Lie Back and Think of Rome
All across the internet, wives and girlfriends have been discovering that the man in their lives thinks about the Roman Empire way, way, way more than they could ever imagine.
Personally, I reckon that I probably think about the Roman Empire at least once per day on average across a year. Not every day, but most likely a lot more than I should.
Why? Because I find the time period fascinating.
My personal hunch is that most men, who think of Rome, think about the Roman army and martial exploits of people like Pompey, Ceasar and Scipio Africanus.
This is understandable, the Roman Army was one of the most enduring and successful continuous organisations in Human history.
One of its most iconic placement of Roman soliders is the manning of Hadrian Wall in northern England and Southern Scotland.
It invokes images of valiant soldiers fighting of hordes of wode covered, tatto'd warriors in a near constant seige.
The truth of the matter, is of course, very different. The wall did stop incursions from entering "Roman" Britain from Barbarian Britain. However, these walls, like other Roman border walls, worked mainly as a way of controlling trade and migration.
Which does make you think how "Romanised" the peoples near the wall become over the decades? That is what I have been thinking about recently about the Roman Empire.