Madam, - It is regrettable that when Cardinal Cahal Daly attacks contemporary lifestyles (The Irish Times, August 2nd),he sees fit to invoke a comparison with the Roman Empire, whose occupants are allegedly obsessed with wine (Bacchus) and with sex (Venus).
This is not history but caricature. The Roman Empire built roads, bridges and aquaducts all over Europe; it produced a major code of law, which remains the basis for the legal system of many continental countries; it produced, under the Emperor Augustus, major writers in Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Propertius. More: the reason Christianity became a world religion is that the Emperor Constantine made it the state religion (which it remained in Byzantium until 1453).
Not bad going for an empire obsessed with drink and sex! - Yours, etc.,
BRIAN ARKINS, Professor of Classics, NUI, Galway.