Our Humanity?

Where has all of our humanity gone? Just like our quest for the lost city of Atlantis, has it just vanished away, or have we found a way to hide the fact that we still have a sliver of humanity left by hiding our emotions away until society calls upon them? Centuries ago in Ancient Rome, the value of a life must have not meant a thing if the only source of entertainment was watching a slave or war prisoner be slaughtered in front of thousands of other country men. There is no humanity in that. In today’s society, luckily we have movies that show actors get slaughtered for or amusement thanks to 21^st Century technology. What that being said, have times really changed and has our value of a human life altered since Ancient Rome or has it stayed the same.

A story that was brought to my attention at our last Context Workshop dealt with a lot of Ancient Roman Emperors and the one that spoke to me the most was Julius Caesar, the first self-proclaimed Emperor of Rome. It is true that Julius Caesar is debatably one of the smartest generals the world has ever known but I believe that he only attained that legacy through his small regard for human life. In one of his battles to further his empire, Caesar cornered Vercingetorix and his soldiers and forced them to hide in their city. Because he would not surrender, Caesar felt he needed to send a message to Vercingetorix, so Caesar had his army build a wall around the city so that no one could escape. Knowing that Vercingetorix and his people would eventually die off of starvation or from feeble escape attempts, Caesar had them cower in their city for nearly two years until Vercingentorix would surrender or until he was the only one alive. Caesar knew that this would appear as a psychological message to Vercingetorix and after watching his people die because of his ego telling him not to surrender, Caesar knew it was only a matter of time before his enemy would eventually give up. Caesar knew that Vercingetorix would sacrifice his people just for his own well-being and still Caesar had all of those men, women, and children slaughtered. Where is the humanity in that? Why couldn’t Caesar just let the innocent go instead of having them killed by the actions of one man? We all know the man, Julius Caesar, for his famous legacy of being the first Emperor of Rome but because of actions such as these, should his name go down in infamy as well?

Devin Hunter