古代のロマン ultimate dream


Hi everyone on this community forum!

In the video game Ehrgeiz, there is a sentence which is spoken is Japanese,
then subtitled, which was localized well, but I'd like to know what the
sentence is really saying.

_I put some sentences for context_

> クレア: でも、それがもし本当の不老不死の秘鑰のことだったら、太古の昔から、東西の覇者たちが失った究極の秘宝でしょ？ 見つかったら、凄いことですね！  
>  Clair: "But if that's really the secret of immortality, isn't it the
> ultimate treasure that rulers everywhere have sought after since ancient
> times? It'll be sensational if we find it!"
>
> 増田: まぁ、な・・・  
>  Koji: "Definitely."
>
> クレア: わあ、これぞ **古代のロマン** って感じじゃない！  
>  Clair: "Wow. This is the ultimate dream of any archaeologist!
>
> わくわくしてくるなぁ！  
>  I'm getting excited already!"

Google translate: This is not an ancient romance!




古代の is just _ancient_ , so I assume you're interested in the meaning of ロマン.
First, it's completely different from ロマンス/romance (although they may be
etymologically related).

ロマン (or 浪漫 in kanji) is a word that derived from
[romanticism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism) in English. In modern
Japanese usage, it has become a somewhat vague term used in several different
ways, but basically it refers to certain types of attractiveness:

  1. Nostalgic attractiveness; beauty of the good old days. See [大正ロマン](http://loveartlab.me/2015/08/07/taisho-roman-nostalgic-and-beautiful-culture/). Western people may associate 浪漫 with Wild West culture, Caribbean pirate culture, Victorian Gothic culture, etc.
  2. More broadly, it also refers to a vague fascination with worlds that are different from reality, such as fantasy (including so-called _isekai_ ), cyberpunk, retrofuturism, outer space and so on. "Sense of wonder" may be conceptually similar in English.
  3. In an even broader and slangy sense, it refers to attractiveness that is felt intuitively but cannot be analyzed by logic and reason, or attractiveness despite a lack of practical merit, or indescribable coolness. See [ロマン](https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3) in Nicopedia. For example, [ロマン砲](https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E7%A0%B2) (砲 = cannon) is a slang term used by gamers and military enthusiasts to refer to an attack method that is extremely powerful and cool but has little practicality (due to high cost, low precision, etc).

In your case, "archaeologist's dream" seems to be a good free translation to
me, but if you want a more literal one, "dream of the ancient times" should
do. Something like "This is exactly what I expect from the ancient times!" may
be another option.

