re: Which ancient civilization is the most similar to America?

We are very much like Rome,

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But not its ruthless effectiveness

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We have gotten way to soft

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Which ancient civilization is the most similar to America?

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It's probably something like Bactria or Parthia which not a lot of people know about or at least think about much. Or maybe something like Poland-Lithuania.

We have a long way to go to even come close to the longevity of an empire like Rome which people like to throw out as a antecedent.

Out of the big ones, we have some similarities to things like Rome who kind of adopted their culture from the Greeks and the Aztecs who I think did the same with civilizations like the Toltecs that came before them. In much the same way, much US culture comes from England and from other parts of Europe.

On the other hand, we kind of look to both the west (in things like science & somewhat in politics) and to the east in things like religion and somewhat in philosophy. In that way we may resemble empires like Macedonia and Parthia who kind of also looked to both sides. And the freedom of religion stuff I think comes from places like Persia under Cyrus.

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We have a long way to go to even come close to the longevity of an empire like Rome which people like to throw out as a antecedent.

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One dissimilarity doesn't discount all of the similarities.

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One dissimilarity doesn't discount all of the similarities.

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True. And I'm not saying the two are totally dissimilar. But there are other differences - treatment of religion. Overreaching in conquering and trying to retain by force an empire too broad for the technology of the time. The continuation of slavery in Rome while it was abandoned in the US, definition of "citizens" (and the rights that go along with it) being much more restrictive in Rome. Rome going from kingdom to republic to empire, etc.

Whew, what a bunch of distortionist self-loathers up in this thread.

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Not really relevant to the OP but didn't the U.S. and Russia adopt the eagle as the state symbol as a "nod" to Rome?

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The Germans also adopted the eagle. Furthermore, both "Kaiser" and "Czar" are related to "Caesar."

Read the book The New Romans

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Christians persecuted - Check

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Posted by Tiger1242
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I don't know how anyone can say anything but Rome.

How are we Rome? We have not conquered most of the civilized world, we don't base our success on the overtaking and acquisition of new territories. We certainly don't take the same approach as Rome in defeating our enemies, we don't wipe them out completely.
Our rulers are not military minded and we have not followed the conquer all path that Rome followed.
People say Rome because we are the most powerful country today, and because there are similarities in our lifestyle (as there are with Athens and many other civilized ancient countries), but we are not Rome.

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How on earth did we expand from a sliver of land, ranging from Maine to Georgia, to our current landmass? We most certainly have conquered and expanded via military conquest, committing genocide in the process. We've also been engaged in a military campaign in the Middle East since 2001 and have had our troops stationed worldwide since the 1940s.