When one hears the word “empire,” they’re likely to think of the Roman Empire, but what about The Beatles?

 

Empires do not just fall from the heavens and onto Earth. Even in Roman mythology, while Gods were said to guide founders, they faced innumerable trials. Empires, in reality, are built over years and years, conquest after conquest, and are usually met with many obstacles before they are truly an empire. Founded by Romulus, the Roman Empire grew to be vast, powerful and made a lasting impression on society that we still see today. Although it would eventually fall, as all empires must, the Roman Empire still continues to be a widely studied topic in history, from its mythology and military strategies to its art and language.

 

Empires, however, are not just found in your history textbooks. They surround us in our everyday lives – Facebook, Apple, Mcdonald’s – they all qualify as empires in their own sectors of modern society. In the 1960’s, we were presented with a music empire, The Beatles. Like the Roman Empire, The Beatles are still widely studied and having immeasurable influence on today’s music and culture. Once you compare The Beatles with the greatness of the Roman Empire, the similarities are difficult to ignore.

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day. As aforementioned, Romulus founded the city of Rome in 753 BCE, after slaying his brother Remus. A small city in Italy, Rome initially grew through trade until approximately 509 BCE, which is when Rome came under the rule of Brutus and would become the Roman Republic – expanding through war. With the Punic Wars, Rome would see great growth in wealth and prestige (Mark). As their conquests grew in size, so did their kingdom. Rome became the most revered and powerful empire the ancient world had seen, its’ borders never ceasing, its’ power unmatched. Similar to Rome, The Beatles started small. Originally started by vocalist and guitarist John Lennon, they were known as The Quarrymen. Lennon met bassist Paul McCartney and invited him to join the group, and they would soon officially found The Beatles. McCartney would then invite another guitarist by the name George Harrison to join them, and when they auditioned for a new drummer, Ringo Starr was found.

After a series of small gigs and a residency in Hamburg, the Beatles came to release their first LP: Please Please Me, which hit the top of the UK charts. From that point on “Beatlemania” would ensure, as The Beatles brought their influence to the US and worldwide in just a few whirlwind years.

 

At the same time, the Roman Empire and The Beatles shared another trait that made them successful – their cohesive actions. The Roman Empire has a specific attribute that made it successful compared to say, the Greeks. When Rome captured a city, it would assimilate its citizens and grant them citizenship – even slaves after some time. Rome developed itself into a close-knit empire. Furthermore, rather than forcing the new citizens of Rome into specific roles they wanted, they let citizens continue practices assumed before being conquered. Even when it came to positions of political power, such as joining the Senate, Romans were generally open-minded and allowed those they captured to join the ranks since they could help strengthen the empire. What some say made The Beatles great was how they did the same, of course on a much smaller scale. Once the band was assembled, rather than making Lennon the frontman of The Beatles, they decided to present themselves as equals. This choice, Lennon remarked, was a decision to make the group stronger, rather than himself (McMillian). The Beatles chose to let their specific talents shine and come together to create a group that was shown for exactly who they were. If not for this, they would have been following the phenomenon that was Elvis Presley and like acts – rather than forging their own path. It would’ve been the 1960’s equivalent of following suit of the Greeks and not assimilating their citizens.

 

While the success of these two respective empires is legendary to this day, their greatest and most notable similarity may just be their downfall. Eventually, Rome was too great an empire to hold together, and they fell because the empire was too great to protect itself. Faced with barbarian invasions, economic troubles, and a weakening army, Rome was no longer unified and powerful – it was slowly tearing apart from the inside and outside. The fatal twist of the knife was when the once great empire Rome, too large to govern properly, separated into two empires – The Western and The Eastern. The East would go on to eventually grow and economically flourish, while the Western descended into chaos and eventually faced its demise. While at the time separation made governing simpler in the short run, long-term would lead to a greater divide between the two halves, and greater vulnerability for the West when it came to invasions (Andrews). The Beatles gained such great influence and notoriety, that the supergroup eventually fell apart due to their own expansive troubles. With only McCartney being truly passionate about performing live again after a hiatus, it was almost impossible to elicit any care from the other members of the band. They had been on their own for some time, no longer playing live, and they each came to worry about other things. Their manager Brian Epstein, who was devoted to the band and did his best to keep them grounded, overdosed on drugs. Yoko Ono, Lennon’s wife, had taken a great deal of his time and transformed him into virtually another person – more radical and daring. Soon all members had no care for what their members had to say – it was all about individual success (Gilmore). With each Beatles’ ambition forging different goals, the group would be torn apart, and never to reunite after the passing of Lennon and Harrison. Both empires tried to function but ultimately were filled with nothing but tension and distance. For these two once great forces, failure was almost inevitable, but their legacies live on.

 

Works Cited

 

Andrews, Evan. “8 Reasons Why Rome Fell.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 14 Jan. 2014, www.history.com/news/8-reasons-why-rome-fell. Accessed 9 Oct. 2018.

 

Gilmore, Mikal. “Why the Beatles Broke Up.” Rolling Stone, Penske Media Corporation, 3 Sept. 2009, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/why-the-beatles-broke-up-113403/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2018.

 

Mark, Joshua J. “Ancient Rome.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2 Sept. 2009, www.ancient.eu/Rome/. Accessed 9 Oct. 2018.

 

McMillian, John. “What Made the Beatles So Big? Diagnosing ‘Beatlemania’.” The Daily Beast, The Daily Beast Company, 31 Oct. 2013, www.thedailybeast.com/what-made-the-beatles-so-big-diagnosing-beatlemania. Accessed 7 Oct. 2018.