morten sigurdson
Voivode of Wallachia
Nice movie and book also, like all parts of this story, as well as French history.
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Our Fascination with the Romans, why?
- Thread starter willowfall
- Start date
Ramengmawiaaa
Magistrate
Wait wait you have been crucified?
"I understand your desire to escape but you are my property now and must be severely punished"
Attachments
windar
Teller of Tales
I hope we were sufficiently harsh with you in "Barbary Coast"
. If not, we can try to do better next time
Not in my present life (yet)
Being here on CF is teaching me a lot about my 'true' self -
I think I am (and I'm surprised to find this) really very much programmed
to accept and make the best of whatever situation I find myself in,
and if it requires me to 'serve' in some sense, to try to 'serve' well.
I don't say I'd be happy, I might well be bottling up a lot of anger and resentment,
but that happens in my 'free' life as a modern, 'liberated' woman -
I feel quite deeply that I could adapt to life in such very different cultures,
even to life as a slave in ancient Rome.
I'm not claiming any saintly virtues, far from it,
life has taught me how easily a woman like me can be abused and exploited,
that's (sadly) as true now as it was in the days of the Caesars!
messaline
Crucified Amazon
I hope we were sufficiently harsh with you in "Barbary Coast"
Hum , I dont remember exactelly , but it's in fantasy : see my last Cruxwinds short story , even if I'm very baddly treated , I keep somewhere a fighting'spirit ... I never cant accept totally my fate !
http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/threads/short-crux-stories.6883/page-4#post-397580
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
After decades of living a fantasy in solitude, I also learned a lot about myself too since I am on CF. And there are also similarities with RL, particularly my individualist attitude, which makes me often defy the deterrence of the system I am in.
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Not in my present life (yet)
Being here on CF is teaching me a lot about my 'true' self -
I think I am (and I'm surprised to find this) really very much programmed
to accept and make the best of whatever situation I find myself in,
and if it requires me to 'serve' in some sense, to try to 'serve' well.
I don't say I'd be happy, I might well be bottling up a lot of anger and resentment,
but that happens in my 'free' life as a modern, 'liberated' woman -
I feel quite deeply that I could adapt to life in such very different cultures,
even to life as a slave in ancient Rome.
I'm not claiming any saintly virtues, far from it,
life has taught me how easily a woman like me can be abused and exploited,
that's (sadly) as true now as it was in the days of the Caesars!
I can sympathise with your experience, but I think few western women experience anything like the abuse and exploitation that a slave in Roman times could experience. Life was hard for some free women, and was unimaginably harder for female slaves. Rome was great but very cruel. They were like the Spartans, raised on military discipline and imposing much greater brutality on the ones underneath them.
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
On the point of our fascination with Romans and their crucifixions, Christianity is clearly very important, but we must remember the mark that Rome left on Western Civilization. Language, culture, laws, art, engineering, the list is endless. And remember they had an unequaled longevity of hegemony. The city of Rome was safe from the sacking of the Gauls in 387 BC until the Visigoths in 410 AD - 797 years!
BTW the Romans regarded the date of the Gallic sack, July 18 (ante diem XIV Kalendas Sextilis) as unlucky and wouldn't undertake any important work on that day. Romans were probably the most superstitious people ever!
BTW the Romans regarded the date of the Gallic sack, July 18 (ante diem XIV Kalendas Sextilis) as unlucky and wouldn't undertake any important work on that day. Romans were probably the most superstitious people ever!
willowfall
Senator
Hum, sometimes , I'm not sure of that ... English and Americans beeing dominant here, it appears that they're not always listening what we could think , in particulary for German or French people who have not English like maternal language ... It's difficult for us to express our intimate thoughts and sometimes, more empathy could be welcomed ...
But we tryto be " à la hauteur" ! ("at the good level " )
English (for better or for worse) is a s close as we get to a universal language on this planet. 51% of Europeans who speak a second language speak English so when you toss in the the native English speakers it is the most common spoken language in Europe.
There are some languages that are very heavily spoken around the planet but they tend to be localized. Both Han and Arabic are spoken by hundreds of millions of people but they are not popular 'second' languages outside their native regions.
And quite honestly Messaline, my dear, I have a hard time expressing my most intimate thoughts in English.
For example you really can't describe to a guy what a female orgasm feels like (especially the good ones), the words just don't exist.
Kisses
willowfall
willowfall
Senator
I agree to some extent. Even in Rome, the life of a "western" girl would have been substantially different than a Persian girl. Just as to a Pictish girl, Rome would have been inconceivable.
However, I think I can understand being broken to the will of another, which is essentially what slavery is.
Sooner or later a slave outlives her usefulness, a rebellious one more so. Sometimes my fantasies revolve around being the girl who is being used as an "example" to encourage the rest of the harem to comply.
And let's face it, being raped is being raped or sucking cock is sucking cock no matter the culture of the guy.
kisses
willowfall
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
I am not qualified to deal with how a female orgasm feels (nor good at describing a male one). But I will defend English.
First - English is at root a Germanic language (Anglo-Saxon) therefore has much in common.
Second - the Normans brought significant French vocabulary with them (think Beef versus the AS cow)
Third, English incorporated Latin from the Church and legal class
As a result, English has a remarkable ability to use multiple words for a similar thing. example" Kingly (Germanic), Royal (French), Regal (Latin).
Yes, our spelling and grammar are crazy, but the vocabulary and ability to express complicated ideas is exceptional (second only to Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, the gold standards)
willowfall
Senator
Again I agree, I think our modern culture prevents any of us (women) from understanding that our family might marry us off for a couple of cattle.
Or that the men we interact with everyday would consider it their "reward" for sacking our town as taking us and then walking away.
I had my DNA tested and my mother's family is from southern Italy so a huge chunk of Italo\Grecco genes showed up, no surprise. What was a HUGE surprise was a 10% west Asian (Turkey, Syria, Iraq) cache that showed up. That means that some boy brought home a slavegirl from that part of the world as part of his pay or some girl in my family got raped and impregnated when Islamic raiders were tearing up the Central Med.
I can go to bed at night and get off while fantasizing about my town being attacked, me running, being caught, roughly stripped and raped but it isn't something I actually have to fear on a daily basis.
Never mind being hauled off in a boat and sold in some city I have never heard of.
I, respectfully, disagree with the modern interpretation of the Romans being "very cruel" or Alexander the Great of being a "butcher". We are applying our modern standards to their actions. If we objectively look at what their contemporaries were doing they were grossly out of line.
With of course individual exceptions.
On a personal note I am glad this threat gained some traction. Thank you all for participating.
kisses
willowfall
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
Mostly agree. A few observations:
While I agree it is wrong to expect those of a distant (in time and place) culture to be like ours, we can make comparisons. By standards of Western Civilizations over the last 1,000 years, the Romans were rather brutal. We can make all we want of concussion injuries in the NFL, but it pales when compared with Gladiators in the arena with the crowd cheering for blood. We can disapprove of some actions of modern armies, but few acted like Caesar with the captives of Uxellodunum.
Ave Caesar! (depiction of Alesia, not Uxellodunum, but nice for atmosphere)
And, while everyone is entitled to their own fantasies, it is possible that your west Asian ancestor (either female or male) migrated willingly to Italy and had a happy marriage with a local.
willowfall
Senator
We are going to have to respectfully disagree on this one. I don't not think it would be fair for someone 200 hundred years from now to make a "moral" judgment on my actions unless they are grossly out of line with the norm (say I'm a cannibalistic ax murderer).
Therefore it is unfair for me to "morally" judge those went significantly before.
And as girl who has played tackle football I have one word for those who are all up in arms about head injuries, actually 3 words, couch potato pussies.
No catholic girl in Medieval (at best) Italy was going to marry a non-Catholic. Not a chance. So as soon as I have a working time machine you are going to lose that bet. So how much do you want to owe me?
kisses
willowfall
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
For those who don't know, rather than making you look it up, Caesar had the right hand of every captive male of military age cut off, arm dipped in hot tar, and then sold off as (cheap) slaves.
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
I am very respectful -your knowledge sorta scares me (As does your football background - I was a child wimp!)
But, A west asian from Asia Minor could come from a long line of Christians (albeit Eastern Orthodox) and conversion to Roman church once in Italy was very easy and accepted (heck, they even let Jews convert!)
Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
messaline
Crucified Amazon
In Europe, perhaps but not in France : I should say that certainly less than 30% of French people are currently speaking English ...
Myself, since that I'm at CF, I did some progress , but I stay unable to understand the English spoken language and worst for American'one !
... And like you say :
... Me too !!! French language is so much rich of words to talk about that !!! That's why I said that I've some difficulties, sometimes, to translate and to share my intimate thoughts in English ...
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