Evolution of Social Standards: How the “Ideal” Man in the Middle Ages Deviated from Roman Times

Throughout history, the world has seen the rise and fall of countless empires.After each empire falls, a new system always emerges.Among the most famous empires was the Roman Empire.It incited a sense of fear and excitement that was rooted in both the adventure and risks associated with war and expansion.But as we reflect on history, we can observe a pattern: that nothing ever lasts forever.The Roman empire did eventually begin to dwindle.Raids and attacks upon Rome increased, and when the gaps that poked into the empire could not be filled, Rome as it was before fell.Continental Europe began to approach a period now called the Middle Ages.Here, society became more restrictive and controlling.The rise of the Catholic Church meant a period of clerical domination of the people.We hear this from Craig Nakashian, who in Christianity and Warfare in the Medieval West, states, "As the bishops of Rome asserted their roles as the ecclesiastical heads of Christianity, they worked with and against secular rulers to establish church governance throughout Europe" (Nakashian).Societal standards had to be adhered to, for fear of excommunication and exile.The texts Aeneid and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight highlight the standards set for prominent figures in the Roman Era and the Middle Ages.Roman warriors were disciplined to rely on their physical, dominating capabilities to completely obliterate the enemy.On the other hand, medieval knights relied on intellectual abilities and logistics.They were held to their respective obligations, where they focused on doing what was morally right rather than what they could accomplish with their might.Within the upper class, violence was frowned upon, something that Nakashian mentions when saying, "Clerics also sought to regulate violence in society more broadly, especially to restrain the warfare of a fractious nobility" (Nakashian).