Introduction

From Ancient Ways

On Ancient Things

I wonder what people think is so wrong with calling something "old" or "ancient"? --I don't think the Romans objected to this; quite the reverse. The mos maiorum was ancient. The Religio Romana was ancient before anyone even thought to write about it. The older families had more auctoritas ("street cred") than the recent arrivals; and Senex was an agnomen, not an insult.

The Romans met the phenomenon of old age with gratitude, respect, and a certain amount of awe. Elders were repositories of wisdom and experience; this sounds clichéd to modern ears, but then, most of our own "community memory" is quietly rotting away in nursing-homes. There were reasons the Romans measured the saeculae the way they did: the next "age" was not declared until the last person to have seen the previous one had passed on. If that person lived to be a hundred and twelve, bene, the incoming century could wait.

In fide,

--MariPere' 20:32, 11 January 2007 (EST)

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