The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

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The Roman Character: Firm and Righteous Will

The Romans were bound up with the duty laid upon househould and state. Here is to be found the root of that sense of duty which marked the Roman at his best. It might have made him unintersting, but he could become a martyr for an ideal. He did not argue about what was honourable or just; his notions were traditional and instinctive and they were held with an almost religious tenacity. Thus the Roman was hard.

The man of firm and righteous will,

No rabble clamorous for the wrong,

No tyrant's brow, whose frown may kill,

Can shake the strengths that makes him strong

Romans had no sacred writings beyond the formula of prayer; there was no myth-made morality to be undone. The individual's purpose was to establish right relations with the gods, not to speculate about their nature.

The Roman attitude was always the same - Tolerance, provided that no harm was done to public morals and that no attack was made upon the state.