Goodbutnotgreat - I actually like to compare the USA to Rome.

You say we are not even near the decadence of Rome... well we have a similiar military, political, and social system. Personally I don't think Rome or the US is or was ever very decadent. We are the most advanced society in the world, so our minor flaws are blown to magnanimous proportions, compared to other countries. We have the highest homicide rates, compared to European countries. But shit, half of the europeans don't even bathe daily. There's a trade off.

Rome was one of the first to use money instead of a barter system. The US perfected the use of "legal tender".

We don't portray violence for entertainment you say? Sure we don't actually kill people in a stadium for entertainment, but what is Football? Simulated violence. Everything on TV is simulated violece, just like the Romans had simulated violence in the coliseum, except people actually died... for entertainment.

We have come to be the number 1 Culture/Country/Society in the world, as Rome was once. Best technology, hygiene, etc.

And we did have slavery once, as the Romans did.

We aren't excatly the same of course, because there's a difference of 2000 years. However, there are so many similarities and comparisons that cannot be dismissed, and I haven't named half of them yet.

The fact is, no country has been as dominant culturally, economically, technologically and militarily in the history of the world since the Roman Empire
 
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The most obvious similarity is overwhelming military strength. Rome was the superpower of its day, boasting an army with the best training, biggest budgets and finest equipment the world had ever seen. No one else came close. America is just as dominant: its defense budget will soon be bigger than the military spending of the next nine countries put together !!

Another example is this. Rome knew that to dominate commercially and militarily (those two go hand in hand) they had to build roads all over the place. To reach out to other places and to send troops quickly. Well consider the Internet. It started as a military tool. It is the heart of American commerce, and is now starting to make English what Latin was back then... the Universal language.

Today ethnic diversity is a common and accepted American trait. The same went for the Romans. Their society was remarkably diverse, taking people from all over the world - and even promising new immigrants the chance to rise to the very top. While America is yet to have a non-white president, Rome boasted an emperor from north Africa, Septiminius Severus.

The framers of the American constitution loved the Romans. They built their government buildings to look Roman. They named the principle lawmaking body "the Senate" after the Romans. They chose the eagle as their national symbol. They even called their new system of government a republic, using a Roman word instead of an English word like commonwealth or a Greek word like democracy. Not excluding the latin words on our currency.
 
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hey man, all good points, but i feel the similarities are more of a superficial nature. especialliny in terms of military strength and world hegemony. rome may have been tops in the western wrold for a little while, but their domination and undisputed power isn't really on the same scale as american power. we are virtually undefeatable, not even challengable really. rome was defeated and challenged frequently.

also, the stuff with the founding fathers, true they loved classical culture. however, most of the enlightenment ideas that our countries principles are founded upon originate from the great greek philosophers, and rome itself based their acrhitecture and cultural verve on the heigth of greek society. as for the roman words found speckled throughout civic, legal and everyday language, as you said, rome ruled all for a while, and latin is the base for all romance languages, and all learned men before recent times learned to read and write in latin and ancient greek.

so far as violence, we have a violent society, no doubt, but the romans were violent, chauvinistic, slave-owners. roman society was brutal, utterly brutal really, often much mroe so than the so-called barbarians that brought rome down. i believe there are some 28 different latin words for "murder," not phrases or euphamisms, but words. kind of a verbal reflection of society if you ask me . . .

anyway, there are broad comparisons to be drawn between rome and the US, but i see them as general comparisons, like comparing too presidents. yes bush and clinton both were president, both are ivy leaguers, both skipped out on vietnam . . . but in reality trying to make any analysis based on a few circumstantial similarities between the two is not beneficial. i generally tend to think it is a mistake to make sweeping judgements about current affairs based on the past. the overworked phrase about those not knowing history being doomed to repeat it is somewhat responsible for this. that may be true in many cases, but those that don't pull their noses out of a history book and realize a unique and not yet seen scenario ought to take the time . . . there has never been a nation with a position that even resembles our current standing in the international order . . . not even close. it's an exciting time in history, the post cold war era has only just begun.
 
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