Nowadays I read often a anti-christian argument, that christianity is a "desert religion" and "uneuropean" and that greeks and romans practiced orgies, homosexuality, free sex etc... and that restricting sexuality is un-european
But Tacitus described the germans as less corrupted then romans, and he subscribed them those virtues, as if they are virtues, so even if he had a bias to critice the imperial roman society and take germans as uncorrupted example, still it shows that romans were not all for the decadence, there was decadence but im not sure how well accepted it was among every roman, certainly Tacitus think what he writes is a good thing
Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrupted by the allurements of public shows or the stimulant of feastings. Clandestine correspondence is equally unknown to men and women. Very rare for so numerous a population is adultery, the punishment for which is prompt, and in the husband’s power. Having cut off the hair of the adulteress and stripped her naked, he expels her from the house in the presence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her through the whole village. The loss of chastity meets with no indulgence; neither beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the culprit a husband. No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted. Still better is the condition of those states in which only maidens are given in marriage, and where the hopes and expectations of a bride are then finally terminated. They receive one husband, as having one body and one life, that they may have no thoughts beyond, no further-reaching desires, that they may love not so much the husband as the married state. To limit the number of children or to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infamous, and good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.
theimaginativeconservative.org
But Tacitus described the germans as less corrupted then romans, and he subscribed them those virtues, as if they are virtues, so even if he had a bias to critice the imperial roman society and take germans as uncorrupted example, still it shows that romans were not all for the decadence, there was decadence but im not sure how well accepted it was among every roman, certainly Tacitus think what he writes is a good thing
Thus with their virtue protected they live uncorrupted by the allurements of public shows or the stimulant of feastings. Clandestine correspondence is equally unknown to men and women. Very rare for so numerous a population is adultery, the punishment for which is prompt, and in the husband’s power. Having cut off the hair of the adulteress and stripped her naked, he expels her from the house in the presence of her kinsfolk, and then flogs her through the whole village. The loss of chastity meets with no indulgence; neither beauty, youth, nor wealth will procure the culprit a husband. No one in Germany laughs at vice, nor do they call it the fashion to corrupt and to be corrupted. Still better is the condition of those states in which only maidens are given in marriage, and where the hopes and expectations of a bride are then finally terminated. They receive one husband, as having one body and one life, that they may have no thoughts beyond, no further-reaching desires, that they may love not so much the husband as the married state. To limit the number of children or to destroy any of their subsequent offspring is accounted infamous, and good habits are here more effectual than good laws elsewhere.
Tacitus and the Germans
The Roman republican, Tacitus, gave us one of our earliest examinations and appraisals of the Germanic peoples. Tacitus wanted to show the Germans as natural republicans, while implying that the Romans had lost their republican simplicity and manners by becoming soft and decadent imperials...
theimaginativeconservative.org
