Empires

[vincent1989]

I find the Roman empire the most interesting.

Rome suffered some massive defeats but always seemed to win the war. The Germans kicked seven bells of crap out of the Roman armies but were crushed when they tried to enter Italy via the alps.

They had many rebellions from the Slave rebellion, to Sicily (many times) and most importantly Italy. Remember Rome was literally that - Rome and a few surrounding areas. The rest of Italy was different and its citizens were treated as third class citizens. They rose up against Rome and Rome had some massive defeats but triumphed ultimately.

The Roman soldier was also not well paid. A Roman soldier was a land owner carrying out his duty. You needed a certain amount of land to fight in the army and you took spoils and slaves rather than pay. It was later that Marius enlisted the 'head count' (peasants) to fight because the losses were so bad in Gaul that there was no one left to recruit!

as edward said a lot of what you've mentioned was in the days of the republic, before Caesar crossed the Rubicon and was later assassinated (44BC) Rome didn't become an empire till 27BC. under julius caesar the pay for a legionary was raised to 250 denarii per year, not a massive amount but i'm sure it would be more than owning a small farm stead or working at the local olive shop.

 

[Vanilla]

The Germans got lucky a few times, mostly the Romans killed the Germans and pushed them back to the Rhine and Danuned where it became a stale mate as Rome didn't want to commit any more resources to finish the job, mainly due to Augustus decree a zero expansion policy after his death.

Yeah, it was the sheer numbers of the Germans (750k If I recall?) and incompetent leadership by the Romans that lead to the initial defeats.

Well all that is true, a lot of it is from the tail end of the republic, before Augustus and the empire. For example the Marius' reforms, were way before Augustus was even born and before Caesar's time.

Not that I'm saying your wrong, I'm just saying this wasn't while they had an empire, (except the rebellion bit which did carry on).

as edward said a lot of what you've mentioned was in the days of the republic, before Caesar crossed the Rubicon and was later assassinated (44BC) Rome didn't become an empire till 27BC. under julius caesar the pay for a legionary was raised to 250 denarii per year, not a massive amount but i'm sure it would be more than owning a small farm stead or working at the local olive shop.

Yes, the Germans, African wars and Italian wars were all slightly before the time of Gaius Julius Ceasar. I think he was 10 years old during the Italian wars and only just born during the German wars. SO all of what I said was pre 'empire'.

The Romans did run quite a hefty amount of the world prior to Ceasar though. Italy, most of South Gaul, Africa, Asia (not all of it, areas east of Italy) Spain, etc.

 

[yantorsen]

SHE??? Hmm you will find I am a bloke thanks! And no the OP has not being edited ask a mod.

Meh, I never noticed in the OP when I posted.

 

[yantorsen]

it hasn't been edited you wally! so get of your high horse

it's been there the entire time, numerous others have asked and numerous times has the answer been given, if you can't read then maybe you should go back to school

edit: i fail at quoting

You fail at grammar as well. Maybe you should go back to school, and learn to mind your own business as well.

 

[Killa_ken]

You fail at grammar as well. Maybe you should go back to school, and learn to mind your own business as well.

Come off it.

 

[Ross1234]

What do they consider them self’s then? Of course they are British, well yes the empire is no more but its reign and influence is still seen to this day, safe to say it’s the last of the large Empires.

I consider myself British, but if someone was to ask me where I was from I would say i'm Scottish I wouldn't say British.

 

[Angilion]

What a pointless thread. I never quite understand why anybody but really old people pine about the British Empire.

Also where is the Mongol empire in that list?

It isn't, because the list defined an empire as something that lasted at least 150 years. That didn't. One supremely effective conqueror, one lifetime, then it fell apart.

 

[Iraklis F.C.]

I disagree with the folks who put the romans in the first place because simply put it was the most barbaric empire the world has ever seen plus the fact that the vast majority of their culture is basically greek, the chinese should be higher up the list too. The british changed the world a lot and its definitely in the top 3.

 

[vincent1989]

I disagree with the folks who put the romans in the first place because simply put it was the most barbaric empire the world has ever seen plus the fact that the vast majority of their culture is basically greek, the chinese should be higher up the list too. The british changed the world a lot and its definitely in the top 3.

why do you say they were barbaric? obviously things like the colosseum i agree but much of what is written about the emperors for example (by the likes of Suetonius) is thought to have been greatly exaggerated (for the bad in many cases) to please the current leader. i don't think Rome was any more barbaric than the British empire.

So what if they took examples of greek culture and worked it into their own, notice how poorly the greek empire did (in terms of going the distance). At least Rome, even though (as with all cultures) there was a large amount of corruption they were able to hold an empire that massive together for many many years, even after the fall of the empire in the west the roman empire in the east continued until Constantinople was captured by the turks in 1450s

i'd say the romans (to name but one great culture) changed the world far more than the british.

 

[JBuk]

yes , but what did they ever do for us?

 

[vincent1989]

yes , but what did they ever do for us?

us now or us back then?

http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/ancient_roman_inventions.htm

that's a nice long list of Roman inventions (as well as things they perfected) i'm sure you can pick out the ones that have helped us to some extent.

i for one thank them for the bakini, the romans sure did now how to get the women to show off, iirc i remember being taught about a national holiday in which the women would run down the the sea naked (or something like that), my classics teacher was full of these wonderful(ly) funny little snippets.

 

[meghatronic]

Anyone who dismisses the British Empire should be killed.

That'll teach them the reach of the Empire

 

[Von Smallhausen]

yes , but what did they ever do for us?

They gave us Russell Crowe.

Probably.

 

[meghatronic]

I consider myself British, but if someone was to ask me where I was from I would say i'm Scottish I wouldn't say British.

Painfully predictable and just as disappointing.

 

[JBuk]

us now or us back then?

http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/ancient_roman_inventions.htm

that's a nice long list of Roman inventions (as well as things they perfected) i'm sure you can pick out the ones that have helped us to some extent.

whooosh

 

[Vanilla]

why do you say they were barbaric? obviously things like the colosseum i agree but much of what is written about the emperors for example (by the likes of Suetonius) is thought to have been greatly exaggerated (for the bad in many cases) to please the current leader. i don't think Rome was any more barbaric than the British empire.

So what if they took examples of greek culture and worked it into their own, notice how poorly the greek empire did (in terms of going the distance). At least Rome, even though (as with all cultures) there was a large amount of corruption they were able to hold an empire that massive together for many many years, even after the fall of the empire in the west the roman empire in the east continued until Constantinople was captured by the turks in 1450s

i'd say the romans (to name but one great culture) changed the world far more than the british.

I agree, in that day and age I don't think the Romans were any more barbaric than those around them. Compared to the people of Asia, Gaul, Britain, etc the Romans were leaps and bounds ahead in terms of society and no more barbaric than them.

You can easily trounce google for 'what did the Romans do for us' and come up with everything from roads to sanitation but when you look into it you realise how our life is based on things they started.

They got rid of their kings and formed a senate with many checks and balances. This can be seen here. This consisted of Consuls, Preators, censors, etc. Some people in the chain even had vetos to stop any law deemed inproper (much like our house of commons and house of lords). This system was well above what anyone else had - most other nations still had kings and dictators.

Another thing I noticed was that in Rome you could prosecute anyone you wanted. They had to defend themselves in front of a group of tribunes. Much the same way we dish out justice today - we announce we are to prosecute and we prosecute and defend. One big difference is that in Rome they did NOT see imprisonment as a punishment. They did have a small (tiny) prison but this was for high profile people such as foreign leaders.

 

[vincent1989]

They got rid of their kings and formed a senate with many checks and balances. This can be seen here. This consisted of Consuls, Preators, censors, etc. Some people in the chain even had vetos to stop any law deemed inproper (much like our house of commons and house of lords). This system was well above what anyone else had - most other nations still had kings and dictators.

although if you believe Suetonius (again iirc) then Nero had a horse made a senator (so not a completely infallible system (the horse would only ever say nay) )

whooosh

 

[Edward01]

I agree, in that day and age I don't think the Romans were any more barbaric than those around them. Compared to the people of Asia, Gaul, Britain, etc the Romans were leaps and bounds ahead in terms of society and no more barbaric than them.

You can easily trounce google for 'what did the Romans do for us' and come up with everything from roads to sanitation but when you look into it you realise how our life is based on things they started.

They got rid of their kings and formed a senate with many checks and balances. This can be seen here. This consisted of Consuls, Preators, censors, etc. Some people in the chain even had vetos to stop any law deemed inproper (much like our house of commons and house of lords). This system was well above what anyone else had - most other nations still had kings and dictators.

Another thing I noticed was that in Rome you could prosecute anyone you wanted. They had to defend themselves in front of a group of tribunes. Much the same way we dish out justice today - we announce we are to prosecute and we prosecute and defend. One big difference is that in Rome they did NOT see imprisonment as a punishment. They did have a small (tiny) prison but this was for high profile people such as foreign leaders.

IMO The British empire was more successful and did more for the world but I still love the Greeks and Romans.

No they weren't barbaric by any measure, they were more civilised than a lot of the countries today.


errm, although they didn't have kings they did have emperors. And I seem to remember a couple of cases of Caligula have a senator or two killed because he ran out of money in a card game once. Soem of the emperors really wren't very good.

Funnily enough the word barbaric originates from a greek term meaning anyone or anything not Greek, so yes I suppose they were, but hten again so are we


ps. Sparta had a better set up. 2 kings, each keeping each other in check. (Yes there were 2 kings around when the 300 movie took place but no one ever mentions the other one for some reason.)

 

[Biohazard]

The British Empire was a stunning achievement but what impresses me the most is that sometimes it seemed to expand simply on the basis of "I say Rupert, I would rather like to see what is in that country there" and then it was annexed into the Empire shortly after.

What a sugar coated way of puting it.

 

[Killa_ken]

I believe we must sieze the empire once again and fix the world.