RoughRomanMemes

Explanation: As the Roman Empire expanded to become massive and wealthy in the 2nd century BCE-1st century AD, the formerly rough society of farmer-soldiers was exposed to all sorts of new and exciting luxuries - like spices, perfumes, and S I L K. This, to Roman moralists, was CORRUPTING and FOREIGN and would make Rome WEAK and EFFEMINATE. One Roman writer during the Empire, if memory serves, bitches about women in public wearing silk so thin that it was see-through.

Of course, such bitching about THE CORRUPT AND LUXURIOUS YOUTH is as old as society itself, and had a long history in Roman writing as well - dating back to at least the written works of Cato the Elder after the Second Punic War, wherein he condemns such dangerous Gr*ekoid notions as 'literature' and 'doctors' as foreign and unsuitable for REAL Romans. Scipio Africanus, savior of the Republic, on the other hand, was a noted Graecophile.

Funny enough, the Roman conqueror and dictator Julius Caesar was noted as something of a dandy himself, taking great care of his personal appearance, having his body hair plucked, and always being on the cutting edge of fashion. Caesar once said in regards to the license he allowed his troops, that "They would fight just as well if they reeked of perfume".