Seriously, though. How often do you think of the Roman Empire?
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.
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!")
I probably close to never think of the Roman Empire if there is no external cue
I have no idea when the last time I thought about Rome period, let alone in any sort of in-depth way. I've learned a bit in school and a few years ago went through a YouTube deep dive history phase but Rome was a topic just as much as any other culture.
So exceptions aside.... I never think about Rome?
Totally genuinely, I never, ever think about the Roman empire. Don't understand how this is a thing across social media 😂🤷♂️
This is why we need an ask historian community on lemmy. Rome questions would have spiked about now
I'm currently in a course about the Roman Republic in college, so pretty much every other day.
"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.
Whenever I see a post or comment about it online
Yeah pretty much never, unless it's in a movie or something.
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."
— Well, I guess I'm not a man then 🤷.
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.
Only every time this gets asked
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.
I read several pages of the The Daily Stoic…well…daily…so pretty much at least once a day.
At least twice a week, but counting indirectly then even more.
Edit: Oh the empire? A lot less. Late Republic club unite.
I don’t know where this trend came from. I haven’t thought about the Roman Empire since the last Historia Civilis video came out.
I did not know it was a trend or whatever until reading all the comments. But I probably think about the Roman empire most days.
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.
XII times a day. Just kidding, pretty rarely
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.
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.
I’ve been painting a literal legion’s worth of miniature Roman troops for a few months now.
Barely at all before this whole "How often do you think a out the Roman Empire" thing popped up
But there is some context that I more often think about that is related.
First: You are now aware of the position of your togue in your mouth.
Diagonies is one that comes up at least once every couple weeks at work, this usually leads to Rome.
Second: You are now manually breathing.
Basically ancient philosophers is a topic that comes up a lot with some of my friends, so Rome comes up in relation to it.
Third: Don't think of a pink elephant
But in general I'd say before this whole thing it was basically at most once a month.
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5 times total in the past 2 years...and the latest 3 times were because of posts like this in the past month...so basically, almost never.
Im a little shocked and in a bit of disbelief that some people think about it daily or even weekly.
Actually on occasion. Just randomly. Usually leads to an hour or two on wikipedia
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."
All the time! I studied Latin and Classical History for years so it’s a deep interest of mine. I often reminisce about the trip I took to Italy with my Latin class to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum.
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Only when its mentioned
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.
Weekly
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.
Every day. But I collect ancient Roman coins as a hobby, so it figures.
Circa once a week.
Also, I've lost The Game.In the last week, seemingly every 11 seconds lol
More often than I think.
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Everyday, memento mori, remember thou art mortal.
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.
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
As someone that lives in a country that is proud of both being conquered by the Roman Empire and winning some battles with the Roman Empire, I dont really think about the Roman Empire often. I think about latin frequently
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.
Yearly
Just the classical period of empire (Augustus to Marcus Aurelius)? Once in a while.
Any period of the Roman state including republic principate, dominate, eastern empire until 1453? Almost every day. I'm a history nerd living surrounded by traces of Rome. Speaking a Romance language. It would be hard not to.
It’s not a joke or a meme , but based on some actual research out last week
Guy. Several times a week. Legit.
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.
Once or twice a week, but only really because I do a lot of worldbuilding and part of that is taking inspiration from IRL civilisations.
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.
Multiple times every single day.
Once every few weeks or so, usually when something comes up online or on TV set in Rome or round the time period involved. Rarely pops up in my mind unprompted.
At least twice per week. I'm male.
I was talking about it in the pub last night.
My sister asked me this and I was shocked when I realized that I think about the Roman Empire at least once a week
Not at all. I think about the British Empire and Ottoman Empire more, but still not much.
Whenever I think of Fomenko (basically daily) I think of how fake everything about the Roman Empire is.
At least 2-3 times a day, I love their technology, the aqueducts the roads and the stone work. I love to think about post empire when the Germans Gauls and British were living around their ruins unable to build structures like they could. I think about the citizens and how similar their lives are to ours then how drastically it changed post empire. I think about how awful it must have been to be a slave in that time.
I got hooked on rome from Dan carlins hard core history series on the fall of the republic and he did another one on Cesar in Gaul.
Probably a few times a week.
I didn't realise this was a thing.
Sometimes. A few times a week, at least. I compare our current lives with the Romans when contemplating existence. It made me realize humans are genetically hardwired to be shit as we largely haven't changed in the past few thousand years and likely never will. It made me realize how terrible humanity is and how I don't want to be a part of it.
Woa, this post made me smarter just now