Well, my general gave me shitload of land and money, and emperor have me nothing, so which way to the Rubicon?
Rough Roman Memes
A place to meme about the glorious ROMAN EMPIRE (and Roman Republic, and Roman Kingdom)! Byzantines tolerated! The HRE is not.
RULES:
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No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, bigotry, etc. The past may be bigoted, but we are not.
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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.
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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
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!
Stop giving me so many ideas! I can't write stories fast enough!
History is such a lovely bit of inspiration for creative writing!