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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I certainly go through significant periods of time where I think about Rome virtually every day. I listen to a lot of history podcasts, play games involving ancient history, have read many books about Rome, am subscribed to reddit history meme subs… If you are into history, Rome comes up a lot, whether for its own history or as a comparator for other empires.
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