this post was submitted on 29 Dec 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.

RULES:

  1. No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, bigotry, etc. The past may be bigoted, but we are not.

  2. Memes must be Rome-related, not just the title. It can be about Rome, or using Roman aesthetics, or both, but the meme itself needs to have Roman themes.

  3. Follow Lemmy.world rules.

Not sure where to start on Roman history?

A quick memetic primer on Republican Rome

A quick memetic primer on Imperial Rome

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Well, my general gave me shitload of land and money, and emperor have me nothing, so which way to the Rubicon?

[–] PugJesus 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Explanation: Alexander's army famously mutinied near modern-day India because they were tired of campaigning and wanted to go home and see their families again. Macedonian soldiery were professionals, but in a system that operated under traditional warlord's logic - you go home when the campaigns end.

Rome, on the other hand, eventually developed a professional system in which troops were constantly being rotated in and out of service, with a (more or less) definite start and end to one's term of service. 20-25 years is a lot, but it's also certain - the next campaign isn't going to take you away from your home province indefinitely. As such, with the older, more likely to be exhausted soldiery being regularly dismissed to a pleasant (and paid) retirement, and the newer, hungry-for-loot-and-glory troops being constantly brought in, even during campaigning, the Roman Legions maintained a high level of enthusiasm for going on new campaigns, in most cases.

Unfortunately, sometimes this led to the Legions deciding in times of calm that THEIR general would be a better (read: more enriching) Emperor than whoever had the office at the time! Pros and cons!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Stop giving me so many ideas! I can't write stories fast enough!

[–] PugJesus 2 points 2 days ago

History is such a lovely bit of inspiration for creative writing!