“Is it fair to say the United States is the modern day equivalent of the Roman Empire?”
The United States is a lot like a modern day Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was thousands of years ago, but in a sense they are very similar. The similiarities between the Roman empire and the United states are having good emporers and bad emporers, governers and presidents in our case; being one of the most important and influential areas of land at the time; and they both have and had a lot of fighting going on inside and with their empires and countries.
The United States has been around for quite a long time now; and other the years, there have been some good representatives in our government, and some not so good ones. A good example of a very bad government representative at this time in history is US Representative Anthony Weiner. He might be a good political man, but he was recently caught cheating on his wife by sending inappropriate pictures online to younger women. (Noveck). This is just one of the many not so great Representatives that the United States has had, but ancient Rome also had their bad emperors. Caligula is a good example of a bad emperor of ancient Rome. He was a very selfish ruler who only thought of himself. He executed many people just because he wanted to. (Caligula Biography) This is a good way of how the United States and Rome are alike.
Next, the two times are a lot alike because they have a lot of fighting inside of the country or empire. If you look at the newspaper article, you can see that there is so much violence and so many bad things and bad people in the United States (Rogers). It is crazy to see how lunatic people are, and how cops have to fight with millions of people every day to save this country. Ancient Rome was much like this because the bad emporers and the soldiers that followed these rulers did harsh things to the people in their empire just for the sake of doing it. If you take the emperor Nero for example, you see what an insanely awful person he was. He confiscated senator's homes and properties, over taxed the empire, and played the fiddle while Rome burned to the ground. (Nero Biography). This man is a good example of how insane some people are, and there are people like him today; maybe not as powerful, but still insane just like Nero.
The last way that they are alike is that they are and were both very influential in their time range. At the moment, the United States is responsible for trade, new technology, and different ways and lifestyles of people. Even though the United States is having some troubles with jobs and not having enough money, we are still at the top of the money making and distributing scale in the world. (Rugaber). This article shows President Barack Obama with the title saying “Nation should not panic.” When you think of it, Americans are lucky to be in the position they are now instead of being like the starving in Africa. Rome was a lot like the US in this sense because for a long time they were the “top of the world” empire. When you think of ancient Rome, you think of all of the good things that happened at that time like the growth of the republic and the magnificent buildings created, even though a lot of damage was done in this time period. (Roman Empire).
The United States is much like the Roman Empire in the sense that a lot of things have gone wrong in this country, but America manages to get through it all and stay on top and continue to be a very wealthy country. Even though ancient Rome and the US have negative things like bad emperors, and fighting going on inside of their country or empire; the Roman empire was and the United States is still on the top as far as wealth and power come.
Works Cited:
Noveck, Jocelyn. (2011, June 8). Is sexting cheating? Times Daily. pp 1A, 7A
Rugaber, Christopher S. (2011, June 8). Obama on US economy, Nation should 'not panic' Opelika-Auburn News. pp. 1A, 6A
Rogers, Lisa. (2011, June 8). Manhunt ends with one in custody. The Gadsden Times. pp. 1A, 7A
Caligula. (2011). Biography.com. Retrieved 02:03, Jun 8 2011 from http://www.biography.com/articles/Caligula-
Nero. (2011). Biography.com. Retrieved 02:03, Jun 8 2011 from http://www.biography.com/articles/Nero-9421713
While I don't think any congressmen have been found having people executed, I get your broader meaning -- namely that Rome and the US are both places where political corruption and breaches of power by people in charge are documented. In the case of Rome, the writer Suetonius is the best source for this sort of material -- he was an author who loved a good scandal. I wish we had had more time and you could have expanded on your last point; I do think the idea of "influence" as well as the relative standards of living even during a rough period are worth looking into deeper.
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