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.
"The Roman Empire", as most people understand it, meaning ancient Rome, is a period of somewhere between 500 and 1500 years spanning territory from Western Europe to Syria and from Northern England to North Africa.
The reason this is a meme is that it's the equivalent of asking "how often do you think about the US" and then being surprised that the answer is some number. If you have even a passing interest in things that happened not specifically right now the answer to this is nonzero.
Now, the weird part is how many of the memers are getting things completely wrong or just generally fantasizing about the... I don't know, look and feel of the thing. If and when I think back to this it's mostly about petty neighbourly disputes leading to lawsuits and crummy politics.
I think about how Christians helped ruin Rome. Basically the west died and all the smarts went east. The west suffered and spread its disease ever since.
at least twice a month. it’s just fun to fantasize about
makes me think back to my middle school latin teacher who would get super into everyday life & culture and just talk on and on about that stuff. she was pretty mean actually but her passion about rome was infectious
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
Well in 5th grade I read Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and later on every book after that. And there’s still a part of me that thinks I might be a demigod. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it’s the Greeks and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday it’s the Romans. Sunday is a toss up.
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.
Have you ever read: I, Claudius? If not, you should. Going by your description, it should really scratch that itch in a very well written way. Recommended to you by a fellow Roman Empire fanatic ^^
Edit: And to answer your question: Yes, quite often I do.
The excellent “I, Claudius” BBC TV series was repeated recently (I think it was on BBC4). One of my all time favourites. I had forgotten how funny the Caligula episode is, and the demise of Messalina is truly bone-chilling.
Add comment