@@McNuggins You piss on the bedding before leaving, to rub it in to the owner that they didn't provide a damn chamber pot. It's like stealing hotel towels out of spite, or clearing out the 'for everyone' fridge of bottled water because you feel you were overcharged or misled.
What’s even funnier is the way the responder asks the question. It’s the same way people get offended online today, only this guy is expecting a next to impossible response!
@@lua2wood- They carved it into the side of the building. If you carved your name into the side of the local bar would you think it would still be there in 2000 years?
We never know when our writings will be read, or how long they'll last. The other day, I looked thru letters my father sent home when he was a young sailor in WWII. I found one to his mother that had never been opened. It was from August 1940. I opened and read it, 84 years after it was posted. 🎉
@@TheDJGrandPaoh my god, it literally WAS the ancient equivalent of someone going into a foreign meeting and butting in with "can you translate to ___ pls" LOL
That dude that didnt like anything but the sarcophagus. i traveled with my sister to Brazil and she is just like that guy, when we returned she said "i only liked the pina colada" 🤣
I remember standing in the Hagia Sofia and being completely in awe, litteraly mouth open and impressed to the max. Then i turned around and my eye fell on a peculiar small glass box and a sign. When i realized some guy named Halvdan was exactly where i was about a 1000 years ago and decided to just carve his name in the marble i couldn't help myself. I started laughing out loud. It was then that i realized so strongly that history is nothing more than us, but from long ago. We've always been the same deep down.
Temba, his arms wide! The people of the future will relate to us the way we can relate to the people of long ago. At least if someone's grandma remembers to keep printing out the memes...
The drop in the literacy rate during the Middle Ages was not a tragedy because the loss in historical accounts or scientific knowledge. It was a tragedy because of all the shitposting lost to time.
I am sure they resorted to shitpicturing. Lots of joke pictures of sex-related humour were made in Russia. Unfortunately, the most prominent media was tree bark.
On a bathroom wall at Stanford University in the 1980’s: To flush toilet, push down hard on handel in another hand beneath that: If I do, will it push bach? and in yet another hand: No, it plays water music
You can find some truly crazy shit scribbled on the walls of men's rooms....especially in college. Lol. I wonder if the university is particularly old we could find some examples of such graffiti from decades or even centuries ago?
@@livethefuture2492 i had a idea of a instagram account of just taking photos of bathroom stall graffiti. never happened but always have a marker in your pocket.
As a hotel clerk, the one about the beds and lacking chamber pot is still true. Two years ago I found a note in a room I was helping clean, where the guest explained that their toilet wasn't working, and so they'd used the rug.
This, unironically, makes me feel more connected to the people of the ancient world than any artifact or historical document ever could. It brings a tear to my eye how goofy and relatable so much of it is.
I tried to wrote "Romans go home" Got caught by a Centurion and given a lesson in Latin grammar. Made me paint the entire square by dawn. Ah, the good old days.
"And the sign said, "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sounds of silence" - Paulus Simonicus
@@RobMacMusic he has a point, every time has it's taboes and due to corporate prudency we've become more ...well, prudent. It's not a new trend, i think it started with the reformation and reached its maximum with the Victorians but for example look at how many phallic objects we found in such enormous numbers, and also in very public places. Now go outside and tell me how many phallic symbols you will see on the streets. Basically apart from graffiti none is my guess... Not trying to start a comment flame war or being the "well akshually..." guy but i've seen quite a number of benisses on medieval churches for example. Now immagine the upheavel there will be if a modern architect tried to implement benisses in a modern church building. Another classic example would be all the Classical statues that later on had a leaf put over their private parts.
@@Boro87 Opposite really. It shows that the Romans, despite how civilize they were, still fell victim to their sexual urges. If anything, the prudeness of society shows civilizations triumph over animalistic instincts.... and we shouldn't revert back to that regardless of pride or whatever other movements that try to push us back to the darkness
I love to say that no matter the time, humans are going to human. Even ancient cave people painted their hand prints on walls. Before written language, they were still saying "I was here"
A few months ago, we took a private tour of Herculaneum with an exceptionally knowledgeable guide who quickly figured out I had studied Latin and made a point of discretely pointing out some of the more "refreshing" grafiti that had me laughing. And yes, most of it was quite sexual but, as a tour guide in Pompeii said to a woman who gasped at the murals in the Lupenar "...signora, is a nothing new-a under the sun...except the prices have gone-a up-a" (I can't do justice the accent and delivery) which got riotous laughter from everyone else on the tour.
This is a great way to humanize ancient people more, and show us a bit more of their sense of humor (which hasn't changed in the least). This is the type of stuff I wish was taught more than all the wars and assassins of Ancient Earth. This makes them feel so much more relatable.
The seriousness of studying history vs the line "i crapped here i crapped here i crapped here" is the most perfectly hilarious juxtaposition of two opposite sides of humanity, the intellectual and the joker! 🤣 I wonder what the author would feel if they knew how far we have progressed and exactly how many people their words would be read by.
We ascribe such formality and austerity to the past, when really, aside from some differences in technology and philosophy, we have so much in common. We carry the same desires and impulses as the people of the past. The pure aspects of the human spirit transcend cultural and temporal boundaries.
@AzureWolf168I agree after seeing this. I think if you were to time travel and spoke all verbose and with so much formality to the average Roman citizen theyd look at you strangely and ask you to speak normally
on this day, 21 of may 2024, I laughed about someone being hungover 5months ago on a video about Roman graffiti from 2000 years ago may you in the future continue the human tradition of having stupid comedy
If you wanna find a Roman equivalent to a redditor, read Celsus. Guy was arrogant edgyness incarnate. He especially hated those retarded Bible-bashing creationists
"Noli inserere nasum tuum in rebus alienis et in aliis in naso" - Tebrex Maximus "Do not stick your nose in other people's things and other people's things in your nose"
Very reminiscent of something I once heard a friend of mine say to an overly chatty third party, in modern Yiddish (transliterated): "Sheyfele, daan nuz zeyt ous af dan punim asach besser vi in maan biznes." ("Hey kiddo, your nose looks much better on your face than in my business.") "Kiddo" was a 30-year-old dude.
@@kotzpenner I tought that option, i like to stick with option B: Maybe they were brothers in arms. Kinda sad its impossible to know more about these two.
1) The steamier and violent graffiti sounds like a patreon opportunity. 👀 2) I knew ancient Roman graffiti existed but I wasn't expecting them to be so relatable. It practically was their version of social media. Probably the closest we will get to an actual "we pretend it's bronze age internet."
Bronze Age internet was even wilder. Bad copper reviews against Ea-Nasir! Putting your supervisor on blast for not giving you enough water for your sesame fields (Ibbi-Ibarat saw it, he'll back me up)!
@@erraticonteuseAnd fashionable young men complaining about their lack of cool clothes! Because the other kids have cool clothes, why can’t their mom buy them too!
"If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should look at my girlfriend." "I don't want to sell my husband, not for all the gold in the world." It's nice to know that the feeling of being in love was much the same 2000 years ago.
Are you retarded? 2000 years ago wasn’t even long ago Wtf lmao. There was literally no difference between humans now and back then not even 0.0000000001% difference. Wtfff
I assume they were both guys. Were they both female friends. I have no clue. It's all latin to me. Was one a girl and the other a guy? The names sound masculine. Just don't know. Don't always assume. They could be trans gender or gender neutral
"A small problem gets larger if you ignore it." Eternal wisdom, true in any language, for any person at any point in time. And yet, I will probably keep making that mistake until my last day on earth.
I remember a college professor of mine saying that he'd gone to Rome and seen a Roman graffiti "Cacator cave canum" meaning, roughly, "He who would shit here, beware of dog".
“Satura was here September 3rd.” Satura was a legend! Sorry that you have been gone so long Satura. I know you never knew we would read of you. But one of your messages survived even two thousand years. God blessed your memory. So I will too.
A good way for politicians to understand the attitudes and feelings of their constituents as well as political dissidents. "Cassius is but a senile old fool, with a club foot." 😏
My favorite Roman graffity is this one found inside an inn: “We have wet the bed. I admit, we were wrong, my host. If you ask ‘why?’ There was no chamber pot.” And my favorite Eastern Roman graffity is the most famous one: "Halfdan was here."
@@pashaveres4629 SOME things never change, as in the element of humour you're focusing on here. However, I think you'll ALSO find humans have changed a hell of a lot since nomadic times, and all kinds of wildly different kinds of society have existed throughout history. So-called "human nature" is not a fixed thing, because plenty of human beings have lived wildly differently to others too, and it just depends on how a given society raises and educates all their kids. Mostly we just drill our children into the oblivion of memorization of dry knowledge with the sole purpose of getting them into the sausage factory of work, which generally jades and cripples minds in the modern age of call centres, corporate marketing and scammy big business. Of course it seems right now as if technology isn't changing people, because all this new tech is only a hundred years old! That's nothing at all, we've literally only just got all this stuff, and frankly I already see it changing people quite considerably. The way people think and socialise now is wildly different to just 50 years ago, and the effects the internet and high tech has already had on politics and big business is disturbing to say the least. The whole "human nature" never changing at all thing is just an excuse for people to avoid changing themselves. If other human beings have lived lives of intelligent understanding and peace, then anyone can. Most don't because they are merely ignorant and heavily conditioned to be corrupt, aggressive, violent etc etc, but actual reality has proven time and time again that being that way is not at all inevitable. The problem is people want to believe they can't change for the better because it's the perfect excuse to not have to make any effort to change and just cling to your artificial sense of safety in whatever social conditioning you've grown up with.
Given how much this graffiti represents a side of Roman life we wouldn’t otherwise have knowledge of if the practice was more discouraged or harshly punished, I do appreciate their attitude towards making your mark on the world. Even if people do not like the defilement of monuments or historical structures, I can’t help but see it having its own form of sanctity I wouldn’t wish to be erased, as it represents something that is truly human
I have been to a few bars where drawing graffitti is both encouraged and expected. Strangely, this leads to mostly positive and wholesome writings while the naughtiness is reserved to the bathroom.
Yeah, because technology has changed the world so thoroughly, we almost view people from the past as a different breed. But they were exactly like us. This is only going back 100 generations or so. That is nothing. If a common housefly were to look back at their ancestors from the year I was born… that would be looking back about 1000 generations ago! 10 times the number of generations that we are removed from the people of Pompeii. Yet we wouldn’t expect flies from 50 years ago to be different than those of today. It’s easy for us to get stuck in a time perspective based on our own life span, and not realize how close we truly are to the past.
2000 years ago wasn’t that long ago, people don’t realize it. It just feels long ago because the stark difference in technology. For example my great grandparents were from late 1800s depending on when they were born and how long they lived. That spans 1800,1900, and 2000 in a few generations and of people you may have known personally.
I often get incredibly cynical about humanity. Thinking we are destined to squabble in the mud, instead of reach the stars. But then I remembered stuff like this graffiti. Human beings wanting desperately to say "we existed"
There was something like Roman graffiti in a cave in Scandinavia. There was a wall of a Cave with huge runes carved into it. For a while no one knew what it said and assumed it to be some sort of holy writing, turns out that once translated it just said “this is big”
People dont change. We all, always want the same things, love. Friendship comfort, we hate insult and a declaration of "it's not fair" is universal. Humanity kicks arse😂😂
There's a series of letters that were found in an Egyptian temple of about 1500 BC, between a father and his son. Even though the father was a priest, there was no mention of religion. It ran more like this: "Stop complaining about my concubine; she's none of your business. I hear from your sister that you are tormenting her. Stop it. Make sure those people pay their rent. They tried to stiff us last year." This was just Mediterranean culture. They could have been modern Greeks or Italians.
The first meme was probably born in ancient Pompeii, Egypt or Rome.. So far the first official meme was "Killroy was here" with the face peering over a wall with its nose hanging down. Which was a play on an electrical symbol that looks like a man peering over a wall.
Since she felt the need to blame him publicly, I suspect that Artimetus did not do the right thing by the girl. He probably hastily went to assist in his uncle’s olive oil business in Hispania. But the girl has ensured that he will always be known as a cad.
On this day, I watched a video about Roman graffiti on the Internet, and remarked upon the similarities between me and my people, to those people of old
In the British Museum there is an Egyptian papyrus which translates to: “I don’t understand the world today. Children don’t respect their parents and everyone is writing a book.” The scenery may change, but people don’t.
This is the most entertaining video in yt I have watched since... I don't know when. I wished it would never end. At the same time heart warming and sad, hilarious and devastating. It shows how us, humans are all the same through history
I wish there were more journals and every day notes from people back then. It’s fascinating to see what the everyday person had to say, and how similar they were to us. Not just scholars and philosophers takes.
It's fascinating all the wealth of writings we have that go so far back. I was mind blown at the amount we have of early new testament manuscripts alone there are enough that if you stack them they are 2.5 burj khalifa high, the highest building in the world. People act like we know hardly anything about anything from the ancient world which is true in some regards but clearly not in others.
I've studied Latin my entire life and when I was stationed in Naples I've had very difficult times reading the Latin graffiti because, surprisingly, the Ancient Romans used a lot of slang words that I was never taught (or known) by Latin teachers....also, the Ancient Romans had terrible handwriting.
The internet says mostly the rich,around 10% were literate but I always think of the Pompeii graffiti and wonder if it was a bit more. Like were some mid level types like merchants or something literate or maybe understood basics
I just want to thank you for not mentioning the sexual stuff. I really wanted to be able to show my kids this video, because it was interesting, and I knew they would get a kick out of it, but I was nervous about what it might show/say. It was a great video, and my kids LOVED it. They thought it was so cool to see how "normal" people were even in ancient times.
I wonder what percentage of Pompeii was literate when this graffiti was written. Was it a case of mostly the wealthy learning to write? Or was the ability more widely taught?
I would have to double-check, but if I recall correctly, literacy rates around 50 BC are estimated to have been about 10% throughout the empire. Although, this graffiti has actually brought that number into question, as some of it was written by women and slaves, groups historians have thought were probably mostly illiterate. Either way, literacy rates would almost certainly have been higher in the cities.
There were plenty of domestic slaves who were literate and some of their jobs required very high literacy, but I do agree that figure of 10 percent should be questioned.
The estimate of 10% literact might check out, since most people in the Roman Empire lived in rural areas most of the economy was agricultural. Some estimates I found on a quick search (need to be checked) say that around 30% of the population lived in urban areas in the 1st century BCE. And if around a third of them were literate, it can explain the abundance of graffiti even if only 10% of the entire population was literate. Especially in the Italian Peninsula which was densely populated and had many urban centres as well as beind the center of the Empire. We must also take into account the fact that these graffity accumulated on the walls over centuries not just years or decades. For me it is quite plausible. What do you guys think?
"We have urinated in our beds... There was no chamber pot." is not only an ancient graffito, it's an ancient Yelp review.
😂
Still, though, why would you piss in the bed you're laying in?
@@McNuggins You piss on the bedding before leaving, to rub it in to the owner that they didn't provide a damn chamber pot.
It's like stealing hotel towels out of spite, or clearing out the 'for everyone' fridge of bottled water because you feel you were overcharged or misled.
Piss Fetish. :)@@McNuggins
I like the "I made bread" one. They aren't complaining, or boasting, they're just baking.
Its probably euphemism for having sex or haven taken a shit.
Making bread was a roman euphemism for defecating. I was surprised OP didn't know that or chose not to mention it in the video.
💀💀💀💀💀
@@DD-qo1twI guessed it was a euphamism for something but thought it might be related to "shes got a bun in the oven" for a pregnant woman. 😂
Imagine a gladiator boasting about learning to make bread.
Someone said "The internet is like old Egypt. People write on walls and worship cats.". ... Apparently, they were incredibly right.
Depressingly accurate. But funny. Ooh, it's purring now! Aww...
With emojis hieroglyphics are being reinvented, especially with the "late cryptic style" that is just 🐱 m👖all the way down.
🤣👾🐩🐸🚧@@TiroDvD
@@TiroDvD🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🥸
🤣🤣🤣
Ancient Greeks being disappointed when visiting the ruins of Egypt because they couldn't understand the hieroglyphs was pretty funny.
I love that someone responded to it also questioning why that would matter to them.
What’s even funnier is the way the responder asks the question. It’s the same way people get offended online today, only this guy is expecting a next to impossible response!
@@Poseidon4862. i'm kinda tempted to go to the pyramids and respond to it with "lol. what a dumbass".
@@rovhalt6650 In ancient hieroglyphics of course !
Actually makes me realize people haven't gotten dumber over the centuries, they've been this dumb the whole time😂
"friends forever were here...Gaius and Aulus". Little did they know that 2000+ years later their declaration would still be there.
They knew.
they knew for sure thats why they etched it in rock
@@lua2wood- They carved it into the side of the building. If you carved your name into the side of the local bar would you think it would still be there in 2000 years?
We never know when our writings will be read, or how long they'll last. The other day, I looked thru letters my father sent home when he was a young sailor in WWII. I found one to his mother that had never been opened. It was from August 1940. I opened and read it, 84 years after it was posted. 🎉
@@jeanettecook1088 what did it say?
Imagine writing your names and declaring your friendship on a stone and it still being read today. Gaius and Aulus, you guys are real ones 👏
Gaius murdered Alus shortly after that
@@jool5941🤣😂🤣😂😂😂🤣🤣
noooooooo lol its that true??::!@@jool5941
@@jool5941 what a wholesome friendship 😀
You will NEVER have millennia long friendship like Gaius and Aulus
Why even live
Proof bromance is as old as time🤣
AaaaaaaaaHHHHAAAAHHAAAAAHAAHAAAAA BROWSKI
Blackest pill.
@@patrickkasprik2444 aaahaaahahaaaa
What if I did but I cant remember it?
"I made bread" truly the greatest achievement of mankind
Remind me of the meme "bread 👍"
@@Helenar.R.Guimaraes Ancient Roman shitposting
It was the greatest thing before sliced bread.
All Roman soldiers made their own bread. The ingredients were lighter than baked bread.
@@michaelwhismanstop spamming bot comments on every other reply
6:30
Bro went to Egypt and asked "Where are the subtitles?"
Ancient version of "english pls"
@@TheDJGrandPaoh my god, it literally WAS the ancient equivalent of someone going into a foreign meeting and butting in with "can you translate to ___ pls" LOL
@@AVI-lh6rm reminds me of that tumblr post that asked how the fuck translations exactly began
🥱
That dude that didnt like anything but the sarcophagus. i traveled with my sister to Brazil and she is just like that guy, when we returned she said "i only liked the pina colada" 🤣
*_“I am in tears, while carrying you to your last resting place as much as I rejoiced when bringing you home with my own hands 15 years ago.”_*
Fuck man😭
Beautiful
This was about a dog if I remember correctly?
@@DD-qo1tw Correct!
People always loved their doggies.
I remember standing in the Hagia Sofia and being completely in awe, litteraly mouth open and impressed to the max. Then i turned around and my eye fell on a peculiar small glass box and a sign. When i realized some guy named Halvdan was exactly where i was about a 1000 years ago and decided to just carve his name in the marble i couldn't help myself. I started laughing out loud. It was then that i realized so strongly that history is nothing more than us, but from long ago. We've always been the same deep down.
AAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA BROWSKI, I SAW THE SAME ONE!!!
Agreed. People don't change, times do.
@@ge2623 agreed
Temba, his arms wide! The people of the future will relate to us the way we can relate to the people of long ago. At least if someone's grandma remembers to keep printing out the memes...
@@EdKolis aaaaaahahahahahaaaa browskiii
The drop in the literacy rate during the Middle Ages was not a tragedy because the loss in historical accounts or scientific knowledge. It was a tragedy because of all the shitposting lost to time.
I am sure they resorted to shitpicturing. Lots of joke pictures of sex-related humour were made in Russia. Unfortunately, the most prominent media was tree bark.
😂
amen
Indeed 😂
Should have stuck with the Empire. We'd have left the solar system by now if we did.
On a bathroom wall at Stanford University in the 1980’s:
To flush toilet, push down hard on handel
in another hand beneath that:
If I do, will it push bach?
and in yet another hand:
No, it plays water music
LOL Handel's water music
You can find some truly crazy shit scribbled on the walls of men's rooms....especially in college. Lol.
I wonder if the university is particularly old we could find some examples of such graffiti from decades or even centuries ago?
@@livethefuture2492 i had a idea of a instagram account of just taking photos of bathroom stall graffiti. never happened but always have a marker in your pocket.
They started cleaning up the graffitti in bathroom stalls in Toronto public washrooms. Why?
As a hotel clerk, the one about the beds and lacking chamber pot is still true. Two years ago I found a note in a room I was helping clean, where the guest explained that their toilet wasn't working, and so they'd used the rug.
some things about people never change eh?
Classy. Didn't think about using the bathtub/shower, eh?
@@kutter_ttl6786 People act like animals smh
THERE'S A SINK AND A TUB WTF
@@bootblacking yeah but it costs more to replace a corroded sink pipe than to scrub the rug. i guess?
This, unironically, makes me feel more connected to the people of the ancient world than any artifact or historical document ever could. It brings a tear to my eye how goofy and relatable so much of it is.
There are so many changes in the world, but being a common human will not change.
..like a letter from an inhabitant at Hadrian's wall, inviting people to a party. 🙂 x
I tried to wrote "Romans go home" Got caught by a Centurion and given a lesson in Latin grammar. Made me paint the entire square by dawn. Ah, the good old days.
Romanes eunt domus? The one called Roman they go to the house?
Were you, by chance, on a case at the time?
Came looking for this comment.
"I tried to wrote"... Not been caught by a bobbie and given a lesson in English grammar yet? 😉
Biggus Dickus go home!
"And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence" - Paulus Simonicus
Like his song "You can call me Alicus"
That was ancient paul simon.
“Spirit of the auditorium”
"You what?!" - Seccundus
Artus Garfunkelus Maximus
I always love these kinds of insights into the past. It really humanized history.
Same!
And insights into todays world... saying the ancient graffiti is to sexual to talk about... thats just supersad, we are so smallminded about that
@@RobMacMusic he has a point, every time has it's taboes and due to corporate prudency we've become more ...well, prudent. It's not a new trend, i think it started with the reformation and reached its maximum with the Victorians but for example look at how many phallic objects we found in such enormous numbers, and also in very public places. Now go outside and tell me how many phallic symbols you will see on the streets. Basically apart from graffiti none is my guess...
Not trying to start a comment flame war or being the "well akshually..." guy but i've seen quite a number of benisses on medieval churches for example. Now immagine the upheavel there will be if a modern architect tried to implement benisses in a modern church building.
Another classic example would be all the Classical statues that later on had a leaf put over their private parts.
3:03 Will never fail to make me giggle, lmao I could feel that man's anger and displeasure.
@@Boro87 Opposite really. It shows that the Romans, despite how civilize they were, still fell victim to their sexual urges. If anything, the prudeness of society shows civilizations triumph over animalistic instincts.... and we shouldn't revert back to that regardless of pride or whatever other movements that try to push us back to the darkness
I absolutely love that the classic "X was here" tag was used even 2,000 years ago
I love to say that no matter the time, humans are going to human. Even ancient cave people painted their hand prints on walls. Before written language, they were still saying "I was here"
I am humaning@@flaming_bentley
"Epaphra! You are bald!"
holy sh1t, even at that time they used to annoy bald people lol
Poor Curb Your Enthusiasm Guy.
Where do you think we get the attitude to annoy bald people man ofc from our ancient ancestors
Mr MacAlpine! You are bald! Your student from Jarvis Collegiate Institute 1972BC Peter Chin
A few months ago, we took a private tour of Herculaneum with an exceptionally knowledgeable guide who quickly figured out I had studied Latin and made a point of discretely pointing out some of the more "refreshing" grafiti that had me laughing. And yes, most of it was quite sexual but, as a tour guide in Pompeii said to a woman who gasped at the murals in the Lupenar "...signora, is a nothing new-a under the sun...except the prices have gone-a up-a" (I can't do justice the accent and delivery) which got riotous laughter from everyone else on the tour.
😂 I can imagine
How did he know?
This is a great way to humanize ancient people more, and show us a bit more of their sense of humor (which hasn't changed in the least). This is the type of stuff I wish was taught more than all the wars and assassins of Ancient Earth. This makes them feel so much more relatable.
The seriousness of studying history vs the line "i crapped here i crapped here i crapped here" is the most perfectly hilarious juxtaposition of two opposite sides of humanity, the intellectual and the joker! 🤣 I wonder what the author would feel if they knew how far we have progressed and exactly how many people their words would be read by.
We ascribe such formality and austerity to the past, when really, aside from some differences in technology and philosophy, we have so much in common. We carry the same desires and impulses as the people of the past. The pure aspects of the human spirit transcend cultural and temporal boundaries.
Well, not just a tally, it also works as a poem, shame all 3 lines are the same.
Could have been,
Came to Pompeii,
So very near,
I crapped here.
@melissastone5755 that was beautiful. Thank you
@AzureWolf168I agree after seeing this. I think if you were to time travel and spoke all verbose and with so much formality to the average Roman citizen theyd look at you strangely and ask you to speak normally
I think he’d find it funny. Poop is after all a universal funny thing.
in the spirit of the romans, i will leave my own graffitti in this comment section
"on this tuesday, i was hungover"
“i took a crap as i wrote this”
@@DavinylI also am taking a crap as I write this.
I also am taking a crap as I write this.
I also am taking a crap as I write this.
on this day, 21 of may 2024, I laughed about someone being hungover 5months ago on a video about Roman graffiti from 2000 years ago
may you in the future continue the human tradition of having stupid comedy
On this day, I wore suspenders :-)
On Sep 11. I found this comment chain, and added to it. But I have nothing valuable to say.
roman society truly was ahead of its time, they even had shitposting
shitposting has existed as long as we have
If you wanna find a Roman equivalent to a redditor, read Celsus. Guy was arrogant edgyness incarnate. He especially hated those retarded Bible-bashing creationists
Sometimes literally.
"Noli inserere nasum tuum in rebus alienis et in aliis in naso" - Tebrex Maximus
"Do not stick your nose in other people's things and other people's things in your nose"
Must've been a very stupendously large nose, or very small 'things'.
You know there's a story behind this and it's funny that most of us already know it.
Very reminiscent of something I once heard a friend of mine say to an overly chatty third party, in modern Yiddish (transliterated): "Sheyfele, daan nuz zeyt ous af dan punim asach besser vi in maan biznes." ("Hey kiddo, your nose looks much better on your face than in my business.") "Kiddo" was a 30-year-old dude.
In Romanian: "Nu inserta nasu tau in lucrurile altora, și lucrurile altora în nas."
The 'Gaius and Aulus' one is heartwarming. I hope they stayed good friends throughout their lives.
I'm honestly betting they drifted apart, even as I hope they didn't.
It’s either a drunk bar friendship forgotten the next day or more brothers till the end
@@kotzpenner Oh yeah, didn't even consider that option.
You never see much modern graffiti that amount to “Best Friends Forever”
@@kotzpenner I tought that option, i like to stick with option B: Maybe they were brothers in arms.
Kinda sad its impossible to know more about these two.
1) The steamier and violent graffiti sounds like a patreon opportunity. 👀
2) I knew ancient Roman graffiti existed but I wasn't expecting them to be so relatable. It practically was their version of social media. Probably the closest we will get to an actual "we pretend it's bronze age internet."
Romans was iron age dudes not bronze
Bronze Age internet was even wilder. Bad copper reviews against Ea-Nasir! Putting your supervisor on blast for not giving you enough water for your sesame fields (Ibbi-Ibarat saw it, he'll back me up)!
you can search up on the internet if you want more horrendous graffiti
There is a Graffiti in Pompeii that writes "Weep you girls, my p*nis has forsaken you and now penetrates mens behinds"
@@erraticonteuseAnd fashionable young men complaining about their lack of cool clothes! Because the other kids have cool clothes, why can’t their mom buy them too!
bit of a shame that my personal favorite quote from the Pompeii Walls wasn't read out:
"Samius to Cornelius: go hang yourself!"
🌩 👨 🌩
"If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should look at my girlfriend."
"I don't want to sell my husband, not for all the gold in the world."
It's nice to know that the feeling of being in love was much the same 2000 years ago.
Don’t forget “people in love are like bees. They live a honeyed life”.
I think the human race would have died out a long time ago if they hadn't. They were us but in togas, that's all.
Are you retarded? 2000 years ago wasn’t even long ago Wtf lmao. There was literally no difference between humans now and back then not even 0.0000000001% difference. Wtfff
Gaius and Aulus forever.
❤❤❤❤❤
those bros deserve immortality
@zimriel
Ancient and homoerotic.
I assume they were both guys. Were they both female friends. I have no clue. It's all latin to me. Was one a girl and the other a guy? The names sound masculine. Just don't know. Don't always assume. They could be trans gender or gender neutral
@@LucyGudgeonah, transgender and gender neutral goobers in ANCIENT ROME.
"A small problem gets larger if you ignore it."
Eternal wisdom, true in any language, for any person at any point in time.
And yet, I will probably keep making that mistake until my last day on earth.
I remember a college professor of mine saying that he'd gone to Rome and seen a Roman graffiti "Cacator cave canum" meaning, roughly, "He who would shit here, beware of dog".
Cave canem
You're right, sorry@@giulianoradice4715
I just found two kittens I had no idea what to name them, Gaius and Aulus it is. Thanks!
Love videos like this, give a sense of humanity to history that its often overlooked
“Satura was here September 3rd.” Satura was a legend! Sorry that you have been gone so long Satura. I know you never knew we would read of you. But one of your messages survived even two thousand years. God blessed your memory. So I will too.
In a way reading her words connects us with her, 2000 years later. And in a way, that makes her still be alive, if only in our collective memories.
My birthday is also September 3rd. By the way, today is the Ides of March-- beware!
The opening scene of William Shakespeare's 'the tragedy of Julius Caesar ' has Cassius and Brutus discussing graffiti on the wall next to them.
A good way for politicians to understand the attitudes and feelings of their constituents as well as political dissidents.
"Cassius is but a senile old fool, with a club foot." 😏
@@lilmike2710 well said
My favorite Roman graffity is this one found inside an inn:
“We have wet the bed. I admit, we were wrong, my host. If you ask ‘why?’ There was no chamber pot.”
And my favorite Eastern Roman graffity is the most famous one:
"Halfdan was here."
Ah, yes, in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, when the Varangian guard was there. Classic.
The actual translation was "Halfdan carved these runes" but admittedly "Halfdan wuz here" is funnier
why is `halfdan was here` funny?
Look up 'Kilroy was here.' @@SHinierthennyourforehead
@@SHinierthennyourforehead Miklagarðr forever
This kind of stuff is fascinating! Some things never change!
Basic human nature is one of them. Technology is always changing, we do not.
I've just ascertained that there's a PDF online with all of the graffiti in ancient Pompeii.
😏 This video had sparked a new interest for me.
@@pashaveres4629 SOME things never change, as in the element of humour you're focusing on here. However, I think you'll ALSO find humans have changed a hell of a lot since nomadic times, and all kinds of wildly different kinds of society have existed throughout history. So-called "human nature" is not a fixed thing, because plenty of human beings have lived wildly differently to others too, and it just depends on how a given society raises and educates all their kids. Mostly we just drill our children into the oblivion of memorization of dry knowledge with the sole purpose of getting them into the sausage factory of work, which generally jades and cripples minds in the modern age of call centres, corporate marketing and scammy big business. Of course it seems right now as if technology isn't changing people, because all this new tech is only a hundred years old! That's nothing at all, we've literally only just got all this stuff, and frankly I already see it changing people quite considerably. The way people think and socialise now is wildly different to just 50 years ago, and the effects the internet and high tech has already had on politics and big business is disturbing to say the least.
The whole "human nature" never changing at all thing is just an excuse for people to avoid changing themselves. If other human beings have lived lives of intelligent understanding and peace, then anyone can. Most don't because they are merely ignorant and heavily conditioned to be corrupt, aggressive, violent etc etc, but actual reality has proven time and time again that being that way is not at all inevitable. The problem is people want to believe they can't change for the better because it's the perfect excuse to not have to make any effort to change and just cling to your artificial sense of safety in whatever social conditioning you've grown up with.
Some aspects of human nature do not change.. no matter how many thousands of years pass! Very enjoyable! A great channel!❤
It´s amazing that, 20 centuries later, people still do graffiti in public restrooms doors.
I like the two friends, dead for two thousand years but the memory of their friendship is still present.
6:30 I burst out laughing on the subway at this exchange.
Was waiting for the 'Romani Ite Domum' reference. Didn't have to wait long. Thumbs up.
The more things change, the more they stay the same
I despise UA-cam for increasingly limiting what creators can publish, even limiting more and more normal English words.
You Tube knows what's best.
@@ge2623youtube is God now
So crazy to think these were just humans like you and me living their little lives like we do, hanging out, arguing and writing graffiti
Given how much this graffiti represents a side of Roman life we wouldn’t otherwise have knowledge of if the practice was more discouraged or harshly punished, I do appreciate their attitude towards making your mark on the world.
Even if people do not like the defilement of monuments or historical structures, I can’t help but see it having its own form of sanctity I wouldn’t wish to be erased, as it represents something that is truly human
I wonder if this counts as a comic sketch. Like if people drew illustrated stories back then.
Ancient graffiti is a material proof that we as humans, didn't change much. Our clothes and tools changed but we are very much like our ancestors.
Rome in pop culture: *noble, austere, powerful*
Rome in reality: *a buncha 20- and 30-somethings writing trivial stuff on walls*
There was all kinds of people, just like today, just like in every land.
I have been to a few bars where drawing graffitti is both encouraged and expected. Strangely, this leads to mostly positive and wholesome writings while the naughtiness is reserved to the bathroom.
It’s so crazy to think there were humans just like us running around doing human stuff so long ago
@stopthecrazyguy9948 What they don't come from sex? 😮😮
@@dundermifflin3847nah usually they are stocked at amazon warehouses
Yes, but they probably also read the older graffiti and thought, gee granpa, chill
Yeah, because technology has changed the world so thoroughly, we almost view people from the past as a different breed. But they were exactly like us. This is only going back 100 generations or so. That is nothing. If a common housefly were to look back at their ancestors from the year I was born… that would be looking back about 1000 generations ago! 10 times the number of generations that we are removed from the people of Pompeii. Yet we wouldn’t expect flies from 50 years ago to be different than those of today. It’s easy for us to get stuck in a time perspective based on our own life span, and not realize how close we truly are to the past.
2000 years ago wasn’t that long ago, people don’t realize it. It just feels long ago because the stark difference in technology. For example my great grandparents were from late 1800s depending on when they were born and how long they lived. That spans 1800,1900, and 2000 in a few generations and of people you may have known personally.
This comment section looks like the walls of pompeii, not that I'm complaining
Lausanamo, you defecate and you write "Hello, everyone!"
I often get incredibly cynical about humanity. Thinking we are destined to squabble in the mud, instead of reach the stars. But then I remembered stuff like this graffiti. Human beings wanting desperately to say "we existed"
what is wrong with squabbling in the mud? it is the human experience. if we are to love our life, we should embrace our flaws and our humanity
There was something like Roman graffiti in a cave in Scandinavia. There was a wall of a Cave with huge runes carved into it. For a while no one knew what it said and assumed it to be some sort of holy writing, turns out that once translated it just said “this is big”
"If anyone does not belive in Venus they should look at my girlfriend" beautiful
At least today we worship the right God. 😁
@@ge2623 🙁
@@ge2623you mean a schizophrenic rabbi?
@@hello-rq8kf Could be. Could be Zeus et al.
Upset that Jesus is Lord and Savior, I see.
People dont change. We all, always want the same things, love. Friendship comfort, we hate insult and a declaration of "it's not fair" is universal.
Humanity kicks arse😂😂
There's a series of letters that were found in an Egyptian temple of about 1500 BC, between a father and his son. Even though the father was a priest, there was no mention of religion. It ran more like this: "Stop complaining about my concubine; she's none of your business. I hear from your sister that you are tormenting her. Stop it. Make sure those people pay their rent. They tried to stiff us last year." This was just Mediterranean culture. They could have been modern Greeks or Italians.
This is great. I knew about the existance of roman graffitti but this gave me an entirely different view on it. It is basically stone age internet.
*Iron Age
@@d.c.8828 I was calling it stone age because it is based on stone. That being the walls;)
@@sizanogreen9900 Oh, haha, clever! You should've added a 🥁 **rimshot** with the punchline! lmao
The first meme was probably born in ancient Pompeii, Egypt or Rome.. So far the first official meme was "Killroy was here" with the face peering over a wall with its nose hanging down.
Which was a play on an electrical symbol that looks like a man peering over a wall.
@@sizanogreen9900Ah, but my dear Mr. Green, it would have been chiseled with an iron tool.
Stone age works for me though 😉
"The man I am having dinner with is a barbarian" 😂 Romans were divas
Since she felt the need to blame him publicly, I suspect that Artimetus did not do the right thing by the girl. He probably hastily went to assist in his uncle’s olive oil business in Hispania. But the girl has ensured that he will always be known as a cad.
I enjoyed this one a lot😂 Thank you Fire of Learning!
I did miss your historical videos. Thank you for this one
Clearly an underrated topic
The ancient worlds social media is quite fascinating
Very greatly enjoyed this because it feels connecting, like listening to a friend.
“You are not being very nice, leaving me all alone like this” hits
imagine the level of alphabetization Rome had achieved among its population, for this to be even remotely possible
Most families had private tutors
@@Tempusverumonly rich families could afford private tutors, yet many plebs achieved alphabetization
@@Tempusverum only the rich ones had private tutors
Pompeii was a moneyed up city, it likely had a decent rate of literacy.
I can't help but believe that "I made bread" was a euphemism.
It was a common euphemism for defecating.
Don't quote me on this but someone else in the comments said "make bread" means "to take a cräp"
pinched a loaf, one might say
Great video, specific and interesting.
Thank you for making it and keep on the good work.
On this day, I watched a video about Roman graffiti on the Internet, and remarked upon the similarities between me and my people, to those people of old
I'm kind of pressed that ancient Rome had unskippable ads. Even if they were about garum lol
“O Wall, you have held up so much tedious graffiti that I am amazed that you have not yet collapsed in ruin.” Is the best one lol
Straight to the point and most informative. Well done indeed !
They had no clue someone would be looking at their scribbles on a wall centuries later through a phone screen taking a dump 🔥
In the British Museum there is an Egyptian papyrus which translates to: “I don’t understand the world today. Children don’t respect their parents and everyone is writing a book.” The scenery may change, but people don’t.
"Gaius and Aulus bros 4 lyfe"
So beautiful.
This is the most entertaining video in yt I have watched since... I don't know when. I wished it would never end. At the same time heart warming and sad, hilarious and devastating. It shows how us, humans are all the same through history
NAWW WHOEVER ROASTED EPAPHRA FOR BEING BALD IS A MENACE
I wish there were more journals and every day notes from people back then. It’s fascinating to see what the everyday person had to say, and how similar they were to us. Not just scholars and philosophers takes.
*_“If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should look at my girlfriend”_*
Daquantus with the ancient rizz bro
Rizzatus Maximus as they called them
NICE
Must have been from 69 BC
May he rizz in peace
Lightskin praenomen 💀
Excellent in every way! Thanks!
"A small problem gets larger if you ignore it"
true
The ancient world really doesn't get any more familiar and more relatable than its graffiti.
I could watch this all day
Interesting how a deadly tragedy in some way was capable to keep alive these vestiges of human existence.
5:21. Scaurus's best garum, mackerel-based, from Scaurus' manufacturers
Garum is fish sauce and in this case mackerel that is salted.
What a really cool history fact
"I said my piece" is the best way to respond to a response...on UA-cam.
There was that time a guy wrote "Romans go home", he got in trouble if I remember correctly.
Did he write it grammatically correct?
It's fascinating all the wealth of writings we have that go so far back. I was mind blown at the amount we have of early new testament manuscripts alone there are enough that if you stack them they are 2.5 burj khalifa high, the highest building in the world. People act like we know hardly anything about anything from the ancient world which is true in some regards but clearly not in others.
I've studied Latin my entire life and when I was stationed in Naples I've had very difficult times reading the Latin graffiti because, surprisingly, the Ancient Romans used a lot of slang words that I was never taught (or known) by Latin teachers....also, the Ancient Romans had terrible handwriting.
Gaius and Aulus is a true bromance
Shout out to Gaius and Aulus . True homies of all time.
Walls: the original social media.
"I can not read the hieroglyphics" and the response really got me, lol. I wonder how many people were literate at that time?
I wonder how much time passed between the note and the answer. I could have been centuries.
The internet says mostly the rich,around 10% were literate but I always think of the Pompeii graffiti and wonder if it was a bit more. Like were some mid level types like merchants or something literate or maybe understood basics
@@postrock12 a lot of these were written by women and slaves too, so definitely higher than 10% in my opinion
i love this channel so much lol
I just want to thank you for not mentioning the sexual stuff. I really wanted to be able to show my kids this video, because it was interesting, and I knew they would get a kick out of it, but I was nervous about what it might show/say. It was a great video, and my kids LOVED it. They thought it was so cool to see how "normal" people were even in ancient times.
At least these are more gentle and kind hearted than the awful way people talk to strangers on the internet. Truly troubling.
I wonder what percentage of Pompeii was literate when this graffiti was written. Was it a case of mostly the wealthy learning to write? Or was the ability more widely taught?
I believe there are advertisements for prostitution, too. I don't think that targeted the wealthy.
I would have to double-check, but if I recall correctly, literacy rates around 50 BC are estimated to have been about 10% throughout the empire. Although, this graffiti has actually brought that number into question, as some of it was written by women and slaves, groups historians have thought were probably mostly illiterate.
Either way, literacy rates would almost certainly have been higher in the cities.
There were plenty of domestic slaves who were literate and some of their jobs required very high literacy, but I do agree that figure of 10 percent should be questioned.
@@DD-qo1tw Good point
The estimate of 10% literact might check out, since most people in the Roman Empire lived in rural areas most of the economy was agricultural. Some estimates I found on a quick search (need to be checked) say that around 30% of the population lived in urban areas in the 1st century BCE. And if around a third of them were literate, it can explain the abundance of graffiti even if only 10% of the entire population was literate. Especially in the Italian Peninsula which was densely populated and had many urban centres as well as beind the center of the Empire. We must also take into account the fact that these graffity accumulated on the walls over centuries not just years or decades. For me it is quite plausible. What do you guys think?
Technically, the only Roman graffiti you need is ROMANES EVNT DOMVS
"People called Romans they go the house??"
Where’s this from
@@WailOfDoomlife of Brian 😊
4:41 Romans invented tile memes