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TIL - the Alt-Right is obsessed with Roman Memes (www.vox.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/til@lemmy.world
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[–] -2 points 1 year ago (10 children)

... do... do you think pre-Roman peoples didn't practice assimilation?

Yes! That's my whole point. Not literally - you seem caught up on the word conquest too - but the kind of institutional pattern of expansion and assimilation is what was different about Rome

There was war, there were other empires. People intermingled and intermixed, sometimes under rule from another group. There was assimilation, but in an organic process

Rome industrialized the process. They turned it into a mechanical process that has never stopped. It didn't stop when the empire split, it didn't stop when power shifted to the aristocracy of Europe, it didn't stop as America rose as the latest empire after WW2

I do think the HRE was more Rome than Germanic - what language did they speak? Not Greek, Aramaic, or any Germanic language - it was Latin. And in the East you had the Byzantine empire doing the same damn thing, spreading soft influence to Eastern Europe

Christianity became a tool of Rome under Constantine. Jesus said we don't need temples or coin. Jesus was born in the summer. Jews keep the Sabbath on Saturday. Jesus was represented by a fish, and died on the cross so that he could not be used as a tool of control against his people

Sol Invictus was born on December 25, Constantine declared the day of the sun as the day of rest. Sol Invictus is associated with gold. The cross is a symbol of Roman order

Constantine rebranded the Roman religion under Jesus's name, and carefully picked it's practices to control the people

The HRE kept control over the aristocracy through marriage, ceremony, and through relatives in the clergy. They let the kings have their kingdom while controlling the secret little club of European royalty. They held the legitimacy of all of them in Rome.

They also controlled the people directly. They were a parallel power structure. They had a ton of direct power until the 19th century, when things started shifting to mercantilism then capitol

And even now, a few family lines always seem to be the ones in power. The meeting places and the titles change, but each rising and falling empire goes back to Rome

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    There was war, there were other empires. People intermingled and intermixed, sometimes under rule from another group. There was assimilation, but in an organic process

    And... what part of the process was less organic about Roman assimilation?

    I do think the HRE was more Rome than Germanic - what language did they speak? Not Greek, Aramaic, or any Germanic language - it was Latin.

    Are you fucking kidding me right now?

    The HRE was overwhelmingly a German-speaking state.

    And in the East you had the Byzantine empire doing the same damn thing, spreading soft influence to Eastern Europe

    This... this the same Byzantine Empire whose cultural footprint outside of religion is negligible outside of the Greek heartland it clung to?

    Jesus said we don’t need temples or coin.

    That is a profound misunderstanding of early Christianity.

    Constantine rebranded the Roman religion under Jesus’s name, and carefully picked it’s practices to control the people

    ... except the practices and values of Nicaean Christianity differ radically from traditional Roman religion, traditional Hellenic religion, and the Neoplatonism of the 3rd century AD.

    The HRE kept control over the aristocracy through marriage, ceremony, and through relatives in the clergy. They let the kings have their kingdom while controlling the secret little club of European royalty. They held the legitimacy of all of them in Rome.

    Fucking what.

    And even now, a few family lines always seem to be the ones in power. The meeting places and the titles change, but each rising and falling empire goes back to Rome

    Jesus fucking Christ.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    The HRE kept control over the aristocracy through marriage, ceremony, and through relatives in the clergy. They let the kings have their kingdom while controlling the secret little club of European royalty. They held the legitimacy of all of them in Rome.

    Okay, this is just objectively how the holy Roman empire worked. That's not even a slightly controversial statement

    How do you think the Pope was able to dictate terms to royalty? They controlled coronations, marriages, and pacified the people. The nobility tolerated this because there was a give and take, their relatives were given high rank... It's the origin of the term nepotism

    This is also very basic European history.

    A lot of this I can excuse as you being a too literal and uncharitable, but there's no two interpretations on this one

    I don't know if you have a hard on for Rome or what, but I don't think you're being serious

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (7 children)

    Okay, this is just objectively how the holy Roman empire worked. That’s not even a slightly controversial statement

    The HRE was one player in European politics in the Medieval period and Early Modern period. There was no 'secret club' of European royalty; dynasties ruling European polities rose and fell all the goddamn time. The HRE in particular was infamous for being unable to control its aristocracy, or its bourgeois, for that matter.

    Legitimacy of other European royalty was not significantly connected to the HRE or to Rome.

    How do you think the Pope was able to dictate terms to royalty? They controlled coronations, marriages, and pacified the people.

    Jesus fucking Christ.

    The only coronation the Pope nominally controlled was that of the Holy Roman Emperor himself. And that only nominally. The Pope was involved in royal marriages only insofar as issues of consanguinity or dissolving marriages was concerned. The Pope's control over the common people was fucking marginal, considering how many kings were excommunicated and considered it only a minor annoyance.

    The Pope didn't 'dictate terms' to royalty. Fuck, the Pope was literally imprisoned and overthrown by royals numerous times throughout the Medieval period, including by the Holy Roman Emperor.

    The nobility tolerated this because there was a give and take, their relatives were given high rank… It’s the origin of the term nepotism

    The origin of the term nepotism is from Popes appointing their own nephews as cardinals. Nepos.

    This is also very basic European history.

    A lot of this I can excuse as you being a too literal and uncharitable, but there’s no two interpretations on this one

    I don’t know if you have a hard on for Rome or what, but I don’t think you’re being serious

    Nothing about this discussion, regarding the Medieval period and the HRE, has anything to do with the Roman Empire. This is purely over some really bizarre Da Vinci Code level perception of the Catholic Church and Medieval period that you have.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Jesus... They're the same damn group! Yes the power of the Pope waxed and waned. The church and the nobility were intertwined! The Pope doesn't matter, the institution does!

    And every coronation was done by at least an arch bishop. Who were a compromise between the church and the king.

    And do you have any idea how incestuous the royal families of all of Europe were? Not just individually, but between each other

    Your don't seem to understand the difference between hard and soft power. And my whole point is people in power flowed from Rome, to the church, to the aristocracy of Europe, to capitol

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (5 children)

    Jesus… They’re the same damn group! Yes the power of the Pope waxed and waned. The church and the nobility were intertwined! The Pope doesn’t matter, the institution does!

    The same Catholic Church whose dictates were repeatedly ignored by both the common people and the nobility?

    And every coronation was done by at least an arch bishop. Who were a compromise between the church and the king.

    That's not even close to true. In many coronations in many kingdoms, bishops presided, or even no clergy at all. You really don't have the slightest clue about what you're talking about.

    And do you have any idea how incestuous the royal families of all of Europe were? Not just individually, but between each other

    For most of the Medieval period, not very. The intensified incest was largely a product of consolidated royal families and increased international travel in the Early Modern Period.

    Your don’t seem to understand the difference between hard and soft power. And my whole point is people in power flowed from Rome, to the church, to the aristocracy of Europe, to capitol

    No, my point is that your perception of the soft power of the Church and of Rome is utterly bizarre conspiracy shite with an extremely modern view of how society functioned at a basic level during the Medieval period, and thus having no fucking relation to the reality of the Medieval period.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    The same Catholic Church whose dictates were repeatedly ignored by both the common people and the nobility?

    Hard and soft power. You really don't get it. Well, better than you just being a troll

    I'll try to be as literal as possible for you. Rome split. The pieces continued to act like Rome behaviorally. The remaining institution of Rome, the Roman Catholic church, had incredible power over many of these pieces, even growing power for a time, then later soft influence, over most of Europe known as the holy Roman empire. The soft power of the church faded with the rise of capitalism.

    We still act like Rome. The behaviors never ended. That's the through line

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (3 children)

    Hard and soft power. You really don’t get it.

    Hard power is the ability to impose one's will by force; soft power is the ability to impose one's will by persuasion or subtlety. In no case does it mean "Utterly failing to push an objective forward". That is a lack of soft power.

    Rome split. The pieces continued to act like Rome behaviorally.

    In what sense? Your entire bizarre view of Rome is based around an idea that their assimilative institutions were somehow more rigid and formalized than previous ones. European polities after the fall of the Western Empire not only lacked any rigid assimilative institutions, they often rejected assimilation altogether, and numerous ethnicities were born of the lack of institutions capable of assimilating or even maintaining cultural hegemonies in the post-Roman polities.

    The remaining institution of Rome, the Roman Catholic church, had incredible power over many of these pieces,

    No.

    then later soft influence,

    The hard power of the Papal States was minimal and regional at best, quarreling with other Italian states and sometimes the borders of the HRE; the only Europe-wide power the Catholic Church had was always soft power.

    , over most of Europe known as the holy Roman empire.

    ...

    The HRE was not most of Europe, even at its height as the Carolingian Empire.

    The soft power of the church faded with the rise of capitalism.

    The soft power of the Church died in the Thirty Years' War, as increasingly centralized states began to deal with issues of pluralism and national unity; itself derived from the Protestant Reformation. The soft power of the Church was dead in the most backwards states of Europe even before the bourgeoisie became ascendant.

    We still act like Rome. The behaviors never ended. That’s the through line

    Your core objection to the unique influence of Rome was that it 'conquered'; you defined conquest by assimilative processes, but your points have absolutely nothing to do with cultural assimilation or, for that matter, reality.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    It's like you understand every era by the definition at the end of it. And soft power is soft because it can be denied - it's just influence.

    Let's go back to the source then... Who had institutionalized assimilation before the Romans? I don't just mean there was assimilation...I mean a group comes in and converts others into becoming them in a systematic fashion

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    It’s like you understand every era by the definition at the end of it. And soft power is soft because it can be denied - it’s just influence.

    Okay cool, so your argument is now nothing more than "soft power exists", not "The Catholic Church had any serious amount of soft power", fan-fucking-tastic, glad you've spent all this time to say absolutely nothing.

    Let’s go back to the source then… Who had institutionalized assimilation before the Romans? I don’t just mean there was assimilation…I mean a group comes in and converts others into becoming them in a systematic fashion

    The Ancient Hebrews, for one, whose process of assimilation was far more ritualized and rigid, and mandatory for existence in the polity, than Rome's. The Assyrians. Han China in the Warring States period.

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