From sotiris@hermesnetwork.com Sat May 20 23:55:10 2000 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.05/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id XAA37328 for ; Sat, 20 May 2000 23:55:09 -0700 Received: from sungod.ccs.yorku.ca (IDENT:Xj4ibJ3c9MpAh1xXMmTL8NQGW1626AAE@sungod.ccs.yorku.ca [130.63.236.104]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id XAA16897 for ; Sat, 20 May 2000 23:55:09 -0700 Received: from 5ptak (lombard07.slip.yorku.ca [130.63.184.79]) by sungod.ccs.yorku.ca (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id CAA09411 for ; Sun, 21 May 2000 02:55:04 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <000201bfc2f1$2971e460$4fb83f82@5ptak> From: "Sotiropoulos" To: Subject: Romans... cruel? Date: Sun, 21 May 2000 02:50:54 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0015_01BFC2CF.619F1E60" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_0015_01BFC2CF.619F1E60 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable James M. Pfundstein wrote: "This seems a little reductive. What evidence is there that Rome had a particular and defining "imperative to be cruel" that would justify a comparison to the Nazi police state, or even (less inflammatorily) the relatively short-lived empires of (neo-)Assyria and (neo-)Babylonia? = There was cruelty in Rome, as indeed there is in every human culture (human beings being what they are). " James, I would think that the existence and popularity of gladiatorial = spectacles throughout the Roman Empire pretty much sums things up in = this matter.=20 Sotiris Sotiropoulos A Proud Canadian!=20 ------=_NextPart_000_0015_01BFC2CF.619F1E60 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

James M. Pfundstein wrote:

"This seems a little reductive. What = evidence is=20 there that Rome had a
particular and defining "imperative to be = cruel" that=20 would justify a
comparison to the Nazi police state, or even (less=20 inflammatorily) the
relatively short-lived empires of (neo-)Assyria = and=20 (neo-)Babylonia? There
was cruelty in Rome, as indeed there is in = every human=20 culture (human
beings being what they are). "

James, I would think that the existence = and=20 popularity of gladiatorial spectacles throughout the Roman Empire pretty = much=20 sums things up in this matter.

Sotiris Sotiropoulos

A = Proud=20 Canadian!

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