Can't judge these guys by modern values like "a bloody reign of mass murder is bad", then how would I fantasize about being the Tough Guy Who's Willing to Do What Needs to be Done in order to save the Republic?
It's funny because just yesterday I was talking to my 8 year old about the Romans and he asked me "So, were the Romans bad?"
And I thought all this stuff about cultural context and modern values and what about their accomplishments?
"Yes. Yeah, actually they sucked."
With the caveat that even guys who suck can do good things, and also no one was really "good" per se, yeah! They were a brutal imperialist slave state! It was bad!
Yeah it’s still pretty crazy to me that bar is still tough to clear even for people who have an otherwise decent moral compass. I just don’t think it should be controversial to say that slavery and mass murder were as wrong 2000 years ago as they are today
