It has been two millennia since the Roman Empire was at its height. With the building of aqueducts, fighting of gladiators and conquering of lands, it is clear that this powerful regime impacted the world for years to come. However, it would be reasonable to think that, due to how much time has gone by, that the Roman Empire would be far from the minds of most. After all, even the language from that place is now long dead.
It turns out that many men still think about the Roman Empire in 2023, as revealed by the widely popular social media app, TikTok. All across the social media platform, you can find users asking their boyfriends, fathers, husbands, brothers, friends and other men in their lives one simple question: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?” Many people would believe that modern men would not think about an empire as random and as dead as the language that was spoken there. However, the results are quite shocking.
Many of the men that responded to the question said that they thought about it more frequently than women originally assumed. Some men on the platform claim to think about the Roman Empire a few times a month, a few times a week, even two to three times a day! Many girlfriends, daughters, wives, sisters, friends and more are shocked by men’s answers to this question.
But how exactly did this trend skyrocket onto everyone’s “For You” page?
This trend began when Saskia Cort, a TikTok influencer from Sweden, instructed her followers on Instagram to ask their male friends and partners how often they thought about the Roman Empire. Of course, her followers followed through and found that, bizarrely, men think about the Roman Empire a lot. When people translated this concept from Swedish to English, the trend grew significantly.
While the trend is proven to be absurd, many people would find it difficult to say that the men around them would actually think about the Roman Empire on a frequent basis. However, that is not the case at John Carroll University in University Heights, OH.
According to a recent poll by The Carroll News, about 70 percent of the 56 John Carroll students who identify as men and participated actually thought about the Roman Empire. When asked how often, the men who responded to the poll included varied responses. Logan Sindone ’24, stated that he probably thinks about the Roman Empire “once every few months (not super often).” However, Nick Colbert ’26, said that the Roman Empire has crossed his mind “once a couple of weeks, depending on the mood.”
Based on our poll, it is evident that even the majority of men at John Carroll University think about the Roman Empire on a somewhat frequent basis. It is crazy to think that what started as a simple question from an influencer in Sweden is now a global phenomenon that is prevalent even at a small Jesuit university in Ohio. This concept makes people think: what exactly is the impact of this trend in today’s society?
Dr. Medora Barnes, the executive chair for the Department of Sociology and Criminology at John Carroll University, contends that trends like this tend to fix the eyes of the masses on particular gender norms. “This creates an opportunity to either naturalize gender difference by acting like there is something inherent in being either a man or woman that would make one think [about] the Roman Empire, or it provides an opportunity to question what it is about our current gender roles that would create a situation where men would have the time… to do so, and the women… not,” she says.
What seems to be a simple, albeit funny, trend, is actually revealing a relevant question of whether or not this trend is meant to put into perspective the differences between genders or propose the idea that gender roles in modern society are still opposed. Trends like women asking men one simple question have the potential to showcase something in society that points to something greater.
