Polybius sought to understand what led the Roman Republic to conquer most civilizations surrounding the Mediterranean sea within a single lifetime. Economic organization, constitutional government, contemporary geopolitics, and luck all had their role in Roman conquest. Still, below, we explore Roman values to understand its unique culture of public ambition better.1 The most significant values which motivated those within the aristocracy (nobilitas) to conquer were as follows: courage or manliness (virtus), ambition for public recognition and glory, and ancestor worship. The synthesis of these could be one explanation for the unprecedented success of Rome’s victories in the 2nd century BCE.
The structure of the Roman military and government informed these values. Roman military service was expected for a citizen after 17. Honors given within the military were a product of one’s exploits on the battlefield.2 Many would even brashly rush to scale an enemy’s wall to receive the honors bestowed by a general upon the first.3 After military service, nobles could enter the cursus honorum, the competition for a series of consecutive offices dealing in finance, contracting, public works, and ultimately leading the military.4 Each was an elected office, so the public expression of one’s image was fundamental to employment in the highest offices. Within many military and republican systems, one can often see these ambitions for public glory, but the Roman Republic uniquely expanded these values through ancestor veneration.5
The unique aspect of the Roman value system, Glories of the Ancestors (maiorum gloria), greatly influenced the pursuit of those mentioned above, virtus and public ambition. We most easily witness a sort of ancestor worship by exploring funeral processions in the Republican period. When a great man died, a lifelike mask would be cast over his face and his body paraded into the Forum and set on the Rostra, where his oldest son would deliver a speech detailing his accomplishments to the masses present.6 During this ceremony, the family would gather the masks of the deceased’s ancestors and parade them in robes as befit the office of ancestors in their time.7 Romans ultimately judged the quality of a funeral by admiring the presence of its ancestral glory.8
After the ceremony, the family would return these death masks to the walls of their home. Such masks were a stimulus to Roman youth to hope to surpass the exploits of their family, for their family.9 The honor of one’s ancestors was such an essential part of an individual’s identity that these were those who went as far as associating their lineage with gods, unrelated heroes, or real ancestors whose exploits are entirely forged.10 A person’s bloodline greatly informed his public life. A nobleman in Rome would either attempt to compete with not only his contemporaries but also his ancestors. By the 2nd century BCE, the glories of old Rome had become legendary, so the exploits of later Romans could only be seen as attempts to transcend the founding myths of Rome.
1. Polybius, 6.1-4
2. Polybius, 6.39
3. Polybius, 6.39
4. Polybius, 6.12-13
5. Sallust The Jugurthine War 4.5 (Loeb trans., modified)
6. The Scipionic Epitaphs (from the translation of E.H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. IV, Loeb Classical Library) (iv.) Lucius Cornelius Scipio
7. Polybius, 6.53-4
8. Livy, Periochae 48
9. Polybius, 6.53-4 & The Scipionic Epitaphs (from the translation of E.H. Warmington, Remains of Old Latin, vol. IV, Loeb Classical Library) (iii.) Publius Cornelius Scipio
10. Cicero, Brutus 62
Alexander to Caesar, The Rise of Rome 