W.E.A LECTURE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 124, 29 April 1925, Page 12

W.E.A LECTURE

ROMAN LIFE UNDER THE CAESARS. There was a fair attendance last night at Rawlins’s tea rooms for the weekly W.E.A. University extension lecture. Mr A. J. Graham piesided. Mr A. Ernest Mander, the lecturer, devoted the evening to a description of the various aspects of Roman life—in Rome and in the provinces—during the First Century of the present era. In the early part of the lecture lie emphasised the importance of distinguishing between life in Rome and life in the Empire. The Empire was composed of healthy, prosperous countries; where law anti order were maintained ; where the single coinage and free trade from the Atlantic coast to the Euphrates, gave every opportunity for trade to develop and extend. The Empire was healthy and prosperous and relatively happy under Roman rule.

But in Rome itself life was hectic and unhealthy. Mr Mander described in turn the live groat classes that made up the population—the “millionaire” class, extravagant, luxury-lov-ing, morally dissolute and worthless; the class of professional men and the higher officials of the Imperial Service, sane, broad-minded and comparatively clean-living; the artisans and shopkeeper; tlie slaves, ranging from the educated Greek secretaries and tutors to the miserable negroes working in chains; and, finally, the huge rabble of unemployed citizens (a quarter of the total population), living in idleness upon the “dole.” An account of the life and general character of each of those classes was given. TiVi lecturer thou described the city itself, asking his bearers to accompany him (in imagination) in a stroll through the Forum and a visit to various parts of the town in order to obtain glimpses of the ordinary life of the people. This lecture was preceded by the first meeting of the tutorial class in logic—a class which is to meet every Tuesday at 7 for a course in the science of clear and logical thought as applied to various current questions.