The post read: “Girlies, if you’re single and looking for a man, this is your sign to go to the British Museum’s new exhibition, Life in the Roman Army, and walk around looking confused. You’re welcome x.” It added: “Come for the Romans, stay for some romance.”

The museum said the post was a reference to the viral TikTok trend of women asking their boyfriends, husbands and fathers how often they thought about the Roman Empire. The video has now been deleted after women objected to its sexism.

But in the Socratic spirit of curiosity, I set off for the museum to see whether it was true: do male classicists exert an irresistible magnetism on female Latin lovers?