The Roman Empire has been circulating around TikTok lately, and for all the bizarre reasons. Turns out that this trend started simply as a random question about how often a man thinks about the Roman Empire. It then grew to be an internet slang about things that people often think about.
I’m no man (thank the gods), but my Roman Empire is the gossip that surrounded the Roman Empire itself.
Yes, of course, there was gossip in ancient Rome’s daily life. Even back then, reputation was everything. A rumor could easily sink a political career faster than a lost battle.
So, here are three of the juiciest gossips that had the Roman Empire shookt.
1. Julius Caesar: Lover of Queens (and a Bottom?!)
When we think of Rome, it’s inevitable to also think about its greatest emperor, Julius Ceaser. For such a powerful leader, Caesar understood that politics and love (or lust) were inseparable. He married several wives with whom he shared political ambitions.[1]
However, his most famous entanglement, aka “situationship,” was with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. And theirs was a very public May-December affair.
Cleopatra was only 21 when the 52-year-old emperor laid his eyes on her. Whether it was her wits, undeniable beauty, or possibly her throne that caught his attention, he simply never looked back.[2]
Their connection was as passionate as it was political. With Cleopatra as his mistress, Caesar was able to have greater influence in Egypt, and with his help, Cleopatra was finally able to secure her throne without her siblings threatening to kill her at any given opportunity.[3]
Cleopatra wasn’t the only name whispered alongside Caesar’s, though.
Ancient gossip accused him of having affairs with men as well. In particular, he was once mocked as the “Queen of Bythnia” for his association with King Nicomedes. While people didn’t necessarily frown upon homosexuality then, controversy arose from rumors that he was the bottom of the relationship.[4]
The Romans obsessed over conquest and believed everything—and everyone—had to be conquered. They treated sex as an act of surrender to the dominant partner, so if a man was the one being ‘conquered,’ they deemed him weak and less worthy
Orator and outspoken Caesar-critic, Gaius Scribonius Curio, once called the emperor “a man to every woman and a woman to every man”.
The mere idea of Rome’s most powerful emperor being submissive to another man? That’s a huge blow both to Julius Caesar’s and his empire’s reputation.
2. Nero: Did He Really Play the Fiddle While Rome Burned?
Emperor Nero is arguably one of the most despised figures in ancient history due to his “practice of every sort of obscenity.” These ranged from incest and animal cruelty to a reign of terror against Christians, during which he publicly executed people—and even burned some alive.[5]
Seriously, the dude was a straight-up bastard.
Weirdly enough, people don’t remember Nero for all these deeds but for something as trivial as allegedly playing an instrument.
In the summer of AD 64, Rome was devastated by a fire that burned for six days. According to the historian Tacitus, nearly 70 percent of the city’s buildings were destroyed and left half the population homeless.
Legends have it that it was his own people who started the rumor of Nero playing the fiddle (violin) while watching his city burn to the ground. While this had been disproven on the accounts that 1) the fiddle hadn’t been invented yet, and 2) Nero was on the outskirts of the city when the fire broke out.[6]
Needless to say, the rumor stuck, and Emperor Nero—with all his violence, indulgence, and detachment from his people—became the face of Rome’s suffering.
I honestly can’t fault the people here either for bringing forth such a ridiculous claim because Nero wasn’t exactly a great leader to begin with. I’d say he deserves all the slander and trivialities that came with his name.
Today, “to fiddle while Rome burned” is now used as an idiom that means doing something trivial or irresponsible amid an emergency.
3. Commodus: The Mad Emperor Slash Gladiator Wannabe
Despite their glorification in popular culture, gladiators were far from celebrated warriors. Most were slaves or prisoners of war, treated as property with little choice but to fight in the arena to survive. Ironic, I know.
So you’d understand why historians call Commodus the mad emperor. His fascination with gladiator combat prompted him to participate in the arena. Reports claimed he ‘won’ some 12,000 contests, and even boasted of doing so with his left hand.
An emperor dressing up as a gladiator and joining in violent killings? It certainly raised eyebrows.
His madness also extended to how he paraded himself as the reincarnation of Hercules. He erected statues of himself as Hercules throughout Rome, complete with the club and lion-head gear.
Quick mythology backstory: The first of Hercules’ twelve labors was slaying the Nemean lion, whose golden fur was said to be impenetrable. Hercules killed it with his bare hands and wore its skin as armor.
This dude was also an extreme narcissist.
He renamed all the months after himself—August became Commodus, October became Herculeus, and others echoed his titles. After a fire in 191, he even renamed Rome as Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana, its citizens Commodiani, and the Senate the Commodian Fortunate Senate.
Of course, all this craziness didn’t go unchecked. Members of the Roman Elite eventually hired a professional wrestler—one named Narcissus, no less!—to strangle the deluded emperor to death.
If you don’t see how fascinating the layers of irony are in this story, we can’t be friends.
Ancient Rome Had The Weirdest Emperors, For Sure
What these eccentric emperors’ stories show is that words, even mere gossip, hold immense power. They could make or break reputations and create legends that echoed through history long after the truth was lost.
What’s even more fascinating is how familiar these stories feel: the mix of scandal, exaggeration, and reputation management isn’t so different from modern celebrity culture. Back then, it played out in the Senate’s forums; today, it would be the next viral social media craze.
So the next time you hear a juicy rumor about a politician or star, remember the Roman Empire—their drama could rival ours.
References:
[2] What was the deal with Julius Caesar and Cleopatra’s ‘situationship’?
[3] Cleopatra, Julius Caesar And Mark Antony: Her Love Affairs Explored | HistoryExtra
[4] Julius Caesar’s Scandalous Sex Life | Walks Inside Rome
[5] Nero’s reign of terror: how Christians became scapegoats for Rome’s problems – History Skills
[6] Did Emperor Nero Really Play The Fiddle While Rome Burned? | HistoryExtra
[7] Case Study II: Commodus (161-92 CE) – Spectacles in the Roman World
