Comment by sebastiennight 18 hours ago
Ever since I've heard of the meme that "modern men can't spend 24 hours without thinking of the Roman Empire", I haven't been able to escape it, even on days where my only contact with the outside world is HN.
I guess it's like a curse, once you've heard about it you're doomed.
And for anyone finding out about it just now, alea jacta est
It's extremely easy if you're immersed in Southern European culture.
Moru -> Flag of Sardinia, whose Wikipedia page incidentally I was reading yesterday (the Four Moors, "is cuatru morus") -> Sardinian language -> grammatically still the closest language to Latin -> the everlasting glory of the Roman Empire
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Reminds me of the fantastic, unreleased Monty Python sketch about memory association: https://youtu.be/KnpY46lOTX4?si=3Yb17jvGp-1vn6de&t=2058
Also, Monty Python -> The Life of Brian -> the everlasting glory of the Roman Empire
It's so funny to see this be a worldwide phenomenon. As someone who grew up playing in the ruins of Roman temples & villas and was obsessed with it as a child, it almost feels like people are talking about "some other Rome".
I grew up in a school system which taught us about "our ancestors, the Gauls"...
Which is fun if you're an Asterix fan, but one day you end up asking yourself - wait, we're in an ex-French colony here, but how much Gaul blood does anyone have in this place really?
Join the club of people who acknowledge that there's much more interesting history than that, and you'll suddenly forget all about Rome.
For me it's not so much what's interesting as what affects my day to day. I love Chinese history but I'm unlikely to come across anything today with origins in Chinese law, or traverse the path of a Chinese road, or use an interesting word with a Chinese etymology and an associated story from old China.
I love learning new history and I'm open to suggestions. Any less-trodden paths you'd recommend?
For national history, Chinese is probably my favorite by far.
May I suggest you do a domain-specific history dive, such as the history of computing, the history of science or some other subject you may enjoy more. That's the real good stuff.
There used to be some SF Italian restaurant that showed first if you Googled "SPQR." Their SEO was stronger than Rome. I don't even live near there.
I think this meme has bumped the real SPQR back to the top.