It all began with one question: “How often do you think about the Roman Empire?”
While sitting with friends in Cabot, I decided to text my father and brother this trivial question about the Roman Empire. They respond, detailing that the Roman Empire crosses their mind “every day” and “all the time.” I didn’t believe them.
The recent TikTok trend hinges on this simple question, with women asking their male friends, family members, coworkers, or partners how frequently they ruminate on Rome. Typically, the recorded responses range from impassioned opinions about specific emperors, to appeals about the “lessons” to be learned from the Empire’s rise and fall, to utter confusion. For the most part, these videos show many men (often cisgender and white) admitting it actually crosses their minds almost daily. Weird, no?
Women, in response, have started asking what a corresponding “Roman Empire” would be for females Responses have varied, but they primarily consisted of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Romanovs, and Greek mythology. The gendered consideration of history allows this TikTok trend to harbor misogynistic ideals. Women “claiming” historical moments like the Titanic or the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire could be seen as women being pushed to think about and study more “feminine” events, not because they were exclusively about women, but because they both concern gender-related and social issues like women’s suffrage, the relationship between women and children, and the role of women in the workforce.
In an interview with the Harvard Independent, History Professor Jane Kamensky spoke on how the teaching of history is often gendered. “Where you would see real gendered patterns in the teaching of history is looking in history textbooks … The materials of the history of women are overlooked.” She offered considerations about how to consider history without gendered constraints. “There are a number of ways out of that, one is to do less [memorization of] dates … or carry out more case studies, [and teach] historical skills and dispositions and capacities for analysis.”
The all-too-common stereotype of Rome as the basis of “Western” civilization often relies on outdated conceptions of the ancient world. In addition to the common association of Roman costumes to masculinity, the Roman Empire has been historically and falsely memorialized in textbooks and museums as a great “white” force, even though its population was much more racially diverse.
There is also the possible implication that this trend strengthens harmful and white supremacist perceptions of the Roman Empire. This narrative of Rome as an all-white, all-male society is highly mythological and perpetuated by problematic media outlets, such as social media, film (Gladiator, Ben-Hur, Spartacus), books (I, Claudius, The First Man in Rome) and TV (Rome, Plebs), that portray ancient Rome as a haven for muscled white-men adorned in linen robes, iron armor, and scrappy sandals. When these false ideals are reinforced, our perception of the Roman Empire aligns us with the most patriarchal and traditional forms of power.
The popularity of this trend on TikTok reveals the prevalence and relevance of the “great man” narrative that contemporary researchers, historians, and scholars have worked so hard to challenge. Still, Professor Kamensky suggests that crazes like the TikTok Roman Empire trend might actually provoke important conversations. “Trends like these might be pointing out something that makes people go, ‘Hmmm, why is that?’ Maybe you didn’t have these questions about why something is the case until this trend surfaced?”
Despite having approximately the same numbers of men and women, the Roman Empire was built on the oppression of women and the leadership of militaristic and patriarchal power structures. When we romanticize these histories, we lose the opportunity to seriously consider how marginalized groups navigated these circumstances.
Beyond the Roman Empire, the gendering of subjects affects many other aspects of our society today. Researchers at the global education organization IREX have found that men and boys devalue spaces and activities they associate with feminine gender roles, leading to a loss of economic and educational opportunities for themselves. For example, men leaving traditional secondary school and choosing vocational based schools as more women have gained access to education has“feminized” the traditional classroom.
Constructing more inclusive histories also allows these portrayals to be more accurate. “A truer history is a more complete history, and a more complete history includes all the people who are enforcing status quo and making change,” shared Professor Kamensky.
Although men might think about the Roman Empire frequently, they might not intentionally support these extremist ideals. However, media that consistently genders historical events plays an immense role in keeping the patriarchy alive.
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Harvard Professor of Classics and Ancient and Modern History Emma Dench discussed historical perspectives and the danger of narrow views. “Very few people nowadays come to the Roman Empire through wider education and reading, which would offer a whole range of different perspectives on it,” she said. Instead, they think of these “particular associations with power and violence,” offering a much narrower perspective of the empire itself.
The Roman Empire TikTok trend may also point to anxieties around manhood and masculinity in our contemporary society. This big “empire” mentality has carried over into so much of the media men consume today. The TikTok trend highlights how deep-seated misogyny shapes our understanding of history, illustrating what popular images of the past can do for us. The popularity of the trend is a testament to the power of the classical tradition in its ability to shape contemporary western culture, bridging the gap between education and pop culture.
This trend could be harmless, except for what it suggests about the way that history is passed down and constructed. Instead, it demonstrates how mainstream perceptions of the Roman Empire rely on an interpretation of history that is actively harmful. On a greater scale, this TikTok trend should teach us that the way that historical legacies are written and rewritten is important. It is these interpretations that define past realities and shape our understanding of the future.
Rania Jones ’27 (rjones@college.harvard.edu) seeks permission to think about the Roman Empire.