Young Writers Society

My latest fantasy project is going to be set in a blend of Greece and Roman cultures, and I need some specifics ironed out.

Senate/Bureaucracy
Temple rituals (Including how the priests/priestesses were selected and what they did/how they lived)
Daily life
Universities/schools of knowledge (And their organization)
How Philosophers lived (This is key to the bulk of my story.)
Anything else you can think of about the culture/organization of Greece and Rome minus military history and mythology. I can take care of those myself.

Again- I do not need military history or mythology. I have enough books on the subject.

Thanks in advance!

Rosey Unicorn wrote:My latest fantasy project is going to be set in a blend of Greece and Roman cultures, and I need some specifics ironed out.

Senate/Bureaucracy
Temple rituals (Including how the priests/priestesses were selected and what they did/how they lived)
Daily life
Universities/schools of knowledge (And their organization)
How Philosophers lived (This is key to the bulk of my story.)
Anything else you can think of about the culture/organization of Greece and Rome minus military history and mythology. I can take care of those myself.

Again- I do not need military history or mythology. I have enough books on the subject.

Thanks in advance!

Righto, let's see what I can give you off the top of my head.

POLITICS

There are two legislative bodies, the Senate and the Council of Tribes (check that name, I know it has 'Tribes' in the name). The Senate was mostly responsible for running day-to-day activities in Rome, handling the little issues and such. These public works were handled by Adiles, as well as a few other positions that I cannot remember now. All of these positions are elected, except for the Senate.

To be a Senator, you must be placed on a list of potentials after years of service. Oftentimes retired Consuls and other high positions 'retired' to live out the rest of their life in the Senate. Consuls were the two people similar to executive positions in the United States government. They had more direct power, but were very far from Kings and did NOT have the powers that Presidents do. Being a Consul gave tremendous Auctoritas (honor for service) and also granted Imperium for the rest of your life, Imperium being the right to command an army.

The Council (or something) of Tribes was responsible for making laws. This was made mostly of Plebians, I believe (the social class of landowners who were not descended directly from the founders of Rome, and were thus not Patricians). Every year there were chosen ten Tribunes, with the power to suggest and veto laws (note: actual vetos were uncommon. Usually the Tribune would stand up as a warning, the speaker would call a recess and consult with the Tribune about the problems he had with the law and ways to fix it in order to gain the Tribune's support). The Council of Tribes met to actually go through and consider proposed laws for one week every year. The Tribunes were literally considered the voice of the people, and to even stand in his way was a crime. He was a walking warrant; he could stroll into your house and start flipping through your books if you want to.

The goal of a Roman man's life was to work his way up the ranks of the government, a process called the Cursus Honorum. By working up from (some lower positions I can't remember) to Adile, and by serving on some thirty military campaigns, most men sought the position of Consul in their life. This was the path of Auctoritas. I believe that the VERY EARLIEST age at which one could possibly become a Consul was in the low forties, possibly forty-three. Very few people (a number which includes Augustus, I believe) managed his feat.


Interesting side-note: The Senate could not meet on a day when there was thunder. The keeper of the Senate building (whose name I cannot remember, but the Senate could not meet without his unsealing the building) continually claimed to have heard thunder when Julius Caesar was rising to power, as an attempt to keep the man from taking more control. Obviously, after several days of 'sunny thunder', he was politely but firmly asked to open the damn Senate already.


Again, this is a very boiled down and not 100% concise representation of the government.

TEMPLES

Temples were state-run. Neighborhoods had a community temple that a group of men would upkeep in shifts. Romans weren't strongly religious in a devout belief sense, much like the Greeks by this time, but they kept festivals and rituals.

The top position in the religion was the Pontifex Maximus, who presided over all major religious ceremonies, including weddings in some (or most) cases. There was also some limitation it gave, which is why Sulla made Caesar Pfx Mxms at one point, but I cannot think of it now.

I'll throw in daily life here, as it's short. The workday of Rome was much like ours, except that at midday every single citizen went to the Baths, where they cleaned, ate, and mingled. The process is quite lengthy, and some of the processes quite fascinating. As it plays a pivotal role in daily life, you should spend some time familiarizing yourself with it.

PHILOSOPHY AND SUCH

There were two major schools: Plato's Academy, which tended to deal with more ethical, abstract issues, and Aristotle's Why-In-God's-Name-Can't-I-Think-Of-The-Name, which dealt with geometry, and other more practical ideas.

Philosophers tended to live like everyone else. Heh. Some, like Socrates, lived off of a stipend for their military service. Others had jobs, or funds, etc. You shouldn't take my word for it, though.

The predominant philosophy of Rome was Stoicism. Learn it, love it.

The predominant 'philosophy' of Greeks was actually not the Pantheon, by later periods. A number of 'Mystery Religions' were dominant. They pretended to worship a particular Greek deity, but once you got past all the smoke and mirrors they said "Look. We think there's only one God, and yadda-yadda-so-on". Look up the cult of Dionysus, there's a breathtaking metaphor about how the relationship between God and his creation is like a Winemaker with the creation of wine. Great stuff.

Many educated Greeks sold themselves into slavery, working for a wealthy Roman family. They would teach the children, and would even sometimes be allowed to teach the children of other families (with pay, and with his owning family's permission). It was a good deal, as the 'slave' got free room and board and was treated with respect. When all the children had been taught, the Greek was usually freed, and often adopted into the Roman family.

This should get you started.

Oh, and obviously the Politics part is ROMAN government. If you have any questions about anything specific, whether I've touched on it or not, ask away and I might be able to help you out.

EDIT: AH, I remembered the limitation of the Pontifex Maximus: he was not allowed to leave Rome. Although Caesar told that rule to go screw itself, of course.

And because I have no shame of triple posting, here's the full Cursus Honorum.

1. Military service: 10 years
This could be just about anything. Oftentimes, the man would serve under a family member or friend. This 10-year requirement was not always rigidly enforced.

Note: everything after this is, I believe, an elected position.

2. Quaestor: 20 of 'em.
Had to be 30+ years old (early Rome allowed Patricians to subtract 2 years from that and all other age requirements). In charge of things like financial affairs for Rome, assistants to Governors, and were in charge of organizing major festivals.

3. Aedile: 4 of 'em.
36+ years old, previous Quaestor. 2 were Patrician and 2 were Plebs. Oversaw public works, temples, and markets. Mostly food and water, upkeep of public buildings, etc.

4. Praetor: Number varies (6-8 during Republic)
39+, previous Aedile or Quaestor. Served in a judicial and governmental capacity. There were two "awesome" Praetors. The one I remember is the Praetor Urbanus, was the chief judge in Rome.

5. Consul. Talked about it.

6. Governor, or Proconsul.
Retired Consuls could rule a province, neat. They got (unfortunately) a five-year, blank-check, no-questions-asked rule. Led to a lot of corruption--look up what happened to Sicily, where (I am not joking) the Proconsul literally stole almost everything not nailed down.

7. Censor - end of the line.
Eighteen-month terms, elected every five years. Took the census (DURR), divided up voting districts and classes, enrolled new citizens, and added names to the Senate (or could remove unworthy Senators). In charge of constructing new public buildings. This position was destroyed by the dictatorship of Sulla (a little bit before Caesar's time).

ZOMG ROSEY! Why didn't you ask me? XD

Kang227 gave oyu a ton of info, so I'll just expand on some things.

Temple rituals (Including how the priests/priestesses were selected and what they did/how they lived)

Hmm. I'll tell you about certain priests/priestesses instead. Some very important ones were the Vestal Virgins. They were very famous and honored in Rome. They were often invited to the houses of social elites. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses to Vesta (in Greek, Hestia) who kept the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta going. They believed Rome would fall if the fire went out.
When a Vestal Virgin become one, she had to no older than ten, I believe. She had to (you guessed it!) be a virgin. The position lasted many years. They wore their hair in the same style as a roman bride -- corn rows. Yes, their hair was braided into six braids. Lovely image, correct?
Here's a fun tid-bit: To test if the Vestal Virgins remained, er, chaste, there was a special ritual they had to perform.
They were given collanders/buckets with holes in them. They had to get water from a rive (probably the Tiber) and not spill a drop. If the water spilled, it meant they had dishonored their oath. Then, they were buried alive with enough food and water for three days.

I'll add more later.

Be back soon!

Tee hee. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I'm home sick with an ear infection (very fun!), so I'll get right to it now.

School

In early time, education took place at home. Mothers taught both sons and daughters until the age of seven. After that, the girl's education moved more toward housework while boys recieved lessons such as farming, because, obviously, a girl could never be good at that, right?

Wealthy children often learned Greek. A Roman was not considered educated without knowledge of it. Roman houseolds often kept an educated Greek slave who taught the children Greek as well as other things. In some families, girls were educated as well.

Not-as-wealthy children could go to a sort-of public school, where they were taught to read Latin and Greek just like wealthy children, but the process took much longer.

Children were accompanied to school by a trusted slave called a paedagogus (pie-duh-gog-us). The paedagogus was often so trusted that they became like a member of the family, and were often set free by their masters in gratitude.

Children wrote on wax tablets (tabula) with a stick-like writing utensil (stylus) which could be scratched into the service to produce writing, and then erased. At this primary school, students were often wrapped on the knuckles if they misbehaved.

The next step, for boys 12-15, was a sort of secondary school with a teacher called a grammaticus. Students often studied Greek and Roman literature -- during the empire, studying the Aenied was a staple.

About 16, boys studied public speaking and debating with a raetor. This schools were very expensive, and only the wealthiest attended.

Finally, I'm wondering why you want both Greek and Roman culture. The golden age of Greece was not remotely close to the Golden Age of Rome. By the time Rome was powerful, Athens was a wreck and the Greek city states were falling apart. Rome eventually conquered Greece.

Mostly, it's the city-state politics I want, and the original roots of universities. However, now that I see just how much the Romans perfected/stole things, I'm changing my mind.

That helped a ton, though. Thanks!

All you really need to know about city states in Greece is that they were always at war. Greece was basically in a permenant civil war.

Governments in city states varied. You've heard of Athenian democracy, but it wasn't as good as most people think it was. Plato himself said democracy was the worst form of government to live under. Sparta had a "democracy" as well, although it comprised as opposing groups shouting, and the loudest got their way. They were quite proud of this.

Good luck,
Antigone