Quote Originally Posted by PhantasyPen View Post
No Kings: The Romans hated the concept of monarchy to a comical degree, to the point that IIRC the official title of Caesar was "Dictator for life" and/or "First Citizen." Even mentioning the idea of a "king" was grounds for an assassination or exile.
Not that Caesar didn't try to get himself crowned on multiple occasions...

I think the prevalence of blood sports is also highly overstated.

Holidays are a big deal. Religiously and politically. The people in power usually got to set the exact dates for any given holiday or festival.

There was also a stark division between political (read: military) power and mercantile power. The former flowed out from Rome to the world, while the latter tended to flow in from the world (mostly italian estates) to Rome. Anyone wielding any form of absolute power had to carefully manage the opinions and needs of both.

To study this era further, I particularly recommend reading up on the era between the first Roman civil war and the death of Caesar. The youtube channel Historia Civilis has a surprisingly thorough series of videos on this time, too.