The author goes on a bit about how Rome lost its values and this was the beginning of the collapse. That's fair enough since the Romans spent a good amount of t

The author goes on a bit about how Rome lost its values and this was the beginning of the collapse. That's fair enough since the Romans spent a good amount of time telling each other the same thing. But it's a mistake to apply what we think today to how they felt about things. One of the things the Romans lamented was the fact that after the Greek conquest, some Romans were taking to using beds at night! Beds! Every real Roman slept on the ground, where it was natural. Likewise with the "Horrors of the Colosseum". We think of the animal acts as horrendous -- and they were, to us. To Romans, who knew death on a much more personal level, it was entertaining but not profoundly obscene. (Can you imagine what it would be like to live in a huge city in Roman times without modern medicine? You had to pass dozens in the street every day either dying or almost dead) They were not without standards. In the history of one of the Christian martyrs, Perputua, there's a story of women stripped naked and put in a net -- in order for the animals to take them. The crowd was horried, however. Why? Because one of the women had just given birth and was still producing milk. So they demanded she be clothed, she was, and the animals proceeded to destroy them all.* The Romans were a bloodthirsty bunch, for sure. But they did have what they considered to be high moral standards. Those standards just don't match up to the ones we have today. (I'm not trying to make a case for relative morality, simply pointing out that you have to learn and accept the Romans in their own terms. Otherwise you'll be making all kinds of assumptions that simply aren't true) 1. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/perpetua.html http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/... * Also interesting was that the Romans selected female animals to kill the women. Because of course that was the right thing to do.