depends it seems on the province.... where different oil giving plants were plentiful, oil-lamps (in places like Judea or Africa, they seem to have been in every household) whilst further north, in Gaul or Britannia, it appears various candle-like contraptions for the burning of wax were more common... from archeology in costal Celto-Romanic regions and northern Thrace, fat burning lamps would also have been used.
I saw someone joke that "Dacian man" was the Roman equivalent of Florida man. That got me thinking, do we have any jokes from the Romans that make fun of the stereotypes of the different provinces of the empire? It's funny to imagine them talking about the snobbish boy-lover Greeks, Illyrians are pirates, Egyptians are greedy, Gauls are hairy etc. Gets me wondering about how much of a distinct identity the provinces even had, I mean they had local gods and customs at least. Video idea maybe?
Thank you for this Dr. Ryan. My question pertains to banking in the ancient world. I think modern banking really started with the Renaissance, but what was used in the ancient world? I think there must have been some type of exchange system somewhere, especially when each kingdom used its own currencies.
When I was a kid in the early 1970s a buddy of mine and his older brother both looked just like ancient Greek/Roman statues, and they accomplished this by not even trying. No dieting, no exercising, no weights, just naturally sculpted. When we were juniors in HS our PE teacher was our football coach and during a class on the human muscular system he had my buddy stand in front of us and strip down to his jock. Even though he was a perfect example he didn't like it and was very embarrassed about it. I don't blame him. I also worked with a guy in the late 70s on big construction site who even though probably only about 5'8 looked like a body builder. One day I said to him, you must work out with weights a lot. And he replied, Nope, I've never lifted a weight in my life.
If you look at many tribal peoples still living a relatively primitive lifestyle today you see that many of them are what modern Westerners would consider quite fit looking. I think the bodies depicted in ancient Greek art are perfectly attainable and I don't think it at all unfeasible that it was a common body type among young Greeks, particularly those like the Spartans and Athenian citizens.
The diet and lifestyle of agricultural ancient Greeks and hunter-gatherers in a tropical jungle have basically nothing in common except not being modern.
Considering ancient greece was a highly sophisticated pastoral and agricultural society, with sports and citys i dont think theyre physiques are very comparable to modern tribal peoples at all, who are in almost all ways technologically inferior to the even the Mycenaean greeks and could easily not eat . All those tribes would be crushed. Now that i got my bias out of the way i agree with you that the physiques were attainable its just modern hunter gatherer worship triggers me. (Not saying you did that)
did romans use pillows? i looked up ancient pillows, but egypt and china seemed to use hard headrests which doesn't sound comfortable... i can envision stone thrones and benches, but of course those would be the things that survive. it seems like if they could invent padding for a bed then a pillow would be an obvious addon. and related to comfort...did the rich have upholstered furniture? even just a futon/couch would seem to be a very nice thing to make a home a relaxing place after work... probably spring based mattresses would require too much fiddly metalwork..
I am fairly certain that spring steel wasn't discovered until after the fall of the Roman empire. It was quite a leap in sword and armor technology and even with all of our modern materials proper spring steel is still the overall best material for making swords.
I've also always thought the Tetrachy was a bad idea. Rather than 2 Augusti + 2 Caesars, I think 1 Augustus and 5 Caesars would have worked better. Having a single leader would lead to more cohesive and integral policy making, as well as a more natural ceremonial focus to build legitimacy around. By distributing military power less evenly, it also reduces the potential for civil war as it would require several Caesars to conspire together to cause a serious threat to the Empire, none of the Augustus vs Augustus fighting that we saw so much of between the Western and Eastern Romans. The Augustus would be in Italy with a _Palatini_ army, which would serve as a strategic reserve of last resort and the central component of any large offensive beyond the empire's borders. The 5 Caesars would each lead a slightly smaller _Comitatenses_ army (replacing the Dux's) and be based at the main borders: Rhine, Upper Danube, Lower Danube, Anatolia, & Syria in order to deal with "ordinary" threats and conduct raids on their own. Small _Limitanei_ garrisons would be the same as in real history. This 3-tier approach seems like it would be able to counter just about everything, while remaining flexible, responsive, and resilient to any single (or even double) sets of failure. Politically, the Augustus would appoint Caesars, with a rubber stamp from the Senate to keep the aristocracy happy. On the Augustus' death, the Caesars would elect one of their own numbers to ascend to the purple. This obviously opens up the possibility for infighting, but as a single Caesar going against the other 4 is doomed to fail, it would (hopefully) result in whoever was obviously strongest, most capable, and most favoured getting the job. Not to dissimilar to the elective monarchy of the HRE (before the Hapsburgs totally controlled it), except that the electors would be chosen by the previous emperor. This also leaves room for an Augustus to make their son a Caesar without being able to force a complete incompetent on the throne. This is, of course, just constitution-fantasising. Who knows if it would have worked. But it seems to me it would have had more of a fighting chance than the Tetrarchy ever did.
I enjoy drawing parallels to this and the US Governments system of 7 people as supreme court justices, the Head Justice being elected by the President who in this case would likely be the current Augustus then the Caesar incumbent who is to become the new Head Justice (new Augustus) must be approved by the senate. Only the separation of the Judicial and Executive offices and powers separates this system from the system that created the longest running Democratic Republic. If only they knew what they taught us while they were teaching us LOL
I think something you can’t forget is that declaring an Augustus wasn’t centrally planned. What would stop solders from proclaiming a Caesar an Augustus after a great victory or the Praetorians promoting their man in a coup in this 6 man system? Also I think when the Augustus died unexpectedly it would almost always result in civil war when there’s no clear frontrunner in a 5 man contest with ambitions that high.
I think the literacy rate of ancient rome or medieval countries are grossly underrated. Any adult can learn to read and write in a month. We have writings in medieval Russia written on birchbark that deliver the most mundane messages. Like "Buy some lamp oil and send it over here." OR "As soon as this letter arrives, send me a man on a stallion, because I have a lot of work here. And send a shirt; I forgot a shirt." These are one peasant writing to an other or to a family member. Many of the writings are mundane and without much consequence. Many of the writings we have from Rome are also mundane everyday messages. Same for runes. We have hundreds of short messages in runes from Bergen. Most are inconsequential. Like "Gyða tells you to go home" OR "My love, kiss me".
Q: We have writings in medieval Russia... A: Which medieval kingdom was situated in northwestern Ukraine and should not be mistaken with Zalěsie or future Muscovy where such wrirings were not found. Novgorodъ was a distant colony of Kyjevъ, not of Moskva that did not exist then.
We also can't assume that such writings were the norm for lower class people, and likewise can't necessarily assume that these were written by the lower classes. "Send me a man on a stallion" is not something your average peasant would be writing, and also Novgorod (where those birch bark letters were found) was a trade centric city-state, which inherently means a larger portion of the population are going to have reasons to learn to read and write. Likewise, unless there's a a set up for people to learn, it doesn't matter how easy it might be to learn if there isn't easy access to a teacher, let alone material for learning. That isn't to say of course that literacy rates haven't been underestimated, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that most people who didn't live in a city, let alone a town couldn't read, and even plenty of people in towns and cities likely couldn't either.
Q: such writings were the norm for lower class people... A: Because it was a state policy. Once king Volodiměrъ baptized Kyjevъ on 988 AD, he created a network of schools, including a school for girls. From Kyjevъ the primary education was forcibly imposed to Novgorodъ since it was stubbornly pagan and rejected Christianity.
@@betterdonotanswer This is not about state policy. Writings of low class people are common in ancient Rome, by the Norse too. (same is true for Turkish scripts) In Sweden we have many religious especially Christian rune stones. But many rune stones outside sweden are very simple like "I wrote this." these are tags on common items to mark ownership of simple objects. Why would a high class scholar write such text? Why would a high class scholar scratch the alphabet into stone over and over? With wobbly letters? To begin with most runes are scratches and not carved into stone. Runes, ogham, turkish script were most often carved into wood, particularly sticks. The letter shapes are much more suited to be carved into sticks than into stone. They were most often used to write short notes and messages. In Bergen they found hundreds of sticks and wood chips in a trash heap. They contained hundreds of runic inscriptions. What they contain is very mundane. "Hedin carved runes", "Svein cut these runes and asked Lucia to read them" We have spoons and tags with writing "Lucia Grim's daughter owns", "Sigrid owns me" Why would a high class person mark ownership of a wooden spoon? There are lots of naughty ones "Ingeborg made love with me when I was in Stavan-ger" "The smith lay with Vigdi" "Make love with me, I love you, Gunnhild. Kiss me, I know you well" or "Lovely is the pussy, may the prick fill it up!" Weh have a lot "This is a comb", "This is a spoon" and a LOT of alphabet. What it tells us that people taught each other to write on stick. They didn't write letters and books but commonly wrote their name on items to mark ownership. Commonly wrote short prayers or curses on items. Wrote jokes and wrote mundane messages. And all these were meant to be read by common people. People don't need schools to learn to write. Any five year old can be taught to read and write with a few minutes of practice every day. And adult man or woman can learn to write short notes in a few days.
Q: Writings of low class people are common in ancient Rome... A: One thousand birch bark manuscripts were found in Novgorodъ, or two per year in average. Which number is astronomically small comparing with its population that was estimated about 20 thousand. And this statistics should be times worse in ancient Rome with its population of over 1 million and times longer history.
In dynastic China dumbbells or other weights were also used, but the recorded purpose was to gauge strength and not necessarily to develop it with such weights over a structured program.
Hello, i am from Rome and would like if you made a video about the Jewish ghetto in Rome. It is the most interesting and beautiful neighborhood in my opinion and one of the oldest in all of the city! I think it gets little attention compared to the rest of the city. PS. I live in the suburbia, near the city of Veio so any videos on Etruscan history would also be very cool!
Could you do a segment on Greek scientific devices for sailing,navigation and any hand made device that aided in Greek life. For example are there devices similar to the antikythera mechanism for astrological computations. There must be like a top 10 navigational, military, medical, astrological devices that aided the Greeks manage their environments or predict an outcome or mathematically projected a finite solution to the desired information
The 10% literacy rate estimate was really surprising, given that most estimates I have seen of High Medieval Western and Central Europe far surpass that, even being higher in complete backwater areas where literacy would indeed have seemingly little use. Speaking of functional literacy in their own language of course.
I think it's probably underestimated. I bet pretty much everyone knew the alphabet and what sounds each letter made. Latin back then was simpler, I doubt pronunciation varied from spelling as much as it does in English given that they're the ones that invented the Latin alphabet. Could you really be a true Roman and not know the Roman alphabet? Wouldn't every parent teach it to their child, with their mothers making a song out of it like we've done?
Your videos for me have been such an amazing thing to discover. Ive always loved history but I have not gotten to the point where I can learn alone from primary sources. Your videos really help me to understand the process and perspective historians use when they interpret the ancient world. My question is about the fall of the empire. Im curious is there where any people like our modern "preppers" who accurately anticipated the fall of the empire. Who were these people and what steps did they take to help themselves or their empire? What things worked to aid them or others "after" the collapse and what didn't? What did young, up and coming politicians in a dying rome do to secure themselves a future? Thanks again for all the time you dedicate to these projects. These videos are (and will be!) a great resource for students of history.
Hey Dr. Ryan, for the final question presented in the video, you mentioned dietary practices of Greek athletes, example the all meat diet. What sources do we have to reference the existence of these specialized diets for athletes as opposed to the general diet of the average man or woman?
One thing that I have wondered about my entire life is how did people escape a siege. Are there stories concerning this and if so what are they? Since I was a child I imagined seeing the Mongol horde or even hearing about their coming and tried to figure out how I could have got out of Dodge before the apocolypse arrived. I understand that there were no shops, no NGOs to call upon en route, but surely somebody must have made a dash and survived. On a similar note, did many slaves flee and make it successfully back to their homeland. Again, this is one of those things I ponder before drifting off. If you see this and choose to include it on the list, thanks.
@@jjs8426 Oddly, I recently listened to a podcast that covered a monk that escaped the Mongol Horde, numerous times, by burying himself in leaves and not returning to the city to forage. Every time he found a new city they would be preparing to face the mongols and he would quietly grab some supplies and flee to saftey, only to watch the inevitable carnage.
There is a lovely set of mystery stories by Lindsey Davis featuring Marcus Didio Falco that presents great descriptions of life in Rome. IIRC, Falco lives with his high-born wife in one of the upper floors of an insula and cooking on the balcony.
The Falco series is quite anachronistic and historically inaccurate in a lot of ways (most of the main characters are very modern in their thinking and Falco himself feels like a 20th-century person in the 1st-century world), so I wouldn't necessarily use the books as a history lesson, but it's still fun reading.
@@kawadashogo8258 It's so rare for historical fiction (written or on film) to get the mindset right. It's always people with modern values, modern ethics, modern viewpoint in a world that is completely alien to those things. That kind of ruins them for me.
Your videos are great and informative, I truly enjoy theM thanks for sharing. I have a question I have always been curious about. How often was the average Roman citizen armed in their daily life and was it uncommon for someone have to defend or use force in their lives?
Were there any public transportation options for lower or middle class in Rome, or were they just expected to walk everywhere in the city? I imagine the slave carried litters were only for upper class.
Public transportation didn't exist in any way, shape or form in antiquity. Also, animals and wheeled vehicles weren't allowed within the city limits of Rome during daylight hours due to the congestion it would cause (even as it was, the city was quite crowded). So yes, everybody walked, except the rich, who as you note were carried in litters by their slaves ("middle class" people, like craftsmen, shopkeepers, small farmers and the lower rung of merchants, might have owned slaves, but not the kind of slave who would carry you around; that was the preserve of rich people who could afford numerous slaves for different purposes). If you went outside of the city, you would travel on foot if you were poor (for example a day laborer seeking work on someone else's farms) or on an animal or animal-drawn cart if you were of at least modest means (for example a small farm owner), if you were rich you would travel in a litter and with at least a few bodyguards along to protect you from highwaymen, and if you were going overseas for whatever reason you had to go to the docks and haggle with a ship captain over how much you would pay him to take you where you wanted to go.
Just want to congratulate your viewers to be honest, each of these questions is quite worth it's own 17min video... however, there are only so many minutes in a day, and all the summaries here were interesting... the Literacy rate, I would have thought to be much higher... in the cities at least, since so much of the culture was written... for the masculinity of the Greeks, I do think that it developed more and more symbolic over time... especially, when dealing with sculptures with allusion to characters from the Myth age... my feeling is that whilst early statues are more realistic, the later ones show physique unachievable without modern supplements and hormones.... as for your description of the upper insulae, to be honest, in terms of size and design, the small ad-hoc roof structures remind me a lot of my experiences of Taipei.... or even the 3-4 Tatami rooms that form the minimal apartments in Tokyo, where I lived for much of my life.
I've always been so curious about the classical culture's mindset on getting fit - did they do repetitious exercises like what we do today at a gym? Did they run to increase their endurance?
Look up gymnasium in Ancient Greece and Rome. Exercise was an integral part of the education of the youth. There’s also a well known Latin saying about it: “mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body).
13:10 Maybe also mention Herodotus and other contemporaries with completely opposite views? And the fact that Plutarch basically "invented" stuff centuries later?
Wasn’t the athletic body as you mentioned used for Emperor statues common mainly because statues were constantly recycled by the removal of heads which were then replaced with the new Emperor’s image? Also weren’t they painted in color, unlike the image we think of being a stark white marble statue( like those faded ones found in Pompeii). Didn’t that became the standard assumption of how statues looked like in antiquity.
I've been wondering how Roman ships were organized and the differences between them. Like where were slaves stored for travel and how luxurious was a normal ship compared to a politician's? Also, I love your videos. It's always so nice to see historians use RUclips for spreading their knowledge to a wider audience.
Andrew Stewart has a wonderful book on the Greeks, a lifetime studying their statuary in particular - I think his take might be the most convincing one. The male nude - or Greek male - has a musculature than announces invincibility, power, even timeless power. Every muscle was earned because, as athletes, they were not gods but men, and yet they achieved this - you could not put run them, out fight them, you could not subdue them. Whether or not any Greek male looked like this is irrelevant - their ‘National’ identity saw this, and until or even after Alexander, there are no aged, defeated, ugly male statuary - the Greek male is quite literally a convention yes, but one they ‘wanted others to see when they passed the thousands of these ‘kouroi’ along roads, everywhere.
Did the Romans have textiles on the floors? Any remnants ever found? Such as in Pompeii where many artifacts even bread have been found which makes me thinking clothing & textiles might have been found.
The physical stature of statues of mythical heroes and gods might be the equivalent to the the modern conventions regarding super heroes. An ideal rather than a representation of reality.
If no one had it how could they conceive of it? Youre out of your mind if you dont think there where always dudes who where jacked. You have to know at least one person in real life that is oddly buff and doesnt even exercise.
@@Josh-cf7xf Have you ever seen the cover of body builder magazine? To have those muscles they have to work out and they need to eat a lot so they have the energy to exercise. But looking at them when they're in the bulking up phase they look like any regular joe with a healthy bit of fat on them. Then, when they know a competition or a photo shoot is coming up in a couple of weeks, they start starving themselves down to get to 2-4% body fat so the muscles will look cut and defined. To put that in perspective, if you were in a third world nation and you and your neighbors were at 2-4% body fat, the UN would be trying to rush emergency food shipments to your area. Even starving themselves down like that it's still not enough as the day before their appearance they start dehydrating themselves and for an hour or so before they start doing special exercises to make sure their muscles are pumped full of blood. And that's not even talking about the body make up or phot shopping to cover any moles or scars. So, yes, someone can look like this for 20-30 minutes when they have two weeks notice. If you want to call that a realistic idea of what someone can look like I won't stop you but we'll have to agree to disagree on the subject.
Well thats an extreme example. The statues look nothing like modern roided up bodybuilders and nothing close to 5% bodyfat. And id wager the greeks were eating better than you think. bodybuilders look like average joes to you in their off season? I think you should get your eyes checked and do some research on physical fitness and body composition.
@@Josh-cf7xf Well in fairness I'm retired infantry so maybe my definition of an average Joe may be atypical;). If you work at a business with a management that's supportive of the body positivity movement your version of average may vary;).
I've got one: the 1959 movie 'The Battle of Marathon' begins with the hero Phillipides winning the entire Olympics. Was it even possible to participate in every single Olympic event in ancient Greece, and if so, did anyone ever win them all?
Thanks for the answer but i really meant that the spartan legend was already in place before the persian wars, hence why athens sent for help to sparta once it was underway. Are there battles before this period when this military prowess was made? i cant imagine the athenians being taken in just by spartans blowing their own trumpet.
Was there international leisure travel in Ancient Rome, to Gaul, Germania, or Parthia. Additionally, what was the state of leisure travel to the provinces.
To that first question I offer something slightly snarky. That is that when you allow power to concentrate in an emperor, you shouldn't expect them to start willingly sharing it.
Wait. The all meat diet? Havn't heard of this. The modern carnivore community would be livid if they knew this. I seem to remember reading that they ate mostly barley and beans, but perhaps that was limited to gladiators.
My question is - did the Greeks or Romans have any knowledge of dinosaurs? If so, how did they come by this knowledge - discovering fossilized bones perhaps? And how do we know about their knowledge? I assume some Greek or Roman author wrote about this. This may be a slightly whacky question but I seem to recall from somewhere (correctly I hope) Cicero wrote about some mechanical devices that may have been similar to the Antikythera mechanism. If you know or can find out anything about both of these topics I would be interested. Thank you.
Sounds like a typical studio apartment, or single bedroom apartment. I don’t have any frescoes painted on my walls here, either. Indoor toilets are really only quite recently common for everyone nowadays.
When you are at war with your neighbors, and your ability to win requires that you be stronger than your opponent, a strong physique would be essential.
It's a very big story, they completely became Christians very late in the 9th century but they never really did changed. Most of their story covered by the book Chronicle of the Morea. Modern Greek state is not something different either.
The Wikipedia page for insulae claims they could reach up to 9 stories tall, citing an old article in the internet archives that itself does not cite a source for this information. Is there any truth to this claim?
Do we know of any direct living decedents of Roman emperors? Do any European royal families claim their origins back to Roman aristocracy for example ?
Did any greek cults worship the titans possibly believing them to be the true gods or thought that the titans would have a second coming of sorts and escape tartarus?
About the structure of Roman government. I wonder: would it have been possible at all for Diocletian to shift power back to the Senate, the way government had been organized prior to Ceasar and Augustus. I don't know anything about the roman Senate, but I assume its members were from the roman aristocracy; the rich houses. I am guessing that the roman Senate was a way for the influential houses to keep each other in check. I am guessing there were shifting alliances, and that if one house tended to gain a lot of power the other houses would tend to ally against that dominant house, maneuvering to reduce that power. Anyway: the fundamental culture was: use warfare to enrich yourself. As long as there was opportunity for expansion the plundering and looting happened (mostly) at the perifery of the empire. When opportunities for further expansion ran out that warfare/plundering mentality inevitably turned inward.
Asked this of a history teacher once. She said people used to work outside. I said, that the bench press didn’t exist until recently . . . Public school. 🤦♂️
People were lean in those days,thy ate healthy and just enough,no sweets,chocolate,coffee pop,etc,plus they worked their bodies to survive,from sun up to sun down.
I always thought the Thermopylae battle was a very stupid one to take. In any case the Spartans were an oddity when Rome came in. The social order was static and worked to concentrate the wealth and keep the numbers down. There was even a failed attempt at land reform by a late king. But the real power rested with their women who inherited by default.
There was a second Battle of Thermopylae in 1941. By that point the sea had receded and the narrow pass had become wide tidal flats . . . British officers, trained in the classics, could not resist trying to make a stand there, ignoring the fact that German panzers weren't intimidated by tidal flats and over-ran the New Zealand positions.
How did the people of the ancient hills of Rome interact during the 6-4 centuries bc interact. Specifically how did the Sabine on the quirnal interact and keep separate during the reign of Servius Tulius. I believe Rome owned land outside of the seven hills during the reign of taquinius priscus while Rome did not reign over the quirnal. So I wonder how much interaction the Sabine had with the romans during this time as well as how the other seven hills were interacting. Was life mostly separate or was there significant interaction between the people's living on their respective hills?]
Why did Roman emperors keep the Senate until the fall of the Western Empire when it no longer had any political function when Augustus became emperor? Why not just abolish it when he could?
Imagine that most surviving images of women people from the distant future have of our era were those of comic book artist and illustrator Dave Stevens. Musclar gals with perfect and pronounced curves. They never existed except, in Stevens' mind, for Betty Page who herself never looked as good as Stevens portrayed her.
it's possible ancient statuary were idealized perhaps in a similar way to illustrated pin-ups of the previous decade. No human woman ever looked like anything Frank Frazetta drew but each was an idealized version of a human female.
LGBTQuestion ALERT: Hi, Dr. Ryan, I'm a big fan of your main channel, keeping an eye on the exchange rates so I can afford your book here in Brazil hahah my question is: who were some of the "equivalents" (if any) of Sapho and her work in lesbian love poetry on the male gay "side"? We hear about quite a lot of casual relationships between men in the ancient world, whether in the army or philosphy schools or gyms, but I myself can't think of a romantic gay poet that wrote and sang about his love for another man. It would be awesome to learn more about the history of any LGBTQ prominent figure, actually, so, feel free to share any fun facts also (please do!)
Herodias Atticus and Sulla(the dictator) were two prominent "gay" figures in ancient Rome and the "novel" called the "Satyricon" features a gay couple as protagonists. Herodias Atticus was a prominent philhellene who reportedly moved to Athens for the gay sex -he was responsible for building the famous theater in Athens called "The theater of Herodias Atticus."
2:12 It still failed because it never solved the problem that led to the reforms and tetrarchy system being instituted. That is the cause of the barbarian invasions themselves, which were Rome foreign policy which pittied the neighboring peoples into conflict and migration with one another. Their system was inherently flawed, destined to end without glory
Interesting. As far as literacy, I suspect that the Jewish corner (of the empire and maybe of cities too) most likely had the highest literacy since it seems that most (?) Jews were taught to read the Torah. I believe that by Roman times this would have been written in Aramaic. Given this base, I wonder how many of them also learned to read some Latin for expediencies sake.
Ancient Greeks used condoms made from animal parts like goat bladder and ointments based on honey, resin, cotton, fruit like half pomegranate skins to block sperm etc
I have questions about infrastructure! Please answer them without giving my username How was traffic managed in the more crowded cities or during holidays? How was sewage and water deliniated and managed? Was there a fire-code when it came to architecture? Who enforced these rules? Im picturing a wild-eyed centurion traffic cop or hardhat wearing osha deputy drawing a sword on somebody who's ignoring the rules
Finally a speaker who isn't biased or underhand when talking about Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. Upvoted.
What did access to artificial light look like for the lower classes of Rome? Was good lighting after sunset a luxury only the rich could afford?
Cheap oil lamps, I believe. Good question, I am certain that there is more to it.
depends it seems on the province.... where different oil giving plants were plentiful, oil-lamps (in places like Judea or Africa, they seem to have been in every household) whilst further north, in Gaul or Britannia, it appears various candle-like contraptions for the burning of wax were more common... from archeology in costal Celto-Romanic regions and northern Thrace, fat burning lamps would also have been used.
Thanks!
I think he actually did a video on this.
Earwax candles lol
Was production of equipment for the Roman military (shields, swords) manufactured in a central location? How was it organized?
Depends on the period. Republic and early Empire, no. Late Empire, yes, with state run factories in key military provinces.
Judea produced arms for Rome after the revolt of 117-119....it worked out very well....
I saw someone joke that "Dacian man" was the Roman equivalent of Florida man. That got me thinking, do we have any jokes from the Romans that make fun of the stereotypes of the different provinces of the empire? It's funny to imagine them talking about the snobbish boy-lover Greeks, Illyrians are pirates, Egyptians are greedy, Gauls are hairy etc. Gets me wondering about how much of a distinct identity the provinces even had, I mean they had local gods and customs at least. Video idea maybe?
Most men have hair but take it off or lost it over time or gain it ? .
Thank you for this Dr. Ryan. My question pertains to banking in the ancient world. I think modern banking really started with the Renaissance, but what was used in the ancient world? I think there must have been some type of exchange system somewhere, especially when each kingdom used its own currencies.
Dr. Ryan did a video on this subject called, "Did Banks Fail in Ancient Rome? "
When I was a kid in the early 1970s a buddy of mine and his older brother both looked just like ancient Greek/Roman statues, and they accomplished this by not even trying. No dieting, no exercising, no weights, just naturally sculpted. When we were juniors in HS our PE teacher was our football coach and during a class on the human muscular system he had my buddy stand in front of us and strip down to his jock. Even though he was a perfect example he didn't like it and was very embarrassed about it. I don't blame him. I also worked with a guy in the late 70s on big construction site who even though probably only about 5'8 looked like a body builder. One day I said to him, you must work out with weights a lot. And he replied, Nope, I've never lifted a weight in my life.
Now they poison us and lower our testosterone. Men are becoming fat and sassy women
Thanks for answering my question! The estimate makes sense. Oddly enough, it was the graffiti that made me wonder what the literacy rate was.
Thank you for answering my question! I love your videos
If you look at many tribal peoples still living a relatively primitive lifestyle today you see that many of them are what modern Westerners would consider quite fit looking. I think the bodies depicted in ancient Greek art are perfectly attainable and I don't think it at all unfeasible that it was a common body type among young Greeks, particularly those like the Spartans and Athenian citizens.
Sure but what I've found surprising is the amount of bodies I've seen on hunter gatherers who look rather flabby haha
The diet and lifestyle of agricultural ancient Greeks and hunter-gatherers in a tropical jungle have basically nothing in common except not being modern.
@@dudeidontcare3430exactly. Hilarious that you had to point that out.
Considering ancient greece was a highly sophisticated pastoral and agricultural society, with sports and citys i dont think theyre physiques are very comparable to modern tribal peoples at all, who are in almost all ways technologically inferior to the even the Mycenaean greeks and could easily not eat . All those tribes would be crushed.
Now that i got my bias out of the way i agree with you that the physiques were attainable its just modern hunter gatherer worship triggers me. (Not saying you did that)
@@dudeidontcare3430 *Mic drop!
did romans use pillows? i looked up ancient pillows, but egypt and china seemed to use hard headrests which doesn't sound comfortable... i can envision stone thrones and benches, but of course those would be the things that survive. it seems like if they could invent padding for a bed then a pillow would be an obvious addon. and related to comfort...did the rich have upholstered furniture? even just a futon/couch would seem to be a very nice thing to make a home a relaxing place after work... probably spring based mattresses would require too much fiddly metalwork..
I am fairly certain that spring steel wasn't discovered until after the fall of the Roman empire. It was quite a leap in sword and armor technology and even with all of our modern materials proper spring steel is still the overall best material for making swords.
Pillow is an Ancient Greek invention
I've also always thought the Tetrachy was a bad idea. Rather than 2 Augusti + 2 Caesars, I think 1 Augustus and 5 Caesars would have worked better. Having a single leader would lead to more cohesive and integral policy making, as well as a more natural ceremonial focus to build legitimacy around. By distributing military power less evenly, it also reduces the potential for civil war as it would require several Caesars to conspire together to cause a serious threat to the Empire, none of the Augustus vs Augustus fighting that we saw so much of between the Western and Eastern Romans.
The Augustus would be in Italy with a _Palatini_ army, which would serve as a strategic reserve of last resort and the central component of any large offensive beyond the empire's borders. The 5 Caesars would each lead a slightly smaller _Comitatenses_ army (replacing the Dux's) and be based at the main borders: Rhine, Upper Danube, Lower Danube, Anatolia, & Syria in order to deal with "ordinary" threats and conduct raids on their own. Small _Limitanei_ garrisons would be the same as in real history. This 3-tier approach seems like it would be able to counter just about everything, while remaining flexible, responsive, and resilient to any single (or even double) sets of failure.
Politically, the Augustus would appoint Caesars, with a rubber stamp from the Senate to keep the aristocracy happy. On the Augustus' death, the Caesars would elect one of their own numbers to ascend to the purple. This obviously opens up the possibility for infighting, but as a single Caesar going against the other 4 is doomed to fail, it would (hopefully) result in whoever was obviously strongest, most capable, and most favoured getting the job. Not to dissimilar to the elective monarchy of the HRE (before the Hapsburgs totally controlled it), except that the electors would be chosen by the previous emperor. This also leaves room for an Augustus to make their son a Caesar without being able to force a complete incompetent on the throne.
This is, of course, just constitution-fantasising. Who knows if it would have worked. But it seems to me it would have had more of a fighting chance than the Tetrarchy ever did.
I'm stealing this for when the apocalypse happens and I have a fighting chance at starting my own post Apocalypse empire.
@@alphaomega1173 Found the Fallout New Vegas player.
@@Prodigi50 yes.
I enjoy drawing parallels to this and the US Governments system of 7 people as supreme court justices, the Head Justice being elected by the President who in this case would likely be the current Augustus then the Caesar incumbent who is to become the new Head Justice (new Augustus) must be approved by the senate. Only the separation of the Judicial and Executive offices and powers separates this system from the system that created the longest running Democratic Republic.
If only they knew what they taught us while they were teaching us LOL
I think something you can’t forget is that declaring an Augustus wasn’t centrally planned. What would stop solders from proclaiming a Caesar an Augustus after a great victory or the Praetorians promoting their man in a coup in this 6 man system? Also I think when the Augustus died unexpectedly it would almost always result in civil war when there’s no clear frontrunner in a 5 man contest with ambitions that high.
I think the literacy rate of ancient rome or medieval countries are grossly underrated. Any adult can learn to read and write in a month. We have writings in medieval Russia written on birchbark that deliver the most mundane messages. Like "Buy some lamp oil and send it over here." OR "As soon as this letter arrives, send me a man on a stallion, because I have a lot of work here. And send a shirt; I forgot a shirt."
These are one peasant writing to an other or to a family member. Many of the writings are mundane and without much consequence.
Many of the writings we have from Rome are also mundane everyday messages. Same for runes. We have hundreds of short messages in runes from Bergen. Most are inconsequential. Like "Gyða tells you to go home" OR "My love, kiss me".
Q: We have writings in medieval Russia...
A: Which medieval kingdom was situated in northwestern Ukraine and should not be mistaken with Zalěsie or future Muscovy where such wrirings were not found. Novgorodъ was a distant colony of Kyjevъ, not of Moskva that did not exist then.
We also can't assume that such writings were the norm for lower class people, and likewise can't necessarily assume that these were written by the lower classes. "Send me a man on a stallion" is not something your average peasant would be writing, and also Novgorod (where those birch bark letters were found) was a trade centric city-state, which inherently means a larger portion of the population are going to have reasons to learn to read and write. Likewise, unless there's a a set up for people to learn, it doesn't matter how easy it might be to learn if there isn't easy access to a teacher, let alone material for learning.
That isn't to say of course that literacy rates haven't been underestimated, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that most people who didn't live in a city, let alone a town couldn't read, and even plenty of people in towns and cities likely couldn't either.
Q: such writings were the norm for lower class people...
A: Because it was a state policy. Once king Volodiměrъ baptized Kyjevъ on 988 AD, he created a network of schools, including a school for girls. From Kyjevъ the primary education was forcibly imposed to Novgorodъ since it was stubbornly pagan and rejected Christianity.
@@betterdonotanswer This is not about state policy. Writings of low class people are common in ancient Rome, by the Norse too. (same is true for Turkish scripts) In Sweden we have many religious especially Christian rune stones. But many rune stones outside sweden are very simple like "I wrote this." these are tags on common items to mark ownership of simple objects. Why would a high class scholar write such text? Why would a high class scholar scratch the alphabet into stone over and over? With wobbly letters? To begin with most runes are scratches and not carved into stone.
Runes, ogham, turkish script were most often carved into wood, particularly sticks. The letter shapes are much more suited to be carved into sticks than into stone.
They were most often used to write short notes and messages.
In Bergen they found hundreds of sticks and wood chips in a trash heap. They contained hundreds of runic inscriptions.
What they contain is very mundane.
"Hedin carved runes", "Svein cut these runes and asked Lucia to read them"
We have spoons and tags with writing "Lucia Grim's daughter owns", "Sigrid owns me" Why would a high class person mark ownership of a wooden spoon?
There are lots of naughty ones "Ingeborg made love with me when I was in Stavan-ger" "The smith lay with Vigdi" "Make love with me, I love you, Gunnhild. Kiss me, I know you well" or "Lovely is the pussy, may the prick fill it up!"
Weh have a lot "This is a comb", "This is a spoon" and a LOT of alphabet.
What it tells us that people taught each other to write on stick. They didn't write letters and books but commonly wrote their name on items to mark ownership. Commonly wrote short prayers or curses on items. Wrote jokes and wrote mundane messages. And all these were meant to be read by common people.
People don't need schools to learn to write. Any five year old can be taught to read and write with a few minutes of practice every day. And adult man or woman can learn to write short notes in a few days.
Q: Writings of low class people are common in ancient Rome...
A: One thousand birch bark manuscripts were found in Novgorodъ, or two per year in average. Which number is astronomically small comparing with its population that was estimated about 20 thousand. And this statistics should be times worse in ancient Rome with its population of over 1 million and times longer history.
In dynastic China dumbbells or other weights were also used, but the recorded purpose was to gauge strength and not necessarily to develop it with such weights over a structured program.
I have so many questions that I just can’t pick one so I decided I’m gonna thank you. For everything.
I really appreciate these videos, keep them coming please!
Great video as usual. Thanks!
Hello, i am from Rome and would like if you made a video about the Jewish ghetto in Rome. It is the most interesting and beautiful neighborhood in my opinion and one of the oldest in all of the city! I think it gets little attention compared to the rest of the city.
PS. I live in the suburbia, near the city of Veio so any videos on Etruscan history would also be very cool!
This would also give him another reason to go to Rome for his other channel! 🤠
Could you do a segment on Greek scientific devices for sailing,navigation and any hand made device that aided in Greek life. For example are there devices similar to the antikythera mechanism for astrological computations. There must be like a top 10 navigational, military, medical, astrological devices that aided the Greeks manage their environments or predict an outcome or mathematically projected a finite solution to the desired information
Ancient Greek had telescopes
The 10% literacy rate estimate was really surprising, given that most estimates I have seen of High Medieval Western and Central Europe far surpass that, even being higher in complete backwater areas where literacy would indeed have seemingly little use. Speaking of functional literacy in their own language of course.
I think it's probably underestimated. I bet pretty much everyone knew the alphabet and what sounds each letter made. Latin back then was simpler, I doubt pronunciation varied from spelling as much as it does in English given that they're the ones that invented the Latin alphabet. Could you really be a true Roman and not know the Roman alphabet? Wouldn't every parent teach it to their child, with their mothers making a song out of it like we've done?
Very interesting Thank you!
interesting topics pls continue these types of videos
Your videos for me have been such an amazing thing to discover. Ive always loved history but I have not gotten to the point where I can learn alone from primary sources. Your videos really help me to understand the process and perspective historians use when they interpret the ancient world.
My question is about the fall of the empire. Im curious is there where any people like our modern "preppers" who accurately anticipated the fall of the empire. Who were these people and what steps did they take to help themselves or their empire? What things worked to aid them or others "after" the collapse and what didn't? What did young, up and coming politicians in a dying rome do to secure themselves a future?
Thanks again for all the time you dedicate to these projects. These videos are (and will be!) a great resource for students of history.
I can just tell you’re smart
Most interesting and entertaining, thanks for sharing it
Hey Dr. Ryan, for the final question presented in the video, you mentioned dietary practices of Greek athletes, example the all meat diet. What sources do we have to reference the existence of these specialized diets for athletes as opposed to the general diet of the average man or woman?
One thing that I have wondered about my entire life is how did people escape a siege. Are there stories concerning this and if so what are they? Since I was a child I imagined seeing the Mongol horde or even hearing about their coming and tried to figure out how I could have got out of Dodge before the apocolypse arrived. I understand that there were no shops, no NGOs to call upon en route, but surely somebody must have made a dash and survived. On a similar note, did many slaves flee and make it successfully back to their homeland. Again, this is one of those things I ponder before drifting off. If you see this and choose to include it on the list, thanks.
Yeah they usually just died
@@jjs8426 As you do !
Yes, there is a really famous account of this, you may have heard of it.
The Aeneid
That's the neat part; you don't.
@@jjs8426 Oddly, I recently listened to a podcast that covered a monk that escaped the Mongol Horde, numerous times, by burying himself in leaves and not returning to the city to forage. Every time he found a new city they would be preparing to face the mongols and he would quietly grab some supplies and flee to saftey, only to watch the inevitable carnage.
Wonderful stuff!
There is a lovely set of mystery stories by Lindsey Davis featuring Marcus Didio Falco that presents great descriptions of life in Rome. IIRC, Falco lives with his high-born wife in one of the upper floors of an insula and cooking on the balcony.
The Falco series is quite anachronistic and historically inaccurate in a lot of ways (most of the main characters are very modern in their thinking and Falco himself feels like a 20th-century person in the 1st-century world), so I wouldn't necessarily use the books as a history lesson, but it's still fun reading.
@@kawadashogo8258 It's so rare for historical fiction (written or on film) to get the mindset right. It's always people with modern values, modern ethics, modern viewpoint in a world that is completely alien to those things. That kind of ruins them for me.
Your videos are great and informative, I truly enjoy theM thanks for sharing.
I have a question I have always been curious about.
How often was the average Roman citizen armed in their daily life and was it uncommon for someone have to defend or use force in their lives?
What is the one book you hope to find more than anything else among the Herculaneum trove?
Were there any public transportation options for lower or middle class in Rome, or were they just expected to walk everywhere in the city? I imagine the slave carried litters were only for upper class.
Public transportation didn't exist in any way, shape or form in antiquity. Also, animals and wheeled vehicles weren't allowed within the city limits of Rome during daylight hours due to the congestion it would cause (even as it was, the city was quite crowded). So yes, everybody walked, except the rich, who as you note were carried in litters by their slaves ("middle class" people, like craftsmen, shopkeepers, small farmers and the lower rung of merchants, might have owned slaves, but not the kind of slave who would carry you around; that was the preserve of rich people who could afford numerous slaves for different purposes). If you went outside of the city, you would travel on foot if you were poor (for example a day laborer seeking work on someone else's farms) or on an animal or animal-drawn cart if you were of at least modest means (for example a small farm owner), if you were rich you would travel in a litter and with at least a few bodyguards along to protect you from highwaymen, and if you were going overseas for whatever reason you had to go to the docks and haggle with a ship captain over how much you would pay him to take you where you wanted to go.
How were Roman apartments designed and did the romans moved apartments and how they did it? did the Romans had an equivalent of moving companies?
Just to let you know, sound is a bit on the weak side. Many thanks for the program.
Just want to congratulate your viewers
to be honest, each of these questions is quite worth it's own 17min video... however, there are only so many minutes in a day, and all the summaries here were interesting...
the Literacy rate, I would have thought to be much higher... in the cities at least, since so much of the culture was written...
for the masculinity of the Greeks, I do think that it developed more and more symbolic over time... especially, when dealing with sculptures with allusion to characters from the Myth age... my feeling is that whilst early statues are more realistic, the later ones show physique unachievable without modern supplements and hormones....
as for your description of the upper insulae, to be honest, in terms of size and design, the small ad-hoc roof structures remind me a lot of my experiences of Taipei.... or even the 3-4 Tatami rooms that form the minimal apartments in Tokyo, where I lived for much of my life.
6:20 So basically, a small apartment in new york, tokyo or san francisco
I've always been so curious about the classical culture's mindset on getting fit - did they do repetitious exercises like what we do today at a gym? Did they run to increase their endurance?
Look up gymnasium in Ancient Greece and Rome. Exercise was an integral part of the education of the youth.
There’s also a well known Latin saying about it: “mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body).
Were there laws against drunken horsing/charioting in Rome?
13:10 Maybe also mention Herodotus and other contemporaries with completely opposite views? And the fact that Plutarch basically "invented" stuff centuries later?
Would love a video on the strange “Barracks Emporers” period in Roman history!
One the first topic, the amazing thing, to me, is that in 500 years the Romans never figured out imperial succession.
How did they sharpen their cutting tools?
Wasn’t the athletic body as you mentioned used for Emperor statues common mainly because statues were constantly recycled by the removal of heads which were then replaced with the new Emperor’s image? Also weren’t they painted in color, unlike the image we think of being a stark white marble statue( like those faded ones found in Pompeii). Didn’t that became the standard assumption of how statues looked like in antiquity.
What were some derogatory terms and slurs (besides Barbarian) that the Romans and Greeks would use against the other classes and other nations??
HAHAHAHHA
Barbarian, eg. One who did not speak Greek.
Walking up to a river in Roman times. What do I see. What did people do on the river. Could I just go and fish(or hunt) where I wanted?
Wonderful content, is there any evidence than a device similar to the Antikythera mechanism existed in rome.
I've been wondering how Roman ships were organized and the differences between them. Like where were slaves stored for travel and how luxurious was a normal ship compared to a politician's?
Also, I love your videos. It's always so nice to see historians use RUclips for spreading their knowledge to a wider audience.
Andrew Stewart has a wonderful book on the Greeks, a lifetime studying their statuary in particular - I think his take might be the most convincing one. The male nude - or Greek male - has a musculature than announces invincibility, power, even timeless power. Every muscle was earned because, as athletes, they were not gods but men, and yet they achieved this - you could not put run them, out fight them, you could not subdue them.
Whether or not any Greek male looked like this is irrelevant - their ‘National’ identity saw this, and until or even after Alexander, there are no aged, defeated, ugly male statuary - the Greek male is quite literally a convention yes, but one they ‘wanted others to see when they passed the thousands of these ‘kouroi’ along roads, everywhere.
Did the Romans have textiles on the floors? Any remnants ever found? Such as in Pompeii where many artifacts even bread have been found which makes me thinking clothing & textiles might have been found.
Your blue shirt complements your eyes very nicely!
Where did you find sources of Ancient Greek athletes eating a only meat diet? I only eat meat myself and I find this information interesting
what do we know about inventors during roman times, how popular was the job?
The physical stature of statues of mythical heroes and gods might be the equivalent to the the modern conventions regarding super heroes. An ideal rather than a representation of reality.
If no one had it how could they conceive of it? Youre out of your mind if you dont think there where always dudes who where jacked. You have to know at least one person in real life that is oddly buff and doesnt even exercise.
@@Josh-cf7xf Have you ever seen the cover of body builder magazine? To have those muscles they have to work out and they need to eat a lot so they have the energy to exercise. But looking at them when they're in the bulking up phase they look like any regular joe with a healthy bit of fat on them. Then, when they know a competition or a photo shoot is coming up in a couple of weeks, they start starving themselves down to get to 2-4% body fat so the muscles will look cut and defined.
To put that in perspective, if you were in a third world nation and you and your neighbors were at 2-4% body fat, the UN would be trying to rush emergency food shipments to your area.
Even starving themselves down like that it's still not enough as the day before their appearance they start dehydrating themselves and for an hour or so before they start doing special exercises to make sure their muscles are pumped full of blood. And that's not even talking about the body make up or phot shopping to cover any moles or scars.
So, yes, someone can look like this for 20-30 minutes when they have two weeks notice. If you want to call that a realistic idea of what someone can look like I won't stop you but we'll have to agree to disagree on the subject.
Well thats an extreme example. The statues look nothing like modern roided up bodybuilders and nothing close to 5% bodyfat. And id wager the greeks were eating better than you think. bodybuilders look like average joes to you in their off season? I think you should get your eyes checked and do some research on physical fitness and body composition.
@@Josh-cf7xf Well in fairness I'm retired infantry so maybe my definition of an average Joe may be atypical;). If you work at a business with a management that's supportive of the body positivity movement your version of average may vary;).
I've got one: the 1959 movie 'The Battle of Marathon' begins with the hero Phillipides winning the entire Olympics. Was it even possible to participate in every single Olympic event in ancient Greece, and if so, did anyone ever win them all?
Thanks for the answer but i really meant that the spartan legend was already in place before the persian wars, hence why athens sent for help to sparta once it was underway. Are there battles before this period when this military prowess was made? i cant imagine the athenians being taken in just by spartans blowing their own trumpet.
Was there international leisure travel in Ancient Rome, to Gaul, Germania, or Parthia.
Additionally, what was the state of leisure travel to the provinces.
how did the romans calculate the aqueduct water flow?
To that first question I offer something slightly snarky. That is that when you allow power to concentrate in an emperor, you shouldn't expect them to start willingly sharing it.
Wait. The all meat diet? Havn't heard of this. The modern carnivore community would be livid if they knew this. I seem to remember reading that they ate mostly barley and beans, but perhaps that was limited to gladiators.
Thank you for your videos and Q&A features and your books (I bought the first one). εὐχαριστῶ σοι ὑπὲρ τῶν βιβλῶν καὶ τῶν κινουμένων εἰκόνων.
My question is - did the Greeks or Romans have any knowledge of dinosaurs? If so, how did they come by this knowledge - discovering fossilized bones perhaps? And how do we know about their knowledge? I assume some Greek or Roman author wrote about this. This may be a slightly whacky question but I seem to recall from somewhere (correctly I hope) Cicero wrote about some mechanical devices that may have been similar to the Antikythera mechanism. If you know or can find out anything about both of these topics I would be interested. Thank you.
FYI your volume is pretty low, I had to crank all the way up on my Bose.
Sounds like a typical studio apartment, or single bedroom apartment. I don’t have any frescoes painted on my walls here, either. Indoor toilets are really only quite recently common for everyone nowadays.
The silver RUclips button behind you - what is the name of the channel for which it stands?
Toldinstone
Who in ancient Rome had the longest life expectancy?
When you are at war with your neighbors, and your ability to win requires that you be stronger than your opponent, a strong physique would be essential.
What was a year in the life of Roman merchant sailor like?
Your video is so small in volume sound.
What was Sparta up to from say 900 to 1800? When did old cultural borders and customs change into the something resembling the modern Greek state?
It's a very big story, they completely became Christians very late in the 9th century but they never really did changed. Most of their story covered by the book Chronicle of the Morea.
Modern Greek state is not something different either.
Mark Wildman did a good video comparing classical physical aesthetic to the modern body builder
Meat and Squats equals big gainz - Milo of Croton
The Wikipedia page for insulae claims they could reach up to 9 stories tall, citing an old article in the internet archives that itself does not cite a source for this information. Is there any truth to this claim?
Do we know of any direct living decedents of Roman emperors? Do any European royal families claim their origins back to Roman aristocracy for example ?
Yes, to Byzantines
Did any greek cults worship the titans possibly believing them to be the true gods or thought that the titans would have a second coming of sorts and escape tartarus?
A dream of mine has been fulfilled.
The audio is so low, man
About the structure of Roman government. I wonder: would it have been possible at all for Diocletian to shift power back to the Senate, the way government had been organized prior to Ceasar and Augustus.
I don't know anything about the roman Senate, but I assume its members were from the roman aristocracy; the rich houses. I am guessing that the roman Senate was a way for the influential houses to keep each other in check. I am guessing there were shifting alliances, and that if one house tended to gain a lot of power the other houses would tend to ally against that dominant house, maneuvering to reduce that power.
Anyway: the fundamental culture was: use warfare to enrich yourself. As long as there was opportunity for expansion the plundering and looting happened (mostly) at the perifery of the empire. When opportunities for further expansion ran out that warfare/plundering mentality inevitably turned inward.
Asked this of a history teacher once. She said people used to work outside. I said, that the bench press didn’t exist until recently . . . Public school. 🤦♂️
People were lean in those days,thy ate healthy and just enough,no sweets,chocolate,coffee pop,etc,plus they worked their bodies
to survive,from sun up to sun down.
You're right. Military combat was the Spartans' SECOND priority in life. Their first priority was "Branding and Advertising".
The 7 years of boot camp certainly helped!
But if Galerius dint stack the Tetrarchy with his puppets and let Maxentius and Constantine successed as Ceasars it could have lasted a bit longer
14:58 it's based! on real athletic bodies! let's go.
I somehow imagined what you look like by your voice alone lol before seeing what you actually look like
I always thought the Thermopylae battle was a very stupid one to take. In any case the Spartans were an oddity when Rome came in. The social order was static and worked to concentrate the wealth and keep the numbers down. There was even a failed attempt at land reform by a late king. But the real power rested with their women who inherited by default.
There was a second Battle of Thermopylae in 1941. By that point the sea had receded and the narrow pass had become wide tidal flats . . . British officers, trained in the classics, could not resist trying to make a stand there, ignoring the fact that German panzers weren't intimidated by tidal flats and over-ran the New Zealand positions.
@@michaelmanning5379 That's far from the 2nd battle there. There's at least 3 I can think of off the top my head in the 4th and 3rd century BC alone.
How did the people of the ancient hills of Rome interact during the 6-4 centuries bc interact. Specifically how did the Sabine on the quirnal interact and keep separate during the reign of Servius Tulius. I believe Rome owned land outside of the seven hills during the reign of taquinius priscus while Rome did not reign over the quirnal. So I wonder how much interaction the Sabine had with the romans during this time as well as how the other seven hills were interacting. Was life mostly separate or was there significant interaction between the people's living on their respective hills?]
yes
I have a question. Do not take it bad. Why do you have a silver RUclips plate if you only have 14k subs?
This is only one of his 3 channels
Why did Roman emperors keep the Senate until the fall of the Western Empire when it no longer had any political function when Augustus became emperor? Why not just abolish it when he could?
In the time of Alexander we're the Romans worried about war with Alexander?
Roman empire is not existent during alexander's conquest.
Imagine that most surviving images of women people from the distant future have of our era were those of comic book artist and illustrator Dave Stevens. Musclar gals with perfect and pronounced curves. They never existed except, in Stevens' mind, for Betty Page who herself never looked as good as Stevens portrayed her.
it's possible ancient statuary were idealized perhaps in a similar way to illustrated pin-ups of the previous decade. No human woman ever looked like anything Frank Frazetta drew but each was an idealized version of a human female.
I ordered fat gladiators waiting for it to arrive 😁 can't wait.
LGBTQuestion ALERT: Hi, Dr. Ryan, I'm a big fan of your main channel, keeping an eye on the exchange rates so I can afford your book here in Brazil hahah my question is: who were some of the "equivalents" (if any) of Sapho and her work in lesbian love poetry on the male gay "side"? We hear about quite a lot of casual relationships between men in the ancient world, whether in the army or philosphy schools or gyms, but I myself can't think of a romantic gay poet that wrote and sang about his love for another man. It would be awesome to learn more about the history of any LGBTQ prominent figure, actually, so, feel free to share any fun facts also (please do!)
Herodias Atticus and Sulla(the dictator) were two prominent "gay" figures in ancient Rome and the "novel" called the "Satyricon" features a gay couple as protagonists. Herodias Atticus was a prominent philhellene who reportedly moved to Athens for the gay sex -he was responsible for building the famous theater in Athens called "The theater of Herodias Atticus."
THE SOUND IS WAY TOO LOW.
2:12 It still failed because it never solved the problem that led to the reforms and tetrarchy system being instituted. That is the cause of the barbarian invasions themselves, which were Rome foreign policy which pittied the neighboring peoples into conflict and migration with one another. Their system was inherently flawed, destined to end without glory
You look very roman in this video, like the englishmen who played julius caesar and msrc antony in Shakespeares plays in the 1950, maybe it's the hair
Interesting. As far as literacy, I suspect that the Jewish corner (of the empire and maybe of cities too) most likely had the highest literacy since it seems that most (?) Jews were taught to read the Torah. I believe that by Roman times this would have been written in Aramaic. Given this base, I wonder how many of them also learned to read some Latin for expediencies sake.
Was there any methods in the classical world to avoid pregnancy
Supposedly, partial lemons inserted you know where...
Just the withdraw method for sure
Ancient Greeks used condoms made from animal parts like goat bladder and ointments based on honey, resin, cotton, fruit like half pomegranate skins to block sperm etc
The muscular statues were probably based on wrestlers
I have questions about infrastructure! Please answer them without giving my username
How was traffic managed in the more crowded cities or during holidays?
How was sewage and water deliniated and managed?
Was there a fire-code when it came to architecture?
Who enforced these rules? Im picturing a wild-eyed centurion traffic cop or hardhat wearing osha deputy drawing a sword on somebody who's ignoring the rules
Thermopylae is History & a Legend though definitely not a Myth. Unless you accept that Myth is actually the truth through folklore.
It would be fairly horrible, I think, to have your nice latrine but live under 3 floors of people who didn't have latrines.