Should we admire the Aztec and Roman civilizations for the empires that they built?

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Description by Tacitus on the Rebellion of Boudicea, from Tacitus’ Agricola [In 60-61 AD the Roman General Suetonius attacked the island of Mona off the coast of Britania (Great Britain) to stop a revolt by the Icenians.]

[Causes of Boudicea’s revolt]

“Prasutagus, the late king of the Icenians, in the course of a long reign had gathered considerable wealth. By his will he left the whole to his two daughters and the emperor in equal shares, hoping, by that stroke of policy, that he should provide at once for the safety of his kingdom and his family.”

“The event was otherwise. His dominions were ravaged by the Roman guards; the slaves pillaged his house, and his effects were sized as lawful plunder. His wife, Boudicea, was disgraced with cruel stripes; her daughters were ravished, and the most illustrious of the Icenians were, by force, deprived of the positions which had been left to them by their ancestors. The relations of the deceased king were reduced to slavery.”

Document 2:

Gill, N S. "Roman Slaves." About: Ancient Classical History. 2006. The New York Times Company. 21 Dec. 2006

Roman society depended on many slaves to do much of the work in society.

agaso - groom factor - poultry fattener atriensis - steward genus ferratile - chain gang auceps - fowler holitor - market gardener auri custos - jewelry attendant ianitrix - doorkeeper bubulcus - ploughman messor - reaper calator - footman nuntius renuntius - messengers cantrix - singer nutrix - nurse cellarius - storekeeper obstetrix - obstetrician cistellatrix - wardrobe keeper opilio - head shepherd coquus - cook paedogogus - children's chaperon cursor - messenger pastores - shepherds

Messenio, a slave, soliloquizes: “Well, this is the proof of a good servant: he must take care of his master's business, look after it, arrange it, think about it; when his master is away, take care of it diligently just as much as if his master were present, or be even more careful. He must take more care of his back than his appetite, his legs than his stomach---if he's got a good heart. Just let him think what those good-for-nothings get from their masters---lazy, worthless fellows that they are. Stripes, fetters, the mill, weariness, hunger, bitter cold---fine pay for idleness. That's what I'm mightily afraid of. Surely, then, it's much better to be good than to be bad. I don't mind tongue lashings, but I do hate real floggings.” -- Plautus, Menaechmi, Act V, Sc. 4.

Document 3:

Source: William Stearns Davis, ed., Readings in Ancient History: Illustrative Extracts from the Sources, 2 Vols. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1912-13), Vol. II: Rome and the West, pp. 179-181, 232-237.

In great buildings as well as in other things the rest of the world has been outdone by us Romans. If, indeed, all the buildings in our City are considered in total, and supposing them---so to say---all thrown together in one vast mass, the united grandeur of them would lead one to imagine that we were describing another world, accumulated in a single spot. – Pliny the Elder (75 AD)

Document 4:

Source: Bernal Diaz del Castillo, J.M. Cohen, translator, History of the Conquest of New Spain, London: Penquin, 1963.

After having examined and considered all that we had seen we turned to look at the great market place and crowds of people that were in it, some buying and others selling so that the murmur and hum of their voice and words that they used could be heard more than a league [three miles] off. Some of the soldiers among us who had been in many parts of the world, in Constantinople, and all over Italy and in Rome, said that so large a market place and so full of people, and so well regulated and arranged, they had never beheld before.

Note: Bernal Diaz accompanied Hernan Cortes and the other conquistadors on the 1519 encounter with the Aztecs. He wrote an extensive and informative journal of the experience.

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