A TikTok trend started circulating in September 2023 encouraging women to ask the men in their lives just how often they think about the Roman Empire. My partner did not even bother asking me, she saved some time and jumped straight to laughter. As the person who knows me best, she already knew that the answer was a lot. All I could say in my own defense was that I actually spend almost zero time thinking about the Roman Empire, because I’m far too busy thinking about the Roman Republic – the 400-year experiment in flawed quasi-democracy which collapsed into the Roman Empire. She did not consider this exculpatory. But, as a citizen of a 249-year experiment in flawed quasi-democracy which appears on the verge of collapse, I’m not sure how I could avoid thinking about it.