City of God Review

Galinsky adds a new dynamic to the telling of Augustus’ life with his interpretation and depiction of the leadership and the progress made at the time. He is attempting to show the reader a more rounded picture of the life of this young emperor. The strict structure of the overall book is great in reminding the reader that this is a recount of historical events. This along with the inset boxes may at times dry out the entertaining aspects of the story being told. That being said this book is well put together and unlike the average historical text has foudn a way to keep audiences engaged while keeping structure, and fact in unison.

The film, “City of God” portrays numerous of brutal acts of violence and crime. This film depicts the deviant acts of a sociopathic gang leader, Li’l Ze and his fellow members. He recruits numerous of young kids and teaches them how to become a hood. He kills those who try to stop him from getting what he wants, which is being the one and only drug dealer. He leaves the town of Rio in distraught and in fear of their own life. Even when someone tries to get out of the slum and wants to begin a brand new life, they are shot and killed. This gives the impression that there is no escaping the slums. Once you are a hood, you are always a hood. Though living in poverty, all but one of the characters, Rocket, beats the odds and decides to not be lured into the deviance. Although not all children are delinquents or have criminal tendencies, those who are learn from the intimate groups they associate with. These deviant acts are depicted in several sociological theories such as: Agnew’s General Strain Theory, Learning Theory, Merton’s Strain Theory, Reckless Containment Theory, and Labeling Theory.

In many societies religion has played a major role in their development, and the Roman Empire was no different (Roman Religion, Definition by Donald L. Wasson published on 13 November 2013). Michael Grant summarises Roman Religion for us when he says;” Roman religion was largely concerned with ritual, not faith or belief. The Romans did not have a personal relationship with their Gods nor did their religion offer them doctrine or an explanation of the World. They were Polytheistic; they worshipped many Gods” (Cities of Vesuvius: Pompeii and Herculaneum 2001, Michael Grant, pg.56). Within this paper my aim will be to show how Pompeii’s religious spaces compared to that of other Roman Towns, from the Roman Colonisation of Pompeii era onwards. I will identify some of these religious spaces and evaluate their purpose within Pompeian society. I will also identify how these spaces impacted upon the daily life of the Pompeian’s and how they contributed to the new Identify and establishment of Pompeii as a new Roman Colony.

Matthew Lees’ “How many of the Bronx’ dreams?” is different from James McBride's “The city of Gods” because Lee discusses the lost dreams of Bronx’ New York while Mcbride focuses on the racial realities of America. In contrast, Lee discusses the dreams of people in Bronx’ New York “...Bronx’ dreams/...moved from the shadows/ how many of the Bronx’ dreams were even said out loud” (Lee 1). Lee begins by lamenting the number of lost dreams in Bronx’ New York. Lees purpose of persuading readers that Bronx’ New York is a lost city is supported through his diction and tone, by using the word “shadows”, an image of darkness that people feel. This darkness then gives the reader the feeling of hopelessness that the people feel, proving that many of

Augustine also emphasizes knowing happiness in eternal things rather than in what is grounded in phsycial senses, or the corporeal. This is illustrated through his encounter with a drunken beggar in Confessions: “For what he had gained with a few coins...that is the cheerfulness of temporal felicity (Augustine 97).” The wine will run out; that euphoric drunkenness will eventually die and he will again be unhappy. The importance of humility is also a factor in his encounter: “True joy he had not, but my quest to fulfill my ambitions was much falser...He had acquired wine by wishing good luck to passers-by, whereas I sought an arrogant success by telling lies (98).” He realizes the beggar is not truly happy, however views the beggar’s state as even superior to his own in that the beggar is not living in perpetual anxiety. This idea of humility becomes most important to Augustine’s philosophy of happiness. Happiness, he asserts, is knowing God the creator, something independent of the corporeal. Both Augustine and the

Excesses of Rome Both Lucan and Petronius are writing these texts to describe how the Roman’s have become accustom to their excessive nature. How their thirst for power drives their lavishing life style. How they have become familiar with out doing one another, which will continue to feed this monster of excesses. They provide examples of these excess abuses through their characters, so the Roman people may learn from their mistakes. Topic The authors’ fear that the Roman’s thirst for excess power will continue to feed the lavishing life style Argument, although the authors’ views may be true, Reason they are one side views that lack trust and hope in the Roman people.

We begin Augustine’s attraction to Manichaeism with his travels to Carthage. His initial reaction to Carthage was shock, due to the citizen’s audacious affinity towards things which distracted them from God’s benevolence. One prominent example of this was their affinity towards theatre acts which depicted scenes of enjoying things irrelevant to how one should love God. Although this struck Augustine as quite odd, he nonetheless enjoyed these theatrical acts, often positively remarking about scenes of immense sadness and depression. He came to question whether or not pity, as shared by the citizens of Carthage, was meant as an indication to what his life should represent.

The religious and moral reforms that Augustus established used ideas such as making family and family honour the centre of life, promoting a return to the earlier ‘golden’ days of Rome,

With this narrative and spirit of historical conundrums in mind, we will examine two primary Ancient Roman sources. The first will be Augustus’s Res Gestae Divi Augusti and the second, Book Ten

In Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will he explains that the human soul is predisposed to have a good will and that “it is a will by which we desire to live upright and honorable lives and to attain the highest wisdom” (Augustine 19, 1993). Augustine believes that in order to be free we must live according to our good will. To follow our good will we must live according to the four main virtues in life: prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. He defines prudence as having “the knowledge of what is to be desired and what is to be avoided” (Augustine 20, 1993). Augustine establishes fortitude as “the disposition of the soul by which we have no fear of misfortune or of the loss of things that are not in our power” (Augustine 20,1993).

The ethos of the Roman nobility at the time of the second century BCE was driven by ambitious military and political careers. These where brought about by a rigorous set of ideals which were built upon Rome’s cultural foundations. “The four terms that ascribe such a rigorous set of ideals are gloria, nobilitas, virtus and auctoritas ”.

The Roman Empire is well known for their patriarchal society, and for being a society in which a person’s morals and virtues were a prudent portion of their identity. In ancient times, Roman’s based a majority of their philosophy off of their moralistic standards. The Romans began to distinguish themselves through applying their morals and virtues to their philosophy, and in turn became a society in which an individual’s actions were governed in large part, by their moral compass. A classic example of this application can be seen in the Roman concept of pietas. For Roman citizens, the idea of pietas, or “dutifulness” was a highly important aspect of an individual’s life (Sayre, 2015). Although the concept of pietas was applicable to all Roman citizens, it was especially important to males, particularly fathers, who were to be regarded with the upmost respect and revered to the greatest extent possible. The following essay will discuss the definition and significance of the Roman concept of pietas, and will provide the reader with a example of how Roman’s applied this concept to their everyday lives.

#2 Explain how Augustine’s conception of freedom relates to compatibilism and to freedom in the sense of autonomy.

This essay investigates the role of religion and the importance of Roman society and politics. It will show the origin of Roman Religion, such as the pantheon, origin myths and the effect of foreign influence on Rome. This paper will also go into immense study of how religion affected Roman society through the likes of cult worship and domestic religion. It will also show the importance of politics on Roman religion, such as, the Imperial Cult, Vestal Virgins but more or less will also expose the persecution of Christians that were in opposition to Roman paganism.

It appears in a context wherein Augustine gives the guidelines for day-to-day life in community, a life characterized by mutual service.