How the Abandonment of the Roman Virtues Led to the Downfall of the Empire
“Values” are the glue that holds a society together. In the absence of shared values a society becomes like a cancer, the constituent cells turning against each other at the expense of the organism that gives them life. In modern Western societies values have been traditionally conferred through religious traditions. Such was the case in the Roman Empire—until it wasn’t.
The Birth of the Virtues
Ancient Rome’s societal values were conferred through a list of virtues, both civic and personal, each of which was associated with a Roman god. For example, Clementia, the Roman virtue of mercy, was associated with Clementia the Roman goddess of leniency, forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. The Roman virtue of Veritas (Truthfulness) was associated with the Roman goddess of truth who also happened to be the mother of Virtus, the god of bravery and military strength and the personification of the Roman virtue of Virtus (Manliness), which to the Romans meant valor, excellence, courage, and character.
The Roman Virtues emerged during the early republic (509-27 BC) and were a reflection of the mos maiorum (literally, the way of the ancestors). In due course, philosophers like Cicero codified them into a list of as many as twenty-five distinct virtues, including Honestas (Honesty), Humanitas (Humanity), Dignitas (Dignity), and Firmitas (Strength of Mind).
The trouble started when Cicero decided to rank them in order of importance.
How the Virtues Became Distorted
Cicero deemed Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Temperance the Cardinal Virtues, implying the others were somehow of lesser importance, and therefore less worthy of consideration.
Long term, the unintended consequence of this arbitrary rating system meant that anyone with enough “Gravitas” (the Roman virtue of responsibility and earnestness) could rejigger the order to suit their purposes, which is exactly what Julius Caesar did, prioritizing Manliness, Courage, Dignity, and Piety as the most important.
Caesar’s emphasis on piety was interesting because it related directly to his political ambitions. “Piety” to the Romans encompassed duty not only to the gods, but also to the family, and, most tellingly, to the state. Caesar was a populist with designs on becoming dictator. By emphasizing duty to the state, Caesar was actually emphasizing duty to himself. The Roman Virtues had become political tools by which authoritarians could bend the people to their will.
Caesar’s successor, the shrewd politician Augustus, solidified his own hold on power by emphasizing the virtues of Mercy, Justice, and Piety, implying that anyone could get a fair shake from him as long as they honored and obeyed him. And so it went, one autocratic emperor after another distorting the sacred virtues of their forefathers in order to encourage the societal behaviors that benefited them most.
How the Virtues Lost Their Credibility and Were Abandoned
To remain relevant a society’s values must be self-reinforcing for the public as a whole. That is to say, if a person behaves in the prescribed manner, he or she must feel the benefits for him or herself. If not, he or she will begin to question the values imposed on them and rebel.
As long as the emperors provided peace, stability, and prosperity, the people of Rome accepted the values imposed on them by the Virtues, but as the Empire spiraled ever deeper into war, upheaval, and economic hardship, the people balked. Virtues like honesty, frugality, and hard work were viewed as tools of repression used to keep the gullible down. Corruption spread. By the beginning of the 4th century AD it had gotten so bad that the Roman Virtues had lost their credibility as a moral code.
This paved the way for a new set of values to come to the fore. In 313 AD Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, and within a generation Christianity exploded across the Empire becoming one of the fastest growing religious conversions in history. The Romans were hungry for a new moral code, a new playbook to live by, and Christianity provided it.
Why Christianity Failed to Save the Empire
Unfortunately, Roman Christianity came with many of the same contractions baked in. From the start it was hierarchical, with an elite group of privileged people at the top and a rule book that applied differently to those who held power than those who did not. This was not an innate characteristic of early Christianity, which was democratic and inclusive at its core, but a carryover from a corrupt Roman system that gave the Church its new shape and contours the same way a coat is filled out by the person wearing it.
Christianity had the opportunity to reintroduce sacred Roman virtues in a newer more democratic form and restore a sense of responsibility to all its citizens in pursuit of a greater good, but it didn't do that, and for a very good reason. For the Church to win the favor of the Roman political elite it had to play by the existing rules. Thus, the cynicism that had undermined the previous moral code infected the Church as well. In due course, Roman society collapsed, and along with it the Empire as a whole.
When the Glue Lets Go
The tragedy is that the Roman virtues are sound. They are universally recognized human values that, if lived by, virtually ensure a good life. Who could argue, for example, that Innocencia, the Roman virtue of selflessness, which entails giving to others without anticipation of recognition or reward, and includes a strict prohibition on corruptibility, is a net societal good as well as a balm to each individual's soul. That such a virtue should become corrupted to the point where it becomes scorned and rejected is sad. But that’s what happened to Rome.
Every successful society needs a common set values to live by, a moral code that benefits all equally and helps each person to become a better human being. The Roman virtues were the glue that held Rome together. When they lost their binding power, the Empire fell apart.
