{"id":15852,"date":"2023-09-23T01:12:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-23T01:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/business\/what-is-it-about-men-and-the-roman-empire\/"},"modified":"2023-09-23T01:12:19","modified_gmt":"2023-09-23T01:12:19","slug":"what-is-it-about-men-and-the-roman-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=15852","title":{"rendered":"What is it about men and the Roman empire?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Receive free Life &amp; Arts updates<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>We\u2019ll send you a <i>myFT Daily Digest<\/i> email rounding up the latest<!-- --> <!-- -->Life &amp; Arts<!-- --> news every morning.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=bdbbcee8-07cd-40ee-980b-067d61f388d5&amp;concept-id=0b83bc44-4a55-4958-882e-73ba6b2b0aa6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>How often do you think about the Roman empire? The question is currently trending on TikTok as women (mostly white, and from the western hemisphere) are astonished to find that their male partners (likewise) think about swords, gladiators and aqueducts a great deal of the time.<\/p>\n<p>In the kind of revelation not seen since the publication of John Gray\u2019s seminal <em>Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus <\/em>in 1992, the question has exposed a fundamental estrangement between the sexes in which it has been proven that men and women consider very different things. Women are mystified as to why anyone would think about a civilisation that found its fullest expression 2,000 years ago; men are baffled as to why you would think of other things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet me get my list,\u201d says one man, when prompted by TikTok user Billie Kay Asmus as to why exactly the ancient Romans float his boat. He then consults his phone: \u201cCement. Aqueducts, which is of course plumbing that we know. Sanitation. Roads \u2014 every time you\u2019re on a road, you can thank a Roman. Social care, that was designed by the Romans. Obviously, the Julian calendar that we have come to know. Otherwise, some bits of surgery. Some of the modern legal system\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Others are more sanguine: they love the brute strength and mythic physicality of their ancient brothers \u2014 in short, they\u2019ve still got the hots for Russell Crowe. One man thinks of the Romans every time he goes to the loo: \u201cThey sorted out all that stuff with sewers. The Romans just got that done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>True results are now being skewed as the trend becomes more widespread and chaps can swot up on their response. But the majority of answers seem completely genuine. Mostly, men are in awe of all the Romans achieved. They marvel at their absolute dominion, their mastery of every strand of civilisation \u2014 and then how that power suddenly slipped away. Some see metaphorical comparisons: are we poised at the end of another epoch? Others think about the Stoics. Who knew Marcus Aurelius would be such an influencer? The millions of men who subscribe to apps daily offering his wisdoms, that\u2019s who.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"n-content-pullquote n-content-pullquote--no-image\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<div class=\"n-content-pullquote__content\">\n<p>In a time of explosive gender politics, the Roman empire question reinforces gendered behaviours in a safer discussion space<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The last time I thought about the Romans was while standing in the Pantheon, in June. The former temple is such a feat of engineering, so accomplished, so divinely beautiful, that it made me wonder what the hell had we\u2019d been doing for the past 2,000 years. To acknowledge any Roman achievement is to be overwhelmed by our own stunning mediocrity. The Romans gave us underfloor heating and the oculus; we offer crumbling concrete, microplastics and an avalanche of Nespresso pods.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How can we measure up to a civilisation that outstripped us in everything, from building works to fun? Is that what men are thinking when they think of Romans? Or are they simply indulging a red-blooded fantasy about all-powerful masculinity \u2014 albeit one that wears an armoured skirt?<\/p>\n<p>TikTok has many theories, most of which seem balderdash. However, I do check in for an opinion from Dame Mary Beard, the rock star scholar of Ancient Rome. \u201cI wonder if it is the safe way of allowing yourself to be a bit macho (after all it\u2019s 2,000 years ago),\u201d she writes back. \u201cI think my job, as a woman who writes about Rome, is to make them see Rome\u2019s softer side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Roman empire trend is endearing and surprising. It\u2019s charming to find a subject that unites boys \u2014 from age five to 85. One small chap describes his appreciation of an aqueduct to his mother with such gleeful competency that you cannot help but share in his delight. There\u2019s also something very sweet in the coy admission by so many men that actually, they think about the Romans \u201conly\u201d \u2014 like it\u2019s a guilty secret \u2014 \u201cabout two or three times a week\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Beard is on the money. At a time when the politics of gender are explosive, the Roman empire question redraws ancient boundaries about \u201cthe differences\u201d between the girls and boys, reinforcing ancient stereotypes and gendered behaviours in a safer, more benign, discussion space. Showing an outsize interest in violence, war and bloodsports is not really fashionable at this time. For those who feel their masculinity imperilled, the Roman empire is a portal through which men can bathe freely in pure testosterone. (If nothing else it bodes extremely well for the second instalment of <em>Gladiator<\/em>, starring a pneumatic Paul Mescal.)<\/p>\n<p>On the flip side, it begs the question: what are the ladies mulling over while this is going on? Is there a subject on which women could be predicted to consider in any given week? The feminist in me would argue that the only thing women think about that often are issues regarding their fertility \u2014 perhaps if we weren\u2019t worrying about our cycles or getting\/being or staying pregnant, we would have far more time for the Stoics too. In truth though, I\u2019m most likely thinking about the first world war, Princess Diana or a real-life murder \u2014 or some combination of the three.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, women are more likely to dwell on historic tragedies than on the glories of the past. But right now, I\u2019m sitting on an aeroplane <em>en route<\/em> to Milan and thinking that my trousers are uncomfortably tight. Of course, the Romans solved the issues of cabin dressing some millennia ago. Instead of wearing jeans, I should have opted for a toga on my flight.<\/p>\n<p><em>Email Jo at <\/em><em>jo.ellison@ft.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Find out about our latest stories first \u2014 follow <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ftweekend?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" data-trackable=\"link\"><em>@ftweekend<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/bdbbcee8-07cd-40ee-980b-067d61f388d5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Receive free Life &amp; Arts updates We\u2019ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Life &amp; Arts news every morning. How often do you think about the Roman empire? The question is currently trending on TikTok as women (mostly white, and from the western hemisphere) are astonished to find that their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is it about men and the Roman empire? | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Receive free Life &amp; Arts updatesWe\u2019ll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Life &amp; Arts news every morning.How often do you\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=15852\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is it about men and the Roman empire? 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