I've studied about it off and on. From it's humble beginnings as a republic, to it's ascendancy and decline as an empire. In the ancient world, Rome was the vortex of civilization, the fountainhead of art, culture and trade. And yet, Rome was a very violent and brutal place. One particularily brutal ruler at the time was Nero, who condemned many a poor soul (many of whom were Christians) to death in the Colosseum. He even had his own wife and mother executed for political purposes. Nero's reign ended in 65 A.D., when he took his own life.
@Sidewinder there was a run of mad empowers. Nero, Caligula, Commodus, are the ones I know off the top of my head. The ancient world was a cruel place but on the whole, the emperors were respected.
I think about Rome a lot. I always wonder where they went. I wonder why their language is only spoken by Catholic priests. However, there are five other languages that are Latin based. They are; Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and, of course, Romanian. They're kmown as the five Romance languages. Romance meaning, "In Roman."
Anyway, i think it's strange that, after all the influence they had on civilization, there's only a city called Rome today. I mean, Greece is still Greece, Spain is still Spain, England is still England, etc. ..meaning, there are still Greeks. Spaniards, British/English etc. Why are there no Romans?
I often wonder why the Vatican City Guards are Swiss and not Italian and why Switzerland has an army but they're a neutral country... 🤔
