When in Rome...

So today I have once again decided to comment on the arbitrariness of another figure of speech (yes, I am out of ideas... why do you ask?).

They say that Rome was
Not built in a day. They're right.
It took at least 2.


With this saying, it's not so much about the validity of the statement, but more about the randomness of it. So Rome was not built in a day. Well guess what? Neither was New York. Or Massachusetts. Or England. Or Canada... come to think of it... I can't think of a single empire or place that was built in one day (with the exception of the Soviet Evil Empire, which became an empire when Reagan dubbed it as such). So the question is, why Rome? Sure, it was a great and mighty empire that took a while to gain its power, but so were all of the aforementioned places (with the exception of Canada, which still does not have power).

However, the best part about this saying is that Rome fell after it was built up. Imagine, if you will, that your friend is trying to lose weight and is ready to give up after a week, and you say "hey, Rome wasn't built in a day." If they think about it, their reaction may be "so you're saying that I'm going to spend all of this losing weight, only to gain it all back thanks to attacks from barbarians, lead poisoning, and a poor economy? Thanks for the support...