this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
17 points (100.0% liked)
Rough Roman Memes
632 readers
14 users here now
A place to meme about the glorious ROMAN EMPIRE (and Roman Republic, and Roman Kingdom)! Byzantines tolerated! The HRE is not.
RULES:
-
No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, bigotry, etc. The past may be bigoted, but we are not.
-
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.
-
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
founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Explanation: Of the military systems of Ancient Rome, the Mid-Republic takes the cake for sheer, bloody-minded stubbornness. During the First and Second Punic Wars, the Romans suffered massive defeats at the hands of their enemies, to the tune of six-digit casualties - something which even modern states with massive, post-industrial revolution populations would struggle to sustain.
The Mid-Republic, though? Ban mourning. Reinforce penalties for evading conscription. Tax everyone's jewelry. Free volunteer slaves. Do WHATEVER is needed to raise those troops and AVENGE THE REPUBLIC'S HONOR!
At times it seems they pulled extra troops out of their ass - something which at least one ancient historian noted (in reference to their wars against the Greek invader Pyrrhus of Epirus) as being like 'water gushing forth from a fountain'.