Modern Men and the Roman Empire
Knowing that some men frequently think about the Roman Empire confirms what we already know – that we are a product of our cultures, and that culture reinforces how we live and understand the world.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last week or so, news is that men (usually white and Western) frequently think about the Roman Empire. I discovered the trend via Amelia Dimoldenberg’s interview with Paul Mescal at Gucci’s runway show at Milan Fashion week, where she asked him how often he thinks about the Roman Empire which a) makes sense bearing in mind that Mescal is to appear in Gladiator 2 (to be released next year – how timely…) and b) because of its popularity on TikTok where it has amassed over 1.2 billion views. Call it coincidental timing, but it’s unusual that this TikTok trend is flaring up now considering it first went viral in 2022 by Swedish influencer Saskia Cort and made a comeback in August this year by another Swede, Roman history enthusiast Gaius Flavius.
Now that we know about this fact, what do we make of it? Or what ought we to make of it? Is it really worth our time and energy to participate in a prolonged guessing game about why some men frequently think about the Roman Empire? I can’t resist writing about the cultural zeitgeist so I’m giving it some brief airtime here but, generally speaking, I don’t think it’s worth our time and energy to talk about this TikTok trend beyond a month and so I won’t be giving it much thought once I’ve pressed the publish button. Here’s why.
Without possessing the findings of an in-depth study and/or other relevant information such as when did this frequent thinking about the Roman Empire come into being – has this been in men’s mind for 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years, 600 years? Please do elaborate – we only have a surface level amount of insight into why men would think about the Roman Empire on a frequent basis. One theme that has cropped up is the Roman’s colossal ability to invent. Among other things, the Romans invented sanitation, aqueducts, roads, cement, buildings, maps and tunnels etc etc. The invention angle is an interesting and important one because of the mind-boggling variety of Roman inventions that we live with and rely on today. Regardless of gender, for us to not think about the Romans frequently (if this is indeed the reason why men think about them) would be strange as it’s an inherent aspect of our human nature to think about the inventions we use and the period and circumstances which brought them into being. Imagine life today without sanitation! Or roads! It doesn’t bear dwelling on (so I won’t).
Yet pondering the vital inventions created by the Romans is a wonderful contrast to the modern world of technology which seems to dominate most conversations these days (and with good reason plus obviously it’s extremely interesting, to me at least) and could be considered as a refreshing change if tech isn’t your thing. At a time when less space is given in the public sphere to more “boring” and practical topics that impact and involve our human and ecological way of life, surely this is a good thing? With the Roman Empire being one of the most technologically advanced civilisations of antiquity, perhaps there is a feeling amongst some men that our current period of tech and AI advances will also significantly impact human civilisations for thousands of years to come, just as the inventions of the Romans did? The jury is out on this. But I doubt we will get a clear-cut answer from just guessing.
Interestingly, the historian Tom Holland picks up on this idea of mirroring the Roman era with the present. In a recent piece for TIME he observes:
Whilst some men may frequently think about the Roman Empire, how many men would think about it if it wasn’t fed into our culture as much as it is? What if the film industry hadn’t chosen to financially back and create a heavily male-centric version of Gladiator? What if historians and other writers chose to write less about the Romans and spent more time thinking and writing about other periods in history such as the Victorians (a quick search on the Waterstones website reveals 2057 items on searching “Roman Empire” whereas “Victorians” get a respectful 558 items)? What if Microsoft Word had chosen to give greater prominence to and ranking of another font instead of Times New Roman?* You get the picture.
As someone who has written history as an academic, I’m very aware that our understanding of history is what we have been exposed to and taught about, whether that be a broad overview or an in-depth analysis of certain periods. Our perception of history and which bits are deemed more important than others are formed through the lens of the educator – whether that be a teacher, professor, parent, director or actor etc – who bestows on us their version of events. As the recipients of this knowledge, it is up to us to take responsibility for understanding the nuances of the period in question or, at the very least, be curious about them to gain greater insight.
This is especially important when the information presented to us is historically questionable and one-sided which is often the case with periods of history which are consistently fed to us through popular culture which tend to be less nuanced and more extreme – extreme glamour, extreme shock, extreme death, extreme drama etc. Whilst the Roman Empire is largely showcased in technicolour glory for its militarism, imperialism and infrastructure, the more disturbing and gloomy aspects of the period’s history – slavery, corruption and barbarism – is less discussed in popular culture, primarily because people, and maybe more so men, are seeking a form of heroic escapism and thrill from their relatively cushy and comfortable if slightly uneventful 21st century lives which is a far cry from the cut and thrust nature of daily survival during the Roman Empire. As noted by Holland, “The Romans are too distant to be truly unsettling; instead, they have become exotic.”
This is why I am slightly cynical of this TikTok trend because I’m not convinced that most men are clued up on the facts of the Roman Empire or would think about it as much if it weren’t so present and hyper dramatized in popular culture along the lines of Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe (to be launched in 2024 just like Gladiator 2…what a coincidence) and Netflix’s Roman Empire series which describes itself as a “stylish mix of documentary and lavish historical epic chronicles”. Looking at the rise of simplified Stoicism-themed Instagram accounts (this post by the Daily Stoic made me laugh) this trend, like TikTok itself to some degree, is rooted in and centred around popular culture and fantasy rather than detailed facts and reality.
Whilst I’m partial to using TikTok for a mixture of entertainment and education (the latter primarily from academics and experts) I can’t help but see this story through the lens of popular culture and fantasy. Think about it. Would I be able to have a detailed discussion with the average man about the Roman Republic and the Twelve Tables? Would they be able to distinguish the difference between the Roman Empire and the Roman Republic, the years, and dates? Call me pessimistic, but probably not. I would haphazard a guess that a very small minority of men can actually list significant dates, names and events that took place during the Roman Empire and make the effort to read historical books about this period.
Responding to the trend, historian Dame Mary Beard gave a brilliant interview with TIME where she said:
This is where I think popular culture could benefit more from a dazzling dose of intellectual and historical reality so that people can take greater learning and meaning from it whilst also being entertained/thrilled. From the neuroscience perspective, psychologist Scott Lyons claims that the Roman Empire TikTok trend is linked to associative memory where people often pair two unrelated things in their brain and subconsciously build an association. This could mean that if we learned about the Roman Empire in school whilst watching Gladiator we might hold onto specific imagery, aesthetics and language, emphasising that what we initially focus on or are presented with we become more aware of. This is why we ought to be more conscious of what or who we give historical and cultural airtime to and be mindful of what titbits we pick up from popular culture.
Just imagine if the Romans were widely reimagined in the public imagination as diligent and thoughtful inventors as opposed to bulky-looking brutes always ready for battle and blood? Or instead of spotlighting the short-lived political dictatorship of Julius Caesar, why not Elagabalus, the transgender emperor of Rome? Or the female gladiators known as Amazonia and Achillea? I wonder what modern men would make of that and their understanding of the Roman Empire? Either way, if men are to continue thinking about the Roman Empire it would be worth it for their sake and all genders if we have a broader understanding of the period beyond the glossy simplification that popular culture feeds and distracts us with, but instead deepens and nourishes our knowledge that benefits us today whilst respecting the Romans of the past.
* This is a personal pet peeve as I absolutely adore fonts and would like to see more of them in circulation, please.