If the query hasn’t hit your For You web page or Twitter feed (or group chat) but, it would: How typically do you consider the Roman Empire? The provenance of the question is slightly blurry, however it perhaps began with this tweet (which additionally references an Instagram Reel) or probably this TikTok. Or this one. The level is, everyone seems to be attempting to determine how typically the lads of their lives take into consideration the Roman Empire.

According to a type of ur-TikToks posted by @paige.elysee earlier this week, you can be “shocked with their responses.” But if my pal group—and the WIRED Culture Slack—are any indication, the responses are merely … fascinating? When I despatched the query to group chats yesterday, many of the responses skewed towards, “Is this that Twitter poll? lol” or “I got asked this last night. Truly never.” In different phrases, they weren’t stunning however have been positively amusing. Some colleagues generously interjected with “My brain: ‘The Roman Empire is to men what girl dinner is to women’” and “My theory is that it’s because that Daily Stoic podcast is so popular.” WIRED legend Steven Levy supplied that he thinks about Ancient Rome, “Every time I write about Mark Zuckerberg.” But based on individuals who aren’t my associates, the reply is extra alongside the strains of “every single day” or as soon as per week or “a few times a month.”

I made a decision to ballot WIRED colleagues. Now, I’m of the opinion that it’s sort of ridiculous to gender this query—folks of all identities could be historical past buffs, y’all!—however perhaps that’s an argument for an additional time. As of this writing, solutions are nonetheless pouring in on the impromptu Google Form I arrange, however in a bunch that consists of a great stability of women and men, a few fifth answered that they “never” take into consideration the Roman Empire. “Never” was tied with “weekly,” adopted by “monthly” at about 15 p.c of respondents.

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In my deep, morning-long investigation, there have been additionally various responses that pointed to the Cold War or Pompeii or the Twenties as time intervals extra worthy of contemplation. This, in the end, led me to a concept: Dudes/folks don’t take into consideration the Roman Empire lots, they consider media concerning the Roman Empire. Video video games set within the Colosseum, previous movies like Cleopatra, roughly one million History Channel docuseries, Monty Python’s Life of Brian—these items are burned into our recollections. Jay-Z was capable of put Russell Crowe’s “Are you not entertained?” at first of “What More Can I Say” as a result of Gladiator was so widespread. 

My personal ponderings of Ancient Rome are inclined to hover across the persecution of Christians and the empire’s conversion to Christianity after Constantine. Then I consider Keanu Reeves. One of my former editors responded to my group textual content question by noting that she’d lately watched HBO’s Rome concurrently with Amazon Prime Video’s Domina to “contrast the characterizations of Octavian’s wife during the Second Triumverate.” Then I Googled this and went down a rabbit gap of my very own.

This is the state of media consumption in 2023. Hollywood, hungry to adapt any story it will probably, has turned historical past into IP—reveals and flicks that we now watch with telephones in hand and laptops open to delve into no matter new tidbit reveals up onscreen. Who amongst us hasn’t misplaced hours on the KGB Wikipedia web page after a binge-watch of The Americans or sought to fact-check The Trial of Chicago 7? Fire up any streaming service and there are hours of content material about World War II. I as soon as devoted almost a month of reporting to Alan Turing’s “Bombe” code-breaking machine after I noticed The Imitation Game. Frankly, Turing might be my Roman Empire. (Ask me about the Apple logo within the feedback.)

As the cliché goes, historical past is at all times written by the victors. But in fashionable instances, it typically will get translated by screenwriters after which “punched-up” by studio notes. People are typically obsessive about the previous. The longer my textual content and Slack threads stretched, the extra respondents tried to determine why anybody was even speaking about dudes and the Roman Empire within the first place. It devolved into questions on why people are enthralled by battle, the collective fascination with highly effective males, and on and on and on. No one ever discovered why the meme went viral—or whether or not males actually do take into consideration the Roman Empire all that a lot, or greater than folks of different genders. But we have been entertained.