How were the Romans civilised and uncivilised?

Answer 1

even the highest class of Romans liked seeing people slaughtered in amphitheatres and other things to do with blood and guts

Addendum:

Civilised (and Uncivilised) has become one of those value-loaded words which are applied, according to preferences and tastes, to people(s) whom you like or don't like.

The word comes from civis = city, those who formed themselves into cities had social and governmental srtucture and amenities and were civilised. Those living in tribal situations in the countryside and not citizens were therefore uncivilised ie without the organisation and benefits of being part of and using the advanced life of the cities (another name was pagans = those living about, also now a value-loaded religious word).

A common non-value-loaded definition is: 'the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization'.

So were the Romans uncivilised? They were citizens of a city. The city had a strong governmental, legal and religious system. It was properly supplied with defensive walls for security, water, sewerage and an organised corn supply. It had a safety net to support the poor. It had public buildings, art, theatre, and other social amenities to a high standard.

Yes, they had some unpleasant tastes and used slaves. Slavery still exists in the world today. In fact looking at the history of slaughter, terror, abuse of those unable to defend or sustain themselves in the world over the past five hundred years, if we are to apply the standard of not being nasty to others, is there any country which today can be called civilised?

We either acknowledge that the Romans, by any reasonable standard were civilised, or simply use the word as a label for things we don't like and also brand ourselves as uncivilised also.

Answer 2

The Romans were both civilised and uncivilised at the same time.

Civilised:

• The Romans had an emperor and a government.
• They built Roman Baths and Toilets (Some still standing).
• They invented new technologies like the "Pulley".
• They built impressive cities (Rome), and buildings (hospitals, schools).
• They gave food (mostly grain) to poor people who couldn't afford anything!

Uncivilised:

• They EXECUTED prisoners.
• They made slaves FIGHT WILD ANIMALS!
• Their cities were often very dirty and full of waste!
• They believed in "Pagan Gods", and made bloody sacrifices to them.
• They made slaves fight in the Colosseum's for entertainment.
• Emperor decided whether to save or KILL the fighters!

So there you go, PLENTY of reasons!

It is extremely difficult to judge whether or not a state/nation is or was civilized. It is sometimes possible to evaluate it based upon comparisons with other states and nations from the same time. Often, elements of a civilization which may be considered "uncivilized" in the modern world were considered very emblems of civilization at the time. For this reason, any answer to this question is going to be open to debate, heavily opinionated and largely theoretical.

Answer 3

If you want to judge civilization on personal likes and dislikes no one would be civilised. People in a hundred years time, maybe fifty, would regard us as uncivilised if you look at the evils of the world today.

A common definition of civilization is:

the social process whereby societies achieve an advanced stage of development and organization.

On this basis, the Romans built their talent for government and organisation on the back of Greek culture to make a relatively stable world (the Pax Romana) in which there was reasonable governance, stability, security and prosperity.

Within this framework, there was the advance of social and cultural activity and standards which took large areas of backward people in Spain, Gaul, North Africa, Britain, the Balkans and the Middle East to a level which was not seen again until after the Enlightenment began to reverse the vacuum of the Dark and Middle Ages.

That nasty things happened and unpleasant practices prevailed is a sad commentary on the human race - we are generally speaking a nasty lot, and criticising slavery in Rome doesn't erase the slavery until recently in America, serfdom in Poland and Russia, and the 10 million state slaves in the USSR gulags.

Take any of the Roman practices you find abhorrent, and you will find them prevalent in today's world not just in backward countries, but also in our so-called advanced societies.

Go back to the definition and Romans can be classed as civilised. If they are judged as uncivilised against utopian standards, so we today, judged also on the same utopian standards, are also uncivilised.

Answer 4

The Romans were uncivilized because they liked blood sport e.g. gladiatorial battle's where they fought to the death. they often used slaves or criminals to be gladiators.

The Romans were uncivilized because they had slaves, and if you were civilized you had to treat all humans eaqually, but they treated the slaves like dirt.

I think that Romans where uncivilized as they have slavery which there for goes into gladiators as they killed other gladiators as they killed other gladiators as that was there duty.

There was also bad extinction then because they stole bad from the wild, and took them into captivity for the fight to kill the slaves. Who did not do as they where told they would be sentenced to death with the lions or tigers.

Secondly there where fights for entertainment to show of. Women went to these events to find husbands.

Thirdly 3/5 people where slaves ether taken from wars or they took people from the street.

Answer 5

Classifying a culture as civilized or uncivilized is a very outdated notion, and although we may believe that our culture is a perfered choice this is a personal notion due to how you were raised.

There is no such thing as civilized or uncilized cultures, there are only those different to our own.

Answer 6

they wee uncivilised because they did not value peoples live such as: Jews and christians

Answer 7

The romans were civilised because they worked in the mines and they had slaves and they hads to work hard!!!