Unemployment – Umbricius said “It is no easy matter, anywhere, for a man to rise when poverty stands in the way of his merits: but nowhere is the effort harder than in Rome.” I would definitely change that last word to America.

Illegal immigration – The same issue happened in Rome. People that were rich and well educated were called Romans; they inherited the same rights that romans had. Unfortunately, just like in the present time, this happens just to the people that are influential, while the rest of them, are just barbarians.  

Gun control – The romans had very strict laws regarding homicide; however anyone could have taken revenge by their own hands. We see that anyone could possess a gun for their own protection; nevertheless sometimes people didn’t use the guns for that purpose.

Drug abuse –  I can’t tell if Rome had this same problem. I think that it is very probably that the problem existed but not in the same proportions as today.

Lack of honesty – In Juvenal writings, Umbricius said “Since there is no room for honest callings in this city, no reward for labour; since my means are less to-day than they were yesterday, and to-morrow will rub off something from the little that is left […]”. Sometimes I feel that this is the most accurate description for the times that we are living. Sadly, sometimes all you can say is that “there is no room for honest” things anymore. And Umbricius goes on and exposes the lack of honesty of their governors, he says, “no man will get my help in robbery, and therefore no governor will take me on his staff”.

 

To conclude I just want to point out that social problems have been recurrent and repetitive in the human society. They began a long time ago, and we have never been able to stop them. As far as I’m concerned, the social problems have existed always; the only thing we have done is learn to control and deal with them.

Unemployment – America has been having a lot of ups and downs in its economics. The result of these changes is a changing economy and a feeling of fear and uncertainty towards the future. A lot of people have been fired and the unemployment has been growing over the past years. The problem is that the problem doesn’t seem to be diminishing at all!

Illegal immigration – It’s a very well-known social problem in America. I can even dare to say that this is the social problem of the moment; there are a lot of laws, politics and economics going around this issue. The fact is that America’s reaction and decisions regarding this issue is going to greatly affect it.

Gun control – Recent events have showed us that gun control is an issue in which we should focus our attention. Through very unfortunate events America has realize that guns are not always utilized for their purposes (which are self-defense and protection).

Drug abuse – I personally think that this is a social problem around the world. There’s no country that can be saved from this problem. The drug abuse is not only a health problem, but an economics, and security problem too.

Lack of honesty – Nowadays people are willing to do anything to get what they want. Unfortunately, our society is accepting the fact that as long as you get what you want, the medium to achieve it doesn’t matter. Our society lacks of honest people, with principles and values.

Same-sex marriage – A very new way of thinking ‘states’ that, the more open minded and liberal you are, the more well educated and tolerant you are. The real question is: why are people promoting it? Today is tolerance to same-sex marriage; tomorrow will it be towards pedophilia?

Whenever we hear the word romans our mind instantly begins to brainstorm: war, laws, senate, republic, Julius Caesar, etc. It’s very well-known that the Roman heritage is vast and lasting. Many of their legacy still influences our life, however I’d like to focus my writing to the role of the Roman man and the influence that it has in our days. Do we follow their sketch of a good roman man? What made them so extraordinary?

Through this post I’ll be citing a lot from Polybius and his writings about the Roman Constitution. He did a brief summary of what a good roman should do, he wrote: ‘reverence to the gods, honor for parents, respect to elders, and obedience to laws that are traditional and habitual’ and he goes on ‘for the true test [of a roman] is the power of bearing with spirit and dignity violent changes of fortune’.

Even though Polybius did a pretty good summary, I want to emphasize certain things that, as far as I am concern, were important to the romans. First of all I’m going to discuss what, for me, is the most distinguishing aspect of the Roman men: their highly sense of citizenship. Polybius very accurately wrote: ‘they rated the interest of their country higher than those of the natural ties even with their nearest and dearest’ because they valued the safety of their country and a lasting freedom more highly than their own existence. Roman men were had a real and strong sense of duty to their country and that is what made them magnificent warriors.

Secondly, the romans were really good warriors. This was said to Aeneas several years before the foundation of Rome. It was written that Rome would have the best warriors ever in history. But going deeper, I found that being a good warrior for the roman men was not exclusively about physical strength, but also about defending your principles and beliefs. In the book VI of Polybius we find:

‘Carthaginians have their hopes of freedom ever resting on the courage of mercenary troops, the Romans on the value of their own citizens […] For, as the Romans are fighting for country and children, it is impossible for them to relax the fury of their struggle; but they persist with obstinate resolution until they have overcome their enemies.’

We can see through this passage the true character of the romans. Even when they faced defeat, they renewed the war with undiminished forces and with something to fight for. Their success wasn’t because of their strength, but because the heart they put on every war.

Even more, romans had a very well developed system of customs and laws (the two things fundamental to every state). They knew that ‘honour and punishment held together human society’. That’s probably why roman men were very severe with their judgments and punishments. Roman men understood that a private matter affected the whole people and so, they create this exemplary constitution; a constitution over which countries all around the world have based theirs.

Nowadays we can easily recognize the similarities that Romans had with the Greeks: the art, the myths, the architecture, some of their social structure, etc. Nevertheless, we also find great differences between them. Polybius wrote; ‘the most important difference is in their religious beliefs, it was the very thing that kept them together’. Roman men could handle material things while keeping their faith intact. That, as a matter of fact, maybe something we differ from the romans. We cannot easily separate material and spiritual things as well as they did. Even Polybius said it: ‘men nowadays are acting rashly and foolishly in rejecting the gods’.

I just want to conclude this post by saying that the Roman influence is going to be everlasting. We surely owe them a lot! They set the basis of every civilized culture that has been, that is, and that will be on this earth.

First of all I want to mention a very important similarity that both, the Homer and the Sophocles’ gods, share. The gods that we read about are all mighty gods; whose will dictates mortal’s fate. There is nothing they can’t do or someone they can’t touch.

Homer’s gods are all powerful too, but they act in a different way towards mortals. Several times in the Iliad and the Odyssey we find examples of the physical relationship that mortals had with their gods. Greek’s rituals of death show us how important physical relations were to them, they needed to feel the physical presence of someone to believe and accept something. One clear example of this is when the Greeks and the Trojans fought over Patroklos’ body. Iris told Achilles: “they are destroying each other […] fighting over the fallen body. Your shame, if the body goes from here with defilement upon it.”

Homer portrayed gods that came down to the earth to help and guide their heroes. We see this in several occasions: when Achilles was angry and he was deciding whether he should kill or not Agamemnon, Athene “descended from the sky”, and said “I had come down to stay your anger – but will you obey me? from the sky the goddess Hera sent me”. Athene promised him that if he held his sword back then he’d be compensated. Something similar happened with Telemachus when he was inspired by Athena (“and down she swept from Olympus’ craggy peaks and lit on Ithaca”). The gods also visited Odysseus and Paris, among some others, but they all needed to be obedient and do favors to the gods so that they could have their help. The gods often interceded for their heroes; their fate could change in a blink of an eye.

On the other hand, in the writings of Sophocles, the gods played an abstract role. Oedipus Rex is all about fate, but it is also an affirmation of the gods’ powers. We can see how Apollo’s will is the one thing that controls their lives. Apollo has an unlimited control over Oedipus and his family fate. Through the story of Laius we can conclude that gods’ wills were not changeable or challengeable. He gave away his son in order to avoid the god’s will, and even so the prophecies about his life and his son came all true. From this we can see that the mechanics was simple, you needed to obey gods’ will without hesitation because no matter how hard you tried to avoid it, your fate was already written.

However, the conception that mortals have of their gods is very abstract. They never get to see Apollo or any other god, all they had was the Delphic Oracle of Apollo, which was the shrine were mortals went to consult the priest and priestess to receive advice and/or messages from the gods. What they had was more like faith, and that is because they never had a proof that they were real individuals. Personally, I think that the relation that Sophocles described between men and the gods is a tough relationship. By this I mean that it was much harder for Laius to follow Apollo’s will than it was for Achilles or for Odysseus. Even for us, sometimes it is really difficult to do uncertain things, and that is simply because it is in the human nature to be doubtful and afraid of the unknown things.

After indentifying the similarities and differences that the relationship between mortals and gods had in the ancient times, I would say that we are more close to be a society with Sophocles’ description of this relationship. Nowadays we do not receive visits from God, not because they do not happen anymore, but because God doesn’t minister everyone physically. The fact is that we also count with a seer, a person that receives revelation directly from God and then he communicates it to us. We do not need to see God physically to know that He ministers us. In these aspects I think that we are very similar to Sophocles description, nevertheless I also identify a notorious change. In the time of Oedipus and Laius fate was written; it couldn’t change, you could not avoid it and all that you could possibly do was accept and deal with it. Nowadays we are agents of our own behavior. We can change. Our lives and our destiny are what we make of them. We have the power to act, and that changes everything!

In times like these we need something to cling on. You call it, whether God, Mother Nature, or a supreme power; we need to depend on something bigger and stronger than us. We deeply need God’s guidance and support.