How really \'different\' were the Romans?

[Alanus]

It is a mixed bag. You are talking about a culture in which it was ok to murder live infants because they were female, a culture that encouraged and celebrated the oppression and death of other human beings. A culture that viewed other humans as property, and viewed any conquered people as being sub-human, or deserving of their fate. A culture where soldiers expected to be able to loot, burn, rape, and pillage people they defeated in battle....even if they were fellow romans. A culture that believed chicken entrails predicted the future. Roman "civilization" for all of its "grandeur" was quite barbaric. For gods sake, they watched other human beings being tortured and killed (in gruesome ways) as entertainment.

That said, I also think there is a very fine line to our "civilization" and modern sensibilities that it is all too easy for society to degrade back to "might makes right" and superstition.

Well said. :whistle: Of course, there are still barbarisms in our modern world, but hopefully not "acceptable" as it was in ancient Rome.