I already subbed to them, if not mistaken i used Your code :) .. Buying your book in a couple weeks too, holidays left me high and dry but ill be able to purchase it in 2 weeks time . Looking fwd to reading it mate . Cheers .
Income properties, asset diversification, house flipping, investment companies, and private bankers. Collectively an example of how in some regards the Roman world isn't that far from our own. Another fantastic video.
@@BlastinRope yes most of them imagine how to make actual competition illegal, how to print money and give it to themselves by the state ran bank, and new names to call these scams to keep the lower classes in the dark
"Most elite Romans made their money in the private sphere" The biggest thing you learn time and time again when learning Roman history is that there really is nothing new under the sun.
Exactly that's my favorite thing about learning about Rome. It's just another Human Empire, nothing special, what makes it so fascinating is learning how human it is, how human nature works, and how the more we change the more we stay the same. It's a portal to the past and a lesson in human understanding.
Tiberius was very frugal and was able to never raise taxes during his reign. After the civil wars the peace of Augustus and its continuation under Tiberius caused real estate values to go very high in the city of Rome, Tiberius forbade landlords from tearing down housing of the poor in order to build luxury housing. When there was a big financial panic with banks failing, Tiberius lent out 100 million sesterces from his own funds at no interest for at least three years restoring liquidity and saving the economy. Things weren't that different back then .
Iirc, Tiberius’s story was different. He proposed a loan amnesty for italics. The senate persuaded him to make this legislation not immediate, as Tiberius wanted initially, but to postpone it for 1 yr. The landlords, aka all senators, used this time to claim all mortgages which lead to mass defaults. Since all the cash was flowing only in one direction, a shortage of coins manifested. At which point Tiberius stepped in to save Rome from the fallout of his own decisions
@@JonatasAdoM It can be yet another story about the dangers of half-measures. He could insist on his decision, invoking his auctoritas. Or he could let the status quo evolve if he didn't want to antagonize the senate. In the end he preferred to choose an option that hurt the common man so hard that it destabilized the economy of the most prosperous region of the empire.
@@fedorgalkin5018This is why everyone needs to study roman history in depth. There are so many lessons in economy, politics, society etc, even today, our senators find ways to ruin the most powerful economy so throughly that the poorest never break out from the brink of utter poverty.
I'm amazed at how "ordinary" this all sounds. People with money investing in apartment buildings, buying estates using paper contracts rather than cash, using banks for remote payments, etc. Really makes the Romans more human, so to speak.
Or us less human? I love learning these unique perspectives of humans past. And your insight required me to showy gratitude! I hope you stay happy with this path of learning about our journey to now!
Their politics were pretty "normal" too. Politicians try to enact land reform, to the ire of the wealthy, and get assassinated over it. Just like the 20th century
Just graduated from a prestigious university in Classical Civilizations- your channel has been immensely beneficial in filling in the gaps that was either not taught or that I might have missed and I thank you for these great videos.
Like the Pelosi's and many other senators and representatives of both parties using insider trading to amass large fortunes. If your salary is around 200,000 but you are worth over one hundred million something's wrong
Enjoyable and informative as always! Here's another idea for a video for you: A day in the Roman law courts. What would it have looked like if, say, somebody accused you of murder? Where would you be held? How would the trial go forward? Or conversely, how might a typical day look if you worked as a jurist in the law courts of ancient Rome? Could be a very interesting subject. If Apuleius' Metamorphosis is accurate, it seems something of a bowl or cup filled with water and punctured with holes would be used to count down the time for speaking which is an interesting tidbit I learned.
@@toldinstone Thank you so much for your response. I'm happy to hear it's on the list. The idea came to mind upon watching your hypothetical time travel series. Keep up your great, informative content! I'll happily keep supporting your channel however I can
toldinstone: Very good historians like you, since you mentioned “apartments”, should do a computer generated video of the common people living in these, the sizes, cooking areas if any, their everyday lives, schooling, where they worked, wages, etc.(no one ever talks or details this!)
@@LiminalQueenMedia: I’ve seen Beard’s videos before and they’re excellent! I just this minute finished a 1 hour video on what I almost wanted that you recommended. Thank you!
@@roberttelarket4934 Of Course! I admire her work and the channel I mentioned. Always high quality content, to the point where I have a hard time believing it's made for UA-cam.
This is a super super interesting video. Please more just like this talking about economics, coins, precious metal, the luxury of the elite, corruption, and trade. This is perfect. Please make a part 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 of this
5:56 "These slaves were allowed to keep part of their earnings, and could eventually use their savings to buy their freedom." Hits a little too close to home.
Is there any record of the wealthiest Romans passing down their wealth in terms of family dynasties that might have contributed (eventually) to the rise of early feudal states?
During the republic and empire, that sort of wealth transference was common, especially in ‘consular’ patrician families. Some wealthy Roman families maintained prominent administrative positions under the early barbarian regimes, but this was mostly gone by the mid 500’s CE.
None that we know of. Historians have investigated this deeply, but it appears to be the hard truth that few fortunes survive invasion, revolution a general collapse of urban society. When people around me tell me that their house, their land, their gold protects from the worst when the bad times come I laugh at them.
@@michaelrenper796 Anyone who naively believes that has either never had true hardship, or seen just how quickly those riches can not only go kaput, but in turn, turn you in *THE* target. 🤦♂️
Fascinating. What did they spend their money on? It would be interesting to hear your take on what conspicuous consumption looked liked for Romans. This topic is especially interesting considering the current trend of wealth disparity we are experiencing.
Didn't know Seneca was so rich. I've always loved his works on stoicism...this kinda hurts the way I see them now. Pretty easy to be a stoic when you're a millionaire.
@@mariano98ify Exactly! Most people who have become wealthy definitely worked for it. Not everyone who has become wealthy did so through dishonest means
I can watch and listen to these ToldinStone videos all day, without bleenking, with my jaw on the floor. It fascinates me how our ancestors lived. Thank you for your great vids👍
Great video. You continue to amaze me with both interesting and unsual topics in your videos. I once found your channel, a video showing not so known Roman buildings in modern Rome. The videos come like pearls on a string, how do you do it? We love it. In school I got to know "about" Rome. You let us "know" Rome, and the Romans. And I am looking so much forward to read your book, I just received it as a Xmas present.
I've randomly found your channel while self isolating with covid. Thank you for the engaging content, it reminds me of a young American unofficial tour guide who gave groups of tourists tours of the colloseum when I visited in 1999. I'd love to go back soon!
Thank you Garrett for a really fascinating video. Could you please consider doing a future video on how Romans kept tracked of their wealth. Did they have accountants and how did they keep their books - presumably their was no double entry accounts? How did banks (even the one man banks) keep tracks of loans? Would love to hear any insights you might have.
big money and banking was reserved for the Patriciate, just like in the medieval. the concept of lower class people making bank deposits is a development of the 1900s. the bureaucratic babel of our times was nonexistent in those times. It was more like Mafia accounting. simple and straight to the point. The Dons took everything from you if you stopped paying protection. They kept you around like you keep a chicken or a cow. For eggs and milk and meat and flakes and hide
3:28 The thing I remember most about modern apartment living was the weird smells, It must have been horrific in Roman times. Ancient Rome must have been a safe place if one kept a good chunk of one's wealth in a iron safe
I live in apartment building for 15 years and never smelled anything weird ...i also go camping regularly and people there pee everywhere and still i almost never got any smell ...nature is much better in absorbing then people think
They didn't cook in their apartments so that probably cut down on the smells. They gave their food allotments and purchases to a restaurant on or near rheir bottom floor which cooked it and served it to them in return for a portion. That portion was sold at a profit to others. The remains of these eateries survive in Pompei and Heraculum along with other well perserved Roman urban ruins. Some of their menus and prices painted on walls, or carved on their floors, have even survived. Their privies were out in back, just as until less than a century ago in much of the US, and even more recently in Europe. Plus many of them may have been connected to their sewage system. Probably smelled no worse than much of New York City in the 1940's. So it might not be nearly as bad as you think, especially if your neighborhood was cleanly.
@@DarkMatterX1 Mmmm..garum. I wonder if it's anything like the fermented fish sauce found in SE Asia... I've been to parts of town where they make it and the smell...holy cow, the smell...
3:30 Teams of slaves trained as firemen and builders. In that case, was it possible that those same slaves were first ordered in secret to begin the fire? So that the damaged house can be bought for a good price.
According to ancient commenters and historians many Romans suspected Crassus of doing exactly this. Due to his political power bring charges against him would be very dangerous and quite likely deadly. Can anyone say "Hillary Clinton"? So if he did do this he got away with it. That is until the Parthians in modern Iraq captured him alive and poured molten gold down his throat for his greed.
You said in the video that the average annual salary was 1000 sestertii, that pay would be worth 250 silver denarii, which in turn was worth 10 gold aureus. During Augustus reign the aureus had 8 grams of gold. So the average person made 80 grams of gold a year. The person at the start of the video left behind 60 million sestertii, which would be 600 thousand aureus, or 5 TONS of gold.
I've been reading "a history of private life." So far, its been an extremely thorough description of roman society. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys this video. :)
@@paulkoza8652 They're both socio-economic historians. Experts specifically on the medieval period but both cooperated to make a history of all private life. It's a 5 volume series spanning from the early roman republic to ww1.
Can you do a show on how romans got through winters? Not all of them had glass windows. I don't believe they wore togas or robes year round as shown on art. They were already importing silk but that is not sufficient to stay warm in winters. This always interested me.
@@दीपकनागर-थ5छ I actually looked it up, the Romans first relied on their own wool supply and production 1st. Then linen from Egypt was 2nd since Egypt was closer. 3rd was cotton from India and 4th silk from the Chinese. It makes more sense now that they used wool first and foremost to stay warm during winters as it is proven to work well against the cold. I recorrected the list.
Great video. One topic you didn't touch on is insider trading. Given that there was such a strong connection between wealth and political power, surely it must have played a significant role? Buying up essential supplies just before a declaration of war you know is coming for example?
This everyday economy topic is very interesting. Speaking of slavery, Id like to hear more about it. There are many interesting topics such as what they were actually worth compared to estate and salary, their reproduction rate, and owner’s responsibilities, slave sources. I know there are probably no direct sources on roman slave economics but still would like to hear what you got
The Slavs were the direct source of slaves for the Romans. The root word for Slavs is slaves in old latin. The Romans perfered people closest in nationality and similar looks/culture to them than an exotic foreign slave.
Could you please talk about personal ID in Rome. I always wondered why slaves didn't escape and started a new life somewhere else. It's not like the had picture IDs, even with all our technology until very recently it was possible to disappear and start a new life with a new identity. I'm sure it's still possible. How did they keep track of people?
I would guess maybe, that education (or lack of) has much to do with it. I think it was Octavian in the Rome HBO series who was captured to be a slave but was brought instead to Caesar because his noble way of speaking stood out. I think also many slaves were branded as a punishment for running away, or assuming they did run away successfully they could potentially be captured by a harsher owner. I’m sure also conformity plays a huge part in it. It’s nice to think there were some successful runaway stories. And of course there’s always Spartacus.
Due to a book I'm reading right now and its extensive use of the terms and forms, an idea for a future video: Roman theatre and literature of plays and what do the terms mean: there's comoedia, satura, mimus - and fabula and tragicomoedia and and and... The book deals, in part, with placing Petronius' Satyricon into these categories by the Romans' . The fact that it's hard to place may have led to almost all of it having been lost - and most of what we know about the real Petronius lost as well (apart from a few lines by Tacitus et al, which led to the likely completely twisted impression that gave us Leo Genn in Quo Vadis). Apparently "comoedia" is *not* a comedy as we understand it, but rather a fairly strict, moralistic and even stagnant form of play that were intended to be funny but within very strict limits of what could be written or shown. "Satura" wasn't merely satire but did have strong comedic elements, let's say like our Saturday Night Live. Whereas "mimus" was like... improv? slapstick? I thought it'd be easy to google these, but you either get the dumbed down (and apparently quite wrong) explanations, or it's paywalled academia.
@Rəşad Məlikov I didn’t even think about books written during that time but that would be even cooler. I was originally thinking of a historians understanding of it
Like so many of your videos, this is fascinating. I was especially struck that activity in trade was proscribed for the elite--as it was much later for English aristocrats.
I had the same impression that you had. Years ago, there was an interesting documentary about the greater amount of entrepreneurs in the U.S. vs. England. The documentary pointed out that the wealthiest people in England were not supposed to take degrees in business, nor to pursue careers in things other than law, publishing, university professors, or Church of England clergy because "trade" was beneath them. Apparently the non-Anglican Protestants such as Methodists were the ones who would do degrees in business and would take jobs in management of large corporations. They were called the "dissenters" for their alternative religious memberships, and they pursued different career paths from the "old money" and aristocrats. The people who made the documentary felt that this bias cost England an "entrepreneurial" spirit that seemed stronger over the history of the U.S. It seems the Roman wealthy class felt constrained by the same ideas of avoiding business careers.
@@susannewcomer9614 I recently learned that most of the chocolate companies in England (Fry's, Cadbury's, etc.) were founded by Quakers who were, as you point out, dissenters.
You should read your book and upload on the channel as an audiobook! You have a great voice and you know how your text is supposed to be read, what to accentuate etc. Please, this would be great - I dont know if theres a way you can monetize a single video but I'd be happy to pay a small amount and perhaps others would too?
you're telling me refurbishing houses isn't "hard work"? sure just because they used slaves doesn't mean its not a legitimate and legal way of making money.
By the time of Augustus (20BC, or so) Rome had conquered Egypt & stolen all Egypt's gold. Egypt had spent centuries amassing the world's largest horde of gold. Rome then spent a century spending their stolen wealth. Rome stole from every conquered territory; but, Egypt was the biggest. It was the lack of further big conquests that started Rome down the road to financial insolvency & the failure of their empire.
@@fredh999harris8 Egypt was under the thumb of an old Macedonian family at the time of Rome's inheritance of Egypt. They barely had to fight to take it all they did was slowly kill off the Macedonian royal family until cleopatra did her best to use Mark Antony to take push the Roman's out and failed to do so. What I'm saying is nothing is stolen in war it's taken by force from people who also took the land and wealth by force. There is no morality to be found on either side but a victor and a loser.
Pompei had the night life scene even during Rome's reign. There were streets designated and controlled to specifically operate in an allocated area for the nightlife. You may also look into the Lupanare also known as the 'She Wolf's Den' where military men or people that had some cash to spare came to party. Out of site of the every day life of citizens. More likely located on the outer borders of the city. There they would have the festival of the Lupanare also where young unwed people would part take in hopes of being striked (symblic revalry) with the good luck of having a mate.
Your timing is a bit off, Davide. The Rothschild banking dynasty began in the mid 1700s. It financed Napoleon & all his wars. The Medici family banking interests began even earlier - in the 1300s. They had many rivals, too. Chinese & Japanese & Indian banking systems have existed for as long as people needed to borrow & were willing to pay interest. In other words - for thousands of years.
You must be talking about Gaias Elonus Muskii the chariot maker. And Jefftis Bezonus Magnus the shipping merchant. They could deliver in three months. An incredibly rapid delivery time.
Very interesting video. That the Roman financial elite invested in a manor similar to modern billionares is probably not an accident of history. The one missing element, that did not exist back then, was stock/ETF investments that are available to modern billionares. One question though, how were these fortunes taxed by the local, regional and empire (aka national) level authorities? Has any historical research been conducted in this area of civic structure? Could you produce a video on this topic?
A tax guidebook for senators would definitely be interesting. I know for sure that senatorial lands were exempt from any local taxes. A major factor in Rome turning into a centralized empire
I'm planning a video on taxation in ancient Rome. There were both land and poll taxes in the Roman world, along with customs duties and even estate taxes.
@@toldinstone That will be very interesting. I note that you did not mention income or sales tax. So income streams from properties were not taxed? Huge loop hole. It would be interesting to see how the ancient Roman tax system incentivised different behaviours from current tax systems such as that in the USA. Also, was tax evasion common? What were the penalties for tax evasion? What part of the Roman Emperor lead governments were responsible for taxation and collection? Was the army involved in collecting taxes? Also, did Rome tax provinces differently than Rome itself? Did Rome figure out how to extract money (maybe not called taxes, ie, protection or tribute) from client states or the "Friends of Rome"?
A very wealthy man could certainly keep millions of sestertii in the form of gold (either aurei or gold bars), but I suspect that the 60 million was at least partly in the form of easily salable assets like silver plate.
They also stored salt as a currency exchange. Salt was highly wanted by everyone. Used in exchange for land. Just as silk was used for exchange also. As were grains and olive oil and wine grapes imported from Tunisia as a protection tax. Mostly olive oil and grapes. Imported in wooden drums by the millions on ships to the Roman senate. There are existing Roman documents in Carthage stating the amount of Carthage tax to pay to the Roman senate for protection from war from the Punni (Puns). Just example of steady cash flow and commodity reserves.
Possible fact check for you toldinstone: Loan contracts were not fungible like "cash". Roman law according to the corpus juris civilis forbade the transfer of loan contracts more than one step from the issuer, where a procurator could get the debt "transferred" to him (with a right to collect it), but the debt officially was still owed to the man who loaned the money out.
wow the importance and trust in bookkeeping! i wonder if anyone with many properties all over the place might lose track of an estate and the estate is left alone to live off its profits (which hopefully would be positive). if ious were constantly traded was it easy to just forge them and only have it discovered when someone actually tried to cash it in? :-)
IIRC, they used a kind of abacus, a board with indentations to drop stones in to do arithmetic. Pebbles are calculi in Latin, from whence we get calculate and related words.
Love your content! I'm just wondering if maybe you could make your videos longer? Especially when you have sponsors. 1/8th of the video is an advertisement. If not, that's ok, just wondering. Thank you for the amazing videos!
you forgot - prison and gladiator owners requested slave owners to produce food and be paid by the goverment - that is non-stop money river into one or two richest people of rome you mentioned in the vid -
*YOU ARE AWESOME* My day is rejuvenated whenever you post a new video! An idea? Could you entertain taking an in depth look at womens roles/employment from ancient Greece to Roman times? Thank you for your great content.❣.
Thank you! That would be a fascinating topic - in fact, I've been thinking about making a whole miniseries on women in antiquity. The hard part is figuring out when to do it: my list of future topics just keeps getting longer...
Another reason that slaves remain tied to their “master” who was also master of the house. Upon receiving new slaves, much like receiving a bride, slaves must be welcomed into the home with the gods observing and rituals performed so that the transition into the house and by extension the family. Now, I’m sure not everyone did this, especially those with many slaves. But in every age we have the devout traditionalists and ones who are less averse to change. Though by and large Rome was very conservative and not prone to change without great push back.
It's a requirement for widespread private enterprises. There's little point in working to improve your business when the proceeds get swallowed up by corruption, and society prospers little if the most powerful and ruthless gobble up all the generated wealth for themselves.
Anybody playing the civilization game in the past 30 years knows the drill -> after the most basic inventions like pottery or the wheel you quickly need 'code of laws' or your civ won;t grow
I have read that Seneca had significant investments in Britain around the time of the revolt of Boudicca and that his business practices were less than ethical which contributed to the natives getting all restless & murderous.
For a limited time, you can get 40% off an annual subscription to Curiosity Stream by using the code ToldInStone:
curiositystream.com/ToldInStone
An interesting topic for a video: Were there any satire plays and/or dramas about Rome’s current leaders and current events during that time?
country estates, wow.. they were close to.us.
I already subbed to them, if not mistaken i used Your code :) .. Buying your book in a couple weeks too, holidays left me high and dry but ill be able to purchase it in 2 weeks time . Looking fwd to reading it mate . Cheers .
Income properties, asset diversification, house flipping, investment companies, and private bankers. Collectively an example of how in some regards the Roman world isn't that far from our own. Another fantastic video.
I'd watch an HGTV show about flipping insulae.
I have often thought that. Including the debauchery! Don’t forget “the downfall of the Roman Empire”!
And don't forget the most important, fleecing the lower classes who actually produce something through the state which they control.
@@gentronseven the poor produce that which is everywhere but finite, material. The rich produce that which is nowhere but infinite, imagination.
@@BlastinRope yes most of them imagine how to make actual competition illegal, how to print money and give it to themselves by the state ran bank, and new names to call these scams to keep the lower classes in the dark
"Most elite Romans made their money in the private sphere"
The biggest thing you learn time and time again when learning Roman history is that there really is nothing new under the sun.
Well there is one new thing I'm glad we've discovered, mouth wash. The Roman trick of using urine to whiten teeth left a bitter taste in my mouth.
@@stevyd
He's here all week folks. Don't forget to tip your waitress.
@@stevyd I meant they could've just chewed on mint or paisley or those kinds herbs
Exactly that's my favorite thing about learning about Rome. It's just another Human Empire, nothing special, what makes it so fascinating is learning how human it is, how human nature works, and how the more we change the more we stay the same. It's a portal to the past and a lesson in human understanding.
@@pharaohsmagician8329 Indeed indeed
Tiberius was very frugal and was able to never raise taxes during his reign. After the civil wars the peace of Augustus and its continuation under Tiberius caused real estate values to go very high in the city of Rome, Tiberius forbade landlords from tearing down housing of the poor in order to build luxury housing. When there was a big financial panic with banks failing, Tiberius lent out 100 million sesterces from his own funds at no interest for at least three years restoring liquidity and saving the economy. Things weren't that different back then .
Iirc, Tiberius’s story was different.
He proposed a loan amnesty for italics. The senate persuaded him to make this legislation not immediate, as Tiberius wanted initially, but to postpone it for 1 yr. The landlords, aka all senators, used this time to claim all mortgages which lead to mass defaults. Since all the cash was flowing only in one direction, a shortage of coins manifested. At which point Tiberius stepped in to save Rome from the fallout of his own decisions
@@fedorgalkin5018 Not his decision, his persuaded delay
@@JonatasAdoM It can be yet another story about the dangers of half-measures.
He could insist on his decision, invoking his auctoritas.
Or he could let the status quo evolve if he didn't want to antagonize the senate.
In the end he preferred to choose an option that hurt the common man so hard that it destabilized the economy of the most prosperous region of the empire.
@@fedorgalkin5018This is why everyone needs to study roman history in depth. There are so many lessons in economy, politics, society etc, even today, our senators find ways to ruin the most powerful economy so throughly that the poorest never break out from the brink of utter poverty.
Shalom, utterly poor.
I'm amazed at how "ordinary" this all sounds. People with money investing in apartment buildings, buying estates using paper contracts rather than cash, using banks for remote payments, etc. Really makes the Romans more human, so to speak.
Or us less human? I love learning these unique perspectives of humans past. And your insight required me to showy gratitude! I hope you stay happy with this path of learning about our journey to now!
Pretty easy to get wealthy when you don't have to pay your workers.
Uh, the ;as time I checked, then Romans were human. I think here you are going with this is how similar their civilization was to our own.
The more things change ....
Their politics were pretty "normal" too. Politicians try to enact land reform, to the ire of the wealthy, and get assassinated over it. Just like the 20th century
Just graduated from a prestigious university in Classical Civilizations- your channel has been immensely beneficial in filling in the gaps that was either not taught or that I might have missed and I thank you for these great videos.
What was the prestigious University? 🙂
@@jonhall2274 University of Phoenix…
devry university?
@@Av-vd3wk nice man!
😂 University of Phoenix is only prestigious to the students they manage to brain wash until they hit the real world
Truly some things never change. Politicians still circumvent the law to make outrageous profits in deals that would be crimes for the rest of us.
Like the Pelosi's and many other senators and representatives of both parties using insider trading to amass large fortunes. If your salary is around 200,000 but you are worth over one hundred million something's wrong
always interesting content. this was a great and informative watch!
Enjoyable and informative as always!
Here's another idea for a video for you:
A day in the Roman law courts.
What would it have looked like if, say, somebody accused you of murder? Where would you be held? How would the trial go forward? Or conversely, how might a typical day look if you worked as a jurist in the law courts of ancient Rome? Could be a very interesting subject.
If Apuleius' Metamorphosis is accurate, it seems something of a bowl or cup filled with water and punctured with holes would be used to count down the time for speaking which is an interesting tidbit I learned.
Glad you enjoyed it! That would be an interesting video - I'll add it to the list.
@@toldinstone Thank you so much for your response. I'm happy to hear it's on the list. The idea came to mind upon watching your hypothetical time travel series.
Keep up your great, informative content! I'll happily keep supporting your channel however I can
I think this would be interesting too. You might try getting a modern legal expert's comments.
Just bought your book and I absolutely love it. I was skeptical because I don’t read much but the way it was presented was great!!
“Roman Senators were prohibited by law from direct involvement in commerce”
We really have regressed as a society
In the commerce between empires, not prohibited from internal commerce. Not as great as you think.
No, no we haven't.
@@chemical_ko755 yes we suck a lot more. Now I cant be hetero and fuck men. Because that would make me gay
Get your minds out of the gutter, silly children. We're talking about money and an order of things here
@@thessop9439 based active guy
toldinstone: Very good historians like you, since you mentioned “apartments”, should do a computer generated video of the common people living in these, the sizes, cooking areas if any, their everyday lives, schooling, where they worked, wages, etc.(no one ever talks or details this!)
@Haasva:Thank you.
What is a computer generated video?
Odysseus has a video with Mary Beard where she discusses the lives of everyday Romans and talks about the insulae apartments.
@@LiminalQueenMedia: I’ve seen Beard’s videos before and they’re excellent!
I just this minute finished a 1 hour video on what I almost wanted that you recommended.
Thank you!
@@roberttelarket4934 Of Course! I admire her work and the channel I mentioned. Always high quality content, to the point where I have a hard time believing it's made for UA-cam.
Thanks!
This is a super super interesting video. Please more just like this talking about economics, coins, precious metal, the luxury of the elite, corruption, and trade. This is perfect. Please make a part 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 of this
This video answered a lot of my questions about how wealthy ancient Romans invested their cash. Thank you.
This is sooo interesting as someone in finance. Please make more videos on ancient banking.
5:56 "These slaves were allowed to keep part of their earnings, and could eventually use their savings to buy their freedom."
Hits a little too close to home.
WOW WORKING TODAY IS LIKE SLAVERY AMIRITE GUISE
We aren't so different after all lol
I love debt slavery
The only thing different is the government can't just come in and kill you or abuse you whenever it wanted to, literally the only difference.
i really appreciate how in your chapters that brake up the video you tell us which portion is the add
Wow, this is an incredibly interesting topic. Keep up the great work, man!
Is there any record of the wealthiest Romans passing down their wealth in terms of family dynasties that might have contributed (eventually) to the rise of early feudal states?
During the republic and empire, that sort of wealth transference was common, especially in ‘consular’ patrician families. Some wealthy Roman families maintained prominent administrative positions under the early barbarian regimes, but this was mostly gone by the mid 500’s CE.
Not entirely sure, but the late empire had a system similar to serfdom slowly replace slavery
None that we know of. Historians have investigated this deeply, but it appears to be the hard truth that few fortunes survive invasion, revolution a general collapse of urban society.
When people around me tell me that their house, their land, their gold protects from the worst when the bad times come I laugh at them.
Their wealth did help fuel the myth of leprechaun's pots of gold, since everyone hid their money underground before leaving a troubled community.
@@michaelrenper796 Anyone who naively believes that has either never had true hardship, or seen just how quickly those riches can not only go kaput, but in turn, turn you in *THE* target. 🤦♂️
Fascinating. What did they spend their money on? It would be interesting to hear your take on what conspicuous consumption looked liked for Romans. This topic is especially interesting considering the current trend of wealth disparity we are experiencing.
Stay tuned for next Friday's video...
He posted a video not too long ago about this type of fish that became a status symbol and costed thousands for a decent sized one.
Another great video! It always amazes me how you answer questions that have been on my mind, but I never got around to asking. Thanks again!
Didn't know Seneca was so rich. I've always loved his works on stoicism...this kinda hurts the way I see them now. Pretty easy to be a stoic when you're a millionaire.
At least he dodged the hedonist millionaire trap
Epictetus was a stoic who lived his upbringing a slave however. Despite his fame, he refused wealth in exchange for a simpler life in poverty
Yeah, but Seneca was forced to commit suicide by his pupil Nero.
Be wealthy doesn't mean you never worked, you never experienced disgracee and such, Seneca's work also brings inspiration of some philosophies too.
@@mariano98ify Exactly! Most people who have become wealthy definitely worked for it. Not everyone who has become wealthy did so through dishonest means
I can watch and listen to these ToldinStone videos all day, without bleenking, with my jaw on the floor. It fascinates me how our ancestors lived. Thank you for your great vids👍
History channel may be dead yet thankfully we got you on youtube
'conspicuous consumption' is such an interesting concept. thanks for the video
You’re literally my favorite UA-camr
Great video. You continue to amaze me with both interesting and unsual topics in your videos. I once found your channel, a video showing not so known Roman buildings in modern Rome. The videos come like pearls on a string, how do you do it? We love it. In school I got to know "about" Rome. You let us "know" Rome, and the Romans.
And I am looking so much forward to read your book, I just received it as a Xmas present.
To watch high quality fact driven video watch told in stone!! Great plug for curiosity stream! Well played!
I've randomly found your channel while self isolating with covid. Thank you for the engaging content, it reminds me of a young American unofficial tour guide who gave groups of tourists tours of the colloseum when I visited in 1999. I'd love to go back soon!
I'm very glad you enjoy my videos. Hope you feel better soon!
Keep up the good vids my mans
Another great and informative video. Absolutely love your work, long may it continue !
Thank you Garrett for a really fascinating video. Could you please consider doing a future video on how Romans kept tracked of their wealth. Did they have accountants and how did they keep their books - presumably their was no double entry accounts? How did banks (even the one man banks) keep tracks of loans? Would love to hear any insights you might have.
big money and banking was reserved for the Patriciate, just like in the medieval.
the concept of lower class people making bank deposits is a development of the 1900s.
the bureaucratic babel of our times was nonexistent in those times. It was more like Mafia accounting. simple and straight to the point. The Dons took everything from you if you stopped paying protection. They kept you around like you keep a chicken or a cow. For eggs and milk and meat and flakes and hide
THANK YOU SO MUCH. I LEARNED A LOT.
3:28 The thing I remember most about modern apartment living was the weird smells, It must have been horrific in Roman times. Ancient Rome must have been a safe place if one kept a good chunk of one's wealth in a iron safe
I live in apartment building for 15 years and never smelled anything weird ...i also go camping regularly and people there pee everywhere and still i almost never got any smell ...nature is much better in absorbing then people think
@@dzonikg Of course, if you live there, you'll likely tune it out without realizing it over time
I'm in Apartment VIIB. I have a wonderful view of the garum plant.
They didn't cook in their apartments so that probably cut down on the smells. They gave their food allotments and purchases to a restaurant on or near rheir bottom floor which cooked it and served it to them in return for a portion. That portion was sold at a profit to others. The remains of these eateries survive in Pompei and Heraculum along with other well perserved Roman urban ruins. Some of their menus and prices painted on walls, or carved on their floors, have even survived. Their privies were out in back, just as until less than a century ago in much of the US, and even more recently in Europe. Plus many of them may have been connected to their sewage system. Probably smelled no worse than much of New York City in the 1940's. So it might not be nearly as bad as you think, especially if your neighborhood was cleanly.
@@DarkMatterX1 Mmmm..garum. I wonder if it's anything like the fermented fish sauce found in SE Asia... I've been to parts of town where they make it and the smell...holy cow, the smell...
I’m already a huge Curiosity Stream fan. Best docs.
3:30 Teams of slaves trained as firemen and builders. In that case, was it possible that those same slaves were first ordered in secret to begin the fire? So that the damaged house can be bought for a good price.
According to ancient commenters and historians many Romans suspected Crassus of doing exactly this. Due to his political power bring charges against him would be very dangerous and quite likely deadly. Can anyone say "Hillary Clinton"? So if he did do this he got away with it. That is until the Parthians in modern Iraq captured him alive and poured molten gold down his throat for his greed.
@@brianmccarthy5557 you could literally point at any politican in office right now and say they've fucked over someone and not be wrong.
You said in the video that the average annual salary was 1000 sestertii, that pay would be worth 250 silver denarii, which in turn was worth 10 gold aureus. During Augustus reign the aureus had 8 grams of gold. So the average person made 80 grams of gold a year. The person at the start of the video left behind 60 million sestertii, which would be 600 thousand aureus, or 5 TONS of gold.
At 2000 an ounce 1 ton of gold is worth 64.3 million dollars.
How are 600000 aureus equal to 5 tons of gold?
Saw the title and thumbnail and knew before clicking...this was a toldinstone video and it was going to be a banger
I've been reading "a history of private life." So far, its been an extremely thorough description of roman society. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys this video. :)
Who wrote it?
@@paulkoza8652 Philippe Aries and Georges Duby were the general editors, assisted by Harvard i believe
@@paulkoza8652 They're both socio-economic historians. Experts specifically on the medieval period but both cooperated to make a history of all private life. It's a 5 volume series spanning from the early roman republic to ww1.
@@hashbrownz1999 Thanks. I'll check it out.
That's a classic book. Probably one of the most fascinating history books I've ever read even though the topic is so mundane.
Nearly at 200k Subs my friend keep it up 👌
Can you do a show on how romans got through winters? Not all of them had glass windows. I don't believe they wore togas or robes year round as shown on art. They were already importing silk but that is not sufficient to stay warm in winters. This always interested me.
@@दीपकनागर-थ5छ I actually looked it up, the Romans first relied on their own wool supply and production 1st. Then linen from Egypt was 2nd since Egypt was closer. 3rd was cotton from India and 4th silk from the Chinese. It makes more sense now that they used wool first and foremost to stay warm during winters as it is proven to work well against the cold.
I recorrected the list.
I like how whenever I check the comments on a toldinstone video someone's always saying 'If you like these videos you'd love his book!'
Because it is true!
I can confirm
Great video. One topic you didn't touch on is insider trading. Given that there was such a strong connection between wealth and political power, surely it must have played a significant role? Buying up essential supplies just before a declaration of war you know is coming for example?
This everyday economy topic is very interesting.
Speaking of slavery, Id like to hear more about it. There are many interesting topics such as what they were actually worth compared to estate and salary, their reproduction rate, and owner’s responsibilities, slave sources.
I know there are probably no direct sources on roman slave economics but still would like to hear what you got
The Slavs were the direct source of slaves for the Romans. The root word for Slavs is slaves in old latin. The Romans perfered people closest in nationality and similar looks/culture to them than an exotic foreign slave.
@@franchi8601 Arent slavs a bit late for Rome?
@@fedorgalkin5018 No. The slavic slave trade has existed for longer than written history has existed in the region.
@@zertyuz
I mean, slavs did not exist in the period we are discussing. There were Veneti, but the first mentions of them date after the Republic.
@@franchi8601the word slave in english comes from the latin sclavus.
Esclave en français.
Schiavo in italiano.
Could you please talk about personal ID in Rome.
I always wondered why slaves didn't escape and started a new life somewhere else.
It's not like the had picture IDs, even with all our technology until very recently it was possible to disappear and start a new life with a new identity.
I'm sure it's still possible.
How did they keep track of people?
I would guess maybe, that education (or lack of) has much to do with it. I think it was Octavian in the Rome HBO series who was captured to be a slave but was brought instead to Caesar because his noble way of speaking stood out. I think also many slaves were branded as a punishment for running away, or assuming they did run away successfully they could potentially be captured by a harsher owner. I’m sure also conformity plays a huge part in it. It’s nice to think there were some successful runaway stories. And of course there’s always Spartacus.
Great video. Highly provocative. I love it.
Due to a book I'm reading right now and its extensive use of the terms and forms, an idea for a future video: Roman theatre and literature of plays and what do the terms mean: there's comoedia, satura, mimus - and fabula and tragicomoedia and and and...
The book deals, in part, with placing Petronius' Satyricon into these categories by the Romans' . The fact that it's hard to place may have led to almost all of it having been lost - and most of what we know about the real Petronius lost as well (apart from a few lines by Tacitus et al, which led to the likely completely twisted impression that gave us Leo Genn in Quo Vadis).
Apparently "comoedia" is *not* a comedy as we understand it, but rather a fairly strict, moralistic and even stagnant form of play that were intended to be funny but within very strict limits of what could be written or shown. "Satura" wasn't merely satire but did have strong comedic elements, let's say like our Saturday Night Live. Whereas "mimus" was like... improv? slapstick? I thought it'd be easy to google these, but you either get the dumbed down (and apparently quite wrong) explanations, or it's paywalled academia.
thanks for another great video! 🙏
Nothing new under the sun. Remarkable how economic and financial practises withstood the test of time. This was insightful.
A book on Roman money management and strategies would be neat. Definitely some knowledge that could be useful today.
@Rəşad Məlikov I didn’t even think about books written during that time but that would be even cooler. I was originally thinking of a historians understanding of it
Like so many of your videos, this is fascinating. I was especially struck that activity in trade was proscribed for the elite--as it was much later for English aristocrats.
I had the same impression that you had. Years ago, there was an interesting documentary about the greater amount of entrepreneurs in the U.S. vs. England. The documentary pointed out that the wealthiest people in England were not supposed to take degrees in business, nor to pursue careers in things other than law, publishing, university professors, or Church of England clergy because "trade" was beneath them. Apparently the non-Anglican Protestants such as Methodists were the ones who would do degrees in business and would take jobs in management of large corporations. They were called the "dissenters" for their alternative religious memberships, and they pursued different career paths from the "old money" and aristocrats. The people who made the documentary felt that this bias cost England an "entrepreneurial" spirit that seemed stronger over the history of the U.S. It seems the Roman wealthy class felt constrained by the same ideas of avoiding business careers.
@@susannewcomer9614 I recently learned that most of the chocolate companies in England (Fry's, Cadbury's, etc.) were founded by Quakers who were, as you point out, dissenters.
Congratulations on your success with the advertisers.
More videos like this, please!
You should read your book and upload on the channel as an audiobook! You have a great voice and you know how your text is supposed to be read, what to accentuate etc. Please, this would be great - I dont know if theres a way you can monetize a single video but I'd be happy to pay a small amount and perhaps others would too?
Any suggestions on further reading that specifically addresses investments in Roman culture?
You might want to check out Sitta von Reden's "Money in Classical Antiquity."
Thank you very much - informative, as always.
I am SHOCKED that the answer is not, "They earned it through hard work."
Really tho
I smell socialism. Must purge. Must purge
The envious ones say that 😛
you're telling me refurbishing houses isn't "hard work"? sure just because they used slaves doesn't mean its not a legitimate and legal way of making money.
@@blackkennedy3966 using a slave isn't hard work all u have to do is feed them very little and give little water if romans even gave slave water
Love the video's, keep up the good work!
Thanks for this videos love them. Thanks!
I bought the book last year, very good read!
ive been wondering this, it seems you read my mind with the topics of these viedos
I'd love a video on the places Rome got it's gold and silver - I know about the mines in Spain but that's it
Dacia?
By the time of Augustus (20BC, or so) Rome had conquered Egypt & stolen all Egypt's gold. Egypt had spent centuries amassing the world's largest horde of gold. Rome then spent a century spending their stolen wealth.
Rome stole from every conquered territory; but, Egypt was the biggest. It was the lack of further big conquests that started Rome down the road to financial insolvency & the failure of their empire.
I hope to make a video on Roman mining. In the meantime, if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy my video on how much gold the Romans had.
@@fredh999harris8 Egypt was under the thumb of an old Macedonian family at the time of Rome's inheritance of Egypt. They barely had to fight to take it all they did was slowly kill off the Macedonian royal family until cleopatra did her best to use Mark Antony to take push the Roman's out and failed to do so. What I'm saying is nothing is stolen in war it's taken by force from people who also took the land and wealth by force. There is no morality to be found on either side but a victor and a loser.
Can anyone recommend any reading on the roman economy in general and its development from the late republic to late antiquity?
Love your videos! Can you make one on ancient wine production and trade?
I have a video on that topic coming at the end of January!
Could you make a video about Roman nightlife
Pompei had the night life scene even during Rome's reign. There were streets designated and controlled to specifically operate in an allocated area for the nightlife. You may also look into the Lupanare also known as the 'She Wolf's Den' where military men or people that had some cash to spare came to party. Out of site of the every day life of citizens. More likely located on the outer borders of the city. There they would have the festival of the Lupanare also where young unwed people would part take in hopes of being striked (symblic revalry) with the good luck of having a mate.
Love this channel!🤩
Omg you got sponsored!! Big time baby!
Look out, world!
loving the frequency lately! I always get excited when i see a Toldinstone video in my sub box. keep up the good work dude 👍🏻
Damn that was extremely advanced stuff. Even the commerce of loans, modern banks only started to do that a few decades ago. Very cool
Ancient Rome really fell because of CDOs. 2000 years later history repeated itself. 😂
Commerce of loans goes back at least several centuries, if not longer, in the modern world.
Your timing is a bit off, Davide.
The Rothschild banking dynasty began in the mid 1700s. It financed Napoleon & all his wars.
The Medici family banking interests began even earlier - in the 1300s. They had many rivals, too.
Chinese & Japanese & Indian banking systems have existed for as long as people needed to borrow & were willing to pay interest. In other words - for thousands of years.
@@rickb3078😂😂
You must be talking about Gaias Elonus Muskii the chariot maker. And Jefftis Bezonus Magnus the shipping merchant. They could deliver in three months. An incredibly rapid delivery time.
ceezus beezis
Very interesting video. That the Roman financial elite invested in a manor similar to modern billionares is probably not an accident of history. The one missing element, that did not exist back then, was stock/ETF investments that are available to modern billionares. One question though, how were these fortunes taxed by the local, regional and empire (aka national) level authorities? Has any historical research been conducted in this area of civic structure? Could you produce a video on this topic?
A tax guidebook for senators would definitely be interesting.
I know for sure that senatorial lands were exempt from any local taxes. A major factor in Rome turning into a centralized empire
I'm planning a video on taxation in ancient Rome. There were both land and poll taxes in the Roman world, along with customs duties and even estate taxes.
@@toldinstone That will be very interesting. I note that you did not mention income or sales tax. So income streams from properties were not taxed? Huge loop hole. It would be interesting to see how the ancient Roman tax system incentivised different behaviours from current tax systems such as that in the USA. Also, was tax evasion common? What were the penalties for tax evasion? What part of the Roman Emperor lead governments were responsible for taxation and collection? Was the army involved in collecting taxes? Also, did Rome tax provinces differently than Rome itself? Did Rome figure out how to extract money (maybe not called taxes, ie, protection or tribute) from client states or the "Friends of Rome"?
How and where do you keep 60 mio Sestertii in cash? How much cash did a rich Roman carry around (or his cash slave)?
A very wealthy man could certainly keep millions of sestertii in the form of gold (either aurei or gold bars), but I suspect that the 60 million was at least partly in the form of easily salable assets like silver plate.
They also stored salt as a currency exchange. Salt was highly wanted by everyone. Used in exchange for land. Just as silk was used for exchange also. As were grains and olive oil and wine grapes imported from Tunisia as a protection tax. Mostly olive oil and grapes. Imported in wooden drums by the millions on ships to the Roman senate. There are existing Roman documents in Carthage stating the amount of Carthage tax to pay to the Roman senate for protection from war from the Punni (Puns). Just example of steady cash flow and commodity reserves.
Possible fact check for you toldinstone: Loan contracts were not fungible like "cash". Roman law according to the corpus juris civilis forbade the transfer of loan contracts more than one step from the issuer, where a procurator could get the debt "transferred" to him (with a right to collect it), but the debt officially was still owed to the man who loaned the money out.
This legal problem was only solved during the middle ages, when loan contracts were made freely exchangeable.
at 7:30 for those who care: "debt circulated almost as freely as cash"
An important detail; thank you
wow the importance and trust in bookkeeping! i wonder if anyone with many properties all over the place might lose track of an estate and the estate is left alone to live off its profits (which hopefully would be positive). if ious were constantly traded was it easy to just forge them and only have it discovered when someone actually tried to cash it in? :-)
Try keeping track of this with Roman numerals. Ex. Try multiplying 768 by 91 in Roman numerals. Forget decimal places. Just do it.
IIRC, they used a kind of abacus, a board with indentations to drop stones in to do arithmetic. Pebbles are calculi in Latin, from whence we get calculate and related words.
Oh. How the past comes alive here! BUY THE BOOK!
Love your content! I'm just wondering if maybe you could make your videos longer? Especially when you have sponsors. 1/8th of the video is an advertisement. If not, that's ok, just wondering. Thank you for the amazing videos!
I hope to make them a bit longer, especially once I return to posting only one video a week.
Very interesting!
Did ancient Romans really live in apartment buildings? What did they look like, floor plans? Where were kitchens, toilets, etc.?
Insula were very common and very basic. That’s why public baths and takeaway food was common in Rome.
This is such a cool channel.
1:35 Do I see those gentlemen wearing hoodies?
you forgot - prison and gladiator owners requested slave owners to produce food and be paid by the goverment - that is non-stop money river into one or two richest people of rome you mentioned in the vid -
Nice video about Roman businessmen and investor.
6:24 maybe we could learn from the Romans, considering our representatives' proclivity to engage in insider trading
6:00 or in modern day, a rich kid artist.
*YOU ARE AWESOME* My day is rejuvenated whenever you post a new video!
An idea? Could you entertain taking an in depth look at womens roles/employment from ancient Greece to Roman times?
Thank you for your great content.❣.
Thank you! That would be a fascinating topic - in fact, I've been thinking about making a whole miniseries on women in antiquity. The hard part is figuring out when to do it: my list of future topics just keeps getting longer...
Another reason that slaves remain tied to their “master” who was also master of the house. Upon receiving new slaves, much like receiving a bride, slaves must be welcomed into the home with the gods observing and rituals performed so that the transition into the house and by extension the family. Now, I’m sure not everyone did this, especially those with many slaves. But in every age we have the devout traditionalists and ones who are less averse to change. Though by and large Rome was very conservative and not prone to change without great push back.
Seems like rule of law is the basis of all prosperous societies.
It's a requirement for widespread private enterprises. There's little point in working to improve your business when the proceeds get swallowed up by corruption, and society prospers little if the most powerful and ruthless gobble up all the generated wealth for themselves.
Anybody playing the civilization game in the past 30 years knows the drill -> after the most basic inventions like pottery or the wheel you quickly need 'code of laws' or your civ won;t grow
@toldinstone who had the most prestige a super rich man or a politician?
2:31 look at the size of those hands 😂
I have read that Seneca had significant investments in Britain around the time of the revolt of Boudicca and that his business practices were less than ethical which contributed to the natives getting all restless & murderous.
What was the fresco in the first couple seconds?
That's a detail of a fresco from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor - originally at Boscoreale (near Pompeii), now in the Met.
@@toldinstone thanks!
Sponsored?!?!? Nice bro
Thank you
“Governors were expected to plunder their provinces” nothing has changed.
They made fortunes like they are made everywhere. Lots of people work and make one person rich.
And what army of soldiers guarded these "Iron Chests" filled with silver & gold?
Could you do a video about what Roman kids were aught in school?
How many products where available?
What?
Was there an equivalent of the Sunday times "how to spend it" section for those living it up in Rome??