The Old Roman
The old Roman
distrusted individuality and genius.
He had none of the charm, vivacity, the unstable fluency, of the Attic Greek.
He admired character and will as the Greek admired freedom and intellect.
Organization was his forte.
He lacked imagination even to make a mythology of his own.
He could with some effort love beauty,
but he could seldom create it.
He had no use for pure science,
and was suspicious of philosophy
as a devilish dissolvent of ancient beliefs and ways.
He could not for the life of him,
understand Plato, or Archimedes, or Christ.
He could only rule the world.
—excerpt The Story of Civilization by Will Durant Vol III
One thought on “The Old Roman”
Hmmm! Reminds me of George Lakoff’s notions about liberal and conservative within the context of The Strict Father versus The Nurturing Parent. The Greeks were the nurturing parents and the Romans were the strict fathers. So how did that go over in the long run?