Did the Ancient Romans Believe in Dragons?

[@DreadAnon]

I can't believe Romaboo committed suicide by shooting two comically small arrows into the back of his own head

[@AdventuringMind]

:D

[@bigalmou2261]

Pliny the Elder be like "I dont like em putting tonics in the water that turn the freakin dragons gay!"

[@TetsuShima]

Let's be honest, guys. If Julius Caesar had found a dragon during his journeys, he only would have needed 5 minutes to turn it into his most deadly weapon

[@t.wcharles2171]

Caesar silver tongue smooth talks a big lizard.

[@mrAMMW]

Caesar would have enlisted it as an engineer and have it haul boulders for his triple layer stone wall that he improvised mid battle

[@holden4007]

And then probably tried to copulate with the dragons spouse

[@holloww_dwella]

Problem?

[@1224chrisng]

​@@holden4007 nah, knowing Caeser, he'd be the spouse

[@taherbertolinirodrigues9104]

The implication that Constantine V was cracked at dark souls is hilarious

[@TetsuShima]

Another rather interesting Roman attitude towards mythological creatures was the one they had towards the immortality that the legendary Phoenix bird supposedly brought. In fact, it is said that Elagabalus ordered the search for said bird to devour it and obtain its immortality. This search ended with servants offering the Emperor a cooked bird that they believed was the legendary Phoenix. After eating it, Elagabalus was not sure if he had achieved immortality, so the Praetorians decided to help him verify it...

[@Comrade_Connie]

"hmm how do I know if that would actually grant me immortality?" "maybe we could help with that" *stabby stabby*

[@alexandercolefield9523]

*she

[@thaneofwhiterun3562]

​@@alexandercolefield9523 uh oh

[@t.wcharles2171]

@@alexandercolefield9523 *it.

[@Fridelain]

Wild how his own grandma had him killed

[@Alex_vdR]

I just love those early modern depictions of elephants, which are accurate enough that you know the artist knew someone who saw an actual elephant once, but which are just off in the weirdest little details like the shape of the ears, or the toes

[@gurigura4457]

Pliny truly was the Game Theory of his day.

[@shinsenshogun900]

This is not just a theory but a Rome Theory! PlinyPatricius out!

[@legateelizabeth]

My man got got by Big Gnome. RIP, you were one of the real ones. Seriously though this topic is super fascinating. Like, the fact that their histories just... casually incorporate dragons and other mythical beasts is kind of insane, and really demonstrates just how supernatural people accepted the world was back then. You get bits and pieces of that today, like folks in Ireland who know the fae is real in the same way they know gravity is, it's just a fact to them, but an entire legion just fighting a dragon mid-war is next level. Also that they apparently had 'classic tactics' for fighting them, like putting on spiked armour, which is fantasy as all hell. It's kinda cool that we've been telling these same stories for nearly 3000 years, if not longer. I wonder why the water motif is so common? Maybe it's just that that's the only reason you'd ever engage with a dragon willingly. That account of dragons from Arabia sounds an awful lot like a cobra though - if you see a big snake and someone was describing their 'wings', fleshy like a bats, that came out across their head and body? Yeah, that description roughly fits what he means. A little bit like how Marco Polo describes rhinos but thinks they're unicorns.

[@RomabooRamblings]

The Dragon of Chaos guarding the water from the Great Lobster is an ancient archetype, which is like... maaan... Well yeah, that's bloody well right!

[@Pan_Z]

It seems like a cursory acceptance of the supernatural to us, but from their perspective it hardly seems irrational. An elephant from Africa is brought into Rome one day. It's a fantastical creature unlike anything you've seen prior. Someone tells you there's also large serpent creatures in Africa. You're likely inclined to believe the story.

[@bottomtext]

@@Pan_Z and you wouldn't be wrong either, since crocodiles exist

[@genovayork2468]

​@@RomabooRamblingsTake my like, now!

[@伊斯塔與艾蕾修卡都是]

If it was Monsterverse,then the Roman legions in Monsterverse Timeline might truly fought a dragon.

[@TetsuShima]

I believe that the Romans actually met komodo dragons through asian trade routes. In fact, in the novel "I, Claudius", Tiberius has a komodo dragon as his pet, which dies eaten by insects during a cancelled trip of the Emperor to Rome, shortly before Tiberius is assassinated by Caligula

[@chakravartin3356]

That's badass. Such a waste tho, caligula can use that dragon to please himself as we know he is that kind of party guy

[@egillskallagrimson5879]

Salt water crocs are also candidates for many dragon legends, and other crocs I guess like nile crocs, but somewhere I read something of salt crocs getting into the Egean and sparkling legends till the medieval times. Actually that would explain why they are guarding water sources.

[@susanmenegus5543]

I agree.

[@JohnMegaton2062]

But the Romans had seen crocodiles before. Those weren't unique or rare in their travels to Africa. They also knew the difference in serpents and lizards. They were not as ignorant as we might think. They were very intelligent. They would have described it as a crocodile if it looked like one. They didn't.

[@histguy101]

Prior to the 19th century, dragons could mean any large reptile or serpant, flying or walking, slithering, whatever. We're way more specific nowadays in everything Edit: Sorry, you're on point as usual. Its the same with unicorns. What we call unicorns today is totally different from what people referred to as unicorns before the 20th century, like the single horned Rhino is still called unicorn officially, but nobody knows this. When ancient and medieval people mention unicorn, they're not talking about magical horses, but very real normal animals that just have a single horn somewhere on their head, of which theres a few different species.

[@theotheagendashill818]

"The Hellenic tradition obviously forms the basis of the classical belief in serpentine monsters" The Greek legends about dragons come from the proto-Indo-European and Middle Eastern mythology. The belief in giant serpents associated with water occurs all around the world and may by tens of thousands of years old

[@terilien6124]

Whats cool is that the septuagint renders "seraph" as "drakon".

[@knightforlorn6731]

Kirk Konstantin, Dragon slayer! Got a ring to it

[@zachary8491]

Usefull part : 0:01 to 0:03. All rest is filling in.

[@shinsenshogun900]

Romans bearing dragon & serpent legends from the Greeks who may have been bearing legends from the Phoenicians… All dragons must have leading desires to vanquish Rome. Junius Romulus Rufus Tolcius sadly could not publish his findings on the existence of the Gnomus that reside in the caverns of forests and hidden enclosed valleys found in the Middle Roman Empire

[@aokiaoki4238]

Phoenicians have nothing to do with this?

[@rursus8354]

They are still around, but they have shrinked considerably. Wikipedia (Draco (lizard)): *_Draco_* is a genus of agamid lizards that are also known as *flying lizards, flying dragons* or *gliding lizards.* These lizards are capable of gliding flight via membranes that may be extended to create wings (patagia), formed by an enlarged set of ribs. They are arboreal insectivores.

[@dleetr]

I've seen a green tree snake take a rainbow lorikeet on the wing. And I've seen a python which extended from one side of a small creek bed, to the other. I've never seen such a large snake before or since. It's diet must have primarily been rock wallabys given the location.

[@EasternRomanHistory]

I really enjoyed this video. It is surprising how common the dragon motif is in European art and culture. Regarding Constantine V, I believe that the dragon-slaying happens in AD758 when the aqueduct is repaired, long after the civil-war in 741-743. Although, I don't know where the story falls in the Neapolitan source.

[@RomabooRamblings]

Yeah, in the Neapolitan source it's right before the war with Artabasdos.

[@EasternRomanHistory]

@@RomabooRamblings Ah I see.

[@bofinn7613]

The pictures used are great and the humour is on point. Loving this channel for a long time and just keeps getting better and better, well done

[@platypipope328]

Another theory for the encounter in the punic war is it may have been a misidentified whale that the soldiers found beached or fought at sea before sending the skin to rome

[@JohnMegaton2062]

There are a lot of details provided in multiple accounts that do not sound at all like a beached whale.

[@hdhstarwars2723]

the dragons blood poisoning the air reminds me of the dragon Fafnir from the saga of the Volsungs.

[@davidbrewer9030]

I read somewhere that the verb drakein in Greek means something like "to stare". Like the belief that a snake will hypnotize its prey with a stare. Or a basilisk will turn its victim to stone with a stare.

[@rudolfnechvile5023]

I know you explicitly state that to the Romans, dragons were more serpentine, but could the reptile guarding access to water perhaps reference a crocodile? I know the ancient Egyptians worshipped them and the Greeks were likely familiar, but during the Punic Wars most of the men serving have probably never even been outside of Italy, so a large crocodile would definitely be a monster to them. Then again, crocodiles aren't found in North Africa afaik, but perhaps a released/escaped pet that got really large. It would explain the once-off encounter too...

[@agentlizard1791]

It could perhaps be possible that crocodiles were once more widespread in the past than currently.

[@kinanshmahell8065]

​@@agentlizard1791the Roman's and Greeks were aware of crocodiles

[@JohnMegaton2062]

@@kinanshmahell8065Exactly. I think many people attribute a bit too much ignorance to these great people. They were incredibly intelligent and probably knew more about animals by experience with them in the wild than we do today. This creature was something that shocked them, the same people who fought battles against warriors riding elephants.

[@TheVampirelass]

Adrienne Mayor's fantastic book The First Fossil Hunters is a really great for anyone interested in the topic of mythological creatures in the ancient world. It totally changed how I think about myth, ancient history, and paleontology.

[@nevadakirin1923]

Made me laugh when I literally got the answer as soon as the video started

[@ikengaspirit3063]

Libya having big flightless dragons is interesting because most Africa Dragons are basically that, so much so they're basically the same as categories of hostile serpents which also exist there.

[@SoldadoCatolico]

He fell into the gnome rabbit hole, it's over.

[@apalsnerg]

Of course dragons aren't real. It's just a coincidence that basically every single culture on the planet developed the concept of flying scaled/feathered beasts with dangerous breaths completely independentenly.

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

Where they skeletons at

[@JohnMegaton2062]

💯 This cannot be coincidence. How many species go extinct? The dodo bird and Tasmanian tiger are just a couple in the last 100 years. Now how many species have gone extinct or have become incredibly rare over the last 2200 years?

[@jaehaerysiitargaryen8769]

Senators of Valyria . I’ll repeat myself « Ghis must be destroyed »

[@shinsenshogun900]

Ghiscar morgulis

[@paulusillyriusiudathaddaio2530]

Ghis delenda est!

[@x0lopossum]

1:46 baseline roman knowledge of dragons 2:30 Plenty the Elder North African dragons vs elephants hypothesis. 8:03 The Eastern part of Rome had a lot of Snake cults. 11:11 Romans and their God damn endless civil wars 🤦

[@ahhbeejams4338]

The massive dragons and snakes don't exist anymore because the Romans killed them all, duh.

[@JohnMegaton2062]

Maybe. Or, maybe we haven't documented them in nature yet. There are still incredibly remote places on earth human beings haven't set foot. We've only explored 10% of the oceans too. We have no idea what's out there in the wilderness or depths.

[@Champion_14]

Came to comment about the bagradas dragon, good work man :D

[@TrajGreekFire]

the Constantine dragon was likely a mediterrean monk seal

[@MegaTang1234]

I would pay for a action set peice where a roman (or any ancient army really) fights a dragon. It would be a lovely change of pace to have an organized army take down the deadly beast instead of a lone knight.

[@athanaricwilhelmsson]

I understand the difficulties of such a hypothesis but "humongous Reptilian monsters with noxious breath"? We have these, they are called Komodo dragons. Obviously their location in a relatively isolated area of Asia makes it difficult for them to be found much further, but then again there used to be lions in Greece as late as the bronze age and, more famously, elephants in north Africa up to Roman times. I cannot speak to the likelihood of it, but when you have 15 ancient historians talking about the same beast, i doubt they were all pranksters, liars, or gullible idiots.

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

Agreed, it was likely Komodos.

[@JohnMegaton2062]

I think we ought to assume Romans were very intelligent and clearly knew the difference in a creature like a Komodo dragon or crocodile and whatever this creature was. They were not Amazonian tribes practicing cannibalism. These were educated and experienced human beings.

[@AdventuringMind]

Being giant romaboo, the thought of playing table top sword and sandal game based on Roman and Greek monsters sounds really cool.

[@Uzair_Of_Babylon465]

Fantastic video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁👍👏👏

[@hi._.golgo137]

Nice timing, l3me get my rice with tuna and coffee

[@egillskallagrimson5879]

Dang dude now I want to know about those gnomes

[@jonathanUnderscore]

No wonder they liked Jupiter so much, they really had to take advantage of the dragons' weakness to lightning

[@伊斯塔與艾蕾修卡都是]

The myths and legends of gods slaying serpentine monsters or primordial deities were quite widespread and many “Dragon slaying deities” are more or less related to thunder and lightning. Such as Zeus,Baal Hadad,Indra,etc.

[@bandav_lohengrin]

Why yes, I believe the Romans fought a 50 meter dragon, how could you tell? (Chad face)

[@compatriot852]

Just for anybody thinking, Romans wouldn't see a modern ship/plane as a "dragon" like Indiana Jones 5 inaccurately shown

[@pneumonoultramicroscopicsi4065]

Maybe dragons actually existed and went extinct and when we found their remains we misidentified them as dinosaurs or something idk

[@digenesakritas]

Have you heard of St.George🏇🆚🐉?

[@mysteryjunkie9808]

Based and Gnomepilled

[@homerpimpson9855]

What do you think so-called 'dinosaur' bones are?

[@roundninja]

This video is hilarious. If I didn't look up a few of these sources for myself I'd think the entire thing was made up as a joke

[@scipi_o]

constantine v need his own video game

[@caracallaavg]

Akshually, science says dragons aren't real. Please ignore all the historical accounts

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

I've seen plenty of historical accounts about magic, multiple gods creating the universe instead of just one and more wild stuff, but that don't necessarily make it true. I want to believe, but then where are their bones? We got Dino and mammoth bones, far older thsn 2000 years. Yet we ain't got dragon bones from 2000 to 1000 years ago. We got tons of historical records on vampires.

[@JohnMegaton2062]

Science isn't a person or a court of law that decides arguments. Science is merely a process of learning through observation. What we know changes constantly. There are often incorrect observations made by biased, mistaken, uninformed, presumptuous, dishonest, or afraid humans. In short, humans are wrong a lot.

[@JohnMegaton2062]

@@ManiacMayhem7256do you have Napoleon's skeleton? Ghenghis Khan's? Julius Caesar's? Just curious.

[@colin3424]

TELL US ABOUT THE GNOMES

[@rursus8354]

Funny ending! 🤣🤣

[@Nixon085]

Oldest writing say the earth was protected by the dragon because of the evil that took place between Zeus and offspring

[@aokiaoki4238]

It cames from Ancient Greece. Dragon means guard

[@miltonbrand6603]

Dragon in the sea!Why is that so?

[@conorhenderson8537]

Roman Smaug.

[@LuciusAugustusRomanusInvictus]

of course we did!

[@ChibiFemto]

Um Gnomio

[@billcipherproductions1789]

Fun Fact: If dragons did live to see human civilization, they would’ve been extinct.

[@TaeSunWoo]

Targaryen/Valyrian type moment

[@dubuyajay9964]

No gnome vid. :(

[@stgibbs86]

The fact that many today dont want to acknowledge is that a few types of dinosaurs survived into the ancient era thru very small populations. These were what created the idea of dragons.

[@عليياسر-ذ5ب]

No, but I came close

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

It ain't a fact of you don't have a shred of evidence to back it up

[@عليياسر-ذ5ب]

@@ManiacMayhem7256 The Romans, Huns, Chinese, Persians, Scythians, Babylonians, Aswar, Central Asia, Turks, and Japan all believed in the existence of dragons.

[@ManiacMayhem7256]

@@عليياسر-ذ5ب Coincidentally, the larger historical range of crocodiles, large snakes and even komodo dragons encompassed those areas. And we all got bones of those today as well as living specimens

[@stgibbs86]

@@ManiacMayhem7256 There is actually quite a bit of evidence that small populations of dinosaurs survived and lived along with humans. For instance there are still sighting of small long neck dinos among indigenous ppls in the congo to this day, ppl who have never heard of dinosaurs. And throughout history we have plenty of artwork of supposed dragons who just happen to look exactly like dinosaurs. Do your research before you make claims about there not being any evidence.