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Space Romans

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Like he won't rust on the first reign-y day.
"A heavily industrialized 20th century-type planet very much like Earth; an amazing example of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development. But on this Earth, Rome never fell."
— Captain's Log, stardate 4040.7, Star Trek: The Original Series, "Bread and Circuses"

A sort of three-way cross between Fantasy Counterpart Culture, Inexplicable Cultural Ties, and Planet of Hats, a Space Roman society is a human or Human Alien culture that, in an amazing coincidence, resembles a culture from Earth's history. This trope does not exclusively describe only those based on Rome, but any implausibly Earth-like society. Space Romans provide a handy way for the beleaguered writer to populate the galaxy with a variety of different, believable alien societies, but disbelief can easily be stretched to its limit if the writer isn't careful, or doesn't consider how the culture in question would be altered by being transplanted to space.

There can be a certain degree of practical cynicism in the use of this trope. In older film and TV portrayals, especially ones on tight budgets, these kinds of societies might crop up as a way to have something different and sort-of sci-fi that week, while at the same time recycling stock props and costumes from other shows. It also takes a lot less creative time effort to use off-the-peg "Romans in Space" than to build a convincing alien society and aesthetic from the ground up.

This is usually less offensive than Space Jews, who are inspired by ethnic stereotypes instead. See also United Space of America. Compare with Days of Future Past, in which a society on or originating from Earth revives an older culture in whole or in part. Contrast with Culture Chop Suey, where elements of several cultures are blended together.

Two common variants are the Space Amish, a society of technological dropouts, and the Space Cossacks, rebels and/or exiles from mainstream society.

Examples:

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    Audio Drama 
    Anime & Manga 
  • Daimos:
  • Ginga Sengoku Gun'yūden Rai is a 1980s series that essentially has Japan's Warring States set in outer space with a dollop of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
  • The various antagonist factions and nations in the Universal Century Gundam works tend to have very Germanic and Axis-inspired aesthetics.
  • Raideen the Brave's Fantastical Empire is the lost continent of Mu, which was destroyed by a tsunami after being conquered by Barao. Mu itself is basically Atlantis powered by Schizo Tech, and the denizens dress in traditional Roman attire (though some Mu appear to dress in Indian and Greek styles).
  • Voltes V: The Boazanian Empire is essentially 17th century Space France.
    Comic Books 
  • The DCU:
    • The Daxamites have been established as being "Space Mexicans". The Human Alien natives of the planet Daxam had a distinctly Mesoamerican racial appearance and culture. They were colonized by the mostly European-looking Kryptonians, with whom they subsequently interbred and established a distinct culture, including things such as buildings resembling step pyramids. When the Kryptonians' intergalactic empire collapsed, the Daxamites became independent. They now exhibit some attributes of being Space Amish. While they have and use advanced technology, they are very isolationist to the point of xenophobia and have strong cultural taboos against certain technologies, such as anything related to space travel.
    • The Martian society Wonder Woman fights in Wonder Woman (1942) is run by Mars and is based largely on ancient Roman society, with an extra helping of misogyny.
  • Marvel Universe:
    • The Kree warriors — from whom Captain Marvel descended — quite literally look like Space Romans due to their Roman-style helmets.
    • The Shi'ar empire of X-Men fame has similarities to the Romans, with the leader of the Imperial Guard being called Praetor, senators in the political system, Latin-like words like Majestor/Majestrix and the tendency to have extravagant, bloodthirsty rulers like D'Ken and Vulcan.
  • Sonic the Comic features Planet Romanus, inhabited by blue humanoids, one of which is a self-proclaimed and ruthless Emperor Zero. The Drakon Empire were closer to Romans culture-wise than aesthetic-wise.
  • The Wolrog Empire in Strontium Dog is modeled on pre-World War II Japan. The entire thing is ruled by a single Emperor who the rest of the people obey immediately and without question. Captives are regularly press-ganged into becoming soldiers and slaves to fuel the war effort. They also readily utilise kamikaze tactics; to participate in one of these is seen as the greatest honour that can be obtained.
  • The Sith Empire seen in Tales of the Jedi is aesthetically very reminiscent of Ancient Egypt.
  • The Trigan Empire rose and fell on a distant planet, but had a Roman-style imperial system of government coupled with vaguely steampunk-level to modern technology (plus some Mad Science).
    Fan Works 
  • Rocketship Voyager is a Star Trek: Voyager fanfic written In the Style of a 1950s sci-fi magazine pulp, so the Kazon have been changed from Space Gangbangers to the usual cribbing off Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
    Nee'Lix: The K'Zon were perpetually-warring barbarians on some insignificant planet on the outskirts of the galaxy when they were conquered by the Traben. As outsiders with no connection to the ruling elite they made useful recruits for the Emperor's Guard, and some of their officers became quite influential. After the Traben Empire collapsed they declared themselves its inheritors, but all they do is bully former subjects and fight each other for the title of Imperator—it's thanks to them this quadrant is in the mess it's in today.
  • Star Trek: Phoenix: An alien world visited during the second season is an almost literal example — the local species' culture is heavily reminiscent of the Roman Empire in architecture, clothing and warlike outlook, while using mostly Grecian artistic styles.
    Films — Live-Action 
  • Rebel Moon: The Imperium have a resemblance to the Roman Empire in some ways, with a Senate, use of crucifixion as a punishment and their king being stabbed to death by several Senators, like Julius Caesar.
  • Star Wars' presentation of a republic falling and giving way to empire has obvious parallels with Rome; the Republic Senate gets a vote of no confidence, and Chancellor Palpatine becomes Emperor by popular acclaim. Alas, his acclaim came from a False Flag Operation, he failed to deliver on his campaign promises, he was actually a Sith Lord, and he ended up a 0% Approval Rating Big Bad to the setting.
    Literature 
  • Chung Kuo features a future where humanity has been taken over and remade into one resembling Imperial China.
  • Codex Alera is Romans with Magic, right down to calling their own ancestors' works "Romanic". Subverted when it's revealed that they are actual Romans, descended from a lost legion who crossed into Alera from Earth in an unknown fashion.
  • Given the ambiguity of whether Dragaera should be considered science fiction or fantasy, it's hard to tell if examples from it fit here or under Fantasy Counterpart Culture (perhaps both). In particular, there are the Fenarians, seemingly the dominant group of human culture, who speak Hungarian and have various Hungarian cultural traditions. More generally, Dragaera has a marked similarity to late medieval Europe, although given that the "Dragaerans" were supposedly genetically engineered from humans, there is likely some kind of Days of Future Past scenario going on.
  • In the sci-fi novel The Dragon Never Sleeps, the future intergalactic empire of humanity, the Canon Space, is heavily based upon the Roman Empire at the height of its power. Lampshaded by the fact that all the Space's Guardships are named after the Roman legions.
  • From The Foundation of S.F. Success, some poetic Conversational Troping by Isaac Asimov.
    So success is not a mystery, just brush up on your history, and borrow day by day.
    Take an Empire that was Roman and you'll find it is at home in all the starry Milky Way.
    With a drive that's hyperspatial, through the parsecs you will race, you'll find that plotting is a breeze,
    With a tiny bit of cribbin' from the works of Edward Gibbon and that Greek, Thucydides.
  • Honor Harrington:
    • The series is explicitly modeled on the conflicts between the British Empire and Revolutionary/Napoleonic France.
    • The Andermani Empire was explicitly inspired by its founders to be Space Prussians, although most of the population is originally Chinese in origin. Grayson was founded by what were, essentially, descendants of American Southern Baptists (with some fundamentalist Mormonism thrown in) and much of their culture is still recognizably American.
  • The Radch in Imperial Radch behave a lot like Space Romans: they are a vast empire that's expanded by conquering systems, offering the locals Radch citizenship (neatly assimilating later generations), leaving around a local Radchaai governor and army, and folding local pantheons into the Radchaai one. They even have a client/patron system modeled on the Roman one.
  • The Galactic Empire in Legend of the Galactic Heroes is very German (more specifically, Prussian) in its style and influences. Meanwhile, some fans call the Free Planets Alliance "Space Americans".
  • The Mako Saga: Auran culture is effectively identical to modern America right down to people's names, which makes for some Aerith and Bob moments for the notably non-Earthlike names of planets. They also apparently had literal Space Romans at some point, considering the main ship in the series is named AS Praetorian. This, along with the fact the Aurans and offshoot Alystierians are biologically human plus or minus a couple fractions of a percent genetically, is given a parallel evolution Hand Wave.
  • The Past Doctor Adventures book Dreams of Empire has the Second Doctor encountering the Haddron Republic, which is essentially a "What if Caesar had crossed the Rubicon unsuccessfully?" scenario IN SPACE.
  • Pebble in the Sky's Galactic Empire (which is later merged into the same one from the Foundation Series) is playing the role of Space Rome to Earth's Judea (now Israel). Made obvious by Procurator Ennius (inadvertently) using Pontius Pilate's line: "I find no fault in this man..." Also confirmed by Isaac Asimov that the allusion between Rome and Israel was intentional.
  • Arkonides of Perry Rhodan is a mixture of predominately Roman and British imperialism, making them sort of albino Centauri.
  • Proxima: The sequel, Ultima, not only has real Space Romans but Space Incans as well due to some Sufficiently Advanced Aliens altering Earth's history.
  • The Romulans as portrayed in the Rihannsu novels are modeled on the Roman Republic, although the names Romulus and Remus and the terms "senator" and "praetor," among others, are actually Federation-assigned terms that often aren't actually accurate translations (e.g. the Romulan word deihu, translated as "senator," is actually closer to "clan elder").
  • In the Seetee Ship series by Jack Williamson, the Solar System is in a cold war involving the Earth good guys versus the Jovian Soviet, the Martian Reich and Venusian Japanese (who talk of forming a greater Asian co-prosperity sphere).
  • According to Sonic the Hedgehog in Robotnik's Laboratory, the planet Mobius has Romans, who unlike Earth Romans are afraid of Lions. They apparently build the ruins we see in Aquatic Ruin Zone.
  • Take a wild guess at what the British Space Empire resembles in Space Captain Smith.
  • Tour of the Merrimack explicitly has Space Romans who were descended from the original ones. They survived as a secret society in America before breaking off to form their own colony.
  • Aliette de Bodard's Xuya Universe stories use a setting where space is dominated by a pre-Communist Vietnamese culture.
    Live-Action TV 
  • The Centauri in Babylon 5 have their own Senate rule by the nobility: The Centaurum, an Emperor and a vast (albeit for the time the series happens already decaying) Empire, have slavery, a rigid class system and a specialized army, among other many parallels with Rome. One of their Emperors, Cartagia, is an expy of Caligula. That said the more direct inspiration for them is the Austro-Hungarian Empire (which still makes them an example of this trope), and their role in the series takes many cues from the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the dawn of World War I as an Empire that used to be a major player who is now experiencing a slow decline, which is noticed by its neighbors and is locked into conflict with people it formerly subjugated.
  • Battlestar Galactica (1978): Glen Larson drew heavily on his own Mormon upbringing for the depiction of its Space Opera setting. The protagonists are The Remnant of humanity, the scattered and exiled former inhabitants of twelve colonies searching for the mythical "lost thirteenth colony" of humanity that they believe settled on Earth, a blatant nod to The Book of Mormon's central conceit that the Lost Tribes of the Israelites crossed the Atlantic and settled in the Americas.
  • Battlestar Galactica (2003) is incredibly guilty of this, with a very Earth-like civilization (that bounces between the 1930s and the mid 21st century technology- and culture-wise) that uses the Latin script and is based on Greco-Roman mythology, yet for some obscure reason takes place 150,000 years ago. After the remainder of the human race resettles on our Earth, they voluntarily leave all technology behind in the process. Alien Space Bats are responsible for humanity not only recreating colonial culture 150,000 years later, but also (for the Mediterranean offshoot) reinventing their script and belief system for no good reason whatsoever.
  • Doctor Who: In "The End of the World", the Doctor mentions that a "New Roman Empire" exists on Earth in the year 12,005. Given all the countless stories showing humans in space in the future, this New Roman Empire is almost certainly a space-faring civilization.
  • Such cultures appear over and over again in Stargate SG-1. Most of them were transported by the Goa'uld from Earth, making them descendants of the actual peoples they resemble.
  • Star Trek
    • The Romulans. The two habitable planets in their solar system are called Romulus and Remus. Their raptor emblem is reminiscent of Ancient Rome's aquila note which is Latin for "eagle". They have a Senate and they're ruled by a Praetor, with the Proconsul and the Vice-Proconsul just below that, and the other members are Senators. Centurion is a rank in their military. In TOS, their soldiers wore bronze-ish helmets. Explained in some sources as being the result of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens having formed the basis for the Greco-Roman pantheon and culture, and those same aliens doing the exact same thing with the Vulcans. When the ancestors of the Romulans left Vulcan they used what those aliens provided as the basis for their new society, and the Romulans just incorporated it better with superior technology than humans.
    • Star Trek: The Original Series even has actual Roman space Romans, complete with slaves and gladiators, as well as 1920s Chicago Gangsters, Nazis, Native Americans in "The Paradise Syndrome", the Yangs (Yanks) and Kohms (Commies) of "The Omega Glory", and even an exact duplicate of Earth in "Miri".
      • The space Romans from "Bread and Circuses" also have "son-worshipers" as counterparts to the persecuted Christians. In the novel Ex Machina these space Romans were descended from Romans brought to 892-IV by Apollo's people.
      • The Yangs even have their own Constitution with the exact same wording and an old flag identical to the 50-starred US flag.
      • The 1920s Chicago Gangsters in "A Piece of the Action" avert the amazing coincidence part of this trope: the entire reason why the Enterprise is there is to attempt to fix the cultural contamination that happened the last time the Federation sent a ship to the planet. As it turns out, that cultural contamination consisted of leaving a book about the mobs of Chicago in the 1920s in the hands of a highly imitative culture... The Nazis from "Patterns of Force", similarly, were a direct consequence of someone's meddling (a mad historian deciding to use the Nazi model to uplift a primitive civilization), rather than the species just happening to develop Nazis on their own.
      • Interestingly, the Space Greeks in "Plato's Stepchildren" are actually imitating Earth's Greeks. They had visited Earth during that period and liked the culture.
    • Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Mintakans from "Who Watches the Watchers" are an odd variant; they are a society of Vulcan Aliens that in an amazing coincidence resembles a Vulcan culture that did not exist at their level of technological development — that is, rather than Space Romans, they are Stone (Age) Surakists.
    Music 
  • GWAR: Beefcake the Mighty, from the planet Cholesterol, wears a suit of Roman centurion armor - albeit one that is appropriately grimdark for his character.
    Tabletop Games 
  • BattleTech:
    • For literal "Space Romans", there's the Marian Hegemony which deliberately styles itself after ancient Rome to the point of structuring their armies in their own idiosyncratic way rather than following the more standard pattern used elsewhere in most of the Inner Sphere and Periphery and being ruled by a Caesar. They are the only faction in the Periphery to practice slavery.
    • And of course the Draconis Combine is basically the theme park version of Imperial Japan at its most warlike in space. Justified in this case by the personal obsession of its founder (of actual Japanese descent) who just so happened to be able to make it stick while going around conquering planets that would one day belong to his descendants' realm. Other Inner Sphere nations also show distinct Earth-national cultural influences, but the Combine readily stands out as the most blatant example.
  • The Third Imperium in Traveller is a lot like The British Empire Recycled IN SPACE!, especially in the noble classes. However in some aspects of culture it also resembles a United Space of America. Justifiable by assuming that much of it was a deliberate Shout-Out to tradition.
  • Many of the factions in Twilight Imperium have this sort of flavour. To begin with, the Lazax themselves are Space Rome, being a former great empire of many cultures, forcing Pax Lazax through its own military might, brought down by its own decadence.
    • The Winnu are Space Byzantine, seeing themselves as the successor of Space Rome.
    • The Letnev are Space Germans, with parts taken from both World War I (the aristocracy) and World War II (the fascism).
    • The Hacan are Space Bedouin, nomadic desert spice merchants.
    • The Mentak are Space Australians, with their home planet originally being used as a Penal Colony.
    • The Saar are Space Romani, an oppressed people with no fixed home.
  • The Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40,000 is the unholy fruit of a foursome between ancient Rome, 19th century Prussia, Nazi Germany, the Crusader states, and the Inquisition-era Catholic Church, complete with Byzantine double headed Eagles, the Iron Cross, the Inquisition, Enormous Cathedrals, the God-Emperor, and Latin.
    • Within the Imperium itself, various Space Marine homeworlds seem to each have their own Earth counterpart: The Space Wolves are Norse, the Ultramarines are literal Space Romans (including centurion brushes on their helmets), the White Scars are Mongols, the Black Templars are Teutonic Knights. Thousand Sons had an Egyptian theme going on, the Word Bearers are Babylonian, and Emperor's Children had something resembling French and Italian high culture before they were corrupted by Chaos. Zig-zagged by the Iron Warriors, whose distinctly Greek homeworld was irrelevant to the Iron Warriors' hat (World War 1-type trench warfare/siege specialists).
    • More obvious in the Imperial Guard: The Valhallans, Praetorians, Catachans, Death Korps of Krieg, Attilans, Armageddon and others all descendants or counterparts of Earth culture. Given how a good number of Imperial worlds were originally settled by either the successors of modern Earth cultures or cultural revivalists, this is justified.
    • Taoist Space Communists? The Tau. Who are also much like Brave New World with the themes of caste system, atheism and enlightenment.
    • The Eldar are at times Japanese Space Greeks, but show elements of being Space Tuatha Dé Danann.
    • More minorly, the Orks are a species of green British football hooligans, replacing enthusiasm for football as the reason for collectively sowing chaos with just loving violence.
    • The Necrons began as the Tomb Kings Recycled IN SPACE!; in turn, the Tomb Kings are The Theme Park Version of Ancient Egypt if it was The Necrocracy.
    • The Slann, the predecessor to the Old Ones in the early editions of the game, were basically the Byzantines, a species formerly ruling a large empire that shaped the galaxy, now reduced to a few holdouts.
    Video Games 
  • In Civilization: Beyond Earth, taking on the Purity affinity results in your units gaining Roman-like designs; for example, your Humongous Mecha and Powered Armor look like legionaries. Their Tier 4 basic infantry is even called Centurion.
  • Destiny: The Cabal is a race of giant rhinoceros men with an empire spanning many planets, and their subtypes are named after Roman military units like Legionaries and Centurions, with other units like Phalanxes and Colossi being named after Greek terms. Their elite soldiers even feature enormous helmet or shoulder-mounted plumes, and their armies are organized in a system of legions. Destiny 2 shows more about their nature, revealing they are very much Space Romans, with a hedonistic Emperor who was betrayed by his own Praetorian Guard, now ruled by a military tribunal akin to the Legates, with imperial dominion over several other species, and now have Latin-sounding names to many of their ranks and titles, as well as warriors named Gladiators and even gladiator fighting arenas and Bread and Circuses style entertainments to keep the masses content and happy.
  • EVE Online:
    • The Amarr Empire is a space-faring version of Renaissance-era Spain. Their Knight Templar attitudes and descent from a Catholic splinter sect both bring to mind the Inquisition, while their conquest and enslavement of other peoples in order to bring them "closer to God" isn't so much reminiscent of Spanish behavior in their American colonies so much as it is a largely accurate description.
    • The Caldari State is an exaggerated, sci-fi version of 1980s Japan. They're high-tech, insular, and xenophobic, with a grindingly ruthless corporate culture and little room for individuality amongst their salaryman workforce. However, they're also one of the most meritocratic societies in the New Eden galaxy.
    • The Gallente Federation are descended from French colonists, but they're otherwise pretty much the United Space of America, with a system of government overtly based on that of the US. Going by their hedonistic pop culture, there's also a dash of Freestate Amsterdam in space! as part of that mix.
    • The Minmatar Republic is a pastiche of the post-colonial Third World, having defeated the Amarr in a bloody war of liberation but still struggling to pull together a modern state, with many of their best and brightest leaving to find better prospects across the stars. The fact that the Amarr are the Space Spaniards, that the favored destination of those best and brightest tends to be the United Space of America, and their problems with organized crime and drug cartels all bring to mind Latin America, especially Mexico.
    • The CONCORD Assembly is the Space United Nations, albeit a fair bit more powerful (they maintain the Space Police) and competent.
    • The Blood Raiders, descended from an ancient and suppressed Amarrian cult, are Space Satanists of both the '80s "Satanic Panic" variety and the pseudo-Nietzschean philosophy popularized by Anton LaVey. They commit ritual sacrifice by draining people's blood, they used to kidnap children for such out of a belief that their blood is purer than that of adults (though they've since moved on to clones, whose blood is supposedly even purer), they have "breeding" camps to ensure a steady supply of blood and sacrifices, and their beliefs trend towards Social Darwinism and visceral contempt for the Amarrian state religion.
    • The Thukkers are Space Romani. They are a Minmatar tribe that, unlike the others, remained nomadic rather than settling down on planets, and they refusal to integrate and abandon their way of life has led to discrimination against them from the other tribes, who associate them with criminality. Those Thukkers who settle on planets often experience an identity crisis, feeling alienated from both their fellow planetside Minmatar and from the "Great Caravans" who they feel no longer represent their interests.
    • The Jovians are Space Elves. They're an extremely advanced race whose genetic modifications mean that they're no longer quite human, and they live in isolation from the rest of the galaxy (there are no jump gates connecting to Jove space), with only limited contact.
    • The Enheduanni are Space Illuminati, a mysterious group that, according to the lore, have been manipulating events across the galaxy for generations. Their technology is far in advance of even the Jovians, such that one Jovian believes that they cannot be called human anymore, and their end goal is apparently to take over the galaxy and be worshiped as gods. Their name also evokes the Anunnaki, the ancient pagan deities of the Fertile Crescent, who some conspiracy theorists believe to actually be Ancient Astronauts who are still manipulating events on Earth.
    • As far as player-based alliances go, the Red Alliance are literal Space Russians, formed by Russian-speaking players to have an alliance they could call their own. They even had their own Great Patriotic War when they got pushed back to their last star system👁 Image
      in a battle reminiscent of the Siege of Leningrad, only to fight back and triumph.
  • Fallout: New Vegas: Caesar's Legion, despite not being in space, are very heavily influenced by Roman culture (specifically that of their military). They have repurposed old football equipment and painted it to resemble the ancient Lorica Segmentata armor, use Roman military rank structure (Legionary, Decanus, Centurion), and see all other cultures outside themselves as "Profligate". They also use grammatically correct and correctly pronounced Latin. Justified in that the Big Bad leading Caesar's Legion (who renamed himself Caesar) founded it using knowledge he had found in the post-nuclear apocalypse regarding the ancient Romans, considering it a society strong enough to survive in a Crapsack World.
  • Kerbal Space Program: The Kerbals are goofy Little Green Men who are kind of space Americans, right down to the naming conventions: Jeb, Bob, Bill, Melzer, Bardrin, Billy-Bobfred... They're smart enough to build rockets but not smart enough to use them safely or effectively.
  • Mass Effect:
    • Turians are Space Romans for a variety of reasons:
      • They possess the most powerful navy in the (known) galaxy. They even have their units organized into legions, with records of their deeds for each one. In fact, some records go back to the Turian iron age!
      • Their names are often Latin-based, such as Septimus and Adrien. The name of the race itself is an obvious reference to (Cen)turians.
      • Strict tiers of citizenship and mandatory military service. The third is formal citizenship attained after leaving boot camp. Which starts at the equivalent of the child's 15th birthday. This all mirrors similar customs of ancient Rome.
      • Client races (like the volus) as compared to the Romans' client kingdoms (they have independently ruled kingdoms, but are dependent on the central government for international affairs and must pay tribute to Rome/Palaven).
      • They jump at any perceived issue as a reason for war (the First Contact War for the turians, pretty much every war ever for the Romans but particularly things like the Second Punic War, started after the Romans perceived the Carthaginians' expansion into Spain as a threat).
    • The Protheans are also very similar to the Roman empire, as revealed in Mass Effect 3, being an expansionist and culturally domineering empire viewed as advanced Precursors by those who came after them. However, they also strongly resembled the Aztec.
    • The Asari are heavily based on the Ancient Greeks: city-states, a pantheon of varied gods, advanced technology compared to other civilizations, democratic governance rather than a republic, a Crystal Spires and Togas aesthetic and a (mostly) undeserved reputation for promiscuity.
    • The Salarian Union can be considered a mirror of the modern day People's Republic of China. It's an industrial powerhouse possessing an enormous, male-dominant population and a materialistic and utilitarian government. They also have elements of Proud Scholar Race, with a burgeoning research and development division that supplies their professional military and expansive special forces and internal police forces with all the bleeding edge technology they need to get ahead of their opposition. Their approach to warfare is also right out of Sun Tzu's playbook: they consider few strategies and tactics to be out-of-bounds, and even find the human practice of declaring your intent to go to war to be totally stupid.
    • The Batarians are space North Koreans. The Batarian Hegemony is a hermit kingdom with a Stalinist political system whose leaders hate the (very Western) human Alliance but lack the military muscle to beat them, so they bankroll criminals and terrorists to strike at them. They also have a highly authoritarian government which tightly controls what the Batarian public do and do not hear from their media.
    • The Quarians are blatantly both Space Israel and Space Romani. They're exiled from their beloved homeworld and wander the Galaxy in caravans working as tinkerers. They have an unfair reputation as thieves and cheats, and a more accurate one as reclusive almost to the point of xenophobia. They're embroiled in a conflict with those occupying their planet, but rather than Palestinians, these are robots created by the Quarians themselves as a direct reference to the Golem. Oh, and for bonus points that world, Rannoch, translates to "Walled Garden", also the meaning of "Paradise", as in the Garden of Eden.
  • PlanetSide: The New Conglomerate is very American, the Terran Republic is similar to the Soviet Union (the first game mixed this with Putting on the Reich, the second dropped this) and the Vanu Sovereignty has developed a futuristic feudal Japan flavour.
  • Star Citizen: The United Empire of Earth is a quite literal example of the Roman Empire Recycled IN SPACE!. They are ruled by an Emperor and a senate, and even come complete with a Rome*Earth, a Constantinople*Terra, the Vandals*the Vanduul, and an overextended empire.
  • StarCraft: The Terrans are dead ringers for the Confederate States of America: Southern accents, Black laborers, powerful "Old Families", a strange mix of redneck and gentlemanly mannerisms, and even the title of "Confederacy". Oh, and they have the same flag. According to the manual, they are the descendants of humans exiled from Earth because they had the potential to develop Psychic Powers, which were the political scapegoat of choice at the time; and they apparently developed a bad case of Future Imperfect. Blizzard Entertainment's office in Texas even composed a country western song to play in StarCraft II, which is on the playlist for the jukebox in the campaign.
  • Stellaris: Picking the Xenophobe, Pacifist and Spiritualist ethics along with an Imperial ruler and the "Inward Perfection" civic gives a unique government type available only to this specific combination — the "Celestial Empire". Congrats, you have basically made Imperial China... IN SPACE!
    Webcomics 
  • Delia: During Delia's interfacing with the machine near the end it turns out that the entire comic takes place on a planet that resembles America during the Cold War.
  • Homestuck: The trolls are largely space Spartans, practicing mandatory universal conscription, culling of weak citizens, and "trials" for children that leave only a relative handful of physically superior survivors each generation. However, being a large unified empire covering multiple territories, they also have a strong Roman influence. Another wrinkle is that these same trolls are the creators of our universe, so within the Homestuck narrative, our Spartans and Romans were actually inspired by the genetic memories of our precursors.
  • My Life at War: The Dhuvalians have a very French feel to them in their names and mannerisms. It's worth noting that Duval is a common French surname. Additionally the Free Market feel a lot like the American south.
  • Terra (2009): The author admits to drawing a lot of inspiration for the Azatoth from ancient Rome. The names are Roman-derived, they practice slavery, the government structure is Romanesque, and so on.
    Western Animation 
  • Futurama:
  • Cassiopeia from Il Était Une Fois... l'Espace, themselves based too in aspect on the Romulans of Star Trek fame. Their military also wears uniforms based on the Nazi ones (their arm bandages, at least).
  • Men in Black: The Series:
    • One episode features literal Space Romans; the Imperians are an exact cultural copy of Ancient Grome, including having Gladiator Games. The similarity with Romans is never explained, even though the planet is said to be located in another galaxy.
    • Another example are the Hyperians, who are Space Egyptians although much more brutal and animalistic. One of the Hyperians actually visited Ancient Egypt millennia ago, and was somehow buried as a mummy in a sarcophagus alive, sleeping until awakening in modern times.
  • Superfriends is fond of this trope. Planets they visit include Camelon, the medieval planet; Zaghdad, the Arabian Knights planet; and Texacana, the cowboy planet.

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