Roman Virtues Notes

In Rome during them time of Julius Caesar, a persons uprightness was measured by how well he/she conformed to four basic virtues. Virtue- conformity to moral and ethical principals; moral excellence.

The four Roman Virtues
Pietas- duty, or dutiful conduct towards his parents, relatives, ancestors, Gods, and country. Gravitas- “Gravity” — A sense of the importance of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness. Gravitas is the most important of the Roman virtues because it encompasses all that a Roman was supposed to be.

It was a combination of physical, mental and emotional stability and duty that one should have or either the empire should have; first to the state and then to family.

Simplicitias- comes close to plainness or even bluntness in English. It suggests singleness of purpose and directness in achieving one’s ends. At its highest it stand for frankness and honesty. Almost as if you are pushing away “irrelevant”. Virtus- Originally meant manliness, but came to suggest physical courage and eventually virtues in our sense, though associated more with the battlefield than with the conical chamber.

Terms
Anachronism- an event or detail that is chronologically out of its paper time in history. Pun- humorous play on words, using either ( 1 two or more different meaning of the same word OR 2) two or more words that are spelled and pronounced somewhat the same but have different meanings. Example: Mrs. Carter pushes a cart…

There goes the carter. Apostrophe- addressing somewhat that/someone who is not present; dead as if living, absent as if present, inanimate as if animate. Pathetic Fallacy- attachment of human feelings and traits to nature. Example: as if nature was crying with man. Aside- private words that a character is a play speaks to the audience or to another character, which are not supposed to be overheard by others on stage. Soliloquy- a character who is alone of stage who express their feelings.