At there times they were the Biggest empire by far.They had organized fierce army,territories that reached eventhe far East.they had cavallary,trade ships...

The Romans considered themselves as civilised, but the question remains: "Were the Romans really civilised?"

They kept slaves, which is definitely uncivilised owing to how they treated them. However, they were careful about germes and bacteria, as they built many aqueducts in Europe to carry water safely and cleanly to their villages. Attention and wealthiness were some of the only things that mattered mu...

The Romans considered themselves as civilised, but the question remains: "Were the Romans really civilised?"

They kept slaves, which is definitely uncivilised owing to how they treated them. However, they were careful about germes and bacteria, as they built many aqueducts in Europe to carry water safely and cleanly to their villages. Attention and wealthiness were some of the only things that mattered much to the Romans, but did they ever stop to think about those poor slaves that they were torturing?

Firstly, the Romans were partly civilised because they were careful about their hygene. For example, corpses weren´t allowed in the Roman city, incase certain places became polluted. They built rich temples for their gods (e.g. Jupiter). No traffic was allowed during the day, so it was much easier to cross the streets without crowds of people around you, and they built the Circus Maximus, which was a great success with the people, as they would do anything for entertainment. Also, the baths were clean, and the children could go in for free. Therefore, the people were also clean. Not all slave owners were cruel to their slaves! Actually, some evidence shows that some slave owners gave their slaves warm clothes or payed for them to have graves. Boys in rich families were taught by tutors or went to school.

Secondly, the Romans were also uncivilised. Not everyone could have a grave after dying. The streets were so busy that you could barely walk without getting hit or thrown to the ground! The Public Baths smelt bad, and the nights were so noisy that you could barely sleep at all, unless you were really rich. To make things worse, the houses were poorly built and they were all crammed together, so fires were very common. There were only kitchens in the rich people´s houses: Poor people had to survive with take-aways or free snacks, and they could afford little meat. Most slave-owners treated their slaves cruelly. They hit them or sent them to Concentration Camps. The Romans enjoyed bloodsport, as they would force Gladiators to fight each other or wild beasts until death. In fact, the Romans would watch this as a crowd, and would cheer as the slaves died. If the Gladiators disagreed to fight, they would get burnt or whipped with steel. Because boys got more rights than girls did, and because boys were said to be stronger than girls, some Roman families wanted nothing but boys. If a woman gave birth to a girl, parents would sometimes leave the newborn baby girl to die outside, alone in the cold. This is not civilised at all!

Finally, I think that the Romans weren´t civilised, because although they tried to be civilised as much as they could in many ways, like being hygenic, rich, intelligent and clean, they couldn´t possibly be truly civilised if they hit slaves, tortured Gladiators for "fun" or left baby girls to die because they were girls!

The Romans might´ve been a little civilised, but in actual fact, they were a bunch of brutes!

if we judge them by current standards of civilization, we can pick on certain details to show them as uncivilized but the fact of the matter was, they were, for their time, highly advanced, technologically, politically (democracy), philosophically, artistically...
a hundred years from now, even our most advanced nation states today may be seen as uncivilized (wars, religion, exploitation etc...).
it's all about context....

if we judge them by current standards of civilization, we can pick on certain details to show them as uncivilized but the fact of the matter was, they were, for their time, highly advanced, technologically, politically (democracy), philosophically, artistically...
a hundred years from now, even our most advanced nation states today may be seen as uncivilized (wars, religion, exploitation etc...).
it's all about context.

They were crude and indulgent by the Hellenistic standards(Greek and its spread east) and thieves predisposed to mimcry by everyone elses standards with exception to the barbarian invaders.So any semblence of civilisation was procured from other civilizations.The only reason they succeeded was by military ingenuity of "if you can't beat them, copy what we've been beaten by abd try again.If you can't beat them with their own stuff, copy and add in someone elses. That strategy has been responsible for Romes ascension...

They were crude and indulgent by the Hellenistic standards(Greek and its spread east) and thieves predisposed to mimcry by everyone elses standards with exception to the barbarian invaders.So any semblence of civilisation was procured from other civilizations.The only reason they succeeded was by military ingenuity of "if you can't beat them, copy what we've been beaten by abd try again.If you can't beat them with their own stuff, copy and add in someone elses. That strategy has been responsible for Romes ascension while other powers failed to utilize intelligence to update fighting modes of other regions.
Remeber, Rome was not the pre-eminent power of the Italic Peninsula until ~2nd cent BCE and they lost it by 500 CE. The true civilized power of duration were the Etruscans who were advanced to the point of grand architecture, refined art and design and coleges(religious, living lavish lives and strongly controlling foreign contact from trade by denying them land(forcing Greek and Carthaginian trade posts on islands offshore, maintaining their isolation and sovereignty.Women had freedoms never compared in the world to come except possibly on the Steppes of Pre-caucusoid horse tribes.
They flourished in 1000BCE until Rome overan Etruria at the 2nd cent They lasted in power a solid 700 years or more, longer than Italic Rome.
The Romans copied their styles and architecture, govt systems along with those of the Sabines.They were vassalated by the Celts and abandoned their infantry style, adopting Iberian swords and others pilaispears)Then they borrowed Phalanx from the Greeks, copied all their naval from the Carthaginians cavalry techniques from the Numidians and and continued their copy cat methodology even towards comparative dieties with Greece, Etruria and others.(Romans initially never worshipped anthropomorphic dieties, just forces of nature or events.But it worked, mainly because they adapted to a changing world of force and instability, secure in their bounds, where , if not immediately confronted by Rome, the other countries lay within the paths of the ever waxing and waning flow of East to West migratory invasions oscillating out phased with the North to south migrations which have gone on for all recoeded history and evidence as far back as 8000BCE..
So were they civilized? Yes in some manners, mstly copied, but they were more so organized rather than civilized. Organization and efficiency gave them the edge.For civility, they first utilized Etruscan, then got wealthy enough to rent a Greek philosopher until they conquered Greece. Their civility was tied to their new Club Med-Greco. From then on Lady Rome existed in parts in variance as an eclectic shopping cart lady while other parts declined into nepotistic incompetance and amoral excess. In note, with regards to women, they never achieved the degree of cility as other more worthy cultures.
Rome became a puppet carved in others countenance, holding it's own strings.