this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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Rough Roman Memes
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A place to meme about the glorious ROMAN EMPIRE (and Roman Republic, and Roman Kingdom)! Byzantines tolerated! The HRE is not.
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Explanation: we in the modern day differentiate between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The Romans, however, regarded themselves as remaining a republic even with the Emperor at the head. There was a very strong taboo against the Emperor claiming to be king which would not be broken until the fall of the Western Empire. According to the Romans, the Emperor was just a very powerful magistrate who represented the will of the people, and who made decisions in consensus with the Senate.
Provincials sometimes did not appreciate this distinction - Greek cities would often write praises or requests to the Emperor, calling him 'Basileus' ('king'), and receive responses from Imperial secretaries thanking them for their praises or concerns - but insistently in the name of the 'autokrator' ('ruler'), not 'Basileus'.