this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2026
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RoughRomanMemes

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A place to meme about the glorious ROMAN EMPIRE (and Roman Republic, and Roman Kingdom)! Byzantines tolerated! The HRE is not.

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  1. No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, bigotry, etc. The past may be bigoted, but we are not.

  2. Memes must be Rome-related, not just the title. It can be about Rome, or using Roman aesthetics, or both, but the meme itself needs to have Roman themes.

  3. Follow Piefed.social rules.

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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Explanation: Julius Caesar, in the course of his civil war over the leadership of the Roman Republic, pursued his longtime ally-turned-enemy Pompey Magnus to Egypt. Egypt, which was aligned with Rome, thought they would get in on the likely-looking victor's good side by handing over Pompey to Caesar.

Caesar had a standing policy of offering his enemies in the civil war unconditional mercy after defeating them, to emphasis his argument (true or false) that he was not a tyrant nor seeking to overturn the Republic. The Romans, in general, frowned on foreigners meting out ANY sort of justice to Roman citizens - much less Roman officials! And Pompey and Caesar had a long history together, having known each other fairly well for some ~20 years at that point, and having worked extremely closely for ~15 years of that. Caesar may even have still considered Pompey a friend.

... so in context, Caesar was deeply angry when the Egyptian court presented Caesar with Pompey's head, sans body. Not a smart move. HE WAS A CONSUL OF ROME!

It's often joked that sounds of other languages which have no close equivalent in one's own language often sounds like onomatopoeia instead of words. Here, Caesar is just practicing to communicate with the Batavian auxiliaries, he didn't mean to tell the Egyptians to cut Pompey's throat!

[–] teft@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

God that scene was so good.

I really need to rewatch Rome.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago

If memory serves, Caesar only cries twice in the series.

Once when mourning his daughter, and once when mourning Pompey. 😭