Jump to content

Talk:Ancient Rome

Page contents not supported in other languages.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Former good article nomineeAncient Rome was a History good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
November 15, 2006Good article nomineeNot listed
September 25, 2014Good article nomineeNot listed
Article Collaboration and Improvement DriveThis article was on the Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive for the week of December 11, 2006.
Current status: Former good article nominee

WP:ERA to CE/BCE

[edit]

AD/BC is best used on many articles that might have a christian or biblical connotation, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of other articles use the CE/BCE dating system to indicate Common Era and Before Common Era instead of Anno Domini (In the Year of Our Lord) and Before Christ. Given that the Romans themselves used neither system, but did in fact oppress and condemn Christianity until Constantine at the end, I think your general reader would benefit from the use of the CE/BCE system instead. I am familiar with WP:RETAIN as well as WP:ERA though, so I intend to gain consensus before making this change across this article. TY. Moops T 18:47, 19 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Just for the record, strong oppose. Johnbod (talk) 14:56, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'll add my oppose here, for the record. As I've stated elsewhere, the Christian religion arose out of the instincts of the ancient Roman world, and toward the end of it, was adopted by it. So, AD/BC is appropriate. Another point to consider is the accuracy of the Babylonian–Egyptian solar calendar with regard to starting at the same time each year, especially with the improvements under Caesar. Alternative calendars are often not quite so accurate. I don't really understand the need to relabel when you are retaining the arbitrary nature of the calendar with regard to its denoting a certain epoch. Dhtwiki (talk) 06:36, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose suggestion by confirmed sockpuppet account. The use of BCE vs. BC should have nothing to do with whether the subject of an article had an affinity or lack thereof for Christianity. That's tantamount to saying we'd best not use "Thursday" on articles that don't accept Thor as a real deity.— Crumpled Firecontribs 00:35, 2 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Ditto with the opposition, pending some evidence that a revival of Roman paganism makes the use potentially offensive with regard to this specific article, as opposed to atheists and scholars who'd prefer to end use of the BC/AD nomenclature entirely. — LlywelynII 13:09, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Legacy subsection

[edit]

This section is incredibly poorly written and sweeping. To address just one point brought up, taking this paragraph at face value, European literature is inherited from the Romans. This is blatantly false, there are many historical influences on current European literature other than Roman literature. Not to mention innumerable developments after the Roman era including such ubiquitous things as the novel.

The article on legacy of the Roman Empire linked to in this subsection does not make any such generalisations and is actually very specific on the ways in which the Roman Empire influenced later European civilisation! Someone needs to fix this section up. 2001:8003:2422:B800:51E3:27FD:5CD2:4BB5 (talk) 00:26, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose your issue is with this sentence:
The customs, religion, law, technology, architecture, political system, military, literature, languages, alphabet, government and many factors and aspects of western civilisation are all inherited from Roman advancements.
I agree; it is too sewwping. I think the issue is not with the list of domains, but with the phrase
are all inherited from Roman advancements.
I think
all have roots in the Roman civilization.
or
all have strong influences from advancements made in the Roman Empire.
would be better, but perhaps someone here can come up with a better wording? (talk) 13:40, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's far too sweeping; western civilisation has inherited a great deal from the vast part of Europe that was outside the Roman empire, such as the extended family of languages, customs, legal systems and more that includes English and German, while describing Christianity and Judaism, Greek and Hellenistic architecture, drama, epic and the novel - to mention just a few - as Roman advancements is gross appropriation. The list's wrong, introducing it with "The" is wrong, "all" is wrong.... No reference is provided for the sentence. The preceding sentence is sourced to 1906 and 1900, when such generalisations were more fashionable, but why do we even feel the need to make such a massive and contentious claim now? NebY (talk) 14:13, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I would reverse the order of the sentence to say something like "Ancient Rome influenced the customs, religion, law, technology, architecture, political system, military, literature, languages, alphabet, government and many factors and aspects of western civilisation long after its fall." T8612 (talk) 14:58, 24 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Rome of "Romulus"

[edit]
Modern reconstruction of the marshy conditions of early Rome, along with a conjectural placement of the early settlement and its fortifications

I understand different editors might have different preferences about phrasing, notability, and specific images but the article very much needs some image showing how marshy the original area was. Even if the specific image to the right needs to be removed for whatever reason, kindly substitute some other better image that captures the same major points about the former rivers and lakes long since entirely vanished from the area. Ditto, Roma Quadrata and Murus Romuli might need expansion and improvement but the topics should be linked from this article in some fashion even if we don't go into details here about the various confusions, scholarly arguments, source contradictions, etc. — LlywelynII 13:13, 31 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

[edit]
  • Move excessive links here for any possible discussion:
Some things just grow by incremental edits. The "External links" section, one of the optional appendices, had grown to 9 entries. Three seems to be an acceptable number and of course, everyone has their favorite to add for four links.
The problem is that none is needed for article promotion.
  • ELpoints #3) states: Links in the "External links" section should be kept to a minimum. A lack of external links or a small number of external links is not a reason to add external links.
  • LINKFARM states: There is nothing wrong with adding one or more useful content-relevant links to the external links section of an article; however, excessive lists can dwarf articles and detract from the purpose of Wikipedia. On articles about topics with many fansites, for example, including a link to one major fansite may be appropriate.
  • ELMIN: Minimize the number of links. --
  • ELCITE: Do not use {{cite web}} or other citation templates in the External links section. Citation templates are permitted in the Further reading section.
  • WP:ELBURDEN: Disputed links should be excluded by default unless and until there is a consensus to include them.
  • Also, concerning dead "External links": Dead URLs are of no use.

The rise of Rome

[edit]

Could you give me some information about the rise of Rome? 70.78.144.142 (talk) 00:43, 8 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Why end in 476 AD?

[edit]

East Rome survived for another 1000 years afterwards. There is a large lack of consistency. Constantine moved the capital in the 320s AD to Constantinople, so why didn't it end here according to this logic? Because the logic is broken and East Rome was Rome and the date should reflect that. 89.134.7.107 (talk) 08:11, 17 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ancient Rome is the classical era of Roman civilization so it will never extend to 1453. But it's a valid question why do we stop at 476 AD. To make this a productive discussion, please refer to reliable sources.
One I am aware of is Mary Beard's SQPR where her core thesis is Ancient Rome ends in 212 when citizenship was extended, which is a challenge to Gibbon's traditional view. Other sources I've come across mention how the death of Ulpian soon after is the end of the classical era. If you want to argue about after these dates, that's more the issue of the use of Byzantine Empire vs Roman Empire and is not related to this article. Biz (talk) 15:55, 17 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]