Favourite part of Roman Empire?

[Leto]

Yes, that and Justinian code too, and many more.
Fortunatly my university teachers at that time were great storytellers, even if their Roman tribes counts showed they had math troubles.

 

[Blue Mythril]

I thought I might update my opinion on my favourite part of the Roman Empire. Recently I've been delving into the republic, in particular the late republic from Sulla to Augustus, in more detail. This part of Roman history, despite how horrific it was in parts, is hands down my favourite. In fact I might argue its the turbulant nature of this period which makes it so fascinating and allows for personalities such as Maecenas and Fulvia, who in any other period would barely get a look at politics, to be so prolific. There's just so much in terms of events, people and evidence, its just fantastic! The seeds of Empire were sown...

 

[Stalker]

Et tu, Brute?

 

[Stormflame]

One aspect of the roman empire that has always enthused me, was their architecture. I was watching a documentary the other day and it was talking about their aqua-duct system. Even after all of these years, here are parts of it that are under the ground, connected to a natural spring or stream, and are working to this very day. The romans were awesome, and had they not fallen to the barbarians and other fronts, I could only imagine what they would have aspired to.

 

[Blue Mythril]

Ah but what rises will one day fall, sadly in some cases, not so sadly in a few modern examples I'm waiting for the fall of

Actually speaking of Roman architecture, something I discovered last year and found really interesting is that Nero was the first person to use concrete on a large scale. Thats how he was able to complete his palace so quickly. It just seemed so odd learning about a technique used in antiquity that has parallels with modern mass production.

 

[Stalker]

They say, the Egyptians used concrete on the large scale while constructing Great Giza pyramids but I hardly believe that Egyptians built The Great Pyramids at all!
I also invite everybody who's going to discuss alternate scenarios of historical development to visit the thread Alternate history scenarios: What if? and discuss their ideas there http://www.chronicles-network.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5702

 

[The Ace]

Don't know about that, the Romans were credited with inventing the stuff.

 

[Hiro Protagonist]

To me the most interesting period would be its beginning (Augustus) till the whole descendence thing broke down (i.e. when there were all these emperors who had been successful army leaders and who didn't stay emperors very long).

Was the first of these Commodus?

Besides that I was always fascinated the philosophical tendencies and views of that time period...

Could you elaborate on the philosophical tendencies of Rome?

Rome was Greco-European, which was more Hellenistic than Hellenic. The great philosophical ideas of the Greeks were strained during the Hellenistic period, and when they were taken and mixed into Greco-European, I feel they lost all value.

Cicero is my favourite Roman because of his sheer intelligence. I guess you could say Rome was transformed by Cicero. He took the last of the Greek ideas that the Greeks still had and ported them to Rome.

I guess I don't like Rome much because it is overlooked. We all discuss the "great" Roman army, but none of us really realize how much Rome has lived on. The U.S. is a bloody Republic, and all of the Roman patriotism/impersonalism/cultural relativism still exists.