Diocletian's Palace in 300 AD

[@5mnz7fg]

This deserves much more views and likes. It's interesting how Diocletian's palace is constructed like a fortress in comparison to the much more open constructed palaces of the early emperors, for example Hadrian's villa. This difference shows somehow the decline of Roman civilisation.

[@stefanogattoCH]

It's maybe due to the location...

[@jlkh03]

Not really the decline per se, I think, but more like the complete transformation of the empire. During the time of Hadrian, the empire was very much Italian-centric with Rome being the center of politics that was Italian dominated and with a still-revered Roman senate. Thus Hadrian's villa could be built in Italy with minimal defenses. But nearly 150 years later, the empire had seen citizenship granted to all freemen of all provinces, the Crisis of the Third Century had changed the focus of politics from Italian-based elite to frontier provinces with huge armies, and nobody cared much about the senate. Diocletian's retirement palace is both a testament of his career as well as his vision of a fortified empire that was no longer Italian nor even Roman but multipolar. I think it was this vision that saved the Roman Empire, particularly in the Eastern half.

[@5mnz7fg]

@@jlkh03 Interesting perspective!

[@apartmentsmiroslavvojnovic3302]

Hello from Split!

[@aalexander928]

Really beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us..

[@bobjackson4720]

I've been to this place even now it's quite impressive. Worth a look if you are in Croatia.

[@Cherb123456]

Absolutely fantastic looking building, stunning visual with great soundtrack! A dream come true! Thank you very much for your work!

[@triumphbobberbiker]

James this and the reconstruction of Hadrian's villa are brilliant, I'll show them to my students; keep up the good work

[@lilynola6341]

Not a Hadrian's villa, this is the reconstruction of the Emperor Diocletian's Palace, 3rd century AD, Split, Croatia. Still standing (about 50%), intact basements and the walls well preserved. I grow up in Split, and know the place well.

[@victorstroganov8135]

Lily Nola he means THIS and another video on Hadrians villa

[@roccocicoria4888]

Grazie tanto, James! Continua il tuo grande lavoro!

[@missiletm]

We toured this palace while on a cruise and it was very impressive. Love all the underground passageways we discovered. The people of Split were very friendly.

[@ArmanLF]

Really fantastic work! Thank a lot. I was in Split many times and it's so exciting to connect my memories with your video.

[@myrongator]

Ty for this model. It has helped me to invision the true size of this palace

[@colbystearns5066]

It looks very fortress-like in comparison with previous palaces, almost seems to foreshadow the castles of medieval Europe!

[@davidaboyoun8681]

Very cool, great job! I don't know anything about this palace but that was cool to see!

[@kevind4850]

Would be also be interesting to morph sections of the palace as it was then into what it is now. Lots of those open spaces have been built over, but it is still there.

[@mrsakesalive]

Well done. Liked to have seen more.

[@SAINTRAPHAELMARY]

Nice job on the 3D . Very talented.

[@stefanogattoCH]

Great job! Thank you very much!

[@gabo1841997]

The fact that it's fortified says alot about the period. Early middle ages here we go

[@serviskazot]

James this is great!!!!

[@luizsa8300]

Very interesting, keep it up!

[@fritula6200]

This Palace is in my country of Croatia, Split, on the Adriatic Sea.....beautiful! Diocletian was the Roman Emperor who ruled the Roman Empire in 3/4 C. He was the most horrendous Roman ruler who slaughtered the most Christians of all Emperors. Thousand Christians were sent the the Arena Coleseum in Rome. After Jesus Christ was Crucified, Romans began converting to Christianity, i.e. to Roman Catholicism. He, to stop the spread of Christianity, gave orders to his army, all over the Roman Empire to hunt them and have them put in the Arena to be used for entertainment killings, for the Roman populace. Those who did not die immediately, were dragged off to be put onto a heap to be finished off at the end of the games. This was the most popular entertainment of the Rome.

[@BobJohnson648]

Yes, good to know about the inhabitants!

[@artistjoh]

Diocletian vastly improved the lives of most Roman citizens by ending 70 years of strife. He was a reformer who made taxes more equitable, he attempted (although failed) to control food prices, rebuilt administrative centers and brought peace to the empire. He also correctly saw that Christianity would end the great days of the empire, although his methods for dealing with Christians was both immoral and ineffective. However, looking at the destruction of culture, education, and health services by early Christians once they got in power shows that they were as bad, if not worse than the ISIS regime. Those early Christians tried to erase history. The palace, for example contained around 17 sphinxes from the time of Pharaoh Thutmose III and were more than 2,000 years old. The Christians destroyed most, decapitated one, and only one survives. These people were vandals of the worst kind, so Diocletian's attempt to eliminate them is little different to us fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, or ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Fighting these sort of people is a no-win situation, but doing nothing also is not good. Considering the millions of people who were put to death by Christians during the Medieval period in local pogroms against non-Christians, and the 20+ million who were murdered in the genocides of the Christian Crusades, it can be argued that Diocletian was right to treat the Christians as terrorists. More than 1500 years of Christian propaganda has painted Diocletian as a bad and cruel emperor, but that propaganda conveniently ignores the destruction and deaths caused by Christians during their reign of terror. We refer to it as The Dark Ages for good reason.

@@artistjoh What a dumb comment. The fall of Roman empire started long before Diocletian. He was born in Salona, a few km from Split and he didn't improve anything. This building was his retirement retreat, at least that's what they told us and which does not make any sense. Also, we lived thru socialism and there is no bigger idiots, nor there ever was, than that bunch of vandals. Yes, Christians did some shi.y staff thru the years, but you seem a bit too much. Diocletian was an idiot with too much power and spare time, just like commies.

[@dannyboy-vtc5741]

It's only a shame and pity he didn't succeed imo, abrahamic religions spread could have been prevented then and there, just imagine the world we would have without those christian and muslim and jewish fuckers, every time i pass to split i think of what could have been, especially those retarded dalmatians and herzegovnas, but any catholic, any christian, muslim or jew for that matter, and i mean the religion not the nationality or ethnicity.

[@Blackadder75]

@@artistjoh hear, hear!

[@PEPEDEBARRO]

Great work. What surprises me a little is that such a military looking compound did not hace a moat on the three land sides. It is like the sublimation of a Roman military camp. Also, I wonder if this design had an influence on that of El Escorial or Les Invalides.

[@dubuyajay9964]

It's at sea level and hugs the sea on one side. I'm not sure a moat is a good idea in an area prone to flooding. Plus this illustration doesn't show the town around it. You'd have to tear up a lot of streets and throw people out of a lot of houses to do even make a ditch.

[@mpaulwebb8345]

Fantastic!!!

[@joaobatistadeoliveiraolive5316]

Very Good from Brazil

[@MartinBettler]

Very interesting ! A suggestion: Some historical / structural / demographic backgrounds as an off voice would add well!

[@Niki91-HR]

It is close enough....inside the palace, at the Peristyle the entrance to the substructure is missing. But nice work

[@foarto4247]

Entrance to substructures is a modern project together with peristyle square immersion. It was not there till 20th century.

[@Niki91-HR]

@@foarto4247 ha?

[@christopherellis2663]

D16 Cafe! The terrain is more rugged than appears here. The coastline has been extended. I have been there four times.

[@brucebenson5908]

It would be more interesting to juxtapose your very good work with drawings or photographs of how the palace looks today. It is a major commercial center of restaurants and shops in what is now downtown Split, or Spelato.

[@johnmonkus4600]

Looking forward to the elaboration of the model! Acanthus wallpaper?

[@BoRjAeStEvE]

how can I miss an era I did not even live in

[@juhajuntunen7866]

Quality is never out of style.

[@AndreCaronCaron]

Quelle merveille. Quelle civilisation que ces romains!

[@markthrasher6770]

Interesting Rhodes piano music

[@igorsimac391]

very interesting, thank you! But I think the right location on the first map is in the smaller bay on the right.

[@ronaldjohnson1474]

Great reconstruction, but, having been there, I think your shadows are backwards. The water side would be to the west and the sun would be to the viewer's left upon entering from the east.

[@skysthelimit1982]

This is fantastic work. I recently purchased the Atlas of Ancient Rome, a book I think you would enjoy immensely. What is the accompanying music track, if you don't mind? It was very atmospheric. One can feel the end of the tetrarchy outside the walls listening to that melody and viewing your model. Kudos

[@nitko678]

You have never been in Split right? But this is close enough 😉

[@davidturner2113]

Wow that was a really huge impressive beautiful place. Must have had several thousand guards to protect it on three shifts. Loved the way it had its own protected harbor. I Still wonder how they heated the rooms they lived in during the winter months in ancient times? Many models don't show any fireplaces inside the rooms. I wonder what the bathrooms were like? Must have had thousands of slaves to keep the place up inside and out.

[@TheCalamityJim]

You can google (or any shearch engine of your choice) Hypocaustum if you want to know more about their heating systems.

[@felipericketts]

Isn't Sketchup a blast?

[@simonkemfors]

How big is this compared to hadrian's villa

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

Roman architecture is pretty sophisticated taking into account that they were so primitive and cruel in many other aspects of life.

[@carausiuscaesar5672]

Great video i wonder tho if they still wore togas like Cicero did in 45 BC as depicted or was their garb changed by 305 AD?That is 350 years gone by!After all people today in 2021 do not dress as the people did in 1671.

[@xmaniac99]

Split = Spalato = Palatium = Palace or something in that order

[@legatus7244]

Nope, the city of Split got it's name from flowering plant species spartium, which grow in and around the city in abundance. When the old greeks came here in 3rd century BC and established the colony, they called it "Aspalathos". So it's: Aspalathos=Spalatum=Spalato=Split

[@johannesgunterman5498]

Best Thing is you can buy Apartments there

[@eugenkvaternik3861]

the video animation is too simple. When you are there, you can see on one side the lower building with very large stones, which are very similar to the buildings of the pharaohs, and above it the typical construction of the ancient Romans with bricks and smaller stones.

[@chickenassasintk]

arr a fellow hotmail man. We are a dying breed. remnants of a older generation of ancients. lol

[@weilandiv8310]

He could have constructed many schools and orphanages for the cost of this small city

[@jamesabestos2800]

Lookin' Goodish Serve a little less music (still keep it tho)

[@tombuddy100]

That Jupiter temple is still there, but it is surrounded by houses and buildings made of stone that were built later. There is no open space in front of it now. There is only a narrow pedestrian street. Also, most pillars in the palace did not survive, except the ones on Peristyle, the central part of the palace.

[@dunjalm1097]

🐶🐱😊

[@balkanboy1203]

Diokletian was Yugoslav from Dicmo, a Dalmatian village.

[@adelindazambrano6774]

Žao mi je zbog ovog načina kontaktiranja s vama, ali vrijeme mi ne ostavlja izbora. Znam da će vas ova poruka iznenaditi jer se nismo poznavali, ali Božja milost me poslala k vama i želim da pažljivo pročitate moju poruku. Moje ime je uglavnom Zambrano Adelinda talijanskog podrijetla i živim u Francuskoj koja pati od ozbiljne bolesti koja me osuđuje na sigurnu smrt: rak grla Imam struk od 850.000 eura koji bih želio donirati nekome pouzdan i iskren pa% od tog novca koristi za pomoć siromašnima oko sebe, ostatak će joj se vratiti jer me Bog štovao za vas. Posjedujem prodavaonicu rabljenih automobila i prije 8 godina izgubila sam muža što je jako utjecalo na mene i do sada se nisam uspjela ponovno udati, a ni djeca. Želio bih donirati ovaj iznos kada umrem, jer su mi dani odbrojani zbog odsutnosti ove bolesti zbog koje nisam bio liječen, želio bih znati kasnije možete li iskoristiti ovu donaciju. S obzirom na moju trenutnu situaciju, nisam navikao biti povezan s youtubeom, kontaktirajte me e-poštom za više informacija: [e-mail] Hvala vam...

[@johna.4334]

@@adelindazambrano6774 ???

[@BobJohnson648]

@@adelindazambrano6774 are you sure you are not Nigerian?

[@tm-mp-7200]

Ever consider what you are looking at... assuming it is accurate. There were not union stone masons or builders unions or even a construction company involved. How do you pay for this... do you pay for it or just withhold food from slaves? Overseers need to feed their families, workers families ( or even some slaves have families)... the years it took.... whole lot of people suffered a lot to achieve this villa.

[@Aristocles22]

It had the resources of at least a fraction of the Roman Empire behind it. It's not THAT big, either; Rome had legionary fortresses which were much bigger and housed more people without being an undo strain on the budget. This is a few dozen buildings (if even that) behind a few thick walls with some towers. It would be very expensive for a medieval king, but not someone with Diocletian's resources. Also consider that he and his co-emperors build a colossal bath house complex in Rome (Baths of Diocletian), which is even larger than Caracalla's already gigantic baths there. Diocletian also built a (smaller?) palace in Nicomedia, the empire's capital at the time, along with a large circus there. It was all expensive, but all of that stuff combined was no real strain on the budget compared to the 500,000+ soldiers and sailors Rome had under arms. Not to mention all of Rome's horses, fortresses, and more mundane infrastructure to maintain such as roads, aqueducts, bridges, etc.

[@patrickmizelle9001]

laid out like a typical castra

[@fload46d]

Other than Nero and Caligula, Diocletian was probably the bloodiest emperor in the history of Rome. He is for sure in hell.

[@MultiEvil85]

He tried to save the ancient world from Christianity! He is a great emperor to my eyes and there is not such thing as hell!

[@Blackadder75]

every emperor was a war criminal by modern ethical standards, including the 'good' ones like Trajan or Augustus. Those times were just different. A ruler killed people, genocide all around. Same goes for any biblical king, mythical or real. that being said, diocletian was not worse than others, it's just christian propaganda to paint him black.

[@anacletwilliams8315]

Good job!