Comments | erudito: Barbarism and Righteousness

erudito

Barbarism and Righteousness

Sep 22, 2005 18:28

Constantine was the first Christian Emperor of Rome. He was also the first Emperor to ban gladiatorial games in 325AD. Given the long transition from the pagan to Christian, such games did not finally peter out until the 450s, with the last known gladiatorial games in Rome itself being in 404. Thus ended a tradition that is recorded as having ( Read more... )

history, gay

Comments 20

pollyanna_n September 22 2005, 08:47:19 UTC

This is a deeply stupid view. Let us suppose the average married couple is married for 25 years, has sex once a week and gets pregnant 3 times. That is once per 433 sex acts. So, something which occurs in a fraction of one percent of cases is the purpose of the act ( ... )

Informed erudito September 22 2005, 13:25:01 UTC

This is why one posts on LJ. So people who know things can tell you said things.

2 year intervals works for me. Presumably, however, folks did not, even in peasant societies, just have pregnancies whenever. They certainly couldn't have done so in hunter-gatherer societies.

(The comment has been removed)

Re: Informed erudito September 23 2005, 01:49:28 UTC

Perhaps strong social taboos? The pattern in some Oz Aboriginal cultures of young women marrying older men and widows marrying young men would both allow transmission of knowledge and keep the birthrate down.

The difficulty with hunter-gathering is you have to carry everything, including young kids. Even in places where the food supply was so rich one could be sendentary, children would have to be supported. (Agrarian societies can support much higher populations than hunter-gathering, that's essentially farming's only advantage from which all else flows.)

Given the resource-investment human babies represent, control of reproduction has to be practised to allow a group to persist.

Thread 6

curufea September 22 2005, 23:10:22 UTC

Gladiatorial games may have BECOME what you say, but they started off as funereal rites.

Indeed erudito September 23 2005, 00:41:25 UTC

But how things start and how they later evolve can two very different things.

One of the striking things about the Colosseum, perhaps the most striking, is that, in many ways, it was the most astonishing architectural achievement of the Ancient World, a building of both grandeur and operational complexity. Yet it was built, not as a site of rulership, not as a site of religious worship, not as a tomb representing the interaction between the two, but for entertainment. When one compares it with other great buildings of the ancient world, that is a radical departure.

Re: Indeed curufea September 23 2005, 00:46:49 UTC

I do think that the entertainment industry is aptly named an industry :)

I've been watching the HBO Rome series as well. It's nice to see a series set around the time of Julius Ceaser, which DOESN'T have the Colosseum in it - because that was built hundreds of years later :)

Re: Indeed erudito September 23 2005, 01:38:18 UTC

Well, 130 years later (by the Flavian dynasty) but yes.

Thread 11

martinlemechant September 23 2005, 16:35:23 UTC

Yeah...the Catholic church may be confused, but you must admit....the Swiss Guard are cool.

Good show erudito September 23 2005, 23:08:07 UTC

Indeed, the Catholic Church has always been good a good show.

Barbarism and Righteousness anonymous September 24 2005, 16:07:10 UTC

Shhhh-hhhh, don't start a discussion on "sex for reproduction only", I fear that my husband and I may be arrested for 'failure to reproduce'. You see We have been married for over 30 years nd have produced only 2 children!
Jos

Re: Barbarism and Righteousness erudito October 5 2005, 05:14:43 UTC

Shame on you :)

And how they get around post-menopausal sex ...

It really is too silly for words.