Roman citizens often realized that things were bad, and unsustainable, but such are the stultifying aspects of perceiving one's place as being "on top," that the citizens did little to move for effective change. Many Romans took a view (perhaps willful delusion) that things would "somehow work themselves out," and that, after all, Rome had been on top for seemingly endless decades and would always be so.
And so, instead of facing squarely their society's challenges, they far too often gave themselves license to either retreat to leisure or fixate on sporting contests. And many were bought off by some measure of the dole, or even by empty promises and irrelevant ideologies.
Long before the barbarians knocked at the gate, they witnessed the transformation of Rome from within.
No comments:
Post a Comment