Would Caesar find much difference between his time and the time of the end of the Western Roman Empire? Had clothing styles changed a lot? And would the language have changed all that much? By 475 AD, the Western Empire was in trouble-it was largely broke, and the barbarians were pressing on the frontiers.What would Julious have though about Rome, in 475?
In short, Caesar would be as at home in 475 AD as you would be in 1750. Official and formal language didn’t change hugely much, though among the provincial rabble regional dialects (ancestral to the Romance languages) had certainly separated by then. I believe clothing had changed significantly by then, with trousers becoming popular, but I’m not sure about specifics.
Culturally he’d be quite lost, I think: Christianity, which he would never have heard of, was overwhelmingly dominant. Artistic styles were somewhat different. He’d probably also think that Rome looked like utter crap; the population had reduced by something like half by then, with public buildings and works in pretty bad shape and lots of disused buildings converted to garden plots. The early Imperial slave-based agricultural economy was greatly reduced and serfdoms were developing in its place. The Salad Dressing Dude would probably be suffering some real culture shock.
Nitpick: Wrong Caesar.
What’s the Latin for ‘whoosh’?
Would Julius Caesar bet at home? Sure, probably at craps: alea iacta est.
I thought he meant Paul Newman.
Hmm, maybe ventus magnus, or at least one that’s super someone’s caput?
I forgot to mention that one thing Caesar probably would have found more impressive about Future Rome are the monumental buildings, despite their condition at that point. Most of the big awesome architecture in Rome that we know of today was either built (or rebuilt/improved) after his time.
One significant thing that he would find totally new would be the 475 AD Roman army. None of the weapons, equipment, or tactics that he was familiar with, would still be in use.
Would the Roman Army of 475 AD be all that different from that of 30 BC? Would the same kind of weapons, an armor be in use? I am not aware of any big advances in weapons or tactics…what would Caesar find so differet?
Just what I’d come in to say. Caesar’s legions were long gone, the army had been completely reorganised;
My guess is he’d be completely horrified, primarily by how many foreigners he saw and the loss of Gaul, Spain and Carthage (Compare Roman territories of Caesar’s time to that of 476), as well as hearing about the 410 sack of Rome (the last Rome had been sacked was by Gauls in 387 BC - ancient history even to Caesar).
I don’t think he’d be overly shocked to learn that the Western Roman Empire was the poor cousin to the Greek-speaking East - Greek was considered a cosmopolitan language of the upper classes in Caesar’s time.
By 475 A.D. the WRE was in a bit more than just trouble, it was on the verge of total collapse. The last Western Roman Emperor (his title was disputed), ironically called Romulus Augustus, was deposed a year later.
Emphasis on heavy cavalry away from an infantry focus, infantry getting lighter and moving toward a skirmisher role, the shrinking of the legions from 6000 to 1000 men, the development of the limitanei/comitatensis distinction, the strong reliance on “barbarian” and mercenary troops, the comitatus system…there’s very little Caesar would find the same.
The Roman Army went through many, many changes in the hundreds of years following Caesar’s time and the collapse, for example in the 4th century dividing it into comitatenses (mobile field armies) and limitanei (poorer quality troops used for garrison).
By the 5th century pretty much all the equipment Caesar would have attributed to his legions (the gladius sword, lorica segmenta armour etc) were ancient history.
The wiki link in my previous post is a good starting point to see the changes. See also here for a few ways the late Roman (although, by the 5th century, the degree to which it was actually “Roman” is highly debatable) Army was different from the Army known to the Julio-Claudians.
Of course some Roman Emperors would find todays world recognizable. Can’t control Mesopotamia, Persia is a mortal enemy, problem with religious zealots in Palestine.
OK, the Roman army went downhill…but socially-would he find things pretty much the same? Would the style of dress be different?
He’d probably think they were a bunch of effete pansies, wearing pants and all.
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
Well, clothing was pretty varied across the Empire(s) throughout antiquity, for both cultural and geographic/climatic reasons: hooded cloaks, woolen socks, and heavy shoe- or bootlike sandals were always popular in the (cold and wet) northwestern provinces, for example, but not so much in warmer and drier areas. If we’re only talking about the mediterranean or the city of Rome specifically, it looks as if there was a lot of difference between early and late Antiquity: a quick review of late Antique art seems to suggest that long-sleeved tunics became common, and that togas were phased out except for official purposes; there were increasingly regional styles as well (see the entry in Bowerstock’s (1999) Late Antiquity: a guide to the postclassical world).
Socially, I don’t think there was a lot he’d recognize. The social classes/social order, state organization and religion were very different. Even within Italy there was less coherence: travel decreased and settlements began the trend toward relocation to fortified hilltops that would continue into the middle ages.
pariter feces, aliter century