What Would You Be In Roman Society....

[Cyrus]

Legatus Legionis: Anicetus

[The Wolf]

A Centurion fighting alongside Caesar in Alesia.

[Favonius Cornelius]

A rich and unknown merchant living somewhere nice and isolated, say Sicilia, Africa, Sardinia? Or perhaps somewhere in the east.

[Violentilla]

I hope you don't think this as odd, but I would have probably been a brothel or bar matron. I'm at my best when I have something to be in charge of. Also, I can't see myself being in the upscale part of town, I'm more of a down to earth person.

 

There are also parts of me that want to be a Vestal, or on the opposite side of the spectrum, a gladiatrix!

 

I guess it depends what day you ask me.

[Sextus Roscius]

Interesting view on life Violentilla. Personaly working in a brotherel doesn't sound to fun to me but what ever suits you. I'm glad to know at least one person followed along my path with being a rich merchant of a not incredible prominate stature.

[Germanicus]

I would be a slave trader, and would sell to you at the brothel Violentilla.

[Favonius Cornelius]

Interesting view on life Violentilla. Personaly working in a brotherel doesn't sound to fun to me but what ever suits you. I'm glad to know at least one person followed along my path with being a rich merchant of a not incredible prominate stature.

 

The times be ugly, best to not have a name at all! With a little money you could live like a king in ways totally unlike these modern times.

[Virgo Vestalis Maxima]

As a female I suppose I wouldn't have much of a choice, the paterfamilias would most likely end up marrying me off as soon as possible. But if I could choose, I would want to be a vestal virgin. I'd probably end up being celibate for the rest of my life or face being buried alive ... what a pleasant thought. But on the bright side, I'd be able to bake a lot of mola salsa and at least I would get some damn respect!

[Favonius Cornelius]

As a female I suppose I wouldn't have much of a choice, the paterfamilias would most likely end up marrying me off as soon as possible. But if I could choose, I would want to be a vestal virgin. I'd probably end up being celibate for the rest of my life or face being buried alive ... what a pleasant thought. But on the bright side, I'd be able to bake a lot of mola salsa and at least I would get some damn respect!

 

Well actually, widowed women had many legal rights through most of Rome's history. You might like to be the widow of a rich merchant, in complete control of your household and property somewhere nice!

[Skarr]

The life of a vestal virgin must have been pretty hard, I would imagine. Some women, of course, would have the Roman version of 'fun' as the rich Roman youth flooded the city during summer. The Romans were strict and brought up their youth under the control of pedagogues or 'tutors', usually expensive, learned Greek slaves. Because of this long bottling up, on their free days, these youths would roam in gangs and terrorize the common folks, who were advised to stay inside. There was no police and it was every family for themselves. However, it must have been a pretty tame affair as most youth came from fairly conservative families and I think it must have looked like a 50's social during the Republic. However, instead of dancing, they would probably just have music and sex. You could say that it was a different time then and today's standards would seem out of place in those times.

 

The youth would roam unchallenged, fight, harass any passers by and all you would hear the next day is some senator condoning the wildness of youth and remembering his own days, a rite of passage that existed then. I would imagine that on most nights, it must have been pretty unsafe at nights with these wild youthful gangs of aristocratic youth. The lupanar would have been a rough place, unless you had ex-gladiators and armed guards to control the wild, snobbish youth. It's a wonder that the HBO guys haven't thought up an episode with the aristocratic sons of the city, who acted as if Rome was their playground at night. Of course, some of the youth were so rich that they already had their private homes and mistresses on the side and not necessarily patrician either. Some of the freedmen became really rich and many of them were clients of Marcus Licinius Crassus, who made his fortune from being the biggest landlord. Owning blocks of insulae were his primary cash generator, which he leveraged with other investments in Egyptian stone quarries and mines, latifundiae and other interests - shares and stock in a number of shipping companies. The main opposition was from pirates, who were defeated by Pompey.

 

A learned mathematician would have been worth his weight in gold as a slave and sought after by people like Caesar, who needed such men to extrapolate simple calculations and figure out probabilities and other decisions as he had to constantly balance the lives of his men with the objectives of the mission or campaign and his own safety.

 

Caesar roughed it out with his men, there's no question about it. The current "Rome" series doesn't show this simple soldier side of Caesar, the man from the Subura, the common man in Rome who would not balk at spending some time in the ditch, digging along with other soldiers. He would march along with his men for long periods, not traveling by either horse or litter and take rests and breaks only when his men wanted to and never insisted, not once over the instructions of his centurions. He was well liked by all the centurions, who were the first line of battle and always, you wanted your best men in front.

 

The fact that in all his accounts, Caesar mentions only two centurions by name, Vorenus and Pullo, makes the Rome series a little more interesting. They must have been two worthy men who attracted his notice through their bravery on the field. There is no better place to judge a man's true character than in the thick of battle, when he is about to lay down his life for his commander. It must be a strange feeling as I'm sure that even after all these years, we have very few men of the caliber of Caesar coming along.

[longbow]

Some type of engineer,building aqueducts and bridges all across the empire i love the manpower and the scale of the engineering in Rome.

I love the Roman army but i wouldnt fancy life as a legionarie,too much marching and discipline for the likes of me

[Hamilcar Barca]

Trading merchant, living up the good life in pre-79 Pompeii.

[suetonius]

I would like to be a soldier. Even though there is an element of risk involved, I would love the excitement of visiting distant lands and seeing history unfold before my eyes.

 

By the way, if I had to chosse a time period, I would choose the late empire. I would love to defend Catholic Rome from a barbarian hordes.

[Stefan Kruithof]

I'd want to be a scholar under August, in his circle of trusted friends and from a wealthy family I'd probably be spending my time with writing history and philosophy.

[Pertinax]

Id like to try my own job to see if there is much difference in materia medica or the emotional and physical problems of the patients-medical herbalist. I think id pop in and visit Hamilcar in pre79 ad pompeii and check out the bars .