Given the many parallels between ancient Rome and the United States, the one that resonates the most with me is the decline of morality of both. In his book "How Christianity Changed the World" by Alvin J. Schmidt, he
documents the morals, or lack thereof, of the pagan world prior to
Christianity. His focus is primarily on the Greeks and Romans, though these
pagan "values" were virtually universal in every culture on earth. It's
also a glimpse of where we are headed as Christianity continues to erode in
the West. See if you can spot how close we are to those parallels today.
The British historian Edward Gibbon says in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that the breakdown in sexual morality began after the Punic Wars ended in 146 B.C. People engaged in all sorts of sexual methods, many of them obscene. Sex was openly displayed, there was no such thing as modesty or privacy. This was also true of the Greeks, whose athletes routinely competed in the nude. As one historian has noted, "There was nothing in which they (the Romans) did not indulge or which they thought a disgrace."
This decline was evident in the breakdown of the family. Roman honor and respect for marriage had virtually become extinct. Roman marriages had greatly deteriorated and had become a loose and voluntary compact in which religious and civil rites were no longer essential. Adultery and promiscuity were rampant. A married man could sleep with unmarried women and prostitutes and it was not considered adultery. Women of high-ranking families would ask for their names to be entered among the public prostitutes so they would not be punished for adultery.
Life was cheap in the ancient world, as witnessed by the bloody gladiatorial games. Suicide was embellished and romanticized and widely practiced on all levels of society. The young were especially vulnerable. Abortion was the norm and accepted by all. Some of the great Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Celsus supported Abortion. Plato argued that it was the prerogative of the city-state to have a woman submit to an abortion so that the state would not become too populous. Aristole concluded that there was a "limit fixed to the procreation of offspring". There was even a guild of abortionists called "The Sagae" who was Rome's version of Planned Parenthood. It's members sold aborted bodies to the manufactures of beauty creams.
Infanticide was also universal among the Greeks and Romans, usually soon after birth. Infants were killed for various reasons. Those who were deformed or physically frail were especially prone to be killed. Roman law dictated that "A dreadfully deformed child shall be killed." Infant girls were also prone to infanticide as males were more prized, as was true in many cultures. So common was infanticide that large families were rare and Polybius blamed the population decline of Ancient Greece to it.
Along with abortion and infanticide, abandoning infants and children was also common. Greek and Roman literature espoused no feelings of guilt about abandoning children, if anything it was romanticized. Clement of Alexandria condemned the Romans for saving and protecting young birds and other creatures while lacking moral compunctions about abandoning their own children. This is becoming true today as the welfare of animals is placed above the welfare of humans.
Roman literature also has numerous references, similiar to Greek writings, showing homosexuality was widespread and common. The term "Lesbian" is actually derived from the Greek Island Lesbos because of Sappho's poetry about woman love. Interestingly enough Greek homosexuality was primarily pederasty or pedophilia. According to Roman poet Martial, young boys were not only sodomized by adult men but also by women. Many archaeological artifacts of Roman relief plates depict man-boy couples. This was not confined to the Roman public, but many Roman Emperors surrounded themselves with young boys including Tiberius, Nero, Galba, Titus, Hadrian, Commodus, Elagabalus, and Carus. Men in ancient societies, whether in Babylon, Assyria, Greece, or Rome, commonly married child brides, often as young as eleven or twelve years of age. It stands to reason that if Christian values and influence continue to deteriorate, the resistance to pederasty will also weaken and decline. It is a little known fact that the North American Man/Boy Love Association used to be affiliated with the LGBT until they distanced themselves from them.
Women have always held second-class status in the ancient world prior to Christianity and in places today were Christianity doesn't have much of a presence. The average Athenian woman had the social status of a slave. Women were seen as property who could not speak unless spoken to and married women were required to wear a veil in public. The Roman Law Patria Potestas gave the man supreme control over his family. He had "full authority to chastise his wife and, in some cases, even to kill her, in the same way as he might chastise or kill his child." This is especially true if they committed adultery. He could even decide who is children would marry.
What I find most interesting is the affect Christianity had on the world in terms of morality. It set the standard for morality bar none. The world hadn't seen anything like it prior. Christian morals and ethics have become so intrinsic in culture that is has become universally accepted even by atheists. Those who argue they don't have to believe in God to be moral people have no idea how much of their morality is actually derived from Christian ethics. As Paul L. Maier puts it, "Any "noble pagan" today recoils, for example, from the thought of killing babies, but "noble pagans" of antiquity prior to Christianity did not so recoil." To illustrate this point a story is told, during World War II on a remote island in the Pacific, an American solider met a native who could read, and the native was carrying a Bible. Upon seeing the Bible, the solider said, "We educated people no longer put much faith in that book." The native, from a tribe of former cannibals replied, "Well, it's good that we do, or you would be eaten by my people today."
The British historian Edward Gibbon says in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that the breakdown in sexual morality began after the Punic Wars ended in 146 B.C. People engaged in all sorts of sexual methods, many of them obscene. Sex was openly displayed, there was no such thing as modesty or privacy. This was also true of the Greeks, whose athletes routinely competed in the nude. As one historian has noted, "There was nothing in which they (the Romans) did not indulge or which they thought a disgrace."
This decline was evident in the breakdown of the family. Roman honor and respect for marriage had virtually become extinct. Roman marriages had greatly deteriorated and had become a loose and voluntary compact in which religious and civil rites were no longer essential. Adultery and promiscuity were rampant. A married man could sleep with unmarried women and prostitutes and it was not considered adultery. Women of high-ranking families would ask for their names to be entered among the public prostitutes so they would not be punished for adultery.
Life was cheap in the ancient world, as witnessed by the bloody gladiatorial games. Suicide was embellished and romanticized and widely practiced on all levels of society. The young were especially vulnerable. Abortion was the norm and accepted by all. Some of the great Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and Celsus supported Abortion. Plato argued that it was the prerogative of the city-state to have a woman submit to an abortion so that the state would not become too populous. Aristole concluded that there was a "limit fixed to the procreation of offspring". There was even a guild of abortionists called "The Sagae" who was Rome's version of Planned Parenthood. It's members sold aborted bodies to the manufactures of beauty creams.
Infanticide was also universal among the Greeks and Romans, usually soon after birth. Infants were killed for various reasons. Those who were deformed or physically frail were especially prone to be killed. Roman law dictated that "A dreadfully deformed child shall be killed." Infant girls were also prone to infanticide as males were more prized, as was true in many cultures. So common was infanticide that large families were rare and Polybius blamed the population decline of Ancient Greece to it.
Along with abortion and infanticide, abandoning infants and children was also common. Greek and Roman literature espoused no feelings of guilt about abandoning children, if anything it was romanticized. Clement of Alexandria condemned the Romans for saving and protecting young birds and other creatures while lacking moral compunctions about abandoning their own children. This is becoming true today as the welfare of animals is placed above the welfare of humans.
Roman literature also has numerous references, similiar to Greek writings, showing homosexuality was widespread and common. The term "Lesbian" is actually derived from the Greek Island Lesbos because of Sappho's poetry about woman love. Interestingly enough Greek homosexuality was primarily pederasty or pedophilia. According to Roman poet Martial, young boys were not only sodomized by adult men but also by women. Many archaeological artifacts of Roman relief plates depict man-boy couples. This was not confined to the Roman public, but many Roman Emperors surrounded themselves with young boys including Tiberius, Nero, Galba, Titus, Hadrian, Commodus, Elagabalus, and Carus. Men in ancient societies, whether in Babylon, Assyria, Greece, or Rome, commonly married child brides, often as young as eleven or twelve years of age. It stands to reason that if Christian values and influence continue to deteriorate, the resistance to pederasty will also weaken and decline. It is a little known fact that the North American Man/Boy Love Association used to be affiliated with the LGBT until they distanced themselves from them.
Women have always held second-class status in the ancient world prior to Christianity and in places today were Christianity doesn't have much of a presence. The average Athenian woman had the social status of a slave. Women were seen as property who could not speak unless spoken to and married women were required to wear a veil in public. The Roman Law Patria Potestas gave the man supreme control over his family. He had "full authority to chastise his wife and, in some cases, even to kill her, in the same way as he might chastise or kill his child." This is especially true if they committed adultery. He could even decide who is children would marry.
What I find most interesting is the affect Christianity had on the world in terms of morality. It set the standard for morality bar none. The world hadn't seen anything like it prior. Christian morals and ethics have become so intrinsic in culture that is has become universally accepted even by atheists. Those who argue they don't have to believe in God to be moral people have no idea how much of their morality is actually derived from Christian ethics. As Paul L. Maier puts it, "Any "noble pagan" today recoils, for example, from the thought of killing babies, but "noble pagans" of antiquity prior to Christianity did not so recoil." To illustrate this point a story is told, during World War II on a remote island in the Pacific, an American solider met a native who could read, and the native was carrying a Bible. Upon seeing the Bible, the solider said, "We educated people no longer put much faith in that book." The native, from a tribe of former cannibals replied, "Well, it's good that we do, or you would be eaten by my people today."
