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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, August 12, 2024

6 comments:

VV said...

My partner wants to know what is it with guys and the Roman Empire? Why that time period as opposed to any other? Thank you for any insight you can provide.

CyberKitten said...

Well, firstly its a joke... The 'meme' that is.... I doubt if *most* men think of the Roman Empire THAT often (or to be honest even know it existed or anything about it).

But... Rome (and to a lessor extent Greece) is pretty central to western civilisation. If you just think about any Civic building - Rome. If you think about any kind of large scale organised games - Rome. If you think of roads, empires, Christianity..... Rome. In the US your whole government structure is based on an idealised version of Rome... So it's almost written in the American DNA....

Stephen said...

ROMA! AETTERNA! AETTERNA! VICTRIX!

I think it has to do with Rome being the fallen empire of the West. Mesopotamia is part of our past, Greece a stronger element, but Rome and later the Church that was part of it and succeeded it to a degree, FORMED the west. To this day there are cultural differences between once-Roman Europe and never-Roman Europe.

Also, they had wicked helmets and gladuseses. Gladii? And Latin is badass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojC-zTXSAsY


As to the picture, this is interesting. The pillars of Hercules comes to mind, though it could be the Adriatic or the 'boot'..

CyberKitten said...

I think the guy in red is a Spartan hoplite, so that'd be Greece somewhere... Athens maybe??

Stephen said...

D'oh. Not even looking at the weaponry. Guessing that's a helot behind him.

VV said...

Thank you both!