It could be the Roman Empire’s vast reach and longevity (1000 years,) or the narrative appeal of a dramatic fall, along with the legends of lust and hedonism who doesn’t love some messy melodrama? Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and HBO’s Rome surely helped popularize the time period. Thankfully, history has never been so accessible there is an abundance of history podcasts, YouTube documentaries and well-moderated online forums, like the subreddit r/AskHistorians. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has talked about his fascination with the Roman emperor, Augustus – he even named one of his children August. Our male ancestors lived and died by the sword, in stark contrast to the sedentary life of the modern man, who risks injury from sitting too long, hunched over his computer reading Wikipedia articles about the ingenuity of Roman aqueducts.Ī running joke on Friends was Monica’s boyfriend, Richard, being obsessed with the American Civil War.
