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.

[@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?

[@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]

😄

[@IRGhost0]

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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@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?

[@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.

[@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

[@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...

[@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.

[@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.

[@stormgeist1766]

Fascinating stuff! As always

[@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'.

[@blitzkrieg2928]

oh boy this is gonna be fun

[@sdluedtke7803]

Thank you for this very interesting and enlightening video.

[@nathanielscreativecollecti6392]

Thanks for the great answers!

[@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?

[@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.

[@jerrycruitt5375]

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

[@AI-hx3fx]

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

[@PAPITO_49]

I like theses commentaries 👍🏻

[@skeptigal4626]

Gets better all the time!

[@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 . . .

[@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.

[@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).

[@Andreoli2005]

Being you have taught me so much of what you know let me teach you a little something I know. When recorded audio is played in it's raw or natural format, the audio is always slightly delayed because light ravels faster than sound. So after editing audio for a video and then overlaying, it's always better to be ever so slightly delayed rather than early with the audio. When trying to make it perfectly match the lips of the speaker, it often ends up coming off slightly unnatural. I really appreciate the time you have taken to produce such an elaborate picture of history. Thank you for your time.

[@kkupsky6321]

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

[@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.)

[@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

[@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.

[@callmeswivelhips8229]

Speaking of Babylon, certain experts are now saying The Hanging Gardens were not located in Babylon, but most likely in Ur. Fun fact!

[@stsk1061]

Who are these experts?

[@callmeswivelhips8229]

@@stsk1061 Dr Stephanie Dalley. And I confused the city...she claims to have found extensive evidence for the gardens in Nineveh, not Ur. I watched an entire documentary about this some time ago. Evidently, nothing related to the legendary hanging gardens has ever been found in the ruins of Babylon. So it's very existence was questioned. UNTIL STEPHANIE DALLEY HIT THE SCENE THAT IS!!!!!!

[@stsk1061]

@@callmeswivelhips8229 Koldewey discovered the arched structure, which has been identified with the gardens, during his excavations of the palace in Babylon in the late 19th century.

[@callmeswivelhips8229]

@@stsk1061 An arched structure??? Is that it?? I do not believe that proves anything. Why do you need them to be in Babylon anyway??? Afraid to break from convention???

[@stsk1061]

@@callmeswivelhips8229 It never said that it proves anything.

[@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.

[@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.

[@occamraiser]

Yes. - next question please

[@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?

[@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?

[@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?

[@johnnoughty7944]

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

[@souljahaden6184]

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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@pinchevulpes]

So Romans saw Egyptians how Americans see Mexicans 😂

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

Rightly so

[@shenanigans3710]

I like your new Cesarean haircut

[@herschelmayo2727]

They really disliked people from Carthage. It got ugly.

[@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?

[@mikeofcetacea]

I'm curious to hear more about homosexuality and same-sex relationships/romantic life in ancient Greek and Roman culture. From the little art history knowledge I have, I know that homosexuality and homoerotic behavior between men was commonly represented in ancient Greek art, but am unsure of the greater scope and context beyond those representations.

[@chkingvictim]

I’m certainly no expert, but I know that Roman warriors and soldiers were encouraged to have relationships with each other, based on the idea that they might fight harder if they were beside someone they loved. Plus, so much of their lives were consumed by the military, it wasn’t very logical to have relationships outside of it. (Anyone can correct me if I’m wrong, I’m just a hobbyist haha)

[@dihexa7256]

Xenophon makes some pretty homophobic comments in his writings, despite being the student and friend of (openly bisexual) Socrates, so in the ancient world opinions on homosexuality varied greatly depending on the person, just like today.

[@memofromessex]

What did the Romans think about their borders? Did they see their borders as a clear division? Were there Roman settlements and forts outside what the borders? I am particularly interested in Britannia and Germania

[@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.

[@Manormouse-04]

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?

[@ARTHUR_SMYTH_]

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

[@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.

[@phnexOice]

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

[@vexator19]

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

[@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

[@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

[@Flammenhagel]

10:55 this is still kinda true

[@MrGksarathy]

Considering how the Romans talked about Greeks and other easterners, did they also have specific opinions on the Jews? I mean, they resettled the Jews to various parts of the Empire.

[@barrankobama4840]

Usually the same stereotipes they also had for Phoenicians.

[@kaloarepo288]

I read most of Colleen McCullogh's novels that are set in ancient Republican Rome - I don't know how reliable she is but she has her Roman characters uttering certain stereotypes about different nationalities - one is about the Greeks -specifically the Greeks of Massilia in France -that they were very tight and mean with money -a bit like how Scots and Jews are stereotyped in that regard and also about Greek men -that they were crazy about sex with boys- the Romans had a lot of jokes about this!

[@allangibson8494]

The Jews weren’t “resettled”. The Jews in Israel were simply exterminated. Jews outside Israel were tolerated as traders - Crimea was a Jewish colony with a settlement in Kiev as far back as 200BC.

[@MrGksarathy]

@@allangibson8494 I mean, both did happen. The Jews in Israel were forcibly deported to scattered parts of the empire, no?

[@allangibson8494]

@@MrGksarathy No - they either ran east into Persia or died or were enslaved. Josephus became a slave to Vespasian. Jerusalem ceased to exist as a populated city and was completely rebuilt with a new Syrian population. You resisted you died. You surrendered you became a slave. The Persian relocated entire populations - the Romans didn’t. A lot of Jews left the Roman controlled region as a result (north into Ukraine or east into Persian territory) one step ahead of the legions.

[@bachamadu2076]

St. AUGUSTINE, the man who shaped the West for millenia and still regarded as one of the finest intelectual was mix between Roman and Berber. So he must have looked similar to those painting we see.

[@sonosoloio]

it is obvious that even in the time of the ancient Romans there were stereotypes, as it has been and always will be in any civilization, both past and future, and this applies especially to paintings and sculptures, the few that have reached us and on which we must base ourselves to try to understand the world of that time: if the patron ordered the painter in his service to paint a fresco, perhaps of battle, depicting dozens of people, the poor painter certainly could not make them each different from the other , it would have taken too long to complete the job and the patron could have fired the painter and hired someone else quicker, so of course the painter had to try to standardize as much as possible to make the work progress fast enough to being able to maintain the food and lodging that the patron guaranteed, otherwise for him there would have been only misery and hunger and so it was at least until the nineteenth century.

[@alcoxte89]

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

[@kentjensen4504]

Most stereotypes have their origin in something real.

[@TheThreatenedSwan]

Undoubtedly since stereotypes are largely fairly accurate heuristics.

[@nicolo7507]

Was there any celebrities in Ancient Rome like we have in todays times

[@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.

[@jamesruddy9264]

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

[@andrewlee1336]

I love his Roman hairstyle! hahaha

[@Alejojojo6]

Well stereotypes exist everywhere. Inside any country you will find stereotypes about people from the north, south, east and west, from X province and so on. Probably Egyptians had stereotypes about people from different areas, and so did the greeks (among Spartans and Atheneans for example). Romans of course also had such stereotypes. But that doesnt equal racism. For example people in China regard people in Guizhou province as poor, or people in Nigeria have stereotypes about each others too. So nothing about race.

[@jaif7327]

Only things i know of are that germans supposedly had funny hairstyles, gauls were very pale and the arabs wore earrings

[@izzygarcialionibabaloipici6293]

Could the average urban Roman ride a horse?

[@junefranklin458]

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

[@gratefuldead3750]

Meroe, Axum, Sanaa, alexandria etc

[@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?

[@cavaleer]

Of course they did. The entire ancient world had abundant ethnic stereotypes, most of them outrageous and not taken very seriously. It was the same in most of the world tbh.

[@sevelofficial2696]

I wonder if the story of the Trojan Horse contributed towards the Roman stereotype of Greeks being sneaky and tricky.

[@pomodorostudyclub]

Perhaps the stereotype inspired the story

[@uphillwalrus5164]

Probably most of the greeks they interacted with were merchants, who are often shifty regardless of ethnicity

[@baihongliang]

During the late Roman empire, you're ok in the East part of it... except near Adrianople 😅

[@hoonterofhoonters6588]

So how do I write historically accurate racism when I'm crafting my antiquity memes?

[@kennethalan6641]

All cultures have and do.

[@yadig.]

Did Deer live in the forest???

[@skylinelover9276]

The ancient Romans where R1b paternal haplo group DNA with high mixed J2 DNA Haplo group also because of the Anatolians Etruscans the first people of Italy before Roman celts arrived in italy... That's why you can see the Anatolians genes in the Roman emperors, they have round eyes like that . Compare to native celts Wich is more slanted eyes

[@alonzoaguilar-vazquez5218]

Please get a better microphone awesome show though

[@lukesmith1818]

Is there any truth about romans using feathers to purge after a feast?

[@skylinelover9276]

The first people of Italy are Anatolians that carry paternal J2 DNA a.k.a Etruscans... Then indo Europeans Italics romans invaded Etruscans and intermixed to the locals .. This is also the same story to greece . The first people of Greece are also Anatolians and Pelasgians J2 and Ev13 DNA. Then indo European conquered them a.k.a the Hellenics peoples /Dorian greeks(maccedonians and Sparta)

[@DrMaddMoose]

it doesn’t feel right hearing his voice come out of his face and not a series of maps and artwork

[@foxtrotsFoxy]

volume so low :(

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

The Romans vastly admired Greek culture and emulated it in every way. Yet, they thought the Greek people weren’t quite a masculine, and virtuous as Romans saw themselves. But, they thought this way about pretty much everyone born outside of the city of Rome, from Roman parents. Only Roman men had virtu! This root of our word virtue actually means man-ness, or in modern English, manliness, not good character as used today. They had a similar ideal man type to that of the Greeks, the farmer/citizen/soldier, but that was never a reality for the Romans after, perhaps, the early days of the Republic, if ever. In the Eastern Roman Empire, eventually the people were legally divided into the Honestiores and Humiliores, isn’t that nice? Roughly, the dignified/trustworthy and the humble, just imagine how that classification would go over in Ancient Greece, Modern Europe or the US! That’s the kind of idea that leads to revolution. Even the Greek word aristocrat meant the best, most capable, to govern, not the richest, or those born from the oldest-established families, those ideas became attached to the word in the Middle Ages. Really, the meaning of aristocrat became closest to a conflation of the Roman terms Patrician, from the oldest p-documented families in Rome, like “founding fathers”, and those of the Senatorial class, which was entirely based on wealth.

[@Sigh95]

They just like us frfr

[@Safe-and-effective]

All romans were lgbtqp blacks. Harvard, where is my doctorate?

[@LetsGoCatchUsSomeFISH]

Lol, this.

[@Rikard_A]

Civilwar was more a concern than barbarian raids.

[@arcadealchemist]

When paintings get dirty and black people think we was period people n shit

[@yuyuyuyuyuy484]

the kanging never stops

[@patrickwalsh9635]

Did the Romans consider themselves the most advanced civilization to date or did they harken back to a greater time ?

[@davidpitchford6510]

Do stereotypes have stereotypes?

[@Subsidiarity3]

DId the Romans ever refer to eye colour? I've always wondered when the first recorded reference to human eye colour happened.

[@bcgonynor]

Sulla was known for his blue eyes, and Augustus had grey eyes according to Suetonius.

[@Subsidiarity3]

@@bcgonynor Thanks. I managed to find a list online that gives hair and eye colour for many of the first Roman emperors. It even gives sources, for what that is worth. However, one has to figure out what "wine-coloured" eyes means, as that is what some of them are described as having.

[@mikeh7917]

"All mockery...of Jews and their One God...shall be kept to an appropriate...minimum!"

[@tsukun16]

Interesting thatthe romans were also more positive towards the east then what we now call ~western europe~

[@525Lines]

Yeah. Think Asterix. Pretty accurate.

[@rickwilliams967]

Everyone does

[@graphosxp]

💯👍

[@jonpaulyc-eng474]

Were Romans as ethnically prejudiced towards Judeans as Greeks were, or was it just the Judean religions they didn’t like? If a Judean assimilated into Roman culture (much like the Apostle Paul), were they treated like a fellow Roman or as a threat?

[@gratefuldead3750]

Judaism was one of the most popular religions in rome after mithras