About

Absolutely Barbaric refers to a variation of the Absolutely Disgusting image macro series that features an illustration of a Roman soldier captioned "Absolutely Barbaric." It was initially used in reaction to examples of one person trolling or owning another, but in early 2017, spiked in popularity as a reaction image to something the poster thinks is improper food or life etiquette.

Precursor

The image of a Roman soldier associated with "Absolutely Barbaric" first appeared on the internet in 2011 as a variation of Come at Me Bro where the phrase "Come at me bro" was translated into Latin.^[1]

Origin

The "Absolutely Barbaric" soldier comes from a book titled "Myths and Legends" by Roger Payne.^[6] While the first "Absolutely Barbaric" variation of the picture is unknown, one of the earliest known posts to use the image was posted by Funnyjunk user comradewinter^[2] on September 6th, 2014 (shown below).

Spread

The image remained a niche variation of "Absolutely Disgusting" in the coming years. On May 8th, 2015, Facebook page Rough Roman Memes^[3] posted the image and gained around 1,400 likes (shown below).

In early January, 2017, the image began surging in popularity on 9GAG. 9GAG user publius_scipio published the first post to grow popular with the image, titled "My reaction after my friend puts milk in his bowl and then cereal."^[4] The image has gained 19,937 points as of January 9th, 2017. After their post, many more 9GAG posters began posting the image with titles referencing minor preferences or practices they found disgusting, particularly with regards to pizza consumption. One of the most popular posts, gaining 15,700 points, pairs the image with pineapple pizza (shown below).^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References