So let’s return to our main line of thought. The Romans put more practicality, discipline, and efficiency into the Athenian values and morés they borrowed. They built roads, bridges, and aqueducts of great size and engineering sophistication by employing knowledge they had learned from the Greeks, mainly the Athenians, and from their own neighbours, the Etruscans (or Tuscans). Similarly, in other areas such as war, law, medicine, and agriculture, the Romans achieved practical successes unmatched in their times.

   

                                                        Etruscan scene (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

In addition, it is important to note that the Roman republic, as cruel as it could be to outsiders, was dearly loved by Romans. They were citizens of a democracy. They were a family. They truly thought that they deserved to rule because there had never been any state like Rome. It had been chosen by the gods to be specially gifted and destined. The state religion said so. The Aeneid said so. Thus the Roman world view, by a direct chain of logic, assigned to the Romans the most important role that had ever existed in the history of the world. For them, their gods did not rule them and their universe with cruelty. Instead, for generations, the Romans were certain of where they stood: clearly, the gods (later, God) loved Rome.

                                           

   

                 glory days of ancient Rome (Thomas Cole) (credit: Wikimedia Commons) 

This worldview produced an Athenian kind of patriotism because it was built around a model that gave democratic rights and duties to all Roman citizens, or at least all “true” citizens, namely adult Roman males who owned property. There were aristocratic families, as had been the case in almost all previous states, and these folk were accustomed to the idea of privilege. But there were also plebeians, and they too were full citizens with rights to vote, run for office, have a fair trial if they were charged with a crime, and so on. How could one not love such a country? What would one not endure for her?