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Early roman non decadance

Source: TW

Before the 2nd Punic War there were no marble temples or villas in Rome. In the 180s bce the first marble temple was dedicated. It wasn’t until decades later the first citizen built a like mansion. The temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus was a wooden structure until the 80s bce. To put this on a timeline, Julius Caesar was a young man by then and this was the most important religious site in Rome.

Greek style statuary came in around the same time frame, and until then most temples had clay or wood images of the gods.

It was a bad day for this City, believe me, when the statues were brought from Syracuse. I hear far too many people praising and admiring those which adorn Athens and Corinth and laughing at the clay images of our gods standing in front of their temples. [5] I for my part prefer these gods who are propitious to us, and I trust that they will continue to be so as long as we allow them to remain in their present abodes. - Titus Livius

Roman society in general was devoid of most arts like theater, poetry, and sculpture. No literature, they had writing but didn’t write things for entertainment. The first theater ever built in Rome was after 200 bce, and the Senate had it demolished as a threat to morality.

Marriage, at least the true sacred marriage, was nearly impossible to divorce from. The Romans had memory of the first to ever get a divorce.

The society was something like the Spartans in how they treated religion and law.

If you looked at Rome as it was building its empire, you’d have seen a cramped and primitive city with no great marble edifices or statues. Brick and wood. Uncultured compared to the Greeks. Fanatically dedicated to their religion(they would stop entire political processes over it).+++(5)+++

The Romans even considered cooking beyond the simple meals they made to be a foreign and immoral practice.

The society transformed rapidly in Caesar’s day and through the reign of Augustus. By the end it was cosmopolitan, hellenized, and obsessed with aesthetics and experiences.