This Roman empire has to hate Elon Musk – Diepresse.com

« Our only concern is to rummage through the earth in many ways … May the high -flying spirit consider what the whole will end when it is exploited in all the centuries. By where will our greed be entered? » No conservationist of the 20th or 21st centuries asks that, but Pliny the older one. Later he came about in the course of the Vesuv outbreak, of all things he, who thought natural disasters for possible outbursts of anger from a abused mother earth …

Was this Roman scholar a forerunner of today’s ecological thinking? The proximity to the present, of course also suggested by today’s terms in the translation, should not be overestimated. Pliny, as the German old historian and old philologist Karl-Wilhelm Weeber emphasized in his book « when Rome was not yet ancient », emphasized moral concerns. For him, natural exploitation was a symptom of materialism and hedonism. But with his representation of mining as a « rape » of a nature regarded as a divine nature, he finds at least approaches to ecological thinking. Of course, there were no consequences in ancient Rome. The militaristic rhetoric, which prevailed in speech about nature, also shows that Cicero was much more representative for the perspective of ancient Roman elites: he praised the « unrestricted rule » of man about the natural and its ability to « create a second nature within nature ».

Rome’s downfall – a men’s obsession?

In the light of the respective contemporary interests, the Roman antiquity always looks a little different. Well, only if the guides and lights are specialists, more entertaining people. Especially today, since many of themselves, joking or less joking, claim: « I think of the Roman Empire Every Day. »

Three years ago, this statement was only expected from historians, old philologists and archaeologists. However, since the question « How Often Do You Think About The Roman Empire? » In 2023 it became a joking social media trend, that has changed. The question in question was addressed by women to men: internal occupation with the Roman Empire as a male thing?

At least the internal occupation with its decline and end. Elon Musk, currently the front man of all those who think « every day of the Roman Empire », sees a main reason for this in the sunken birth rates (for today’s scientists one of many factors) – and draws parallels to today’s USA. This and the interest of other American rights in the fall of the old Rome makes it an extremely lively thing at the moment. The trend on social media has calmed down, which had the searches explode for months and even affected tourism in Italy. However, interest remains at a high level.

The best conditions for those who actually not only think of Roman antiquity every day, but also know more than most in the world-such as the Karl-Wilhelm Weeber, which specializes in social history in ancient Rome, among other things. Similar to the renowned British old historian Mary Beard, he also shows how popular science books on Roman antiquity, where there is truly no shortage, can still open up new aspects again and again. Because a few times of ancient history have been researched and researched to the smallest ramifications through their legacies, and so much interest in the West still arouses so much. This makes the connection between current questions and more extensive research that is still progressive today.

The 19-year-old Nero: member of a hooligan clique

Weeber, for example, picks up the readers of his new book, for example, with questions about the dealings of ancient Romans with sexual minorities or people with disabilities, with the topic of animal welfare or the living together of « people with a migration background » and « bioreems » (or those who stayed for this). « When Rome was not yet antiquity » leads to all sorts of phenomena of everyday life behind the magnificent cover, mainly from the first two centuries of the Empire, in the city of Rome itself and especially beyond the elite phenomena. Sometimes cross and below: For example, when you get to know the 19-year-old Nero as a participant in Rome’s streets made uncertainly at night …

To stay on the subject of migration: Rome, as « asylum village » – because the fabulous founder of the city, Romulus, called for his small village for demographic reasons for « asylum », for all, also for half -silent existence: « Everyone flee here – and you will be safe! » In the imperial period, this village had grown into the « Migrantopolis » (Weeber). Even though many authors of the elite were called the « Mos Maiorum », the « custom of the forefathers », the Roman citizens were also an ethnically colorful bunch under Emperor Augustus, with ancestors from Greece and Asia, Egypt and Africa, Spain and Gaul, rarely also from Germania and Britain. Yes, this « Civitas » by Rome was probably dominated by descendants for compulsory people, according to Weber. Because « city slaves had good prospects of being released after a few years or decades. Most of them remained as a released person with a lower legal status in the capital. However, their sons received full Roman civil rights; they were Cives. »

Both religious and ethnic diversity were considered completely natural. When there was a wide -ranging Greek, it was not the ethnic group, but the social phenomenon of successful, envy -awakening upstart. And as long as the emperor was paid for the emperor (which the Christians refused, for example), you could believe what you wanted. Jews also only harvested shot about their foreclosure and their religious peculiarities. Philosopher Seneca, for example, found it senselessly and irresponsible to « lose almost a seventh of life through idleness with an every week of rest », and the Sabbath rest called a « laziness rule ».

Animal welfare? For old Romans, of course, a foreign word. But Weeber’s conclusion on animal husbandry (of course with huge empty spaces that research may never fill), is surprisingly positive: « On the whole, the animals also had a lot of spout and enjoyed the courtyards and enjoyed them with specially trained staff, » writes Weeber. « Pay attention to hygiene and watched that the stocks were spared as possible by diseases – for the sake of one’s own profit, but also in the sense of a species -appropriate attitude. Roman veterinary medicine was at a comparatively high level. » And with victims it was common to numb the animals before killing. « It can be assumed that this practice was just as common in large slaughter animals such as pigs, cattle, goats and sheep in non -religious slaughterhouse. »

The Romans as a forest killer?

And what about the ancient Romans as forest killers? Are the many creaked mountain areas in the Mediterranean a result of their blindness? Weeber, who, decades ago, with his book « Smog about Attika » as one of the first to raise environmental protection in ancient Rome, has a clear answer: no. The greatest deforestation was created in the 19th century. « Only the mechanization of modern times and the construction of railways have made this extermination campaign possible. »