It seems men can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire – or at least that’s what the latest social media craze suggests. If that’s true (and men aren’t simply driven by peer pressure to overestimate the frequency of their thoughts on the subject), it might be for good reason.
First of all, the legacy of the Roman Empire is deeply rooted in our politics, architecture, education, language and laws. From the Capitol to the military, America has placed Roman heritage at its foundation. You may be failing to take into account the multiple references to the Roman Empire you see every day and the ubiquitous Latin words in your daily speech (just look up the etymology of most words you can think of), but your subconscious does. However, there is nothing new about this, dating back to the very founding of the United States.
What is new is the confluence (a word with Latin roots) of crises that Western men face today – and the multiple ways in which they signal their distress. The world is in turmoil and people today are in shock, because most of them have only known the most peaceful and prosperous times in history. Columbia University economic historian Adam Tooze has argued since the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that a “polycrisis” is gripping the global economy, a dynamic in which disparate shocks combine to create something bigger and deeper than any one of them. Or, to paraphrase the novelist popular 1990s Tom Clancy, the sum of all fears.
For men, life in the 2020s feels like the world has suddenly turned against them. The polycrisis of masculinity explains the rise of figures such as Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, “men’s rights activists” who often refer to ancient philosophies in an effort to achieve respectability. During a tense time interview with BBC in June, for example, Tate defended himself by saying he was teaching young men “stoicism” – the ancient philosophy that emphasizes discipline over the pursuit of pleasure.
Beyond his search for respectability, Tate is riding a rising wave. The Stoics are making a comeback, and have been for several years. From discussions among Silicon Valley elites to podcasts and newsletters, the school of thought that once thrived in ancient Greece and Rome has seen a revival in recent years. The pandemic has amplified this situation.
A true Stoic (unlike Tate), the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, was gaining popularity. In recent years, his Meditations became a sales success. The Roman emperor’s thoughts on duty, rejecting luxurious lifestyles, and remaining calm in the face of what you cannot control have, unsurprisingly, attracted legions of modern readers who struggle with anxiety in a changing world.
In 2012, the publisher sold 16,000 copies of the classic. In 2019, this figure increased to more than 100,000 copies. This growth continued into 2020, Penguin Random House told the Guardian.
And it’s not just about pandemic-induced introspection, it’s also about economics. For the first time in decades, a new generation of men expects a lower quality of life than their parents. As research consistently shows, men react poorly to losing their status. A 2005 study by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne found that men who experience downward mobility are four times more likely suffer from depression – and although women are twice as likely to be downwardly mobile, they do not experience the same decline in well-being.
The Roman Empire did not invent patriarchy, but it did codify it into law. Family Pater was a legal status that gave the patriarch authority over the family and its property, two privileges conferring a status that contemporary men took for granted but may never obtain. Wealthy Roman citizens also owned slaves (also Latin), and they were under the overall custody of the family father. Although slavery in ancient Rome was not established along racial lines, the precedent was used in antebellum South America. to justify the rights of slave owners to the work of their “dependents”. The current backlash against diversity and inclusion efforts and attempts to pit them against “competence” can also be seen through this lens: a third aspect of men’s status is being removed.
However, fantasies about Roman civilization miss a key point: that it set us on the very path that led to our modern world. By regulating ancient traditions, Roman law gradually limited the powers of the patriarch.
The Roman legal concept of paterfamilias bonusOr diligens paterfamilias, has become the benchmark for reasonable and diligent behavior when courts seek to establish negligence, from Spain to Canada. Status (and gender) no longer mattered. What matters is the behavior: is it that of a proverbial a good family’s father? If yes, then the standard of care was met.
In a time of crisis, competence is paramount, but we face misogyny, anger and poor mental health. It’s no wonder that men are clamoring to spend more time with their families – perhaps the most powerful remedy for these difficulties. There are more and more stay-at-home fathers–a phenomenon that was previously limited to severe economic recessions.
Men today crave answers, purpose, and family. If this is unachievable, we can expect much worse than fantasies about past empires.
Mohamed El Aassar is Fortune’s comments editor.
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