Posted on 08/31/2014 7:05:07 AM PDT by grumpygresh
In the West, Imperial Rome begins in 27BC with the reign of Augustus and ends in 476 with Romulus Augustulus. Throughout this period, we can find good, mediocre and horrible rulers. America has often been compared to Rome, and today, like Rome, we see the transformation of our country from a republic to something closer to a dictatorship or autocracy. I know that many Freepers are Roman history bufffs, so we should come up with a pretty convincing consensus view.
Tiberius was a pervert in his old age (supposedly), but Rome did pretty well under him.
I agree. Best TV mini-series ever and an outstanding lesson in history AND political science.
Wait - the Romans golfed?
Having just read over a wikipedia bio on Elagabalus, I have to go along with this immoral, diabolical Syrian as the Roman emperor most resembling 0bama, with Nero a close second.
Obama is destroying our beloved America while blaming others, Republicans, Bush, Tea Party-ers, while he pursues golf.
Dumassious Dipshitium
Not sure about emperors but I would say Satan......... Prince of Lies.........
My best comparison for Roman Emperors would be a emasculated King George the III
I just read about Elegabalus in Wikipedia - WOW -We haven’t sunk quite that low, yet.
I don’t recall any Roman emperors who wanted Rome to fall to Carthage.
I agree. Fast and Furious is a good example. They made no effort to track the guns. The goal was to enact gun control.
Obama, Holder and Clinton were on the border saying the cartel guns were coming from the US, which they knew to be true because they arranged it.
They were not successful and Border Patrol agents were murdered. Evil and incompetent all rolled into one.
A little known fact about Shaka and the Zulus, they were so bloodthirsty that the area we know as the Transvaal and the Orange Free State was completely depopulated. In that area of South Africa they killed everybody in sight, left the area without people. When the Boers trekked into the area in the early 1800’s they found no people, just skulls and bones. The Boers created their homeland within this depopulated region thanks to the Zulus. The ancestors of the current African population arrived after the Boers settled the area.
Oops! I missed the 'Roman' Emperor part. 'Emperor' Barry most reminds me of Roman Emperor Nero.
Wrong comparison. Compare him with Uthman I and II, Bayazid, Selim, or Mehmet II.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Elagabalus is back! Obama, return of a historical figure?
...
While reading a book on Roman Emperors, I happened to stumble upon, a little known Roman Emperor named Elagabalus. I began to see some parallels between Varius Avitus Bassianus Elagabalus and the modern day Barack Hussein Obama. Get me clear now, many things are completely different form the modern day situation, and this past example. This is just my musings on the similarities the popped into my head while reading about Elagabalus.
Elagabalus and Barack Obama both share names from the middle east, and a mixed heritage. Obama has white and black heritage, Elagabalus had north African, Syrian, and Roman origins. Many people in the country were they came rule were bigoted against them because of their foreign origins.
Their childhoods are fantastically familiar to one another. Both had to leave the countries they would one day come to rule with their mothers . They were raised in a foreign states Obama in the Philippines and Elagabalus in Syria. Obama and Elagabalus's fathers disappeared from the scene at an early age. Because of the exodus from the comfort of the land of their birth both were raised primarily by both their mother and grandmother.
The former Emperor Macrinus was very unpopular because of his failure to gain victory over an inferior enemy (the Parthians who were from modern day Iraq) caused considerable resentment among the Romans. Sound familiar to Bush? Iraq? Malcontent with a long war with no victory? Macrinus also suffered from bad popularity in the late-summer of 218 A.D when a massive thunder storm caused catastrophic flooding, and Macrinus' appointee as urban prefect proved unable to repair the damage to the satisfaction of the populace and had to be replaced. The Romans became even more enraged when Macrinus never even showed up to comfort his people and oversee rebuilding. I believe this sounds familiar to Katrina and New Orleans, which caused his popularity to fall. One of the greatest early criticisms Obama and Elagabalus was their youth and inexperience. Elagabalus was only 14 when he became the youngest Emperor in Roman history at that time
The Romans said it was time for a change.
Elagabalus and his followers promised change to Macrinus's incompetent leadership and a return to Roman greatness. Macrinus was overthrown and Elagabalus started his reign as a extremely popular and hopeful new leader.
During the beginning of his rule, Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. This is similar to the way in which the conservative right views Obamas support of the Gay marriage leaders, and his abortion stance. In Elagabulus's case it was his open acceptance of transsexuals. The conservatives were silenced by the masses of Romans who just wanted to return to government that was not incompetent.
This was the situation at the beginning of the reign of Elagabalus.
Concur and our senate is as bad as theirs
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