Claiming a line of descent back to Hercules, Romans are not lacking in civic pride. Romans are not lacking in fierceness: their city was founded by Romulus and Remus, twins raised by a wolf. Their armies may have been beaten, but they have always dragged themselves back into any fight, and battled on. This was one of their famous sayings...
He who rules in Rome can rule the world, but only through the glory of conquest!
The aquaducts in the capitol were glorious. The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts in order to bring water from distant sources into their cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains. It's a greatest achievement.
Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.
All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?
The weak become conquered, that's just how it is. In other words, once America is completely gone liberal, it will be conquered as well. History repeats itself.
dah, America will never be conquered from a foreign nation: most likely in the next couple of decades we will become financially insolvent, and you will see what real chaos and crime is like.
USA will not be able to continue its ways of borrowing and spending and one day the game will be over.
I'm not sure if I wholly agree with the sentiment of the first sentence of your post, at least in terms of how I understand the implication of what you're saying or in how we might interpret it.. yes they were very brutal and they were very violent, or willing to use extreme violence and torture and a great deal of human beings suffered under them in many ways, but..
I'm sure there were many sadists and people whom indulged in vice to extreme excess, and I'm sure many people in their society went down that path. But I wonder if you can truly say it as though they were sadistic as a culture? Surely many in their society simply saw it as and participated in it because those were what the times were like.. and there were a great many uneducated people around, a great rabble of people in various classes, various races, varying degrees of education and culture, many of whom would not respond to pleasant or reasoned words, many would only understand strength and violence as the most workable means to motivate people. Romans also had their wealth, prestige and to protect.. neighbouring powers to contend with and during a time when brutality and warfare were in abundance.. I don't really like to say "those were the times" and then shrug as though that's all there is to it, but yeah, something along those lines.
From what I learned in several college classes, the Roman Empire was more like a federation than an actual empire. The people's they conquered were allowed to become Roman citizens, they no matter their nationality or background were treated the same as any other roman citizens anywhere.
That very fair treatment was in good part what allowed the Roman Empire to grow to monstrous proportions, it wasn't just conquest alone.
The people in the conquered territories were allowed for the most part to keep their own customs.
People like to be safe, and being part of the Roman Empire helped assure that safety.
Later on the empire became corrupt and it seems to be that time period that gets the most focus.