How did the Romans assimilate the cultures that they conquered so well that they don’t exist today (Ilyrians, Thracians, etc.) and why did the Basques in particular survive?
The loss of pre-latin languages (particularly in the Balkans) is in large part due to the migration of people groups, as they actively displaced the native peoples as opposed to simply ruling them as the Romans did for the most part. Emperor Justinian for example spoke Thracian in the 6th century, the language was only wiped out after the Bulgars conquered the land themselves. As for the Basques, it's a small mountainous region of little strategic importance, so the Romans didn't bother converting them or sending colonists. The same thing is happening today in southeast Asia, where the mountain peoples still speak completely different languages to the surrounding population.
My suspicion about the Basques, is the answer is "Perversity" as in, they just refused to change, and Roma just thought it was too much trouble to do anything about it. As long as they made no direct challenges, we know that some very strongly distinct cultures survived relatively intact for centuries under the Romans. Judea for example. It was extremely wealthy, and still distinctly "Judean" for hundreds of years after first being annexed.
I’d love to know more about roman music! Was there a distinction between secular and sacred music? What records do we still have? I have such admiration for your channels/podcast and your dedication to historical accuracy!
How common was it for regular folk to know how to swim in Ancient Roman and Greek times? Was it considered a skill or was it a mundane thing like we think of today or was it reserved to special troops and such only? And was swimming on beach was a relaxing activity for them - like we think of today or was the beach itself was the main spot for relaxing and occasionally getting into sea without going too far? (i.e. like using it as a natural bath in a way)
Most people worked on other people's land in agriculture. People who work on other people's land in agriculture don't have leisure to hang around on the beach for whole days. Ask Mexican or Romanian farm workers how often they go swimming.
@@kyleanuar9090 Capri was a getaway for rich and emperors, yes, but I was asking about utility of the beaches and overall knowledge of swimming in the era. I don't remember reading about anything related to swimming in ancient sources aside from some germanic warriors swimming across rivers for taking position to surprise romans. Like if you would fall from a boat as a regular folk living in Rome, would you drown and so on. @eljanrimsa5843 Not exactly related to what I'm asking though. First part of my question was related to being able to swim as a regular person. Second part was about people who go to beach already, like Garret mentioned in this video. My question is do these people go there and also swim like we do it today, or do they just chill on the beach, build sand castles and stay on the shore?
@@eljanrimsa5843 do not know about Romania, but I have certainly seen actual basically subsistence-farm communities where swimming in a river/lake is a daily thing in summer... I imagine day-workers would have went to the river on mid-summer afternoons when work is scarce (how else would they get away from the heat in the long dry season)
Italy is full of rivers some of which are too wide to swim across safely. And the entire place is a long peninsular that had populous towns all along the coast. So, slaves aside, many many Romans lived almost on top of water they could have swum in. And they also had public holidays . . .@@eljanrimsa5843
I've got a question: I went on a trip on the Aegean recently and went to such places as to Ephesus, the Acropolis at Athens, and Lindos. At these ruins I was stunned at how smooth the surface of the original Roman/Greek streets were. This was so commonplace that I began to wonder that since this was a result of the millions of tourists eroding the surface as they walked, was this also a problem back in the day? Do we have evidence that they made efforts to roughen the streets at any point or did ancient Greco-Roman city streets become slip and slides when it rained?
I've seen marble steps here in Chicago that only needed 70 years to get deeply dished from foot traffic. I'd guesstimate 7 cm a century being worn away, and that was indoors
That is interesting. I have seen similar but more shallow wear here in Auckland, New Zealand, in buildings that are about 90 to 110 years old. 70 mm which is almost three inches is a lot though, did you mean that much, or was that the metric thing tripping you up?. Was that in a public building?. The ones I have seen here that still have "Colonial Times"* stairs in place, are public, but not very heavy use, they were in a three story Professional Services building, that was built around the early 1900s. They might have 25 mm worn off the edge. *We were first Established as a country in 1840, and Auckland was building about that time too, but not in Marble :)@@ZacLowing
it depends on the marble and it is also possible that acidic rain has increased the erosion by pitting the marble which then makes it more susceptible to erosion by friction from soles. Acid rain was generally much less frequent in the ancient world though volcanoes and the like could cause brief spells. At the time of use the streets/walkways would also often be covered in straw/mud and also even wooden boards at times. Slipping would definitely still be an issue in rain however.
The mosaics in the thumbnail are from Piazza Armerina, in Sicily, you can google them. I find them amazing, you can see girls in bikinis playing with a ball, exercising and running, it could be a modern depiction of girls having fun on a beach. The Romans loved to visit the beach, after all summer in Italy was and still is hot, and with so much coastline most people are not very far from the sea, so just like the Italians today they loved their beach clubs.
Nowadays we repaint our walls regularly. The Romans had frescoes on their walls. Did they regularly redecorate their walls or they lived in the same room generation after generation without redoing it?
seems like at least some of the wall paintings were very much temporary because we find election-campaign images as part of the décor in eateries & courtyards expecting foot-traffic... also, some villas seem to display festival or season related decorations, often painted in layers atop each other... I think the maximum amount of paint layers archeologists have found was around 30 or 35. however, when it comes to true murals, like the ones we associate with Pompeii, they weren't cheap, and were usually seen as a long-time investment (not that it always worked out...)
Can't wait for your next appearance on Forehead Fables! In these videos and there, you show a great ability to stay grounded and funny/real without misrepresenting what youre explaining
One funny piece of graffiti written during an election, not sure if it was Greek or Roman, said: vote for (name) his grandmother likes him! For some reason that has stuck with me for many years and is weirdly funny.
Three of Plautus' plays (Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus, and a third whose title i forget) formed the inspiration for the musical 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'. It is also a miniature lesson in Roman theater. In the song 'Comedy Tonight', on the line 'Open up the curtain!', the curtain is supposed to be dropped, as was done in Roman theaters. Also, the action takes place in front of three houses, which was standard in Roman comedies. Stephen Sondheim, of course, was responsible for the book and the music, but one of his collaborators was Larry Gelbart, who went on to develop the television series 'M*A*S*H'.
I’m loving your second book, Garrett, thanks for writing it!! It’s a perfect night read in how it’s structured! The first one is pretty much out of stock over here in Europe, couldn’t find it anywhere, I hope they print more soon! 🙏🏻
@@toldinstonefootnotes Lovely! I'll be waiting and monitoring Amazon in the meantime 😊Thanks again for making education so entertaining and for shining a light on all of these questions! It really makes the classical era feel so much more alive!
The collection of witty retorts in Bk 2 of Macrobius retains a great deal of its original sparkle. And the Lives of Suetonius and Plutarch contain many a bon mot.
Some later Roman gallows humour, was the execution of St Lawrence in the 3rd century. He was roasted on a grid iron in the Forum. After a while he said “I’m well done on this side, turn me over!”
Thank you very much for answering my question! I was asking because you mentioned the romans bathing nude in the deleted roman vacation video while at the smae time we have the roman mosaic in sicily that show what can called bikinis
I have 2 questions for the next Q&A: - What did Macedon look like in the Archaic and Hellenic periods and what were its relations with the 'more developped' city-states to the south? - What caused the Greek population to grow rapid enough to facilitate colonisation of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and why did this not also happen in neighbouring regions like the ones that were colonised? Btw, great video. Love your channel!
What discoveries, analysis, new archeological techniques are in the process, or you might reasonably expect, or hope for in the future? (After archeologist started looking for, finding and analyzing pollen, I wondered if in the future analyzing the dirt that is brushed away might contain evidence of textiles, wood, etc... ) Good channel.
What was Roman music like? Did they enjoy multiple genres? Did their territorial acquisitions influence their music tastes as they pushed further east?
Loved the video, as always. But, as I visited Sicily earlier this year and spent a wonderful couple of hours at Villa Romana de Casale, I was hoping the "bikini girls" would have been mentioned specifically. Thanks for all of your videos.
What common modern day foods (prepared meals) are most like those found in the classical world? Always curious about the links to the past that are not so often thought about.
Pita with herbs and olive oil, as it is commonly seen in many Adriatic countries & the middle east. also, certain versions of salty Bulgarian dry Feta use Thracian recipes dating back to the 3rd/4th century AD.
You mentioned sandcastles. I can't help but think that since "castles" as we know them were a later invention, the romans must have had some other name for what they were building at the beach?
Reading about the recent accounts of Orcas (Killer Whales) attacking and sinking ships in the Strait of Gibraltar (4 ships sunk in the last 2 years), reminded me of the horrific story of Claudius butchering an Orca, and made me wonder: Are there any accounts of Orcas sinking, or attacking, ships in antiquity?
You mentioned Satyricon. And I was wondering if you could do a video about Fellini’s Satyricon. Fellini respected that there are only fragments extant in his script, which causes some drastic segues. In the proposed video, perhaps you could deal with how faithful Fellini was to depicting Roman life. I’ve often thought while watching the film that he was in a way trying to depict life of beings on another planet, with strange inexplicable behaviors. It is a great film and was a departure from his former style. I’ve always liked his technique of while you are watching all this weirdness going on, he will suddenly have someone looking directly into the lens, where you become the strange thing going on… Thank you for considering this idea…
What would the experience for the deaf and hard of hearing Romans be like in terms of daily life, legal proceedings, etc.? Were they viewed and treated differently by other citizens, was there some sort of way for them to communicate? Aids to improve hearing or supposed cures for hearing loss?
How far south did the Roman world reach on the Atlantic Coast of Africa? There is a city on the coast of Morocco called Lixus, did they explore farther>
I'm curious at the moment about the history of Naples as a bilingual Latin/Greek city. Was it perhaps for a time the quintessential bilingual place in the Roman world, and how long did this persist?
I really do recommend Plautus' Aulularia for anyone wanting to get a sense of Greco-Roman humor and how it would still somewhat hold up today. Now, if you're into insult comedy, I suggest Michelle Lovric's "How to Insult, Abuse and Insinuate in Classical Latin", which is a collection of insults and verbal abuse that proeminent romans threw at each other. Frankly, I think in that regard, they'd put us to shame
QN: Did the Romans have a concept of "progress", i.e. a gradual betterment of the human condition through technological and societal improvements? Background: There have been great changes in the way a lot of the world lives since the Victorian era, and these changes were long considered to mark progress. Our modern era is particularly marked by very rapid technological change. Did the Romans feel the same way about "progress" or did they inhabit a constant cultural and technological present, with changes so slow that they were hardly perceived by the average citizen?
Not a question, but an observation: You state that the most expensive apartments were on the first floor, with things getting sleazier the higher you went. This was exactly the same as in relatively modern, western culture, UNTIL THE INVENTION OF THE ELEVATOR, after which the upper floors became the more posh, desirable ones.
Does anyone know how was the access of those apartment buildings found in Rome? If rich and poor cohabitated in the same buildings, the rich occupying the lower floors and the poor the higher ones, do we know if they had common or separate access to their apartments? Internal or external access? I doubt a rich Roman would like poor neighbors, sometimes seasonal workers, walk the same corridors (but maybe I'm wrong). How did the rich ensure the safety of their homes and belongings? (even if I guess they had heavy doors and locks)
Modern Italian cities have the same kind of (19th century?) buildings with shops on the ground floor, a "piano nobile" with large flats on the first floor, and less spacious flats on the upper floors, all using the same staircase which becomes more narrow higher up. Late mediaeval and early modern "tenement" buildings in Scottish cities also used to have grand folks on the first floor and ordinary people crammed together above. That faded out when rich townsfolk started building their own houses in the 18th century and poor folk took up all the rooms. In British cities that process has been reversed, with grand Victorian family homes being broken up by slum landlords into a multitude of rabbit hutches for those who can just about afford not to live in a cardboard box. Whereas the very latest (21st century) buildings have separate entrances and stairs/lifts for the rich and poor.
Seems to me when in respect to rooms, that what it was to be admired was not the added decoration but the room itself. Today we dont admire our rooms that much, they are built to be functional and cheap, so we care much more about the stuff that goes in it, rather than the stuff that is part of it. I don't know, just rambling.
This is less of an ancient Roman Question but of a medieval Roman one. Mainly in how the Romans assimilated into Arab culture during the rise of the Caliphate
it's odd, to us, that the roman idea of the best apartment wasn't at the top, but the bottom. (it probably had something to do with stairs. this has survived in the Italians calling the first floor the piano nobile) this, however, was an age when food consumption, bathing and one's(ahem)daily ablutions were usually carried out *not* in one's domicile, but at places purpose built for such activities.
the idea of rooftop flats being small and oddly shaped, as well as less convenient, was fairly common down to the 19th century... certainly, in industrial tenements the cheapest floors were either the top floors or the basement apartments. the idea of a raised hall did exist in later villa's and castles in the middle-ages, however, this was due to the fact that the first floor would be taken up by workshops (requiring the ability to deliver heavy goods by cart) or stables for the horses. at that time, usually the servants/slaves would live next to the workshop but within thesame house. it seems, for stately homes, that the chief apartments moved to the first floor during the renascence, when sculptured gardens and such became a thing again.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 the difference between first and ground floors needs to emphasized. a ground floor is that which is at street level. the first floor is above the ground floor. I know that seems to be a petty distinction, but it is, so as far as I know, only in N America that the ground can be interchanged with the first.
@@kidmohair8151 ground floor is a fairly new invention, in old texts, and in most other languages, there is no such thing... when talking about villas or 12th century structures, at best you have a ground-level floor *(first floor or level) and a second floor/level known as the upper floor, then maybe a few gable rooms if you are really fancy... later, a garden level would also often be different from the ground-level of the street. see Red-Lodge in Bristol for a Brilliant Tudor example
I want to know about roman graffiti in general. How widespread are they? Does this imply a higher literacy rate comparing with ancient ruins of other civilizations?
Well, there's a middle ground between wearing a toga and being nude. Togas were formal wear, and rather heavy; not the sort of thing you would wear just casually hanging around the house or, in this case, chilling on the beach. For more casual situations, Romans wore tunics, a lighter form of clothing. It still would have been a bit much to swim in though. But at least some of the people just hanging out on the beach would have worn tunics when not actually in the water. I can't imagine anyone would have been wearing a toga on the beach though. Not just because of the formality of the toga, but also because togas were quite warm, and Romans went to the beach to cool off.
Thank you very much. Just curious I was watching a documentary in the Carthaginians and they seem to stress the point that they’re sling men wore their slings on their heads like a headband when not in use. It Seems to make sense to me, was this practice uncommon enough that you can stress it with the Carthaginians?
1. Did the ancient Romans have prisons? 2. In the American west a hanging was a public spectacle which drew large crowds. Did the ancient Romans have public executions?
The Antonine Plague and Justinian's plague, which lasted for decades, took place in the Roman world, but centuries later, so it's possible that Ovid was aware of the phenomenon of the epidemic. After all Hippocrates had written about epidemics centuries earlier. Galen prudently made an excuse NOT to accompany the emperor to a place where an epidemic was causing great loss of life.
Did ancient Rome have a public banking system-- as today where depositors' money earns interest, is pooled & loaned out in order to fund projects and thus distribute risk among the many depositors?
I found this particular installment of these videos rather depressing. The custom of wealthy people donating large sums for the urban good was widespread even up until my childhood, yet one of your viewers was bewildered by it. Has our social fabric broken down that much? Furthermore, the once very popular Broadway musical, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum" was based on Plautus, which was widely known at the time (this was the late 60s/early 70s, I think Sondheim was involved in it, don't quite remember). Then there's Fellini's once VERY famous movie based directly on Peteonius called "Satyricon", which you once saw poters for EVERYWHERE. And yet, a question about how much is known about ancient humor from that time period! Has the collective memory of pre-internet existence vanished to that extent? I daresay I'm beginning to understand how a T Rex might have felt a few weeks before Chicxulub.
The idea that the rich gave out vast sums of money to receive honor and respect from the populace - as at 5:40 - was that the real reason? To prove so, do we have counter arguments - where a rich man refused to spend money on public works and monuments, and incurred the wrath of the people? Were there rich Romans who were shamed or killed by the populace because they refused to spend their money on public improvements?
How stupid is think that the furnature is minimal. Wood doesn't conserve, but is obvious that have elaborate, intrincate, work on wood, that just not conserve to this day.
Are there records of infidelity or scandalous behavior as a result of this public nakedness? Or were people less affected by nudity because of frequent exposure at that time?
Virtually no one wore swimsuits when swimming anywhere in the world till about 150 years ago. I have photos taken around 1903 in Russia on the big rural estates. In one it consists of 2000 odd people on a saint’s feast day holiday on some river in late summer. Every single person is 100% naked as swimming costumes were 100% alien to their culture. In another photo there was a similar photo, but with no men. But it’s not what you think. This feast day lined up next to another one which line up next to a sunday. So all the men were off building new workers cottages for newly married families in the estate. With enough men they could build all the homes necessary in just 2.5 days,
How did the Romans assimilate the cultures that they conquered so well that they don’t exist today (Ilyrians, Thracians, etc.) and why did the Basques in particular survive?
The loss of pre-latin languages (particularly in the Balkans) is in large part due to the migration of people groups, as they actively displaced the native peoples as opposed to simply ruling them as the Romans did for the most part. Emperor Justinian for example spoke Thracian in the 6th century, the language was only wiped out after the Bulgars conquered the land themselves. As for the Basques, it's a small mountainous region of little strategic importance, so the Romans didn't bother converting them or sending colonists. The same thing is happening today in southeast Asia, where the mountain peoples still speak completely different languages to the surrounding population.
My suspicion about the Basques, is the answer is "Perversity" as in, they just refused to change, and Roma just thought it was too much trouble to do anything about it. As long as they made no direct challenges, we know that some very strongly distinct cultures survived relatively intact for centuries under the Romans.
Judea for example. It was extremely wealthy, and still distinctly "Judean" for hundreds of years after first being annexed.
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 Did you mean to say "perseverance"?
@@ColasTeameveryone know that classic basques where perverts. This is well documented by ancient sources.
Basques survived roman empire: nowadays invaded by moroccos that they are paying to live in 🙄
"For the man who has nothing to hide, but still wants to" - Alexander Severus on his bathing costume (probably)
How did garbage disposal work in ancient rome? Did cities have trash collectors, and if so where would said trash be dumped?
Trench running beneath the back home for latrines and kitchen wastes. The anthropologists are still studying on it in Pompeii and Herculaneum sites.
I’m retired in Sicily and have visited the Villa Romana del Casale. The mosaics are probably the best preserved examples in Italy.
I’d love to know more about roman music! Was there a distinction between secular and sacred music? What records do we still have? I have such admiration for your channels/podcast and your dedication to historical accuracy!
There are videos on these musical instruments.
How common was it for regular folk to know how to swim in Ancient Roman and Greek times? Was it considered a skill or was it a mundane thing like we think of today or was it reserved to special troops and such only? And was swimming on beach was a relaxing activity for them - like we think of today or was the beach itself was the main spot for relaxing and occasionally getting into sea without going too far? (i.e. like using it as a natural bath in a way)
Capri is literally their holiday getaway just like we do today, well at least for some.
Most people worked on other people's land in agriculture. People who work on other people's land in agriculture don't have leisure to hang around on the beach for whole days. Ask Mexican or Romanian farm workers how often they go swimming.
@@kyleanuar9090 Capri was a getaway for rich and emperors, yes, but I was asking about utility of the beaches and overall knowledge of swimming in the era. I don't remember reading about anything related to swimming in ancient sources aside from some germanic warriors swimming across rivers for taking position to surprise romans.
Like if you would fall from a boat as a regular folk living in Rome, would you drown and so on.
@eljanrimsa5843 Not exactly related to what I'm asking though. First part of my question was related to being able to swim as a regular person. Second part was about people who go to beach already, like Garret mentioned in this video. My question is do these people go there and also swim like we do it today, or do they just chill on the beach, build sand castles and stay on the shore?
@@eljanrimsa5843 do not know about Romania, but I have certainly seen actual basically subsistence-farm communities where swimming in a river/lake is a daily thing in summer... I imagine day-workers would have went to the river on mid-summer afternoons when work is scarce (how else would they get away from the heat in the long dry season)
Italy is full of rivers some of which are too wide to swim across safely. And the entire place is a long peninsular that had populous towns all along the coast. So, slaves aside, many many Romans lived almost on top of water they could have swum in. And they also had public holidays . . .@@eljanrimsa5843
Thanks for getting to my question! Fascinating as always
I've got a question: I went on a trip on the Aegean recently and went to such places as to Ephesus, the Acropolis at Athens, and Lindos. At these ruins I was stunned at how smooth the surface of the original Roman/Greek streets were. This was so commonplace that I began to wonder that since this was a result of the millions of tourists eroding the surface as they walked, was this also a problem back in the day? Do we have evidence that they made efforts to roughen the streets at any point or did ancient Greco-Roman city streets become slip and slides when it rained?
That's a great question!
Good question. The final 50 meters up hill on the approach to the Acropolis is like smooth like polished marble ( joking, it IS polished marble )
I've seen marble steps here in Chicago that only needed 70 years to get deeply dished from foot traffic. I'd guesstimate 7 cm a century being worn away, and that was indoors
That is interesting. I have seen similar but more shallow wear here in Auckland, New Zealand, in buildings that are about 90 to 110 years old.
70 mm which is almost three inches is a lot though, did you mean that much, or was that the metric thing tripping you up?.
Was that in a public building?. The ones I have seen here that still have "Colonial Times"* stairs in place, are public, but not very heavy use, they were in a three story Professional Services building, that was built around the early 1900s. They might have 25 mm worn off the edge.
*We were first Established as a country in 1840, and Auckland was building about that time too, but not in Marble :)@@ZacLowing
it depends on the marble and it is also possible that acidic rain has increased the erosion by pitting the marble which then makes it more susceptible to erosion by friction from soles. Acid rain was generally much less frequent in the ancient world though volcanoes and the like could cause brief spells. At the time of use the streets/walkways would also often be covered in straw/mud and also even wooden boards at times. Slipping would definitely still be an issue in rain however.
The mosaics in the thumbnail are from Piazza Armerina, in Sicily, you can google them. I find them amazing, you can see girls in bikinis playing with a ball, exercising and running, it could be a modern depiction of girls having fun on a beach. The Romans loved to visit the beach, after all summer in Italy was and still is hot, and with so much coastline most people are not very far from the sea, so just like the Italians today they loved their beach clubs.
Nowadays we repaint our walls regularly. The Romans had frescoes on their walls. Did they regularly redecorate their walls or they lived in the same room generation after generation without redoing it?
Good question.
seems like at least some of the wall paintings were very much temporary because we find election-campaign images as part of the décor in eateries & courtyards expecting foot-traffic... also, some villas seem to display festival or season related decorations, often painted in layers atop each other... I think the maximum amount of paint layers archeologists have found was around 30 or 35.
however, when it comes to true murals, like the ones we associate with Pompeii, they weren't cheap, and were usually seen as a long-time investment (not that it always worked out...)
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 thank you :)
I love that mosaic from Piazza Armerina in the thumbnail. It always reminds me of Neapolitan playing cards
This was a very interesting and very hilarious Q/A episode.
Can't wait for your next appearance on Forehead Fables! In these videos and there, you show a great ability to stay grounded and funny/real without misrepresenting what youre explaining
I love all the details. It was a very enjoyable video.. One of this kind of a few pictures would be nice.
Very good questions.
Thank you for your presentation , I closely watched all of it .
How did the Romans organise labour for large scale projects such as city walls, aqueducts, and amphitheatres?
One funny piece of graffiti written during an election, not sure if it was Greek or Roman, said: vote for (name) his grandmother likes him! For some reason that has stuck with me for many years and is weirdly funny.
Three of Plautus' plays (Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus, and a third whose title i forget) formed the inspiration for the musical 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'. It is also a miniature lesson in Roman theater. In the song 'Comedy Tonight', on the line 'Open up the curtain!', the curtain is supposed to be dropped, as was done in Roman theaters. Also, the action takes place in front of three houses, which was standard in Roman comedies.
Stephen Sondheim, of course, was responsible for the book and the music, but one of his collaborators was Larry Gelbart, who went on to develop the television series 'M*A*S*H'.
I’m loving your second book, Garrett, thanks for writing it!! It’s a perfect night read in how it’s structured!
The first one is pretty much out of stock over here in Europe, couldn’t find it anywhere, I hope they print more soon! 🙏🏻
Glad you're enjoying it! I've been asking my publisher to do another printing of "Naked Statues;" hopefully, it won't be too long...
@@toldinstonefootnotes Lovely! I'll be waiting and monitoring Amazon in the meantime 😊Thanks again for making education so entertaining and for shining a light on all of these questions! It really makes the classical era feel so much more alive!
Fantastic Garrett! Keep up the awesome work 😊
Thanks, great content and wonderful sense of humor!
The collection of witty retorts in Bk 2 of Macrobius retains a great deal of its original sparkle. And the Lives of Suetonius and Plutarch contain many a bon mot.
Some later Roman gallows humour, was the execution of St Lawrence in the 3rd century. He was roasted on a grid iron in the Forum.
After a while he said “I’m well done on this side, turn me over!”
Thank you very much for answering my question! I was asking because you mentioned the romans bathing nude in the deleted roman vacation video while at the smae time we have the roman mosaic in sicily that show what can called bikinis
Garrett, when I looked at the comments, I was flabbergasted. I'll leave it at that.
I have 2 questions for the next Q&A:
- What did Macedon look like in the Archaic and Hellenic periods and what were its relations with the 'more developped' city-states to the south?
- What caused the Greek population to grow rapid enough to facilitate colonisation of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and why did this not also happen in neighbouring regions like the ones that were colonised?
Btw, great video. Love your channel!
Have you read the memoires of Hadrian by maguerite yourcenar ? I wonder what you thought of Hadrian's depiction in that book.
It's one of my favorite books. Her depiction of Hadrian may be a fantasy, but it's a compelling one.
What discoveries, analysis, new archeological techniques are in the process, or you might reasonably expect, or hope for in the future? (After archeologist started looking for, finding and analyzing pollen, I wondered if in the future analyzing the dirt that is brushed away might contain evidence of textiles, wood, etc... ) Good channel.
What was Roman music like? Did they enjoy multiple genres? Did their territorial acquisitions influence their music tastes as they pushed further east?
hell ye love this stuff big homie
Loved the video, as always. But, as I visited Sicily earlier this year and spent a wonderful couple of hours at Villa Romana de Casale, I was hoping the "bikini girls" would have been mentioned specifically. Thanks for all of your videos.
What common modern day foods (prepared meals) are most like those found in the classical world? Always curious about the links to the past that are not so often thought about.
Pita with herbs and olive oil, as it is commonly seen in many Adriatic countries & the middle east.
also, certain versions of salty Bulgarian dry Feta use Thracian recipes dating back to the 3rd/4th century AD.
Can't wait for the end of the month four head fables podcast
You mentioned sandcastles. I can't help but think that since "castles" as we know them were a later invention, the romans must have had some other name for what they were building at the beach?
Sand villas?
Reading about the recent accounts of Orcas (Killer Whales) attacking and sinking ships in the Strait of Gibraltar (4 ships sunk in the last 2 years), reminded me of the horrific story of Claudius butchering an Orca, and made me wonder: Are there any accounts of Orcas sinking, or attacking, ships in antiquity?
You mentioned Satyricon. And I was wondering if you could do a video about Fellini’s Satyricon. Fellini respected that there are only fragments extant in his script, which causes some drastic segues. In the proposed video, perhaps you could deal with how faithful Fellini was to depicting Roman life. I’ve often thought while watching the film that he was in a way trying to depict life of beings on another planet, with strange inexplicable behaviors. It is a great film and was a departure from his former style. I’ve always liked his technique of while you are watching all this weirdness going on, he will suddenly have someone looking directly into the lens, where you become the strange thing going on…
Thank you for considering this idea…
What would the experience for the deaf and hard of hearing Romans be like in terms of daily life, legal proceedings, etc.? Were they viewed and treated differently by other citizens, was there some sort of way for them to communicate? Aids to improve hearing or supposed cures for hearing loss?
Please make a video about your library
How far south did the Roman world reach on the Atlantic Coast of Africa? There is a city on the coast of Morocco called Lixus, did they explore farther>
How much do we know about the books that were kept in the Library at Alexandria?
Am I seeing a large collection of Greek leob classical library behind you?
You are! A legacy of my grad school days.
What are your thoughts and feelings about the new progress in reading the Herculaneum scrolls?
I'm curious at the moment about the history of Naples as a bilingual Latin/Greek city. Was it perhaps for a time the quintessential bilingual place in the Roman world, and how long did this persist?
I really do recommend Plautus' Aulularia for anyone wanting to get a sense of Greco-Roman humor and how it would still somewhat hold up today.
Now, if you're into insult comedy, I suggest Michelle Lovric's "How to Insult, Abuse and Insinuate in Classical Latin", which is a collection of insults and verbal abuse that proeminent romans threw at each other. Frankly, I think in that regard, they'd put us to shame
QN: Did the Romans have a concept of "progress", i.e. a gradual betterment of the human condition through technological and societal improvements? Background: There have been great changes in the way a lot of the world lives since the Victorian era, and these changes were long considered to mark progress. Our modern era is particularly marked by very rapid technological change. Did the Romans feel the same way about "progress" or did they inhabit a constant cultural and technological present, with changes so slow that they were hardly perceived by the average citizen?
I don't think you've answered this question yet, though it has been out there since the 1970s.
What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub?
An apartment complex laid out that way must have had very disciplined waste management.
Not a question, but an observation: You state that the most expensive apartments were on the first floor, with things getting sleazier the higher you went. This was exactly the same as in relatively modern, western culture, UNTIL THE INVENTION OF THE ELEVATOR, after which the upper floors became the more posh, desirable ones.
What powers did a roman consul have during the empire?
Does anyone know how was the access of those apartment buildings found in Rome? If rich and poor cohabitated in the same buildings, the rich occupying the lower floors and the poor the higher ones, do we know if they had common or separate access to their apartments? Internal or external access? I doubt a rich Roman would like poor neighbors, sometimes seasonal workers, walk the same corridors (but maybe I'm wrong). How did the rich ensure the safety of their homes and belongings? (even if I guess they had heavy doors and locks)
Modern Italian cities have the same kind of (19th century?) buildings with shops on the ground floor, a "piano nobile" with large flats on the first floor, and less spacious flats on the upper floors, all using the same staircase which becomes more narrow higher up. Late mediaeval and early modern "tenement" buildings in Scottish cities also used to have grand folks on the first floor and ordinary people crammed together above.
That faded out when rich townsfolk started building their own houses in the 18th century and poor folk took up all the rooms. In British cities that process has been reversed, with grand Victorian family homes being broken up by slum landlords into a multitude of rabbit hutches for those who can just about afford not to live in a cardboard box. Whereas the very latest (21st century) buildings have separate entrances and stairs/lifts for the rich and poor.
I was wondering if the explosion of Vesuvius was heard in the city of Roman proper.
People in the USA did not wear swimsuits until 1900 abouts. Did you know that high schools used to have swim meets nude, but only for the guys.
I know the YMCA did not allow the use of bathing-wear until the 1950s...
Nude beaches probably led to a few Roman "Column" jokes.
Euclio senex est!🤣🤣
What do we know about love in the Roman baths?
Endowed buildings were also a source of civic pride among all levels of society.
Was there a ‘pledge of allegiance’ or national anthem where most Romans would know the words and/or tune?
Was there a gladiatorial amphitheatre in Constantinople?
Did Romans have anything like sunglasses to protect their eyes?
Seems to me when in respect to rooms, that what it was to be admired was not the added decoration but the room itself. Today we dont admire our rooms that much, they are built to be functional and cheap, so we care much more about the stuff that goes in it, rather than the stuff that is part of it. I don't know, just rambling.
How did people cut their nails without a nail clipper back then?
This is less of an ancient Roman Question but of a medieval Roman one. Mainly in how the Romans assimilated into Arab culture during the rise of the Caliphate
it's odd, to us, that the roman idea of the best apartment wasn't at the top, but the bottom.
(it probably had something to do with stairs. this has survived in the Italians calling the first floor the piano nobile)
this, however, was an age when food consumption, bathing and one's(ahem)daily ablutions were usually carried out *not* in one's domicile, but at places purpose built for such activities.
the idea of rooftop flats being small and oddly shaped, as well as less convenient, was fairly common down to the 19th century... certainly, in industrial tenements the cheapest floors were either the top floors or the basement apartments.
the idea of a raised hall did exist in later villa's and castles in the middle-ages, however, this was due to the fact that the first floor would be taken up by workshops (requiring the ability to deliver heavy goods by cart) or stables for the horses. at that time, usually the servants/slaves would live next to the workshop but within thesame house.
it seems, for stately homes, that the chief apartments moved to the first floor during the renascence, when sculptured gardens and such became a thing again.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 the difference between first and ground floors needs to emphasized. a ground floor is that which is at street level. the first floor is above the ground floor. I know that seems to be a petty distinction, but it is, so as far as I know, only in N America that the ground
can be interchanged with the first.
@@kidmohair8151 ground floor is a fairly new invention, in old texts, and in most other languages, there is no such thing... when talking about villas or 12th century structures, at best you have a ground-level floor *(first floor or level) and a second floor/level known as the upper floor, then maybe a few gable rooms if you are really fancy...
later, a garden level would also often be different from the ground-level of the street.
see Red-Lodge in Bristol for a Brilliant Tudor example
@@stanislavkostarnov2157
I see you see my point. why is everything so complicated...
I want to know about roman graffiti in general. How widespread are they? Does this imply a higher literacy rate comparing with ancient ruins of other civilizations?
i'd imagine wearing a toga to go swimming would be a good way to drown 🙂
Well, there's a middle ground between wearing a toga and being nude. Togas were formal wear, and rather heavy; not the sort of thing you would wear just casually hanging around the house or, in this case, chilling on the beach. For more casual situations, Romans wore tunics, a lighter form of clothing. It still would have been a bit much to swim in though. But at least some of the people just hanging out on the beach would have worn tunics when not actually in the water. I can't imagine anyone would have been wearing a toga on the beach though. Not just because of the formality of the toga, but also because togas were quite warm, and Romans went to the beach to cool off.
depending on the period, it might also get you a severe whipping (for dishonoring of the Roman Symbol of State)
Thank you very much. Just curious I was watching a documentary in the Carthaginians and they seem to stress the point that they’re sling men wore their slings on their heads like a headband when not in use. It Seems to make sense to me, was this practice uncommon enough that you can stress it with the Carthaginians?
What happened to the Greek colonies following Rome's Europe-wide expansion? Did any survive as independent city-states?
1. Did the ancient Romans have prisons? 2. In the American west a hanging was a public spectacle which drew large crowds. Did the ancient Romans have public executions?
How exactly was the free grain Roman citizens were entitled to distributed? Especially outside of cities?
Why did Roman jars (amphorae) have pointed bottoms. It seems very impractical.
If there is one thing I like more than history, it's wasting my time. Thank you! That was fun!
You look like a Roman emperor
Lol he actually does
Salve legionari!
I'm Greek and as soon as I get home I don't care if it's summer or winter I'm in my boxers. lmao
Very informative, thanks. I wondered if the public latrines were gender selective. Pete.
Miss Roma open contest ?
What would Ovid have thought of Covid?
The Antonine Plague and Justinian's plague, which lasted for decades, took place in the Roman world, but centuries later, so it's possible that Ovid was aware of the phenomenon of the epidemic. After all Hippocrates had written about epidemics centuries earlier. Galen prudently made an excuse NOT to accompany the emperor to a place where an epidemic was causing great loss of life.
How did other cultures view the adoption of Gods and other deities by the Romans?
Did ancient Rome have a public banking system-- as today where depositors' money earns interest, is pooled & loaned out in order to fund projects and thus distribute risk among the many depositors?
Did roman sand castles look like ours?
Dignitas.
Garrett - is your haircut based on ancient Roman images found in frescoes?
Did the Romans and Greeks lace their wine with psychedelic mushrooms or other drugs? Did they use Cannabis?
Edifice complex: donation of buildings by wealthy patrons.
Thoughts on Tom Holland’s Dominion?
I found this particular installment of these videos rather depressing. The custom of wealthy people donating large sums for the urban good was widespread even up until my childhood, yet one of your viewers was bewildered by it. Has our social fabric broken down that much? Furthermore, the once very popular Broadway musical, "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum" was based on Plautus, which was widely known at the time (this was the late 60s/early 70s, I think Sondheim was involved in it, don't quite remember). Then there's Fellini's once VERY famous movie based directly on Peteonius called "Satyricon", which you once saw poters for EVERYWHERE. And yet, a question about how much is known about ancient humor from that time period! Has the collective memory of pre-internet existence vanished to that extent? I daresay I'm beginning to understand how a T Rex might have felt a few weeks before Chicxulub.
How often do you think of the Roman Empire 😂
The idea that the rich gave out vast sums of money to receive honor and respect from the populace - as at 5:40 - was that the real reason? To prove so, do we have counter arguments - where a rich man refused to spend money on public works and monuments, and incurred the wrath of the people? Were there rich Romans who were shamed or killed by the populace because they refused to spend their money on public improvements?
I can't find the bikini part, only naked man parts
I'm envious that women get to have swimsuits of such styles and varieties even in ancient times. Men swimwear is dull and plain with little variety
How stupid is think that the furnature is minimal. Wood doesn't conserve, but is obvious that have elaborate, intrincate, work on wood, that just not conserve to this day.
He meant minimal in number, not design.
Are there records of infidelity or scandalous behavior as a result of this public nakedness? Or were people less affected by nudity because of frequent exposure at that time?
Did they wear swimsuits while eating omelets? :-)
Virtually no one wore swimsuits when swimming anywhere in the world till about 150 years ago. I have photos taken around 1903 in Russia on the big rural estates. In one it consists of 2000 odd people on a saint’s feast day holiday on some river in late summer. Every single person is 100% naked as swimming costumes were 100% alien to their culture. In another photo there was a similar photo, but with no men. But it’s not what you think. This feast day lined up next to another one which line up next to a sunday. So all the men were off building new workers cottages for newly married families in the estate. With enough men they could build all the homes necessary in just 2.5 days,
Did the Romans sacrifice their children to the gods?
Your voice is panned slightly to the left and it bothers me. Please fix in future videos.
I note that you don't attempt to pronounce Greek and Roman names in their original form!
You should wear period correct garb for these, at least a hat.
Second