Romans_Culture

Rome was a great civilization that was made great by more than just their army. As Lamm says on page 136 "Rome's major and most enduring contribution to Western civilization was her legal system: the art and science of law." Romans said justice was an art and science was what defined justice. They took their justice as a justice which is like what we use today in America, they used a process of law which they administered their punishments on not only what they did but their honesty as well. Another aspect of their legal system was that they thought the concept of justice was derived from the inspiration of gods and what they command. The Romans like any other government had problems until the time of Caesar Augustus where he made reforms to stop corruption and clean up the Romans political mess. One of the biggest problems in the Roman government was there province management. In the provinces there was little government and the governing that happened was mainly tax collection. Romans education was not as big as an emphasis as the Greeks made theirs. Romans left it up to the child parents to either teach the child or to hire a tutor to teach the child for them. The Romans were harsh in this aspect because they valued the educated but those who did not have the means to educate their child left the child scorned. As Epictetus said "the tyranny of the present only the educated are free." (Lamm,138) The Romans entertainment was mostly centered around physical superiority. The games were said to be held to honor the gods. The five main trials that the audience loved and was played in an immense arena was chariot races, gladiatorial combat, wild animal hunts, naval battles, and mythological pantomimes. Their games were not for art they were to entertain large amounts of people. The Romans invented mass entertainment this way. The most loved by the people was the gladiatorial combat which showed the romans values in a person. The mortal combat had the values of nobility, courage, and honesty. All of the Roman Games were physical and most ended brutal. The romans made their military to be light infantry with superb discipline. The romans reduced the number of men in each of their phalanxes to 3,600 men and gave them a javelin, short sword, and a shield. This light assortment of weapons and armor made the first mobile strike force that could march 24 miles in just five hours. This change in warfare gave the romans one of the strongest militaries of all time.