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> Rome’s defenses had not been breached in 800 years—not since a sack by the Gauls at the beginning of the fourth century b.c., long before Rome became an imper
by baxtr 6y ago
> Rome’s defenses had not been breached in 800 years—not since a sack by the Gauls at the beginning of the fourth century b.c., long before Rome became an imperial power
Every time I am amazed for how long Rome ruled large parts of the world. Fascinating
- empath75 6y agoThe eastern half lasted another 1000 years after this.
- pacificmint 6y agoAnother, fascinating way to look a it: The area they ruled (from England to Syria and Egypt) had never been under a unified rule before the Romans. And it has never been under a unified rule again since the Romans. If you consider how many different countries and cultures occupy that space today, it really puts the magnitude of their empire into perspective.
- dntbnmpls 6y ago> The area they ruled (from England to Syria and Egypt) had never been under a unified rule before the Romans. To be fair, you can say that about almost every empire - mongol, greek, british, ottoman, persian, babylonian, etc. I doubt the mongol empire stretching from vietnam to korea and moscow to baghdad will ever be unified under a single empire. > If you consider how many different countries and cultures occupy that space today To be fair, most of the countries and cultures that occupy that space today weren't ruled by the romans. Rome never ruled england as england came into existence after the anglo-saxons conquered roman britannia. As for syria and egypt, the romans never ruled the arabs who dominate the region. > it really puts the magnitude of their empire into perspective. Rather than the magnitude, I think the legacy of the roman empire is what separates it from others. The roman empire wasn't particularly that large. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires
- Mikeb85 6y agoEven more amazing IMO is the length of time that Egypt ruled. Ancient Egypt (Old Kingdom until Alexander the Great) lasted longer than all of the history that came after it...
- spaced-out 6y agoJulius Caesar and Cleopatra lived ~2000 years ago, and lived ~2800 years after the pyramids were built. They lived closer to our era than they did to the time the pyramids were built.
- credit_guy 6y agoAnd the pyramids were build closer to our era than the Gobekly Tepe [1], by a good margin. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
- sxp 6y agoI've heard this fact phrased as "the time between the construction of the pyramids and 0 AD is more than the time from 0 AD to present day" which blows my mind every time I think of it.
- perl4ever 6y agoConversely, the original IBM PC was closer in time to WWII than to now. And the discovery of quantum mechanics was closer to the war of 1812 than to now.
- redis_mlc 6y agoAnd it's been almost 100 years since the first patent (1934) on maglev trains, as built in 2002 in Shangai. That's why lay people wonder about not seeing scientific progress since the 70s or 80s - it seems like decades since giant steps were made. But incremental progress adds up, too. One day we'll merge all those low-temperature superconductor or graphene experiments into something bigger. And there's been a bunch of nice proofs coming from random places annually. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#First_maglev_patent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#First_maglev_patent
- deepnotderp 6y agoAnd the Eastern Roman Empire lasted another ~900 years! (Calling them the "Byzantines" is a modern invention)