Militants aligned with the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, better known as ISIS, recently had a dire warning for Westerners: "We Are Coming O Rome."
But that was only the first part of the terrorist group's threat. The second portion, which included a promise to "throw homosexuals off of your leaning tower of PIZZA," prompted Twitter users in Rome and beyond to hijack the hashtag #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome and respond in-kind with warnings about Rome's legendary traffic jams and other foils to planned invasions of the eternal city.
Apparently the misspelling of Pisa as "Pizza" was just too much to bear for Romans still sore about Dutch soccer fans, described as hooligans, who vandalized a medieval fountain after a match in Rome last week.
Rather than cowering under the threat from an erstwhile ISIS representative with the Twitter handle "Abu Abdullah Britani," Roman users of the dominant social media platform opted to go nuclear with sarcasm.
The response was a humorous way to counter the deadly serious violence to which ISIS subjects its victims -- who have lately included several men who the terrorists claimed were "gay" and therefore must be thrown from the top of a building and, if that doesn't kill them, subsequently stoned to death.
In the spirit of the Roman response -- which could be summarized broadly as "meh, what else you got?" -- here are The Advocate's top 15 Twitter responses to #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome, each hand-selected and filed under educational subheads from geography to, of course, spelling.
15: International Cuisine
14: Geography
13: Maritime Safety
12: Driver's Ed
11: Spelling
10: Fashion
9: Grammar
8: Mythology
7: Human Sexuality
6: Economics 101
5: Time Management
4: Modern Photography
3: Environmental Responsibility
2: Labor Relations
1: Pride 101