Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [31]
Moreover, Romans were surprisingly willing to absorb the traditions, knowledge, and practices of other peoples if they found them useful. “The main reason for the Romans becoming masters of the world was that, having fought successively against all peoples, they always gave up their own practices as soon as they found better ones.” This attitude was particularly evident when it came to the Greeks, whose cultural superiority the Roman elites generally acknowledged. Having conquered the Mediterranean, Rome proclaimed itself the cultural heir of ancient Greece. Rather than encouraging Roman nationalism or ideas of Roman uniqueness, emperors such as Hadrian would often talk of membership in an overarching Greco-Roman civilization.
Like the Greek civilization on which Rome modeled itself, the Roman Empire was centered around the city, or polis. Everywhere the empire expanded, Romans built new cities, many of them with Roman names and Roman architecture. While drawing heavily from Greek literature, painting, sculpture, and architecture, Roman culture also created some popular features of its own, such as gladiatorial shows and wild beast hunts. Roman civilization was a cultural fusion—typically combining not just Greco-Roman but provincial and local elements as well—that proved deeply attractive to the elites from across the empire.
All educated Romans were fluent in Greek as well as Latin and grew up reading the great Greco-Roman epicurean and stoic philosophers. As a result of this shared education, by the second century AD the upper classes of Africa, Italy, and Spain had much more in common with each other than they did with the slaves and peasants who farmed their food and tended their flocks. Over time, the empire ceased to be stratified across ethnic lines; cultural and ethnic divisions were replaced by socioeconomic ones.19
Significantly, while successfully exporting Greco-Roman culture, Rome did not try to extinguish local languages or traditions. On the contrary, the reality on the ground was enormous linguistic and cultural diversity. Although Latin was the official language throughout the empire, Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, Celtic, and Berber dialects all continued to be spoken. In Africa, Punic could still be heard until the time of St. Augustine. The empire's great cities, such as Rome or Alexandria, were as polyglot and pluralistic as New York or London today.20
A critical piece of Rome's cultural formula was the enticement of Roman citizenship. To pacify its defeated enemies, Rome held out the olive branch of citizenship, and for centuries this strategy helped hold the empire together, allowing it to expand to the edge of the known world.
At its core, citizenship signified that someone was a member of the elite, and it guaranteed a certain level of protection, both from imperial officials above and from the masses below. The rights accorded citizens changed over time, but in general Roman citizenship meant the right to vote; the right to hold property and make contracts; freedom from torture; special protections from the death penalty; and equal treatment under Roman law. The Greek orator Aelius Aristides observed, “[Y]ou have divided into two parts all the men in your empire…and everywhere you have made [Roman] citizens all those who are the most accomplished, noble, and powerful people,…while the remainder you have made subjects and the governed.”
One telling story about Roman citizenship comes from the New Testament. As recounted in the Book of Acts, Roman magistrates ordered