For every academic discipline, there’s something the public can’t get enough of that drives specialists nuts. If you’re an astronomer, it’s people confusing what you do with astrology. If you’re a researcher in psychology, it’s the popularity of the Myers-Briggs personality test. And if you’re an historian of ancient Greece and Rome, like I am, it’s the steady stream of comparisons between the modern world and the Roman Empire.
These analogies simplify more than they explain. They merely project modern anxieties onto the canvas of an imagined ancient Rome. And they’re so common that, most of the time, all you can do is roll your eyes and move on.
