There is, however, something unsettling about a group of white, Oxford- and Cambridge-educated men extolling the virtues of colonialism, albeit for comedic effect. The implication—that Roman imperialism imposed a superior culture on the warring, uneducated and dirty people of the Middle East—echoes the common claim that the British Empire brought civilization (in the form of railways, the English language, capitalism, etc.) to the societies it conquered, and is also apparent in justifications for more recent neo-colonial interventions, such as the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
