Well thank you MN for the ROW I just had with my husband, who apparently does NOT think about the Romans on a daily basis (he said, unless he's reading the Falco books, in which case, a lot). I said 'Well I do, on at least a daily basis!' and then we had a disagreement about what 'thinking about' means.
He thinks it means you go off into a little reverie for at least a few minutes and consciously think something through. I think, it counts if something Roman or Roman Empire-related passes through your mind. Then your brain riffles through your mental rolodex and comes up with a few random facts or thoughts, you might go down a bit of a rabbit hole for a few seconds, but then you're done.
(My example to him was - well, last night we were watching old Red Dwarf episodes and Tony Hawks was on, and I thought - ah, he also played Caligula in a later episode. Funny thing Caligula, people (including me) really only know a few things about him - mad, cruel, incestuous, horse, 'little boots' - but that much makes him a by-word for the excesses of the Roman Empire really. Then I remembered that we'd watched a bit of I, Claudius the other night and John Hurt was Caligula. Then I snapped to, it took about ten seconds, back in the room. DH thinks this whole 'mental rolodex' thing is odd and I suspect he thinks 'Ah, THIS is why Glom never stays on message during a conversation!' He could be right.)
Anyway, it's just possible that I think about the Romans on an at-least daily basis because I used to be an archaeologist and university lecturer (not a Romanist though!). But surely all sorts of random shit passes through most of our heads on a daily basis and this is all completely normal, right? 