Rome, Sweet Rome

"Rome, Sweet Rome"
Short story by James Erwin
(under the alias Prufrock451)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)
Publication
Published inReddit post
Publication typeOnline
PublisherSelf via Reddit
Media typeOnline
Publication dateAugust 21, 2011
Chronology
 
— 		 
Acadia

"Rome, Sweet Rome" is an alternative history and military science fiction short story by American freelance writer and military historian James Erwin. Posted online on Reddit under his handle Prufrock451 on August 21, 2011,[1] it describes what might happen if a United States Marine Corps expeditionary unit were somehow transported back to the time of the Roman Empire under Augustus Caesar.[2][3][4][5][6] The first few installments were published on Reddit, corresponding to the first eight days of the Marines' arrival.

Several years later, the hosts of the National Public Radio program Endless Thread call the short story "one of the most famous creative anachronism ever made by the Internet... an anachronism that was going to be huge, like a Ridley Scott movie huge,... plucked from obscurity, optioned by Hollywood, and then never to be heard from again."[7]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference AskReddit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Lunch Break Lark Leads to Movie Deal". November 5, 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  3. ^ Masnick, Mike (October 20, 2011). "Could reddit Make Its Own 'Rome, Sweet Rome' And Compete With Warner Bros.?". Techdirt. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  4. ^ Sheppard, Alyson (October 31, 2011). "Rome, Sweet Rome: Could a Single Marine Unit Destroy the Roman Empire?". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  5. ^ Phillips, Jack (October 17, 2011). "Social Cinema: reddit Post Catches Hollywood's Attention". Time. Retrieved November 27, 2011.
  6. ^ Fagone, Jason (March 20, 2012). "How One Response to a Reddit Query Became a Big-Budget Flick". Wired.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference wbur-2018sep14 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).