*Fun fact:* The emperor who appears in the thumbnail is not actually Maximinus Thrax, but Emperor Honorius, who ruled almost two centuries after Thrax's death. In the thumbnail, Honorius is happily feeding his birds while not giving a sh*t about the Senators informing him that Rome had recently been sacked by the barbarians
@@Libbyyyyyyyyyy Meh. Nothing special. Just pranking Uncle Claudius and "playing" with my sisters, like usual. Anyway, I don't like how Macro and Gemellus lately look at me. They remind me a lot that nephew of mine named after my brother Nero, who spends the entire day watching the torches of the Palace burning...
@@hospitalcakewalk I think that’s Tiberius you’re mentioning. It’s recorded he creepily called the boys his “little minnows”. However this was all stuff Caligula was likely exposed to and took for inspiration in his own debauched rule.
If if you put into account the Acromegaly part of the story, I can believe the alcohol consumption, because I know the stories of Andre the Giant's alcohol consumption who also suffered from acromegaly
When you are nearly 8 feet tall - according to Gibbon - one could bully his way into anything he wanted. His death - along with his son - was accomplished by having their throats cut while sleeping in the command tent in Acquilea.
Not really, when people get that tall it's actually a disadvantage because they usually have mobility issues because they're body is to big to support it's own weight, when you look at the Guinness world record of the world's tallest people most of them are in wheel chairs or have to walk with leg braces for that exact reason
I'm kind of surprised they didn't talk about how big he was in the title. Feel like that would drive more engagement with the video. Who doesn't want to hear about the NBA center Roman emperor?
This needs to be introduced into every history classroom in the world! Kids would be far more eager to learn and would definitely recall your addition to the lesson! I’m absolutely buckled! 😂😂😂
a lot of this is uncritically accepting that what senators said about emperors was true, it uses the historia augusta as source without really critically looking at it, the historia augusta being a famously bad source for the time period. This video also takes a lot out of context, a lot of things that this video points out as bad aren't unique to Thrax and have been done by many emperors who are commonly considered to be good. So no this video does not belong in a classroom
In some ways, the story of Maximinus Thrax is tragic. The man proved himself a capable soldier, but his own ambition and a relatively weak emperor catapulted him to a position he simply did not have the acumen to handle. It seems he believed that force would solve all his problems.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight In that case, one can argue that the short-sighted Roman elites helped to bring down their empire over the long run by refusing to pay for the war effort.
great video! and your improved pronunciation of foreign names has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for your dedication and informative videos. I always learn alot!
Unaddressed trauma and stress, likely. Couple that with the lead poisoning and you certainly get a crazy concoction when ultimate power is thrown into the mix.
@@Cheddar_Wizard And im telling u trauma wasnt even addressed back then. It wasnt even called trauma. Thats a modern word. It took until the 20th century to classify it as such and address it
@@awsomeboy360 I’m so confused. That’s LITERALLY what I was saying with my first comment dude lol... I swear semantics are the entropy of the internet.
Damn you Weird History!! You got me. I 100% paused at 1:36 because I love your humor and always know you're putting something funny in the video, lmao! Keep making fun videos!
You should do a video on all of romes terrible emperors, like Nero, the man who fiddled while rome burned, literally, played his fiddle rather than do anything. Itd make a good video.
@@balabanasireti indeed. Much of what's accepted as "fact" about Nero is actually myth. He wasn't even in the city when the blaze started, and upon his return he actually organised fire-fighting efforts, while opening the gates to the palace gardens so fleeing citizens could escape the inferno. Oh, and Nero never conducted mass persecutions of Christians; although Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, who the Catholic church revere as "virtuous pagans", did. There are surviving letters from Trajan to his governors, informing them how to prosecute those accused of Christianity. And if you read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" (which you can find on Amazon) he has some rather derisive things to say about the upstart religion at the time. Thankfully, some of Rome's supposed "bad" emperors, notably Nero and Domitian, have been getting a second look by historians in recent years.
For anyone who reads this keep grinding and keep pushing. Whatever it is in life you want to do to after it life is to short. Life is a marathon not a sprint so go out there and live it up peace and one love! ✌🏽🙏🏽
I know Gibbon is considered to be unreliable but all I know of Severus I learned from Decline and Fall can anyone tell me if that recounting is problematic and if so how problematic?
it is extremely problematic, it has been a very influential work and it still in some ways frames the way roman history is understood especially in pop culture, but modern historians have come to very different conclusions.
I still think Caracalla was the worst emperor ever. Bankrupted the empire by massively increasing army size and pay, created the expectation of high pay later that led to lots of coups and instability, did a 'Persian red wedding' which pissed off Rome's biggest rival for no reason, and neglected everything except the army - which eventually killed him anyway.
Caracalla isn't really unique with the high pay for the army, most things that caracalla does that are terrible are just continuing trends that were started before him, he basically just takes everything his father did to the extreme, except for successful military campaigns, so while he does do terrible shit he's not necessarily unique. I think if you're to be classified as worst emperor you should like at least come up with the terrible stuff you do by yourself you know, they should have some creativity
His worst decision was to make citizenship universal in 212 - that took away the last incentive for noncitizens to serve in the army to earn citizenship, and made citizenship itself virtually meaningless.
If you want a bizarre tale of naval exploration, that also includes centuries of dispute of ownership of an island by different countries, and a self-proclaimed Mexican king --with his own many consort prisoner wives--, read about Clipperton. It's a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic that was disputed by Mexico and France, with interventions by the UK and the USA. It's a wonderful and strange case.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buff
I’d take a lot of the stuff said about not just him but any emperor/popular figure at that time with a grain of salt. Considering the people writing history were the rich…
It is often hard to sift fact from fiction after thousands of years, especially since Thrax's reign was rather brief and during the Crisis of the Third Century. There has been a rehabilitation of sorts for Nero and Domitian in recent years, who were considered "bad" by their contemporaries. While I would never consider Nero a "good" ruler, much of what was said about him was complete fiction. Domitian was definitely underrated, with some modern historians considering him one of Rome's better emperors.
Andre the giant had a strong tolerance for liquor. I can't remember exactly how much but he drank a lot of beer. Andre would even shake the entire room with a fart. As hilarious as that is it's 100% true lol. He'd do it on purpose too, he just had that kind of a sense of humor. And was known for farting on his opponents. Accidentally shit on Bad News Brown in a match. Or it was intentional either way. He had a twisted sense of humor lol
He most likely stored his sweat as oil and perfume. It was a commodity to scrape the oil and sweat off gladiators for the same custom. I figure his logic was ,"who wouldn't want to buy the sweat of a warrior emperor."
THANK YOU! How DARE he, a ruler in a semi-dynastic government, want his son to succeed him! Much of the story they tell here is taken out of context. Thrax was a fine emperor.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight Exactly. There were plenty of weird, excessive emporors, some of whom aren't talked about (Elagabalus, looking at you) so why do they feel the need to frame a solid, hardworking emperor as one?
*Fun fact:* The emperor who appears in the thumbnail is not actually Maximinus Thrax, but Emperor Honorius, who ruled almost two centuries after Thrax's death. In the thumbnail, Honorius is happily feeding his birds while not giving a sh*t about the Senators informing him that Rome had recently been sacked by the barbarians
Caligula! what's up my guy!?
@@Libbyyyyyyyyyy Meh. Nothing special. Just pranking Uncle Claudius and "playing" with my sisters, like usual. Anyway, I don't like how Macro and Gemellus lately look at me. They remind me a lot that nephew of mine named after my brother Nero, who spends the entire day watching the torches of the Palace burning...
Playing minnows in the pool with Uncle Claudius.
*Wow!* did they tell you that in college?
Do you want that square millimeter of brain back? 🤪
@@ashleelarsen5002 You think college teaches history and the classics? Lol
How anyone with the name Maximinus Thrax could fail at anything is beyond me
Fase advertising!
PENIS HERCULEUS MAXIMUS
@@enigmacapital do you think the name biggus diccus is funny?
@@FalloutGenius1 He has a wife, you know.
Agreed
Reportedly, Maximinus told his men to "Go ahead". They misunderstood. 🤷♀️
Source “trust me bro”
@@brysonellis227 fun
I love the dry humour on this channel, very few things make me laugh out loud but it happens very often watching your videos. Never change!
I love that quaity as well.
Ugh, I genuinely have lost Thrax of all these awful emperors!
😂😂😂
Can’t believe someone who has a badass name such as Maximinus is a terrible emperor
Caligula had little children suck his body underwater.. so I'm very confused as to wtf bad means.
@@hospitalcakewalk I think that’s Tiberius you’re mentioning. It’s recorded he creepily called the boys his “little minnows”. However this was all stuff Caligula was likely exposed to and took for inspiration in his own debauched rule.
Little Boots?
He was actually a mid tier emperor all of his rivals were much worse
I am surprised the Romans never lost their motivation and guts to betray one caesar to another because of reasons.
If if you put into account the Acromegaly part of the story, I can believe the alcohol consumption, because I know the stories of Andre the Giant's alcohol consumption who also suffered from acromegaly
When you are nearly 8 feet tall - according to Gibbon - one could bully his way into anything he wanted. His death - along with his son - was accomplished by having their throats cut while sleeping in the command tent in Acquilea.
hence "let sleeping giants lies".
Not really, when people get that tall it's actually a disadvantage because they usually have mobility issues because they're body is to big to support it's own weight, when you look at the Guinness world record of the world's tallest people most of them are in wheel chairs or have to walk with leg braces for that exact reason
@@Ashclayton1994 he didn't suffer from that disease
I absolutely love this narrators voice. I watch these videos every night before bed lol
I want a whole video of the narrator just pronouncing difficult names!
I'm kind of surprised they didn't talk about how big he was in the title. Feel like that would drive more engagement with the video. Who doesn't want to hear about the NBA center Roman emperor?
He took that five-dollar foot long to another level
This needs to be introduced into every history classroom in the world! Kids would be far more eager to learn and would definitely recall your addition to the lesson! I’m absolutely buckled! 😂😂😂
a lot of this is uncritically accepting that what senators said about emperors was true, it uses the historia augusta as source without really critically looking at it, the historia augusta being a famously bad source for the time period. This video also takes a lot out of context, a lot of things that this video points out as bad aren't unique to Thrax and have been done by many emperors who are commonly considered to be good. So no this video does not belong in a classroom
While this is definitely presented in an entertaining way, it does not give a very good understanding of the period
This why discussion and q&a is important to aid retention
It's not often I hear of a Roman Emperor whom I haven't heard of yet. There's more to uncover.
Best Star Wars name ever.
Maximinus: I AM THE SENATE!
Roman Senate: It's treason then!
No they were the one’s to commit treason
Another very good video from Weird History.
"Did you really pause the video to read this fictional list?" Lmfao, good video as always.
In some ways, the story of Maximinus Thrax is tragic. The man proved himself a capable soldier, but his own ambition and a relatively weak emperor catapulted him to a position he simply did not have the acumen to handle. It seems he believed that force would solve all his problems.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight In that case, one can argue that the short-sighted Roman elites helped to bring down their empire over the long run by refusing to pay for the war effort.
Which emperor was the little cesars guy modeled after ?
A+ video!
Fascinating history about the emperor!
great video! and your improved pronunciation of foreign names has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for your dedication and informative videos. I always learn alot!
They were all unhinged rulers back in those horrific, violent times.
Unaddressed trauma and stress, likely. Couple that with the lead poisoning and you certainly get a crazy concoction when ultimate power is thrown into the mix.
@@Cheddar_Wizard Unaddressed? Addressing trauma etc is a relatively modern thing if you weren't religious.
@@awsomeboy360 Not sure what you mean. You telling me Caligula’s insane childhood trauma was actually addressed in his time?
@@Cheddar_Wizard And im telling u trauma wasnt even addressed back then. It wasnt even called trauma. Thats a modern word. It took until the 20th century to classify it as such and address it
@@awsomeboy360 I’m so confused. That’s LITERALLY what I was saying with my first comment dude lol... I swear semantics are the entropy of the internet.
I DID pause the video to read the list. Was not disappointed.
In its early days Rome was the first sanctuary city offering freedom to run away slaves who made it there
Ooh just like america these days
Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job
Love the video keep it up.
Can't wait for TIMELINE!!!
Thrax's bust reminds me of Dolph Lundgren
Damn you Weird History!! You got me. I 100% paused at 1:36 because I love your humor and always know you're putting something funny in the video, lmao! Keep making fun videos!
Do an episode on Agent Garbo of WWII! The dude basically wrote the book on trolling
🤣🤣
You should do a video on all of romes terrible emperors, like Nero, the man who fiddled while rome burned, literally, played his fiddle rather than do anything. Itd make a good video.
Ditto ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
@@alicerivierre ah a history fan such as myself! My faith in humanity has been restored by 1HP, lol ;-)
There's no evidence of Nero ever doing that, so maybe don't use the word "literally" next time
@@balabanasireti indeed. Much of what's accepted as "fact" about Nero is actually myth. He wasn't even in the city when the blaze started, and upon his return he actually organised fire-fighting efforts, while opening the gates to the palace gardens so fleeing citizens could escape the inferno. Oh, and Nero never conducted mass persecutions of Christians; although Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, who the Catholic church revere as "virtuous pagans", did. There are surviving letters from Trajan to his governors, informing them how to prosecute those accused of Christianity. And if you read Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations" (which you can find on Amazon) he has some rather derisive things to say about the upstart religion at the time. Thankfully, some of Rome's supposed "bad" emperors, notably Nero and Domitian, have been getting a second look by historians in recent years.
LET'S GO BRANDON! 🇮🇹
The Biden of Rome.
Imagine the Roman Empire still ruling today, it would be too weird to comprehend.
For anyone who reads this keep grinding and keep pushing. Whatever it is in life you want to do to after it life is to short. Life is a marathon not a sprint so go out there and live it up peace and one love! ✌🏽🙏🏽
I know Gibbon is considered to be unreliable but all I know of Severus I learned from Decline and Fall can anyone tell me if that recounting is problematic and if so how problematic?
it is extremely problematic, it has been a very influential work and it still in some ways frames the way roman history is understood especially in pop culture, but modern historians have come to very different conclusions.
I loved the Star Wars reference, but the Machiavelli joke was pure gold 👌
I hope you guys are making the money these videos are worth! And that you keep them coming!!
I still think Caracalla was the worst emperor ever. Bankrupted the empire by massively increasing army size and pay, created the expectation of high pay later that led to lots of coups and instability, did a 'Persian red wedding' which pissed off Rome's biggest rival for no reason, and neglected everything except the army - which eventually killed him anyway.
Caracalla isn't really unique with the high pay for the army, most things that caracalla does that are terrible are just continuing trends that were started before him, he basically just takes everything his father did to the extreme, except for successful military campaigns, so while he does do terrible shit he's not necessarily unique. I think if you're to be classified as worst emperor you should like at least come up with the terrible stuff you do by yourself you know, they should have some creativity
@@alexavermeulen8847 - Cassius Dio said that Caracalla was a good soldier but a bad emperor.
His worst decision was to make citizenship universal in 212 - that took away the last incentive for noncitizens to serve in the army to earn citizenship, and made citizenship itself virtually meaningless.
LOVED the star wars reference at 7:20!
How about Sun Tzu? Who was he how his "art of war" philosophy came to be?
I swear, the writing for this channel rivals that of late night comedy. The deadpan zingers are immaculate
If you want a bizarre tale of naval exploration, that also includes centuries of dispute of ownership of an island by different countries, and a self-proclaimed Mexican king --with his own many consort prisoner wives--, read about Clipperton. It's a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic that was disputed by Mexico and France, with interventions by the UK and the USA. It's a wonderful and strange case.
Well he prevented many barbarian invasions and Rome’s downfall was not inevitable plus there were worse emperors during the crisis
Yes. I did pause the video to read the checklist.
Morning, History learners! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Surprised Marvel didn't steal his name for one of their characters. (good video).
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buff
Does this work in getting you followers? I personally would avoid a man who bangs on about corndogs under random videos.
@@N_0968 yea it pretty much does. Not a bad living with 1000 subs I get like a doller a month!
I’d take a lot of the stuff said about not just him but any emperor/popular figure at that time with a grain of salt. Considering the people writing history were the rich…
It is often hard to sift fact from fiction after thousands of years, especially since Thrax's reign was rather brief and during the Crisis of the Third Century. There has been a rehabilitation of sorts for Nero and Domitian in recent years, who were considered "bad" by their contemporaries. While I would never consider Nero a "good" ruler, much of what was said about him was complete fiction. Domitian was definitely underrated, with some modern historians considering him one of Rome's better emperors.
yeah especially if you use the historia augusta as a source
Please make a video about Emma Goldman!
Dear Sir,
Yes, I did pause to read the silly list. You got me. Well done.
Best,
Xerxes
*Caligula enters the chat*
Too bad for him. He had the most supervillain name but didn't live up to it.
Haha I did pause the video to read the fictional list.
I did as well! Epic!
Me too, it was the best part. 😂
Maybe it’s the gummy I ate earlier, but that Machiavelli dad joke made me laugh harder than I have in months. Thanks for that.
He looks like Ben Roethlisberger. Kinda sounds like him too.
Sheesh, that’s actually accurate lmfao
1:35 Touché!
Could we have a video on Ulysses S Grant? Maybe some more American Civil War content too? Love the videos!
Andre the giant had a strong tolerance for liquor. I can't remember exactly how much but he drank a lot of beer. Andre would even shake the entire room with a fart. As hilarious as that is it's 100% true lol. He'd do it on purpose too, he just had that kind of a sense of humor. And was known for farting on his opponents. Accidentally shit on Bad News Brown in a match. Or it was intentional either way. He had a twisted sense of humor lol
Yes. I did. Even rewound a bit too. 1:35
I need a giant novelty cowboy hat!!
I've read accounts of Thrax being over 10 ft tall..a giant
Yeah, I paused the list. You caught me
Love the star wars reference 👌
Legend has it that Maximinus was as big or bigger than Andre The Giant. That's a pretty big fella.
Thanks for this! 🏛️
THE ROMAN EQUIVALENT TO ANDRE THE GIANT LOL
You show a lot of contempt for soldiers, particularly those who often didn't have the choice to serve because of conscription.
Oh ok!? So not Titus who ignited the entire world in thousands of years of religious war.
I went back in the video and paused it to read that fictional list. They got me good! 😁😁
what is CE? i only know BC and AD.... Century?
CE comes after BCE
Hi. Please do one of Idi Amin. 😂😂Check out his title that he had himself called.
Greetings from Namibia 🇳🇦
I did pause it to read the list.
Where are the movie clips from?
A video on how many Roman emperors were forced to take the job, at the point of a sword.
Severous sounded peaceful and got a bad rap
@1:35 Why yes, in fact I did pause to do just that!
Favorite period. How about aemilianus one of the early third century team?
Have you ever done a video on the year of the 5 emperors?
Well hello gentlemen
Nice tonton reference
As the old saying goes “The bigger they are the harder they fall”
I’m actually one of the early commenters for once.
Morning!
He most likely stored his sweat as oil and perfume. It was a commodity to scrape the oil and sweat off gladiators for the same custom. I figure his logic was ,"who wouldn't want to buy the sweat of a warrior emperor."
Whoever writes these is hillarious
Maximinus reminds me a lot of Andre the giant
He was far from being the only emperor to want his son to succeed him.
THANK YOU! How DARE he, a ruler in a semi-dynastic government, want his son to succeed him! Much of the story they tell here is taken out of context. Thrax was a fine emperor.
@The_Jaguar_ Knight Exactly. There were plenty of weird, excessive emporors, some of whom aren't talked about (Elagabalus, looking at you) so why do they feel the need to frame a solid, hardworking emperor as one?
dude the famous painting is alma-tadema emperor honorious in the early 400 ad
trolling your own viewers,( see 1:30 ), is not a good brand trait for support, FYI. Thx for taking my time.
"Romes worst emperor" in the thumbnail lol, somewhere Honorius thanks you
Hi can you please make video about how Poland was made as a country please.
Love the pause joke 😂
Even from the beginning of the video, it was apparent how short-sighted he was.
The stories remind me of Andre the giant stories.
Looks like Jay Leno!
maybe he was an actual giant
Can you go over the reign of Papa Doc? The devious ruler of Haiti ?
I paused the video and read the fictional list. You got me.
“Unhinged rulers”? You could pretty much go through the list of Roman emperors and have enough of those to cover through the end of time.
I won't stand for Thrax slander. Fuck the senate, he did what he had to do. He won't be put in categories like Honorious, Commodus or Valentinan III.
Rome. The nation that could have made the world their oyster. But instead chose to eat themselves.