Roman Morals as Described by Polybius, Vergil, and Juvenal

Throughout the rise and fall of Roman civilization, philosophers, historians, poets, and writers of all sorts often emphasized Roman morals in their literature. Reviewing these writings allows a modern reader to see, in fast forward, how the state of Rome’s morality shifted through the centuries. Some authors, like Vergil and Polybius, extolled the virtues of Roman society. Others, such as Juvenal, reported a much bleaker picture and a civilization rife with corruption. This blog will explore how the Romans’ view on their society changed through the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Polybius, a historian of the second century BC, approached Roman morals as an explanation for how the Roman Republic was able to gain and maintain the amount of political power and economic success that it had. Book VI of his work The Histories reads,

“There are two things fundamental to every state, the virtue of which its powers and constitution become desirable or objectionable. These are customs and laws. Of these the desirable are those which make men’s private lives holy and pure, and the public character of the state civilized and just. The objectionable are those whose effect is the reverse. As, then, when we see good customs and good laws prevailing among certain people, we confidently assume that, in consequence of them, the men and their civil constitution will be good also, so when we see private life full of covetousness, and public policy of injustice, plainly we have reason for asserting their laws, particular customs, and general constitution to be bad” (Finley 492).

Later in Book VI, Polybius explored in greater depth what these good Roman customs are. A description of a Roman funeral procession emphasized that those who the civilians mourned lived virtuous lives and often died noble deaths in the service of their fellow citizens or country. The mourners’ respect for the deceased was another marker of morality, emphasizing the familial piety of their relationship (Finley 496-498).

Decades after Polybius wrote his Histories, Augustus Caesar commissioned Vergil to write an epic poem telling the story of Rome’s earliest origins. In this story, called The Aeneid, he created detailed examples of Roman moral ideals. These morals focused on virtues such as bravery, responsibility, respect of authority, and respect of family. Even the very beginning of the book pointed to Roman morality as the main character, Aeneas, followed the orders of the gods to save his wife, father, and son from the burning city of Troy. The passages emphasize loyalty to one’s country (since Aeneas’ first instinct was to fight to the death for his city), respect for the gods (since Aeneas heeded their signs), and especially devotion to the traditional bonds between people, such as the bonds of family (Virgil 36-51). These messages make sense in the context of Augustus, the adopted son of the previous ruler, Caesar. Augustus needed the people of Rome to recognize his authority and kinship in order to successfully turn the republic into an empire. The fact that Vergil used these morals to appeal to the people suggests that contemporary Roman citizens agreed on the importance of these ideals, both for individuals and for society.

Over the following years, the Roman Republic gave way to the Roman Empire. Juvenal, a Roman satirical writer from the late first and early second centuries AD, described his generation’s morals in the piece Satire III. While intentionally humorous and exaggerated, it still provides a window into how morals had changed. He wrote, “Nowhere is it so easy as at Rome to throw an old client overboard,” bitterly saying that the traditional bonds between people, once considered extremely important, were discarded increasingly often (Pearse, “Juvenal, Satires. (1918). Satire 3”). Juvenal also used hyperbole to demonstrate the erosion of other morals, such as respect for elders and for the gods:

“Here Numa held his nightly assignations with his mistress; but now the holy fount and grove and shrine are let out to Jews, who possess a basket and a truss of hay for all their furnishings. For as every tree nowadays has to pay toll to the people, the Muses have been ejected, and the wood has to go a-begging” (Juvenal, “Juvenal, Satires. (1918). Satire 3”).

Here, he depicted impoverished immigrant Jews taking over what was once a sacred spot used by an ancient, beloved king. The Muses had been usurped by these changes, something that Romans never would have permitted if Rome was as pious as it once was.

While the cause of the change in Roman morals is up for debate, Rome’s shift from a democracy to an empire likely contributed. In countless societies through history, as power shifts to become oligarchical, hedonism and corruption become rampant in the ruling class. Those who interact with the oligarchy receive a leg up by indulging in the same corruption, opening doors for moral decay to percolate through the general population. Unfortunately, this eventually manifested itself at all levels of Roman society, which is especially visible when comparing Juvenal’s humorous Satire III to works written at the time of the Roman Republic.

REFERENCES

Juvenal, and Roger Pearse. “Juvenal, Satires. (1918). Satire 3.” Tertullian.org, 2008, www.tertullian.org/fathers/juvenal_satires_03.htm.

Finley, M. I. The Greek Historians: the Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius. Penguin Books, 1982.

Virgil, and Stanley Lombardo. The Essential Aeneid. Hackett Pub. Co., 2006.

Pride

While many aspects of human existence change dramatically through different locations and different times, others remain constant through them all. One such aspect is the idea of pride. Stories, educators, and community leaders all tend to warn against pride as a dangerous and potentially self-destructive attitude. Ezra Taft Benson, a prophet of the LDS church, once described it as “the universal sin” (Uchtdorf 2010). The following paragraphs will take a brief look into pride as viewed from two dramatically different cultures: ancient Greek culture and modern LDS culture.

The Greek word that best aligns with the definition of pride is hubris. However, this word doesn’t match the English idea of pride perfectly. Hubris in Greek culture involved not just arrogance or excessive self-confidence, but it also entailed the overstepping of one’s boundaries. Often, these were boundaries of relationships between mortals and gods. Violating them brought down the anger of the gods, who could punish the offending mortals in a wide variety of ways. Hubris plays a critical role in many Greek myths as it brings about the downfall of countless humans.

Hubris is one of the major plot mechanisms in Homer’s Odyssey. As Odysseus struggled to return home (due to hubris of his own), his home in Ithaca became overrun by suitors hoping to marry his wife. The idea of xenia, or hospitality towards guests, was extremely important in Greek culture, but the guests were expected to not take advantage of this hospitality. The suitors did abuse xenia though, overstaying for years and eating all of the household’s food (Homer, Lombardo, & Murnaghan, 2000, p. 245-254). Since the gods enforce these laws, not respecting xenia was an act of hubris that warranted their punishment. The gods allowed Odysseus to kill each of the suitors when he finally returned home (Homer, Lombardo, & Murnaghan, 2000, p. 437-453).

Another example of Greek hubris comes from the myth of Oedipus by Sophocles. Oedipus overstepped his bounds by attempting to escape his own fate. In Greek mythology, one’s fate couldn’t even be changed by the gods. Instead of accepting the prophecy that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus tried to deny his fate by permanently leaving his adopted home (Sophocles, Thomas, Moliken, & Osborne, 2005, p. 38). These actions, unfortunately, led to his own undoing as he unwittingly killed his birth father and married his birth mother (Sophocles et al., 2005, p. 52-53). Upon learning the truth, Oedipus blinded himself in shame and as an acknowledgement of his hubris (Sophocles et al., 2005, p. 54-60).

By comparison, pride in LDS culture tends to involve the offender considering themselves better than the people around them. Dieter F. Uchdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS church, discussed pride from an LDS perspective in his talk “Pride and the Priesthood.” In Christianity, the greatest commandments are to love God and to love one another. Uchdorf notes that a prideful person violates these commandments, loving themselves more than those around them and worshipping themselves more than God (Uchtdorf 2010).

In this sense, LDS pride is similar to Greek hubris in that a prideful person places themselves above God or the gods. However, LDS pride also involves the person placing themselves above their peers, while to the Greeks this trait was not seen as negative. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles committed hubris not when he boasted that he was the greatest fighter in the war, but when he violated the codes of the gods by acts such as ignoring Hector’s supplication and desecrating his body (Homer, Lombardo, & Murnaghan, 2000, p. 245-254). This shows that the two societies have similarities but also important differences in regard to how they view pride.

REFERENCES

Homer, Lombardo, S., & Murnaghan, S. (2000). The essential Homer: Selections from the Iliad and the Odyssey. Indianapolis: Hackett.

Sophocles, Thomas, J. E., Moliken, P., & Osborne, E. (2005). Oedipus Rex. Clayton, DE: Prestwick House.

Uchtdorf, D. F. (n.d.). Pride and the Priesthood - Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Retrieved from https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/pride-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng

Epithet Assignment

Epithet Assignment

Rock Licker

I’m just a couple classes (including this one) from graduating with a degree in geology. This means that I’ve spent more time than most people thinking about rocks, fiddling with rocks, and yes, sometimes licking rocks (it’s a legit thing!). The research I’ve been helping with recently is focused on hazards related to tectonics, such as earthquakes and tsunamis. Since I grew up in Utah, which has world-class geology, and along the Wasatch front, which is due for and also very unprepared for a major earthquake, in hindsight it seems pretty understandable that my interests have evolved this way. I want to help create a world where the people living in hazardous places understand those hazards and take the right preventative actions to mitigate them.

Lover of Exploration

I love going new places and trying new experiences. I’m always up for an adventure, whether it’s digging for trilobites in Utah’s west desert  or digging for tsunami deposits in east Indonesia. Even food can be an adventure - there’s not many food “genres” that I don’t enjoy. One of my favorite regions to hike around in is the red rock of southern Utah, and I love to scuba dive when I get the chance to. I really think that opportunities for personal growth should be taken up whenever possible, even if the experience is uncomfortable, out of the way, or difficult.

Tinkerer

From a distance a lot of my hobbies seem to be all over the board, but they often have an underlying theme of figuring out a process. As an example, one of the more unusual ones is that I breed ornamental freshwater shrimp (on a very small scale). I also grow aquatic plants in the same tanks, so the whole thing involves finding a balance where the plants can grow, the sensitive shrimp have a stable and appropriate environment for breeding, and other issues like algae outbreaks are minimized. I have to understand everything in these tiny ecosystems from the chemical properties of the substrate to the biological effects of macro and micronutrients on the plants and animals. My tanks are all small, so there’s very little room for error, and while that means I screw up a lot, it’s really satisfying to make tweaks in my process and overcome problems to reach a balance in the environment.

Snuggler of Cats

Much to my mom’s dismay, a feral cat gave birth to kittens in our family backyard when I was a kid. I had never been allowed to have a cat or dog (again, mom hated pets), so I immediately fell in love with them and slowly got them to learn to trust me. I’ve been a cat lady ever since, and 12 years later, I still go to my parents’ house regularly to give them love and snuggles. Luckily they’re only a short drive away; I don’t know how I’d survive if they were states away like many students’ pets are. I’ll always stop to say hi to a cat on the street no matter where I am, and at parties you’ll find me in the corner chilling with the host’s kitty.