December 17, 2025 • 6 mins
Rome was not a civilization that believed in accidents. It believed in structure, ritual, and the careful management of human behavior. When Romans celebrated Saturnalia each December, they were not indulging in a lapse of discipline. They were engaging in something older, stranger, and far more deliberate. Saturnalia was not a party that got out of hand. It was a pressure release designed by people who understood that a society held too tightly eventually breaks.
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