Which of these Empires do you have a higher opinion of: British, or Roman?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What a bizarre and pointless question.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Let's clear this up, shall we? The word 'Empire' in the conventional usage of the terms 'British Empire' and 'Roman Empire' does not actually refer to exactly the same thing. In the context of the Roman Empire, it does not refer to Rome's possessions outside Italy but to the system of government established after the total victory of Augustus as contrasted with the previous Republican system of government.* In the context of the British Empire it does not refer to the system of government in Britain (a constitutional monarchy with increasingly strong - and eventually entirely dominant - democratic aspects), but to the overseas possessions of the United Kingdom.

_{*Although, as already noted in this thread, the idea that there was a very sharp distinction between the two is historically dubious.}

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As any historian who has actually studied the period could tell you, there was a lot of continuity between the Roman Empire and the Republic, and many place the line between "Empire" and "Republic" in other places.

Not just any historian of the period, but anyone who has ever read an Asterix comic.