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Posts:
705
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North Texas
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(1 of 135)
Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 9, 2009 9:23 AM
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1)Egyptian
2)Phoenician
3)Hebrew
4) Babylonian
5)Assyrian
6)Persian
7)Greek
8)Roman
9)Holy Roman
10) Ottoman Turkish
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Posts:
888
From:
South Texas, where the snow never falls.
Registered:
1/12/09
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(2 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 9, 2009 9:40 AM
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1. Cyrus the Great & his merry men. (Persian)
2. Roman.
3. Hebrew.
--
Italians build Scottish churches from Red Cross boxes.
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(3 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 9, 2009 1:01 PM
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If you restricted the question to culture alone it would have to be the Athenian arché; it didn't last very long (c.480-404 BC) but what a legacy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Thucydides; democracy; the Parthenon and the Erechtheum.
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Posts:
888
From:
South Texas, where the snow never falls.
Registered:
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(4 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 9, 2009 2:26 PM
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> If you restricted the question to culture alone it
> would have to be the Athenian arché; it didn't
> last very long (c.480-404 BC) but what a legacy:
> Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and
> Thucydides; democracy; the Parthenon and the
> Erechtheum and Sean.
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(5 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 9, 2009 7:00 PM
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Granted, the Athenians could never have predicted an intellect as moribund as yourself. If they witnessed your ''ass kickin'' they would have probably decided, inventing western culture was not particularly 'worth it really'. Go home Aeschylus: soon WWF wrestling will displace you.
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Posts:
505
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7/1/09
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(6 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 1:30 AM
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If you consider military, economic and cultural influence to be the mark of an Empire, then the United States is by far the most influencial and powerful Empire in history.
Sean Hannity has made the statement several times that: "Never in the history of the world has a nation had such a preponderance of military and economic power and abused it less than the United States". ...He's probably correct.
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4,640
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(7 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 7:19 AM
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Standing on the shoulders of giants. Our language is borrowed, our capital is modelled to look like Rome and Athens.
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"Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six."
Leo Tolstoy
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2,374
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Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 9:32 AM
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He might have a case for military and economic but Sean Hannity whoever he is - good first name mind - does not mention culture. Even the culture of American politics is based on antiquity as most of your founding fathers were keen classicists (particularly Jefferson); indeed the late 18th century was the great age of classicism. It was when Gibbon produced his Decline and Fall.
The Capitol comes from Ancient Rome's Capitoline Hill, statues (the presidential memorials for example) imitates the triumphal elite-portraiture of Rome. Republican government was invented by Rome in 510 BC (res publica) while democracy was being ironed out in Classical Athens during a similar period. Titulature, e.g. senate/senators is Roman. American mottos in Latin include, ''E pluribus Unum'' (semi-official US motto till the 1950s), ''Semper Fidelis'' (Marines) and ''Non sibi sed patriae'' (Navy).
PS
There is nothing to be ashamed of in all that. Europe has been doing exactly the same imitation job since the humanist age. The Greeks and Romans, and to a certain degree Judaism, gave birth to western-culture and we naturally look back there for our cultural models and forms.
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505
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(9 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 10:40 AM
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> He might have a case for military and economic but
> Sean Hannity whoever he is - good first name mind -
> does not mention culture. Even the culture of
> American politics is based on antiquity as most of
> your founding fathers were keen classicists
> (particularly Jefferson); indeed the late 18th
> century was the great age of classicism. It was when
> Gibbon produced his Decline and Fall.
>
> The Capitol comes from Ancient Rome's Capitoline
> ne Hill, statues (the presidential memorials for
> example) imitates the triumphal elite-portraiture of
> Rome. Republican government was invented by Rome in
> 510 BC (res publica) while democracy was being
> ironed out in Classical Athens during a similar
> period. Titulature, e.g. senate/senators is Roman.
> American mottos in Latin include, ''E pluribus
> Unum'' (semi-official US motto till the 1950s),
> ''Semper Fidelis'' (Marines) and ''Non sibi
> sed patriae'' (Navy).
>
> PS
> There is nothing to be ashamed of in all that. Europe
> has been doing exactly the same imitation job since
> the humanist age. The Greeks and Romans, and to a
> certain degree Judaism, gave birth to western-culture
> and we naturally look back there for our cultural
> models and forms.
Like it or not American Culture is gobbled up all over the world.....Everything from baseball caps, blue jeans, fast food, entertainment, techology to language......yes language...66% of spoken English is American-English.
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2,374
Registered:
5/17/03
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(10 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 5:17 PM
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And I hasten to bet that same 66% know the correct moment to utilise ellipses!
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Posts:
8,829
Registered:
12/30/03
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(11 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 6:57 PM
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In no particular order
1) Roman
2) Macedonian (from the Mediterranean to the Indus)
3) Ottoman
4) Chinese (the longest surviving Empire of all time)
5) Mongol (the largest land empire in Asia!)
6) British (1/4 of the globe for more than a century)
7) Spanish (the largest in the Western Hemisphere)
8) The Soviet Union (the largest, most powerful Empire of the modern era)
9) Holy Roman
10) The Caliphate
--
If irony were strawberries we would all be having smoothies right now.
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Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 6:59 PM
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But America is not an empire. Its domination of world culture is not imposed, it just kind of creeps in semi-unintentionally. It is not ruled by an emperor nor has any real overseas possessions (Puerto Rico, Guam and Samoa don't count for much).
--
If irony were strawberries we would all be having smoothies right now.
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2,374
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(13 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 7:06 PM
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I never brought America up in the first place. I brought Greece and Rome up. Spade is your man: Did you know, your evil empire created baseball caps?
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Posts:
171
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5/6/09
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(14 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 7:35 PM
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" But America is not an empire. Its domination of world culture is not imposed, it just kind of creeps in semi-unintentionally. It is not ruled by an emperor nor has any real overseas possessions (Puerto Rico, Guam and Samoa don't count for much). "
I was thinking the exact same thing. I think our culture seeps into the rest of the world, due to us being such a mix of peoples. We're kind of like a universal type blood supply that goes with any other type. For all intents and purposes, practically anybody can find a place here and be happy ( fanatics aside ). It's not like we're , "English" or "Irish" or any one particular thing.
As for pinching your shows.., I'd be careful with that one. When you look at the phenomenal brain power and razor sharp intellect that runs Hollywood and the production companies that produce the shows.., you might want to sort of distance yourself from them by slowly sliding away from ownership of those comedies. It would be kind of like putting forth an idea.., and having Hitler say, " WOW.., THAT'S A GREAT IDEA !! ".
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Posts:
170
From:
california
Registered:
11/10/06
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(15 of 135)
Re: Top Ten Empires-Military & Cultural
Oct 10, 2009 8:58 PM
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my top 10:
1) Rome
2) Alexander the Great's empire
3) The British Empire
4) The Spanish Empire
5) The Napoleonic Empire
6) The French Empire (pre-napoleon)
7) The Persian Empire
8) The Byzantine Empire
9) The Russian Empire (czarist regime)
10) The Aztec Empire
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