Ancient Rome, with all its splendour, its legacy in numerous surviving works of art, and everything else on account of which it would come to be called the cradle of civilisation, is described in numerous works by writers who lived  both in the age of its flourishing and for centuries after the fall of the Empire. Rome experienced its greatest flourishing under the emperor Augustus, in the 1st century BC, when, after the victory over Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, peace came to the state within the Empire, since that victory marked the end of the long wars the Romans had until then been waging. Soon after consolidating his political position, the emperor Augustus began reforms within the Empire. Numerous laws were passed with the intention of strengthening the family and the economy, both of which had suffered heavy losses on account of the wars.

In 18 BC, in order to deal with the low birth rate and the ease of divorce, Augustus passed the famous Lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus, aimed at the restoration of marriage and the family, and thereby also of society, according to the strictest moral principles. In fact, the law introduced an obligation to marry, banned relationships between senators and freedwomen, and put in place a series of measures aimed at increasing the birth rate, that is, at demographic renewal: numerous incentives were introduced for families with more children, along with financial penalties for unmarried men, and even for childless married couples, as well as bans on long-term relationships without marriage.

Women in particular had to show the intention of wanting at least three children; in that case they had equal rights with men. Augustus also proclaimed the Lex Iulia de pudicitia et de coercendis adulteriis, which concerned loose morals and adultery. Very severe financial penalties were introduced against licentious behaviour, adulterers and adultery. At its root lay a will to strengthen the institution of the family and a society that had been devastated by civil wars.

Alongside the restoration of the family and public morals, the city was renewed in other areas too. Many temples were built, and artists, poets especially, enjoyed the favour of Augustus, who sponsored them through Maecenas. In their works, as we have mentioned, the achievements of Augustus were sung in exalted terms, as was Rome itself, of which Augustus himself would triumphantly write that he had found it built of brick and left it built of marble.

On the other hand, in the surviving works of the Roman poets, who enjoyed great standing with the people and were often called prophets (vates), we also find the other side of Rome, the darker one. This concerns the state of society in Rome. One of the best-known poets of the Augustan age is certainly Quintus Horatius Flaccus, whom most people today know well enough already through their schooling, so this text will not dwell on him at length. Still, in the context of our theme it is worth noting that he lived before Christ (65 BC–8 BC) and enjoyed the favour of Augustus, who secured his livelihood by giving him an estate in Sabine country, so that he could devote himself undisturbed to his creative work. Roman society is the target of many of Horace's criticisms. Right at the beginning of the first poem of Book 3 of the Odes, the poet says that he hates and shuns the common crowd (odi profanum vulgus et arceo). In Horace's depiction, society is ruled by immorality, greed and the desire for prestige, while spiritual values carry little weight. For a follower of Epicurean philosophical thought such as Horace, whose guiding life principle was aurea mediocritas (the golden mean), it is only logical to expect that he would not feel comfortable in such a society. Peace of soul, for Horace, is the principle of a happy life.

However, although it is not only in Horace, but also in other Roman classics such as Propertius, Ovid and Tibullus, and even the historian Livy, that we find Roman society being called into question, we do not often find the concrete  causes of that state of affairs within their surviving corpus.  Still, we do find a concrete cause in a few lines of one of Horace's poems. In poem 6 of Book 3 of the Odes, Horace speaks of the moral crisis in Rome. After describing the scale of the damage that society's departure from its ancient, true values would bring about, Horace points out that the cause of the evil that had befallen Rome lay hidden in the corruption of marriage and the family, which had once been the greatest of values.

For Horace, marriage and the family, as the basic unit of society, on which society as a whole and the survival of the homeland depend, are of decisive importance for  their stability and progress.

The ruin that flowed out from the home spread over the whole people. 

fecunda culpae saecula nuptias

primum inquinavere et genus et domos:

hoc fonte derivata clades

in patriam populumque fluxit.

(Hor. Carm. 6, 4: 17-20)

A generation full of sin / first defiled marriages, family and homes. / From that source / misfortune poured out upon the homeland and the people.

 (own translation)

There is one more personal testimony relating to the importance of the theme of the family in Horace, who belonged to a lower social class, and to a less wealthy one than that to which, for instance, Cicero belonged. In his Satires, in a strikingly poetic way, he gives us his own childhood memory, offering an interesting text to reflect on if we are to understand his relationship with his father: "If my character, otherwise sound, is marred by only a few and negligible faults, if no one can in good conscience accuse me of greed, callousness toward others, or debauchery; if I live in such a way that I am praised, free of blame and dear to my friends — the credit for that belongs to my father alone, who, though of modest means compared to others, had the courage to take me to Rome while I was still a boy, so that I could be educated just as the sons of the wealthy and of senators were."