I suppose I am a little late in writing about this, since the trend happened all the way back in September (which might as well be the 13th century when it comes to internet trends). But yes, I do think about the Roman Empire. Frequently.
When a friend asked me, in an online chat in September, how often I think about the Roman Empire, I did a quick scan of my memory to try to recall all the times I had thought about it in the previous month or so. Here is the list I gave her, along with a little elaboration.
#1 Marcus Aurelius
I thought about how cool it was to have an emperor who was also a stoic philosopher, and that I would rather live under Emperor Aurelius than any democratically elected government on the planet right now.
#2 Roman concrete
I thought about how amazing Roman concrete is.
Roman concrete has the ability to heal itself when it cracks. Today’s concrete must be scrupulously maintained or it will fall apart very quickly. This is why Roman structures are still visible nearly 2,000 years later, while abandoned shopping malls and factories start to look like a post-apocalyptic movie scene within ten years.
Then I wondered, Why the heck don’t we use their formula? Naturally, I did a search and found that some clever companies are starting to sell a version of Roman concrete. If I were building a concrete structure, I would definitely use it!
#3 Roman roads
We talk about how cool it is that Roman roads have lasted so long, but those roads were also a means by which to conquer, tax, and rule. If I were one of the conquered peoples, I would not deem their durability to be a plus.
In fact, in an episode of the terrific (and sadly cancelled) show Britannia, a conquered tribe waits until the legion marches past and then destroys the road. I think I would have been one of them, and then I would have used the stones to make a nice hut, far away from any Roman garrison.
#4 Hadrian’s Wall
I think it was my mom or dad who first told me about Hadrian’s Wall. I was really into the Roman Empire as a kid, so this would have been a likely conversation. What a feat, I thought, to build a wall across a whole country.
They also told me about the disappearance of the ninth legion, and that mysterious tale haunted my imagination. I always imagined that they strayed north of the wall and were slaughtered by blue-faced Picts.
I will have thought of Hadrian’s Wall multiple times in any one year. Recent thoughts include a memory of our trip to Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall in 2019, and learning much later in life about the Antonine Wall (further north) and wondering why I didn’t know about it sooner.
#5 Roman Law and the Justinian Code
My favorite description of why Anglophone common law is so much better than European civil law is found in Daniel Hannan’s triumphant book Inventing Freedom.
One salient difference between the two can be boiled down to this:
In common law, everything is deemed permitted unless it is expressly forbidden. Common law reacts as needed—there does not need to be a law for everything. Civil law, by contrast, seeks to prescribe and proscribe everything by means of ex ante legislation. The former allows more freedom than the latter.
I think about this subject from time to time, and civil law is based on Roman law, so there ya go.
#6 Trimontium
“The Trimontium Museum is in the heart of Melrose in the Scottish Borders. We tell the story of Trimontium, the largest Roman fort and settlement north of Hadrian’s Wall, and the interaction between the invading Romans and the native Iron Age tribes they encountered.”
On that same 2019 trip, we visited this museum. A delightful old docent there told us many interesting things. One that stuck with me was about the trick by which one can find ancient structures simply by looking at how the grass is growing:
If there is a strip where grass is struggling to grow well, there may be a wall underneath. Even millennia later, it still can have an effect!
If there is a wide strip where grass is growing extremely well, this may be a place where the Romans (or others) had dug a ditch, churning up fertile soil.
There is a strip in my yard where grass struggles to grow, and it is right where the previous owners installed a French drain. Thus, whenever I mow over that spot, there is a 50-50 chance that I will think of Trimontium, the museum, and the Roman Empire.
#7 The Battle of Cannae
Who doesn’t think about this battle? It certainly haunted people in the Mediterranean region for generations. It enraged Cato the Elder enough that he is reputed to have ended every one of his speeches with Carthago delenda est (Carthage must be destroyed).
Why were the Romans so soundly defeated? Did they really salt the earth around Carthage? (Website resources claim it is a myth, but I could swear I saw a documentary in which an interviewee pointed out a spot where nothing has been able to grow for 2,000 years.)
Anyway…
Part of the entertainment of the trend was the bemusement of wives and girlfriends upon discovering that their husbands and boyfriends think about the Roman Empire so often. But it does not seem strange to me at all.
In fact, what seems a lot stranger is NOT thinking about it.
Ha! I like 50/50 chance when you mow your lawn part. 🙂
You may be interested to hear a theory proposed by two historical researchers that the Great Wall of China was actually THE Silk Road!
I had the pleasure of enjoying their very thorough presentation of old photos highlighting architectural details that can only be seen as Roman- not Chinese. They fire up your imagination while depicting what it might have been like at that time- teeming with people and animals, ongoing trading of exotic wares in markets and weary travellers sleeping in the inns we’ve been told are guard towers. Pretty fascinating!
If I think about Rome at all, it’s in the context of the fall of the Roman Empire, and the extent to which the US is teetering--or should I say rushing headlong--into the same fate.