system. it was not able to transform to a modern life aspect.
- Religion in the Ancient Roman Empire
The religious beliefs of the early Roman Empire were based on many gods, goddesses and legends. These religious deities were symbolized by nature. It was not surprising to find people worshipping different gods, which controlled different aspects of the daily life of the ancient Romans. They borrowed heavily from the Greeks in the number of gods they had and the role that each god or goddess played in their lives.
Jupiter was the king of all gods. He was thought to be the one to throw thunderbolts to the earth whenever he was angered by people. The planet Jupiter was named after this god, suggesting the massive nature of his power over all other beings (Turcan, 2001). Juno is the mother goddess and the wife of Jupiter. She was considered to be the queen of all gods. She was ill-tempered and jealous of all other goddesses. Mercury was the messenger god, tasked with running errands for other gods. He wears winged sandals that enable him to move so fast. Venus was the goddess of beauty while Diana was the goddess of the hunt who protects the animals. She was thought to carry a bow and a quiver full of arrows. She was also the goddess of the moon and the brother of Apollo. Among the other gods are Minerva, Pluto, Vesta and Saturn. Pagan temples were also constructed in the ancient roman capital.
Conclusion
This paper has been able to highlight the arguments that arose on a varied number of issues relating to the aspects of life; the social, economic and political aspects. The religious attributes of ancient Rome, their social stratification, the political outfits and economics as major areas of concern for this research. In brief, the research came up with the following items as the basis of life in the ancient roman society: The state was ruled by several kings in several evolutionary phases. There were social classes distinguished by wealth. Conquest was a common phenomenon for proof of success and acquiring slaves. They worshipped many gods and goddesses. Trade and agriculture were rife here and the location of this great state was good for its protection, trade and agriculture. In comparison to the present times a huge contrast appears. Consequently, the fall of the Roman Empire was attributed to the varied aspects of life that the Romans lived.
References
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