Posted on 08/23/2018 12:53:40 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
***There were a couple of hiccups with the grain delivery***
I remember reading of an ancient letter from ROMME to shippers in Egypt about which was more important, Sand for the gladiator arenas to keep the people entertained, or grain. It went something like this...
“People are starving! There will be riots in the streets soon! Quick, SEND THE SAND!”
It was insensitive of me to ignore the plight of Roman slaves, they led pretty hard lives. OTOH, sometimes slavery was entered into willingly by someone with special skills but had fallen onto very hard times. Gladiators were mostly lowest of the low, but from time to time someone from genteel society (including the emperor Commodus, who was rumored to be the bastard son of a famous gladiator of an earlier generation) would enter the arena, which meant becoming a slave, in the hope of hitting the bigtime in Rome, and making a massive fortune, then retiring before losing and getting killed, or getting permanently crippled.
Rome had a bread dole, and that helped feed many thousands, definitely north of 100,000, and as high as 400,000, during the centuries of empire. Mind-boggling. Total welfare state. That was also most of the purpose of the "games". Vespasian secured Egypt and the grain supply to give him a grip the other contenders didn't have, both on the city and the army, and he easily disposed of his remaining rival during the Year of Four Emperors. It also helped that he was one of the better generals of Roman history.
Agricultural surplus is the foundation of all civilization.
Wow. I should send my son to you. He and his grandfather and his uncle are big fans of Roman History. He just finish the entry level class last Spring.
Me? I only know a few things from my world history class from 30 plus years ago.
It is fascinating especially since many of our ancestors have origins from the old empire since it spread so far and wide and for so many years.
It is also a good reference for what is happening in the US right now.
Investment in the high rises, which had a reputation more like the former Cabrini Green in Chicago, as opposed to Bob Newhart's high-rise in The Bob Newhart Show, were popular among the up-and-comings, like the lawyer Cicero (low birth). There were quite a lot of street level take-away restaurants, because most lower class Romans, while they lived in pretty nice conditions (compared with wattle-and-daub with thatched roofs common in other parts of the Empire), did not have kitchens. High status homes, like the jumbo mansions that survive in Pompeii, had both kitchens and kitchen staffs (99% of them slaves), and a huge variety of food from all over the known world.
I must a brie.
We are more like than unlike the ancient Romans. And when I “did” my DNA, it conformed to the known origins, but up popped a little Italian that (I presume) managed to win the random heredity lottery, dropping down the centuries among my British ancestors. :^)
And the industrialization of the process helped tremendously.
I watched Bill Nye brag about the pre-industrial world as a panacea for global warming. He must have missed the class that taught us that slavery was rampant before 1850. That slaves, instead of machines tilled and harvested our agricultural food items. Plus, life was generally tough for non-slaves too.
Exactly. Great Britain. I am mostly a British mutt but with a little northern and central Europe.
Nye's a dunce. If the non-industrial muzzie hordes hadn't turned literally each place they've taken over into a desert, we'd all be feeling cooler right now. The only sustainable economy is one based on surplus.
Lol.
Drinking wine instead of milk?
Yeah, but only if I’m not working that day.
People are largely ignorant of history and unaware of how special modern civilization really is.
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