Question About Empires (Romans, Egyptian, influence, general)

[Morphous01]

Out of all the empires that we know of why is it that the Roman empire and the Egyptian empire are the only empires that the average person knows of?

Furthermore, if you look at Washington DC, all the buildings, street layouts, and words (i.e. Capitol Hill) stem from the Egyptian empire and Roman empire but I don't see much from any other empires.

[Grandstander]

Probably for pretty much the same reasons that Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretsky are the only hockey players I can identify.

And DC is also reflective of Greek influence, directly, and indirectly in that the Romans were heavily influenced by the Greeks. Our capitol building, Treasury building and Supreme Court building all shriek Greek. The first half of the 19th Century was called the Greek Revival era in American architecture.

[Six Foot Three]

Well the Roman Empire had a huge influence of most of Europe whether it's language, culture, military tactics, engineering etc..and a large percentage of Americans including the founders can trace their blood lines to either northern, southern or eastern Europe.

All the Romance languages i.e. Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian etc..including English a Germanic tongue has Latin intertwined in many words trace their roots to latin the spoken language of the ordinary Roman citizen.

Also the Romance and Germanic languages use the Latin Alphabet as the base of their written languages.

[Morphous01]

Hmmm, interesting. 6/3, you have also answered my question about the language.

[jtur88]

The Roman Empire was the foundation of the culture that we are a direct descendant of.

The Egyptian empire is the one that has the most conspicuous surviving landmarks and artwork. Furthermore, the "Egyptian Empire" is something of a misnomer. At no time did the so-called empire ever occupy any m,ore geographical expanse than modern-day Egypt, so you can almost argue that the empire of Farouk represented Egypt at its furthest expansion.

Aside from the Roman Empire, most Americans would be hard-pressed to name another pre-Christian empire of any note.

[Thyra]

There is also the Byzantine Empire...an extention of the Roman Empire:
Byzantine Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
also the Holy Roman Empire, The Persian Empire,Not to mention the Chinese Empires... and many more.
The reason most people only know about 2 is due to our poor educational institutions...but that is for another Forum... All the information is there in books and on the internet.. all you have to do is be curious enough to find it...and it is well worth the effort, as it gives us an insite as to why we are the way we are today and where we came from
PS...Let's not forget the British and Russian Empires...
BTW.. Egypt was not an "Empire" it was a dynasty

[jtur88]

Well. in that case, your "Chinese Empire" was a dynasty, too, (or a series of them) and not an empire. In the contest of the query in the OP, the definition of "empire" is whatever is called an empire in the ambiguous parlance of historical generalists. To the erudite, "empire' has a very amorphous (no pun intended, Morphous) definition, with all the exactitude and fuzzy overlap of the terms "bay" and "gulf".

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by Trudeyrose

BTW.. Egypt was not an "Empire" it was a dynasty

Whats the difference?

[PA2UK]

Well even the experts argue over what exactly defines an Empire but a Dynasty is merely a governing body ruled by inherited succession - ie, stereotypically, the son inherits the throne from his father.

I typically think of an Empire as one which takes control of surrounding areas by military defeat. Wikipedia defines it as "a state that extends dominion over populations distinct culturally and ethnically from the culture/ethnicity at the center of power. "

[Six Foot Three]

Well we could also add the French Empire under Napoleon I. Interesting that he called his crown the ''Crown of Charlemagne'' however when he was coronated he had the Imperial Roman Laurel Crown placed on his head and that's in all the paintings of when this coronation happened.

http://www.georgianindex.net/Napoleon Coronation