How often do you think about the Roman empire?
I first saw this internet trend in the Babylon Bee, and was confused:
Man Who Hasn't Thought About The Roman Empire In Over A Week Worried He Might Be Trans
What?
Then, I thought I'd listen to some music on YouTube and there was Brett Cooper, talking about this:
Well, now I (we) know.
So, how often do you think about the Roman empire?
Edward Gibbon comes up in my research from time to time, so once a week or so for me, I guess?
I’ve never been that interested in the Roman Empire. I was always more interested in the Barbarians, and also the ancient Greeks (for their philosophy, chiefly). That said, I’ve thought about Roman history at least a few times this week; we were just discussing what the archaeological readings were that indicated a Roman brothel in the previous post.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a guy, and yet I often think about the Roman Empire. There's a lot to see in its rise and fall.
ReplyDeleteFunny coincidence: I occasionally sub for one of the Sunday school teachers at my church and today was one of those occasions. One of the topics in today's lesson was the story of Sts. Constantine (emperor AD 306-337) and Helen (his mother). So, I was talking about the Roman empire just this morning.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I went through a Roman empire phase as a teen, but moved on. However, it just comes up a lot more than I realized before this internet thing came up. Every semester I read at least one book that has serious references to the Roman empire, although none of them deal with the empire directly. It's interesting how much the Roman empire was part of national identity in Europe and America through the 19th century.
One commenter (I think on Althouse) pointed out that regular New Testament reading would bring up the Roman Empire regularly. (So do archaeology podcasts.)
ReplyDeleteMy gut reaction was disbelief in the claim, and suspicion that their methodology was poor. What does "think about" mean? Did the subject just come up in a story about something else, or do you spend hours musing about it? But it didn't annoy me enough to inspire me to go digging myself.
I've been reading up a bit on the Eastern Roman Empire--the one whose name became a byword for complicated and corrupt bureaucracy and regulation. It could be timely.
I think it’s plausible that ordinary people think regularly about a period of history of significant importance. What strikes me as much more strange is the assumption of the Tik Tokers that it’s weird and worthy of investigation that people should frequently think about things as ancient as Rome. Presumably their attention is wholly focused on the last fashion cycle, the current pop music, the television series of the moment? I know which of these approaches seems more natural to me.
ReplyDeleteDepends, like so many things, on what your mean by the term. If thinking about it means "the Roman Empire crosses my mind," I think that's an inevitable function of living in Western culture. If you mean "pondering the greatness (or awfulness) of the old RE," not so much in my case. I'm writing a novel set in the time of Canute the Great of Denmark/England, and it's his empire that's been on my mind.
ReplyDeleteDaily, but my classroom faces the Latin classroom, so I'm probably an exception. :) Plus I read Ancient History and Ancient Warfare magazines, as well as doing Bible study and reading Latin, so most certainly an exception.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
"If thinking about it means "the Roman Empire crosses my mind," I think that's an inevitable function of living in Western culture."
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it's mostly this. IF you are thinking about things like building techniques especially concrete, roads, military strategy, government, infrastructure, the Catholic church, and so on, you end up quite possibly thinking about the Romans for a moment or two. It speaks to their greatness. Lately, I mostly think about them when considering the state of our civilization, and the parallels to the Fall of Rome.
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