When in Rome . . . GET OUT!

Sorry Miss Nemesis. I guess our long and glorious tradition is over. I was thinking brain thoughts in my head . . .

. . . well, actually, Lola provided me with a brain thought in the form of a bit of persuasive writing she needed to do for her studies on Ancient Rome. At the risk of upsetting her (this could be done in a couple of ways, actually; 1) the sound of my typing is very upsetting to her--too loud and too fast. Fortunately, she is watching TV with headphones on to drown out the sound of said typing. 2) It may embarrass her if she gets the impression I am making fun of her writing. I'm not. I think it's adorable. Being eleven, she may not be able to tell the difference. Fortunately, she never reads my blog.), I share the piece here, in its entirety.

Roman or Not

Step away from Rome for a second so you can find out their good and bad characteristics, the cruelty they had against others, and what it’s like to be poor.

First, everybody in Rome had a good heart, but they forgot about their good-natured selves when it came to justice and cruel entertainment.

“Look! It’s the richest kid in the world!”

“Yeah, but I bet he’s stuck up. Let’s play ball.” (Richie Rich)

Not all rich people in Rome were snotty and rude. But most were just lazy.

The emperors were probably nice, but were the judges of the very cruel fate of the gladiators. A thumbs-up from the emperor meant, “let him live.” A thumbs-down meant, “kill him.” Have you ever been forced to fight someone or something you didn’t want to? Welcome to a gladiator’s life. They were forced to fight lions and giraffes until one of them died or the emperor called his fate. People’s characteristics really didn’t matter, just their political position.

Next, cruelty was a part of their daily lives—killing, gladiator fights, and unjust treatment. Everybody was doing it (watching gladiator fights), but killing people was very common in Ancient Rome, in gladiator fights.

“Killing Christians is wrong, because they should be able to have their own say in their religion.” (Lola's Classmate)

Caesar was killed by his friends so he wouldn’t become emperor. That’s what I call an unstable friendship. Cruelty was obviously part of their daily lives. Don’t you think they knew any better?

Finally, the poor had a very hard life and rarely had jobs.

“I don’t starve; I don’t think anybody else should.” (John Pinnette, Show Me the Buffet)

Their houses were the grimy streets where the garbage was dumped. Can you imagine living in your week-old garbage?

“Without jobs, people can’t support their families.” (Another of Lola's Classmates)

The poor obviously had a very hard life in Rome.

Now that you’ve stepped back and looked, I think you’ll agree the characteristics, cruelty, and poverty tell you to stay away from Rome.

A couple of quick thoughts: First, I believe part of the assignment was to incorporate at least four quotes in the paper. Hence, the seeming non sequiters in quotation marks. Second, you may be wondering about the giraffes. I did. Cicada did, too. So she did a little research, and it turns out that gladiators actually DID have to fight giraffes. Who knew? Lastly, I just don't think there's anything else to be said, except that if I get caught, you'll be absolutely justified in asking, "Don't you think she knew any better?"