Hadrian Caesar Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 (edited) Just out of curiosity, really; why are you guys so captivated by the Romans? Is it their all-round superior technology and military supremacy? Edited January 18, 2006 by Hadrian Caesar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Different people have different reasons. I see them as our cultural forebears, so alike and yet so different from we moderns. I assume you share to some extent in Romanophilia as you're here and you've named yourself after one of the better imperatores? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLavius Valerius Constantinus Posted January 17, 2006 Report Share Posted January 17, 2006 Just out of curiosity, really; why are you guys so captivated by the Romans? Is it their all-round superior technology and military supremacy? Why? Sorry but there is already a thread on this in the After Hours Forum. Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Favonius Cornelius Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Well, true, but that thread asks how did you get interested, this one wants details on what about them is interesting, so I figure this is valid. For me there are quite a few reasons: incredible military system and wars, amazing personalities, the Republic and the political battles, the fact that all western society, and now even eastern more and more so, has the stamp of the Romans. Bottom line, their legacy is so influential as to make their long history the most important to man so far in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Exactly. The Romans had such profound influence on the world as we know it that it's difficult to avoid finding something that wasn't influenced by the Romans. They were a leading race of people - they broke ground in their own time, they beat enemies larger in power and expanded throughout all of known Europe. They produced men who wrote the military handbooks, and men who advanced technologies and medicine. I guess (for me at least) it's the sense of looking into such a great institution - of perhaps reliving it's greatness, that makes people enraptured in Rome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primus Pilus Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Quite simply... supreme power impresses humanity. Despite a modernistic trend to feign abhorence at wielding such power, people are still drawn to it. Good or bad, some of the most studied eras in human history are those when single persons or states ruled with a sense of absolute power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caius Maxentius Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 I've often wondered this myself. It's definitely changed over time, for me. As a teenage boy, I loved Rome for all the stereotypical teenage boy reasons -- the images of power, the cool military uniforms, the way Rome embodied all the so-called masculine virtues (military prowess, effectiveness in engineering and using tools, obsession with building huge things...). And for some reason, I was obsessed with maps, and loved looking at all the phases of Rome's expansion and contraction. Now, I'm fascinated by the how the culture transformed, especially during the later years of the empire. It's like a big puzzle, looking at how Romanitas was transmitted and transformed as it passed to the German peoples, how its structures and influences were adopted by successor states, even by the Arabs to some degree. But, I have to admit, I still love looking at those cool uniforms... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted January 22, 2006 Report Share Posted January 22, 2006 why are you guys so captivated by the Romans? I found it amazing that a civilization was able to be (in many aspects) 1500 years ahead of their time (in Europe at least) and the challenges that arose from that situation... cheers viggen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Decimus Romanus Cornelius Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 (edited) Just out of curiosity, really; why are you guys so captivated by the Romans? Is it their all-round superior technology and military supremacy? Hello everyone! I found this site quite by accident, but it was a great find indeed as I have been crazy about ancient Rome for years now. I suppose my interest in the Romans is much the same as everyone elses. I find it fascinating that the Romans were able to accomplish so much, with far less than what we have today with our 'superior technology'. It's easy to forget how all of the great battles, people, and technologies discovered, all occured over such a vast amount of time...but it would sure be great to be able to go back and experience it all in one liftetime! Salve! Edited January 29, 2006 by Decimus Romanus Cornelius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 Welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Neil Posted January 29, 2006 Report Share Posted January 29, 2006 All of the above reasons. Plus a continuous timespan from the 8th century BC until 1453. Half the languages in Europe owe their construction to Latin. The architectural style of the West is copied from classical styles. Arguably, it was the start of a western civilisation which has continued unbroken to this day... despite Mahatma Gandhi's remark, which if uttered by anyone else would have been labelled as an example of the lowest form of wit! Sorry, I digress... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted February 3, 2006 Report Share Posted February 3, 2006 For me the question goes right back to my childhood. Watching Kirk Douglas gnashing his teeth under the whip, or Peter Ustinov prancing around the palace, or Derek Jacobi taking several minutes to complete a single sentence. Deep down I was fascinated by these people - its that sense of purpose, of glory, of overwhelming power that no other culture ever really pulled off. Its that sheer optimism and confidence of a bunch of hill farmers taking on the world. I think it also latches on to something deep within our human psyche. So many societies have tried to emulate the Romans ever since. We still do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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