Historical accounts of ancient military forces usually focus on the technical aspects - equipment, organisation, tactics, logistics - and the Human relationship side is often left out. I was surprised when you mentionned how the Triarii were often the fathers, uncles, mentors, etc, of the younger soldiers. Very interesting!
I was stunned by your pronunciation of the ancient Italic lands: Etruria and Umbria. It was perfect, to the very last note. I have never heard this coming from a native English speaker. 10/10. About the Roman kings and Rome's relationship with Etruria: there were ancient sources that named the last of these figures as "Lucumones", an Etruscan word that meant "governor" or "ruler" (more or less). In the Roman tradition this is mostly overlooked as a case of wrong translation between the two languages (in Latin it was seen, or wanted to be seen, as a name of a person, like Mario, or at best as a distant honorary title of Etruscan tradition). In reality this could have been the proof that Rome, for a period of its time, had actually been one of the many cities subjected to Etruscan rule and, de facto, part of the Etruscan "confederation". This goes heavily against the common historical sentiment that Rome, though small as it was, had always been independent and self-reliant through its "epic rise" to glory and power.
Okay, well first of all he's got some unusual pronunciations, and secondly for an English speaker? As opposed to what? Italian? Hahahahaha. They don't even follow the morphology and phonetically very unlikely to pronounce Latin any better than any other romance speaker.
@@The_InfantMalePollockFrancisWe already know Rome had at least one Etruscan king. It’s why they despised monarchy and became a republic to begin with. Rome’s culture was modelled after them in lots of ways and it’s why they were far different from the rest of the italic tribes/states, even their origin story and some of their legends are retellings of Etruscan stories/legends. They also borrowed from the Greeks a lot.
Quite a lot of the Wars we're actually Rome defending itself and/or Allies!! Such as the Pyrrhic War, the First and Second Macedonian Wars, the Seleucid War, much of the Gallic Wars and Samnite Wars!!!
Regarding the term Superbus, one of the meanings of superb in English is arrogant, though it's probaly not very common nowadays. "Superbi" is an adjective in my native language that comes from the same Latin root and shares the same meaning.
In Arabic, both Akbar (Great) and Mutakkabir (Arrogant) come from the same root, so this must be something common in many cultures. Who is one man's great leader is another man's tyrant.
Rome being content with Carthage remaining economically influential and rich while crippling its armed forces reminds me of Germany and Japan after ww2.
6:17 The monarchs before the birth of Roman republic(509 BCE) 9:30 The birth of Roman republic.(From Monarchy to Republic) 12:50 The major struggle between the patricians(Nobles) and the plebeians(common people) in earliest Roman empire. Ancient General strikes of Roman republic. 20:50 Roman republic's The system of Manipulation of Legions 24:37 Conquest of the Samnite 26:30 Revolutionary Conquest of the Intalian Greeks 29:10 First Punic war (first naval battle of roman republic) 33:11 Second Punic war (against Spain, military genius Hannibal in human history still thought and studied in the West Point) 37:43 Further Conquests driven by Roman Senate.(Roman republic had crushed Sparta and Macedon) 41:59 Carthage(Tunisia) and Corinth 45:00 Romans abused gods for the sake of war (Ultimatum) 47:08 The era of Strom Clouds (Starting of conflicts between Roman citizens and Non citizens)
"Salting the earth" in Carthago was most likely a ritual involving Janus. It's an old Mesopotamian fertility rite that is also referenced in Homer's Odyssey. In Rome the meaning is to bring about a reversal of fortune in the moment of greatest desolation.
Being a bit of an amateur student of Biblical history, as well as theology and Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious history and theology, the parallels between ancient Roman and ancient Israelite culture are glaringly obvious. In fact, I believe that comparing Roman legends to Jewish legends, and then by comparing the parallel historical basis behind the emergence of such legends, we can extrapolate what probably happened in the Ancient Kingdom of Rome. We are struck by two curious facts. On the one hand, we have this hatred and emnity between Rome and its neighbours, especially Etruria and the Sabines. Yet on the other hand, Rome clearly owes a great debt of influence to them, in culture, religion and institutions. If we align the first two facts with the fact that the Roman Republic was founded on hatred of the monarchy, it becomes obvious that much like in the foundation of the ancient Israelite Kingdom, the Roman Republic was founded in a "War of Independence" against their Etrurian overlords. There are also many other parallels with ancient Israelite religion as found in the Bible, for example, the idea that nations were founded by men taking women from different tribes, often being old men, this is something like, the "essence of a nation" took elements from different tribes and were united under one culture. This is similar to how Jacob took many wives, representing the fact that the original ancient Israelite confederation was composed of both indigenous Canaanites who rebelled against Egypt as well as some Indo-European Sea Peoples. What really confirmed this parallel for me was the story of the end of the Republic. Lucretia was supposedly raped by one of the King's sons. This story is almost paralleled exactly in the Spanish legend of the causes of the Arab invasion of Spain. Count Julian's daughter was supposedly raped by Roderick, a usurper and rival claimant to the Visigothic throne under the legitimate king Achila (they had an elective monarchic system). In revenge, he invited Tariq b Ziyad, the Muslim Berber General from North Africa to destroy Roderick's kingdom. My immediate impression of this was this was actually a sort of code, again taking the model of male = leadership, women = nations (this linguistic phenomenon is still preserved in the Semitic languages where the words for mother and nation are very similar). Count Julian represents the aristocracy of Visigothic Spain that opposed Roderick, the rape of Julian's daughter represented the oppression of the Jewish and Arian people in Spain under the Catholic Kings since the time of Reccared. In revenge for their oppression, Jewish and Arian noblemen and noblewomen sided with the Arabs and helped them destroy the Hispanian Visigothic Monarchy which had oppressed them. Applying this model to ancient Rome, Lucretia represents the Gens Romanes, the People of Rome, and the King Tarqinius Superbus represents the Etruscan colonial government who ruled as a kind of royal house over the city oppressing them. The rape by the Tarqinians of Lucretia, represents the oppression of the Roman people by the Etruscan colonization. Thus, the Roman Republic was founded when the council of advisors, picked from Roman citizens as well as Etruscans who influenced each other, threw out the Etruscan authority through their Milites. We also have another parallel with ancient Israelite culture, that of the existence of two classes, a priestly class (Aaronid) and a secular class, the priestly class being associated with cultural elites, rather than wealth. Hence, Patricians were something like Priestly classes, coming from the root Pater, Father relating to the idea of the "Master of the Household", and the priestly class in Judeo-Christian and Islamic culture is often endowed with certain mystical supernatural powers. I would suppose this was also the basis by which the Patrician class owed its authority. There are also obvious parallels with the American Revolution, where the early American society was still deeply influenced by Great Britain, despite having a bloody war of independence against them. Thus, the early Kings of Rome were probably Etruscan governors appointed to rule the Etruscan colony of Rome. Interestingly another parallel with Semitic cultures is that Superbus both means great and proud. This is similar to the Arabic word Akbar (Great) which has the same root as Mutakkabir, meaning something like, "to be arrogant". It literally means "One who makes himself into something great".
Sadly, it's how we got that sorry excuse of a genocide called the third Punic so called "war"... Declaring war on a people you just disarmed (as part of Roman demands for peace agreement) and leaving them LITERALLY defenceless?... And then they fuckin Besiege these people for 3 years after taking all there weapons and calling it a "war"?
Hey Thersites, in your opinion, is Pontious, the Semnite general who won the second Semnite war, an underrated figure in history? Of course the battle of the couldine forks is one of the first battles I learned about in Roman history and I didn't think much of it. But after learning A LOT more about Roman history, I realize now, how impressive that was to beat a Roman force without them even drawing their weapons.
Gaius Pontius clearly had a strong understanding of terrain and he was able to command enough respect to maintain discipline in a moment when there was a strong chance for violence to break out spontaneously.
The conflict of orders was not a “general strike in solidarity”. Marxism has done more to bastardize the past through its distorted lens than any ideology in the common era. Ancient Rome was a caste society with strict rules about everything from political eligibility to marriage. Variants of these social systems were common in the Mediterranean basin. When there’s a general strike in contemporary France it’s basically the state owned classes demanding that the state control the economy and their lives to an even greater degree than they already do. There’s nothing remotely close to the motivations of the plebs who were seeking basic political representation in the institutions. This distortion is like the narrative that Spartacus was an anti-slavery revolt when it was a slave revolt, not a revolt against the institution.
Hey there Thersites, big fan here! I always heard about how "easy" it was for Rome to defeat Antiochus III (and the battle actually was) but after watching how he performed in the war, as a whole on "Kings and Generals"... He was just so CRAFTY... Dude did EVERYTHING he could to stay in that war, lost a battle but never wavered, never got shook, constantly on the move, constantly trying to out maneuver the Romans AND Phillip V. Running all over the map like a madman... Am I giving Antiochus too much credit? I just have a lot of sympathy for guys who put up a really good fight, but are mostly remembered for a loss. Like Antiochus III, Jugurtha, Vercingetorix, Pompey Mithridates VI. I think people have a skewed perception, Like they have to be like "Hannibal level dangerous" to appreciate a worthy adversity.
I tend to agree. I think that Antiochus III is vastly underrated, at least by people whose knowledge of him comes almost entirely from the Roman perspective. Antiochus had a bold opening move by invading Greece, he put himself in a position at Thermopylae where he could defy a larger army, and he came pretty close to winning at Magnesia the Roman strategy of forcing him to dispatch men to counter a couple of other threats.
@@ThersitestheHistorian idk if you putting Hannibal in charge of the land battle and Antioch iii in charge of... Everything els, wins him that war... But my gods... What a bantman and robin they would have made.
I disagree with some of your points on Graham Hancock and certain other historical events, but I really love your channel and I hope it blows up soon as to match the quality of your work :)
Does anyone else feel like Rome was something of a vassal state before it was a republic? It seems like Etruria had the most influence on them and kept that by placing a king for them and it would explain why they did the same to the Latin League, then the Etrurians/Sabines and pretty much everyone else. As a Republic they were a lot more like the Athenian empire with one central city state overseeing a confederation and I like to think that its because thats how they started as a satellite of someone else.
you say they were wrong about being different from Latins. they were different than the Latins because they were ruled by etruskins who eventually gave their blood to the plebs as well
@@decimusausoniusmagnus5719 Doesn't mean it's good. It totally butchers the word. English speakers are able to say "Latin", so why aren't they able to say "Lati--um". Layshium sound awful.
The way english speakers pronounce most of the names of other countries, places, people and so on, is stupidly ridiculous and awfuly distorting the true nature of those names.
I have heard that the punic era boarding device is close to a myth. Here's an interview with a relevant archaeologist: ua-cam.com/video/EVnXG0Yrfns/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared Is the information in this video current?
I like your videos but wish you would at least make a marginal attempt at pronouncing Latin properly. Latium should not be pronounced "Laeshium" for instance.
Historical accounts of ancient military forces usually focus on the technical aspects - equipment, organisation, tactics, logistics - and the Human relationship side is often left out. I was surprised when you mentionned how the Triarii were often the fathers, uncles, mentors, etc, of the younger soldiers. Very interesting!
Four videos in one day. This week just became a whole lot better. By far the best Patreon deal in the history of Patreon deals.
I was stunned by your pronunciation of the ancient Italic lands: Etruria and Umbria.
It was perfect, to the very last note. I have never heard this coming from a native English speaker. 10/10.
About the Roman kings and Rome's relationship with Etruria: there were ancient sources that named the last of these figures as "Lucumones", an Etruscan word that meant "governor" or "ruler" (more or less).
In the Roman tradition this is mostly overlooked as a case of wrong translation between the two languages (in Latin it was seen, or wanted to be seen, as a name of a person, like Mario, or at best as a distant honorary title of Etruscan tradition). In reality this could have been the proof that Rome, for a period of its time, had actually been one of the many cities subjected to Etruscan rule and, de facto, part of the Etruscan "confederation". This goes heavily against the common historical sentiment that Rome, though small as it was, had always been independent and self-reliant through its "epic rise" to glory and power.
Okay, well first of all he's got some unusual pronunciations, and secondly for an English speaker? As opposed to what? Italian? Hahahahaha. They don't even follow the morphology and phonetically very unlikely to pronounce Latin any better than any other romance speaker.
@@The_InfantMalePollockFrancisWe already know Rome had at least one Etruscan king. It’s why they despised monarchy and became a republic to begin with.
Rome’s culture was modelled after them in lots of ways and it’s why they were far different from the rest of the italic tribes/states, even their origin story and some of their legends are retellings of Etruscan stories/legends. They also borrowed from the Greeks a lot.
My like and Comment. Love your channel
Rome has the distinction of being the only civilization in history to gain all of its territory exclusively through “defensive” wars 🤣
The best defense is a good offense I guess
The larger their borders grew from “defending” themselves, the more “defensive wars” they had to have to protect those borders 😂
Quite a lot of the Wars we're actually Rome defending itself and/or Allies!! Such as the Pyrrhic War, the First and Second Macedonian Wars, the Seleucid War, much of the Gallic Wars and Samnite Wars!!!
Regarding the term Superbus, one of the meanings of superb in English is arrogant, though it's probaly not very common nowadays. "Superbi" is an adjective in my native language that comes from the same Latin root and shares the same meaning.
In Arabic, both Akbar (Great) and Mutakkabir (Arrogant) come from the same root, so this must be something common in many cultures. Who is one man's great leader is another man's tyrant.
yo that super bus joke got me lmao
Liking a lot of the content coming out recently!
Right? Absolutely wonderful.
Your content is best-in-class and pleasing to listen to. You've likely taught millions of people with these videos!
Always a good day when Thersites uploads
Good work fine sir 👍🏼
Rome being content with Carthage remaining economically influential and rich while crippling its armed forces reminds me of Germany and Japan after ww2.
Carthago delenda est
This channel is amazing. Thank you so much for continuing to present these amazing lectures 🙏
Great video - thank you for taking the time to create it.
High quality stuff here boss. Thanks for sharing.
Nice. Always on point
Thank you for this. Wish there was more on the Latin Kings and stories from there.
I got some news for chu ese
iirc i believe he has a separate lecture specifically on this topic!
Great content, love the channel
Amazing thorough video
6:17 The monarchs before the birth of Roman republic(509 BCE)
9:30 The birth of Roman republic.(From Monarchy to Republic)
12:50 The major struggle between the patricians(Nobles) and the plebeians(common people) in earliest Roman empire. Ancient General strikes of Roman republic.
20:50 Roman republic's The system of Manipulation of Legions
24:37 Conquest of the Samnite
26:30 Revolutionary Conquest of the Intalian Greeks
29:10 First Punic war (first naval battle of roman republic)
33:11 Second Punic war (against Spain, military genius Hannibal in human history still thought and studied in the West Point)
37:43 Further Conquests driven by Roman Senate.(Roman republic had crushed Sparta and Macedon)
41:59 Carthage(Tunisia) and Corinth
45:00 Romans abused gods for the sake of war (Ultimatum)
47:08 The era of Strom Clouds (Starting of conflicts between Roman citizens and Non citizens)
love to see it
"Salting the earth" in Carthago was most likely a ritual involving Janus. It's an old Mesopotamian fertility rite that is also referenced in Homer's Odyssey. In Rome the meaning is to bring about a reversal of fortune in the moment of greatest desolation.
This is great! Only thing missing are maps that's it. It's very well researched and presented.
Being a bit of an amateur student of Biblical history, as well as theology and Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious history and theology, the parallels between ancient Roman and ancient Israelite culture are glaringly obvious. In fact, I believe that comparing Roman legends to Jewish legends, and then by comparing the parallel historical basis behind the emergence of such legends, we can extrapolate what probably happened in the Ancient Kingdom of Rome.
We are struck by two curious facts. On the one hand, we have this hatred and emnity between Rome and its neighbours, especially Etruria and the Sabines. Yet on the other hand, Rome clearly owes a great debt of influence to them, in culture, religion and institutions. If we align the first two facts with the fact that the Roman Republic was founded on hatred of the monarchy, it becomes obvious that much like in the foundation of the ancient Israelite Kingdom, the Roman Republic was founded in a "War of Independence" against their Etrurian overlords. There are also many other parallels with ancient Israelite religion as found in the Bible, for example, the idea that nations were founded by men taking women from different tribes, often being old men, this is something like, the "essence of a nation" took elements from different tribes and were united under one culture. This is similar to how Jacob took many wives, representing the fact that the original ancient Israelite confederation was composed of both indigenous Canaanites who rebelled against Egypt as well as some Indo-European Sea Peoples.
What really confirmed this parallel for me was the story of the end of the Republic. Lucretia was supposedly raped by one of the King's sons. This story is almost paralleled exactly in the Spanish legend of the causes of the Arab invasion of Spain. Count Julian's daughter was supposedly raped by Roderick, a usurper and rival claimant to the Visigothic throne under the legitimate king Achila (they had an elective monarchic system). In revenge, he invited Tariq b Ziyad, the Muslim Berber General from North Africa to destroy Roderick's kingdom. My immediate impression of this was this was actually a sort of code, again taking the model of male = leadership, women = nations (this linguistic phenomenon is still preserved in the Semitic languages where the words for mother and nation are very similar). Count Julian represents the aristocracy of Visigothic Spain that opposed Roderick, the rape of Julian's daughter represented the oppression of the Jewish and Arian people in Spain under the Catholic Kings since the time of Reccared. In revenge for their oppression, Jewish and Arian noblemen and noblewomen sided with the Arabs and helped them destroy the Hispanian Visigothic Monarchy which had oppressed them.
Applying this model to ancient Rome, Lucretia represents the Gens Romanes, the People of Rome, and the King Tarqinius Superbus represents the Etruscan colonial government who ruled as a kind of royal house over the city oppressing them. The rape by the Tarqinians of Lucretia, represents the oppression of the Roman people by the Etruscan colonization. Thus, the Roman Republic was founded when the council of advisors, picked from Roman citizens as well as Etruscans who influenced each other, threw out the Etruscan authority through their Milites.
We also have another parallel with ancient Israelite culture, that of the existence of two classes, a priestly class (Aaronid) and a secular class, the priestly class being associated with cultural elites, rather than wealth. Hence, Patricians were something like Priestly classes, coming from the root Pater, Father relating to the idea of the "Master of the Household", and the priestly class in Judeo-Christian and Islamic culture is often endowed with certain mystical supernatural powers. I would suppose this was also the basis by which the Patrician class owed its authority.
There are also obvious parallels with the American Revolution, where the early American society was still deeply influenced by Great Britain, despite having a bloody war of independence against them.
Thus, the early Kings of Rome were probably Etruscan governors appointed to rule the Etruscan colony of Rome.
Interestingly another parallel with Semitic cultures is that Superbus both means great and proud. This is similar to the Arabic word Akbar (Great) which has the same root as Mutakkabir, meaning something like, "to be arrogant". It literally means "One who makes himself into something great".
Makes sense to me.
Happens all the time. That's why the Jesus of Nazareth story was borrowed too, as well as the flood tale.
this guy is great lecture speaker. Wish u were my teacher man!!!
Thank you!
The Roman strategy of starting wars through ridiculous ultimata sounds rather familiar these days...
Imperialism... imperialism never changes
You sound very "Smart" 🤦
Sadly, it's how we got that sorry excuse of a genocide called the third Punic so called "war"...
Declaring war on a people you just disarmed (as part of Roman demands for peace agreement) and leaving them LITERALLY defenceless?... And then they fuckin Besiege these people for 3 years after taking all there weapons and calling it a "war"?
Keep up the good work!
Was looking forward to coverage on the earlier periods of Rome
Hey Thersites, in your opinion, is Pontious, the Semnite general who won the second Semnite war, an underrated figure in history? Of course the battle of the couldine forks is one of the first battles I learned about in Roman history and I didn't think much of it. But after learning A LOT more about Roman history, I realize now, how impressive that was to beat a Roman force without them even drawing their weapons.
Gaius Pontius clearly had a strong understanding of terrain and he was able to command enough respect to maintain discipline in a moment when there was a strong chance for violence to break out spontaneously.
@@ThersitestheHistorianHas that ever happened again to Rome? Surrendered without a fight?
It really is Sunday Fun day.
Love it
Would you be able to make a Playlist with these?
What was the peninsulas population and how much bigger was it in comparison to it's rivals?
The conflict of orders was not a “general strike in solidarity”. Marxism has done more to bastardize the past through its distorted lens than any ideology in the common era. Ancient Rome was a caste society with strict rules about everything from political eligibility to marriage. Variants of these social systems were common in the Mediterranean basin. When there’s a general strike in contemporary France it’s basically the state owned classes demanding that the state control the economy and their lives to an even greater degree than they already do. There’s nothing remotely close to the motivations of the plebs who were seeking basic political representation in the institutions. This distortion is like the narrative that Spartacus was an anti-slavery revolt when it was a slave revolt, not a revolt against the institution.
Isn't Latium pronounced with a hard "t", same as Latin? Lat-ee-um.
In classical Latin, yes. In English and Italian, no.
I wish you'd do Chinese history in the same way you did this.
Hey there Thersites, big fan here! I always heard about how "easy" it was for Rome to defeat Antiochus III (and the battle actually was) but after watching how he performed in the war, as a whole on "Kings and Generals"... He was just so CRAFTY... Dude did EVERYTHING he could to stay in that war, lost a battle but never wavered, never got shook, constantly on the move, constantly trying to out maneuver the Romans AND Phillip V.
Running all over the map like a madman... Am I giving Antiochus too much credit? I just have a lot of sympathy for guys who put up a really good fight, but are mostly remembered for a loss. Like Antiochus III, Jugurtha, Vercingetorix, Pompey Mithridates VI. I think people have a skewed perception, Like they have to be like "Hannibal level dangerous" to appreciate a worthy adversity.
I tend to agree. I think that Antiochus III is vastly underrated, at least by people whose knowledge of him comes almost entirely from the Roman perspective. Antiochus had a bold opening move by invading Greece, he put himself in a position at Thermopylae where he could defy a larger army, and he came pretty close to winning at Magnesia the Roman strategy of forcing him to dispatch men to counter a couple of other threats.
@@ThersitestheHistorian idk if you putting Hannibal in charge of the land battle and Antioch iii in charge of... Everything els, wins him that war... But my gods... What a bantman and robin they would have made.
14:35 'citizenship strike'!!
I disagree with some of your points on Graham Hancock and certain other historical events, but I really love your channel and I hope it blows up soon as to match the quality of your work :)
"Damn the Romans!"-Leto II
Your videos are always of high quality, I love it. Also what font did you use for your slides?
For this set, I used a template off of Google Slides where the font is called Oswald. PowerPoint does not have Oswald for whatever reason.
Does anyone else feel like Rome was something of a vassal state before it was a republic? It seems like Etruria had the most influence on them and kept that by placing a king for them and it would explain why they did the same to the Latin League, then the Etrurians/Sabines and pretty much everyone else. As a Republic they were a lot more like the Athenian empire with one central city state overseeing a confederation and I like to think that its because thats how they started as a satellite of someone else.
That Achaean League thing was a same excuse what Russia has used at least a hundred years to attack it's neighbours.
Was anything in Titus Andronicus real?
Yaaaaas
Roman foreign policy is so much like America's
The idea of voting for someone else to represent your interests and deal with all the bs that goes along with it...
👍
you say they were wrong about being different from Latins. they were different than the Latins because they were ruled by etruskins who eventually gave their blood to the plebs as well
Recent studies have shown they actually have some “Troy” blood. Most myths bare some truths.
😎🤙🏻
I'm curious how high You we're when you made this.... At least you're not as bad as Metatron the 💩!
Great video, I just wish you would have pronounced "Latium" correctly instead of "layshium".
That's the ' correct ' English pronunciation of Latium though.
@@decimusausoniusmagnus5719 Doesn't mean it's good. It totally butchers the word. English speakers are able to say "Latin", so why aren't they able to say "Lati--um". Layshium sound awful.
@@nexeos love that when it's an english speaker they "butcher the word" when it's anyone else it's an accent.
The way english speakers pronounce most of the names of other countries, places, people and so on, is stupidly ridiculous and awfuly distorting the true nature of those names.
Roma semper victrix 🐂
I have heard that the punic era boarding device is close to a myth. Here's an interview with a relevant archaeologist: ua-cam.com/video/EVnXG0Yrfns/v-deo.htmlfeature=shared
Is the information in this video current?
The Romans, well now the Italians, haven't changed as they still try to obtain wealth any way they can. Ask the EU Commission.
The EU Commission is the true descendent of the roman ways.
I like your videos but wish you would at least make a marginal attempt at pronouncing Latin properly. Latium should not be pronounced "Laeshium" for instance.