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Well, for one thing, slavery never really existed in China that would be recognized in Europe but what
they used instead was a form of contract servitude which in structure for all intents and purposes was
slavery. So, okay, China had slaves, it just wasn't called that. A contract could be written so that if the
"owner" breached them, you'd be free. Now, in Rome, if you were a slave, legally, you were property,
you did not even posses the right to speak for yourself. Also you know how it is considered rude in
modern times when people talk about you like you are not even there, a blatant show of disrespect?
Well in Roman society, around slaves, it was perfectly acceptable behavior.
What else regarding social aspects? One similarity is that Roman men, like Chinese, were allowed to
keep mistresses, where China also practiced polygamy. Also, visits to brothels were also socially
acceptable behaviors in both cultures.
Now, major differences socially would include the social order; in Roman society, once a slave was freed,
they could become a wealthy merchant and forget all about ever being a slave in fact, I believe I read an
annecdote written by none other than Caesar himself, where he expressed his disgust for one of his
slaves. Don't know if it was Caesar or emperor whoever I forgot, but, the annecdote went that his slave
dreamed of his freedom, so that someday he would be a rich, wealthy merchant, and own slaves
himself.
"Someday, I want to be master of my household, and own slaves myself."
Chew on that for a moment; undestandable why Caesar would be disgusted. In China born into a given
station, you could forget about upward mobility. Here is the darker side of Chinese culture, or a darker
aspect; for the elite, nobles, imperial royalty, etc, education was free 100%. Anything you wanted to
learn, free. However if you were a member of the lower classes, it would cost you, oh, probably around
400 pieces of gold per year, the equivalent I mean, roughly 5 gold bars worth today, when most Chinese
peasants were lucky to see a single gold coin.
Translated to modern economics.... that is roughly a charge of half a million dollars per semester to go
to college for the middle and lower classes, but completely free of charge to anyone who is rich. That is
what college in the U.S. would look like if it used the ancient Chinese system. And people complain
about the Ivies being elitist; they should go look at ancient China. You one of those ego bruised people
complaining about how they never got into an Ivy? Yeah well try not being able to go AT ALL, to any
college or university.
The reason many Chinese will strike foreigners as curt, even rude, is because China has a long history of
not educating its large masses. Yet amazingly enough, despite having only a rudimentary education,
most Chinese tend to keep things running with remarkable efficiency. All the same whereas in Rome,
while it was difficult, they never made upward mobility impossible.
Also; politically, the Emperor of China was judge, jury, and executioner, whereas the Emperor of Rome
could not act without the senate's approval. Rome, was never a true republic, democracy, or even
empire, what it was for most of its history was a constitutional monarchy, where a given monarch
wielded more power than they often do today. While the Senate had the power to delay an imperial
order, or not enact an imperial decree given votes, that is the senate had a sort of veto power, the
Emperor had the power to remove or place senators as he saw fit. In other words if they wanted to pass
an imperial decree, all they had to do was fire the current set of senators, and place new ones in their
place. Okay okay, so it was more like a dictatorship but beside the point....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_studies_of_the_Roman_and_Han_empires