Did the Romans have Ethnic Stereotypes?

This edition of the Toldinstone Q & A answers four more of your questions about the Greeks and Romans. If you have questions you'd like to ask, or want more detail about some aspect of my answers, please don't hesitate to let me know in the comments!
Check out my other channels ‪@toldinstone‬ and ‪@scenicroutestothepast‬
Chapters:
0:00 How much did the average Roman know about Parthia?
3:31 What did the Romans know about the city of Babylon?
5:33 What were the most stable periods in Roman history?
9:24 Did the Romans have ethnic stereotypes?

[@billfrehe6620]

Egyptians: "Morbidly religious." Some things never change. I'd argue this stereotype is somewhat true for the past 5,000 years.

[@ThatGameGuyy]

How affectionate were roman parents? With such high child mortality rates I'd probably just number them.

[@QuantumHistorian]

They sometimes did number them! Hence we have people named Sextus and the like. More common with girls than boys, but not exclusively so. But some parents were very affectionate, Servius Sulpicius wrote the following letter to Marcus Tullius Cicero after the death of the laters daughter Tullia (she died as an adult during the birth of her 2nd son): _When I received the news of your daughter Tullia's death, I was indeed as much grieved and distressed as I was bound to be, and looked upon it as a calamity in which I shared. For, if I had been at home, I should not have failed to be at your side, and should have made my sorrow plain to you face to face. That kind of consolation involves much distress and pain, because the relations and friends, whose part it is to offer it, are themselves overcome by an equal sorrow. They cannot attempt it without many tears, so that they seem to require consolation themselves rather than to be able to afford it to others..._ And the reply: _Yes, indeed, my dear Servius, I would have wished - as you say - that you had been by my side at the time of my grievous loss. How much help your presence might have given me, both by consolation and by your taking an almost equal share in my sorrow, I can easily gather from the fact that after reading your letter I experienced a great feeling of relief. For not only was what you wrote calculated to soothe a mourner, but in offering me consolation you manifested no slight sorrow of heart yourself...._

[@LuukvdHoogen]

I believe it was also a custom to have the child 'enter the family' only after the first year, and only then officially name it. Maybe someone can elaborate on that.

[@fall190]

@@QuantumHistorian Women didn't even have names for a large part of their history, they just had the family name gendered feminine.

[@Kyle_Schaff]

I think about this a lot. And identity formation in a world where half of people born don’t make it to 5 years

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@fall190 True, if by name you mean praenomen. But they had a nomen, filiation, tribe and were as likely as men to also have a cognomen. And considering just how few praenomen there were for men (less than a dozen common ones), it was hardly particularly identifying.

[@ahmedanubis]

Two stereotypes are still kinda true in Egypt 😂😂😂 we inherited the art of scamming tourists and as the saying goes "the Egyptian people are religious by nature"

[@barrankobama4840]

😄

[@IrradioMan]

At least the first one is a guarantee.

[@BeezerWashingbeard]

Aren't modern Egyptians Arab?

[@neon-kitty]

@@BeezerWashingbeard I mean, there was an influx of Arab people into the country, of course, (just as there were influxes of Greek and Roman people in ancient times) but it's not like they just completely supplanted the local population. As far as we can tell, the average modern Egyptian still traces most of their ancestry back to ancient Egyptians.

[@julesl6910]

People in Egypt today are just arabs, do a quick search of the race of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and prepare to be very surprised. DNA sequencing shows they are generally European. Me being an Egyptian this information was very hard to stomach considering my clear denial that Egyptian pharaohs were black, which isn't true, but only to find that they were white.

[@Leooel9]

I loved the rundown of Ancient Roman stereotypes as I just wrote a college essay related to the same thing. I touched on a few of your examples and felt very vindicated when they were mentioned. Cheers TiS!

[@craftthemoon]

That sounds really interesting! I’d love to read even more in depth about the topic. Think I could give it a read?

[@okulusanomali9716]

😅 Love the subtle humor that has been nestled into some of your videos, they do not go unnoticed lol

[@eddysgaming9868]

His dry wit is appreciated.

[@Grimpy970]

"One of your viewers", asks: were there civil engineering codes in roman society? How did they demark sewage from water lines? Were there building regulations with respect to fire? Were their rules on how various forms of traffic were meant to flow through the cities? Most importantly, how were these rules enforced? I just picture a wild-eyed centurion wearing a hardhat, both flailing his clipboard and sword around in screaming frustration!

[@QuantumHistorian]

From memory: Julius Caesar banned 4 wheeled carts from the centre of Rome during the day to ease traffic. At about the same time, cooking and heating fires in private flats in over crowded _insulae_ were banned for fire-safety reasons. Those same buildings also had a height limit so they wouldn't collapse so often. In a non-pressurised system, I should think clean water was "above" and sewage "below", so less room for confusion than modern infrastructure. Enforcement (in the city of Rome) was done by the _vigiles_ or, if you'd really messed up, the praetorians. From Augustus onwards, in the late republic it seems even more chaotic. But think less modern police, than an enforcement gang from a mafia boss (or a bit of two). The centurion wouldn't flail a clipboard, more glance at his sword and make it clear that you had to fix things quickly before the next visit.

[@adolfhipsteryolocaust3443]

No swords allowed inside of rome

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@adolfhipsteryolocaust3443 Lol, even if that was even nominally enforced after Catiline conspiracy, it absolutely stopped being a thing by the 2nd triumvirate. And anyway, it was inside the Pomerium, not all of Rome.

[@WaymoresBlues]

Ruts in the roads and wear on curb stones at roadway intersections in the city of Pompeii show evidence that traffic flow was directed through a grid pattern of one way streets and bear the marks of carts turning in only one direction. No doubt this was done by design in order to avoid traffic congestion. Also, water in Rome was brought in via aqua ducts and stored in cistern's then fed water to a series of public fountains, baths or to the private homes of the wealthy. Some of the water was also reportedly siphoned away illegally. Sewage drainage, as far as it existed then, was handled by open air gutters or drainage tunnels leading to the Tiber downstream from Rome, but most often it was just dumped in the streets along with other garbage. I would say that the best way to tell the difference between the two systems would be by smell of each one but the whole city likely had a overwhelming stench of hot garbage that permeated everything, especially in those warm Mediterranean summers.

[@kesorangutan6170]

I think Agustus banned carts in the city of Rome. I'm not sure though :D

[@brianedwards7142]

I understand that a certain section of Gaulish society is quoted as saying "These Romans are crazy". 😉

[@brianedwards7142]

@BURGATO ' Karen

[@airborneranger-ret]

lol

[@dlevi67]

If only they hadn't been so afraid of the sky falling on their heads, we'd be in a different place now!

[@junichiroyamashita]

I guess how good wild boar tastes.

[@c.vonsohn9566]

Did the Romans name Alpine peaks and did they ever attempt to calculate their elevation?

[@GreatistheWorld]

Oh that’s a good one

[@QuantumHistorian]

I checked Strabo, the Roman geographer par excellence, and he doesn't really do that. There are mentions of things like _"one cannot ascend the Alps even in five days; and their length is two thousand two hundred stadia, that is, their length at the side, along the plains.​"_ But that's more talking about mountain ranges generally than specific peaks. Otherwise, mountain passes had well known and common names (eg, Thermopylae, Cilician Gates), but peaks apparently not.

[@patrickm3981]

Most probably the majority of the peaks had no names. I live in the Alps in a region where today German is spoken but was of course Latin speaking during and also for centuries after the Roman empire. It was only slowly replaced by German during the medieval times. Although Latin has not been spoken here for centuries a lot of the old Latin location names are still used and were at most a bit germanised. This means for example the names of a lot of villages, towns, valleys and also fields are still of Latin origin. Though this is not true for the mountain peaks. Almost all of them have German names which suggest they got their names after the region became German speaking.

[@frankgradl3773]

@@QuantumHistorian Have you any idea when the naming of peaks might have taken off? I just finished Arrian and noted how he (and the translator in the footnotes citing Strabo) only refers to mountains as a collective, ie. the Caucasus or the Taurus. Thank you!

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@frankgradl3773 My guess would be late 18th / early 19th Century for Western Europe. Start of industrialisation is when a romantic and idealised view of the countryside took off, I imagine naming peaks and climbing them for fun would start at roughly the same time as that?

[@ByWayOfDeception]

Big ol' KZbin award on the bookshelf, shared with the many who made it possible. Great work on the channel.

[@JHamList]

I love it when im settling in for a quiet friday night at home and I see that a new toldinstone vid haas dropped

[@stormgeist1766]

Fascinating stuff! As always

[@ModernPracticalStonemason]

Dr Ryan I’d just like to thank you for actually taking the time to write your own subtitles. It makes it far easier for me.

[@keithagn]

Very interesting talk, as they all are! Thank you!

[@nathanielscreativecollecti6392]

Thanks for the great answers!

[@sdluedtke7803]

Thank you for this very interesting and enlightening video.

[@francescoromano9082]

Could you talk about pre-Islamic religion in Eastern provinces (apart from early forms of Christianity)?

[@barbarastanwyck4288]

What do we know about Roman attitudes and practices regarding menstruation? Did women stay at home during it? Did they have pads? Were there any stories/fables related to its causes? Did they talk about it at all? Love all your channels.

[@TheWildManEnkidu]

As with many cultures, menstruation was usually viewed as a time of being 'unclean'. A brief research found that Roman Pliny the Elder claimed that a woman on her period that uncovered her body could scare away bad weather. Or if she walked naked through a field, it would remove pests from crops. They were likely put into a separate circle, or maybe a specialised room in the house for a time until their cycle had passed. Kept away from men. Blood was viewed as having negative effects on them. Women would likely be expected to cover themselves more thoroughly during this time, and I believe there have been numerous methods of dealing with said blood, with some kinds of improvised pads, though I'm not sure what material. Likely some kind of wool, or maybe even plant based. In Greece, I believe that if menstrual blood got onto a man's belongings, those things would often be thrown away, or have to undergo a purity ritual before it can be used again. These were likely similar to Italic beliefs. The menstrual cycle is often associated with the moon, which is where the greek root of the word comes from. Mene - moon.

[@suckmenow]

Why are women like this?

[@MilanTheAngel]

@@suckmenow what do u mean?

[@DragonSlayer6398]

@@TheWildManEnkidu Those...don't at all seem like negatives? Menstruation preventing storms and keeping crops healthy sounds like a good thing?

[@TheWildManEnkidu]

@@DragonSlayer6398 They don't sound too negative, no. Menstruation is often seen as a mix of magical/bad. Combined with the magical effect of the moon, there are lots of double-effects in societies. Women were generally to be avoided during their period and it is likely that the myths Pliny is referring to were viewed with a magical effect, which isn't always a good thing to ancient peoples. Witchcraft, and so on. As with many magic practices you are getting a good outcome at the cost of having to bare one's impurities. These were a couple of things I found, but you have to match it with the others I mentioned. It is always a mix of wariness around it. For example if a man slept with a woman on her period, he would become impure or even 'cursed' to some degree, and would have to go to a priest or temple to purify himself again. Menstrual blood was not seen as pure blood, as you might see during a sacrifice, or when reading an augury. It was 'bad' blood, which might explain its ability to clear away pests. You have to look at it from two angles.

[@skeptigal4626]

Gets better all the time!

[@barrankobama4840]

Against the Galileans by Emperor Julian contains a very practical synopsis of ethic stereotipe for basically any ethnic group in the empire and the known ones outside.

[@mushroomcloud5305]

Can you say some of the stereotypes

[@barrankobama4840]

@@mushroomcloud5305 from his words: "Celts and the Germans are fierce; Germans love liberty and lack discipline; all the barbarians in the East and the South are by nature the docile and tame; Egyptians are more intelligent and more given to crafts; Syrians unwarlike and effeminate, but at the same time intelligent, hot-tempered, vain and quick to learn; Hellenes and Romans are, generally speaking, inclined to political life and humane, though at the same time unyielding and warlike" "Roman" in this sentence is used as an ethnonym to indicate Latin-speakers, but elsewhere can be use to mean Roman citizen, thus overlapping with the other ethnicities. Julian identified as both an Hellene and a Latin. Interestingly he called "barbarians" also populations that live completely inside the Empire and have done so for centuries (such as Syrians). So even in the mid VI century, regardless of how many had a Roman citizenship, some populations were seen as more "Roman" than others, first of all Latin speakers, then Hellenes, then the rest.

[@mushroomcloud5305]

@@barrankobama4840 thanks

[@izzygarcialionibabaloipici6293]

What was the closest equivalent to the stock market during the Roman Empire? Did the Romans have a concept of personal loans, bonds, and such?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Closest to individual loans would be an agreement between a client and his patron. A sort of formal, legally recognised, form of unequal friendship between two men of different social standing. The patron would defend his client in court (either by advising him on legal matters, or speaking on his behalf) and help him out with loans or letters of recommendation, while in turn the client would show loyalty to his patron and vote & canvas for him during elections, and generally increase his _dignitas_ and _auctoritas_ at public occasions. There might have also been shadier dealings with gangs or _collegia_ for the desperate poor. However, like all periods of history were economic growth averaged close to 0%, loans were rare and at high interest rates. Sometimes, entire cities that were behind on imperial taxes would get loans from rich individuals, at eye-wateringly high rates of 100s% per annum. Laws were eventually passed to limit rates for economy stability. Stock markets and the like were essentially nonexistent, except perhaps some limited form of it for large scale shipping. The underlying reason being that the Romans had no distinction between an individual's private property and his business ownership (except for a type of limited liability for the business decisions of one's slaves). So there were no companies / corporations for there to be shares in, it was all part of the personal estate of the boss. This lack of distinction between investment and ownership is a hallmark of pre-capitalist societies.

[@duckpotat9818]

@@QuantumHistorian Interestingly the Arthashastra ('Treatise on Political-Economic Prosperity') written (or maybe compiled) by Chanakya (mentor of Chandragupta Maurya) in NW India around the time of Alexander's invasion states that prosperity is the result of trade and production (as opposed to hoarding precious metals). It mentions many strategies to encourage commerce. One of which is limiting the liability of farmers, state bureaucrats and merchants engaged in essential commodities. It also mentions tax cuts, welfare programs and subsidies in case of natural disasters and in places with strategic importance. State owned enterprise for strategic commodities and infrastructure are also mentioned. I cannot recommend it enough. You only have to read 5 pages before you understand why India was the bottomless pit for Roman gold.

[@kaloarepo288]

@@QuantumHistorian I think the Dutch East India was the first stock market kind of company where a number of people subscribed and became members investing an amount of money which later, if the venture was successful, would reap good returns OR NOT if things went wrong. Later nations like English and French later established their own East India companies -so you could say modern capitalism with the stock exchange idea originated in the Netherlands. Such legal/commercial concepts are credited with the western European countries eventually ruling the world at first commercially and later politically and militarily. By contrast the Ottoman empire for many centuries an ace military and political power however failed to make any such innovations and began to decline badly.

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@duckpotat9818 And yet, Rome was the net exporter of precious metals and India the net importer. So it seems like it was the Indians who were hoarding precious metals!

[@psychosytheXmediaXco]

I've seen a lecture somewhere on KZbin that went over the limited documentation on Roman loans 'credit' , such as it was and how it developed into a complex seasonal cycle of borrowing and repayment that farmers, craftsmen, general laborers, and basically every other segment of 'lower' society participated in. I think it drew parallels to renaissance Italy in observing how it broke down as years of raids and warfare disrupted seasonal labor migration cycles.

[@PAPITO_49]

I like theses commentaries 👍🏻

[@blitzkrieg2928]

oh boy this is gonna be fun

[@Benjaminwolf]

Some buildings that survived from the later Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire have comparatively unadorned exteriors compared to their elaborate interiors. Examples would be Hagia Sophia, San Vitale and the Basilicas of Santa Sabina in Rome and that of Constantine in Trier. I've been told that it has something to do with the Roman appreciation of the unadorned architectural form, but somehow I find that explanation unsatisfactory. Is there more to this story? Today, buildings like that would present themselves to be perfect targets for elaborate graffiti.

[@TV-oj8uh]

I would like a more elaborated answer on the changes in the roman architecture.

[@WaymoresBlues]

The exterior of the Pantheon in Rome looks bleak and unadorned today but it, like the colosseum, were stripped of their earlier adornment centuries ago and were quarried for materials to build churches and other later buildings. Evidence exists that civic buildings, as well as statuary sculptures, were originally painted in often vibrant colors. Their bleakness today is not evidence of any Roman disdain for opulence. However it may be true that Roman homes would often have drab exteriors, compared to their perhaps more luxurious interior designs, this was no more uncommon than your average home of today.

[@mbvoelker8448]

Nothing ever changes. People from the big cities today still think that we rural dwellers are unsophisticated hicks. :D

[@AI-hx3fx]

I shall note it here that this is the first video where I have seen your face. Keep up the excellent channel!

[@Lucius1958]

Speaking of the Parthians: I have read at least one reference to 'Parthian gold', in a context which equates it to 'funny money'. Did the Parthians have some method of gilding that could have inspired this phrase? I have seen the controversy about the 'Baghdad battery', where some people have suggested that it might have been used in some primitive version of electroplating. From the available evidence, I rather doubt this...

[@henryboyter3670]

I think this is a simple question - Say a Roman (of the city) traveled to another part of Rome (Italian countryside) a month after Julius Caesar was killed. If someone asked, "When did it happen?", what would the Roman give as a date (complete date including year)?

[@QuantumHistorian]

" The ides of march" would be the calendar date. Other dates were given by how many days before the next regular festival (ides, kalends, nonens) of that month. Years were not numbered, but named after who was consul then (with an additional number if the same pair of consulship had happened multiple time). Later on, it was by how many years the current Emperor had been ruling for. So in this case _"The ides of march during the Consulship of C. Iulius Caesar and M. Antonius."_ But the focus on which year something happened in is mostly an obsession of contemporary times and a few historians. Most pre-modern people appear to not have cared at all if something happened 3 years ago or 10 years ago.

[@henryboyter3670]

@@QuantumHistorian Thanks. I thought the Romans would have had more specific dates.

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@henryboyter3670 How is it not specific when it specifies a unique day?

[@chkingvictim]

@@QuantumHistoriani have seen you reply to so many comments, and i’d just like to thank you for taking the time to educate people. it’s very cool!

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@chkingvictim Thank you!

[@marcirusso4312]

Hello: I really enjoy your KZbin channels and your books. As an artist and Roman history enthusiast here is my question: Is there much evidence left for how artists were taught to paint frescoes, construct mosaics, sculpt, etc.? I assume a budding artist would become an apprentice. Do you know of any ancient writing about learning or teaching art? I’ve spent a little bit of time trying to find some, with not much luck. Thank you!

[@JEEDUHCHRI]

If anybody thinks folks back then weren’t more tribalistic and xenophobic doesn’t understand our history. On the flip side I think people back then had to take more chances on strangers, and outsiders. For survival sake. We tend to forget how “close to the bone” humanity has spent most of its lifetime. I think this tends to make us fearful or foreigners but at times downright dependent.

[@azureprophet]

The difference is that they hadn't invented racial hierarchies yet.

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

Romans were the ultimate snobs. One was either a Roman citizen or an inferior being ;) .

[@Dude0000]

@@azureprophet well slavery was ubiquitous so maybe not racial hierarchy, but certainly ‘tribal’ hierarchy existed, on steroids compared to the modern world. Like Romans owning Slavic people.

[@azureprophet]

@@Dude0000 Except that in Rome if you became not a slave you could attain great riches and power but under a racial hierarchy even if free it is difficult or impossible. There were many great and powerful Romans who were slaves or descendents of slaves and that simply wasn't (and to some extent still isn't) possible in a racial slavery system.

[@tsaoh5572]

@@Dude0000 Most Slavic peoples entered eastern Europe around the 5th to 6th century. Before that, eastern Europe was mainly filled with a set of people speaking different types of Indo-European languages, such as Celtic peoples, Illyrians (whom some people think are modern-day Albanians), Dacians, and Thracians. Yes, these peoples were some of the main ‘suppliers’ of slaves for Rome, but none of these people were Slavic. The association with ‘Slavic’ and ‘slave’ is thought to have come from ‘Viking’ and Muslim enslavement of Slavic peoples around the 9th till 11th century (which continued well into the 1800s). Particularly the Ottoman Empire had millions of Slavic slaves, but also muslim kingdoms in Spain and the trade ports in Italy and France sold many Slavs. But no… the Romans did NOT cause Slavic people to be associated with slavery, because Slavic people were still living further East and were not even close to Rome at that point in history.

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

The period between the Punic wars and Sulla was pretty stable as well

[@neon-kitty]

Question: How much, if anything, do we know about the behind-the-scenes logistics of Hellenistic palaces and the lives and responsibilities of palace slaves, servants, guards, administrators,...? (I'm particularly interested in the Ptolemaic palaces but I imagine that information on this subject will be so sparse that I can't afford the luxury of being too picky xD.)

[@WaymoresBlues]

The Ptolemaic Dynasty although Hellenic adopted much of Egyptian culture(including royal incestuous marriages) in order to satisfy their right to rule among the native Egyptians and so their attitude towards royal servants would in time be expected to be much different from the more traditional Greek practices in the greater Hellenistic world. To the Egyptian people the pharaohs were considered living God's. It was because of this that Alexander the Great was first deified as a God (and as his Ptolemaic successors were later said to be) and why he was so eagerly accepted by the Egyptians as their ruler.

[@neon-kitty]

@@WaymoresBlues I don't think that that's the case. The upper classes of Ptolemaic Egypt clung onto their Greek/Macedonian heritage and culture quite successfully. Sure, there was some Egyptian influence as time went on and some intermingling but for the most part, they very much seem to have maintained their Hellenistic culture and identity. For an Egyptian to get into the upper echelons of Alexandrian society, they usually had to have adopted Hellenistic customs and the Greek language.

[@realmonologue]

What were some of the most common cuisines throughout the Roman Empire/Greece?

[@danilocatania5700]

In ancient Rome we had a saying, what separates man from animal? The rhine.

[@peterhatchell7025]

In HBO’s Rome they have a ludicrous scene of teens smoking pot. Outside of wine, was there any widespread drug use in Ancient Rome?

[@tatepierson4626]

Please do a deep dive into all physco active substance use, caffeine, cannabis, Ayahuasca, mushrooms, alcohol etc. I’d love an entire episode covering the socially acceptableness of each, the groups in society that used said substances, where they came from in the empire, blah blah blah. 😂🎉 Side note, when I visited Italy in 2014 I’ll never forget the smell of cannabis on the pier (likely hash spliffs) in st margate cinque terre😂

[@QuantumHistorian]

He's already got a video on this...

[@STOCathain]

Related to the topic of this video: were there noticeable regional distinctions in Latin in different provinces that could seem to demonstrate the influence of local languages?

[@tlaloqq]

Yes since Latin is now called Spanish, Portuguese, Italian etc

[@Kneenibble]

@@tlaloqq Worthlessly obtuse answer to a very interesting question.

[@WaymoresBlues]

The Latin spoken by the Roman army had been called.the Vulgar Latin as opposed to the written latin. Veterans of the Roman army were often given land in Roman provinces like Spain where that language of the soldiers became the basis of modern Spanish after a later infusion of Gallic, Gothic and Arabic influences. All of the various "Romance" languages, in differing measures to be sure, such as French, have this much in common. As do, to some varied extent, the Germanic languages such as English, even if through a somewhat roundabout way due to the speaking of the french language by the Norman nobility after the Norman conquest of England.

[@occamraiser]

Yes. - next question please

[@karililjendal]

Question: How were Greek and Roman coin dies produced? The artistry is often so detailed, how was it etched onto a die, and how could they then be mass produced? Bonus question if I may: Were there foreign coins in circulation in Roman society, or would that mess up the monetary system?

[@jerrycruitt5375]

I was awaiting to hear about 'the people that hate everyone else', but to no avail.

[@ejfheoshrjde]

Great video. Two questions, how aware was the average roman on the street about their own history, would they have know who Julius Caesar was for instance and why do you think Christianity took over the empire, was a personal relationship to god better then a bartering one? Thanks

[@musashidanmcgrath]

Julius Caesar would have been known by every single Roman. The obsession with celebrity was just as powerful in Rome as it is today. Also, Caesar's 'Commentaries' - his writings on his exploits in Gaul - were read out in public in the forum, like an early form of 'social media'.

[@VanillaCat1977]

What did the Romans fear the most? On an individual level and as a whole group.

[@AJWRAJWR]

Being out of favour with the gods. A collective anxiety which made them highly superstitious.

[@nothisispatrick4644]

Hannibal.

[@spiritualanarchist8162]

Barbarians at the gate !

[@WaymoresBlues]

As a whole the Romans were a very superstitious lot and they feared bad omens and angering the Gods the most. Depending on their status or the current political upheavals at any given time, what they might fear the most might not be the Gods per se but the more immediate and mortal threat brought upon them by their fellow mortal man. Although that too they might consider to be the consequences of the wrath of the Fates who brought them to such a perilous position for some unknown wrong deed.

[@v.g.r.l.4072]

Excellent as always. I have two questions: first, how to explain the relative freedom of women in such a militaristic society as Rome? Second, when will you publish a new book?

[@WaymoresBlues]

Women had no practical freedom in ancient Rome. They were considered property and under the protection of the paterfamilias of their family. They didn't even have first names and were known simply by their family name, Octavia, Julia, Aggripina, etc., the only distinction being their line in cronology of birth. They could not serve in the Senate, nor Assemblies or vote in them. Their rights as much as they existed then were severely limited. This was a time when civic participation was highly regimented and defined by pedigree, gender and wealth. Even among the patricians the offices available each year in order to achieve political and military advancements were so highly limited compared to the demand that this naturally led to a very competitive drive amongst the aristocracy that left hardly any room for others outside their class to achieve rank or eligibility for advancement except through military glory or wealth.

[@v.g.r.l.4072]

Thanks for your kind answer.@@WaymoresBlues

[@reeyees50]

Northern europeans both had extremely negative sterotypes ,but also the origin of the mottif of the noble barbarian/savage very similar to native american stereotypes we have in the 20th century

[@digiorno1142]

No they didn’t…

[@kaloarepo288]

Yes like Tacitus in his "Germania" which is probably the source of the noble savage myth that was later taken up by 18th century Swiss-French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau -and its related to the myth of the Golden Age and the Garden of Eden.

[@RhiannonSenpai]

12:45 You forgot about Thracians and Dacians. The Romans wrote most about the Greeks but after them, they wrote most about the Thracians. Thracians were a pretty common sight in Rome. They were also the first experience the Romans had with fair haired people, blondes and gingers, way before they conquered the Gauls and Britons.

[@fall190]

Fair haired people are not that rare in Greece or Italy.

[@RhiannonSenpai]

@@fall190 Only in Northern Italy they aren't rare. The ancestors of Northern Italians were the Celts and later Germanic speakers.Northern Italy and the rest of Italy have different genetics.

[@fall190]

@@RhiannonSenpai Even in southern Itally they are about 2.5-5%. They are not that rare. Flavius Means blonde and Rufus means red. There are mentions of blonde and red haired emperors. They were a minority but not that unusual. What would probably be extremely rare was the very pale blonde of Scandinavia.

[@teddyjackson1902]

Simply not true. Augustus had blonde hair, so did Alexander the Great.

[@teddyjackson1902]

@@RhiannonSenpaiyou have no idea what you’re talking about. The Po valley was populated by Celts.

[@UmamiPapi]

People these days hide their misgivings about other races and stereotypes of other places (even nearby and ethnically similar), but humanity persists and such things will continue forever this side of Heaven.

[@kkupsky6321]

What kind of drums and musical instruments did the Roman army use and are there written marches or anything?

[@gg3675]

I'd be interested to know more about the stereotypes going the other direction. How did the unsophisticated hicks in the provinces think about Rome?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Unlikely that the unsophisticated hicks wrote anything down for us to know, let alone that it would survive. Perhaps some scraps from the Vindolanda tablets or the like? But mid-ranking Roman military officers were hardly "hicks".

[@floridaman318]

Probably arrogant, prideful, severe, things along those lines.

[@ayli9]

I have a question:) what was organization and kit of the Jews during the Judean wars?

[@QuantumHistorian]

From what I remember from Josephus, 1) along sectarian lines and 2) whatever they had looted.

[@rundbaum]

tuning into your video now but i will say i always think of the represtantational 'pygmies' painting that depicts young africans riding around on backs of nile crocs--prob this was TEMPLE OF SOBEK. i used to think 'hmmm, looks awfully typifying' until i actually read about the originating religion of the croc god, SOBEK, & their crocs actually were domesticated, lived & roamed freely in public temples & even read oracles. so, yeah, there probably were young children riding around on the backs of deadly nile creatures . . .

[@benjalucian1515]

Did ancient Greeks/Romans suffer PTSD? I read that the ancient Greeks were not peace loving, and peace was likely an interruption of the constant warfare. Then there's the Romans and their constant conquests. It's one thing to shoot or drop bombs on the enemy these days, but back then they had to spear or hack the enemy to death up close and personal. It seems that would be pretty traumatic.

[@zacharyrihner4825]

How where taxes enforced, was there a Roman equivalent to the IRS.

[@allangibson8494]

Local tax collectors - they went door to door collecting taxes in exchange for keeping 10% (assuming they were honest).

[@backisgabbeYT]

Me and some Friends are having a debate and I'd love your input. I argue that the Visigothic kingdom was more "Roman" than the Kingdom of Soissons. My friends disagree. So my question is, which successor state of the WRE outside of Italy continued the Roman legacy the longest?

[@nkonfya]

What was the relationship between the general populace of the western and eastern empires? Were they rivals? How about the emperors were they resentful allies?

[@ezmoney0213]

garrett, who where the phoenicians and how did they interact with the empire? and why do they seem to be cast out of the traditional learning if the roman’s could have learned from them?

[@codename495]

Of course they did, and held them much more in truth than we do now. Xenophobia wasn’t “wrong” to them, it was normal.

[@pandakicker1]

It is only wrong to those who wish to destroy the demographics of a place.

[@unlimitedpower978]

Did the Roman Republic have a group of experts that they consulted? Such as great engineers or the equivalent of doctors or some other kinds of experts?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Interesting question! I've never heard of such things on technical subjects like engineering or medicine. For political issues; including all things military or rhetorical, knowledge of foreign realms, the specifics of religious rites, legal precedence, geography, etc...; the Senate would consult whichever of its own members knew the subjects best. The different colleges of priests (Pontifex, Flaminia, Haruspices and a couple of others) acted as record keepers and would have had more knowledge on certain historical/mythical/religious/calendar issues than other Senators - especially in the less literate early republic. For the wealthy literate class there were, of course, books and treatises on a broad range of subjects: everything from agriculture to siege warfare. This seems to have been more common with the Hellenisation of Rome from 200 BC-ish onwards. These were sufficiently common amongst the elite that Marius (100 BC) could taunt his fellow senators by saying that "they had only learnt of war from books, while he had experienced it himself". Otherwise, the main option would have been to rely on personal connections. The patron-client relationship would be crucial here, especially for legal help or to get access to higher echelons of society who might have the requisite knowledge. Lastly, there were the collegia in the late republic and imperial period. There were somewhere between medievelesque guilds and neighbourhood religious organisation. Little is known about them, however, besides being distrusted by the elite. But it's entirely possible that the more guild-like of them had sort of trade secrets passed through generations of master to apprentice.

[@adolfhipsteryolocaust3443]

Priests

[@AttilaKattila]

@@QuantumHistorian Some medieval guilds also started as religious fraternities, only later on turning into trade guilds (cartel+professional association+trade association+trade union.)

[@sheipi4766]

Are there any objetcs surviving today that we are 100% sure that were used by Alexander the Great? It only comes to my mind the Palace of Pella, where he spent most of his childhood (I think) and many cities that we know that he went to, for example Athens, Tyre and Babylon. But I mean physical objects that he used, for example an armour or a shield.

[@matthewsutton3682]

How did Roman attitudes towards the barbarian foedorati evolve from then being seen as rustic mercenary rabble to major power brokers in the late Empire? What were Roman attitudes in the fifty century WRE towards the Germans from say the time of Adrianople through the 410 sack, to erstwhile allies against the Huns? Were attitudes and relations in the fifth century courts of East and West different?

[@souljahaden6184]

What did the Greeks specifically think about celts and Germans and did their views of the aforementioned differ from the Roman’s?

[@coolandgood1010]

Where is your accent from? What part of the U.S.??

[@TheDevice9]

Do you know any good ancient Roman or Greek jokes? How do they hold up over time?

[@simbertsim8091]

How could Romans tell the time? Were there clocktowers in the cities or did they just eyeball it by the position of the sun and sundials. Especially for Christian Rituals keeping time was important.

[@WTFisupDennys]

You don't look like you'd sound like that. 😅 Keep up the wonderful videos!

[@SilverSquirrel]

Question: What did the Romans do with slaves who were too old to work?

[@GenerationX1984]

Gave them retirement benefits????🤷‍♂️

[@vigolivenca]

Here are a few questions that I would love that you could dig into in a later video. Did the former Romans in Germania and Britannia just run south with the fall of the empire? and that is why there are little to none Mediterranean faces and languages among the current population. It looks like that did not happen in Hispania and south of France. Why are the romance languages closer to themselves than to Latin itself? Is it a sign that what was spoken in the empire was not exactly Latin? Was the Middle Ages' former Roman Empire more connected than expected?

[@histguy101]

People in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain don't look very different from each other.

[@vigolivenca]

@@histguy101 well, that is your opinion, I've been In this countries and find that there are very clear differences. I guess that it is statistically measured, for instance in average height and eye and hair color.

[@smal750]

​@@histguy101 Yes they do wtf are you talking about

[@smal750]

south france isnt roman looking lol it only looks brown because of the greek portugese spanish italian and north african immigration

[@nathanielscreativecollecti6392]

What occupation in the Roman Empire had the highest life expectancy and standard of living?

[@Kokonut-er4tk]

What would it take for non-Roman(let's say, from Hispania) to be considered Roman by Romans in Roman Republic? Like, how could they assimilate? Was it even possible? Or would they be treated differently no matter what? Let's say they got a citizenship, would it make them be treated equally?

[@methods3110]

Hadrian and Trajan were both from Spain, two of the most successful of all Roman emperors. This must have gone a long way to making people from Spain respected. Also Spain was Romanized for more than 600 years, since the fall of the Carthaginians.

[@pomodorostudyclub]

I think it depends on where and when. Like the previous commenter said, early provinces were pretty much completely integrated

[@SeanHiruki]

How deep was the relationship between the Romans and the Han empire of China? How much of that changed as the Han was falling and the Three Kingdoms era was occurring

[@SPQRcat]

How long would it take for a roman citizen's letter to reach his friend, let's say, in Iberia?

[@ARTHUR_SMYTH_]

What were the Roman’s perspectives on sub Saharan Africans and African kingdoms?

[@jamesfranklin458]

which cities outside the east and italia were considered most civilised?

[@gratefuldead3750]

Meroe, Axum, Sanaa, alexandria etc

[@redhen2123]

"Another cause of revolution is difference of races which do not at once acquire a common spirit; for a state is not the growth of a day, any more than it grows out of a multitude brought together by accident. " - Aristotle, "Politics", Book 5, Part III

[@jeffgray4075]

How long did it take for slave populations to fully integrate into the larger population after the fall of Rome? Are there still any extant vestiges of those enslaved, distinguished by ethnic or class divisions, in modern times? Are there any parallels that can be drawn with the emancipation of enslaved persons after the US civil war, through the reconstruction era, Jim Crow, and beyond?

[@andrewlee1336]

I love his Roman hairstyle! hahaha

[@WarshMeh]

How would a History Major make a living in Italy while going to school for their Bachelors? Knows a little Latin, loves Roman History.

[@pinchevulpes]

So Romans saw Egyptians how Americans see Mexicans 😂

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

Rightly so

[@Betcaligarcia]

I’m interested in the origin and development of the gladiator games.

[@dannydonnelly8198]

They started as an Etruscan funeral or wedding right I think.

[@johnnoughty7944]

Were the plumbata in common use in warfare by the Romans.

[@kingbyrd.1512]

The guy on the thumbnail on the right hand side looks better than the guy on the left.

[@brick6347]

Who would be the last person to consider themselves a Roman? Just a back of the envelope calculation here, but someone who was about 18 in 1453 could conceivably have lived well into the 1500s... but would they actually identify as a Roman, or more strongly identify as being Byzantine? Is there a candidate for "the last Roman", insofar as such things are knowable?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Romaioi is still a national self-identifier for modern Greeks. So, depending on how much importance you want to attach to etymology, they are arguably not yet born. Not to mention the modern day inhabitants of the city of Rome. Similarly, the Ottomans called the former Byzantine possessions in Asia minor Rum, so they presumably also called the inhabitants Rumans. The byzantines never considered themselves such. They thought of themselves as Roman. Byzantine empire is, as a name, an invention of 19th century scholars.

[@stollinroned5090]

Greeks,end of story

[@viniciusc9004]

The byzantines considered themselves as roman

[@shenanigans3710]

I like your new Cesarean haircut

[@ommsterlitz1805]

Always liked the fact that you looked ethnically roman yourself 👍

[@enihil7713]

Especially that haircut…

[@larryhovekamp4318]

Question: how much did the Romans and the ethnic groups who followed them left their seed and their genetic evidence behind them once they expanded their empire? I am of German/Dutch background, but half of my relation does not look anything like the Nazi ideal of the blond hair, blue-eyed, pale skinned Aryans of earlier times. Many had dark skin and eyes, dark wooly and wavy hair and could pass as someone from the Mediterranean, Middle and Near East or even beyond. Recent excavations in London and other British cities find cultural evidence of non-Roman cultures in the archeological digs such as grave sites with tombstones etched with Semitic languages, religious symbols and exotic clothes on the deceased.

[@NickHuffTenor]

What was the appeal of Christianity to the average, Gentile European? At first, just a branch of Judaism, it seems odd that so many would convert and develop Christianity into a full-fledged religion in an imperial system which violently discouraged monotheism.

[@sickfvckkkkk]

That everyone could join, that everyone was equal, that it was all gonna get better.

[@NickHuffTenor]

@@sickfvckkkkk I suppose! Until you're found out and eaten by some exotic animal in front of a cheering crowd. I had that thought, myself, in fairness, but I guess I don't get why some other positive, optimistic, individual-affirming cult didn't pull ahead of Christianity? Or why the main roman religious sensibility couldn't evolve (as many religions have since) at least it's tone! Seems weird that they would go towards the one religious idea (not affirming the wider pantheon i.e. monotheism) that would get them killed!

[@sickfvckkkkk]

@@NickHuffTenor Believers will tell you it was God’s will, others will say it was luck. Up to you to decide.

[@NickHuffTenor]

@@sickfvckkkkk I hope Garret decides for me! 😉

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

A quick look into Galatians 3:28 and literally all epistles to gentile Churches by the Judean apostle Paul explains this thoroughly.

[@alcoxte89]

Is it correct equating Thervingi as Visigoths and Greuthungi as Ostrogoths?

[@phnexOice]

How much did Rome and the Han empire actually know about eachother?

[@vexator19]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Roman_relations?wprov=sfla1

[@acolyte1951]

Were there any social/cultural gatherings or celebrations between roman citizens from different regions? Did people from hispania and gaul meet in marseille rather than rome?

[@ericconnor8251]

Cool stuff, but kind of click-baity with that thumbnail you chose of Roman era Fayum mummies from Egypt without explaining them to your audience (native Egyptians who were Romanized North Africans and often Roman citizens due to the toga they proudly wore in their funerary portraits). Aside from that, you provided some good details about Roman views of Parthians.

[@jayquellin6583]

Cool vid. One thing I’m curious about is did the Romans have maps of other Nations that bordered their Empire, and how would they refer to these Nations on the maps. Like for example, I heard the “Byzantines” was an Empire whose citizens referred to themselves as Romans and to their Nation as THE Roman Empire, but some people outside the Empire in the Middle Ages(ofc not all) still referred to them as Greeks. So I wondered how differently the average Roman would refer to their rivals like the Parthian Empire from how historians refer to them, and how differently would a Roman map of the Parthian Empire would look like from a Modern one.

[@antoniobroccoliporto4774]

You mention how people from different parts of the Empire were viewed…but what about Judeans? I’m curious because from DNA I have a lot of a Jewish sectors including Italian Jew, Algerian Jew and Judean Jew. I don’t know how they determined that. Just curious.

[@davidpitchford6510]

Do stereotypes have stereotypes?

[@jamesruddy9264]

I can hardly hear you. The computer and the video volume is at 100%

[@Nuruddunya]

10:55 this is still kinda true

[@Sajxi]

Did Romans not have any notable stereotypes about black people from Africa? Were they just not as often encountered by Romans?

[@QuantumHistorian]

Not much. A few references about Nubians and Aethiopians (literally, "those with a burnt face", not the modern country) being particularly devout and holy, but not much more AFAIK. Stereotypes were based on cultural practices that were predominant within a people (aka: ethnicity), not outward appearance. The Romans obviously realised that people looked different depending on where they were from, but that was viewed as incidental, rather than the underlying cause of their difference.

[@Sajxi]

@@QuantumHistorian That's really interesting. Thanks for your answer!

[@IoannesPalaiologos]

@@Sajxi As Quantum said, no specific sterotype on the skin colour of sub-saharan African types, but if I remember correctly, Roman religion viewed dark skin as ominous, but perhaps in certain contexts of bad omens as noted in a famous case when Septimius Severus met a dark skinned soldier in Britannia.

[@Tsukonin]

Let's remember that Africa in roman times had a completely different meaning than the modern definition, and used to refer to the province of Africa (modern-day Tunisia/Eastern Algeria/Tripolitania). So Africans in roman texts referred to Romans living in Africa, to romanized Punic and Berbers and to non-romanized Berbers. On the other hand, "black people" were called "ethiopians", and were known to live south of Egypt and far from the Roman borders, except Nubians which lived on the border with Egypt and a very small number of them lived in Egypt. A few "ethiopians" were know to live in some part of the otherwise pretty scarce sahara desert.

[@jaif7327]

@@IoannesPalaiologos there is another case with Brutus executing a black man because he feared it'd bring bad omens

[@ZephLodwick]

I'd say the best time to be a Roman was during the peace under Antoninus. But if I were to fix a lifetime, I'd pick between Vespasian's and Antoninus's reign.

[@lkrnpk]

I find it suspicious that Romans were allegedly so many times triumphant against Parthia, yet it was there for most of Rome's existence and even later it fell not because of Romans So some of these triumphs might be much more modest as they claimed

[@graphosxp]

💯👍

[@catman8770]

One of the few videos I've seen on this kind of topic that actually just tells us what we are interested in and not making thinly veiled political statements.

[@diegesisfreak]

what, like this one?

[@BlueBaron3339]

'Twas ever thus when it comes to ethnic stereotypes. When I first moved to Munich and went to dinner with my new boss, we were greeted by an ebulliantly friendly waiter. My boss muttered dismissively just as the waiter left, "Must be an Austrian." As for racism...that's a far more modern concept isn't it? And nothing remotely positive has come from it. Ethnicities exist. Races do not, but bigotry certainly does and has created horrors and atrocities beyond imagination as everyone knows far too well. Marvelous video! For once the YT matchmaking schemed worked for me!!

[@humanistwriting5477]

Yes, Racism is a very recent invention. To answer your question, that you clearly where not seeking an answer to. obviously im answering for comment readers who don't understand what racism is. Racism is a debunked scientific hypothesis, that aimed at combining an debunked theory of evolution (that is very close but not identical with modern theories or correct to anything to do with gentitics or what you can observe in your lifespan either.) with a debunked theory of why colonization of the America's worked so well, in a manner that would allow European Nobility, along with the newfound middle "capital class" to continue exploiting the laborers in the colonies. It was partially organic in how it developed and partially manufactured. The theory supposed that Europeans where more pale because they stayed indoors and did more book work then manual labor for so long that they lost thier pigment, and because European guns where successful in conquest that must mean that its the best thing to do. it also supposed that people's got darker skin because they spent thier time outside, not working but rather sleeping under the sun, for so many generations that they developed darker skin. Therefore the nobels in Europe living fat off the forced labor from Africa and the exploited labor from Europe could say they "where doing God's work, look science is on our side!" and get people to in-fight. you will notice it got people to in-fight, this is because the theories that race theory was based on, where disproven rather quickly, but did not have an replacement theory or even an religious doctrine that could explain what was actually observable yet. Oh those back up theories, Evolution, belief that evolution and breeding was caused by part of the injuries sustained in life being passed onto the next generation. (very easy to disprove) the social theory that was disproven; is still a common myth because it was inexplicable. The America's had cities larger then most of *modern* Europe when Columbus landed. However, the native population had never been exposed to a plague, and they where introduced to three when Columbus landed. it's actually a miracle they survived.

[@BlueBaron3339]

@@humanistwriting5477 Actually it was a question as I am *no expert* in ancient history or texts from antiquity...hell, I barely made it through high school Latin 😂 And I am mindful of the fact that the author of this channel is a *geunine expert.* As for the subject of race, that seems more a failure of vocabulary than a scientific dispute. Though back in 2017 Brent Staples, a Pulizer Prize winning columnist for the NYT, wondered where we'd be had the Loving case (SCOTUS, made "mixed race" marriage legal in the U.S.) challenged the Virginia law by arguing that race is a false idea. I wonder too.

[@Reaper08]

@@humanistwriting5477 Were the cities in the Americas just as advanced as the ones in Europe or was it just size?

[@humanistwriting5477]

@@Reaper08 advanced is difficult to nail down, one one hand they had more advanced mathematics, agriculture, and literally had made huge chunks of the American continents into literal gardens, just mountain ranges that fed you with every tree and plant planted intentionally, they also had about the same level of writing and publishing as Europe at the time. on the other hand, we completely destroyed all thier books. and that is really a shame because from what survived it seem thier writing was in two or three universal languages; not phonetics based so we actually missed out on a chance to easily learn a lot about the pre-Columbian history and culture. So we have no idea why things like Iron never took off, just logical guessing; they knew about iron in both north and south America, they where and are exceptionally talented in metalworking. but they hardly used the stuff.

[@humanistwriting5477]

@@BlueBaron3339 oh the subject of race came up just decades after successful colonization of north America. Prior it was just ethnicities, lots of "we're better because our climate is better suited to our culture so we're best" existed before the scientific hypothesis of multiple human races was posited 😅. Today it is just a question of vocabulary but knowing where it came from really helps distinguish between hidden genuine racism and pure ignorance.

[@herschelmayo2727]

They really disliked people from Carthage. It got ugly.

[@stevenguevara2184]

I would gurantee it. They had them about people from the other side of Town, the next City over, other provinces, etc. Its Human nature. Isnt "Barbarian" a perfect example?