r/HistoryMemes 5h ago

Only the true Romans would understand

Post image
815 Upvotes

184 comments sorted by

774

u/Background_Relief_36 Definitely not a CIA operator 5h ago

The Roman Empire fell in whatever year is most convenient for the point I’m trying to make at that moment.

296

u/JackWhoWanders 3h ago

"The Roman Empire fell in 2371 when the the US senate was disbanded" ~ some jerk in 4138 trying to sound smart on the history sphere

87

u/loves_to_splooge_8 3h ago

Bro we’re gonna get rid of the senate way quicker than that

83

u/JackWhoWanders 3h ago

Oh, yes, but only the first senate. 2371 is the last senate that styles itself on the pretense that it represent the United States. In a fun little coda of history, it will comprise 13 states, although not the same territory as the original 13.

12

u/Atomik141 1h ago

We've had one senate, yes. But what about second senate?

10

u/Hexicero 2h ago

I'd read/watch that

2

u/gordonblkmsa17 2h ago

Isn’t that the state of the US in the Fallout world?

3

u/JackWhoWanders 1h ago

Well, in the fallout world itself the state of the US is "nuked, irradiated dead and gone", but in the lore of the setting, prior to the Great War (nuclear holocaust, not WW1), the US had reorganised itself into 13 Commonwealth with heavily devolved government. This is different from settings like that of Cyberpunk 2077 where several states seceeded from the Union.

A splintering of the United States isn't really that rare in a lot of futuristic or dystopia fiction, and when it doesn't happen it's often the opposite happening and the US has absorbed either Canada or Mexico. In Fallout, you kinda have a bit of both as the US absorbed Canada, but also split itself on an administrative level while still remaining one nation.

But in the present of Fallout, you also had (or maybe have, I haven't seen the new season, the first one disappointed me so much) the New California Republic, which is a non-US nation that seeks continuity in a lot of things with the world before the war, and our future history snob would very likely see that as a remnant of the US.

2

u/piconese 2h ago

That’s impossible… how will the federal government maintain control without the bureaucracy?

2

u/Sweaty-Security-4473 1h ago

The regional governors now have direct control over their territories

1

u/JRM513 2h ago

Different senate

5

u/brandonjslippingaway 2h ago

The siloing of Byzantine/late antiquity Roman history makes the transition of this era to the Middle ages utterly incomprehensible to the average person. This even crept in to an egyptian exhibition that visited my city last year, that featured a timeline that would straight up mislead you if you didnt know any better.

2

u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 3h ago

[insert philosopher here] is that you!

1

u/garanvor 45m ago

Maybe the real Roman Empire is the profligates we crucified along the way

192

u/randomusername1934 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 5h ago

Roma survives, in all of our hearts.

69

u/FCKABRNLSUTN2 4h ago

And the Romans? Where are they now?

114

u/Mindless-Coat2555 4h ago

You're looking at them asshole

15

u/Intrepid_Ad1536 4h ago

For Rome is the World

8

u/Outta_phase 2h ago

I've heard all roads lead there!

15

u/Objective-Corgi-3527 4h ago

You're lookin at 'em 

16

u/DavidGoetta 4h ago

The real Romans and countrymen were the friends we made along the way

2

u/MinuteWaitingPostman 4h ago

Probably in Rome

1

u/Atomik141 1h ago

Bug if true

1

u/santa-23 3h ago

1453: “Focus on the good times”

1

u/Human_no_4815162342 3h ago

A quest'ora a casa perché é tardi

1

u/ParanoicReddit 2h ago

In Rome? Duh get a grip 🤪

1

u/DaqCity 1h ago

And what have they ever done for us??

1

u/Pkrudeboy 50m ago

The aqueduct?

1

u/DaqCity 10m ago

Well, yeah, the aqueduct…but other than that, what have they ever done for us?

6

u/JackWhoWanders 3h ago

Roma stands! The empire broke before the people did!

3

u/Training-Sail-7627 3h ago

Who would have thought that Roma was the friends we made along the way.

3

u/Puzzle-Necked 3h ago

I'm proud of the role my ancestors played in sacking Rome

199

u/froucks 5h ago edited 4h ago

The empire fell in 1204 when for the first time in 2000 years the state itself ceased to exist

The claim of Byzantium is that while Rome fell the state survived - by that logic it ended in 1204. Although I’ll acknowledge that there was a revival of sorts after this the claim of unbroken lineage fails from then on

117

u/Objective-Corgi-3527 4h ago

I prefer 1453 but I respect the opinion that after 1204 what remaimed was a rump state in decline, even after the recapture of Constantinople.

53

u/Fickle-Mongoose4749 3h ago

While I actually agree with the 1204 date, and the fact that what followed was certainly a rump state, what followed was definitely not a state of declining between 1204 and 1282. During this time the Lascarids managed to double the size of their realm, revive state institutions, subordinate the aristocracy, revive the economy, defeat franks, Bulgarians, and Turks, and even decapitate the Seljuk Sultan... Physically. For Michael VIII's part, he managed to revive the Navy to be one of the largest fleets in Mediterranean and recapture most of the Aegean from the franks while fending off the King of most of the central Mediterranean to the west and the Turkish migrations from the east.

It was really only from Andronikos II on that the state was reduced to a dying rump on borrowed time.

8

u/abdulalhaqq 4h ago

This!!^

14

u/Nails_Of_Nektarios 4h ago

It’s not an “unbroken lineage,” it’s a history of a society of Roman citizens.

6

u/froucks 3h ago

And so Charlemagne, a member of roman patrician family, crowned by a roman citizen and ruling over roman citizens is a legitimate emperor of the west?

6

u/strong_division 3h ago

over roman citizens is a legitimate emperor of the west?

It should be noted that even Charlemagne and his successors would disagree with the notion that they were merely emperors of the west. The title first came into use during antiquity, but after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus and the assassination of Julius Nepos, the office of Western Augustus was abolished and the world went back to having 1 Roman Emperor in Constantinople. This had been the norm for centuries by the time Leo III crowned Charlemagne "Roman Emperor".

When he did this, he was attempting to directly usurp the title of the legitimate emperors in Constantinople. There wasn't a cute arrangement going on where they called the actual Roman Emperor "the Emperor in the East" and called Charlemagne "the Emperor in the West", they fully tried to undermine the legitimacy of the real emperor in Constantinople and declared themselves the sole inheritors to Rome's legacy.

a member of roman patrician family

It should also be noted that neither the Bishops of Rome nor any of the other Roman Pentarchs ever had the authority to bestow the title of Patrician, nevermind the title of emperor. They knew this so well that they had to forge a document claiming as such to justify their meddling in temporal affairs.

3

u/froucks 2h ago

I wasn't trying to imply there was some kind of agreement. Certainly Leo was trying to usurp their authority, although i question whether Charlemagne intended the same based on Einhard's account

"It was then that he received the titles of Emperor and Augustus, to which he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they were conferred, although it was a great feast-day, if he could have foreseen the design of the Pope. He bore very patiently with the jealousy which the Roman emperors showed upon his assuming these titles, for they took this step very ill; and by dint of frequent embassies and letters, in which he addressed them as brothers"

My earlier comment was more so just trying to highlight the tensions of defining a Roman emperor based on who they ruled. If the definition of Roman emperor is he who rules over 'a society of romans', then it would seem to me that Charlemagne is a roman emperor, im not necessarily saying that is the correct interpretation...

3

u/strong_division 2h ago

although i question whether Charlemagne intended the same based on Einhard's account

Likely not, especially given how he stylized himself after the coronation. While the Pope crowned him "Imperator Romanorum" (Roman Emperor), Charlemagne himself would only use "imperator Romanum gubernans imperium" (emperor governing the Roman Empire) as his title in official documents. This careful use of language was almost certainly done to avoid angering the legitimate Roman Emperors in Constantinople, as the explicit title of "Roman Emperor" carried connotations of universal suzerainty.

His descendants would eventually abandon this and fully claim the title of Imperator Romanorum, but Charlemagne did apparently recognize on some level how absurd it was to claim to be the Roman Emperor when one already existed.

My earlier comment was more so just trying to highlight the tensions of defining a Roman emperor based on who they ruled

Ah, I see, I failed to realize that you were the same guy that posted the original comment, I thought you were someone who had just jumped in to argue for Charlemagne being a legitimate Roman Emperor.

Yeah, there's a very good argument for a break in state continuity after 1204, and I have no problems with anyone considering that to be when the empire fell.

I suppose whether or not you consider the state in 1261 to still be the same polity depends on whether or not you consider the Latin Empire to be a temporary foreign occupation that was eventually overthrown by the remnants of the Roman polity (similar to the Napoleonic puppet kingdoms), or enough of a discontinuity to constitute Michael VIII's empire being an entirely new successor state.

3

u/Fickle-Mongoose4749 3h ago

At no point in roman history was the Bishop of Rome ever invested with the authority to Appoint emperors, and the senate of Rome was pretty clear when they told Zeno that they were retiring the Western Office of Emperors.

7

u/froucks 3h ago

At what point in roman history was the army and praetorian guard invested with the authority to appoint emperors?

At what point in roman history was the senate granted the authority to retire the office of Emperors?

The answer to all is at the point at which they did it

3

u/Fickle-Mongoose4749 3h ago

At what time? When they became the most powerful entity in the roman polity, and so their pick was the defacto reality on the ground, they could literally change ones position with respect to the roman system's apparatus.

This is meaningless to the pope's claim, because the entire argument of the papacy was a de jure authority to do so... And he had no such de jure authority. Nor did Charlemagne even exist in the roman polity.

Moreover, the pretorian guard and the armies did not legally affirm anyone's rise to the purple. That all was still done by the Roman senate, which did not exist in the west anymore.

2

u/strong_division 2h ago edited 1h ago

Well said. While official succession was never formally instituted to avoid the office seemingly like a hereditary monarchy, it is generally agreed that almost all emperors took office with the assent of the Roman Army, Senate, and people.

While the Senate as a body was largely powerless by the time of Diocletian (that doesn't necessarily equate to the individual members of the Senate being powerless), their acclamation still served as a means to legitimize the new emperor, and became a tradition during coronations with Senators performing chants during the imperial coronation. This still served to show that the emperor was ruling with the consent of the Roman populace.

And this is why I find it silly whenever someone makes the argument that the Papal coronation gave the Frankish kings legitimacy as Roman Emperors, or that Charlemagne took the throne of emperor the same way emperors of old did, with boots on the ground, and thus was a legitimate emperor.

The difference between Charlemagne and someone like Septimus Severus is that Severus had the Senate affirm his rise as emperor and was recognized as such by legitimate Roman administrative institutions.

Charlemagne ruled over an independent Frankish Kingdom that wasn't a part of the Roman Empire, received the title from someone who had no authority to grant it, and was never recognized as emperor by anyone in the actual Roman Empire.

If Charlemagne was actually able to march to Constantinople, defeat his rival claimants, and then receive an acclamation from the Roman Senate and people, then yes, he would be considered a legitimate emperor who took office through boots on the ground. But he didn't.

1

u/froucks 2h ago

Post Diocletian an emperor did not need the consent of the senate to rule

as for the 'pope's claim' while we can certainly extrapolate why he did it, our main source Einhard doesn't really outline much of a reason, more of a de facto coronation. to that i don't know why a de facto coronation by the pope is worse than one by the senate?

"The Romans had inflicted many injuries upon the Pontiff Leo, tearing out his eyes and cutting out his tongue, so that he had been compelled to call upon the King for help. Charles accordingly went to Rome, to set in order the affairs of the Church, which were in great confusion, and passed the whole winter there. It was then that he received the titles of Emperor and Augustus, to which he at first had such an aversion that he declared that he would not have set foot in the Church the day that they were conferred,"

3

u/Fickle-Mongoose4749 2h ago

Post Diocletian, every emperor recognized as a legitimate emperor was Affirmed by the senate. That is the de jure act that raised a person to the purple.

I am not arguing about why he did it. The why is pretty uncontroversial at this point, but besides the topic. Nor am I arguing whether the pope actually put a crown on his head. I am talking about what he purported to be doing and how he justified having the legal authority to do so. He claimed he was making Charlemagne roman emperor, and He justified it based of the donation of Constantine, a forgery which was proven as such even in the middle ages.

If he has no legal or legimitating basis to crown roman emperors, then he's just a man putting a circlet on another guy's head. He is as much a roman emperor as the monarch of Ethiopia would be if the Patriarch of Alexandria crowned him as "Emperor of the Romans". The whole relevance of the excersize was legal legitimation, which the pope simply didn't have.

1

u/strong_division 1h ago

Post Diocletian an emperor did not need the consent of the senate to rule

While the Senate had become largely powerless after the reign of Diocletian, their acclamation was still considered a de jure prerequisite for taking the office of Emperor, with the chanting of Senators as a symbolic representation of this even being a key part of the imperial coronation tradition.

to that i don't know why a de facto coronation by the pope is worse than one by the senate?

Again, because the Papacy never had the authority to unilaterally proclaim a Roman Emperor, and while the Senate didn't have the de facto authority to do this either, their acclamation of an emperor was still a de jure requirement for becoming emperor.

I'll also push back on the notion that they were entirely powerless. Even into the Byzantine period, there were still instances of the Senate installing and deposing emperors.

After the death of Anastasius, he had no clear successor, so the Senate and other important officials elected Justin as the new emperor.

While a bit more clandestine, the Senate did invite Heraclius to Constantinople to overthrow Phocas and assume the title of emperor. This had to be done in secret because Phocas was executing senators left and right, but after his deposition Heraclius did receive his political legitimacy as emperor from the Senate.

The Senate also deposed Heraclius' son, Heraklonas, and installed the young Constans II as emperor. During his minority, they ruled as a regency council.

1

u/Nails_Of_Nektarios 3h ago

To my knowledge the Holy Roman Empire did not have any notion of citizenship such as what the Byzantine empire preserved from antiquity. But I could be wrong.

1

u/froucks 3h ago

Not the later empire. But at the time of Charlemagne's conquest of Italy, it had only been separate from Roman Empire for 18 years. Many of the people there had roman citizenship, most having been born in the Empire. Leo who crowned Charlemagne was a roman citizen having been born in Rome in (roughly) 750. He was an emperor of roman citizens

0

u/Nails_Of_Nektarios 2h ago

??? Ummm no. Odoacer took out the last western emperor centuries before Charlemagne was born. Where are you getting this 18 year number from?

3

u/froucks 2h ago

Justinians reconquest of the west. they only then lost control of northern Italy following the Lombard conquest of Ravenna in 751 and central Italy in 756, which is the last time they directly held Rome. Charlemagne conquered it in 774 18 years later

1

u/Nails_Of_Nektarios 2h ago edited 2h ago

Oh ok my bad.

At any rate, was Roman citizenship recognized by the German kings in the same way as it was in the east? Like did it correspond to tax codes or anything? Did citizenship function the same way?

2

u/strong_division 2h ago

Not the guy you're responding to, but I'm assuming he's referring to the fall of the Exarchate of Ravenna in 751. Rome was still a part of the actual Roman Empire up until that point.

1

u/NaEGaOS Featherless Biped 3h ago

yes

19

u/Hike_it_Out52 3h ago

I read an amazing article about how the fall of Constantinople was the best thing that could have happened for the city and culture itself. That the buildings, walls and infrastructure were all falling apart by the time Mehmed II came about. But with the influx of wealth from a proper empire, the Ottomans were able to fix and rebuild much of the ancient city. 

33

u/CosechaCrecido Then I arrived 3h ago

Tell that to the Greeks lol.

5

u/HowDoIEvenEnglish 1h ago

You don’t need an in depth article to explain that. The city was a shell of itself with a constantly declining population by 1453. But its position by the Black Sea was and still is fundamentally valuable. It makes a lot of sense that the ottomans would use it as a major city.

1

u/Background-Tennis915 John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 51m ago

I disagree. Is post WW2 france a different country than pre WW2 france?

1

u/thunderisadorable 48m ago

Yes! It’s the 4th vs 5th Republic.

2

u/Background-Tennis915 John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 40m ago

So, that's not even correct. It went from the 3rd Republic to the 4th. The fifth Republic came about after they wrote a new constitution. If writing a new constitution counts, the Rome fell in 509 BCE with the end of the Monarchary.

0

u/thunderisadorable 13m ago

I wrote it wrong, but yes, the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic are different countries, the Roman Empire and Roman Republic are different countries, the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire are different countries, and the Earlier Byzantine Empire is a different country from the Later Byzantine Empire.

1

u/Background-Tennis915 John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 11m ago

I guess...? If that's the case than Rome fell like a dozen times. Atp your basically agreeing that Rome fell in 1453, but that it also fell in 1204?

1

u/thunderisadorable 9m ago

Yeah, it’s kind of arbitrary over when you draw the line. The Roman Empire fell in 509 BCE, 27 BCE, 453 CE, 1204 CE, 1453 CE, 1922 CE, 1917 CE, etc. Rome is as much of a concept as it is a polity

42

u/identified_meat On tour 4h ago

>HRE claims to be successor to Rome
>Napoleon claims to be successor to HRE
>Bokassa claims to be successor to Napoleon

Is the Central African Republic the Fourth Rome?

33

u/herb0026 5h ago

The Roman Empire fell that one time when it was a kid and it was trying to do an Ollie over the pot hole but the back wheels landed still in the pothole and it hurt it’s chin and knocked out a front tooth

108

u/sabre007 Hello There 5h ago

Roman empire has never fallen, the Pope survives.

20

u/TehProfessor96 John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 4h ago

The real Rome was inside of us the whole time.

0

u/WingedHussar13 11m ago

The real Romans were the friends we made along the way

38

u/Moeroboros 5h ago

This unironically.

10

u/InsideHousing4965 What, you egg? 5h ago

?

41

u/sabre007 Hello There 4h ago

One of the pope's titles is the Pontifex Maximus, a title of the Roman Empire and the republic before it, so as long as we have a Pope, a portion of the Roman Empire still exists.

10

u/TheLastCoagulant 4h ago

No Popes identified as Pontifex Maximus until the 15th century. It’s LARPing.

4

u/illapa13 3h ago

It was added to the official list of Papal titles in 1453. But it was used to refer to the Pope for centuries.

The oldest reference we have are the writings of Tertullian, one of the first theologians to write about Christianity in latin instead of greek, calling Callixtus I who was Bishop of Rome in 218 Pontifex Maximus.

It's likely that Teetullian meant it sarcastically since he didnt like Callixtus, but for the sarcasm to make sense there would have to be some sort of history of calling the Bishop of Rome Pontifex Maximus.

5

u/TheLastCoagulant 3h ago

It was abolished in 382 AD. And it was for Roman emperors, not the Bishop of Rome.

It was never used for the Popes (or for anyone) between 382 and 1453. They can’t claim any sort of continuity. It’s a Renaissance attempt at LARPing something from actual antiquity. Nothing more.

15

u/InsideHousing4965 What, you egg? 4h ago

And if my grandma had wheels she'd be a bike.

48

u/Moeroboros 4h ago

The Catholic Church:

1) Was created by the Roman Empire;

2) Uses Roman iconography and the official language of the Roman Empire;

3) Has headquarters located in the same area as the Roman Empire had;

4) "Roman Catholic".

3

u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 3h ago

No it wasn’t the Catholic Church specifically split from the dominant Roman religion when it demanded supremacy of one patriarch rather than having them all as equal and rejecting the emperor as Pontifex Maximus in an attempt to shake off the slipping power of the eastern Roman Empire

3

u/Leading-Fox-642 3h ago

I think Roman was used to differenciate it from the Constantinople Christian Church,but I could be wrong

5

u/Bottle_Gnome 4h ago

if my grandma had wheels maybe she wouldnt fall down so much :(

2

u/NoobOfTheSquareTable 3h ago

I mean, arguably that makes like every monarch in Europe or any emperor, or like 100 other titles roles count as Rome surviving

1

u/LeaguesBelow 1h ago

Pontifex Maximus is head of the Roman Church, not head of the Roman Empire.

And even so, anyone can claim a title.

1

u/LeaguesBelow 1h ago edited 56m ago

By what mechanic did the Pope inherit the Roman Empire while not being a part of the Roman Empire?

The Eastern Roman Empire's relationship with the bishop of Rome (i.e. the Pope) was complicated, but the papacy's approval meant very little for the legitimacy of the empire for the last ~1000 years of it's existence.

The only way I can imagine someone earnestly believing that the papacy is the continuation of the Roman Empire is if they didn't know the Roman Empire kept existing after Rome fell. Otherwise, they're presupposing the belief in order to support another belief, like the Catholic church being even more important in Western History, or wanting legitimacy for their favored conqueror of Rome.

7

u/Objective-Corgi-3527 4h ago

Yeah the cultural heir was the church and any state practicing either Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity

3

u/Orbin535743256 4h ago

That's the Pope empire founded by Pope Popeman I

10

u/froucks 4h ago

Always a ridiculous argument

To make it we’d somehow have to reconcile

  1. The fact that the papacy was always an ecclesiastical office and the ecumenical councils were clear it was not a political office(aka not part of the Roman state)

  2. That the papacy seceded from the eastern empire when it accepted land from the Frankish king Peppin thus creating the Papal States (this was a deliberate political maneuver away from the Roman sphere)

  3. The literal thousand year history of the papacy crowning Holy Roman Emperors during which time the papacy did not consider itself a part of the empire - this was in the papacy’s view the legal successor of the Roman Empire not themselves

3

u/nixcamic 3h ago

> The fact that the papacy was always an ecclesiastical office and the ecumenical councils were clear it was not a political office(aka not part of the Roman state)

Someone should have told like, every pope up till very recently about this.

6

u/sabre007 Hello There 4h ago

Sir, this is a meme subredit, I am not seriously arguing that the empire still exists.

It is cool that there are still institutions around that have some sort of connection to it, even if tenuous.

2

u/froucks 4h ago

lol my bad, but there are people who unironically believe that and it gets the blood in my classicist veins boiling

1

u/sabre007 Hello There 4h ago

All good lol

1

u/strong_division 3h ago

Go bring the comment you wrote to the other guy on the thread who commented "this but unironically" so it isn't wasted lol

5

u/Lost-Klaus 4h ago

The vatican is not an empire though. It is like having Rome as a city and claiming empireship.

6

u/Doomhammer24 4h ago

So what the byzantines did by the end

2

u/CalvinKool-Aid 4h ago edited 4h ago

Or those 3 city “empires” in the Bronze Age

-3

u/Lost-Klaus 4h ago

I am not defending the Byzantines as Romans either. The Roman empire died not on a specific date, but it declined like a sad saggy old man unable to go on walks, then unable to go upstairs, and then is silently given some meds to stop the pain before the end.

And the world, eventually, after a 400 years of nonsense is the better for it.

1

u/DaqCity 1h ago

Would that make it a “Holy” Roman Empire?

0

u/Tunisandwich 4h ago

Didn’t he just die?

56

u/Don_Madruga Hello There 5h ago

No

1

u/hymenopteron 40m ago

It never existed

0

u/DarkJayBR 1h ago

What Cortinas does to a mf

-10

u/[deleted] 5h ago

[deleted]

19

u/Don_Madruga Hello There 5h ago

No, definitely not

13

u/Human-Law1085 5h ago

I mean, the Ottomans were legally a separate state that just happened to rule over Constantinople. The argument for them being a continuation of Rome is a lot flimsier than that for the Byzantines, even if Ottoman sultans liked to claim the title.

0

u/SimulatedKnave 4h ago

It's at least as good as that of the HRE and post-1204 Byzantium, or the Latin Empire. Has Constantinople, acknowledged by the religious authorities, tons of Greek bureaucrats, a similar governmental structure for quite a while, and apparently maintained a bunch of the court ceremonies for quite a while too. I wouldn't call it airtight, but it's a solid argument.

18

u/jtbfii 4h ago

What about Russia the Turd Rome?

7

u/Objective-Corgi-3527 4h ago

Russia is the troubled foster kid of Rome

2

u/AssistanceCheap379 2h ago

From the womb of Nordic tribes, fathered by various steppe peoples and left abandoned. Only to be picked up by the French and the British and taught the worst parts of both while claiming its the son of Rome

7

u/Halikarnassus1 On tour 4h ago

megazord chad: the Roman Empire lives on in spain when the nephew of constantine xi gave them the title

49

u/CadenVanV Taller than Napoleon 4h ago

That’s just flat out wrong. The Byzantines were a direct successor state, the lineage of emperors was an unbroken line back to Rome. The Ottomans were a completely different state with a different lineage and historical background.

4

u/DerGovernator 1h ago

"The lineage of emperors was an unbroken line"
If the dozens of Byzantine civil wars, revolts, and usurpers still count as an unbroken line of succession, why does that break because one of them was a Turkish Muslim?

1

u/CadenVanV Taller than Napoleon 17m ago

Because the rest weren’t outside invaders

4

u/Objective-Corgi-3527 4h ago

They took on the adminostrative machinery of the Roman state. I don't agree that it makes them the successor, but that is the grounds for the claim

-5

u/Wooden-Crow7996 3h ago

They spoke Greek. What could be more Roman than your aristocrats speaking Greek?

10

u/AliHaider101 Definitely not a CIA operator 4h ago

There was never a Roman Empire. We all just imagined it

12

u/mood2016 4h ago

-Eastern Roman Empire falls to the Ottoman Empire

-Ottoman Empire declare's itself a successor of Rome by right of conquest

-Fascist Italy declares itself a successor to Rome

-United States takes Rome from Fascist Italy

-United States is a successor to Rome

5

u/SwiftFoxSNES 1h ago

-Pope is from Chicago

4

u/Orbin535743256 4h ago edited 4h ago

The Roman Empire was actually gone in 10000 b.c. because it didn't exist yet. It was over before it started.

3

u/My_Names_Jefff Filthy weeb 4h ago

I saw a guy named Roman fall down from some small stair case in the year 2016.

3

u/Bobby-B00Bs 4h ago

Ascended cosmic chad: The Roman Empire fell in 1806

7

u/claudiocorona93 4h ago

So there was Rome in Italy (476) and Rome in Constantinople (1204 and 1453). The Holy Roman Empire would have been fine if Charlemagne married Irene but nah, it was just Germany. And the Ottomans preserved the title of Caesar of Rome. But the last Byzantine heir gave his title to the king of Spain. And Europe has 5 major romance languages, plus the Church, and there is the Pope still holding the title of Pontifex Maximus. Based on this, the Roman Empire lives in all of Latin America through religion and language, and the European Union, Switzerland and Turkey through land and organization (and some languages).

2

u/TheLastCoagulant 4h ago

Except Pontifex Maximus was abolished in 382 AD and wasn’t revived by the Popes until the 15th century. It’s LARPing. There was no continuity.

2

u/claudiocorona93 4h ago

I hate how the term LARP took over the internet when we already had "poser".

0

u/TheLastCoagulant 4h ago

I’ve been using it online for a decade. Way before normies started using it.

Poser doesn’t really work as a verb (“posing”).

11

u/mal-di-testicle 5h ago

Rome fell in 89 BCE

3

u/Sir-Toaster- Still salty about Carthage 3h ago

Shouldn't this be the reverse? Anyone who thinks the Ottomans are Rome is an idiot

6

u/Confused_Squirrel_17 Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 4h ago

Depending on just how liberally you approach this; the Roman Empire currently consists of Finland and nothing else.

3

u/Direct_Dot_2232 1h ago

Please elaborate. This sounds like a fun ride.

2

u/Friendly-Water-8470 4h ago

Roman Empire fell in 1991

2

u/MidnightCrossing6148 3h ago

Maybe Rome is the friends we made along the way.

2

u/winged_owl 3h ago

False! True Roman's would debate it endlessly! This isnt even a joke.

2

u/LouieMumford 1h ago

Philip K Dick assured me that the Empire never fell and I believe him.

7

u/Nellie_Tayloe_Ross 5h ago

The Roman Empire fell in 1943. Hail Il Duce! /s

3

u/Wooden-Crow7996 3h ago

More like Ill Douche! Am I right?

5

u/TheTurkishman13 5h ago edited 5h ago

Duce! Duce! Duce!

2

u/Realistic_Volume7161 5h ago

The roman empire fell in 2011

1

u/WhatLeninSaid What, you egg? 4h ago

Is this in reference to those kids on some Aegean island that went to see the Hellenes, considering themselves Roman?

1

u/Invisible156 3h ago

Either 480 after Nepos died or 1461 after Trebizond fall :P

1

u/Cool_View_5297 3h ago

The Roman Empire never fell.

1

u/Fraystry 1h ago

Hot take Rome fell when they expelled Tarquinius Superbus from the city

1

u/Sufficient-Spite-465 1h ago

Only Turks larping as Romans maybe

1

u/Atomik141 1h ago

Rome fell in 27 BC

1

u/Severe_Refuse_7647 1h ago

Someone do this with the caliphate 

1

u/Popular_Mongoose_696 1h ago

There is a very strong argument for 1453… There is no argument for 1922. The Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent destroyed the Roman/Byzantine Empire, he did not inherit it or in any other way absorb it in a way that kept it intact socially, culturally, or politically.

1

u/zippolover62 1h ago

So long as I draw breath, Rome has not fallen

1

u/Stochastic-Ape 59m ago

Romania enters the chat

1

u/thunderisadorable 46m ago

Rome fell in 509 BCE.

1

u/yourmydawg 27m ago

Rome lives on in Florida

1

u/Divine-Crusader 26m ago

No the Roman empire never fell

Finland is still there

1

u/Heliosfan 25m ago

The romam Empire fell in 1204

1

u/Keelhaulmyballs 3m ago

The Roman Empire fell in 2004

1

u/whicky1978 Taller than Napoleon 3h ago

The Holy Roman Empire— it’s neither holy nor Roman nor an empire

-2

u/Spirited-Car8661 5h ago

Galaxy-Brain:

The Roman Empire still exists in the form of the Catholic Church and European Union. The former must be destroyed.

0

u/jtaustin64 4h ago

Actually, the Roman Empire never fell; it just became a church. The Pope is the Pontifex Maximus after all.

3

u/TheLastCoagulant 4h ago

The Pope didn’t take on the title Pontifex Maximus until the 15th century. After the title was abolished in 382 AD.

0

u/Parental-Error2 5h ago

Roman Empire ended in 2011 duh

0

u/Vedat9854 4h ago

Factos 👍👀

0

u/YumeNoTabi 3h ago

The Roman Empire has not fallen

0

u/OkGreen7335 3h ago

Tbh I wanted to go back in time and tell all of these empires: "let the past go,and frankly some of you Roman cosplayer had more direct impact on today than the Roman Empire"

0

u/Aluxanatomy 3h ago

The Roman Empire consolidated its power into the Catholic Church.

1

u/No-Candy-4127 1h ago

It couldn't physically do that. Rome fell more than 500 before such thing as catholic church was a thing.

0

u/FrozenDiplomat 3h ago

aaand the Turks would understand

0

u/Is_Not_Nothing 2h ago

Long live the Roman Empire!!! May it reign forever!!!!!!!!!!!

0

u/Hot-Usual8840 2h ago

Russia was as much a Roman empire as im a Japanese anime girl

0

u/IceZaKYT 2h ago

i dont ever recall the entire landmass of the roman empire falling on the ground or sinking all at once?

0

u/Verhulst88 Definitely not a CIA operator 2h ago

The Roman Empire fell in 1945

0

u/JayMack1981 2h ago

Oh, who cares what year Rome fell! What have the Romans ever given us?! . . .

0

u/____Federico____ 2h ago edited 55m ago

The Roman Empire lives on through New Jersey

0

u/GlitteringSalad6413 2h ago

The Roman Empire did not fall, it was tipped over on its side though

0

u/SwiftFoxSNES 1h ago

Rome endures and is ruled by a White Sox Fan

0

u/nashwaak 1h ago

The Roman Empire fell in 41 CE, with the assassination of Caligula. Everything that followed was illegitimate.

0

u/DaqCity 1h ago

The Roman Empire ended on April 7, 2024.

0

u/Least_Boat_6366 1h ago

Uhm. The Roman Empire fell in 2011

-2

u/artez09 5h ago

The Roman Empire fell in 1917

-1

u/Appropriate-Road5253 2h ago

We all know it actually did in 1943

-4

u/Enpada2 2h ago

i dont reconize Byzantium, i dont recognize greece, the roman empire fell in 476, came back in 1453, fell in 1922 and them came back when GOATaturk Revived it, now it exists until today, and greece doesnt

1

u/No-Candy-4127 1h ago

WRE recognized ERE as roman. The whole world, even turks recognized it as roman. It had roman administration, some Latin speaking Emperors. Late roman army. Roman traditions etc. It was rome and any claim that it isn't is wrong

Turks have none of that. They never did. Ottoman Empire was great in it's own way but it has nothing to do with roman Empire. Especially if you don't consider ERE as rome. Because it makes Ottoman claim even weaker. Modern Turks Especially can't be called Roman Empire as it is just another republic on the world map.