Unsolved Mysteries about the Colosseum
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- The naumachiae, and other mysteries about the Colosseum
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:35 Were naval battles staged there?
3:43 Bespoke Post
4:55 Did the emperors have a secret entrance?
5:28 How were the awnings raised?
6:45 What did the Romans call the Colosseum?
7:45 How many spectators could it seat?
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Is this just bunches of guy stuff?
@@chateaumojoyes!
Yes they know ship battles where done there! 🤦♂🤣
When we lived in Naples in the 1960's, it was common to see 6-7 Italians crammed into a Fiat 500, so I don't see any reason why they couldn't cram 80,000 into the Colosseum.
And you can still see 5 people on a motorcycle
Personal space is a Germanic invention anyway, just like pants
Opposite of Big Booty Problems...skinny ass solutions
@@m.m.1301Try Thailand, 5 is rookie numbers
9 people on 4 seater tuk tuk
Was just doing my daily thinking about the Roman Empire when this video dropped. Good timing.
and that's good 👍
That meme is unfair to subscribers of this channel. We _have_ to think about it weekly, we see the videos.
I think about rome daily too,my daughter asked me & I never even realised I thought about it so much, maybe because Antonines wall runs through my back garden
Whatever u fo dont read eric jon phelps book on the vatican. why? im joking its good
I can’t stop, won’t stop. Every day.
It's a little known fact that the designer of the Colosseum seating, Clunis Parvus, was the ancestor of the man who designed budget airline seating.
Funnily enough, the mathematical laws of exponential descendants mixed in with a few assumptions about historical migration, means that this has roughly a 70% chance of being true. The other 30% is that this man has no living descendants. So... @yorkshirepudding is actually, against most expectation, probably right.
As well as a few parking garages in San Francisco that have spaces so small you can't get out of your car once parked.
😂BRUTAL!
fun stuff....it turns out that Ptolemy V Epiphanes is my direct ancestor (75th great grandfather0
That man's name: Ryanairus Boardingpassus Printus
It's possible that only a small layer of water was used to fill the arena to simulate water and the ships were set in the arena in a predefined stationary manner to facilitate a battle. The battle could have just been people jumping form boat to boat to fight or launching projectiles from boat to boat.
I was thinking something similar, only, as is sometimes done in theatres, they used cloth to simulate waves.
Give me a break.
. . . where? 😂
no.
@@skiptoacceptancemdarlinyes.
The Colosseum had plumbing, elevators, multiple floors, a removable arena floor and all the modern facilities of a building today. It was built with stone, bricks and concrete. That's amazing.
The pinnacle of Roman engineering.
It didn't have *all* the facilities of a modern building. Electricity is the obvious one, with the associated lighting, signage, and AV system. The elevators, IIRC, were only to bring animals to the arena, not to help spectators reach their seats. A whole raft of security and health & safety measures found in any modern stadium were also missing. That's not to denigrate the Colosseum, only to say that the building doesn't to be falsely compared to modern ones to be appreciated.
The Romans were great engineers for their day.
@@QuantumHistorian I bet it did have sticky floors covered in discarded snacks and really long lines for the bathroom, though. Some things never change.
This building among any others in Rome truly demonstrates the empire's scale and power. Its level of construction way ahead of its time, contrasted with its purpose purely for sport. Whenever I look at this particular ruin it feels less like I'm seeing an ancient world and more like I'm seeing a building from today in 2000 years in the future.
Today’s stadiums won’t last very long. They will be replaced quickly. Like stadiums in Atlanta for the Olympics or Rio for example. The pyramids of Giza may last longer than anything built today. Perhaps the Hoover dam will be torn up because of lack of rainfall for example…
With 100 ships and 19,000 combatants, I wonder how the _naumachia_ of Nero would rank in the list of largest naval battles of history. Top 100 perhaps? What a unfathomable world it was, where a fake naval battle put on for show, would be larger and cause more deaths than a great many real battles.
I read that the battle of Jutland was recreated in the Colosseum. Bwahaha.
Pretty sure he said 1.900 but still an insane number beating many actual battles
@@sskspartan Just doubled checked at 0:51 and it definitely sounds like 19,000 to me. Subtitles agree too.
Here's a question: If time travel were possible, how much would be the going rate for a ticket to an Ancient Roman naumachia at the Colosseum on Ticketmaster? It would likely greatly depend on the seating section, but I bet even the nosebleed seats would be pretty pricey.
@@tomcollins5112 It is my understanding that the tickets were free. The events were paid for by rich Romans, politicians, and military leaders to buy off the public. Just think of all the good will if modern day sporting events would be handled in this manner.
I’ve been in the Colosseum, and in a few football grounds in England.
I just don’t see the Colosseum holding 80k people, unless it was occasionally rammed for one-off events.
For example the old Wembley Stadium (official capacity 127k standing) reportedly had 250k people inside for its opening exhibition ceremony in 1923 (this was long before Health and Safety).
80k does seem high. The value of 50k is the more commonly accepted one IIRC. Which is just about believable, considering that I doubt the Romans had any qualms about squeezing in the urban poor as tightly as they could manage.
Right!
It's hard to determine without knowing how they designed the seating. With Roman engineering they could have done something quite interesting and outside the box.
Oh YOU can’t picture it? And what makes you qualified at all?
@@QuantumHistorianThen you could probably factor in dads with kids on thier shoulders and moms with thier kids in thier laps. Wouldn't be real shocked if the poor had standing sections instead of seats
Love your videos toldinstone i recommend you to all my brainiest clients. Ive been a guide in Rome for 18 years and have done about 700 tours of the colosseum. You still manage to teach this italian speaking dude a thing or two.
You should retire then
The Verona Arena had been built around the same time in the same style, and has its seats almost intact. It currently hosts 22.000 spectators, but without the stage for concert and opera performances it's capacity would be 30.000 people.
The circumference of the Colosseum is 25% longer, and the area covered 56% larger, so the Colosseum can accomodate, without counting the temporary wooden seats, 47.000 people.
On the one hand, I was always told that there were naval battles in the colosseum. On the other, I always looked at those tunnels below and figured it couldn't work. I wonder if mock ships could have been used on dry land, movable ship-shaped platforms for fighting.
Now only if Robertus Stackus could walk out in a toga with the Unsolved Mysteries theme playing in the background, this would be perfect.
Get him on the Great Fire case ASAP.
Didn't he also how Liberandum IX-I-I as well?
Wasn’t it originally the Flavian Amphitheater?
Best time of the day is when Toldinstone drops a new video!
And this makes three times I thought about the Roman Empire today.
I don't see that the time it would take to fill or drain the arena would be a big deal breaker. Even some modern events have years of planning and days or weeks of cleanup afterwards. The Olympics, World cup soccer, the Superbowl. Many other regional sports take weeks of organizing and days of cleanup.
I have no idea if it was or wasn't used this way, I just don't believe that time was a major issue.
It takes 30 minutes to put on a Super Bowl half time show. And most of the recent ones suck.
@@paulkoza8652True
Because it contradicts what was written.
@@jameshoffa7085 Written where? It doesn't contradict anything in the video.
I highly recommend your new book. Very entertaining just like the first.
I'm very glad that you enjoyed it!
I’ve been to the arena many times over the years and overheard tour guides talking about sea battles. I never could believe that was possible. But you pointed out waterproof concrete. so , maybe in an early life of the building prior to all the below ground infrastructure It was possible. Especially if they used scaled down ships. Something to ponder.
So who do you trust? A tour guide or Garrett?
Both
Who do you trust? Ppl who were actual there when it opened and said they had naval battles, or modern academics
Imagine a future 1000 years hence where everyone watches a channel called ToldInPlastic.
You are assuming that there will be more than cockroaches around.
In 1,000 years it'll be "Told in graphite".
😂 first we need Told in Steel, then Told in Fiberglass.... Then Told in Sheetrock....
You could probably do a whole book about the mysteries of Ancient Rome. This was good video.
A note on seating capacity. Never been to the Colosseum. At least not the one in Rome, but I have been to the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, CA, many times. I'm a rather thin guy, and the numbers painted on the aluminum benches (at least before 1995) are spaced pretty close together. I find it hard to place two of my skinny asses side by side on the allotted space dictated by those seat numbers, so maybe the Roman amphitheater management was also that optimistic !
Just arrived at the "break" and its already a great video. Always a nice sweet on a friday. Thanks, love it
Why is taking hours to drain a problem?
"Thus some scholars have concluded..." See, the thing is : "conclude : arrive at a judgment or opinion by reasoning" whereas what we see too often in history/archaeology/anthropology is "conclude : arrive at a judgement or opionion by making some shit up."
Yes the Sun God statue has to be the reason for the name. Even the dark age historian Bede mentions that as long as the statue stands so does Rome
I thought it was of Nero as the Sun god ?
@@optimusprinceps3526 Yes Original was Nero. They changed the head a few times I believe, body was usually Sun God and. radiate crown, but there were times certain emperor's would put there head on important statues like the Colossus. Easy to see one doing so.
@@christopherevans2445 That makes sense after Nero's damnation by the Senate and Galba 👍
@@optimusprinceps3526 I know at least Commodus did change the head. The Contemporary historian Cassius Dio at least tells of that story in his Roman history, as he actually seen this and other things done by Commodus while in the Senate at the Time.
@@christopherevans2445 I like Dio
I bought the new book! It arrived today!
Enjoy!
Another CRACKIN video by Emperor Toldinstone! :D
a friend who works with monuments was recently in a guided tour with a fellow researcher at the Colosseum, and posed the question about the water battles... they also accepted that it was most likely something that did happen, but could only be done a couple times before they properly built the underground of the arena as we know it today.
Ok, I have to be honest: as a historian visiting Rome in the 1980’s(in the Navy), and you stare up at the Colosseum, you think about none of these questions. You just stand there with your mouth open. Great video. Thank you.
The most famous and notorious ancient monument? I would say that the pyramids or even the great walls come to my mind first. Just saying, great upload as always.
Machu Picchu has to be included.
So good, I'm going to watch it again because I don't want to miss any details... Thank you for always presenting the ancient world in the most objective perspective possible, and saying we don't know, when we don't know, whilst presenting possible theoretical explanations, as theoretical. Not to mention your gift for illuminating the small details, and thus bringing a sharper image of their daily lives into focus, which also makes it more relatable to modern listeners. One thought came to mind... a potential question for the Q & A's on your Toldinstone Footnotes channel: Was there ever controversy over the moral nature of the more brutal types of events at the Colosseum, and specifically, during the height of it's popularity? And a bit further, did they protest things in general, I know they rioted, but did have they organized forms of protest... It seems absurd to imagine, for example, an animal cruelty march through the streets of ancient Rome, or activists standing in groups outside the Colosseum, trying to convince the people entering, to embrace higher virtues and turn away from their seats. But it also seems absurd to see them all, the whole society at any given moment, as being one-dimensional and unanimously, and entirely onboard with watching blood violence for sport... or were they? I know their views changed later, but what about at the height of the popularity of the games. Just curious.
The emperor couldn't issue 87,000 tickets for 50,000 seats. And the source propably would not make claims every Roman knew to be untrue.
Isnt possible that after a naval battle people didint mind waiting a few weeks or months for it to fully fully drain. Im sure people in the past wouldnt be so impatient
Keep up the great work, Garrett 👍
Interesting subject. Great video.
Videos like this that talk about what we have forgotten of human history remind me of that Latin saying, Sic transit gloria mundi.
👍
@toldinstone on a more serious note, can you do a video on the timeline of emperors from unified empire 27bce. Include coruling emperors that war. Up to split in ce395. Touch on 16 emperors of the western empire to ce479 and 104 emperors of the eastern empire ce1453. Highlight major events. Include events prior 27bce that’s directly related and the years after.
Every single of your postings it's an automatic click. Thank you!
Another great video!
Is called the Flavian Amphitheatre, not 'the Colosseum'
👍🌿😜🌿
When I study the ancient world I'm just always amazed that some of their designers and planners were as smart and brilliant as they were. Wish I was half that smart. I don't care what empire or civilization you look at, what they built and designed were amazing and in the new world too, throughout mesoamerica, just incredible. To this day I don't know how they did it.
I struggle to put together a table so I just wonder at these kinds of minds who can create these other wonders for us to wonder at again and again in 2024. It's a wonder.
Love your content.
Excellent
thank you
You blow me away every time
87 thousand seats sounds the same as 40 thousand to me. Its hard to quantify either number intuitively so im glad somebody is mathing it out.
You need a day out in Croke Park
I couldn’t even edge to this, I just exploded immediately! Clean up on aisle MY PANTS!! 😂😂😂😂😂
make this top comment
pin this
real
Oh lort
every high school history teacher watching this video
That one was particularly educational but entertaining as always.
The way he says Cassius Die-o and Bee-spoke post reminds me of that bubbly commercial with Michael Bubley
I baked a Walmart brand spinach Alfredo pizza as I listened to this video Dr. Ryan. Thank you for making it. The video that is. Not the pizza.
Nice topic, can you do more about mysteries please? That really makes my imagination go wild with intrigue
Whats the problem with it taking a day to drain ?? Plus they could just refix the flooring as soon as the water drops below that level if there was such a rush. But presumably you would have a water show one day and a different show the next day.
Ill believe dio before modern historians who werent there.
Now i dont know the high of the water source, i dont know the diameter of the pipes, and i dont know the pressure. But im a Chemical Production Operator (Hydraulik, termodynamic, Electric) pluss some more. It seriously seems to me that scholars are underestimating the power of water
Every time I watch those videos about the ancient wonders and mysteries I hope that some day we'll find an answer to all those questions... Perhaps in long-lost papyri waiting to be discovered.
Does the amphitheater at Capua still have its original seating? There's reconstructed seating in the nearby museum, but, well, reconstruction.
Google Arena Verona. It's another Roman amphitheater in Italy that's almost intact and still used for events and concerts.
@@dayros2023 yes but the stone seating isn't orginal, it's a reconstruction from 1600.
The Colosseum, Rome's mega-cinema with constant R-rated Action in 3D.
Did the Colloseum have toilets, baths and changing rooms? It had concessions, markets and deck box suites
Very interesting. Buy his books, you won’t regret it.
Could you do a video on how to read more effectively or like a historian including how to take notes?
My understanding of the colosseum, is that the new afl could probably fit their field into it 👀
Does anyone know where the thumbnail image for this video came from?
Merry Christmas ! Everyone 🔥🔥🔥 : )
I believe the naval battles were only staged during the opening games during Titus's reign, or possibly Domitian s reign, so the hypogeum didn't exist yet.
i like to believe that naval battles were staged there, it's fun to imagine it.
Good point. If we can't be sure anyway, might as well believe for the fun of it.
"men built this?" - from the movie Gladiator
Hollywood lies.
I have a coliseum candle holder i think its supposed to warm a plate. Coliseums state of ruin is exact shape for that its hilarious
*looks at vid title*
_"Like why was the beer more expensive in the cheap seats?"_
We went there in 2015 I took a huge dump right in the basement 😂
tickets? What were they made of? Wasn't papyrus more expensive than copper? I'd have thought this was a cash business.
0:18 lightest skinned Sicilian
Wait so it's possible the Coliseum was never used for naval battles? I always questioned how this was possible
Marinai better translates as "sailors" not the American idea of "marine corps.
Where in the timeline is the painting of the Colosseum in your thumbnail?
So, who has the seats? I'm sure some are out there, maybe in a wall with a similar curve or holes in a row of them as old toilets. Identifying it's curve in local builds using marble may be the best start, Assuming it was marble.
1:48 I don't think bulls can swim. Horses were found on the barrier islands in off the East Coast in the SE US. However, the Spanish also carried cows and bulls on their ships to the New World. None were found on the barrier islands. Horses can swim and it has been surmised that the ships that sank close to shore, the horses swam to shore, and the poor cattle drowned. It's also possible the Spanish abandon some of their horses. But still no cattle were found. These hardy mustangs managed to survive by eating whatever greens they could find in this sandy area and by digging holes in the sand to cup fresh water for drinking when it rained. Their descendants are alive today and will continue to survive if the humans will leave them alone.
👍
The colosseum was funded by the sac of Jerusalem in 70AD. There is a dedication inscription that was on the colosseum that has been removed and placed inside.
70k seats. wow
Why would it be a barrier to water battles for the draining to take a long time? It doesnt matter how long it takes to prepare or clean up after any more than it matters how long a copper saw takes to grind through a sarcophagus
thats modern impatience lens problem
primus?
Primus sucks 🤘🏻
👍 Bonus nuntium
Maybe the waves of water were seas of cloth.
Thank you for addressing the problem associated with ships in the amphitheater. I've been arguing this for years with the same logic you proposed.
At last, someone with common sense.
🌿😆🌿
How small or big was the average citizen of Rome at the time? I'm guessing that they wouldn't have needed bariatric seating.
Theres no tickets for Roman spectacles or do i have that wrong?
There were the tokens known as tesserae; check out my old video "Getting good seats at the Colosseum"
@@toldinstone awesome i will thanks!
Tokens, raffles and prizes
Just saw the general Sam pod cast you are the best guest on there had a quick question. You see on tv a lot of gladiators fighting a lot of different wild animals tigers bear’s ect how common was that, and do we have any evidence that these fights occurred?
he does have a different video mostly about this topic... but basically, it was relatively common.
all major festivals had such events with the more exotic animals, whilst, the commoner examples were seen as a warm-up act to the main show... Gladiators fighting animals were generally fairly likely to survive, and in all, it was cheaper than fighter-vs-fighter combat if the animals were not from distant lands.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 thank you for the information! I’ll have to check out his video. It’s all very interesting the gladiatorial stuff, and in most media they make it out to be ultra violent with constant death and killing, when in reality it was kinda just a job
@@lifesglitch2970 yeah, violence was part of the Job, but actual death was rather rare... killing gladiators was expensive...
the movies get that part rather wrong.
also, generally, as a higher up slave, many of the jobs you might have would involve violence since the driver slaves would be expected to physically punish the slaves of their working band, team, on behalf of managing their masters estate, and those punishments, were regular and occasionally involved even very serious whippings and other more gruesome punishments.
@@stanislavkostarnov2157 appreciate all the information man it’s super interesting time period to learn about just recently started getting into. Do you know if there was kinda like an average time period in where a slave would buy there freedom? Like 5-10 years or did it really just vary based on who your master was or if there was a law keeping you from like owning someone for 80 years? Also if your into history I just got done learning about the 100 years war with France, and England really interesting stuff there to dig into if you haven’t already
@@lifesglitch2970 as far as I understand, most slaves continued being slaves for the length of their lives... whilst freed slaves were not "uncommon" they were in the minority, maybe under 20% of all privately owned slaves earned there freedom at a maximum. usually far less
when it was done, these were freed after between 5 & 15 years on a skilled position in the owners household/industry... these were important, influential workers whose active investment was required for the success of a venture
otherwise, sometimes, a master would free all the personal house slaves on his deathbed, but that was exceedingly rare, mostly seen in the early days of the Republic.
also, some provinces would follow local traditions where slaves would be kept 25 years or 7 years, but these were relics of laws before becoming part of the empire.
I got your book on audible but i was lil bit disappointed you are not doing the narration with your tone, the guy is not bad but he doesn't have that "musicality" your voice does
👋
A1: no, naval battles were staged in Piazza Navona, literally BIG SHIP SQUARE.
No way. The only thing that comes close is the daily clean up at Campo de Fiori. It is amazing to watch. If it is any indication of how their ancient ancestors prepped the Colosseum, then all the myths and suppositions are undoubtedly true.
Wats the painting in thumbnail
Has Namachia been excavated?
5:05 Could you not do this effect anymore or do it quicker next time? I thought I was having a stroke.
Well - of course - now that I know that there were entire Roman districts set up to house lakes, so that fleets of criminals could set sail and fight each other - it becomes clear -
There were never any naval battles conducted in the Collosiem - the memories of naval battles happened in the artificial lakes in the Roman suburbs - and memory passed them on to happening in the collosieum itself - nuff said 🙂
7th!
I have been there and I doubt that the level of water event was staged there.
I suspect the stories are based in truth the location is wrong.
Falsus nuntium
Everybody knows the Roman Colloseum, but about 230 were built and there are better preserved ones left in the world today.
Where?
@@paulkoza8652Spain and North Africa, as well as Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Israel
@@paulkoza8652 Do a google search for colloseum in Arènes De Nîmes, France for the best preserved one. There are also several others that still exist
The ph in am phi theatre is pronounced f NOT p: am fi theatre.
naumachia> naumachiae
It is truly a monumental structure. Garrett, you are in a better position than I am to conjecture about its history and use as well as what it was called by the Romans.