Higher Earlier Roman Moral Standards
By Graham Fitzpatrick
Livy on Rome’s decline
In his “The Early History of Rome”, the Roman historian Livy (59 B.C.-17 A.D.)
wrote: “These, however, are comparatively trivial matters and I set little store by them. I invite the
reader’s attention to the much more serious consideration of the kind of lives our ancestors lived, of who
were the men, and what the means both in politics and war by which Rome’s power was first acquired
and subsequently expanded; I would then have him trace the process of our moral decline, to watch, first,
the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old teaching was allowed to lapse, then the rapidly
increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, and the dark dawning of our
modern day when we can neither endue our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them. The study
of history is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of
human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your
country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and
through, to avoid.
I hope my passion for Rome’s past has not impaired my judgment; for I do honestly believe that
no country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds; none has
been free for so many generations from the vices of avarice and luxury; nowhere have thrift and plain
living been for so long held in such esteem. Indeed, poverty, with us, went hand in hand with contentment.
Of late years wealth has made us greedy, and self-indulgence has brought us, through every form of
sensual excess, to be, if I may so put it, in love with death both individual and collective.
But bitter comments of this sort are not likely to find favour, even when they have to be made.
Let us have no more of them, at least at the beginning of our great story. On the contrary, I should prefer
to borrow from the poets and begin with good omens and with prayers to all the host of heaven to grant a
successful issue to the work which lies before me.” 1
Livy also recorded: “…then let him note how, with the gradual relaxation of discipline, morals
first gave way, as it were, then sank lower and lower, and finally began the downward plunge which
has brought us to the present time, when we can endure neither our vices nor their cure.
What chiefly makes the study of history wholesome and profitable is this, that you behold the
lessons of every kind of experience set forth as on a conspicuous monument; from these you may choose
for yourself and for your own state what to imitate, from these mark for avoidance what is shameful in the
conception and shameful in the result…Of late, riches have brought in avarice, and excessive pleasures
the longing to carry wantonness and licence to the point of ruin for oneself and of universal
destruction.”2
Moral standards during the era of the Roman Republic
It would be foolish to suggest that the moral or ethical standards of Romans in the years
of the Roman Republic (509 to 27 B.C.) were equal to Christian Biblical standards. But it is true
that the morals of many Romans during at least the 200’s and 100’s B.C. of the Republic years
1
2
Livy, “The Early History of Rome”, 1. 1. – Preface – Before the Foundation.
Livy, “The Early History of Rome”, Book 1,
9-12.
were generally of a much higher standard than they were during the later period when Rome
was ruled by Emperors.
Plutarch on Cato the Elder
The Greek historian Plutarch wrote much about Marcus Cato (234-149 B.C.), the
Roman senator, general and consul. Cato the Elder represents the highest standard of pagan
Roman morality during the years of the Roman Republic.
Plutarch also records the following about Cato: “He used to say that a man who beats his
wife or child is laying sacrilegious hands on the most sacred thing in the world. He considered that it was
more praiseworthy to be a good husband than a great senator, and was also of the opinion that there was
nothing much else to admire in Socrates of old, except for the fact that he was always gentle and
considerate in his dealings with his wife, who was a scold, and his children, who were half-witted. When
his son was born, Cato thought that nothing but the most important business of state should prevent him
from being present when his wife gave the baby its bath and wrapped it in swaddling clothes. His wife
suckled the child herself and often did the same for her slaves’ children, so as to encourage brotherly
feelings in them towards her own son.” 3
The Roman Senate opposed the spread of the Bacchic cult
The Roman historian Livy records that in 186 B.C., the Roman Senate dealt very
severely with the spread of the Greek cult of Dionysius or Bacchus, the pagan god of wine,
fertility and prophecy. This was a time when Cato the Elder had much influence in the Roman
Senate. Livy recorded: “VIII. The following year diverted the consuls Spurius Postumius Albinus and
Quintus Marcius Philippus from the army and the administration of wars and provinces to the
suppression of an internal conspiracy…There were intiatory rites which at first were imparted to a few,
then began to be generally known among men and women. To the religious element in them were added
the delights of wine and feasts, that the minds of a larger number might be attracted. When wine had
inflamed their minds, and night and the mingling of males with females, youth with age, had destroyed
every sentiment of modesty, all varieties of corruption first began to be practiced, since each one had at
hand the pleasure answering to that to which his nature was more inclined. There was not one form of
vice alone, the promiscuous matings of free men and women, but perjured witnesses, forged seals and
wills and evidence, all issued from this same workshop: likewise poisonings and secret murders, so that
at times not even the bodies were found for burial. Much was ventured by craft, more by violence. This
violence was concealed because amid the howlings and the crash of drums and cymbals no cry of the
sufferers could be heard as the debauchery and murders proceeded.
…Then Hispala set forth the origin of the mysteries. At first, she said, it was a ritual for women,
and it was the custom that no man should be admitted to it. There had been three days appointed each
year on which they held initiations into the Bacchic rites by day; it was the rule to choose the matrons in
turn as priestesses. Paculla Annia, a Campanian, she said, when priestess, had changed all this as if by
the advice of the gods; for she had been the first to initiate men, her sons, Minius and Herennius
Cerrinius; she had held the rites by night and not by day, and instead of a mere three days a year she had
established five days of initiation in every month. From the time that the rites were performed in common,
men mingling with women and the freedom of darkness added, no form of crime, no sort of wrongdoing,
was left untried. There were more lustful practices among men with one another than among women. If
any of them were disinclined to endure abuse or reluctant to commit crime, they were sacrificed as
3
Plutarch, “Marcus Cato the Elder” 20, 2-3
victims. To consider nothing wrong, she continued, was the highest form of religious devotion among
them. Men, as if insane, with fanatical tossings of their bodies, would utter prophecies.
…When both witnesses were thus available, Postumius laid the matter before the senate,
everything being set forth in detail; first what had been reported, then what he himself discovered. Great
panic seized the Fathers…The senate, moreover, decreed that the consul should be thanked because he
had investigated the affair both with great industry and without creating any confusion. Then the
investigation of the Bacchanals and their nocturnal orgies they referred to the consuls, not as a part of
their regular duties; they directed the consuls to see to it that the witnesses Aebutius and Faecenia did not
suffer harm and to attract other informers by rewards; the priests of these rites, whether men or women,
should be sought out, not only at Rome but through all the villages and communities, that they might be at
the disposal of the consuls; that it should be proclaimed in addition in the city of Rome and that edicts
should be sent through all Italy, that no one who had been initiated in the Bacchic rites should presume to
assemble or come together for the purpose of celebrating those rites or to perform any such ritual. Before
all, it was decreed that an inquiry should be conducted regarding those persons who had come together
or conspired for the commission of any immorality or crime. Such was the decree of the senate…when
the consul had finished the regular formula of prayer which magistrates are accustomed to pronounce
before they address the people, he thus began: ‘…As to the Bacchanalia, I am assured that you have
learned that they have long been celebrated all over Italy and now even within the City in many places,
and that you have learned this not only from rumour but also from their din and cries at night, which
echo throughout the City, but I feel sure that you do not know what this thing is: some believe that it is a
form of worship to the gods, others that it is an allowable play and pastime, and, whatever it is, that it
concerns only a few. As regards their number, if I shall say that there are many thousands of them…there
are men very much like the women, debauched and debauchers, fanatical, with senses dulled by
wakefulness, wine, noise and shouts at night. The conspiracy thus far has no strength, but it has an
immense source of strength in that they grow more numerous day by day…Do you think, citizens, that
youths initiated by this oath should be made soldiers? That arms should be entrusted to men mustered
from this foul shrine? Will men debased by their own debauchery and that of others fight to the death on
behalf of the chastity of your wives and children?…never has there been so much evil in the state nor
affecting so many people in so many ways. Whatever villainy there has been in recent years due to lust,
whatever to fraud, whatever to crime, I tell you, has arisen from this one cult. Not yet have they revealed
all the crimes to which they have conspired…’ XVII. Then they ordered the decrees of the senate to be
read and announced the reward to be paid the informer if anyone had brought any person before them or
had reported the name of anyone who was absent…When the meeting was dismissed there was great
panic in the whole City, nor was this confined only to the walls or the boundaries of Rome; but gradually
through all Italy, as letters were received from their friends concerning the decree of the senate,
concerning the assembly and the edict of the consuls, the terror began to spread. Many during the night
after the day when the revelation was made in the meeting were caught trying to escape and brought back
by the guards whom the triumviri had posted at the gates: the names of many were reported. Certain of
these, men and women, committed suicide. In the conspiracy, it was said, more than seven thousand men
and women were involved…XVIII. But so numerous were the persons who had fled from the City that,
since in many instances legal proceedings and causes were falling through, the praetors Titus Maenius
and Marcus Licinius were compelled, through the intervention of the senate, to adjourn court for thirty
days, until the investigation should be finished by the consuls. The same depopulation, because at Rome
men whose names had been given in did not respond or were not found, compelled the consuls to make
the rounds of the villages and there investigate and conduct trials. Those who had merely been initiated
and had made their prayers in accordance with the ritual formula, the priest dictating the words, in which
the wicked conspiracy to all vice and lust was contained, but had committed none of the acts to which
they were bound by the oath against either themselves or others, they left in chains; upon those who had
permitted themselves to be defiled by debauchery or murder, who had polluted themselves by false
testimony, forged seals, substitution of wills or other frauds, they inflicted capital punishment. More were
killed than were thrown into prison. There was a large number of men and women in both classes.
Convicted women were turned over to their relatives or to those who had authority over them, that they
might be punished in private: if there was no suitable person to exact it, the penalty was inflicted by the
state. Then the task was entrusted to the consuls of destroying all forms of Bacchic worship, first at Rome
and then throughout Italy, except in cases where an ancient altar or image had been consecrated. For the
future it was then provided by decree of the senate that there should be no Bacchanalia in Rome or Italy.
If any person considered such worship to be ordained by tradition or to be necessary, and believed that
he could not omit it without sin and atonement, he was to make a declaration before the city praetor, and
the latter would consult the senate. If permission were granted to him, at a meeting where not fewer than
one hundred were in attendance, he should offer the sacrifice, provided that not more than five people
should take part in the rite, and that there should be no common purse or master of sacrifices or priest.” 4
The above reveals that in 186 B.C., the Roman Senate did not approve of adultery,
homosexuality and sex before marriage among free Romans. It is possible that this Bacchic
movement was the first major outbreak of homosexuality in the Roman Republic.
In 173 or 155 B.C., the Romans banned the Greek Epicurean
philosophers
The ancient Greek writer Athenaeus records that in 173 or 155 B.C. when Lucius
Postumius was consul, the Romans banned the Greek Epicurean philosophers from Rome. At
this time, the Romans did not like the Epicurean worship of pleasure. Athenaeus stated: “And
Epicurus, again, says: ‘The beginning and root of all good is the satisfaction of the belly, and all wise
and exquisite things have in this their standard of reference.’ And in the treatise ‘On the End’ he says
again: ‘We should prize the Good and the virtues and such things as that, provided they give us pleasure;
but if they do not give pleasure, we should renounce them’; by these statements clearly making virtue the
minister of pleasure, and occupying the station of a handmaid. In another passage he says: ‘I spit upon
the Good and those who fruitlessly admire it, whensoever it causes no pleasure.’
The Romans, therefore, the most virtuous of men in all things, did a good job when they
banished the Epicureans Alcaeus and Philiscus from the city, in the consulship of Lucius Postumius,
because of the pleasures which they introduced.” 5
This also occurred during the time Cato the Elder had great influence in the Roman
Senate.
Livy, “History of Rome”, Book 39, VIII, 1-2 and 6-8; XIII, 8-12; XIV, 3-9; XV, 6-10 and 13-14; XVI, 2-3; XVII,
1-2 and 4-6; and XVIII, 1-9.
5
Athenaeus, “Deipnosophistae”, Book 12, 546d-547a.
4