Rome: Year One

Rome: Year One Journal for Latin 3 3/13/2007

What I Learned

This passage was about life in Rome during the year one. The year one did mean anything to the Romans. In fact they counted the years since Rome was founded (ab urba condita). The year one was supposedly an important day for the Christians. But modern historians think that “year one” occurs a few years too early.

The year one was a time where strong, moral politicians survived. They needed to have a commitment to family values and a son committed to avenging any humiliations suffered by his father. Al Gore and Ronal Ragan would not have been successful, but the passage says the Bush would have.

Augustus was the emperor during the year one. The achievements he made in his office paved the way for Christianity and modern societies. However, his family values campaigns did not extend to his own family which he had a lot of trouble with.

Slavery was the norm during this time. No thoughts were made against it; it was considered normal. Marriage was strongly encouraged and unmarried people faced penalties. However, babies were just set out to die, if a family did not want to raise it.

A small, select few were very wealthy. But most people were dirt poor. In Rome, free grain was handed out, drawling in poor farmers who sold their farms to wealthy landowners with large farms.

Personal Response

The large corporate farm is one thing which is coming back now. This was something which made the Romans weak. Will it weaken us?

The Romans taxed their people too much, but they also provided a lot of social benefits for that. For example, the baths and, in Rome, food was provided to all. However, the Roman officials were not very good at cutting government programs. The passage did not say if they ever cut taxes, but maybe the people would take a benefit cut for a tax cut.

Infrastructure is a pretty simple concept which most people don’t grasp how it changes our world. Infrastructure has a large upfront cost, but its return is enormous and can not be understated. Were would we be without the interstate highway system? It enables the transfer or goods quickly across the county. The same was true, to a lesser extent, for the Romans. The roads allowed the empire to be managed and eased the spread of Christianity.

Avenging was a big concept during the Roman times. Today we have turned avenge into revenge and removed the nobility and social acceptability from it. Once it was a thing which one must do, but today it’s what one must strive to not do.

Also interesting is that “family values” in political campaigns started before Christianity. One can have morals without that religion. Christianity did not invent the concept, but today it spreads it. Conservatives are more likely to vote Republican and be very involved in church. You don’t need to be Christian or any of todays dominate religions to have morality. Sometimes some people forget that.