# Roman Antiquity in Silicon Valley Roman antiquity appears in some Silicon Valley leaders' personal interests, imagery, and public jokes. Mark Zuckerberg's and Priscilla Chan's daughters are named Maxima, August, and Aurelia; the names have Latin or Roman resonances. In a 2018 interview, Zuckerberg described studying Latin and finding Augustus fascinating; he recalled that Chan jokingly treated Augustus as a third companion on their Rome honeymoon because he photographed so many statues of the emperor. He later described a sculpture he commissioned of Chan as reviving a Roman tradition of making a sculpture of one's wife. Together these offer a specific picture of literary, historical, and aesthetic interest. This is a narrower branch of [[wiki/Classical Antiquity in Technology Culture|classical antiquity in technology culture]]. Roman references should remain distinct from [[wiki/Ancient Greece|Greek antiquity]], and individual examples should not be generalized to every founder in [[wiki/Silicon Valley|Silicon Valley]]. Other forms of engagement are practical and conceptual. [[wiki/Rome Reborn|Rome Reborn]] used virtual-reality technology to reconstruct the ancient city for modern viewers, with a documented connection to [[wiki/Palmer Luckey|Palmer Luckey]] and Oculus. Jack Dorsey has compared network infrastructure to Roman aqueducts, while Marc Andreessen has discussed the continuing appeal of Marcus Aurelius's *Meditations* for leaders shouldering responsibilities. [[wiki/Classical Names in Technology Families|Classical family names]] are another, more personal route. Each example addresses a different aspect of Rome—place, infrastructure, philosophy, or memory. ## Sources - [Zuckerberg and Chan's announcement of August](https://time.com/4918984/mark-zuckerberg-daughter-august/). - [Zuckerberg's firsthand comments on Latin, Augustus, and his honeymoon](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/17/can-mark-zuckerberg-fix-facebook-before-it-breaks-democracy), *The New Yorker*, 2018. - [Zuckerberg's public description of Chan's commissioned sculpture](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/14/mark-zuckerberg-priscilla-chan-sculpture). - [Bernard Frischer on Palmer Luckey and Rome Reborn](https://skarredghost.com/2019/01/29/ancient-rome-vr-rome-reborn/amp/). - [Jack Dorsey's Roman infrastructure comparison](https://abcnews.com/Technology/creator-twitter-sees-blur-change/story?id=17232823), ABC interview. - [Marc Andreessen on Marcus Aurelius](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye8MOfxD5nU), *Joe Rogan Experience* interview, November 2024.