On 2000-09-02 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <Ioannis> said:
>Sorry, but the comparison You made is based on wrong assumptions,
>because the games of the gladiators are of etruscan descend, thus
>far beyond the birth of Christ. The first sure date for a roman
>game is 264 BC. In early Augustan time (that is the start of the
>empire) they became a political instrument (panem et circenses) and
>were held to please the plebs, the vast majority of the roman
>citizens, and not to entertain the wealthy classes, who had
>different and more exquisite (or better: perverted) entertainment.
Thank you for clarifying more precisely the historical background of
those awful times. As a matter of fact, I unfortunately gave more
value to the attitude of the ordinary Roman citizens of that time than
was historically accurate (not that the wealthy classes were more
moral or less reprehensible, of course, for pleasing the plebs with
such degrading diversions).
I won't digress any further on the subject, though, out of respect
for the usual list topics. In any case, you've underlined my earlier
point, despite my hastiness.
>The reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire were multicausal (the
>rising of the christian and other monotheistic sects, heavy
>problems in the administrative, insecure borders, instable and
>corrupt army, etc.) History isn't repeating itself and the longing
>for new pleasures is IMHO a symptom of a complex society, which
>estranges the individuum from itself.
My understanding (or at least a common opinion) has been that the
instabilities that led to the vulnerability of Rome to its outside
difficulties were the result of internal social corruption.
Disagree with me if you like (we all have opinions), but I still
feel compelled to draw a comparision between social corruption in
this age and other fallen civilizations -- and the simplicity and
practicality of an OS like DOS in contrast to the wild World Wide
Web of commercial excess.
Jerry [o - - ] IBM PC/AT 5170/enhanced [--^~---] 9600 kbps
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