Dr. Casey FieslerI knew this was going to hit mainstream news. I seriously still feel like I'm being punked. I must know: Men of Mastodon, how often do you think about the Roman Empire??? https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/09/14/roman-empire-trend-men-tiktok/
ChiefGyk3D@cfiesler I mean I’m Jewish it’s kind of our history for parts
@chiefgyk3d Sure! But like... every day?
@cfiesler ok maybe not every day
Steve Bellovin@cfiesler When someone doing the poll asked me, my answer was about every other week. But it’s not any one aspect of Rome, and it’s more likely part of my general interest in history.
crw@cfiesler i re-watch Life of Brian once or twice a year if that counts.
Corey Rayburn Yung@cfiesler Daily ... when I'm in the midst of a re-watch of the underrated HBO/BBC series "Rome."
J Λ M Ξ S@cfiesler this is nonsense. i love history and know from a myraid of failed conversation attempts that men do not think about history, let alone Rome
James Grimmelmann@cfiesler a couple of times a week, because one of my interests is how the guys who think about Roman history all the time are almost completely wrong about Roman history (starting with the fact that they fixate on the Empire and not the Republic)
Wharrrrrrgarbl@cfiesler I guess it's hard to think about stoicism without at least being reminded of Marcus Aurelius, and there's a chunk of guys who think a lot about stoicism? Add up enough sort of inroads to Rome-related things and you get a minority big enough to sustain a Tiktok trend? We know the videos about "I asked my boyfriend if he thinks about Rome and he just grunted while playing Call of Duty" are not informing these takes lol.
Damon Kiesow@cfiesler Currently reading a history of the Punic Wars. Otherwise, not much.
excited for the mastodon rise@cfiesler not often?
That's weird, imo
🍁 Martin Guay 👨💻🌈🎮📱
Your favourite booster@cfiesler
TBH, most of the time I think about the People's Front of Judea.
TBH, most of the time I think about the People's Front of Judea.
Jason Perseus has movedYesterday, brought on by reading about the “Rome Statute” in the news. 😅
EtherAndRhum@cfiesler I feel its maybe not fake news, but defini fabricated news.
Im an overthinker, and ancient rome doesn’t occupy a.01% fraction. While this is in the news however, we’re not talking about #climatechange, #equality, or things that actually matter.
@EtherNRhum the dozen or so men on tiktok I’ve seen answering this question are exceptionally good actors if this is a prank
cat static 🇺🇸🇺🇦@cfiesler @EtherNRhum It's part of far-right messaging that Rome became overly feminized, leaving it unwilling/unable to defeat "manly" invaders, resulting in the fall of the empire. They believe that loss of masculinity (meaning equality) is the harbinger of the end of a civilization and that the U.S. is following that path.
@cat_static @cfiesler Thank you.
This wave a fascism is a strong one. Everywhere I turn, there’s another sign.
@EtherNRhum @cfiesler It's overwhelming.
@cat_static @cfiesler as much as I agree with your statement, I can’t fathom why there isn’t a much stronger resistance to that movement.
@EtherNRhum @cfiesler Well, on the personal level, they only listen to men they respect or fear. Anyone who's outside their bubble is scoffed at when they try to reason with them or warn of the danger they're embracing. And that's just the casual supporters; the dedicated hate-mongers are obvs unreachable. I tried for decades but am not a class they respect. The rest are completely ignorant of all governmental policy and procedures/don't care to learn. https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/01/america-s-cult-of-ignorance
Ashley@cfiesler I would like to read the article, but there’s a pay wall.
@egalandbooks there are other articles about it; just go to google news and type in Roman Empire :)
@cfiesler Thank you!!
Florian 'floe' Echtler@egalandbooks @cfiesler also, on Firefox at least, you can switch to Reader view and the paywall is revealed as pure decoration 😉
Blayne Haggart@cfiesler Only when I think about the classic Wayne and Shuster sketch.
Which, admittedly, is every few weeks or so.
Rinse the Blood Off My Toga
Nick@cfiesler Almost never.
Alvaro A. Cardenas@cfiesler currently reading the Lantern Bearers after reading the other Eagle of the Ninth chronicles by Rosemary Sutcliff with my daughter… and for myself, I just finished SPQR by Mary Beard (Rome before the Empire) so I’ve been thinking about Rome quite frequently in these past months. Although this is a bit of an anomaly. I just did all this to get into the mood for 6th grade social studies.
Tadeo D'Oria@cfiesler Only when I'm playing Age of Empires 😂
耀西 
🌐 ☸️@cfiesler I never think of the Roman Empire but several times a week I think of her
Chris [list of emoji]I was having this conversation with $SPOUSE yesterday, and the problem with this question is that "thinking about the Roman Empire" is *extremely* vague.
Does seeing $SPORTS_TEAM's logo count? Or thinking about the narrative of Fallout: New Vegas? Or do I have to think about the *actual* empire?
And even then, are we including "...as far back as Ancient Rome", or do I have to be contemplating aqueducts? What about the New Testament; does that count?
So anyway, if you exclude things that incidentally mention the Roman Empire or are in some way influenced by it, I almost never think about the Roman Empire, and mostly when I do, it's because I'm rolling my eyes at some related merch.
Ben Jacobsen@cfiesler Maybe once a week? But usually the Republic rather than the Empire.
A few years ago it would have been much more often than that, I was quite fascinated by Roman history for a while.
pas un réseau social
Ian Smith@cfiesler what a fascinating weirdness. I'm over-educated in the liberal arts and might only think about Rome a few times a year, and I think I'm a weirdo for doing it.
I can even be reading works by Romans and not think about Rome... timelessness is funny that way, I guess.
boajornada@cfiesler I do not have Tik Tok, so I haven't watch anything of this trend. But let me guess: all the guys answering they think often about Rome are white.
k cavaliere@cfiesler Rome? Not a bit.
Since I'm of Sicilian descent, I'm more interested in that history.
ethan@cfiesler Fewer than 4x/year? (if I have to at all)
🚲@cfiesler At least weekly. Do women never think about Ancient Rome???
Thinking about the death of the American empire, or concrete, or condiments, or British history… Rome just comes up on so many mental filecards. Not to mention 7 years of high school Latin has linked many English words to their Latin etymology which can take me there too…
Claudestrophobic@cfiesler pretty sure I've heard of it
Basil@cfiesler almost never.
Graham Webster@cfiesler whenever I think about google results for my name that presently bring up a Scottish footballer and once highlighted the late historian of Roman times in the British Isles. Which is probably about twice a year.
Kyle ThayerNaClKnight🧂⚔️🎮 (@[email protected])
The Roman Empire is white people's "We were kings and queens in Egypt" #Rome #BlackFedi #BlackMastodon
Gen X-Wing@cfiesler Not often. Never understood the fascination about Ancient Rome in the US. Some act like civilization started there and the only author before the 20th century was Shakespeare.
Bynkii@cfiesler I took Latin for 3 years so I feel I’m an edge case
Ian Hecht 🇨🇦@cfiesler I read that article, and I feel left out. I teach ancient history to high schoolers, and I think about the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican empires way more than the Roman Empire. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but Tenochtitlan is way more impressive to me than Rome.
quadrivial, tall and graying@cfiesler I mean, I listen to the History of Byzantium podcast, which I like and comes out weekly, so, say, a couple or three times a week?
Andromeda Yelton@cfiesler as a former Latin teacher at a boys’ school I’m very conflicted about my hopes for the outcome of your poll
Adam Vinueza@cfiesler Many of my neighborhood streets are named for ancient Roman gods and places and mythological figures, so a lot more often than I’d like
Jeffrey P. Bigham 🔥🔥@cfiesler today, 17 times so far. every time i check social media, i imagine i'm a gladiator entering the ring and y'all are the lions
Cosvak@cfiesler alright my wife asked me this too. Wtf is this?
Like, 1, what kind of desperate nerd who isn't a historian or a history buff is thinking and talking about the roman empire that much?
2. Is this a viral marketing campaign for Gladiator 2?
3. No I do not think about the roman empire constantly. And when I do, it's when I make jokes about how public toilets used to work in those times and just how awkward it was.
jessica vitak (she/her)@cfiesler Having finally watched the Barbie movie last night, this rings especially true after watching Ken discover the patriarchy. And horses!
Н0ИG ̶K̶O̶N̶G̶@cfiesler I'm sure there's a positive correlation between men and people who are fond of historical strategy/simulation/role-playing games in general.
Like I learned most of my history "lessons" in of Age of Empires before my high school history class got to Western civilization and history... I don't think I remembered (or paid any attention really) much of what I had actually learned in class, but I had written down dozens of pages of notes as I played through the game campaigns.
@cfiesler maybe once a week? But I had six years of Latin in school, so I'm probably a lost cause 🤷
gavinisdie 
@cfiesler Occasionally, but mostly about names if things within it and things related to geography
Ben Shapiro@cfiesler only when I see Zuckerberg
Brandon Seifert (he/him)@cfiesler You are absolutely being punked. So is everyone else taking this remotely seriously.
If someone asks me, with a straight face, "how often do you think of Ancient Rome?" my answer is 100% going to be, "oh, all the day" or something similar, deadpan. I've watched some of the videos of these, and that's absolutely what these guys are doing.
It's appalling that anyone is taking this seriously. The Post should know better.
@brandontseifert There are also articles in The New York Times and TIME.
@cfiesler How embarrassing for all of them.