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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.

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[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 58 points 1 year ago

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!")

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[-] Klystron@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 19 points 1 year ago
[-] deus@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Sorry, that's already my designated day for thinking about Ancient Egypt.

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[-] nevial@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 1 year ago

I probably close to never think of the Roman Empire if there is no external cue

[-] aramus@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

I think about words and their etymology a lot. Of course many words have their origin in Latin. And then I am amazed how they used kind of the the same word ~2k years ago.

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

And then I am amazed how they used kind of the the same word ~2k years ago.

This sort of borrowing tends to get crazy in the Romance languages. Because often the Latin word did survive, but underwent change, then someone re-borrowed the word from Latin and now it's living side-to-side with its ancestor. ...except that people in the Middle Ages were already doing this, so the reborrowed word might evolve, and someone might reborrow a third version of the word, recursively.

In English there's also the case of words being borrowed from Latin, except that those words have a native Germanic cognate, like verb vs. word.

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[-] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 23 points 1 year ago

Okay, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

[-] PurpleTentacle@sh.itjust.works 17 points 1 year ago
[-] MooseBoys@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

Alright, alright… Apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health… what have the Romans ever done for us?

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[-] Fizz@lemmy.nz 15 points 1 year ago

Are you baiting history nerds into a rant

[-] BrandoGil@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

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.

You can read a bit more from the Wikipedia page here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_calendar#Romulus

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[-] Helix@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago

It's the seventh month after February!

[-] Xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 year ago

Totally genuinely, I never, ever think about the Roman empire. Don't understand how this is a thing across social media 😂🤷‍♂️

[-] ThatHermanoGuy@midwest.social 17 points 1 year ago

Never—I'm too busy thinking about the Spanish Inquisition.

[-] rockandsock@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago

No one expects the Spanish inquisition.

[-] Lemmylaugh@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago

This is why we need an ask historian community on lemmy. Rome questions would have spiked about now

[-] Astrealix@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I'm currently in a course about the Roman Republic in college, so pretty much every other day.

[-] FatTony@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] Tatters@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] gabbagabbahey@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

Yeah pretty much never, unless it's in a movie or something.

[-] NENathaniel@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 year ago

Whenever I see a post or comment about it online

[-] podatus@programming.dev 10 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Jordan_U@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

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 🤷.

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[-] Nihilore@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Only every time this gets asked

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 9 points 1 year ago

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.

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[-] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] CuddlyCassowary@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I read several pages of the The Daily Stoic…well…daily…so pretty much at least once a day.

[-] greedytacothief@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] kromem@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] airportline@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 6 points 1 year ago

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[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

XII times a day. Just kidding, pretty rarely

[-] imaqtpie@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Every time I need a fun argument for why skirts are manly

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[-] setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I’ve been painting a literal legion’s worth of miniature Roman troops for a few months now.

[-] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] ScreamingFirehawk@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago

Whenever I'm driving on a very straight road, I can be pretty certain that it was built by the Romans and is still used to this day

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[-] Obscura@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] krayj@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

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."

[-] TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip 6 points 1 year ago

I find that I think about the Byzantine Empire more often than the Roman Empire

[-] EvilCartyen@feddit.dk 7 points 1 year ago

They're the same thing, τέκνον 🙂

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[-] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago
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this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
247 points (91.3% liked)

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