Were Romans Obsessed with Violence? :: Ancient Rome Roman History

Were Romans haunt with Violence?In many ultramodern books written about antiquated Rome and her people, the Romans are very much portrayed as brutal and austere people who enjoyed violence and thought it amusing to see people be injured and killed to the point of obsession. It is my aim to establish whether this classification is on the noseified or if it is simply an exaggeration of what a sm totally group of people enjoyed. trance it is known that in Rome there were gladiatorial fights, public beatings and the retention of slaves was legal (and common), it is also important to understand just exactly how forward-looking the Romans were. The Longman Dictionary of the English Language defines civilised as of or cosmos peoples of nations in a state of civilisation. And then defines civilisation as a relatively high level of cultural development specifically the format of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of records is attained. I animadvert that by this definition, the Romans were civilised, the educated being able to write and detailed records being kept by many historians.The Romans also had written laws and government, including (later) an assembly for the poorer classes. In fact, their system of law was actually quite advanced (even if it was designed to serve well the rich) - The idea was accepted that a mans intentions ought to be taken into account, and there was slight importance attached to what he did and what he meant to do. The next thing to produce established was the notion that all men must be set equally. This way of thinking was very advanced and not barbaric or uncivilised at all, in fact the same notion that all men should be treated equally was not established in America, Australia and other countries for many years.It is now common knowledge that, in old-fashioned Rome, people often attended (and enjoyed) gladiatorial fights to the death, wild beast hunts, marine battles and chariot racing, all which oft en had religious origins. During the reign of Caesar, thousands of men and animals were butchered just to make a Roman holiday The Romans also enjoyed pantomimes and plays which too were often very violent in nature - It was not uncommon for a condemned criminal to be executed on stage as part of the play. In modern sources, it is often portrayed that slaves were treated more harshly than was actually the case.