The Roman Empire
I’m not sure I’ve got many thoughts on the Roman Empire.
That’s because you’re a woman.
Sexist! I reserve the right to think about the Romans.
Noted… but do you ever?
Um…
Was the last time, in fact, while watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian nine Christmases ago?
Not sure I did even then.
Which proves the point being made all over social media. Men think about the Roman Empire – a lot. Women: never.
How do we know this?
The question ‘How often do you think about the Roman Empire?’ has gone viral on TikTok (21 million views and rising for a compilation video of men’s responses).
And the answer is…
For many it’s at least once a week but for some, it’s more.
There are men who think about the Roman Empire every day?
There are men drawing up league tables of emperors. reenactor who started all this with the Instagram post: ‘Ladies, many of you do not realise how often men think about the Roman Empire.’
But can’t any of these men say why?
They don’t do emotional
year Vogue told readers where to shop for ‘9 of the best’.
I’ve just typed ‘breastplates’ into a shopping website and I’m getting tableware.
It wasn’t an easy trend for the high street. Try ‘drape dress’. Those are very Roman priestess.
Anyway, you’re wrong if you believe that women don’t think about the Roman Empire. Mary Beard does.
You’re possibly referring to her newly published book Emperor of Rome.
That’s it.
No doubt looking forward to what
The Telegraph describes as an investigation of ‘the transformations brought about by the rise of Christianity and the fracturing of the Empire in the mid-thirdcentury AD’.
Obviously – but will there be drape dresses?
You might be better postponing your cultural date with ancient Rome until next year.
What’s happening then?
Gladiator 2 is finally coming out, having first been mooted back in the early noughties then delayed by a complex sale of rights, then the US writers’ strike.
Sounds like they’ve had time to document the fall of Rome in real time.
I thought you weren’t interested in the Roman Empire.
I said I reserved the right to think about it.
Then can I recommend The Rest is History’s recent podcast on the Colosseum? Host Tom Holland tweeted: ‘Best enjoyed if you’re worried that everyone else is busy thinking about the Roman Empire, and you want to find out what the fuss is about.’
I’ll try that, because this trend has legs. That Gaius Flavius Instagram post now has 1,291,688 views.
You mean MCCXCIDCLXXXVIII (although technically the Romans didn’t go above four digits). Anyway, never mind Gaius because Mark Zuckerberg has just weighed in: ‘Not sure if
I think about the Roman Empire too much. I wonder what my daughters Maxima, August and Aurelia think.’
I’m not going to escape this nerdery, am I?
As playwright John Heywood might have put it: ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day – but there was a fella thinking about it every hour.’