I don’t know if any of you dear readers have seen this social media trend, but lots of women have been asking the men in their lives how often they think about the Roman Empire.
Part of the trend is how surprised they are by their response, which is often quite higher than they anticipated. For instance, when I was asked by my fiancée I told her I think about it around two or three times a day.
Now, I am a nerd when it comes to history, but I want to clarify that I’m not sitting around in deep thought about the Roman Empire multiple times a day. There are just subtle reminders of a time long past in our day-to-day lives that we may not realize or choose to ignore.
If you don’t believe me, I’ll list a few things we can thank the Roman Empire for below and you can Google them for yourself:
Timely news (I’m a newspaperman, so this was always going first)
Postal service
Bound books
Cement
Sanitation
Roads
The list could go on and on, but just chew on those for now. I find them pretty significant!
And, if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, which I am, you are likely quite familiar with the impact the Roman Empire had on Jews at the time and on the life of Christ, as well as the persecution of Christians for several generations afterwards.
There remains influence in language, sports, architecture and many other areas of life today. Roman mythology is still a common part of the stories we tell, both on screen and in literature. Think of how many movies and television shows are about or contain images of the Roman Empire.
That’s what happens when you build a world-dominating machine. It’s funny to think about, but I’m sure Romans were thinking about the Macedonian Empire. Since the time of the western Roman Empire we’ve had the Byzantine Empire and Ottoman Empire, which also hold certain influence today. Istanbul or Constantinople?
If you consider the Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, as a continuation of its western counterpart that fell in the 400s, then you can say the Roman Empire held a nearly 1,500-year long domination and influence that we haven’t seen the likes of since, and hopefully never will.
I’m wrapping this up now, so I’ll part with this: J. Robert Oppenheimer is my favorite historical figure of all time, and the release of the film starring Cillian Murphy and directed by Christopher Nolan was the most excited I’ve been for a movie in years. He has the Roman Empire beat, as I think about Oppenheimer and all of his complexities several times a day.
