roman atrocities

[floofthegoof]

Even in earlier times, the Romans despised cruelty.

I guess you mean unwarranted cruelty. Crucifying Spartacus' rebels 9or crucufiction as a capital punishemnt in general) is cruel.

I seem to recall something about Caesar cutting off the hands of Vercingetorix' soldiers after he surrendered. or is that something unhistorical?

I think that goes along with their tribal view of justice. Guilty by association.

That said, their moral ideal was of course often different from their moral practice. Powerful individuals could get away with well..... murder. I read in Appian the story of Antony's wife, who coveted an apartment building adjacent to one that she owned. The owner refused to sell it to her, so she had him murdered, siezed the building by force and tacked his severed head above the building's entry way! Of course, the story is told as an example of the abuses of power that were going on at the time and to describe her wickedness. I must admit it sounds implausible. You can imagine the questions of prospective tenants. "So what's with that guy? Late on his rent?" *nervous laughter*.

As someone living in the 20th century, you wouldn't want people 1000 years from now to judge your morals by the actions of Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot. Looking at it that way, it would not surprise me to find out that a Roman's morals would be more in line with our own than we realize. We had slavery in my country only 150 years ago. I wonder if my morals would be so different from a randomly picked Roman's morals, than it would be from someone randomly picked from 50 years ago. Not everyone liked to watch the slaughter in the games. In my town, there are strip clubs everywhere now, but that doesn't mean we all go there.