Manius Curius Dentatus, the hero of the third Samnite war and the conqueror of King Pyrrhus of Epirus (275 BC), allegedly boiled his own turnips and said that he preferred to defeat those who had gold, rather than having it himself.
During the great conquests, the Romans apparently had some reason to feel superior to other peoples. After all, they had to fight either with tribes that were inferior to Rome in their development, or with peoples that had gone much further than Rome along the path of civilization - the Greeks and Etruscans. The weakness of the latter before the onslaught of Rome was due to the fact that they resisted him one by one. In addition, a higher level of development inevitably leads to the complication of relations in society, to the aggravation of contradictions in it. Therefore, the internal troubles that the Greek and Etruscan cities experienced did not allow them to offer worthy resistance to Rome. Rome, however, did not yet know the power of money and wealth, and its certain "backwardness" during the wars with the more developed, but weakened by internal struggle, the Greeks and Etruscans turned into its strength.
After the end of the struggle between the patricians and the plebeians (287 BC), a polis type of state was finally formed in Rome, the same as in Greece. Every citizen of the Roman community had the right to a land plot and a share in military booty. All citizens were equally responsible before the law, and it was impossible to turn a citizen into slavery for debts. The National Assembly was the highest electoral and legislative body. But ordinary people practically could not occupy the highest position in the state and gain access to the senate. The political system of Rome had a pronounced aristocratic character. All power was in the hands of the nobility (nobility), which carefully guarded the magistracies and the senate from the penetration of people of humble origin.
Rome itself was the highest value for a Roman citizen, so everyone had to take care of the welfare of the entire community first and foremost, and his own last. However, constant wars demanded not only the unity of all citizens, but also the courage of each individual. Therefore, in Roman culture, as in no other culture of the Ancient World, respect and interest in the individual were manifested. In the houses of noble families, images of ancestors who became famous in military campaigns or contributed to the prosperity of the community were kept.
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