NEW YORK — How often do men think about the Roman Empire? Shockingly often, at least according to a viral trend that has prompted women around the world to ask the men in their lives how frequently the ancient civilisation crosses their minds.

Videos of online users, mostly women, approaching their male counterparts to ask them the question, seemingly out of the blue, have been sweeping TikTok — and the answer is frequently startling.

“Technically, like every day,” came one man’s answer, eliciting an incredulous laugh from his girlfriend.

Responses from multiple other men range from as often as multiple times a day to at least once a month, and are almost always met with a surprised “what? why?”.

“How could you not think of the Roman Empire?” retorted one man in disbelief.

Mimicking some of these fans, Mr Brown says: “‘But Jordon, every time I drive past a farm and I see irrigation, I can’t help but think about the Roman Empire.’” 

He retorts: “When you drive past a farm and you see farm workers, do you think about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and the unionisation of farm workers? You don’t? Weird that you focused on the imperial history and not anything else.”

He continues: “Every time you see a railroad track, you’re like ‘Oh, that’s the width of a Roman chariot’ but you never think about the immigrants that built the roads. Why do you think that is?”

Mr Brown then goes on to imply that their obsession with the Roman Empire is a sign of toxic masculinity and white supremacy.

In a similar video slamming the trend, a TikTok user named Dean questions the veracity behind the claims made by some of these men.

“Why would anyone think about the Roman Empire every week?” he said.

Mr Dean goes on to challenge the claim that the empire was the “greatest” of all time and lists out several other powerful civilisations from history such as the Persians, the Ottoman Turks, the Mongols and the Incas. He ends off by dismissing the trend as simply “dumb”.