Re: classical paintings being less impressive than sculptures. Another thing to think about is that when we think of a realistic painting today, we are thinking of an oil painting. But oil paint is relatively new invention and wasn't widely used until the Renaissance. The rich hues and depth you see in an oil painting was simply not possible to achieve with egg tempera paint. Tempera has a "washed out" look because the egg can't hold as much pigment. So to our eyes, tempera paintings end up looking very flat because the contrast needed to model 3d forms isn't there.
Although more Persian than Roman, Zoroastrianism has been around since 1500 BC, but it undoubtedly was practiced throughout the Roman Empire as were other cults and religions. And Zoroastrians still exist today... it is probably the world's oldest cult still in practice.
Mithras. Mithras is the constellation of Orion, killing the constellation of Taurus. A celebration of the precession of the equinox. Look at the sky, and Orion is facing Taurus, with his bow or axe about to strike Taurus. This is a celebration of the end of the Great Month of Taurus, in 1750 BC, so this cult was way out of date in Roman times. They should have been sIaying sheep, not bulls. R
Russia actually claims to be heir to Byzantine, specifically because Ivan III was married to Sophia Palaiologina, niece of Constantine XI Palaiologos. Now for outsiders it probably seems fairly tenuous, but not to Russians who consider Moscow to be the 3rd Rome and took many of their religious and cultural practices from Byztantine. You only have to look at a Russian church to see how far they took this idea! In fact they took it so seriously they made many attempts to annex Constantinople, which seems very out of character for Russia. So I guess you could try suing Putin I guess. I wouldn't, I really wouldn't. But you could.
The Ottoman Sultans also considered themselves to be Roman Emperors after the conquest of Constantinopel. And let's not forget about the Holy Roman Empire.
Like this video, but the "McDonalds hot coffee" story is based on an intentionally misleading popular version. The victim suffered horrible burns (too disgusting to describe here) as a result of spilling coffee that McD's had kept undrinkablely hot (way more than most coffee) and only asked for her medical expenses to be paid, which the corporation refused to do and spend way more running a PR campaign against her.
the temperature was enough to melt skin I always want this mentioned, that it wasn't a dubious lawsuit but serious physical damage inflicted for cost cutting reasons
@@christopherneufelt8971 I agree with the former, but the latter seems false to me. At least some practitioners of native european religions make a great effort to understand the past and adhere to it as closely as possible. Keep in mind we have more original text teaching us about those religions than we do depicting the views of jesus christ. So they have at least as good a claim as the christians to be practicing a genuine heritage, if not stronger. Of course there are also wiccans and other neopagans who make only a token gesture of respect to historical religion and are otherwise purely modern invention.
wow, calling Christianity a cult, I know I could never possibly convince you because you are so sure but I just watched this today. ruclips.net/video/AHU3Kc8sKQ0/видео.htmlsi=I8C_e83Ye3oGiSsG this man is a cold case detective for the LA police dept. He was a total atheist, until he started to actually look into it, investigate the actual evidence, or not, and he changed his mind. C.S. Lewis's "mere christianity" explains a lot also, he was also a hard nosed atheist until he looked into it. Sure you can point to certain catholic rituals and it looks paganistic, but that does not prove anything one way or another. Don't close your mind off to the possibility. C.S. Lewis famously said "Either the man was a lunatic and a liar, or he was who he said he was" and there is a lot of evidence out there for the latter.
I don't know if this is a topic you have discussed recently, but can you go a bit into what life was like for Romans after the fall of Rome/the Western Roman Empire?
Today, someone was puzzled when I used the term, dry wit. What does that even mean, he wondered. And could I give him an example. So I pointed him to this channel.
Dear Dr Ryan, I greatly enjoy all of your videos, including your Q&A videos. I have a question that you might like to address in a future Q&A videos. What were the customs of inheritance within the Roman Empire, both inheritance of money, property etc. but also of social status, official roles and titles? For example, did all (or at least most) of the sons of Roman Senators become Senators themselves or was that only (or mostly) a privilege of eldest sons? Was money divided equally amongst sons? Or did eldest sons get the lion’s share? What if any provision was given for widows and unmarried daughters (or even married ones)? Were the grandchildren and great grandchildren of great men reliably still in high social status or did some fall a few social rungs over the generations? I realise there is far more to my question that you could answer in a single video, but I would still be fascinated to hear your thoughts on just one or two aspects of inheritance in the Roman Empire. Many Thanks, Fred
Did Ancient Rome have stock markets? Or any kind of investment markets? Also did they have fine dining restaurants or exclusive clubs that only famous people could get into?
Roman law provided for primitive corporations -- multiple parties could invest in an enterprise. If memory serves, this was mainly shares in a trading vessel. There was no stock market as developed by the 1700s.
I always think it's weird how the Roman empire is associated with persecution of Christianity, while Christianity is the only Roman cult/religion that was NOT persecuted into extinction during the empire's existence. That shows how much it matters who is writing the history books.
Christian persecutions of polytheists was much more pervasive and institutional than anything polytheist Rome (save for Emperor Julian in reaction to Christianity’s ascendency) did to Christians. Pagan authorities saw them as offshoots of the peculiar Hebraic religion of the Levant, but beyond that, didn’t really care. Religious chauvinism and forced conversions weren’t widespread phenomena until Christianity and Islam came onto the scene - and that’s because such neurosis is necessarily built into Abrahamic/Yahwist religion.
A story about africans in africa enslaved by other africans the africans escape and go to another place in africa etc... And than some of christs life and final days were in rome there is a whole precursor that does not involve rome at all and even alot of the new testament does not concern rome to call christianity roman is like calling the islamic faith eurasian because of muhammeds connections to secret societies
Some of the facial paintings on Greek sarcophagi in Egypt were incredibly realistic especially compared to the comic book art of the European middle ages. Also when you travel and start to see literally thousands of Greco-Roman statues you start to see plenty of less than perfect out of proportion statues: big heads, little heads, hands a little too big for the arms, etc.
Yeah, its insane the level of detail the ancients were able to achieve with primitive tools and pure skill... Wouldn't be matched or surpassed until the Renaissance imo- and honestly I doubt there's many humans if any that could replicate such masterpieces with simplistic tools either.
@@WelcomeToDERPLAND The tools they were using in antiquity were pretty much the same they used in in Renaissance and to call them "primitive" or "simplistic" is so wrong. Hand tools like chisels, files, sandpaper and scrapers are still absolutely necessary to create fine sculptures today.
Most of the time we don't see ancient sculptures in their original settings, take for example the greatest statue of them all, Michelangelo's David, it was sculpted to be seen from underneath, that;s why the head is too big for the body, then there's intentional disproportion for symbolic purposes, like his right hand, also bigger, to symbolize power and intent. So, when judging ancient art and specially sculpture, keep that in mind, context makes all the difference.
The cults change over large spans of time. However, freemasonry may be linked in some ways to Mithraism, the religion of the Praetorian Guard. But Mithraism itself is linked to Persia, Anatolia, and Egypt. Christianity absorbed the Egyptian cults, Roman cults, Platonic followers, many of the Jewish sects, and the Germanic pagans into itself. Christianity grew so large because it was able to absorb these groups through persuasion. This is why Christianity was all-encompassing in Europe. Many groups also claim Roman lineage, such as Turkic conquerors, the French, the Brits, and Russians too.
How did a general give out orders during battles? How would that message reach the rest of that army, especially if the legions were in the midst of battle?
One of my history texts mentioned that Greeks held painting to be the highest art, but unfortunately none of the paintings have survived. Kind of like Vonnegut's Rabo Karabekian.
When I first discovered this channel I thought the creator was like a student that started it as a school project and then got really into it and just ran with it.
after reading a radii article by matthew bosson, it seems that the syncretic manichaen-buddhist temple in fujian still exists. But actual followers of manichaenism are either elusive or nonexistent. The faith certainly existed later in the middle ages and possibly into the early modern.
Nero does the darnest things! Question: Average pay was about 1000-1200 sestertie. With rents in the Roman Empire being 500 sestertie per annum, and in Rome up to 2000, how many people in a household worked, and what was an average income for a household?
Your wrong, dianic Hellenism has been preserved and kept alive throughout the centuries. A few other gods other (Pan,Venus,Athena, Hermès, and Eiris,etc.) still have followers but building temples cost so much money that unless you have the state on your side it’s almost impossible. To say Hellenist don’t exist is a incredibly disrespectful.
I just found your channel yesterday and got immediately hooked. I went to bed with this exact question and lo and behold it showed up in my recommended today! This is truly the greatest history channel I’ve ever had the pleasure of stumbling upon. Thank you!
Some Romance speaking and Roman-influenced peoples still have forms of Roman Gods in their mythology, even tho they don't worship them anymore. Diana for example is remembered by Asturians as Xana, by Romanians as Zâna bună or Sânziana, and by Albanians as Zana(all of these names do etymologically come form the name Diana - Xana, Zâna and Zana are just the natural evolution of the name, Sânziana comes from Sancta Diana - Holy Diana), and in Romanian stories she also frequently has the epithet "sora Soarelui", the sister of the Sun. It's also interesting that in all of these cases, the name can be either a proper name or just mean fairy.
The Malibu Getty Villa Museum has a great collection of Roman sculpture, frescos, and mosaics that range from what I assume were mass-produced stuff to very refined work. Some of the frescos were obviously done very quickly, and yet made with great skill, so that up close they look almost abstract, but from a distance are accurately representational.
I love your channel! Can you explain in another of your videos how the roman concept of state and nation differed from our modern understanding. I would be interesting to know what the romans and the people in rural regions of italy understood under this notion. Thx and much apreciation 🙏
Someone alive today having a proven line of descent going back to ancient history, a "Descent from Antiquity", is generally regarded as having no good claimants. However, what are the last surviving and generally well-proven family lines that originated in antiquity, an "Ascent to Present"? In other words, at what point in history can it be said that a Descent from Antiquity finally breaks down?
Descent from antiquity is only an unprovable claim in the Western world. In the East there's hundreds of familial lines that go farther back than that. The 79th generation claimant to the line of Confucius, Kung Tsui-chang (and thus, from Confucius' descent from the Dukes of Song, a line of descent that goes all the way back through the Shang dynasty rulers, at least ~1000BC and likely centuries older) is a noteworthy example. In the West it was made difficult by the burning of the Roman archives. If that weren't the case, there would likely be hundreds of families that could trace origins to Roman gens.
There are claims by some French people that they are descended from Sidonius Apollinaris, the fifth century poet, letter writer and briefly urban prefect of Rome, but while we are of course all descended from ancient peoples, except for Russell Brand, who has monkeys as ancestors, nobody can prove from whom. The Sidonius claim is held as bogus. King Charles is descended from the fifth century British king Cerdic, but anything earlier is mythical. French kings can claim descent from Clovis, but very very obliquely.
My neighbor is a pagan. Not sure why he went back to polytheism from monotheism, and not atheism after theism, or at least being an agnostic. But, he’s a nice guy nonetheless. I just have to keep it a secret, as being a pagan in the very bosom of Arabia, can be quite dangerous, I daresay. He and I did have a most interesting conversation about the Cult of Mithras once. Which I believe lasted for almost three hours. He also showed me a double-faced relief that he had built of Mithras. A copy of a 3rd century Roman original.
@@SputnikRXwell from a traditional Christian perspective, some or all of them were indeed real they were just demons, or in rare cases angels, depending on what they stood for and did Id imagine they do, is it really a religion if they don't believe in them?
I've talked to a number of neopagans. My impression is that they're less literal-minded than followers of mainstream religions. They're less likely to believe that Apollo or Isis actually exist, and more likely to see them as allegory, or to use them as focal points for ceremonies. Then again, neopagans are diverse, and some of them probably do believe in literal gods.
Did any high ranking Roman Legionaries or officials carry gold swords similar to how some warlords and dictators have golden handguns (I.e. Hitler’s gold Walther PPK)
Hi Garrett! If the Romans came out victorious in battle, how would they treat the dead of their enemies? Would they leave them on the field or would they bury/burn them? I’m curious how respectful or disrespectful they would treat the fallen.
That's a good question. I would like to think that they buried all of the bodies to reduce the chance of disease spreading. Who knows though. They might have let them rot to scare the local population.
Closest answer I know is how the Greeks did it: after a defeat, the losers would ask the victors (defined as those that held the field) if they could collect and bury their dead, in itself an admission of defeat. This was done after the victors had stripped the dead of their arms and armours, using those to build a monument (literally _trophy_ ) to commemorate their victory. The request was virtually never denied between Greeks, doing so would have been borderline sacrilegious, but might have been less common with barbarians. The ultimate sign of disrespect and hatred was to leave the bodies to be eaten by wild animals. I suspect the Romans followed more-or-less the same protocols, except that they normally took the captured arms to be displayed back in Rome (in temples or outside private houses) rather than erecting trophies.
@@QuantumHistorian I wonder if they continued doing this into Christianity, and if they would respect their pagan enemies such as the Sassanids, armies from the Steppe, or the Germanic tribes?
The Greek myths are still pretty well. Hellenism is decidedly not neo-paganism. The Roman cults (including Christianity) are about the tragedy as all went to hell, the greek myths are about what made antiquity great.
Cool Video. I´d had a question if it would make sense. As a lot of people know does the pantheon not have a full closed roof and has a hole in the middle. Thats why I wonder if it would be "fixable" with the building standing there now. A lot of cathedrals do have a "lantern" on top of the dome? Would the dome of the pantheon be strong enough to hold up a lantern to cover the hole and to stop any rain to enter the building? I hope thate this question makes sense, wasnt answered before and that my english wasnt too bad. Thanks in advance.
Oh wow Professor Ryan, thank you so much for this separate channel! I am so impressed with your honest academic approach. This is like finally reading the footnotes to one of one's favourite books, or channels, respectively. Thank you and thumbs up!
They were "former" enemies because they'd been defeated in battle. The Romans could have killed all of them, or enslaved all of them, if they had wanted - such things were done at the time. So they were probably quite happy to join the winning side. (And the ones who wouldn't have liked it were mostly dead.)
Did Romans place any importance on individual fighting prowess, outside of gladiators? Was swordsmanship, in 1v1 duel type setting, a valuable skill to have? Or was Roman combat doctrine, outside of the arena, focused on the group unit, rather than the individual? Love ya Garrett! Ave Imperator!
Of COURSE they do. Let me list them... wait... there's a knocking at my door... hold on... OH DEAR G-D IT'S THEM! IT'S THE..... No, tu profani rusticus, there are none. Look away. Nihil hic videre.
Mithras. Mithras is the constellation of Orion, killing the constellation of Taurus. A celebration of the precession of the equinox. Look at the sky, and Orion is facing Taurus, with his bow or axe about to strike Taurus. This is a celebration of the end of the Great Month of Taurus, in 1750 BC, so this cult was way out of date in Roman times. They should have been sIaying sheep, not bulls. R
How were intaglio gemstones incised in such exacting miniature detail in theory without the aide of any magnification. As they often served as verification of identification on wax seals on documents was perhaps the process of making them held as a trade secret?
I think a fun topic might be discussing one of the earliest societies in the Knossos and close to it the ancient laws written on a wall in Gortyn. What do they entail and how early were they written by the Minoans? Love these q&a type videos! Your book is great too, I'm recommending it to everyone I know that's interested in Roman history =)
I have a question. Do we know if there was a large emmigration of Greeks and Romans from Egypt and the Maghreb when it got conquered by Arabs? Or if it happened it's mostly unrecorded?
If the Byzantines were Romans then and argument can be made that the last Roman Emperor was Czar Nicholas. If you asked Vladimir Putin, I am sure he would tell you that he is a Roman Emperor. A line of departure for Roman culture has to be drawn somewhere.From my perspective the Romans were gone when the fire of Vesta was extinguished. Let's forget the academic "Romanization" of the Byzantines that has happened recently. Let's say that the United States was overtaken by an Islamic force and the capitol was moved to Spain or somewhere. Are we still Americans? Although our founding fathers were deists who definitely did not have a state religion, the Romans very much did. The extinguishing of the vestal fire seems to me like a very defining moment. But I'm not subject to the whims of academic winds. To me the Dark Ages are still, well dark.
I would disagree greatly with the idea of the House of Savoy bearing any Roman responsibility since Rome never really cared for dynasties, even if multiple houses dominated its twilight years. Its culture was administration and by this the last Roman institutions would be the Greek Orthodox Church, the Vatican, and arguably some Italian city governments laid down by Bishops during the 400's. Since Roman people themselves never really looked to bloodlines as a form of legitimacy in the Emperor, it feels off to ever draw arguments about Roman inheritance along bloodlines that cultural Romans would themselves, wave off.
I lament and challenge that the fact that the western roman empire was reinstated 800 AD in form of the HRE, which has a direct line of legal successors right up to the FRG was omitted! Yet ... german law *does* assume that everyone should be able to walk without hurting themselvred ansd to know that koffee is hot ... so ... no cigar...
I think he's correct about Roman cults existing as a continuity, although there are some folkloric customs that arguably survived. But I get the feeling he's not very familiar with different forms of neopaganism, especially the reconstructionist side. To be fair, he's a historian and not a religious studies professor.
How sympathetic this scholar is! I enjoy both his books and his three channels amd I wonder if he could answer a very simplw question: what is his personal conception of history?
I don't know much about it, or if it counts, or maybe it falls into the "neo-pagan" realm, but I've read that some people are still into the cult of Antinous.
Nero trying to sink his mother's boat. Ha ha, who among us hasn't tried to sink their mother's boat because she was trying to seize power over the empire? We've all been in that situation...
If you get hurt by an ancient ruin, you better ask in which country this has happened, and if somebody was responsible to maintain it. If it has happened in an archaeological parc where you even had to pay an entry fee (and you didn't do anything wrong, like leaving the path) then the parc administration is responsible; if you happen to get hurt on open, not maintained field it may be considered as your own fault or "act of god".
I have one question. After Rome conquered Greece, how difficult was it to the Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, etc. to leave behind their traditional style of government and, most importantly, their martial traditions and equipment?
I swear this the greatest history channel because he answers the questions we didn't even know we were dying to know
It’s because he’s one of us
It would be better if he didn't sound like Microsoft Sam.
@@Gazpacho8soi soi soi
Yes, Doc is great on that. In fact he once emailed me so that I could send him some pictures of Roman ruins from like 500 years ago.
My own thoughts too. Garrett Ryan is to Classical Rome what Mark Felton is to WWII.
It is small details like these - that Roman children were also building sand castles - that make the past seem much less distant. Thanks Garrett!
Until you realize that there is less time between you and the Roman and that Roman and an Egyptian pyramid builder.
Re: classical paintings being less impressive than sculptures. Another thing to think about is that when we think of a realistic painting today, we are thinking of an oil painting. But oil paint is relatively new invention and wasn't widely used until the Renaissance. The rich hues and depth you see in an oil painting was simply not possible to achieve with egg tempera paint. Tempera has a "washed out" look because the egg can't hold as much pigment. So to our eyes, tempera paintings end up looking very flat because the contrast needed to model 3d forms isn't there.
Although more Persian than Roman, Zoroastrianism has been around since 1500 BC, but it undoubtedly was practiced throughout the Roman Empire as were other cults and religions. And Zoroastrians still exist today... it is probably the world's oldest cult still in practice.
Also, don't forget that Christianity is still going, a major cult until it took over...(oops, didn't listen to the end before commenting!).
Mithras.
Mithras is the constellation of Orion, killing the constellation of Taurus. A celebration of the precession of the equinox. Look at the sky, and Orion is facing Taurus, with his bow or axe about to strike Taurus.
This is a celebration of the end of the Great Month of Taurus, in 1750 BC, so this cult was way out of date in Roman times. They should have been sIaying sheep, not bulls.
R
In the case of cults, there must have been, in some cases, there must have been a final high preist who walked away with the keys.
Reminds me of the Synagogues in Whitechapel. Still opened by Rabbi’s every Saturday for years but with no attendees.
Sun, sea, sand and Nero attempting to sink his mothers boat, just a normal day at the beach for Romans.
After having read all the comments I find yours to be the top comment. Brilliant.
@@larsrons7937 much appreciated Lars 😄
@@kiely4561 It was a refined joke. I had to copy and keep it. 😊 And I'll be sure to have it in mind if I realise a trip to Baiae next year.
Russia actually claims to be heir to Byzantine, specifically because Ivan III was married to Sophia Palaiologina, niece of Constantine XI Palaiologos. Now for outsiders it probably seems fairly tenuous, but not to Russians who consider Moscow to be the 3rd Rome and took many of their religious and cultural practices from Byztantine. You only have to look at a Russian church to see how far they took this idea! In fact they took it so seriously they made many attempts to annex Constantinople, which seems very out of character for Russia. So I guess you could try suing Putin I guess. I wouldn't, I really wouldn't. But you could.
They're a bit confused, the old Russians. Claiming to be the Third Rome and, on the other hand, defining themselves as anti-Western.
Are you Russian
Stay away from windows😅
The Ottoman Sultans also considered themselves to be Roman Emperors after the conquest of Constantinopel. And let's not forget about the Holy Roman Empire.
@@vidarfe Seeing as neither of those exist in current year it'd be hard to consider them heirs.
would be great to hear more about Manicheanism or other strands of religious thought/groups from that era (100BC to AD400).
This please. I find it fascinating that a major world religion is not only basically extinct but most of its scripture is lost.
👍👍👍👍👍👍For referring to Constantine XI as "the last Roman Emperor."
Like this video, but the "McDonalds hot coffee" story is based on an intentionally misleading popular version. The victim suffered horrible burns (too disgusting to describe here) as a result of spilling coffee that McD's had kept undrinkablely hot (way more than most coffee) and only asked for her medical expenses to be paid, which the corporation refused to do and spend way more running a PR campaign against her.
the temperature was enough to melt skin
I always want this mentioned, that it wasn't a dubious lawsuit but serious physical damage inflicted for cost cutting reasons
Thanks for that. There are frivolous lawsuits, but the Macdonalds hot coffee case certainly was not one.
I had no idea manichaeism still exists, it would be nice if you made a more in deepth video about it.
I myself regularly worship at the alter of the Sun Immortal. Praise Mithras!
Yes, Roman cults still exist: one currently has about 3.5 billion adherents.
No, that one is a Jewish cult.
@@christopherneufelt8971 I agree with the former, but the latter seems false to me. At least some practitioners of native european religions make a great effort to understand the past and adhere to it as closely as possible. Keep in mind we have more original text teaching us about those religions than we do depicting the views of jesus christ. So they have at least as good a claim as the christians to be practicing a genuine heritage, if not stronger.
Of course there are also wiccans and other neopagans who make only a token gesture of respect to historical religion and are otherwise purely modern invention.
wow, calling Christianity a cult, I know I could never possibly convince you because you are so sure but I just watched this today. ruclips.net/video/AHU3Kc8sKQ0/видео.htmlsi=I8C_e83Ye3oGiSsG this man is a cold case detective for the LA police dept. He was a total atheist, until he started to actually look into it, investigate the actual evidence, or not, and he changed his mind. C.S. Lewis's "mere christianity" explains a lot also, he was also a hard nosed atheist until he looked into it. Sure you can point to certain catholic rituals and it looks paganistic, but that does not prove anything one way or another. Don't close your mind off to the possibility. C.S. Lewis famously said "Either the man was a lunatic and a liar, or he was who he said he was" and there is a lot of evidence out there for the latter.
"Pagan" means Caesar worship, Hitler and Trump along with that. The word is bastardized by media and drunk clubs alike. @@peterhoulihan9766
Roman Catholics?
India is a civilization that still has ancient polytheistic religion. If you find that interesting.
I don't know if this is a topic you have discussed recently, but can you go a bit into what life was like for Romans after the fall of Rome/the Western Roman Empire?
Today, someone was puzzled when I used the term, dry wit. What does that even mean, he wondered. And could I give him an example. So I pointed him to this channel.
Normal people just say deadpan
@@JoeSims1776 Oh, just FOAD you silly twit! 😂
"Drunk, dissolute and admired by none." Can I use that"?
Dear Dr Ryan,
I greatly enjoy all of your videos, including your Q&A videos. I have a question that you might like to address in a future Q&A videos. What were the customs of inheritance within the Roman Empire, both inheritance of money, property etc. but also of social status, official roles and titles? For example, did all (or at least most) of the sons of Roman Senators become Senators themselves or was that only (or mostly) a privilege of eldest sons? Was money divided equally amongst sons? Or did eldest sons get the lion’s share? What if any provision was given for widows and unmarried daughters (or even married ones)? Were the grandchildren and great grandchildren of great men reliably still in high social status or did some fall a few social rungs over the generations?
I realise there is far more to my question that you could answer in a single video, but I would still be fascinated to hear your thoughts on just one or two aspects of inheritance in the Roman Empire.
Many Thanks,
Fred
Did Ancient Rome have stock markets? Or any kind of investment markets? Also did they have fine dining restaurants or exclusive clubs that only famous people could get into?
The wolf of Syracusae
no but obviously you can invest into someone or something personally
Roman law provided for primitive corporations -- multiple parties could invest in an enterprise. If memory serves, this was mainly shares in a trading vessel. There was no stock market as developed by the 1700s.
I always think it's weird how the Roman empire is associated with persecution of Christianity, while Christianity is the only Roman cult/religion that was NOT persecuted into extinction during the empire's existence. That shows how much it matters who is writing the history books.
Yesss - the last - Roman - religion. ,,,,,.....consider Rome vs "the jews" .....
Christian persecutions of polytheists was much more pervasive and institutional than anything polytheist Rome (save for Emperor Julian in reaction to Christianity’s ascendency) did to Christians.
Pagan authorities saw them as offshoots of the peculiar Hebraic religion of the Levant, but beyond that, didn’t really care. Religious chauvinism and forced conversions weren’t widespread phenomena until Christianity and Islam came onto the scene - and that’s because such neurosis is necessarily built into Abrahamic/Yahwist religion.
Christianity is probably the most famous Roman Cult that is still practiced
Christianity is not roman
A story about africans in africa enslaved by other africans the africans escape and go to another place in africa etc...
And than some of christs life and final days were in rome there is a whole precursor that does not involve rome at all and even alot of the new testament does not concern rome to call christianity roman is like calling the islamic faith eurasian because of muhammeds connections to secret societies
Some of the facial paintings on Greek sarcophagi in Egypt were incredibly realistic especially compared to the comic book art of the European middle ages. Also when you travel and start to see literally thousands of Greco-Roman statues you start to see plenty of less than perfect out of proportion statues: big heads, little heads, hands a little too big for the arms, etc.
Yeah, its insane the level of detail the ancients were able to achieve with primitive tools and pure skill... Wouldn't be matched or surpassed until the Renaissance imo- and honestly I doubt there's many humans if any that could replicate such masterpieces with simplistic tools either.
The Fayoum mummies. They’re not Greek, they’re Coptic.
Having a little head was and is desirable.
A big head will almost always look disproportionate and imperfect.
@@WelcomeToDERPLAND The tools they were using in antiquity were pretty much the same they used in in Renaissance and to call them "primitive" or "simplistic" is so wrong. Hand tools like chisels, files, sandpaper and scrapers are still absolutely necessary to create fine sculptures today.
Most of the time we don't see ancient sculptures in their original settings, take for example the greatest statue of them all, Michelangelo's David, it was sculpted to be seen from underneath, that;s why the head is too big for the body, then there's intentional disproportion for symbolic purposes, like his right hand, also bigger, to symbolize power and intent. So, when judging ancient art and specially sculpture, keep that in mind, context makes all the difference.
If only he had said something like, "Leaving aside Christianity ... ", then 90% of the comments would have been unnecessary ... !
_"Prince Vittorio, I'm here to complain about the unsafetiness of a construction one of your ancestors built 2,000 years ago..."_
The cults change over large spans of time. However, freemasonry may be linked in some ways to Mithraism, the religion of the Praetorian Guard. But Mithraism itself is linked to Persia, Anatolia, and Egypt. Christianity absorbed the Egyptian cults, Roman cults, Platonic followers, many of the Jewish sects, and the Germanic pagans into itself. Christianity grew so large because it was able to absorb these groups through persuasion. This is why Christianity was all-encompassing in Europe. Many groups also claim Roman lineage, such as Turkic conquerors, the French, the Brits, and Russians too.
How did a general give out orders during battles? How would that message reach the rest of that army, especially if the legions were in the midst of battle?
Look up fire signals, torch & water method and 5 flags method to get you started.
Flags, music, messengers.
One of my history texts mentioned that Greeks held painting to be the highest art, but unfortunately none of the paintings have survived. Kind of like Vonnegut's Rabo Karabekian.
Surely the Roman catholic church. Founded by them Empire...
Yeah, Christianity, Rome's biggest Cult😂
Thanks for clearing up some of the legal issues which have hitherto kept me generously sleep deprived.
Yes the answer to this is Roman catholicism! Neo Rome is very much alive and well, The vatican.
When I first discovered this channel I thought the creator was like a student that started it as a school project and then got really into it and just ran with it.
Short answer to the title: yes, Christianity is the most visible Roman Cult to survive
What did roman small talk look like? Did they also just talk about the weather and traffic?
after reading a radii article by matthew bosson, it seems that the syncretic manichaen-buddhist temple in fujian still exists. But actual followers of manichaenism are either elusive or nonexistent. The faith certainly existed later in the middle ages and possibly into the early modern.
Nero does the darnest things!
Question: Average pay was about 1000-1200 sestertie. With rents in the Roman Empire being 500 sestertie per annum, and in Rome up to 2000, how many people in a household worked, and what was an average income for a household?
Your wrong, dianic Hellenism has been preserved and kept alive throughout the centuries. A few other gods other (Pan,Venus,Athena, Hermès, and Eiris,etc.) still have followers but building temples cost so much money that unless you have the state on your side it’s almost impossible. To say Hellenist don’t exist is a incredibly disrespectful.
THe imperial cult morphed into Christianity. So yes at least one exists.
Christianity encompasses the whole tragedy.
The punchline to every atheist joke is always the same.
@@perceivedvelocity9914idk i like the one that goes "God Loves You, And He Needs Money!"
@@perceivedvelocity9914 nooooo you can't call me a cult that's heckin- heckin- illegal
@@perceivedvelocity9914That's probably because it's a response to the same 2,000-year-old joke.
Useful Charts has a great video on this. My vote goes to Felipe of Spain.
When it comes to the neopagans would you say the reconstructionists are still doing thier own thing?
Are there any direct descendants from famous Romans??????
Well, yes, most definitely
Just, no link can be proven for anyone
I just found your channel yesterday and got immediately hooked. I went to bed with this exact question and lo and behold it showed up in my recommended today! This is truly the greatest history channel I’ve ever had the pleasure of stumbling upon. Thank you!
Yes, it's called the *Roman* catholic church...
If you stub your toe on a milestone you should sue The Rock.
Some Romance speaking and Roman-influenced peoples still have forms of Roman Gods in their mythology, even tho they don't worship them anymore. Diana for example is remembered by Asturians as Xana, by Romanians as Zâna bună or Sânziana, and by Albanians as Zana(all of these names do etymologically come form the name Diana - Xana, Zâna and Zana are just the natural evolution of the name, Sânziana comes from Sancta Diana - Holy Diana), and in Romanian stories she also frequently has the epithet "sora Soarelui", the sister of the Sun. It's also interesting that in all of these cases, the name can be either a proper name or just mean fairy.
the roman catholich cult i mean church so.yes 😅
Keep up the awesome job, Garrett 👍
Who´s up for resurrecting the cult of Bacchus?
how many times a week did romans think about rome ?
The Malibu Getty Villa Museum has a great collection of Roman sculpture, frescos, and mosaics that range from what I assume were mass-produced stuff to very refined work. Some of the frescos were obviously done very quickly, and yet made with great skill, so that up close they look almost abstract, but from a distance are accurately representational.
Cult of Saturn rules every nation on Earth
I love your channel!
Can you explain in another of your videos how the roman concept of state and nation differed from our modern understanding. I would be interesting to know what the romans and the people in rural regions of italy understood under this notion.
Thx and much apreciation 🙏
Someone alive today having a proven line of descent going back to ancient history, a "Descent from Antiquity", is generally regarded as having no good claimants. However, what are the last surviving and generally well-proven family lines that originated in antiquity, an "Ascent to Present"? In other words, at what point in history can it be said that a Descent from Antiquity finally breaks down?
Descent from antiquity is only an unprovable claim in the Western world. In the East there's hundreds of familial lines that go farther back than that. The 79th generation claimant to the line of Confucius, Kung Tsui-chang (and thus, from Confucius' descent from the Dukes of Song, a line of descent that goes all the way back through the Shang dynasty rulers, at least ~1000BC and likely centuries older) is a noteworthy example. In the West it was made difficult by the burning of the Roman archives. If that weren't the case, there would likely be hundreds of families that could trace origins to Roman gens.
There are claims by some French people that they are descended from Sidonius Apollinaris, the fifth century poet, letter writer and briefly urban prefect of Rome, but while we are of course all descended from ancient peoples, except for Russell Brand, who has monkeys as ancestors, nobody can prove from whom. The Sidonius claim is held as bogus. King Charles is descended from the fifth century British king Cerdic, but anything earlier is mythical. French kings can claim descent from Clovis, but very very obliquely.
@@Joanna-il2ur I had no idea you were Russell's mother.
My neighbor is a pagan. Not sure why he went back to polytheism from monotheism, and not atheism after theism, or at least being an agnostic. But, he’s a nice guy nonetheless. I just have to keep it a secret, as being a pagan in the very bosom of Arabia, can be quite dangerous, I daresay.
He and I did have a most interesting conversation about the Cult of Mithras once. Which I believe lasted for almost three hours. He also showed me a double-faced relief that he had built of Mithras. A copy of a 3rd century Roman original.
Yeah kinda of weird. I wonder if neo- pagans actually believe in their gods
Pagan here. I’ll answer your question with a question: do you think Hindus, Buddhists, Shintoist, etc. actually believe in their god(s)?
@@SputnikRXwell from a traditional Christian perspective, some or all of them were indeed real they were just demons, or in rare cases angels, depending on what they stood for and did
Id imagine they do, is it really a religion if they don't believe in them?
I've talked to a number of neopagans. My impression is that they're less literal-minded than followers of mainstream religions. They're less likely to believe that Apollo or Isis actually exist, and more likely to see them as allegory, or to use them as focal points for ceremonies.
Then again, neopagans are diverse, and some of them probably do believe in literal gods.
@@davidesparza3637Of course we do!
Did any high ranking Roman Legionaries or officials carry gold swords similar to how some warlords and dictators have golden handguns (I.e. Hitler’s gold Walther PPK)
No. Gold is too soft to be used.
@@Joanna-il2ur true, but what I mean are pristinely decorated, expensive swords if that makes sense
Aren't the Gnostics still around?
Hi Garrett!
If the Romans came out victorious in battle, how would they treat the dead of their enemies? Would they leave them on the field or would they bury/burn them? I’m curious how respectful or disrespectful they would treat the fallen.
That's a good question. I would like to think that they buried all of the bodies to reduce the chance of disease spreading. Who knows though. They might have let them rot to scare the local population.
Closest answer I know is how the Greeks did it: after a defeat, the losers would ask the victors (defined as those that held the field) if they could collect and bury their dead, in itself an admission of defeat. This was done after the victors had stripped the dead of their arms and armours, using those to build a monument (literally _trophy_ ) to commemorate their victory. The request was virtually never denied between Greeks, doing so would have been borderline sacrilegious, but might have been less common with barbarians. The ultimate sign of disrespect and hatred was to leave the bodies to be eaten by wild animals.
I suspect the Romans followed more-or-less the same protocols, except that they normally took the captured arms to be displayed back in Rome (in temples or outside private houses) rather than erecting trophies.
i read somewhere that it was normal to burn the dead after a battle to prevent the spread of plagues.
@@QuantumHistorian I wonder if they continued doing this into Christianity, and if they would respect their pagan enemies such as the Sassanids, armies from the Steppe, or the Germanic tribes?
The Greek myths are still pretty well. Hellenism is decidedly not neo-paganism. The Roman cults (including Christianity) are about the tragedy as all went to hell, the greek myths are about what made antiquity great.
Those last two questions were especially interesting.
Cool Video.
I´d had a question if it would make sense. As a lot of people know does the pantheon not have a full closed roof and has a hole in the middle. Thats why I wonder if it would be "fixable" with the building standing there now. A lot of cathedrals do have a "lantern" on top of the dome? Would the dome of the pantheon be strong enough to hold up a lantern to cover the hole and to stop any rain to enter the building? I hope thate this question makes sense, wasnt answered before and that my english wasnt too bad. Thanks in advance.
Oh wow Professor Ryan, thank you so much for this separate channel! I am so impressed with your honest academic approach. This is like finally reading the footnotes to one of one's favourite books, or channels, respectively. Thank you and thumbs up!
How did the romans get their former enemies to join their army once they became part of the empire?
They were "former" enemies because they'd been defeated in battle. The Romans could have killed all of them, or enslaved all of them, if they had wanted - such things were done at the time. So they were probably quite happy to join the winning side. (And the ones who wouldn't have liked it were mostly dead.)
Did Romans place any importance on individual fighting prowess, outside of gladiators? Was swordsmanship, in 1v1 duel type setting, a valuable skill to have? Or was Roman combat doctrine, outside of the arena, focused on the group unit, rather than the individual? Love ya Garrett! Ave Imperator!
There was individual training for Legionnaires. The Romans knew that formations could break and that it could come down to 1v1 fighting.
I sent this to one of my old students purely for the stubbed toe law suit part.
Inside joke, but still hilarious and I thank you for it
Of COURSE they do. Let me list them... wait... there's a knocking at my door... hold on... OH DEAR G-D IT'S THEM! IT'S THE.....
No, tu profani rusticus, there are none. Look away. Nihil hic videre.
Mithras.
Mithras is the constellation of Orion, killing the constellation of Taurus. A celebration of the precession of the equinox. Look at the sky, and Orion is facing Taurus, with his bow or axe about to strike Taurus.
This is a celebration of the end of the Great Month of Taurus, in 1750 BC, so this cult was way out of date in Roman times. They should have been sIaying sheep, not bulls.
R
Bravo!
Thank you!
Pontific Maximus
Still existing Roman cults?
How about Christianism?
😂😂😂
How were intaglio gemstones incised in such exacting miniature detail in theory without the aide of any magnification. As they often served as verification of identification on wax seals on documents was perhaps the process of making them held as a trade secret?
I think a fun topic might be discussing one of the earliest societies in the Knossos and close to it the ancient laws written on a wall in Gortyn. What do they entail and how early were they written by the Minoans?
Love these q&a type videos! Your book is great too, I'm recommending it to everyone I know that's interested in Roman history =)
Don't forget the Mandaeans, with their gnostic roots. If China's attenuated Manichaeism counts as a Roman survival, shouldn't Mandaeism?
I have a question. Do we know if there was a large emmigration of Greeks and Romans from Egypt and the Maghreb when it got conquered by Arabs? Or if it happened it's mostly unrecorded?
If the Byzantines were Romans then and argument can be made that the last Roman Emperor was Czar Nicholas. If you asked Vladimir Putin, I am sure he would tell you that he is a Roman Emperor.
A line of departure for Roman culture has to be drawn somewhere.From my perspective the Romans were gone when the fire of Vesta was extinguished.
Let's forget the academic "Romanization" of the Byzantines that has happened recently. Let's say that the United States was overtaken by an Islamic force and the capitol was moved to Spain or somewhere. Are we still Americans? Although our founding fathers were deists who definitely did not have a state religion, the Romans very much did.
The extinguishing of the vestal fire seems to me like a very defining moment. But I'm not subject to the whims of academic winds. To me the Dark Ages are still, well dark.
I would disagree greatly with the idea of the House of Savoy bearing any Roman responsibility since Rome never really cared for dynasties, even if multiple houses dominated its twilight years. Its culture was administration and by this the last Roman institutions would be the Greek Orthodox Church, the Vatican, and arguably some Italian city governments laid down by Bishops during the 400's. Since Roman people themselves never really looked to bloodlines as a form of legitimacy in the Emperor, it feels off to ever draw arguments about Roman inheritance along bloodlines that cultural Romans would themselves, wave off.
There's this one Roman cult called "Christianity." Funny little religion, but I'm pretty sure it's still arround in a few places.
What is your IQ
If Mithraism (syncretic Zoroastrianism) was Roman, then Catholicism is Roman.
Mr. wavy Davey 69, The Italian mob is the modern descendant of Rome, you could always sue them.
I lament and challenge that the fact that the western roman empire was reinstated 800 AD in form of the HRE, which has a direct line of legal successors right up to the FRG was omitted! Yet ... german law *does* assume that everyone should be able to walk without hurting themselvred ansd to know that koffee is hot ... so ... no cigar...
Seriously? Christianity is not shaped by "...its Roman origins".
I think he's correct about Roman cults existing as a continuity, although there are some folkloric customs that arguably survived. But I get the feeling he's not very familiar with different forms of neopaganism, especially the reconstructionist side. To be fair, he's a historian and not a religious studies professor.
How sympathetic this scholar is! I enjoy both his books and his three channels amd I wonder if he could answer a very simplw question: what is his personal conception of history?
"Do any Roman Cults still exist?" Aside from the Catholic church, you mean?
Some may say that Christianity is a decedent of the cult of Dionysus. I think Joseph Campbell wrote about it.
Mothraism was/is a Persian cult/religion, not a Roman one. Your thumbnail is misleading.
I don't know much about it, or if it counts, or maybe it falls into the "neo-pagan" realm, but I've read that some people are still into the cult of Antinous.
I would think you could sue the current political entity for not managing trip hazards!
Do any Roman Cults still exist? ... no mention what so ever of Hermeticism ? Does the term cult not include the sub set "occult"?
The cult of Bacchus (aka Dionysus) will never die out, as long as thirsty men exist.
could you discuss any symbolism in greek and roman jewelry. also any information on if there were anything like embroidery on their clothing?
Nero trying to sink his mother's boat.
Ha ha, who among us hasn't tried to sink their mother's boat because she was trying to seize power over the empire?
We've all been in that situation...
If you get hurt by an ancient ruin, you better ask in which country this has happened, and if somebody was responsible to maintain it.
If it has happened in an archaeological parc where you even had to pay an entry fee (and you didn't do anything wrong, like leaving the path) then the parc administration is responsible; if you happen to get hurt on open, not maintained field it may be considered as your own fault or "act of god".
On the topic of Roman cults, can you do a video elaborating more on the inaccuracies of modern day neo-pagans? I'd like to see your take on it.
Who knows/knew more about the Romans - Charlemagne, Shakespeare or Garrett Ryan?
Hey there. Respectfully the sm7n is a bad choice. lav mic would better for many reasons. Plus your off axis. I can hear it 😂.
I have one question. After Rome conquered Greece, how difficult was it to the Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, etc. to leave behind their traditional style of government and, most importantly, their martial traditions and equipment?
Hello. I find it hard to get any pertinent information about the Mithras cult. Is it connected to Zoroastrianism?
Did Rome have banks? How did borrowing money work? Did ordinary citizens have access to debt for things like a mortgage?
Fantastic video.. but methinks the Papacy might count