What analogies and parallels are there between ancient rome and today?

The analogies between the entire history of the Imperium Romanum and the modern world are huge and go back as far as the emergence of the united states of america from european colonies. very similar to the etruscans and greeks who colonized ancient italy and western europe. Even the geographical situation is very similar to rome/italy, but on a larger scale. take the early roman foundation stories. founded as colony on a beneficial strategic point on a peninsula, both the early american colonists and the -alleged- etruscan colonists who founded rome as a city took a piece of land inhabitet by "uncivilized" natives, expelled them (check the rape of the sabines and how rome repeatedly sacked italian cities by killing their male inhabitants and replacing them with romans. and compare that to the history of the indians) and turned the place into a kingdom with taxes, military organisation and a thriving economic system. same as the romans the american founding fathers drove out the kings that once established their states, changed it to a republic, which grew even more in wealth and power, in both cases thanks to their extraordinary focus on law, politics and a disciplined, well trained, determined military spirit. both states share their policy of defensive aggression and the principle of bellum iustum - just cause, and establishing political self-sufficient client states as socii rather than expansively occupying their territory. that kind of strategy is what made the roman republic so popular and successful, much like the US after ww2. think about how america liberated europe from the nazis and giving them functioning, liberate, constitutional states - that's pretty much what rome did in the first 300 years of its "expansion".

In addition I think that the american founding fathers must have seen all that geographical, historical and cultural similarites and constituted the united states with a lot of references to the roman republic. take the structure of congress, the idea of the president as supreme commander - much like the roman princeps in later times - but with a stronger controlling/opposing senate. or the role of the rethor as law- and statesman in the roman republic. even the political cursus honorum is very similar in both cases. look at obama. he is the ideal of a roman lawyer and statesman, just like cicero was back then. and both got caught in the crossfire of a state crisis. at least obama kept his head. I think the american and the roman republic share a common kind of genesis, so the whole thing kind of evolves in a similar way. maybe it's also some kind of historical pattern. history repeats itself in the same way as evolution or seasonal cycles, and we may have reached a point that only occurs every few thousand years.

/r/ancientrome Thread