“How Often Do You Think About the Roman Empire?”
We all still live in Rome’s long shadow, but why?
“How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” that’s the question which has gone viral on TikTok over the past few days. One video, a compilation, has managed to rack up over 15.4 million views since being posted yesterday. The men’s answers range dramatically — from “every day” to “a few times a month” — but one thing is clear: it’s surprising. Oh, and every news outlet under the sun seems to be reporting on it. (Independent, Telegraph, Time, Atlantic, etc.) It must be a slow news week.
But it would be foolish to let such a good opportunity for comment pass me by. So, let’s try and answer the question: Why is it that men think about the Roman Empire so much? After all, I am a bloke and I think about the Roman Empire almost every day. It’s like that Junji Ito panel from The Enigma of Amigara Fault, this is my hole. It was made for me. Fingers crossed I don’t emerge on the other side as a cryptid horror.
What do the men in question have to say for themselves? An inadvisable descent into the comments section of some of the articles written on the trend offers little in the way of inspiring critical analysis. A certain ‘Davy’ writes that he thinks of the Empire because “it was the very exemplar of Equity.” I don’t even know where to start with a statement like that but his insistence that Britain today is facing an “invasion of its own Sea Peoples” is a sign his opinion should be discarded. ‘Simon,’ meanwhile, offers his own thought that the Romans represent a “masculine desire for order, discipline and honour which is so missing from our society.”
This strand of masculinity-based thinking is mirrored in one of the most popular “explainer” TikToks on the topic by ‘themasculineedge’. His rationalisation that “men inherently have the need to conquer” — a claim with all the misogynist subtext of an Ian Fleming novel — has earned him 2 million views, although the comments section is a complete warzone. Are appeals to masculine urges to “conquer” a satisfying answer? No, obviously not. The Roman Empire entailed far more than just conquest and other male respondents cite a whole range of reasons why they think about the Roman Empire. Gladiator battles, technological advancements, engineering projects, and philosophy all feature.
Personally, I am slightly flummoxed at why this is even a gendered question in the first place. In my time studying the ancient world, I’ve almost always been outnumbered by women. My MA course this year was majority female, as was my fantastic residential course at the British School at Rome. Leaving personal experience aside, the 2020 CUCD report on Equality and Diversity in Classics shows that 49.3% of Classics faculty respondents are women although the numbers are less rosy in terms of professorships and fellowships. The appetite and opportunity for women to study the ancient world has never been greater (although there is still a long way to go!).
That is to say, the disconnect between men and women in their thinking about the Roman Empire clearly isn’t replicated in a professional university setting. Why is it that the layman thinks about the Roman Empire so often? I believe the answer lies in the Renaissance, Neoclassicism, and misogyny. To this end, I would highly recommend reading this article by Casey Haughin-Scasny, a PhD candidate in Public History.
The Roman Empire is still relevant today because we have placed it on an unassailable pedestal. Traces of the Romans endure in almost all facets of life. The paths of many Roman roads remain the modern routes for traffic around the UK. In the United States, the government is almost in full cosplay. The fasces, that symbol of political power from the Roman Republic, sit prominently in the Senate House. The founding fathers, themselves, debated the future of their Republic in the Federalist Papers under ancient pseudonyms.
That is to say, the layperson’s view of the Roman empire has been coloured and warped by centuries of patriarchal antiquity-worship. We’ve been drip-fed the architecture, stoic philosophy, military conquests, and (ultimately) the empire’s fall through an ideological sieve. What remains are the sanitised gobbets and facts regurgitated by the men in these various TikToks. The results are best summarised in one of my favourite tweets on the subject (below).
Interest in the past is not in itself a red flag. Nor, indeed, is an interest in ancient history. But I would argue there is a certain kind of aura around many of those who admit to thinking about the Roman empire in these TikToks. Mainly, that through no fault of their own they have fallen head-first into the ranks of a centuries-old historical tradition. A tradition founded upon viewing the Romans as the zenith of culture and civilisation in Europe, as the model soldier society, and as, ultimately, a boys' club.
Those are my two cents, anyway. I doubt I can stand any more of this discourse so I shall emerge from the other end of my “perfect” hole. I sure hope I didn’t metamorphose into a cryptid horror…
