This episode of Ancient Influencers brought to you by CLAS-C 361 Ancient Roman Revolutions – Because modern-day minds and media have nothing on the past.
Once again the candidates for the USA presidency are really (really) old white men we’ve all seen before. But that shouldn’t be surprising, given the origins of Republican government. In fact, the term senate comes from the Latin word senates, meaning literally “old men” (think senile, and no, that’s not a joke). The entire concept of government by elected officials was invented in Rome, and seems to have been born when some aristocrats had a series of revelations: (a) they hated being bossed around by kings; and (b) kings were surprisingly stab-able. Having demonstrated the latter to their satisfaction, the aristocrats developed a power-sharing structure, where men of a certain social class (read: rich and powerful) would get together and vote on how to boss everyone else around. To make sure they had only the wisest, richest men in power, they instituted age restrictions, so a man (and it was only men) had to be at least 30 years old (middle-age in those days) to even start serving in the Senate. So as we choose once again between two presidential candidates that would be equally believable as candidates for a retirement community’s social committee, remember to thank the Romans.
Want to know more? Enroll in CLAS-C 361 (31852) (combined with HIST-C 396 [31853]) for Fall 2024 and Learn What You Love.
- MW 1:30–2:45 PM
- Dr. Andy Findley
Fun Facts:
- no pre-requisites
- combined with HIST-C 396
- can be applied to History Minor
- 3 credits
