The Most Viral Trend On TikTok Is Women Being Stunned To Find Out That We (Men) Think About The Roman Empire Regularly
This is the tweet that started it all. I think. I don't really know how trends get going and go viral, probably because I am spending too much time thinking about the Roman Empire.
Look, I don't know what classes girls took in school. There were plenty of girls in my classes. I know they stared at those pull down maps too. You go to class, you see Gladiator on AMC like once per week, and you listen to like a 6 hour Dan Carlin Hardcore History podcast on the Celtic Holocaust and that shit is burned into your mind forever. The Roman Empire pops into my mind a lot. Not actively sitting and thinking about it, but it is unavoidable if you live in the West.
Do you like Parmesan cheese? Well one of the first things the Roman Legions would do when conquering a people is take over their dairy cows and make hard cheeses. Hard cheeses like parm were essential to their supply lines because it'd stay fresh longer and had a ton of calories needed for long marches. So there's one.
Ever watch the Super Bowl? Roman Numerals everywhere. The Super Bowl logo was a DailyDozen trivia question not that long ago. That's two.
Cobblestone roads? We were in Boston not too long ago for the Barstool awards. If you can look at a cobblestone road and NOT have the Roman Empire pop into your head then maybe the problem is with you. They built an entire network of roads all throughout their empire. That's three.
Every government building ever seems to have large columns and will often have Latin sayings engraved on them. Flip on the news and you'll be forced to think about the Roman Empire. 4
E Pluribus Unum. It's on our fucking money. Means "from many, one". These United States. V
I feel like ever since that one dude went on Rogan about his book "the daily stoic" people have been posting quotes all over instagram. That's Marcus Aurelius...from Gladiator. The guy's personal journal which wasn't really intended for anyone, but himself has served as one of the pillars for Western Philosophy. VI
Anytime I see a map of Europe. It's insane that they conquered basically all of the mediterranean, most of Europe, and then got to Ireland and were like "these guys are too big of savages" and they went back to England. VII.
I mean...pretty pivotal to the whole Jesus story. That fucking Pontius Pilate. The Roman soldier who stabbed him with the spear of destiny. I mean you can't go to Church and not think of the Romans. The whole Bible was put together at the Council of Nicea. We Catholics still say the Nicene Creed twice a year in Church. VIII
I never thought about how much I think about the Roman Empire because it's basically everywhere around us all the time. It's weird if you don't see it/think about it. And it's kind of crazy that an Empire that collapsed over 1500 years ago still has so much significance in our culture today.
