Similarities Between Ancient Rome And Us

Look at a picture of the White House. What do you notice? The beautiful structure and the way it stands out? What about the columns? They look awfully familiar. Now look at a picture of the Pantheon. See the similarities? Because the Modern U.S. and Ancient Rome have many similarities and differences, the lessons from Ancient Rome could help the U.S. to avoid the fall and collapse that Rome experienced.

Initially, the modern U.S and Ancient Rome have many similarities. Some of which include deficit spending, military spread across the known world, and large entertainment venues. In the U.S, we are more than 21 the trillion dollars in debt. Taxes are a way to make this number go down, but the government only takes 3 trillion dollars in taxes.

That means that it could take the U.S more than 7 years to pay off this debt. While the U.S is still spending money on things we don’t need (monuments,explosives, etc). The ancient Roman government did the exact same thing. Spending money on moving mountains to make new temples and churches and things to worship their gods. Ancient Rome had military bases spread across the known world. The U.S today has a lot of military bases spread across each continent. Rome had military bases all across the places the places the emperor had conquered. The U.S and Ancient Rome has many large entertainment venues. In the U.S, places like football stadiums and event centers are scattered across the nation. Football stadiums and the Coliseum in Rome have many similar aspects. The seatings, and how it’s set up.
Secondly, Ancient Rome and the modern U.S have many differences.

For example, only a few people controlled all of the wealth in Rome, Rome was governed under a dictatorship, and the U.S uses legal codes while ancient romans used the laws of the 12 tables. First, the ancient Romans had a very limited amount of people that controlled all of their wealth. In the U.S, technically everyone is in charge of the wealth. All over the country there are banks, ATMs, and treasurers that keep track of where a company’s or schools money goes and where it comes from. In Ancient Rome, they were ruled under a dictatorship which means only one person rules the country until they die. The U.S is ruled under a constitutional republic, meaning that the country is basically ruled by piece of paper. The president helps enforce rules and keep track of the country, but if he does not follow the Constitution signed by our founding fathers, he could ultimately be impeached. The U.S uses legal codes such as speed limits and laws while Ancient Rome used the 12 tables. The twelve tables are “the legislation that stood at the foundation of Roman law. The Tables consolidated earlier traditions into an enduring set of laws,” (Long

1).
Finally, there are many ways to avoid the fall and collapse that Rome experience by having a sustainable economy, prioritize important things, and have no egotism/hubris in the leadership.

One of the reasons why Ancient Rome had a very unsustainable economy. The U.S and Ancient Rome both have deficit spending. They spend more money than they take in. If we avoid this and pay off our 70 trillion total dollars in debt, we could focus on spending our money on important things such as helping people in poverty. Prioritizing important things and putting things such as unnecessary scientific research. According to nationalreview.com, the U.S spends “$283,500 on Department of Defense bird-watching,” and “$65,473 to figure out what bugs do near a lightbulb,” (Melchior 2, 10). Also, minimoneyblog.com states that the U.S government spent $765,828 to “subsidize an IHOP in an apparently ‘underserved’ area of Washington DC,” (Bruce 11). Ancient Rome’s leaders were narcissistic and full of egotism and hubris. Because of this, the Emperors only cared about themselves and that resulted in an abundance of money lost on things such as moving mountains and basilicas. If the U.S adopts this trait, we could lose our human rights.The President could want things only for himself, not paying the military, not paying for important scientific research, and

more.
In conclusion, there are many ways that the U.S and Ancient Rome are different, and many ways they are familiar. There are also many ways that we can avoid the collapse and fall that Ancient Rome experienced. Because the Modern U.S. and Ancient Rome have many similarities and differences, the lessons from Ancient Rome could help the U.S. to avoid the fall and collapse that Rome experienced.