The roman sense of duty is amazing to me. After reading the first section of reading "The Roman Kingdom" I did a little follow up reading into the Rape of Lucretia. Why? Well over the last couple of months I have been reading a historical fiction serious about the Roman oppession of the Jews shortly before and including the ministry of Christ. The author has gone to great detail about the history of both the Romans and the Jews. Drawing from the Roman side he talks about the "familia," the role of the father, the wife, and the children, and how strongly the felt about their duty. He relates the story of a husband that because of certain acts was required to commit suicide. The husband was struggling with this, so his wife, being the proper roman wife, showed him the way. Yep, she stabbed herself, and before dieing, told her husband basically "see, that wasn't so bad." I apologize for not having the story reference readily available, it is a three book series, and I have not recrossed the reference at this point. But you can see that same duty in the reading with the rape of Lucretia and how she killed herself after laying it out for the men what must be done to satisfy duty and honor and how each of those men immediately took up that challenge. I'm sure it was that same sense of duty that caused them to conquer neighboring lands for the sole purpose of maintaining security for their familes and their government. Unfortunately, the desire for power and greed gets to the best of us, and what started out as a somewhat understandable conquest turned into such lingering turmoil and blood shed.