romanvalues.html

ROMAN VALUES

Key Concepts

mos maiorum: "way of our ancestors"

novus: "new"

novus homo: "new man"
res novae: "new things"

Good	Bad
agriculture	business
small family farms	latifundia (large estates)
negotium (occupation)	otium (leisure)
law	philosophy
frugality	luxury, debt
Latin/Roman	Greek
old-time religion	eastern cults
patria potestas	wild youth

gravitas

pietas

fides

virtus (< vir, "male, man")

Transmission of Values: The Family

Genealogy
Death masks and ancestor busts
Tombs & funeral rituals
Nomenclature

Roman Names

Elite Men: tria nomina

M(arcus) Tullius Cicero
Praenomen Nomen Cognomen

Women: feminine form of nomen only

Tullia (Secunda, Tertia etc.)

Slave: single name

Tiro

Freedman: owner's praenomen, nomen + name

M(arcus) Tullius Tiro

Transmission of Ideology: The State

Physical Setting

Forum (temples, monuments, public space)
Historic sites (Rostra, Servian walls, Casa Romuli)
Inscriptions (in temples etc.)

Ritual

Political rituals (elections, trials etc.)
Festival cycle
Triumphs
Theater: fabulae praetextae

Personal Contacts

Literature (literary, historical exempla)

I invite the reader's attention to ... consideration of the kind of lives our ancestors lived ... in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid. -- Livy, preface

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