26:18 Having studied the Punic Wars a year ago, there's a fun fact on how the Romans managed to reverse-engineer Carthaginian ships so easily: Carthage's arsenal built ships with standardized detached parts and signs/numbers/letters inscribed on them, much like an Ikea furniture piece (that is the exact analogy my history professor used). Once the Romans figured out the system, they copied it, and managed to mass-produce these ships.
@@VloggingThroughHistory 40:50 Regarding the sources, in that class we were taught the three most useful and mutually exhaustive sources were, in order of preference: the "Histories" of Polybus, a 2nd-century BC Greek historian who lived the Third Punic War and was a close friend of Scipio Aemilianus (the Roman general who won that war); the "History of Rome" by Roman historian Livy, who wrote in the 1st centuries BC and AD, with some passages missing; and the "Foreign Wars" of Appian, an Alexandrine Greek writer from the 2nd century CE. All wrote from the Roman side and favored them, though Polybus is critical of the Romans when he felt they went back on their word. Polybus is generally considered the most reliable.
@@VloggingThroughHistory In the interest of intellectual honesty, I couldn't find the source in my notes, so here's one corroborating it: "The Marsala ship [A Carthaginian ship found in 1971 off the coast of Sicily, from the 241 BCE Battle of the Aegates Islands] brings us other discoveries: The painted signs on its hull testify (in addition to the fact that this ship was indeed Punic) of a rationalization for mass production: It is not explained otherwise how fast Romans And Carthaginians could arm so many military ships." (Naval Encyclopedia - Carthaginian Ships; look it up online, I can't post the link here)
They talk a lot in that Oversimplified episode about how impressive Rome is at adapting technologies fast and building ships fast...but what they don't mention is also their crazy ability to gather a professionnal army fast too ! It's almost supernatural how easy it is to build legions in Rome, war being a religious matter must surely help in the process !!
It was definitely feels like it was something rather unique to Roman culture where they would just not give up and keep forming and throwing armies at the problem until it was no longer a problem. Wasn't always the case of course but is definitely what contributed to their growth and expansion for so long.
I think that first thing is just Roman propaganda: "we found a foreign ship wrecked on our coast and reverse-engineered it aren't we clever!" obviously they just hired some foreign engineer to teach them (probably Greek). I mean they act like their ally Syracuse (powerhouse of Greek engineering knowledge) wasn't on their doorstep so just ask the Greeks for advice? HOWEVER the second thing you said is absolutely true. I think beginning in the Pyrrhic War you see Rome gathering armies from nowhere as you say 'supernaturally' it really was astounding.
@@gaiusjuliuspleaser prisons. That was the moste extrem it ever got for Rome, as they had to arm slaves and Criminals to stay in the fight. But yea, the shear Mannpower Rome trew in during its Republic Years was, compared to its Terretory, absolutly insane.
Fun fact: that painting of Saturn at 4:03 was actually painted by a Spanish painter named Francisco Goya in the early 1800s. He painted it in his villa during the Peninsular War. The grossest part was that this particular painting in his villa was in his dining room
It's more disturbing with the connection between Goya and Saturn. Both had children but a majority of them died, with only one remain. It's like Goya was painting himself as Saturn.
I remember reading a lot about Goya in art class, apparently he was a very depressed guy and a lot of his art shows his dark mental state especially the Saturn painting.
Back when I was in school, I just couldn’t wrap my head around how Rome managed to pull off a victory in the first Punic War. They made so many mistakes, lost so many ships, lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Now it makes sense. They just kept smashing their own heads into a wall until eventually they made a crack in the walls and not in their skulls.
Tbf Carthage made more mistakes than Rome. Bad ground battle tactics, kicking out a competent commander because if jealousy, not taking the final Roman fleet seriously.
Man, if you think the First War shows off Rome's stubborn, hard-headed tendencies, wait till he puts out a vid the *Second* War! Rome squeeeks out a win--despite setbacks that would have crushed any other civilization at the time. It was as if the Romans did not even understand the _meaning_ of the words Surrender & Submission. 😠😤☠
As far as the toilet goes, I've been to the Roman toilets at Housteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's wall in Britain. We're not sure if each soldier had his own sponge on a stick or if they shared. Regardless, the trough of water (which was flowing) in the center was to wash the sponges, and the basins in the middle held vinegar to sanitize them. Not up to our standards, I realize, but still remarkable for the time.
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 No, actually it was called a tersorium and it was most definitely used as TP (for the rich at least the poor people used stones.)
"You don't want the enemy to get the technology especially if it's the one they don't have." *And the maker of the greek fire took that VERY seriously*
Polybius is one of the main sources for most of the Punic wars. He was Greek and a pretty detailed and even keeled historian. By the way, in 2010 Archaeologists pulled up war ship rams from the 1st Punic war naval battle of Aegates straight, the last naval battle of the war. The artifacts (Rams, Helmets, etc.) are from the war and were right where Polybius said the battle took place.
I originally watched your videos because I loved your oversimplified reactions and as of a couple months ago I wasnt all that into history and to see all the upgrades you’ve added to your channel is awesome to see
25:35 man, I was a lifeguard 16 years ago, and an exercise we did for training was treading water for as long as we could with a 25 pound dumbbell in our hands. The majority of my class sank within SECONDS. I can't imagine having a full set of heavy armor and trying to swim with it.
1:22 I cannot believe he did not mention the poster on the back wall. The Roman numerals says “10 before 100 followed by 9” ie 99, making the poster read: “I got 99 problems, but ROME ain’t one.” GENIUS!!!
What's crazy about all this, apart from pretty much everything, is that world population stat you used for the time, 150 million, would mean that 0.2% of the ENTIRE world's population was a part of the Battle of Cape Ecnomus. Truly insane. And then there's Part 2.........
@@geekyluna1909 well yeah if you look at the % value of world population alone it doesn’t look that high but the sheer number of people involved is still insane.
Edit:this whole comment is kind of irrelevant, you can read the other comments for why. @@geekyluna1909 using some data on the web that need correction, about 70 million people fight and serve in ww2, and during ww2, the world population were about 2 billion so that at rough estimates, it's 3.5% of the world population that fought in ww2, which I need to emphasize on the word " world war" , the punic war happen when the world population is is about 200 million or less and it only a war between 2 empires that admittedly big ,still not the entire world. At the time, it was even more impressive that they managed to have that much people to fight in a war.(please correct me if I'm wrong)
39:40 For even greater understanding of scale, that would be like the entire population of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah all fought in one battle. Or, about half the population of Canada.
Another side effect from the system of having yearly consuls is that our year starts in January instead of March. This is from a bit later in Roman history, when they have expanded into Hispania (Spain and Portugal). Since Hispania was a proper overseas colony, it usually took the newly appointed consuls several months to organize an army in Italy, gather enough funds to pay for their transport to Hispania, bribe/threaten/convince enough local allies to join you etc. So it wasn't uncommon for the consuls to find that by the time they could start campaigning properly, the campaigning season was more than half over and their local allies would soon start leaving for the harvest, and they would have to start thinking about how to get back to Italy again. So the Romans, ever pragmatic, solved this by simply starting the year two months earlier to give new consuls two extra months to get organized. This way they could usually set sail as soon as they were sure that winter was truly over, with plenty of time to find glory and plunder for the consuls.
It's interesting to note that decades later Hannibal will use basically the same tactic as Carthage used in this naval battle. It's very possible that his tactics in Cannae wasn't completely original, especially since he does have a personal connection to the commanders of the Cartheginian fleet in this battle.
Just what I thought when I saw the video. Do you have any source or an essay that explores this idea? I don't mean this as an insult. I'm a history student and this idea sounds pretty plausible, so would be nice to know if someone wrote something about this.
@@whitefrost5116 I believe either Invicta or Historia Civilis talked about it. Might have been another channel but I remember it being discussed by one of them.
@@meganoob12 Not really, at least not like this. Fainting retreat traditionally was using smaller detachments like forward or scouting cavalry that would draw the enemy into a prepared ambush by the bulk of the army. What Carthage did was to intentionally weaken the centre of the main formation itself. This was hardly ever done before because you absolutely never ever want your centre to be the weakest. You run the risk of your whole army being shattered because the line couldn't be maintained, which was what more or less happened in this naval battle. Hannibal later used this tactic successfully because he put his best elite troops in the centre knowing that they will not break the line, but hold it long enough for the reinforced flanks to envelope the Romans.
You unsimplifying Oversimplified videos is easily one of my favourite formats on RUclips. I watched the whole thing only a few minutes ago, but happily do it again with your additional comments.
Just so you know, "Ba'al" means something like "Lord" and that's why they specified WHICH Ba'al the Carthaginians worshipped. The Carthaginian God in question is often associated with the god referred to Molech in the Bible, a child sacrifice God.
The Roman Empire times are my favorite historical time frame to read/learn about and what turned me into a history nerd so I’m beyond thrilled Oversimplified did this one, and a fantastic reaction as always
It’s funny that you mentioned doing a reaction to that oversimplified early videos. Since you can easily how much of his style evolved over the years. It went from a goofy but matured tone to now were he seem to have finally lost his mind after making 20 of these video.
The Carthaginian people viewed service in the navy as the more honorable route and had a large number of Carthaginian people serving in the navies while the land army was mostly paid mercenaries apart from the commanders who were Carthaginian nobility. Basically the opposite point of view from the Romans who granted much more privileges and rewards to their legionaries as opposed to their sailors. At this point the Romans also were mainly citizen farmers and not a full professional army hence why their manpower could seem endless in both the first and second Punic wars
4:05 I recognise that painting. It's by Francisco de Goya, one of the three top painters in Spanish History (together with Diego Velázquez and Pablo Picasso). He's famous for both depicting and making history: Goya was part of the Spanish liberal movement and supported them during the Spanish war of independence, in fact one of his most famous paintings (though most of his paintings are famous) is the one called "Fusilamientos del 3 de Mayo" (May 3rd Firing Squads), which depicts a French firing squad shooting at Spanish prisioners in reprisal after the 1808 popular uprising against the French. It is part of a series of paintings depicting that uprising, other famous painting about the uprising is "the charge of the Mamlucks" (featuring the Mamluck mercenaries used by the French charging against the people). Previously he had produced several paintings, including the "Majas", which are two paintings of the same woman: in one she is dressed and in the other she is nude. Another famous painting of Goya is "duelo con garrotes" (duel with staves), which depicts two men fighting, it's often used as a methafor for Spanish politics. [Edit: The Defense of the Artillery Headquarters was made by another painter, Sorolla. My mistake.]
The tactics used at Ecoomus remind me a lot of Hannibal's, and later Scipio's, tactics later used in the 2nd Punic Wars. Allow the center to feign retreat, then use your stronger wings to crush the Roman flank, encircling them. It's fascinating to see such a famous tactic being used so early.
My brothers and I were so thrilled yesterday when he posted! We got together and watched both videos, pretty much back to back. Can’t wait to see what you’ve got to add!
I minored in classics and took classes on Rome and warfare, so I am familiar with the Punic Wars. •The traditional date for the founding of Rome is April 21, 753 BC. The Romans date events using the phrase ab urbe conditas, meaning "from the founding of the city." •Something not mentioned in the video was that the Romans also considered Aeneas a founder. Part of the Aeneid tells of Aeneas' time in Carthage following the Sack of Troy and of his affair with Queen Dido. When the Trojans left, she burned all Aeneas' stuff and then threw herself into the fires, shouting a curse that Aeneas and his descendants would never know peace with Carthage. This is used as foreshadowing of the Punic Wars, as the Romans claim to be descendants of the Trojans. With Julius Caesar, he claimed to be descended from both Venus (the mother of Aeneas) and Mars (the father of Romulus and Remus), thus the son of the loving mother and avenging father. •The kidnapping is known as "the Rape of the Sabine Women." Also, the first Romans were largely outlaws or men who had been banished from other cities. Think of Rome as Ancient Australia. •In the Roman Republic, there was the Senate, which was exclusively made up of Patricians (the aristocrats), and there was also the Plebeian Assembly/Council, which was exclusively made up of Plebians a.k.a. Plebs (the commoners) and could pass laws as equally binding to all Roman citizens as those passed by the Senate. •The Romans fancied themselves as the great assimilators, being able to incorporate and assimilate other peoples into their civilization. •"Tolkien, why didn't the Fellowship fly to Mordor on the Great Eagles or use the Eagles more?" "Dear reader, shut up!" •To keep track, Scipio Asina is the great uncle of Scipio Africanus, who will play a major role in the Second Punic War. •As much as 1/3 of Roman society were slaves. That's the Ancient World.
The Aeneid was written 3 centuries after the punic wars. And unlike the Illiad is was not some ancient oral tradition written down. Virgil took a minor character from the Illiad, and used him to write a mythology explaining some other roman founding myths and history. There might have been some vague idea that he was related with the history of Rome, but nothing concrete.
One of my favorite things about this channel is when you go back over a Oversimplified video and it forces me to re-watch the video and I realize I missed so much information I always have to watch both
Us Dutchies have a saying which goes as: ' Naar de Filistijnen gaan' (Going to the Philistines) which we use when stuff is getting demolished and unfixable. Example: 'Door de rellen ging alles naar de Filistijnen' - "Because of the riots everything went to the Philistines" (Because of the riots everything was destroyed). I thought that would be something interesting to share.
Hey Chris! I've been watching you for so long now, from the irl vlogs to the google map challenges. I love your content and you have helped me pass my History class. Big ups.
Hi, Chris, you have the best reaction to this, its brilliant. I know little of Roman History so I'm learning a lot as well. Looking forward to part two. You probably don't need to know this but part three of Eleanor of Aquitaine is now available as well. Thanks for all your hard work.
Perhaps after this series you could watch Extra History's Brothers Gracchi. It's a great series that fits in with the theme and sheds light in a fascinating period in roman history.
@VloggingThroughHistory Ahhh, I see Thank you for the correction! And correct me if im wrong, or if more detail helps understand it better, but strategy would be the goal, like going for a siege. The tactics would be the steps to get there, like cutting off supply lines. Am I right on my assessment of the difference?
Seeing a history teacher watching a historic video like these is like that one friend that could know the entire movie without even seeing the movie itself
I've been here since your very first oversimplified video on the civil war and I've watched every video since! Totally amazing so see your channel grow!
Man, I just love your even handed comment and your reactions are as fair as priceless. I just watched the original Oversimplified video, but I knew that I would watch your reaction just after, and it was worth every minutes of re-watching.
30:52 It's kinda like Japan. They didn't have their own writing system, so they learned it from the Chinese. The Chinese writing system couldn't fit well in the Japanese language, they modified it, creating additional 2 writing systems in the process. When they united the Japanese archipelago, they didn't have the experience of governing huge territory, so they learned it also from the Chinese, copied their government system (Taika reform), and again, to make it fit to the Japanese culture, they modified it, notably they removed the Mandate of Heaven concept to ensure that the Emperor of Japan will never be abolished by anybody (which we can see today as a successful plan). Taika reform also included learning the Chinese culture, even as specific as learning how the Chinese eat their food. Jump a little bit far to the future, when the Japanese saw that the Chinese wasn't the strongest in the area anymore because of the British, they tried to reform the country, and learn from the Western powers in the process (Meiji restoration), which made them to be the very first Asian nation to be a modern developed country.
Yep! Man I'd like to see more on the history of Japan. Having been to some cities there I find it amazing how well they keep old castles and temples. And a lot of these are wooden structures, that have to be restored many times during the centuries. A lot of the castles and temples we went by were meticulously repaired and kept in an almost flawless state. Which is a lot of work for large wooden structures like Nara castle. I'd also want to know specifically about the feudal section of Japanese history. I have seen television dramas like Fuurin Kazan but of course that's not a documentary.
this has gotta be my favorite war idk its so interesting to see how they came up with these ideas to try and win in the war my favorite part is where they built the Corvus
Fun Fact: We all know about the story of the Trojan War, but did you know what happened to the people who survived the war?, When the Greeks conquered the city of Troy, a group of survivors managed to escape, lead by a man named Aeneas. According to legend, Aeneas and his people set out to find a new home for themselves. They attempted to settle in places around the Mediterranean but many times, were forced to leave, even Hera managed to convince Zeus to destroy the Trojan fleet out of anger, they roamed around until they manage to settle on the Italian peninsula. Some time later, a pair of twins were born in the community, and their names were Romulus and Remus. Yup, the founders of Rome were born from the survivors of Troy
Not a fact, it's simply a Mythos made by the Romans, some parts like the founding of alba longa could be true, but it's still just a popular Roman Mythos,
Thats from Virgil's Aeneid. It's a work commissioned by Augustus to basically explain some Roman myths and history, as well as to depict his dynasty as descending from the founders of Rome. There might have been some earlier vague association with Rome's founding, but nothing concrete. Most likely Virgil took a minor character from the Illiad and made up a founding story for Rome that also does things like explain the Rome-carthage rivalry etc.
Also important to note, the roman legions during this time weren't yet your typical standing roman army yet, that only came about after 107BC with the Marian reforms. The roman soldiers during this period were still levies and needed to own property. Depending on your class, age and wealth, you'd either be a velite (poorer citizens around the age of 16-19), the hastati (young men in their early 20s), principes (late 20s) and last the triarii (older veterans, still levy of course). Highly recommend a video made by Kings and Generals called army tactics about rome if you wanna learn more about this time period and army.
41:09 we got a lot of info about the first and second punic wars from polybius, a Greek hostage (not as bad for him as it sounds) in Rome. He set out to explain how Rome conquered the known world in "53 years". He's actually a pretty solid historian and we even have fragments of his first hand account of the destruction of Carthage in the 3rd punic war. Worth noting though, book 5 (the last whole book from polybius) ends after cannae. The fragments of book 6 is instrumental to the founding of the US though, which I recommend a read. It is worth noting though that we do get a lot of second hand polybius from livy (an extreme pro Roman historian) for the second punic war as well.
Don't know anything about this time in history. I watched the Oversimplified videos yesterday and thought to myself, I need VTH's commentary to help me make sense of this. Thank you!
Love your videos and commentary. Keep the videos coming! I have a suggestion for future content. Not sure if its your area of interest but the Battles BC series was great commentary and some silly visuals inspired by the movie 300. They have entire episodes on youtube, and they're 45 minutes or so each. Would be interested to see your takes, and to see them have new life breathed into them!
Comments are all gone, interesting. I'm glad to see these videos come back. It's good to see Oversimplifed doing the right thing and reigning in AdRev from acting wildly on their behalf.
Cool fact that you could even think about doing a video on is the invention of the tank, you mention it here as something the British invented to break the stalemate on the Western front and it's a complicated and fascinating story that actually starts with an Australian. Great video by the way!
Isn’t it amazing to see the parallels between ww1 / ww2 and the Punic wars.. just highlights that history can be full of the same type of people doing the same type of things, just the clothes and technology change.
I love the way Blue from OSP put it. Romulus' murder of Remus, though it probably didn't happen the way it does in the story, is a very apocryphal narrative for Rome to tell about its own origins as it would be their original sin that they'd be doomed to repeat again, and again, and again.
One of the weapons that romans used very effectively was the pila (javelin). Each legionnare carry 2 pila. The tip is made with hardened steel that can pierce even the toughest bronze. But the shaft is made of soften metal. Which means when the pila struck, It bend. Making it unusable for the enemy to throwback. If it struck a shield it made it unusable. Making the enemy abandon his shield. It shows why romans was so effective in an open battle.
Coining the term "barbaric" for pretty much everybody else (and writing all the history books) was probably the greatest PR move in history. To this day, we just buy the Roman definition of who was "civilised" and who not.. I think Oversimplified does a good job showing that the romans were doing the same as everybody else. Just better.
Fun fact: Carthaginian designers numbered the parts and inscribed the instructions on how to put together their latest warships and weapons, so that it would be easy for the equipment to be assembled anywhere in the empire. This was how the Romans were easily able to copy the Carthaginian warships.
Just finished watching part 1 on oversimplified's side and was asking to myself i wonder if vth has more input thank you for everything you do you inspire me to want to got to college maybe to he a historian myself! Much love bro
I love Oversimplifieds videos. Like you said, they make history entertaining. I wish we had such as this when I was in school. I think would've actually taken a bigger interest in history if I could watch such as this instead of doing just enough to get a C and pass. I didn't get into history until my 30s. As always, thank you for the commentary.
The problem I find in these videos is that they place modern borders on ancient states. For example, Carthage's borders in the video are not true, Carthage did not formally control the areas that the map and the Carthaginian Empire was mostly an informal thing. Carthage was a hegemony but that did not mean it had physical control of most areas, it mostly did it through treaties such as tribute and client states.
i was so happy when i saw this. roman, cartage, ancient greek history is my most very favorite. i dont wanna spoil, but the ending has me so hyped, i hope it comes out fast, but whenever it is, it will be my fav, Napoleon and a certain other general in the next punic war are two of my favorite historical generals and imo the best of their era. they just made a few mistakes or just couldnt get enough help. love the content.
Fun fact to go with what both you and the video mentioned how Rome and Carthage came from very different places arrived at very similar governments. The big difference that shows the different cultures would be Consuls vs Sufetes. The Consuls were two generals of equal power ruling together, but the Sufetes had no military power (super rare for the highest authority in an ancient Empire) and where instead two ruling "high judges" that held sway over most executive and judiciary powers. This really shows that while similar form of government (two rulers sharing power and a senate) the two cultures idea of what were the important powers that needed to be preserved were complete opposite. Also, Carthage had the Council of 104 which was a tribunal of judges with sweeping powers. The council of the 104 probably came from the Phoenician Adirim, a council of merchants and business owners that advised the king. The original idea being to put a check on government powers to protect the citizens, remember Carthage needs those citizens to sail and make them lots of money so they treat them a lot different than many other big powers of the time. While that sound great the council is pretty Tyrannical by now and is just the richest and most influential families doing whatever they want and are the source of the harsh punishments on military personnel. By both Roman and Greek (Polybius and Aristotle) account by the first Punic war the council did little more than punish Carthaginian officers for doing their job and where a huge problem for Hamilcar that he basically used his three daughters for political influence (not uncommon) formed the Bacrid faction to try and dominate public opinion and keep them out of his way in preparing to fight the Romans.
Little snippet, the word "Ba'al" just means "Lord". In the Western Semitic religion, there was also a Ba'alat, which means lady. Additional snippet, the former was equated by the Egyptians with Seth (who didn't have his negative associations yet), and the latter to Hathor
When I was in the US Army (specifically basic training), we regularly had to use those 'communal toilets' (no sponge fortunately). But there was a bench on each side of a rectangular room, and 5-ish holes in each of those benches where everyone pooped and peed at the same time. At first it was super awkward, but eventually it was like normal. We called the guy next to us our 'butt buddy' haha
Hey, maybe you can react to the extra history series on the second punic war after this. Not only is it a logical follow up to the first punic war, it's also interesting on a meta level because it is the very first extra history ever made
41:45 This encirclement seems to be a staple of Carthagian tactics. You see something similar in the Second Punic War with Hannibal. Hannibal used a V formation to encircle the Roman squares, boxing them in, and his calvary fought around to reach the Roman rear. It was the bloodiest battle of the Second Punic War with the Roman army being totally annihilated.
26:10 I was watching the original video with my 10-year-old cousin and he said, "Oh, like when the Fire Nation copied Sokka's air balloon." Never been so proud of the kid.
I liked the intro because it was fun but also challenged the idealized Idea we have of civilized Rome. That back than they had a way different value sytem we have and sometimes people forget that or maybe even never thought about that. Great stuff.
8:17 This is a mistake: Ba’al isn’t a god on its own, it’s a title which means “Lord” in north-west semitic languages. So multiple different Gods were giving the title of Ba’al, like Ba’al Moloch, Ba’al Hadad or in this case Ba’al Hammon. This one isn’t the same as the one described in the old testament, which is Ba’al Berith. Fun fact; the Israelites actually worshiped Ba’al Berith along with Asherah and Yahweh (the God of the old testament) before becoming a monotheistic religion (around 600-500 BCE).
you know he's consistent when he uploads a reaction to a video posted a day ago. Gotta love it. I'm not even gonna lie, I was right in the middle of recording myself playing The Unforgiven and then this pops up, so I delete my unsaved video to hop here lmao.
26:18 Having studied the Punic Wars a year ago, there's a fun fact on how the Romans managed to reverse-engineer Carthaginian ships so easily: Carthage's arsenal built ships with standardized detached parts and signs/numbers/letters inscribed on them, much like an Ikea furniture piece (that is the exact analogy my history professor used). Once the Romans figured out the system, they copied it, and managed to mass-produce these ships.
That's awesome. Thank you for sharing that!
@@VloggingThroughHistory 40:50 Regarding the sources, in that class we were taught the three most useful and mutually exhaustive sources were, in order of preference: the "Histories" of Polybus, a 2nd-century BC Greek historian who lived the Third Punic War and was a close friend of Scipio Aemilianus (the Roman general who won that war); the "History of Rome" by Roman historian Livy, who wrote in the 1st centuries BC and AD, with some passages missing; and the "Foreign Wars" of Appian, an Alexandrine Greek writer from the 2nd century CE.
All wrote from the Roman side and favored them, though Polybus is critical of the Romans when he felt they went back on their word. Polybus is generally considered the most reliable.
@@VloggingThroughHistory In the interest of intellectual honesty, I couldn't find the source in my notes, so here's one corroborating it:
"The Marsala ship [A Carthaginian ship found in 1971 off the coast of Sicily, from the 241 BCE Battle of the Aegates Islands] brings us other discoveries: The painted signs on its hull testify (in addition to the fact that this ship was indeed Punic) of a rationalization for mass production: It is not explained otherwise how fast Romans And Carthaginians could arm so many military ships."
(Naval Encyclopedia - Carthaginian Ships; look it up online, I can't post the link here)
@@samrevlej9331 tnx for the info bro really appreciate it
IKEA existed before jesus
They talk a lot in that Oversimplified episode about how impressive Rome is at adapting technologies fast and building ships fast...but what they don't mention is also their crazy ability to gather a professionnal army fast too ! It's almost supernatural how easy it is to build legions in Rome, war being a religious matter must surely help in the process !!
It was definitely feels like it was something rather unique to Roman culture where they would just not give up and keep forming and throwing armies at the problem until it was no longer a problem. Wasn't always the case of course but is definitely what contributed to their growth and expansion for so long.
I think that first thing is just Roman propaganda: "we found a foreign ship wrecked on our coast and reverse-engineered it aren't we clever!" obviously they just hired some foreign engineer to teach them (probably Greek). I mean they act like their ally Syracuse (powerhouse of Greek engineering knowledge) wasn't on their doorstep so just ask the Greeks for advice? HOWEVER the second thing you said is absolutely true. I think beginning in the Pyrrhic War you see Rome gathering armies from nowhere as you say 'supernaturally' it really was astounding.
@@gaiusjuliuspleaser prisons. That was the moste extrem it ever got for Rome, as they had to arm slaves and Criminals to stay in the fight. But yea, the shear Mannpower Rome trew in during its Republic Years was, compared to its Terretory, absolutly insane.
The Roman Republic didn't have a professional army only after they marian reform they had one
I kinda feel like those huge numbers might have been revealed to some ancient historian in a dream
Fun fact: that painting of Saturn at 4:03 was actually painted by a Spanish painter named Francisco Goya in the early 1800s. He painted it in his villa during the Peninsular War. The grossest part was that this particular painting in his villa was in his dining room
It's more disturbing with the connection between Goya and Saturn. Both had children but a majority of them died, with only one remain. It's like Goya was painting himself as Saturn.
@@jaderabbit898 yeah, all of the black paintings are really sad… lol
I remember reading a lot about Goya in art class, apparently he was a very depressed guy and a lot of his art shows his dark mental state especially the Saturn painting.
Yep, no one really knew it existed until after his death
I found about this painting some few weeks ago when the author of Chainsaw Man referenced it in his panel
Back when I was in school, I just couldn’t wrap my head around how Rome managed to pull off a victory in the first Punic War. They made so many mistakes, lost so many ships, lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Now it makes sense. They just kept smashing their own heads into a wall until eventually they made a crack in the walls and not in their skulls.
Tbf Carthage made more mistakes than Rome. Bad ground battle tactics, kicking out a competent commander because if jealousy, not taking the final Roman fleet seriously.
Also, it's not really Rome's fault that Mother Nature decided to intervene
@@Brother_O4TS God couldn't beat Rome 😂
@@Brother_O4TS idk man, if they would've built submarines instead of battleships the storms wouldn't have been an issue. obvious rooky mistake
Man, if you think the First War shows off Rome's stubborn, hard-headed tendencies, wait till he puts out a vid the *Second* War! Rome squeeeks out a win--despite setbacks that would have crushed any other civilization at the time. It was as if the Romans did not even understand the _meaning_ of the words Surrender & Submission. 😠😤☠
Every time Oversimplified uploads, world peace is achieved for a whole week.
Ukraine sure hoped that would be true
it isn't
As far as the toilet goes, I've been to the Roman toilets at Housteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's wall in Britain. We're not sure if each soldier had his own sponge on a stick or if they shared. Regardless, the trough of water (which was flowing) in the center was to wash the sponges, and the basins in the middle held vinegar to sanitize them. Not up to our standards, I realize, but still remarkable for the time.
I'm sure it was just like modern public toilets. Nicer/more upscale places did more to keep them clean, with attendants to get you a fresh stick, etc.
The sponge was (most likely that is) a toilet brush, not for wiping.
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 No, actually it was called a tersorium and it was most definitely used as TP (for the rich at least the poor people used stones.)
Housteads (I live right next to it) also shows a second water trench which effectively "flushes" the toilet.
@@derdingsreturnsnochmal5177 They didn't have toilets or any modern plumbing...why would they have a brush for one?? Lol
"You don't want the enemy to get the technology especially if it's the one they don't have."
*And the maker of the greek fire took that VERY seriously*
Polybius is one of the main sources for most of the Punic wars. He was Greek and a pretty detailed and even keeled historian. By the way, in 2010 Archaeologists pulled up war ship rams from the 1st Punic war naval battle of Aegates straight, the last naval battle of the war. The artifacts (Rams, Helmets, etc.) are from the war and were right where Polybius said the battle took place.
I originally watched your videos because I loved your oversimplified reactions and as of a couple months ago I wasnt all that into history and to see all the upgrades you’ve added to your channel is awesome to see
25:35 man, I was a lifeguard 16 years ago, and an exercise we did for training was treading water for as long as we could with a 25 pound dumbbell in our hands. The majority of my class sank within SECONDS. I can't imagine having a full set of heavy armor and trying to swim with it.
as a historian, I love that this became so viral
As a carthaginian citizen (for real)
I live 1 km away from the ancient city of carthage in a street named barca this is depressing yet fascinating
@@ajmiyessine3837 So you live in Tunisia?
@@jackgolden5403 yes but my grand father is italien living in ROME itself☠️
@@ajmiyessine3837 hope to visit one day beautiful country and beautiful history from ur neighbour 🇹🇳🇩🇿
1:22 I cannot believe he did not mention the poster on the back wall. The Roman numerals says “10 before 100 followed by 9” ie 99, making the poster read: “I got 99 problems, but ROME ain’t one.” GENIUS!!!
What's crazy about all this, apart from pretty much everything, is that world population stat you used for the time, 150 million, would mean that 0.2% of the ENTIRE world's population was a part of the Battle of Cape Ecnomus. Truly insane. And then there's Part 2.........
Yeah, about 0.19333333% of the world population. A truly insane battle.
@@afsmapping6092 literally less than one percent
@@geekyluna1909 well yeah if you look at the % value of world population alone it doesn’t look that high but the sheer number of people involved is still insane.
@@geekyluna1909 Think of it this way. 1 in 500 of the people alive at the time were fighting at Cape Ecnomus
Edit:this whole comment is kind of irrelevant, you can read the other comments for why.
@@geekyluna1909 using some data on the web that need correction, about 70 million people fight and serve in ww2, and during ww2, the world population were about 2 billion so that at rough estimates, it's 3.5% of the world population that fought in ww2, which I need to emphasize on the word " world war" , the punic war happen when the world population is is about 200 million or less and it only a war between 2 empires that admittedly big ,still not the entire world. At the time, it was even more impressive that they managed to have that much people to fight in a war.(please correct me if I'm wrong)
39:40
For even greater understanding of scale, that would be like the entire population of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, and Utah all fought in one battle.
Or, about half the population of Canada.
Another side effect from the system of having yearly consuls is that our year starts in January instead of March. This is from a bit later in Roman history, when they have expanded into Hispania (Spain and Portugal). Since Hispania was a proper overseas colony, it usually took the newly appointed consuls several months to organize an army in Italy, gather enough funds to pay for their transport to Hispania, bribe/threaten/convince enough local allies to join you etc. So it wasn't uncommon for the consuls to find that by the time they could start campaigning properly, the campaigning season was more than half over and their local allies would soon start leaving for the harvest, and they would have to start thinking about how to get back to Italy again.
So the Romans, ever pragmatic, solved this by simply starting the year two months earlier to give new consuls two extra months to get organized. This way they could usually set sail as soon as they were sure that winter was truly over, with plenty of time to find glory and plunder for the consuls.
Dude this uploaded and I clicked on it straight away the best reaction channel covering my favorite channel on yt lets go!
Exactly
Agreed. Best reaction channel on YT.
It's interesting to note that decades later Hannibal will use basically the same tactic as Carthage used in this naval battle. It's very possible that his tactics in Cannae wasn't completely original, especially since he does have a personal connection to the commanders of the Cartheginian fleet in this battle.
Just what I thought when I saw the video. Do you have any source or an essay that explores this idea? I don't mean this as an insult. I'm a history student and this idea sounds pretty plausible, so would be nice to know if someone wrote something about this.
I mean… a fainted retreat was one of the standard tactics on ancient land battles. The Cartgeginians simply tried to use it on sea
@@whitefrost5116 I believe either Invicta or Historia Civilis talked about it. Might have been another channel but I remember it being discussed by one of them.
@@meganoob12 Not really, at least not like this. Fainting retreat traditionally was using smaller detachments like forward or scouting cavalry that would draw the enemy into a prepared ambush by the bulk of the army. What Carthage did was to intentionally weaken the centre of the main formation itself. This was hardly ever done before because you absolutely never ever want your centre to be the weakest. You run the risk of your whole army being shattered because the line couldn't be maintained, which was what more or less happened in this naval battle. Hannibal later used this tactic successfully because he put his best elite troops in the centre knowing that they will not break the line, but hold it long enough for the reinforced flanks to envelope the Romans.
@@meganoob12 "Feigning retreat?"
You unsimplifying Oversimplified videos is easily one of my favourite formats on RUclips. I watched the whole thing only a few minutes ago, but happily do it again with your additional comments.
Just so you know, "Ba'al" means something like "Lord" and that's why they specified WHICH Ba'al the Carthaginians worshipped. The Carthaginian God in question is often associated with the god referred to Molech in the Bible, a child sacrifice God.
ancient warfare in a nutshell:
Step 1: War
Step 2: Battle
Step 3: Siege
Step 4: Pillage
Step 5: Rape
Step 6: Slaughter
Step 7: Enslave
Step 8: Repeat
Time to conquer world
Back in the good old days war was fun
Love that rape, pillage and enslave part. Awesome!!!
what do you mean ancient , see what USA did to middle east for oil , forced militarilzed jihadists and stuff
Mongols skipping the enslave step for the slaughter step a second time
The Roman Empire times are my favorite historical time frame to read/learn about and what turned me into a history nerd so I’m beyond thrilled Oversimplified did this one, and a fantastic reaction as always
It’s funny that you mentioned doing a reaction to that oversimplified early videos. Since you can easily how much of his style evolved over the years. It went from a goofy but matured tone to now were he seem to have finally lost his mind after making 20 of these video.
That was really good. Definitely an area of history that I don't know much about but should.
Same. Something I need to learn better
Found VTH through oversimplified reactions, stayed for the amazing history rabbit hole. Love it, Cheers~
Little would i know that at 28 years of age i would be so excited to watch a historian reacting to a history video :D
Me at 26 haha, definitely agree! :D
Why would age matter?
The Carthaginian people viewed service in the navy as the more honorable route and had a large number of Carthaginian people serving in the navies while the land army was mostly paid mercenaries apart from the commanders who were Carthaginian nobility.
Basically the opposite point of view from the Romans who granted much more privileges and rewards to their legionaries as opposed to their sailors. At this point the Romans also were mainly citizen farmers and not a full professional army hence why their manpower could seem endless in both the first and second Punic wars
4:05 I recognise that painting. It's by Francisco de Goya, one of the three top painters in Spanish History (together with Diego Velázquez and Pablo Picasso). He's famous for both depicting and making history: Goya was part of the Spanish liberal movement and supported them during the Spanish war of independence, in fact one of his most famous paintings (though most of his paintings are famous) is the one called "Fusilamientos del 3 de Mayo" (May 3rd Firing Squads), which depicts a French firing squad shooting at Spanish prisioners in reprisal after the 1808 popular uprising against the French. It is part of a series of paintings depicting that uprising, other famous painting about the uprising is "the charge of the Mamlucks" (featuring the Mamluck mercenaries used by the French charging against the people). Previously he had produced several paintings, including the "Majas", which are two paintings of the same woman: in one she is dressed and in the other she is nude. Another famous painting of Goya is "duelo con garrotes" (duel with staves), which depicts two men fighting, it's often used as a methafor for Spanish politics.
[Edit: The Defense of the Artillery Headquarters was made by another painter, Sorolla. My mistake.]
The tactics used at Ecoomus remind me a lot of Hannibal's, and later Scipio's, tactics later used in the 2nd Punic Wars.
Allow the center to feign retreat, then use your stronger wings to crush the Roman flank, encircling them. It's fascinating to see such a famous tactic being used so early.
Oversimplified + VTH is a crossover I always look forward to and I'm never dissapointed.
My brothers and I were so thrilled yesterday when he posted! We got together and watched both videos, pretty much back to back. Can’t wait to see what you’ve got to add!
One thing that often goes overlooked with Oversimplified's videos is the smoothness with which he transitions into sponsorship ad reads
I minored in classics and took classes on Rome and warfare, so I am familiar with the Punic Wars.
•The traditional date for the founding of Rome is April 21, 753 BC. The Romans date events using the phrase ab urbe conditas, meaning "from the founding of the city."
•Something not mentioned in the video was that the Romans also considered Aeneas a founder. Part of the Aeneid tells of Aeneas' time in Carthage following the Sack of Troy and of his affair with Queen Dido. When the Trojans left, she burned all Aeneas' stuff and then threw herself into the fires, shouting a curse that Aeneas and his descendants would never know peace with Carthage. This is used as foreshadowing of the Punic Wars, as the Romans claim to be descendants of the Trojans. With Julius Caesar, he claimed to be descended from both Venus (the mother of Aeneas) and Mars (the father of Romulus and Remus), thus the son of the loving mother and avenging father.
•The kidnapping is known as "the Rape of the Sabine Women." Also, the first Romans were largely outlaws or men who had been banished from other cities. Think of Rome as Ancient Australia.
•In the Roman Republic, there was the Senate, which was exclusively made up of Patricians (the aristocrats), and there was also the Plebeian Assembly/Council, which was exclusively made up of Plebians a.k.a. Plebs (the commoners) and could pass laws as equally binding to all Roman citizens as those passed by the Senate.
•The Romans fancied themselves as the great assimilators, being able to incorporate and assimilate other peoples into their civilization.
•"Tolkien, why didn't the Fellowship fly to Mordor on the Great Eagles or use the Eagles more?" "Dear reader, shut up!"
•To keep track, Scipio Asina is the great uncle of Scipio Africanus, who will play a major role in the Second Punic War.
•As much as 1/3 of Roman society were slaves. That's the Ancient World.
The Aeneid was written 3 centuries after the punic wars. And unlike the Illiad is was not some ancient oral tradition written down. Virgil took a minor character from the Illiad, and used him to write a mythology explaining some other roman founding myths and history. There might have been some vague idea that he was related with the history of Rome, but nothing concrete.
@@slome815 My main point with the Aeneid was the idea of its foreshadowing the Punic Wars.
After this I can’t wait to see the Persian wars oversimplified, specially the second one with the battle of Salamis I love this ancient naval battles
When he says "I dont know much" consider it as knowing more than the average History teacher
Oversimplified released a video about the Second Punic War! I'm looking forward to hearing your takes on it.
One of my favorite things about this channel is when you go back over a Oversimplified video and it forces me to re-watch the video and I realize I missed so much information I always have to watch both
Us Dutchies have a saying which goes as: ' Naar de Filistijnen gaan' (Going to the Philistines) which we use when stuff is getting demolished and unfixable.
Example: 'Door de rellen ging alles naar de Filistijnen' - "Because of the riots everything went to the Philistines" (Because of the riots everything was destroyed).
I thought that would be something interesting to share.
Hey Chris! I've been watching you for so long now, from the irl vlogs to the google map challenges. I love your content and you have helped me pass my History class. Big ups.
Hi, Chris, you have the best reaction to this, its brilliant. I know little of Roman History so I'm learning a lot as well. Looking forward to part two.
You probably don't need to know this but part three of Eleanor of Aquitaine is now available as well.
Thanks for all your hard work.
Perhaps after this series you could watch Extra History's Brothers Gracchi. It's a great series that fits in with the theme and sheds light in a fascinating period in roman history.
"You can steal blueprints but you cant steal tactics"
-*Finds cigar on the floor*
If you're referring to Lee's orders for the Antietam Campaign, that's strategy, not tactics.
@VloggingThroughHistory Ahhh, I see
Thank you for the correction! And correct me if im wrong, or if more detail helps understand it better, but strategy would be the goal, like going for a siege. The tactics would be the steps to get there, like cutting off supply lines. Am I right on my assessment of the difference?
Tactics would be what happens in an individual battlefield. Strategy would be the entire campaign, logistics, movement of armies, etc.
It's been said that the Soviets had copies of US doctrine all during the Cold War, but the US got around it by not following their own doctrine.
It's funny how he says he doesn't know much about this time of history but he actually knows so much. Clever guy!
Seeing a history teacher watching a historic video like these is like that one friend that could know the entire movie without even seeing the movie itself
I've been here since your very first oversimplified video on the civil war and I've watched every video since! Totally amazing so see your channel grow!
Man, I just love your even handed comment and your reactions are as fair as priceless.
I just watched the original Oversimplified video, but I knew that I would watch your reaction just after, and it was worth every minutes of re-watching.
30:52
It's kinda like Japan. They didn't have their own writing system, so they learned it from the Chinese. The Chinese writing system couldn't fit well in the Japanese language, they modified it, creating additional 2 writing systems in the process.
When they united the Japanese archipelago, they didn't have the experience of governing huge territory, so they learned it also from the Chinese, copied their government system (Taika reform), and again, to make it fit to the Japanese culture, they modified it, notably they removed the Mandate of Heaven concept to ensure that the Emperor of Japan will never be abolished by anybody (which we can see today as a successful plan). Taika reform also included learning the Chinese culture, even as specific as learning how the Chinese eat their food.
Jump a little bit far to the future, when the Japanese saw that the Chinese wasn't the strongest in the area anymore because of the British, they tried to reform the country, and learn from the Western powers in the process (Meiji restoration), which made them to be the very first Asian nation to be a modern developed country.
Yep! Man I'd like to see more on the history of Japan. Having been to some cities there I find it amazing how well they keep old castles and temples. And a lot of these are wooden structures, that have to be restored many times during the centuries. A lot of the castles and temples we went by were meticulously repaired and kept in an almost flawless state. Which is a lot of work for large wooden structures like Nara castle. I'd also want to know specifically about the feudal section of Japanese history. I have seen television dramas like Fuurin Kazan but of course that's not a documentary.
I am just as much obsessed with your oversimplified reaction videos as i am of Oversimplifieds videos themselves.
Love Oversimplified videos and your reactions to them. I get to enjoy two great content creators.
Oversimplified: *Uploads*
Vlogging through History: "I sense a disturbance in the force"
Accurate.
We need more oversimplified but the wait is always worth it and I enjoy these reactions videos
this has gotta be my favorite war idk its so interesting to see how they came up with these ideas to try and win in the war my favorite part is where they built the Corvus
Much love from the marine corps
Semper Fi and thank you for your service!
Fun Fact:
We all know about the story of the Trojan War, but did you know what happened to the people who survived the war?, When the Greeks conquered the city of Troy, a group of survivors managed to escape, lead by a man named Aeneas. According to legend, Aeneas and his people set out to find a new home for themselves. They attempted to settle in places around the Mediterranean but many times, were forced to leave, even Hera managed to convince Zeus to destroy the Trojan fleet out of anger, they roamed around until they manage to settle on the Italian peninsula. Some time later, a pair of twins were born in the community, and their names were Romulus and Remus. Yup, the founders of Rome were born from the survivors of Troy
Not a fact, it's simply a Mythos made by the Romans, some parts like the founding of alba longa could be true, but it's still just a popular Roman Mythos,
And yes, most Romans believed it
Thats from Virgil's Aeneid. It's a work commissioned by Augustus to basically explain some Roman myths and history, as well as to depict his dynasty as descending from the founders of Rome. There might have been some earlier vague association with Rome's founding, but nothing concrete.
Most likely Virgil took a minor character from the Illiad and made up a founding story for Rome that also does things like explain the Rome-carthage rivalry etc.
Also important to note, the roman legions during this time weren't yet your typical standing roman army yet, that only came about after 107BC with the Marian reforms. The roman soldiers during this period were still levies and needed to own property. Depending on your class, age and wealth, you'd either be a velite (poorer citizens around the age of 16-19), the hastati (young men in their early 20s), principes (late 20s) and last the triarii (older veterans, still levy of course). Highly recommend a video made by Kings and Generals called army tactics about rome if you wanna learn more about this time period and army.
I love how your channel makes me review the things I learned just today realy helps with the long term memory
26:06 Is my favorite joke in the entire orgiginal video. One of the Romans is trying to train a fish to carry a chariot by whipping it.
41:09 we got a lot of info about the first and second punic wars from polybius, a Greek hostage (not as bad for him as it sounds) in Rome. He set out to explain how Rome conquered the known world in "53 years". He's actually a pretty solid historian and we even have fragments of his first hand account of the destruction of Carthage in the 3rd punic war. Worth noting though, book 5 (the last whole book from polybius) ends after cannae. The fragments of book 6 is instrumental to the founding of the US though, which I recommend a read. It is worth noting though that we do get a lot of second hand polybius from livy (an extreme pro Roman historian) for the second punic war as well.
Don't know anything about this time in history. I watched the Oversimplified videos yesterday and thought to myself, I need VTH's commentary to help me make sense of this. Thank you!
Love your videos and commentary. Keep the videos coming!
I have a suggestion for future content. Not sure if its your area of interest but the Battles BC series was great commentary and some silly visuals inspired by the movie 300. They have entire episodes on youtube, and they're 45 minutes or so each. Would be interested to see your takes, and to see them have new life breathed into them!
Comments are all gone, interesting. I'm glad to see these videos come back. It's good to see Oversimplifed doing the right thing and reigning in AdRev from acting wildly on their behalf.
Cool fact that you could even think about doing a video on is the invention of the tank, you mention it here as something the British invented to break the stalemate on the Western front and it's a complicated and fascinating story that actually starts with an Australian. Great video by the way!
I watched those two videos when they came out yesterday and easily two of the best videos they've ever made.
Isn’t it amazing to see the parallels between ww1 / ww2 and the Punic wars.. just highlights that history can be full of the same type of people doing the same type of things, just the clothes and technology change.
I love the way Blue from OSP put it. Romulus' murder of Remus, though it probably didn't happen the way it does in the story, is a very apocryphal narrative for Rome to tell about its own origins as it would be their original sin that they'd be doomed to repeat again, and again, and again.
This was great! Would love to see you reacting to Extra History's videos on the second Punic Wars
One of the weapons that romans used very effectively was the pila (javelin). Each legionnare carry 2 pila. The tip is made with hardened steel that can pierce even the toughest bronze. But the shaft is made of soften metal. Which means when the pila struck, It bend. Making it unusable for the enemy to throwback. If it struck a shield it made it unusable. Making the enemy abandon his shield. It shows why romans was so effective in an open battle.
Coining the term "barbaric" for pretty much everybody else (and writing all the history books) was probably the greatest PR move in history.
To this day, we just buy the Roman definition of who was "civilised" and who not.. I think Oversimplified does a good job showing that the romans were doing the same as everybody else. Just better.
Barbaric in Latin was actually borrowed from the Greeks, for non Greek speakers who sounded like "BAR BAR" to them.
Fun fact: Carthaginian designers numbered the parts and inscribed the instructions on how to put together their latest warships and weapons, so that it would be easy for the equipment to be assembled anywhere in the empire. This was how the Romans were easily able to copy the Carthaginian warships.
You know you're good when successful RUclips channels have built on reacting to your channel's content.
Just finished watching part 1 on oversimplified's side and was asking to myself i wonder if vth has more input thank you for everything you do you inspire me to want to got to college maybe to he a historian myself! Much love bro
I love Oversimplifieds videos. Like you said, they make history entertaining. I wish we had such as this when I was in school. I think would've actually taken a bigger interest in history if I could watch such as this instead of doing just enough to get a C and pass. I didn't get into history until my 30s. As always, thank you for the commentary.
The problem I find in these videos is that they place modern borders on ancient states. For example, Carthage's borders in the video are not true, Carthage did not formally control the areas that the map and the Carthaginian Empire was mostly an informal thing. Carthage was a hegemony but that did not mean it had physical control of most areas, it mostly did it through treaties such as tribute and client states.
That sounds similar to Rome and their Latin allies. This was before the Social war.
i was so happy when i saw this. roman, cartage, ancient greek history is my most very favorite. i dont wanna spoil, but the ending has me so hyped, i hope it comes out fast, but whenever it is, it will be my fav, Napoleon and a certain other general in the next punic war are two of my favorite historical generals and imo the best of their era. they just made a few mistakes or just couldnt get enough help. love the content.
Lets go. The Punic wars videos are back!
Fun fact to go with what both you and the video mentioned how Rome and Carthage came from very different places arrived at very similar governments. The big difference that shows the different cultures would be Consuls vs Sufetes. The Consuls were two generals of equal power ruling together, but the Sufetes had no military power (super rare for the highest authority in an ancient Empire) and where instead two ruling "high judges" that held sway over most executive and judiciary powers. This really shows that while similar form of government (two rulers sharing power and a senate) the two cultures idea of what were the important powers that needed to be preserved were complete opposite. Also, Carthage had the Council of 104 which was a tribunal of judges with sweeping powers. The council of the 104 probably came from the Phoenician Adirim, a council of merchants and business owners that advised the king. The original idea being to put a check on government powers to protect the citizens, remember Carthage needs those citizens to sail and make them lots of money so they treat them a lot different than many other big powers of the time. While that sound great the council is pretty Tyrannical by now and is just the richest and most influential families doing whatever they want and are the source of the harsh punishments on military personnel. By both Roman and Greek (Polybius and Aristotle) account by the first Punic war the council did little more than punish Carthaginian officers for doing their job and where a huge problem for Hamilcar that he basically used his three daughters for political influence (not uncommon) formed the Bacrid faction to try and dominate public opinion and keep them out of his way in preparing to fight the Romans.
Little snippet, the word "Ba'al" just means "Lord". In the Western Semitic religion, there was also a Ba'alat, which means lady. Additional snippet, the former was equated by the Egyptians with Seth (who didn't have his negative associations yet), and the latter to Hathor
When I was in the US Army (specifically basic training), we regularly had to use those 'communal toilets' (no sponge fortunately). But there was a bench on each side of a rectangular room, and 5-ish holes in each of those benches where everyone pooped and peed at the same time. At first it was super awkward, but eventually it was like normal. We called the guy next to us our 'butt buddy' haha
Liberty’s in Solon, Maple Heights, Brunswick, Parma Heights, Vermillion, ohmmm
If you know you know
Hey, maybe you can react to the extra history series on the second punic war after this. Not only is it a logical follow up to the first punic war, it's also interesting on a meta level because it is the very first extra history ever made
I’ve reached a point where I can’t watch these type of videos without your commentary
Glad you uploaded, wanted to see your insight on the largest naval battle in history.
41:45 This encirclement seems to be a staple of Carthagian tactics. You see something similar in the Second Punic War with Hannibal. Hannibal used a V formation to encircle the Roman squares, boxing them in, and his calvary fought around to reach the Roman rear. It was the bloodiest battle of the Second Punic War with the Roman army being totally annihilated.
"OverSimplified posted, Christmas came early."
-Me, September 2nd, 2022.
OverSimplified, Punic Wars
26:10 I was watching the original video with my 10-year-old cousin and he said, "Oh, like when the Fire Nation copied Sokka's air balloon." Never been so proud of the kid.
that early battle at Agrigentum is the definition of a Pyrrhic Victory.
This is like sparta vs Athens
I liked the intro because it was fun but also challenged the idealized Idea we have of civilized Rome. That back than they had a way different value sytem we have and sometimes people forget that or maybe even never thought about that.
Great stuff.
4:05 Obi wan after killing grievous: so uncivilized
8:17 This is a mistake: Ba’al isn’t a god on its own, it’s a title which means “Lord” in north-west semitic languages. So multiple different Gods were giving the title of Ba’al, like Ba’al Moloch, Ba’al Hadad or in this case Ba’al Hammon. This one isn’t the same as the one described in the old testament, which is Ba’al Berith.
Fun fact; the Israelites actually worshiped Ba’al Berith along with Asherah and Yahweh (the God of the old testament) before becoming a monotheistic religion (around 600-500 BCE).
4:34 theory is they had wooden stalls. But wood just doesn't survive 2300 years ...
It's funny how Oversimplified released this just as I finished listening to Ancient Rome by Thomas R Martin on Audible!
21:42 “an army marchs on its stomach, or so the old saying goes” Just had to get the aoe 2 quote in there.
you know he's consistent when he uploads a reaction to a video posted a day ago. Gotta love it. I'm not even gonna lie, I was right in the middle of recording myself playing The Unforgiven and then this pops up, so I delete my unsaved video to hop here lmao.
And here I am a year later after watching Oversimplified’s 2nd Punic War videos… thanks algorithm….
Best dropped video ever: VTH releasing the remade WW1 Oversimplified reaction the same hour or two that the new video was released
The Punic War episodes are incredible. Very interesting and super funny.
A lot of the scenes had me rolling. 😂
Hallelujah! Right after I just watched the original video! You and Oversimplied videos synergize so well!
“I don’t know much about the time”
*ten seconds later*
“So let’s set the stage here” 😂
Oversimplified uploading is a colossal event
A brother killing another brother is a common trope among the different Indo-European culture's origin myths, they're usually twins