Did the ancient Romans celebrate birthdays?

[@JanHoos]

great video! thanks ^_^ I’ve subbed, and ofcourse happy birthday!

[@nena5518]

Happy birthday! I'm watching this a year ster release so it should be relevant to wish you well. I hope you will pick up making videos again.

[@faryafaraji]

Happy belated birthday man! Thanks for the info on the subject; we usually don't hear much about the everyday aspect of Ancient Roman life. The only pop culture reference to the subject I remember was from HBO's Rome, where a character mentions a birthday cake. Given the series' general accuracy when it came to the culture of Rome itsef, I took for granted it must be accurate, though I'm not 100% certain about that

[@adbchistory]

Thanks mate, I appreciate it! I don't suppose you remember which episode that mention was in?

[@kaykhosrow3263]

it is lovely to see you here Farya!

[@Khiliarkhos]

Great video! One thing of note, though, is that the Greeks (of the Archaic and Classical periods) very do appear to have celebrated birthdays. There are plenty of of words in Ancient Greek that denote this: γενέθλιος (as an adjective) denoted one's birthday, γενέθλια were birthday offerings to the gods, γενεθλιάζω was to celebrate a birthday, and γενέθλια θύ̄ειν meant to 'hold a birthday sacrifice', among the plenty other terms. Much of the extant evidence of these terms remains only in physical (and possibly post Classical) records - papyri and lithography iirc - but there are a few that fit the bill. Aiskhulos' 'Eumenidēs' contains the line "δίδωσι . . γενέθλιον δόσιν Φοίβῳ" (7.7-8), which translates roughly to "which she gave as a birthday gift to Phoibos". In his Alcibiades, Plato (admittedly speaking on Asian customs, but this presumably entails Greeks as well), writes "εἶτα . . . βασιλέως γενέθλια πᾶσα . . . Ἀσία", "then, on this day every other year the whole of Asia celebrates the king's birthday by sacrificing and feasting" (1.121c). In Diogenes Laertius' Life of Epicurus, he says "καὶ . . . ἄγεσθαι γενέθλιον . . . Γαμηλιῶνος", translated as "and for the customary celebration of my birthday on the tenth day of Gamelion in each year . . ." (10.18) and "συντελείτωσαν . . . ἀδελφῶν . . . Ποσειδεῶνος . . . Μεταγειτνιῶνος . . .", "Let them also join in celebrating the day in Poseideon which commemorates my brothers, and likewise the day in Metageitnion which commemorates Polyaenus, as I have done hitherto" (10.18). Note, ofc, that Gamelion, Poseideon, and Metageitnion are names of months. Obviously our sources for Greek birthdays are far less numerous, but there is certainly enough evidence to suggest that they did celebrate them - most likely in a way similar to what you describe in your video. Otherwise, as I said, great video. I enjoyed :)

[@adbchistory]

Thanks for the comment! When I said that the Greeks didn't celebrate birthdays, I meant that they didn't celebrate them for mortals or individuals in their community - there were certainly birthday celebrations for divine figures, but I felt that this was too much to cover in this video. Birthdays for normal individuals did actually develop in Greek culture through the Hellenistic period, starting through birthdays for the cults of divine kings (who became divine upon death and were thus in the middle between divine and mortal), and gradually transmitting to rulers who were still alive.

[@nomanzafar4938]

Yes its 11 Pm, the absolute right time to take a history lesson