10 "Modern" Trends the Ancient Greeks and Romans were Totally Into

Twerking, fad diets, and gay porn: they're all way older than you think they are. For more modern trends from ancient life, check out The Forum, a new blog about Classical culture for Millenials.

1. Twerking

beycreative / Via rebloggy.com

Everybody twerks. Miley. Nicki. The Great Queen Bey (praise bey to her name). But a fierce diva named Sempronia was grindin' all up on it way before any of those ladies had a chance. Sempronia literally helped start a freaking revolution because she "danced more elegantly than a lady should." Work it, girl.

2. Superheroes

Marvel / Via hdwallpapers.in

A muscleman from parents in the sky who saves the world with his super strength? Before there was Superman, there was Hercules. The Ancient Greeks worshipped heroes with super powers -- Marvel and DC are basically just ripping them off.

3. Chugging Contests/Slap the Bag

Encyclopaedia Britannica / Via britannica.com

Frat bros got nothing on Socrates. According to Plato, the dude could have rocked a keg stand and aced a philosophy midterm the next day. He was that epic. Greek drinking parties, symposia, could sometimes put DKE to shame.

4. Gay Porn

Bruce Weber / Via rap.genius.com

Think being out and proud is a 21st-century thing? Ancient Greeks seem to have been pretty down with man-on-man love, and this recent discovery of penis graffiti from the 6th century BC could be right out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog.

5. Fad Diets

Multiply Delicious / Via multiplydelicious.com

Think paleo is bad? Try a diet consisting entirely of duck soup. That's what the neurotic billionaire Trimalchio's Ancient Roman doctor recommended. Instead he made the sensible choice of bird fetuses and live fish swimming in sauce. Still better than Atkins.

6. Poop Jokes

Bridesmaids / Via barnorama.com

Seth Rogen could take a couple lessons from the Greek comedian Aristophanes. In his play, Frogs, Dionysos, god of wine and lowbrow comedy, spends a good chunk of a scene talking about how he "shat himself" (that's a literal translation so I'm allowed to say it because academia or whatever).

7. Hippies

Via jenniferposada.com

If you're waiting on the age of Aquarius, don't hold your breath, man: maenads (frenzied worshippers of Dionysos) were swaying back and forth in fields, holding hands, and doing psychedelic drugs more than 2,000 years ago. They also ripped animals and people limb from limb, but like, close enough.

8. Teardrops on My Guitar

Taylor Swift / Via fanpop.com

She doesn't seem to know this, but T-Swift is not the first person ever to mope around about all her unrequited feelz. She's not even the first to write songs about it: Catullus, Propertius, and Sappho all pined after boys and girls that JUST DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY EXISTED OKAY?!?!

9. Workaholics

Via tylertretsven.wordpress.com

Millennials are constantly complaining about being married to their email. But Pliny the Younger's letters from the Roman Empire prove that being addicted to your work has been a thing for a long, long time.

10. Burn Books

Mean Girls / Via great-imaginations.com

Before Mean Girls, Theophrastus was the original Regina George. His 4th-century BC book, Characters, is basically a list of all the people he thought were wearing, like, the ugliest effing skirt he had ever seen.