“How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” This question, starting in early September, went viral on TikTok when women asked men. The videos that had the most views and likes showed women’s shock that men think about it so frequently. Personally, I thought that it was strange, but as people kept talking about it, I decided to do a little investigating, to see how frequently their thoughts actually were.
Out of the 15 men I interviewed, only four of them said they never think about it. Out of those four, there were two men over the age of forty, showing that this fascination is likely to be that of the younger generation. However, we can still see that it’s common to focus on historical times, as Edwin Gant said, “I don’t think about the Roman Empire at all– because I think about vikings.”
As I interviewed people of various ages, I could see that this trend extended all the way to people across the country. Jacob Spelta, a student in Massachusetts, admitted to thinking about the Roman Empire once or twice a month, because the stuff that they made and had was “lowkey sick.”
The majority of men however, told me that they think about the Roman Empire multiple times a week. This was shocking to me, as I haven’t thought about the Roman Empire since my history class a year ago. Why do men think about it so often? What’s so special about it? I had to know.
Dylan Carawe, junior at Casa Grande, finds himself thinking about it at least two times a week. To him, the empire is just interesting. Many other men, like senior Jacob Quintua, seem to appreciate the Roman Empire because of its massive size. He says, “The aesthetic is amazing, also it was an incredibly large and old empire”. Cosmo Offenbach added, “It’s just insanely cool like how can you just like possess that much territory and not be cool.”
Others appreciate the Roman Empire because of its influence on the modern world. Jack Lua shared that lots of important rulers and stories came from this time. The reign of the Roman Empire included many new inventions as well. “The technology they had back then is crazy in comparison to what I personally think that time looks like. They literally had plumbing at the same time as Jesus. That’s crazy,” said Kyle Carlson. Marco Barajas added, “Architecture was basically perfected there,” a statement that Anthony McGaughey would agree with, as he shared his belief that many people think of the empire for its famous architecture like the colosseum. Barajas continues to explain, “Their military and weapons were very well developed, and we still use a lot of the engineering they invented to this day.” He then went on to share that sometimes when he’s washing his hands, he’ll start thinking of how the Romans invented the same plumbing years beforehand.
As the trend has continued to grow and spread on TikTok and in conversation, more people have joined in on the appreciation. Andy Phuong only thinks about the Roman Empire when someone brings it up, or when he sees something about it on social media. Alex Wentworth even said, “I only think about it like twice a week when I get TikToks about it.”
Kyle Soper joked that he thinks about the Roman Empire so often because he was “designed as a man to think about it.” However, after conducting these interviews, it seems that people think of the empire so much because they are simply in awe of it.
While we may never know why people think about the Roman Empire specifically instead of other powerful empires like the Russian or Ottoman Empires, we can ask ourselves, what other random things do they think about?
