Inflation
“Since my means are less to-day than they were yesterday,
and to-morrow will rub off something from the little that is left”
“Nowhere is the effort harder than in Rome, where you must
pay a big rent for a wretched lodging, a big sum to fill the bellies of your
slaves, and buy a frugal dinner for yourself.”
Illegal Immigration
“I cannot abide, Quirites, a Rome of Greeks; and yet what
fraction of our dregs comes from Greece?”
Discrimination
“"Must I not make my escape from purple-clad gentry
like these? Is a man to sign his name before me, and recline upon a couch
better than mine, who has been wafted to Rome by the wind which brings us our
damsons and our figs? Is it to go so utterly for nothing that as a babe I drank
in the air of the Aventine, and was nurtured on the Sabine berry?”
Of all the woes of luckless poverty none is harder to endure
than this, that it exposes men to ridicule.
Decline in Family
"Besides all this, there is nothing sacred to his
lusts: not the matron of the family, nor the maiden daughter, not the as yet
unbearded son-in-law to be, not even the as yet unpolluted son; if none of
these be there, he will debauch his friend's grandmother.”
Unemployment
“For when once he has dropped into a facile ear one particle
of his own and his country's poison, I am thrust from the door, and all my long
years of servitude go for nothing. Nowhere is it so easy as at Rome to throw an
old client overboard.”
These similarities are very interesting. Both our own society and Roman life had many of the same problems. Unemployment runs rampant now, as well as back then. Decline in family life leads to more divorces and problems within the family unit. Inflation and the worth of a dollar was terrible back then as it is now. Discrimination against those of different nationalities and social status was very apparent. Altogether, these two societies have many of the same problems.
I liked what you said about inflation. I had totally missed that part in the reading, though, it is absolutely true nowadays (minus the slaves). Living in a city is enormously expensive and overcrowding is rampant. People pay ridiculous prices to live in a small apartment. I lived on the west side of Los Angeles for a while and could not believe the prices of homes there that would be worth almost nothing in Utah. Purchasing power is also in sharp decline.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Harrison, inflation was one parallel that I didn't really connect within the reading but it is very observant and true. Also, unemployment was a good one you brought up.
ReplyDeleteI like the lines you quoted under the unemployment section, I didn't catch that while reading. It makes me wonder what life would be like for an unemployed person in Rome, it is hard enough for people today so back then it must have been much worse.
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