Were the Romans brutal or civilized?

Answer 1

Believe it or not, they were both.

The Civilised

The Romans, at their time, were one of the most civilised and advanced people on the planet at that time. The others being the Egyptians, Greeks and Persians.

They were civilised in the sense that they built a vast civilisation, or empire, over much of the known world at that time. They introduced new architecture, great engineering innovations, new discoveries, and so on. They brought fresh water to the cities they conquered by building aqueducts. They integrated the conquered peoples into a thriving empire-wide network in which a great many goods were exchanged. These peoples greatly benefitted economically from this. The new foods and luxuries from one part of the empire to another were exchanged. These networks extended beyond the empire and reached Persia, Arabia, Ethiopia, India and China. Luxury goods were imported from these areas, which the conquered people could also buy. To many people who were conquered the Romans were their heroes.

The Romans also had advanced methods of warfare that had not been seen before, though some of the warfare ideas they had were actually borrowed from the Ancient Greeks. To the lesser civilisations and countries, the Romans were an unstoppable force due to these military tactics. It actually took many years for those who opposed the Romans to figure out how to break through the Roman military tactics.

The Romans taught these military tactics to the local armies of the lands they controlled. Kept satsified by the new technology, new food and fresh luxuries, very few local populations revolted against Roman control and actually aided the Romans in their conquests.

The Brutal

The Romans were at their most brutal in the way they suppressed rebellions or dealt with long-standing enemies. They destroyed the neighbouring Etruscan city of Veii in the final showdown between these two city-states after two centuries of on-and-off conflict. This is how they brought this problem to an end. They destroyed the cities on Ausona, Minturnae and Vescia (in southern Italy) during the Second Samnite War when these cities rebelled against them and could have joined the Samnite enemy. They ended the conflict with Carthage which had led to two massive wars (the Punic Wars) by destroying this city (146 BC). They destroyed Corinth when the Greeks of the Peloponnese (in the south of Greece) rose against them (also in 146 BC). They destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple when they besieged it to suppress the Jewish revolt which led to the First Roman-Jewish War (66-73). Many Jews also died in the war the Romans fought to suppress another Jewish revolt, the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135).

Rape and mass killings were common when the Romans took a city after besieging it. However, this is was not an exclusively Roman thing. All ancient peoples did this when they captured a city after a siege.

The Romans practiced slavery just like all other ancient peoples in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In antiquity slaves were war captives and were part of the spoils of war. Although some aspects slavery in Rome were brutal, slavery in Rome was not as brutal as it is often is thought and the conditions of different types of slaves varied greatly. The most brutal aspects were the sexual abuse of female slaves and prostitution (many prostitutes were slaves) and the abandonment of sick slaves. These were abandoned at a temple on the Tiber Island to fend for themselves because the masters did not want to incur the expenses of caring for them. If they managed to recover, the masters would claim them back. The emperor Claudius introduced a law with which abandoned slaves who survived became free, and another law whereby masters who killed slaves rather than treating them were charged with murder.

As already mentioned, the conditions of the slaves varied. The slaves who worked in the houses of the rich were better off than most other slaves. The slaves who worked in the farmsteads of the landed estates were better off than those who worked in the fields. The worse off were the ones who worked in the mines. Conditions in the mines were so bad that working there was like a death sentence. Educated male slaves who worked in the houses of the rich were highly praised and considered part of the family, as attested in grave inscriptions. The ones in the landed estates became the managers of the estates. The ones who worked in the offices of the state (servus publicus) were highly regarded and respected by the Roman elites.

The Romans were in the habit of freeing their slaves (manumission). Masters often freed slaves as a reward for loyalty, a good deed or good work or out of respect or friendship. The Romans even introduced a tax on manumission (5% on the value of the freed slave). Augustus legislated restrictions of the amount of slaves a master could free. A few slaves were able to buy their freedom and that of their spouse. Some slaves worked only for set amounts of time and were free to come and go as they pleased or even work for a pay outside that time. Freed slaves acquired Roman citizenship and, if males, the right to vote. At one point the majority of the citizens of the city of Rome were freedmen and their descendants. Some freedmen became successful and wealthy businessmen.

A small number of male slaves became gladiators. Contrary to the image portrayed in action movies, the gladiatorial contests were not fights to the death. They were so originally when they were part of the funerary rites for the deceased of rich families. However, this changed when the contests became a public show. Sparing the life of the defeated gladiator became common practice. Gladiator trainers owned these slaves and made a living out of this. Maintaining and training the gladiators at the gladiatorial schools was very expensive. Therefore, they did not want to see them dying straight away. Successful gladiators were heroes of the crowds. The death of a gladiator and the end of his career through injury was considered a disaster. Success gave fame, fortune and the great luxuries for the gladiator as well as the owners. When successful gladiator died, there was a grand funeral and a memorial for them was built. Still the contests were dangerous and mortality rates were high and to modern sensitivities they were brutal.

The Romans were equally civilised and brutal at the same time.