The Roman Empire’s Surprising Popularity

Why the Roman Empire Keeps Coming Up in Conversations with Men

If the question hasn’t yet graced your For You page, Twitter feed, or group chat, it’s only a matter of time: How often do you ponder the Roman Empire? The origin of this peculiar query remains a bit hazy, perhaps stemming from a tweet (with an Instagram Reel nod) or maybe from a TikTok sensation. Or another TikTok. The point is, people far and wide are on a quest to fathom just how frequently the men in their lives muse about the Roman Empire.

According to an initial TikTok post by @paige.elysee earlier this week, the responses are bound to be “shocking.” However, in my circle of friends and within the WIRED Culture Slack, the answers leaned more towards “Is this another Twitter poll? Haha” or “Someone asked me this just last night. Honestly, I hardly ever think about it.” In essence, the responses weren’t surprising but rather quite amusing. Some colleagues playfully chimed in with “My theory is that it’s because that Daily Stoic podcast is so popular” or “My brain equates ‘The Roman Empire for men’ to ‘girl dinner for women.'” WIRED’s own Steven Levy humorously offered, “Every time I write about Mark Zuckerberg.” Yet, beyond my immediate circle, responses ranged from “every single day” to once a week or “a few times a month.”

To get a broader perspective, I decided to conduct a poll among WIRED colleagues. Personally, I believe it’s somewhat absurd to assign gender to such a question—history enthusiasts come in all identities! But perhaps that’s a debate for another day. As of now, answers are still flowing into the impromptu Google Form I created. In a group representing a balanced mix of men and women, about a fifth of respondents claimed they “never” think about the Roman Empire. The “never” group was closely followed by the “weekly” thinkers, with “monthly” thinkers making up about 15 percent of the responses.

During my extensive, morning-long investigation, I encountered responses that suggested other historical periods like the Cold War, Pompeii, or the 1920s held more appeal for contemplation. This led me to a theory: People, particularly dudes, don’t necessarily dwell on the Roman Empire itself but rather on media about the Roman Empire. Video games set in the Colosseum, classic films such as Cleopatra, a plethora of History Channel docuseries, and Monty Python’s Life of Brian have etched themselves into our collective memory. Jay-Z’s use of Russell Crowe’s “Are you not entertained?” at the beginning of “What More Can I Say” owes its recognition to Gladiator’s popularity.

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My personal musings on Ancient Rome often gravitate toward the persecution of Christians and the empire’s conversion to Christianity during Constantine’s reign. And then, randomly, I think of Keanu Reeves. One of my former editors responded to my group text query by mentioning she had recently watched HBO’s Rome in conjunction with Amazon Prime Video’s Domina to “compare the characterizations of Octavian’s wife during the Second Triumverate.” Naturally, I Googled this and spiraled down a rabbit hole.

Welcome to the state of media consumption in 2023. Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for source material has transformed history into intellectual property—TV shows and movies we now watch while clutching our phones and laptops to delve into any new tidbits on screen. Who hasn’t lost hours researching the KGB on Wikipedia after a binge-watch of The Americans or fact-checked The Trial of Chicago 7? Just open any streaming service, and there’s an abundance of content about World War II. I once devoted nearly a month of research to Alan Turing’s “Bombe” code-breaking machine after watching The Imitation Game. Frankly, Turing might as well be my Roman Empire. (Feel free to ask me about the Apple logo in the comments.)

As the saying goes, history is written by the victors. In modern times, it often gets translated by screenwriters and then polished through studio feedback. People seem to have an insatiable fascination with the past. As my text and Slack threads grew, respondents began pondering why anyone was even discussing dudes and the Roman Empire. The conversation evolved into questions about our collective obsession with war, the enduring allure of powerful men, and so forth. Ultimately, no one deciphered why the meme went viral or whether men truly contemplate the Roman Empire more than individuals of other genders. Nevertheless, we were entertained.”