# Rome Isn't Real Rome Isn't Real is a conspiracy theory from TikToker @momllennial, who in November 2021 claimed that Ancient Rome was a fiction invented by the Spanish Inquisition and the Catholic Church. Classicists swarmed TikTok to debunk her readings of Latin poetry and Hadrian's Wall, and when she brought the thesis back to Twitter in November 2022, users turned her into the week's main character with Seinfeld-themed sketches about the hoax. ## Origin On November 16th, 2021, TikToker @momllennial posted a video arguing that Ancient Rome did not exist and had been fabricated by the Spanish Inquisition[1]. She deleted the original clip, but Twitter user @CogitoErgo15 reposted it on November 21st, which is how most historians first encountered the argument[1]. Her central assertion was that zero primary documents survive from the Roman era and that Latin texts attributed to figures like Gaius Cornelius Gallus were actually written in Greek[3]. A week later, on November 23rd, @momllennial posted a three-minute TikTok laying out the full thesis and blaming the Catholic Church of the 14th through 16th centuries for inventing the entire historical record[8]. - **Platform:** TikTok (origin) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** @momllennial - **Date:** 2021 ## Overview Rome Isn't Real holds that no primary documents from the Roman era survive, that Latin texts were forged by the Catholic Church between the 14th and 16th centuries, and that landmarks like Hadrian's Wall were originally something else, such as a road[1]. In @momllennial's version, Ancient Rome was closer to a theme park than an empire, a real location but not the civilization that ran the Mediterranean[1]. Responses fall into two buckets. Classicists filmed point-by-point rebuttals citing actual Latin manuscripts, while comedy accounts riffed on the confidence of the claim itself[3]. A typical mocking post imagines someone earnestly explaining that the Colosseum was faked in the 1500s, with the humor coming from the straight-faced delivery of easily disproved history. ## How to Use Jokes about Rome Isn't Real typically take the form of straight-faced monologues or imagined conversations in which a character sincerely insists some famous Roman thing was a 1500s fabrication. Common props include Latin inscriptions, Hadrian's Wall, Vesuvius, and Caesar, often paired with a confused interlocutor who points out the obvious counterevidence. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Rome Isn't Real? A conspiracy theory from TikToker @momllennial claiming that Ancient Rome was a historical construction invented by the Catholic Church and Spanish Inquisition between the 14th and 16th centuries[1]. ### Where did Rome Isn't Real come from? It started with a November 16th, 2021 TikTok by @momllennial that was later reposted to Twitter by @CogitoErgo15 on November 21st, 2021[1]. ### What does Rome Isn't Real mean? The argument is that no primary Roman documents survive, that Latin was a later invention, and that artifacts like Hadrian's Wall were fabricated or misidentified[3]. ### How do you use Rome Isn't Real? Jokes about it usually involve a character confidently insisting that a famous Roman thing was faked, often as an imagined conversation like @Sashamak's Seinfeld sketch[6]. ### Is Rome Isn't Real still popular? Peak discussion came in late 2022 after the Twitter repost, when posts like @nameshiv's main-character tweet drew tens of thousands of likes[7]; conversation has thinned since. ## References 1. [https://www.insider.com/history-anthropology-tiktoker-ancient-rome-not-real-backlash-viral-2021-12]() 2. [https://twitter.com/MildlyAmused/status/1594036375178944520]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rome-isnt-real]() 4. [https://www.tiktok.com/@profmaxwell/video/7032383055100890414]() 5. [https://www.tiktok.com/@now_chaterien/video/7033820465319709958]() 6. [https://twitter.com/Sashamak/status/1596158952680476677]() 7. [https://twitter.com/nameshiv/status/1596531489533222912]() 8. [https://www.tiktok.com/@momllennial_returns/video/7143646131484904746]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/rome-isnt-real Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library