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.
Not often. I imagine they are just like us, but much more brutal. I am as intrigued by the earlier civilization on the other side of the world. e.g. the approach to war stratrgy/methodology by Sun Tzu to train concubines to march like soldiers. I wonder what’s the acceptable way of doing it today.
Sometimes. I don’t get why people idolize it and mourn its fall though, the whole thing seems like it was defined by slavery and murder and domination and is honestly horrifying.
I think on Rome fairly often, but it’s usually more often on the republic.
about how the Republic fell and became a totalitarian state.
I was thinking about this literally yesterday, on the nature of Octavian betraying the Republic, and how the Iulii and the Claudii simply kept themselves on power through the whole process. (Both gentes were already powerful in Republican times.) Or how some of the Claudii called themselves “Clodius” instead of “Claudius” for the sake of populism. (“See? I’m from the people! I even speak like a pleb!”)
Even the state of politics dating back to the Grachi. Gradually becoming more violent and turbulent and Rome’s reach and power grew. A society of adapters who could no longer adapt to the fast pace of change.
Often, but not daily. Maybe not even weekly. Certainly monthly and it’s because THEY FUCKED UP THE CALENDAR. SEPT IS 7 NOT 9 ALL THE WAY UP TO DEC YOU BASTARDS. Seriously though, fuck Julius and Augustus.
Julius and Augustus didn’t add a month. They replaced a month. The 6th and 7th months had different names, and they simply renamed them to July and August. The actual reason why the month names don’t match up is because Romans originally only counted “business months,” kinda akin to how we count weekdays way more than we count weekends. In any case, no (or little) business was happening in the winter, so they just simply don’t count months during the winter. Those uncounted months would correspond to January and February. When January and February were added, people decided to put them in the front of the calendar rather than at the back. Hence, the 8th month (October) became the 10th month, and so on for all the months.
If I recall correctly, it was mainly political. I’m not an expert in this topic at all, I’m just regurgitating what I read. But from what I remember, it was something along the lines of elections occur at the end of the year, and by placing January and February at the beginning rather than at the end, the new year would more closely coincide with office terms
I eat 2 cups of food for lunch on weekdays because if it was good enough for a roman soldier to march on it’s good enough for me to go clickity clack on a keyboard.
Probably a few times a week average, and I’m not much into history but into the aesthetics and cultural legacy. After all… Most RPGs reference it somehow, so it’s not that hard to find triggers for thought.
I frequently think about the late phase of decadence and dysfunction, followed by collapse. I figure the American empire is treading a similar path, just on a faster timeline.
Pretty often. One of my main research interests is the Gospel of Thomas which ends up extremely tied to events around the Roman empire.
Just a day or two ago I was looking at when Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura was popularly being read and cited given the apparent link between those two documents.
Often because of how much I read. Me and a friend were debating the other day over whether the European Union is simply a Neo-Roman-Empire or if it’s its own separate thing. She argues if the Romans never fell, they would’ve reformed into the European Union anyways because their style of governing is simply today’s style.
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