Asklemmy

I think on Rome fairly often, but it's usually more often on the republic.

about how the Republic fell and became a totalitarian state.

I was thinking about this literally yesterday, on the nature of Octavian betraying the Republic, and how the Iulii and the Claudii simply kept themselves on power through the whole process. (Both gentes were already powerful in Republican times.) Or how some of the Claudii called themselves "Clodius" instead of "Claudius" for the sake of populism. ("See? I'm from the people! I even speak like a pleb!")

Well in 5th grade I read Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and later on every book after that. And there's still a part of me that thinks I might be a demigod. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it's the Greeks and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday it's the Romans. Sunday is a toss up.

I probably close to never think of the Roman Empire if there is no external cue

I think about words and their etymology a lot. Of course many words have their origin in Latin. And then I am amazed how they used kind of the the same word ~2k years ago.

Okay, but what have the Romans ever done for us?

I have no idea when the last time I thought about Rome period, let alone in any sort of in-depth way. I've learned a bit in school and a few years ago went through a YouTube deep dive history phase but Rome was a topic just as much as any other culture.

So exceptions aside.... I never think about Rome?

Often, but not daily. Maybe not even weekly. Certainly monthly and it's because THEY FUCKED UP THE CALENDAR. SEPT IS 7 NOT 9 ALL THE WAY UP TO DEC YOU BASTARDS. Seriously though, fuck Julius and Augustus.

Totally genuinely, I never, ever think about the Roman empire. Don't understand how this is a thing across social media 😂🤷‍♂️

Never—I'm too busy thinking about the Spanish Inquisition.

This is why we need an ask historian community on lemmy. Rome questions would have spiked about now

"The Roman Empire", as most people understand it, meaning ancient Rome, is a period of somewhere between 500 and 1500 years spanning territory from Western Europe to Syria and from Northern England to North Africa.

The reason this is a meme is that it's the equivalent of asking "how often do you think about the US" and then being surprised that the answer is some number. If you have even a passing interest in things that happened not specifically right now the answer to this is nonzero.

Now, the weird part is how many of the memers are getting things completely wrong or just generally fantasizing about the... I don't know, look and feel of the thing. If and when I think back to this it's mostly about petty neighbourly disputes leading to lawsuits and crummy politics.

Whenever I see a post or comment about it online

Yeah pretty much never, unless it's in a movie or something.

I eat 2 cups of food for lunch on weekdays because if it was good enough for a roman soldier to march on it's good enough for me to go clickity clack on a keyboard.

Almost never. When I do, it's probably most often because I'm thinking about concrete.

I have never felt less like a "man" (in terms of gender) than when I watched a bunch of videos of men explaining why they think about the Roman empire every day.

Actual quote, which was representative of the videos I saw:

"What you need to understand about men, is that we all feel the urge to conquer."

— Well, I guess I'm not a man then 🤷.

Only every time this gets asked

Often because I always had an interest in their history.

As a kid I was fascinated by the fact they existed, were so successful and then disappeared.

As an adult reading more details about their society and civilization, it amazes and terrifies me how we are following the same path and mentality. Which means we may very well be on the same path of self destruction. When they were in their glory, they were never aware that they would die out. We are feeling the same way today with total confidence.

2,000 years from now our decedants may see us in the same way we see the Romans today.

Have you ever read: I, Claudius? If not, you should. Going by your description, it should really scratch that itch in a very well written way. Recommended to you by a fellow Roman Empire fanatic ^^

Edit: And to answer your question: Yes, quite often I do.

At least twice a week, but counting indirectly then even more.

Edit: Oh the empire? A lot less. Late Republic club unite.

Generally only if something else prompts it. Such as this meme and the news around it, or a game, or a work of fiction referencing it for some reason. It doesn't come up independently in my head.

Pretty often. One of my main research interests is the Gospel of Thomas which ends up extremely tied to events around the Roman empire.

Just a day or two ago I was looking at when Lucretius's De Rerum Natura was popularly being read and cited given the apparent link between those two documents.

I don’t know where this trend came from. I haven’t thought about the Roman Empire since the last Historia Civilis video came out.

I read several pages of the The Daily Stoic…well…daily…so pretty much at least once a day.

XII times a day. Just kidding, pretty rarely

I did not know it was a trend or whatever until reading all the comments. But I probably think about the Roman empire most days.

I frequently think about the late phase of decadence and dysfunction, followed by collapse. I figure the American empire is treading a similar path, just on a faster timeline.

Barely at all before this whole "How often do you think a out the Roman Empire" thing popped up

But there is some context that I more often think about that is related.

First: You are now aware of the position of your togue in your mouth.

Diagonies is one that comes up at least once every couple weeks at work, this usually leads to Rome.

Second: You are now manually breathing.

Basically ancient philosophers is a topic that comes up a lot with some of my friends, so Rome comes up in relation to it.

Third: Don't think of a pink elephant

But in general I'd say before this whole thing it was basically at most once a month.

Whenever I'm driving on a very straight road, I can be pretty certain that it was built by the Romans and is still used to this day

All the time! I studied Latin and Classical History for years so it’s a deep interest of mine. I often reminisce about the trip I took to Italy with my Latin class to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum.

5 times total in the past 2 years...and the latest 3 times were because of posts like this in the past month...so basically, almost never.

Im a little shocked and in a bit of disbelief that some people think about it daily or even weekly.

I find that I think about the Byzantine Empire more often than the Roman Empire

I certainly go through significant periods of time where I think about Rome virtually every day. I listen to a lot of history podcasts, play games involving ancient history, have read many books about Rome, am subscribed to reddit history meme subs.... If you are into history, Rome comes up a lot, whether for its own history or as a comparator for other empires.

Every time I need a fun argument for why skirts are manly

I’ve been painting a literal legion’s worth of miniature Roman troops for a few months now.

I joked about my wife competing for a job with another candidate by having a gladitorial match. She was like, "Roman Empire again, huh?" and I was like "... fuck."

Only when its mentioned