There was a Tiktok trend where (typically) women were shocked to discover the (typically) men in their lives thought about the Roman Empire as much as they do, often on a daily basis. The question is why.<p>To me, it comes down to Rome not being the oldest or even the necessarily the largest or longest-surviving empire. It's that it's the most well-documented ancient civilization. Sites like Pompeii and Heculaneum provide a time capsule into ordinary existence that is often missing from ancient accounts that typically talk about kings, emperors, wars and so forth. In addition, we have a ton of texts from that time, including the direct writings of the likes of Julius Caesar.<p>Rome continued to influence European history beyond the fall of Constantinopole up until the 19th century through the Holy Roman Empire.<p>But the impact is still felt today. Classics such as Marcus Aurelius have arguably been co-opted into the alt-right pipeline.<p>There's also interesting psychology at play here. People like to imagine themselves in such a world. Where in the real world they might be just an average working Joe, people rarely imagine themselves as being peasants or slaves or a grunt in the army despite those being the majority of people.<p>I find that last point needs highlighting because there is an effort to reshape our current society, driven by real yet misplaced legitimate anger. Human ego being what it is, nobody acknolwedges the statistical likelihood that if you're suffering or oppressed in the current organization of society, you're probably going to be oppressed or otherwise suffer in a new society, particularly one built around an autocrat.<p>But when the central organizing principle becomes cruelty, perhaps aspiring to being a Brownshirt is the goal.