Seriously, though. How often do you think of the Roman Empire?
I know this is a joke/meme, but I sincerely think of the Roman Empire a surprising amount of times. I find myself obsessing over how Roman citizens were living just as complex lives as we are today, or about Marcus Aurelius’ life and philosophy, or about how the Republic fell and became a totalitarian state.
Fairly often, but mostly because I have a Roman Empire obsessed friend who, regardless of conversation topic, always manages to make a comparison to the Roman Empire.
Alright, alright… Apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health… what have the Romans ever done for us?
Almost never. When I do, it’s probably most often because I’m thinking about concrete.
I have never felt less like a “man” (in terms of gender) than when I watched a bunch of videos of men explaining why they think about the Roman empire every day.
Actual quote, which was representative of the videos I saw:
“What you need to understand about men, is that we all feel the urge to conquer.”
The Romans were really, really good at making concrete. Like most “ancient secrets”, it’s been overblown by sensationalist pop-historians, but they were still really good at it. IIRC they figured out that if you mix volcanic ash in with your concrete, it becomes stronger when exposed to water, not weaker.
Love it. Was learning about the ancient city of Ur. They had like indoor plumbing and stuff. Humans are incredible when external factors don’t get in the way.
Generally only if something else prompts it. Such as this meme and the news around it, or a game, or a work of fiction referencing it for some reason. It doesn’t come up independently in my head.
Couple of times per day. However, that is probably because I am consuming any information and data I come across about Hannibal Barca since early august.
Often because I always had an interest in their history.
As a kid I was fascinated by the fact they existed, were so successful and then disappeared.
As an adult reading more details about their society and civilization, it amazes and terrifies me how we are following the same path and mentality. Which means we may very well be on the same path of self destruction. When they were in their glory, they were never aware that they would die out. We are feeling the same way today with total confidence.
2,000 years from now our decedants may see us in the same way we see the Romans today.
That’s definitely how I think about them. In comparison to housing policies or rent issues and what their outcome was… and deep horror at what it means for our potential future.
To be fair history rhymes not repeats but that mostly seems to come from us having better tech and therefore better conditions but the human actions and ideas seem to be annoyingly on repeat.
The only thing that seems to progress is our technology
We are capable of improving and making our technology very very efficient within a short period of time.
However, our mentality, our logic and our behaviours will take many more thousands of years to evolve … the imbalance is like watching a monkey with a machine gun or a grenade.
And evolution, change and the future doesn’t mean things will be rosy either … evolution doesn’t mean better from your perspective or some other person’s perspective … evolution just means change.
We could evolve our civilization into a socially minded mutually beneficial shared utopia … or into a totalitarian model where we divide the species into the powerful served by the weaker ones … or into something more equitable … or something far more terrifying … or we just completely and utterly destroy ourselves and leave no trace of our species or our descendants on the planet.
Well firstly, Rome did not become “totalitarian”. The word implies there is heavy censorship and control over the minutiae of the daily lives every single citizen. There was no secret police in Rome to police thoughts. Totalitarianism is different to authoritarianism. Rome transitioned to “authoritarianism” because the power of the senate became diluted and transferred much of the power to the caesar or emperor. But the caesar still allow huge degree of freedom and still held sessions with the senate to discuss matters. There is a reason why the Roman empire with an emperor, as its ruler, still lasted for centuries. Many people in the past identified as Romans even long after the Western part fell.
To answer your question, I don’t think much about the Roman empire. I think they’re overrated. They have been the model of many European powers (and the United States) to justify imperialism and colonisation. Rome is being presented as the the force that “civilised” much of Europe from dirty barbarians. That’s not so different from the Western idea of civilising mission and manifest destiny to subjugate dirty indigenous folks in the colonies.
I think you are confusing impact and desire for role model there. The impact of the Roman Empire, as well as western colonialism is exactly as you describe it, and it’s not wrong to think about these things.
Just because someone does that doesn’t mean they laude that in any way.
There is a AskHistorians question in reddit on the legacy of the Roman empire. The response has been that the idea of being the shining beacon on the hill is one of the enduring cultural legacy of Rome, especially with many European/Western countries presenting themselves as entities spreading civilisation to the unknown world, echoing the Roman legacy in Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
I joked about my wife competing for a job with another candidate by having a gladitorial match. She was like, “Roman Empire again, huh?” and I was like “… fuck.”
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