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In the early days of the Republican era, slavery within Rome had just developed, and the level of economic development was relatively backward. During this period, Rome paid attention to morality. At that time, the free people in Rome advocated simplicity, and each family was satisfied with a self-sufficient and frugal life.
The social customs in the early days of the Roman Republic were relatively simple, and it was also manifested in the prevalence of honesty and public service. There was not even a special law to punish embezzlement in Rome at the beginning. When the crime of embezzlement first appeared, people felt it was a very dishonorable thing, and it was considered a serious punishment to be sentenced to return the stolen money.
The ancient Roman historian Livy once boasted when recalling the history of early Rome: "There was never a republic that was more powerful, had purer morals, and had more examples than Rome.
No country has put an end to greed and extravagance for such a long time, has such a high and continuous respect for poverty and thrift, and shows so clearly that people with less wealth are less greedy." Although these expositions are full of praise, they reflect the social reality of early Rome.
The reason why the free people advocated simplicity in the early days of the Roman Republic was closely related to not being separated from labor production. A typical example was the consul and dictator Quintius Kenchinatus in the fifth century BC. When the Aiqui invaded Rome, the government sent a representative to inform him, leading the army to expel the enemy. Now he was plowing the plow in the land of four yogs.
After receiving the order, he wiped off his sweat, put on his robe, and took office. It took only 16 days to defeat the Aikui and then handed over the power of military dictatorship, disarmed, and returned to the fields. Similar to Conchinatus is Guyo Fabrizius, who served as consul twice in 282 BC and 278 BC. After defeating Pylos, he returned to his hometown like other citizens and cultivated seven Jewish fields. A decent portion of land.
Engels once called Conchinatus "a model of true civic virtue and unusually simple and noble selflessness." Since the free people did not break away from labor and production, "the simplicity" and the spirit of enduring hardships were considered the virtues of the free people in Rome. Cato the Elder said that when the ancestors of the Romans praised a good man, they praised him as a good farmer, and those who were praised in this way considered it a supreme honor.
In the early days of the Roman Republic, free people advocated simple morality, which consolidated the city-state system at that time. The city-state is a collective of citizens. It is necessary to continuously strengthen the solidarity among citizens, limit the conflicts between individuals within citizens, and constantly adjust the relationship between citizens to maintain their equal status.
When Marx analyzed the ownership of the city-state, he pointed out: " The premise for the continued existence of this community is the equality among the free and self-sufficient peasants who form the community. " Advocating simple moral concepts and moral behavior will undoubtedly help citizens maintain a relatively equal relationship in the property.
When the Roman state was established in the sixth century BC, it was just a small city-state on the banks of the Tiber River. In terms of foreign relations, it is still in a relatively weak position, and it can only adopt a defensive posture for continuous attacks on hostile forces in neighboring areas. It was not until the middle of the fourth century BC that it turned from defense to offense and embarked on the road of external expansion. However, it took quite a while after that Inside, the opponent is still a strong enemy.
In such a difficult historical environment, the Roman free people were proud of being brave and loyal to the city-state. At this time, the moral obligations of citizens have strict requirements, the first is the obligation to the city-state, the second is the obligation to the family and relatives, and the last is the concern for personal interests. Loyalty to the city-state is both a political requirement and a moral criterion.
Roman citizens believed that only the city-state could give credit, fame, and glory to people. In order to defend the city-state, one should be brave enough to sacrifice oneself. It is said that in 500 BC, a young Roman named Horatis Cocles, who regarded national security and his own reputation as the most important, risked his life to resist the invading Etruscan army. , won the time for the Roman army to finally seize the victory.
In order to protect the interests of the city-state, Roman citizens would rather make sacrifices than maintain a considerable number of troops. When Rome attacked Viai in 479 B.C., 306 men from the Fabia clan volunteered to fight except the baby who stayed at home.
When Appian analyzed the reasons for the rise of the Roman Republic, he attached great importance to the role of frugality, bravery, self-sacrifice and other moral factors. He says: " By prudence and fortune, the empire of the Romans attained a great and enduring position; and when they attained this position, they surpassed all other peoples in valor, endurance, and arduous struggle ".
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In the middle of the second century BC, Rome became a powerful country in the Mediterranean Sea. At this time, with the development of slavery and changes in social relations, the living conditions and social customs of the Roman free people also changed. Due to the accumulation of wealth and contact with Hellenistic countries, the upper class of free Romans gradually became luxurious in terms of clothing decoration, houses, commemorative festivals, and banquets.
The serious problem is that along with the extravagance, the decadent and declining moral concepts of the Greek slave-owner class were introduced into Rome. When Tiberius was in power in the first century A.D., extravagance flourished, and suggestions to limit it were not adopted at all. At a meeting of the Senate, someone proposed that gold should not be used to make tableware and that men should no longer wear oriental silk fabrics, which met with strong opposition.
Tiberius even said that it is not time to correct customs. Tiberius held this attitude because he himself gravitated towards a life of excess. After the third century AD, the luxury of the Roman slave-owner class reached its peak, and their names became symbols of profligacy, dictatorship and promiscuity.
After the first century BC, the idea of carpe diem was quite popular in Rome, and the poet Horatio openly advocated "carpe mement in time" as the way of life. On the stone floor of the Tamgadi city square in North Africa, there are such words: "Field hunting, bathing, games, and laughter are life", and an epitaph is also engraved with "Bathing, drinking, and love, so as to destroy people's health. But it makes life happy."
Sarevian, the bishop of Marseilles in the fifth century A.D., described the life of the slave-owner class as follows: " They feasted hard, forgetting their honor, justice, and the name of their faith. Some governments The chief indulged in lasciviousness, shouted violently, drank to the point of collapse, and completely lost his sanity, which, since it often always happens, can be said to be the normal state of sanity ".
It is not surprising that rich people take pride in luxury and pleasure, but what is serious is that ordinary free people are also contaminated with this vice. After a large number of ordinary free people went bankrupt, they became vagrant proletarians. They got nothing for nothing and lived by society. In the first century BC, Roman scholar Varro once lamented: " All the heads of families like us put down their sickles and plowshares and ran to the city. We waved our hands in circuses and theaters, not in the cornfield and the vineyard ".
The situation was even worse during the Empire when the nomads "spent all night in taverns, and some slept in the shadows of the arcades of the circus... They were throwing dice and quarreling... or they were ignoring the sun from sunrise to dusk." Basking in the rain, staring with open mouth, concentrating on judging the charioteer and the horse, whether they are good breeds or bad breeds".
At this time, the idea of despising labor was widespread. Cicero believed: "The handicrafts by which people sell their labor and their products should be regarded as humble and indecent because whoever sells his labor must sell himself. , thereby reducing himself to the status of a slave".
The wind of extravagance and pleasure is flourishing, with many evil results. It first causes the pursuit of wealth and regards material wealth as above everything else. Levy writes: "There are those who value riches and despise virtue, and think that only great wealth can enjoy great honor and value". The materialist philosopher Lucian also said: "The eyes of the rich are only on gold. Because of their extravagant life, they have rotted like moldy pockets, and cannot contain wisdom, frankness, and loyalty."
In such a social environment, corruption and bribery arise accordingly. In 51 BC, he served as the governor of Sicily and collected two million sesterces within one year. During the civil war, Roman citizens were bribed with money to vote in elections, and some even bribed consuls with 800 talents.
The ancient Roman historian Livy wrote very sadly about the corruption of social morality in the last years of the Roman Republic: "Internal corruption has corroded the vitality of a long-term superior nation", "wealth has brought greed in recent years, and the desire for pleasure Unlimited domination leads men to indulgence, destroying themselves and everything else".
Li Wei regards the increase in wealth as the cause of moral corruption, which is superficial knowledge. In fact, moral corruption is determined by the social system at that time, which is the inevitable result of the development of slavery. The development of slavery, on the one hand, made a large number of free people break away from productive labor, resulting in the idea of despising labor and not cherishing the fruits of labor; The remaining products are completely used to satisfy the hobbies of the rich.
Therefore the production of luxury goods that appeared among the ancient nations was the inevitable result of slavery. The sign of the demise of ancient countries was not overproduction, but overconsumption and crazy consumption that reached appalling and absurd levels
In the later period of the Roman Empire, the deepening of the economic crisis of slavery and the strengthening of the autocratic monarchy not only made the slave owners feel doomed but also made the free people under autocratic rule extremely degenerate, just as Engels pointed out: "At the same time The general demoralization and spiritual decadence correspond to the hopeless situation expressed by the general powerlessness and the possibility of improving the status quo. At this time, on the one hand, the free people in Rome were chasing sensuality and seeking relief from the obscene pleasures of the flesh;
The school of philosophy popular in the Roman Empire after the second century AD was mainly the neo-Stoic school, which openly advocated fatalism and escapism from reality. The founder of this school, Seneca, believed that what governed the natural world was a ruthless necessity, that is, the law of fate, or the will of God.
Advocate that " those who are willing will be led by fate, and those who are unwilling will be dragged by fate ." The philosopher on the throne, Marc Aurelius, raised the relationship of personal subordination to the height of cosmology in " Meditations ".
The materialist philosopher Lucretius of the time was also tainted with sentimentality, and he developed atomism further in his book On the Nature of Things, but under the philosophical title "Foolish Fear of Death", However, death is regarded as a means of relief from earthly distress. He said: " Pain and sorrow must have a bearer, but death cancels the possibility of our feeling and sorrow ".
The historian Li Wei also has the mood of escapism. He felt the powerlessness of eliminating the corrupt social atmosphere and reversing the situation and put himself in the study of ancient history in order to seek spiritual sustenance and comfort. He lamented: "With the gradual weakening of civil discipline, morality has also begun to deteriorate... We have now reached the point where we can neither tolerate these vices nor ban them."
In the later period of the Roman Empire, the pessimism and pursuit of enjoyment of slave owners and ordinary free people went hand in hand. They feel that life is empty and life is insignificant. In terms of entertainment, they appreciate those stimulating or rough sensual pleasures, such as horse racing, gladiatorial fights, animal fights, and vulgar theatrical performances, in an attempt to numb their nerves.
And people love the cruelty of bloodshed and indulge in wine and sex, which is closely related to the psychology of life impermanence. Some large cups used at banquets are carved with the skeletons of Alexander and Socrates, reminding people not to forget that glory is perishable and life is impermanent when enjoying pleasure. On some tombstones, there are words like this: " In my life I was happy, but now I am ashes ."
Engels believed that the Roman Empire after the third century entered a period of total economic, political and moral disintegration. The disintegration of morality both reflected and accelerated the disintegration of the economy and politics, which was an important factor in the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Because people pursued pleasure and luxury, the slave owners engaged in agricultural management used a large number of funds, land, and labor to operate villas with aviaries, hunting grounds, fish ponds, and other pleasures.
As a result, the development of Biezhuang inevitably worsened the conditions of agricultural reproduction, which was an important factor that aggravated the crisis of slavery farms. The evil consequences of the slave owners' pursuit of luxury life are numerous. The expansion of the luxury goods trade also made a large number of precious metals, especially silver, flow abroad continuously, resulting in a trade surplus.
The disintegration of morality must intensify the disintegration of politics. Because moral degeneration makes the ruling class fatuous; it makes the citizens' patriotism and bravery tend to disappear; it also makes the army increasingly corrupt. The pursuit of luxury and wealth, and the desire for ease seriously corrupted the army, which had already been seen during the Second Punic War.
At that time, soldiers were accustomed to idleness, greed, and plunder, and Scipio reprimanded: "You are more like robbers than soldiers. You are fugitives, not defenders of the barracks. Greed makes you more like a gang of vacationers." You are tourists in the midst of a city, not like a besieging army. You look for luxuries when the war is not yet won."
By the time of the empire, Rome's military was even more corrupt. Tacitus once used the mouth of a British chieftain to say that the bravery of the Roman army was far inferior to their usual sensuality. "They had no wives to encourage them to advance and no parents to rebuke them when they fought."
To sum up, from the changes in social morality in ancient Rome, it can be seen that the same class in different historical periods, due to different interests or ways of seeking interests, their moral concepts and behaviors will also be different; The level has a certain influence on the change of morality, but it can never directly determine the level of morality. The main source of determining the change of morality lies in the change of social system and social relations. It should be said that social morality played an important role in the rise and fall of ancient Rome.
