Veyne, Paul. "Pleasure and Excesses in the Roman Empire." The Roman Empire Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1997. 101-116.
When people think of Roman culture, they see the violence, the lust, and betrayal of one another. This perception is due to the influence novels and movies and televisions shows depicting such actions. However, like most revolving around the past there is more to cultures of the Roman people. To prove that Rome’s culture is not how it seems, historian Paul Veyne published “Pleasure and Excess in Roman Empire” to explain to the audience more about the culture they are not fully aware of in the article. But how well does Veyne’s explanation in his book hold any weight and do explain these facts rather well?
At a first glance of the story Veyne seems to organize his topic paragraphs topically and breaks them down before moving to the next subject much like a formal essay. For example in his first paragraph to his second, Veyne writes about the same topic but turned into different subcategories. The only sources that Veyne uses are from his own book “Pleasure and Excesses in the Roman Empire” as seen on the top of the page. Since the information comes from Veyne’s own knowledge, which would make everything he’s writing about questionable. However since he was able to get the book published by such a highly regarded institute such as Harvard University, there is a high amount of trust that his claims are true. There was a bibliography in the first page and as for footnotes there were many. The footnotes were very helpful especially since there are many unfamiliar words and historical figures could be unknown to the reader.
The author of this article, Paul Veyne , a French historian ...
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...the question to ask one’s self is if Paul Veyne’s writing style and readability in the article help or hinder it. The first impression of his style of writing beginning decently in his introduction and was especially helped when he used a quote. This helps getting the reader’s attention up and makes them look forward to reading the onward. Veyne’s body paragraphs however are kind of messy. On the positive side they display the information needed each of his topic nicely but they are transitioned into feels off-putting. His conclusion is decent but at the same time it feels like he’s going to another topic. So the question still remains, does Veyne’s style of writing suitable enough to prove his point? Well, if he changes the structure of his paragraph to make them move more fluidly, then Veyne’s paper would be an excellent read, but for now it’s only decent at best.
In contrast to the publicity spin of today’s tabloids, ‘losers attract notoriety,’ (Fear, 2008, p, 6) Roman society was no different with one’s reputation of paramount importance and continually defended. Antony and Cleopatra’s union was ammunition for Octavian and propaganda used against the couple in their pursuing battle of Actium. (Fear, 2008, p.7.)
While the early 2nd century is usually considered to be the height of the Roman Empire, closer examinations reveal a deteriorating state hiding behind a façade of power and wealth. As modern day historian C. Warren Hollister described, “life in Rome’s ‘golden age’ could be pleasant enough if one were male, adult, very wealthy, and naturally immune to various epidemic diseases. But if this was humanity’s happiest time, God help us all!” (14). Living during this time period, Cornelius Tacitus perceived of the rust slowly consuming through Rome’s golden shine. He writes, “the destinies of the Empire have passed their zenith,” predicting the end of an era 300 years before it occurred (33). He makes this conclusion based on observations of a deterioration of loyalty to the Empire due to weakened patriotism and societal values. His criticisms on the flaws of the Empire are interwoven into the text of his Germania, some being obvious while others are more discreet.
Livy’s The Rise of Rome serves as the ultimate catalogue of Roman history, elaborating on the accomplishments of each king and set of consuls through the ages of its vast empire. In the first five books, Livy lays the groundwork for the history of Rome and sets forth a model for all of Rome to follow. For him, the “special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behaviour set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to emulate, from it what to avoid, whether basely begun or basely concluded.” (Livy 4). Livy, however, denies the general populace the right to make the same sort of conclusions that he made in constructing his histories. His biased representation of Romulus and Tarquin Superbus, two icons of Roman history, give the readers a definite model of what a Roman should be, instead of allowing them to come to their own conclusion.
Morey, William C. "Outlines of Roman History, Chapter 19." Forum Romanum. 1901. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
“To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practiced, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature.”
Livy. The Rise of Rome: Books One to Five. Trans. T. J. Luce. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
Skinner, Marilyn B. "The Archaic Age: Symposium and Initiation." Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005. 58-99. Print.
Antony Kamm ~ The Romans: An Introduction Second Edition, Published in 2008, pages 47, 93
entertainment was cruel and brutal it satisfied the Roman's need for excitment and relaxation. In
... Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Hopkins, Keith. A. A. Death and Renewal: Sociological Studies in Roman History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983 Johnston, Harold Whetstone. The Private Life of the Romans.
3)Dionysius, Earnest Cary, and Edward Spelman. The Roman Antiquities. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1937. Print.
Juvenal uses the satire genre to broadly critique the Roman culture and other forms of writing. The common thread which ties these objects of Juvenal’s criticism together is that they are displays of Roman overabundance and greed.
Did you know that the Romans are the most powerful nation in human history, conquering the world and no nation could have stop them from becoming the greatest nation. But the Romans didn’t think of all the practices that were going on at that time. The Romans were totally different before they adapted the some of the practices of the Greek which changed their nation completely, which made them superior than other nations. Firstly, I would like to talk about how the Roman culture were the complete opposite from the Greek before they started to adapt their cultural ways, and how they started to take in practices that are used in everyday life. Secondly, I would like to talk about the cultural difference between the Greek Empire and Roman Empire
In particular, he examines how the “slow formation in antiquity of a hermeneutics of the self” (pg. 6) set the process for morality being conceived of having a fundamental relationship with human self-formation as an ethical subject (pg. 28). In order to demonstrate his thesis that there is a relationship of transfer of the ideas and practices that posit the individual as an ethical subject of sexual conduct between classical antiquity and Christianity (pg. 32), Foucault presents a number of textual examples from Greek philosophers and medical practitioners from the 4th Century BC (pg. 12). He structures his genealogy through engagement with and discussion of these texts, which he examines using the baseline notion of pleasure. In this historical analysis, he attempts to reveal the authors’ and texts’ attitudes towards sexuality as a domain of
Berkove, Lawrence. “‘Roman Fever’: A Mortal Malady.” CEA Critic. 56.2 (1994): 56-60. Edith Wharton Society. 30 September 2009. Critical Response. Web. 11 March 2014