Jauchart

I have read that theater was banned in Rome, but then I keep running across references to Roman theater. Was there theater in ancient Rome? If so, has any of it survived to the present?

I recall reading once a reference by a Roman historian to the effect that Thracian women were allowed sexual freedom before marriage. Can anyone provide a source? Thanks.

Somewhere there is a delicious description of the Roman law by Gibbon, to the effect that it was slow, expensive, obscure, etc. Can anyone help me find that quote? Thanks.

On your question: 2.) What percentage of the population in Rome were slaves? See the string in this forum "Population of empire" started by Jauchart--has some numbers.

Gibbon is reported to have written somewhere something to the effect that "the poor thought religion was all true, the philosophers thought it was all false, and the magistrates thought it was useful." Can anyone help me find this quote? Thanks

Here's a few contemporary descriptions, which give an idea of the condition of the slaves: Diodorus of Sicily (90-21 BCE) the slaves who are engaged in the working of them [the mines] produce for their masters revenues in sums defying belief, but they themselves wear out their bodies both by day and by night in the diggings under the earth, dying in large numbers because of the exceptional hardships they endure. For no respite or pause is granted them in their labours, but compelled beneath blows of the overseers to endure the severity of their plight, they throw away their lives in this wretched manner, although certain of them who can endure it, by virtue of their bodily strength and their persevering souls, suffer such hardships over a long period; indeed death in their eyes is more to be desired than life, because of the magnitude of the hardships they must bear. Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus of Sicily, Loeb Classical Library, translated by C.H. Oldfather, vol. 3, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952, Book V, 37, 38, 199-201. Diodorus went on to provide the following description of agricultural slavery in his native Sicily: The Italians who were engaged in agriculture purchased great numbers of slaves, all of whom they marked with brands, but failed to provide them sufficient food, and by oppressive toil wore them out?. There was a certain Damophilus, a native of Enna, a man of great wealth but arrogant in manner, who, since he had under cultivation a great circuit of land and owned many herds of cattle, emulated not only the luxury affected by the Italian landowners in Sicily, but also their troops of slaves and their inhumanity and severity towards them. He drove about the countryside with expensive horses, four-wheeled carriages, and a bodyguard of slaves, and prided himself, in addition, on his great train of handsome serving-boys and ill-mannered parasites. Both in town and at his villas he took pains to provide a veritable exhibition of embossed silver and costly crimson spreads, and had himself served sumptuous and regally lavish dinners, in which he surpassed even the luxury of the Persians in outlay and extravagance, as indeed he outdid them also in arrogance. His uncouth and boorish nature, in fact, being set in possession of irresponsible power and in control of a vast fortune, first of all engendered satiety, then overweening pride, and, at last, destruction for him and great calamities for his country. Purchasing a large number of slaves, he treated them outrageously, marking with branding irons the bodies of men who in their own countries had been free, but who through capture in war had come to know the fate of a slave. Some of these he put in fetters and thrust into slave pens; others he designated to act as his herdsmen, but neglected to provide them with suitable clothing or food?. Because of his arbitrary and savage humour not a day passed that this same Damophilus did not torment some of his slaves without just cause. His wife Metallis, who delighted no less in these arrogant punishments, treated her maidservants cruelly, as well as any other slaves who fell into her clutches. And because of the despiteful punishments received from them both, the slaves were filled with rage against their masters, and conceiving that they could encounter nothing worse than their present misfortunes, began to form conspiracies to revolt and to murder their masters? Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus of Sicily, translated by Francis R. Walton, vol. 12, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967, book XXIV/XXXV.2.2, 77-81.

I know that consuls, tribunes, etc. were elected by the various popular assemblies, but how were the Senators selected?

I have been told that the conquest of Greece was followed by a vicious witch-hunt of the remaining population to ferret out potential political opposition to Roman rule. Can anyone provide a primary or authoritative secondary source for this? Thanks.

Somewhere Tacitus describes the importance among the German tribes of being close to the king in order to get a share of war booty. Can anyone help me find where? Thanks.

Is there an edition of Gibbon that is currently considered authoritative?

Some historian of the 1970s wrote that Roman peasants, by participating in the Roman army's conquests, were fighting for their own destruction. Can anyone tell me who wrote this and where? Thanks.

Thanks!

I once read (or heard in a lecture) the proportion of the adult male population of Rome that was lost in one day at the Battle of Cannae. Can anyone provide this figure and a source for it? Thanks

The fate of the republic, and then of the empire, is a good example of what happens when economic policy is oriented to serve the interests of the rich--it led to the destruction both of the republic and eventually of the empire as well. Not that our current rulers (or economists) will learn anything from this, but the rest of us can.

Found it...