Yes.

When I was in school, we were taught that the Romans were a bad mob.

A really bad mob, like the Nazis.

Anyone interested to know how we thought about the Romans when I was a kid at primary school in Glasgow, check out Billy Connoly’s crucifixion materials from the seventies. There it is captured perfectly.

The Romans were the mob that nailed christ, the champion of slaves, up on a cross.

Remembering that helps us keep it pretty clear what the Romans were all about, rule by terror.

It wasn’t about intelligence, it was about terror, the opposite of intelligence.

Aurelius, Seneca, whoever, if they were someone in Rome, they were morons, all of them.

Omission of that, when talking about the Romans always stands out to me.

See, religion wasn’t all bad.