what are some parallels between us and ancient rome?

[E-Street Band]

what were some things that led to Rome's fall, that are similar to what we are doing?
Also, what do we do better than them?

[bebopolis]

contrast ok? rome was very tolerant religously until some christian zealots started rioting and burning down the place in 300AD.

they loved spectacles of violence. the coloseo was like modern day WWE. it was mostly fake.

[Dave M]

We have a Senate. We copy their architecture. Our society is decadent. LOL. Just kidding, though there might be some truth to that. Our treasury is in debt. We have the illusion of thinking that the people have a real say in how the government is run. The rich actually have all of the power. We are always at war with someone, somewhere. We both want to rule the world, though they did it in a different way than we do. They were more upfront about it, whilst we do it more secretly. We have both had lots of bathouses for men. Free sex is quite tolerated, with similar adultery laws, though not exact. We both coin money. We both have thought of our system of government to be superior to other forms. We like wrestling between men wearing little clothing. We have assaninated many of our best leaders.

Rome probably fell due to both being in debt and overextending its territory. It was too difficult to control so much territory until it got a larger core of very loyal citizens in the outerlying areas. But due to the way things were set up, Roman generals had a bit of power/influence, so there was often pressure for them to conquer more lands. Often the generals were the ones who became the head of state, and still were expected to show their greatness. This caused them to spend too much money on buildings and war. People finally have had enough. And the people in the outer lying areas don't come to help defend Rome so quickly, and started actually allying with Rome's enemies.

And when Roman leaders were overspending on building things, they didn't have that money to pay for more and better soldiers, making them susceptible to attack from their enemies.

And there is a huge similarity here. Both us and Rome had to always make decisions to spend money on "defense" or on intrastructure or what we might call social causes. And though Rome's social causes might not seem to be the same as ours, a waterway/aquaduct certainly was an important social cause, or you might call it an infrastructure improvement. And it seems that they let spending get out of control, all the while there were enemies attacking them, so they had to keep spending money on armies.

In general there was the illusion that no one was better, no one could ever destroy what they had built, and everything would always get better and better, so there was no reason to be frugal and prudent about spending. Our government and society has been just like that. And I think we are right on the verge of understanding that right this very minute. The stock market has finally spoken very loudly.

[clambacke]

rotten from the inside out, politicians where puppets of the military and the population fat and dumb.

[Mason W]

the most parallel would be there government and there inventions. They pretty much invented Representative Democracy. one of there inventions that sticks out more than all was the invention of Concrete.

[Gerald]

The most important parallel is political. The Roman republic was set up with three different branches of government and is thus a clear inspiration to the US Founding Fathers:

- The consuls and other magistrates acted as the executive branch, carrying out the laws (just like the President and Cabinet)
- The Senate and the assemblies were the legislative branch and created the laws (Congress)
- Judges enforced laws.

[Jesus Cake]

Few I can think of I'm sure there are more:

1.) Leading super powers of the world (or known world).

2.) Both have representative government or republic (although the Romans eventually was overthrown by a Monarchy and it wasn't nearly as representative as the US... it was mostly an aristocracy lead by rich people).

3.) Both have been involved in empire building.

4.) Both have western cultures inherited from Greece.

5.) Both are predominantly Christian (Romans were first nation to make Christianity their official religion. The US is secular but the vast majority of population is Christian. Christianity has had a long history in US politics).

I think ancient Rome is a great area to study and compare against the United States as they do have some very strong parallels.

I find it really interesting how Rome started out as a small territory that slowly assimilated or conquered its neighbors, becoming larger and larger, passing from victory to victory but eventually it's own greatness and power succumbed to massive amounts of corruption, disorder and chaos that eventually destroyed it. Does the US have a similar fate in store for itself?

As Rome's territory expanded the risks and rewards of Roman politics became greater and greater (greater than any nation in the world at that time). That huge attraction to politics and the powers it could grant to politicians and those that made deals with them led to major changes in political strategy that created serious (eventually fatal) political instability. One wonders if the same things are happening to the US right now with rumors of Haliburton, oil and unpopular foreign policy, etc.