Asklemmy

43947 readers

798 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

250

Seriously, though. How often do you think of the Roman Empire? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by 1bluepixel@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

122 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] redballooon@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] crackajack@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago

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.