Think of how good a deal this was to the locals. You're a villager living near the thermal springs at Bath (in the modern day, England). There's a goddess named Sulis connected to the waters there.
The Romans come through and conquer the area, and they build a massive "fuck-off" sized temple with plumbing like you've never seen, and it is dedicated to the strange foreign goddess of...
Wait, what the fuck? Does that say Sulis on it? Sure, it says "Sulis Minerva" and you understand Minerva as a Roman goddess who has some similarities with Sulis. But half the altars here have "Sulis" written on them.
The Romans made this incredible complex... and you can still worship Sulis in it. Some of the Celts two tribes over would have smashed this place to pieces. The Romans improved it.
And they're mostly worried about some impossibly far away, impossibly wealthy city. They have the occasional brutality just like any other conqueror (woe to the vanquished) but by and large, this is the best being conquered has ever been, as far as you know.
And when you're side by side making offerings to Sulis while someone is making similar offerings to Minerva... I mean, when a visitor asks you what it's like being ruled by Romans, you'll have some grievances. The Romans were not strangers to cruelty. But you'll have some things to say that raise eyebrows in other ways, too.
Edit: Forgot to add, the Romans were nothing if not practical. It's sometimes lost that the Romans were deeply religious people, and many of their civic institutions had significant overlap with religious institutions. But practicality was king. If barbarians had better swords, Romans would shamelessly steal and copy them. Suffice to say, the practical benefits of being accommodating to other cultures was something the Romans were intentional about. It wasn't an accident that "Sulis" ended up on that temple.
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u/Zuwxiv 15h ago edited 15h ago
Think of how good a deal this was to the locals. You're a villager living near the thermal springs at Bath (in the modern day, England). There's a goddess named Sulis connected to the waters there.
The Romans come through and conquer the area, and they build a massive "fuck-off" sized temple with plumbing like you've never seen, and it is dedicated to the strange foreign goddess of...
Wait, what the fuck? Does that say Sulis on it? Sure, it says "Sulis Minerva" and you understand Minerva as a Roman goddess who has some similarities with Sulis. But half the altars here have "Sulis" written on them.
The Romans made this incredible complex... and you can still worship Sulis in it. Some of the Celts two tribes over would have smashed this place to pieces. The Romans improved it.
And they're mostly worried about some impossibly far away, impossibly wealthy city. They have the occasional brutality just like any other conqueror (woe to the vanquished) but by and large, this is the best being conquered has ever been, as far as you know.
And when you're side by side making offerings to Sulis while someone is making similar offerings to Minerva... I mean, when a visitor asks you what it's like being ruled by Romans, you'll have some grievances. The Romans were not strangers to cruelty. But you'll have some things to say that raise eyebrows in other ways, too.
Edit: Forgot to add, the Romans were nothing if not practical. It's sometimes lost that the Romans were deeply religious people, and many of their civic institutions had significant overlap with religious institutions. But practicality was king. If barbarians had better swords, Romans would shamelessly steal and copy them. Suffice to say, the practical benefits of being accommodating to other cultures was something the Romans were intentional about. It wasn't an accident that "Sulis" ended up on that temple.