How Roman Cities got their Modern Names

How Londinium became London, Lugdunum became Lyon, and Borbetomagus became Worms.
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:15 Patterns
2:20 Britain
3:47 Germany
4:45 France
5:14 Spain and Italy
6:12 Ground News
7:39 The Balkans
8:11 Greece and Turkey
9:11 The Middle East and North Africa
9:53 Medieval nicknames
10:41 Re-classicized names
11:31 Faux classical names
12:06 Forgotten names

[@toldinstone]

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[@ezekielbrockmann114]

Cádiz isn't a Roman city name but a Phonecian one.

[@tongobong1]

You should mention the great Roman city of Emona that is today Ljubljana the capital of Slovenia.

[@AABb-hs9jt]

​@ezekielbrockmann114 For your information:🔴 The Phoenicians are Canaanite peoples, and the Canaanites are ancient Arab peoples.

[@abelgma]

Mistake: Valencia in Spain was Valentium

[@randomrazr]

do you think if the roman empire somehow held together to modern era we could have been 1000 years more advanced?

[@maxwellli7057]

contrary to popular belief, Constantinople wasn't officially given its modern name Istanbul right after it was conquered by the Ottomans, but only in 1930 after the Ottoman state collapsed. For the essentially the entire length of the Ottoman period, their capital was Konstantiniyye.

[@thechairman1306]

Makes sense, the Ottomans wanted to be seen as Rome's inheritors after all.

[@jaimetalaverafranco774]

In the grand bazar I was looking for souvenir t-shirt with the name of Constantinople or Konstantiniyye but I failed. The merchants just acted odd when asked about it

[@ggoddkkiller1342]

Pronouncing Constantinople is literally torture in Turkish as it lacks any kind of vowel harmony so Ottoman had to soften it to Konstantiniyye as soon as they captured it. Although even Greeks weren't bothering to pronounce Constantinople rather kept using different names including ''polin'' simply meaning city. Ottoman mostly used original names with slight altering for centuries, the real change happened after republic era. During Turkish language reforms pretty much all city names were changed to add them vowel harmony. Same happened to all borrowed words in Turkish, if foreign words could be altered to become compatible with Turkish grammar they were changed accordingly. While if not they were phased out and at the end Turkish became softest Turkic language with pretty much all words having vowel harmony.

[@Alex_Plante]

I read somewhere years ago, and I don't remember where and I have no idea if it's true, but apparently by the time the Turks conquered Constantinople, the local Greek-speaking people were using the slang short form of "Stampol", which is the origin of "Istambul".

[@riikkaalanen3429]

@@Alex_PlanteI’ve heard it too, and the slang name came from Greek eis ten Polin “to the City”, as in “You going to the city?” “Yep, to the City”, eistinpolin > istanbul

[@kesorangutan6170]

In turkish, we translated "polis" to "bolu". So Gelibolu is "Gallipolis", Safranbolu is "Saffronpolis" İnebolu is "İonopolis" etc. Which makes Bolu the town just "polis" :D

[@djtanaliz]

Hayrabolu

[@Stef77777]

Does “Anadolu Efes” mean “anatolic Ephesus”? Because the translation just says anadolu efes in Greek letters.

[@Kadir-lq5rz]

yes ​@@Stef77777

[@Stef77777]

@@Kadir-lq5rz thank you

[@kesorangutan6170]

@@Stef77777 Anadolu = Anatolia. Name of the team. Also name of the holding that owns the team. Efes = Ephesos. Name of the team's sponsor, Efes beer company. Named after the city of Efes/Ephesos

[@Albanus15]

-Lets name this city "New York" - 2000 years later : Neeurk

[@napoleonfeanor]

Depends on the ethnic groups having conquered the place over that time.

[@Pouncer9000]

"We don't know the exact origin of the name but it bears a high resemblance to the word knee-jerk , perhaps because its inhabitants were known for being prompt in their dismissiveness."

[@synkkamaan1331]

Or even, Newark.

[@romaboo6218]

originally a dutch city, New Amsterdam

[@publicminx]

the correct name in 2000 years was rather 'New Orcs'

[@Antaquelas]

Born and raised in Antioch. My village is right next to Orontes river (Asi in Turkish). People lived here for thousands of years. My uncles have found tons of Roman coins. There were literally thousands of them. They all ended up in the bottom of the river unfortunately. They fear government would take away their only livelihood. Also while trekking a nearby mountain, I have found tiny part of a mosaic that was broken and used as a wall. Antioch is filled with history.

[@user-hu4si9nm7u]

yes ancient greek and roman history

[@h3egypt]

Antioch was built by one of Alexander's generals which it bears his name antiochus.. edit was actually built by his son selecus in honor of his father antiochus

[@n00b_n00b_]

​@@user-hu4si9nm7u Greeks again crying about us ladi da nothing new, in another news water is wet

[@faridmaulaui3644]

so youre syrian

[@hypersp3ce596]

@@user-hu4si9nm7uand Turkish history

[@Alex-mv3ht]

Zaragoza was Caesar-augusta. The arabs called it سرقسطة (Saraqusṭa) which was a little closer to the original

[@RFmath_]

yeah I'm surprised he got that wrong

[@Dan-hispano.]

Así es. La ciudad de Zaragoza que los hispanoamericanos pronunciamos Saragosa (Sara goza). 😂

[@nicktamer4969]

@@Dan-hispano. In french it's Saragosse.

[@TheJosman]

​@@Dan-hispano.I'm Mexican. Zaragoza is my surname 😅

[@Dan-hispano.]

@@TheJosman ¿Yosman y Sara Gozan?

[@mowtow90]

There are more cities in Bulgaria that still keep their Roman or Greek names. Nikopolis/Nikopol , Mesembria kept its name for a long time until it was altered to Neseber. Sozopolis became Sozopol. The extention "pol" in Bulgarian, roots from greek word Polis (city-state) and usually indicate that it was a former Greek colony. The Romans mostly kept the greek names or just "basterdized" the word while translating it from Greek to Latin. However other major cities changed drastically. My home town of Augusta-Trayna/Irinopolis (Stara Zagora) for example. The modern name came from the Turkish name Eski Zara (the new name pretty much means Old Zara). However the city had 8 names in total because it was inhabited since the neolitic period. It was a major Thracian city before Alexander tookover and then the Romans. Serdica (modern day Sofia) went true a lot of changes mostly around the Roman name until it was finaly renamed into Sofia.

[@cristian_marino]

Montana - the city and the region is of Roman origin and has not changed the name

[@nachomanandycabbage9113]

I’ve been to Nesebar it’s brilliant

[@theokaraman]

In the modern Greek language we still call some Bulgarian cities with the ancient Greek / Roman name. For example, Plovdiv is still called in Greece "Philippopolis". Until recently , and maybe still in some circles- Burgas was called "Pyrgos" (= Tower) and Asenovgrad was called "Stenimachos".

[@ekn_38]

Eski Zara means Old Zara. Yeni Zara would be New Zara

[@mowtow90]

@@theokaraman From what I found in historical documents and books , it looks like both Bulgarain Tzarstvoms in the middle ages mostly kept the original names. The changes ware done after the Otoman liberation because the turks renamed most of the cities with turkish names. That is what triggered the changes from Turkish to Bulgaian.

[@alessiocirillo7214]

At 5:55 - Taranto (spelled Tàranto, NOT Tarànto), in Italy was indeed called Tarentum during the Roman domination, but that name comes from its previous Greek name: Taras (Τάρας), Sparta's only colony.

[@PoolD3ad007]

And our ancient colonists Achaeans ,colonized and have founded Crotone ( Crotonas) city 710 BC . I leave in region/state Achaia near to Laconia state that Great Spartans colonized Taranto (Tarantas) as Pelloponissian too !!

[@ethanoffenbacher4829]

One of the more interesting examples of name shortening is the French city of Metz. It was originally known in Latin as Divodurum Mediomatricorum, a Celtic-Latin hybrid meaning "Holy Fortress of the Mediomatrici", a local Gaulish tribe. This was shortened in the later Roman period to Mediomatrix, and later after the fall of the empire into Mettis. This was further contracted in French and German into Metz. In spoken French the shortening continued even further, and the name is now pronounced "Mes", with a silent "t".

[@toriwilson6961]

Thank you for all the captions. I know it is very time consuming for you but it makes "further reading" much easier for the audience. Thank you.

[@BrokenToken1]

i shat myself

[@aidandavis_]

@@BrokenToken1Aren't you special.

[@BrokenToken1]

@@aidandavis_ yea

[@scottabc72]

The largest city in the occupied West Bank, Nablus, was originally the Roman Neapolis. And modern Turkish Antakya is partly built on historic Antioch/Antiochia

[@thedailymaqam]

The word Damascus is actually a Latinized version of the city name Dimashq and not the other way around. It comes from Aramaic Dimashq. The city itself is much, much, much older than Rome.

[@metsfan1873]

It's also older than Aramaic, and probably comes from an even earlier Semitic language. But this is a little bit iffy, since it long predates writing! Torah - which is relevant because it's a pretty old book (anything from 1300-600 BCE, depending whose timeline you accept) calls it "Dameshek" which nicely matches your Aramaic, especially since they used the same 22-letter Semitic alphabet (in slightly different forms) and neither wrote vowels. The region is called Aram Dameshek, "Aram of Damascus" to distinguish it from Aram Naharayim "Aram of the Paired Rivers" (~modern Iraq) - the language of both regions being a dialect continuum all of which was regarded as Aramaic well before Torah was written (by anybody's timeline.... except the most mystical).

[@mattbonanza9032]

It would be interesting to see this video with topic how Roman cities were called before they were "renamed" by Romans

[@CzechMirco]

@@metsfan1873 Interesting, we Czechs call Damascus "Damašek" (the Czech letter "š" is the equivalent of the English "sh" sound) which pretty much matches the Torah oldest variant mentioned by you.

[@metsfan1873]

Oldest recorded variant, probably. There are very likely references in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian records but the first two will overlap with the possible dates of Torah composition (a VERY complicated topic indeed). Egyptian records of course go much further back, but their heavy involvement as far afield as Damascus is rather late, as Egypt goes. Any historical events mentioned in what Christians call "OT" that occur after 900BCE or thereabouts, are mostly confirmed in the archaeology and sometimes in documents from the other nations involved. Anything before that, is much iffier. But that doesn't pin down the date at which things were WRITTEN. I'm talking about when things HAPPENED, and all we can say with 100% certainty is that they were written about later, but one day later or 500 years later? It's complicated. Damascus is also regarded as the oldest continuously-occupied place on earth. (There were cities before Damascus and certainly any number of villages, but the other ones have all experienced periods of abandonment. Damascus has been continuously occupied for ALL of recorded history and archeology says quite a long time before written history.

[@marneus]

Same with Gadir (Cadiz)

[@volkhen0]

In Polish Milan is still called Mediolan. Also Aachen is still called by Latin name Akwizgran.

[@nicktamer4969]

Marseille was Massalia in her greek times, then Massilia in the roman times. It's not the subject of this vid, but I always found strange that the mountains between Spain and France got a pure greek name (Pyrenees) so far away from Greece. By the way, Heracles is on the Andalusian flag.

[@malcolmcurran6248]

Well maybe not so far away as it might seem to us today. Greek colonists from Marseille (Massalia) setteled in Empuries (emporium or trading center) on the Costa Brava close to the eastern end of the Pyrenees in 575 BC. The origin of the name however may be more uncertain.That the Greeks named the mountains after Hercules ' daughter Pyrene as is the gererally accepted theory, may only have been because the name sounded similar to them ( like Cuernavaca did to the Spanish in Mexico) as a now lost or as yet undeciphered original Iberian cognate for the Pyrenees of the people the Greeks were principally trading with. Terms for landscape features need to be agreed upon to make any sense about directions, locations and distances.Toponyms generally evolve as Garrett Ryan so excellently explains but rarely are, at least where people have been settled for many generations, completely replaced.

[@MegaMayday16]

And Atlas mountain in North Africa Greek name

[@paardusmann2712]

​@MegaMayday16 For the word "Atlas", its Greek origin is not that clear. Its etymology remains unknown past a certain point, since it may as well be of Berber or even pre-Greek origins.

[@nicktamer4969]

Egypt is a greek word as well.

[@malcolmcurran6248]

@@nicktamer4969 yes it is a Greek pronunciation of the Egyptian original for Memphis. The Greeks were in Egypt for a long time about two millennia and left a deep influence lasting until they were expelled from Egypt by Nasar's nationalist government around 1960. The recent discoveries of the now sunken Hellenistic city of Herakleion near Alexandria show an incredible mix and synthesis of the two cultures.

[@rienksjoerdsma]

Some examples from the Netherlands: Noviomagus = Nijmegen Trajectum = Utrecht Mosae Trajectum = Maastricht Forum Hadriani = Voorburg

[@sancheeez]

fun fact: Toldinstone comes from the medieval name for the channel, Toldern's Town, which in turn was named after the ancient Roman limewire client of Tuledinum.

[@stonedwizard0420]

ahh, a student of internet history

[@fariesz6786]

actually, Beekes argues for a Pre-Greek origin

[@user-vo9wd6tx6c]

Colchester used to be "Camulodunum", the inspiration for "Camelot". Also Turkish names can be strange because of the prefix Iz-. Nicea > Iznik, Smyrna > Izmir, etc.

[@gro2020]

I think the "Iz" prefix in Iznik comes from Greek "eis" which means "to" Similar to : Eis tin polis -> Istanbul For Nicea : Eis Nicea -> Iznik But in the case of Izmir, it's not because of the prefix "iz". Turkish doesn't like consonant clusters, so it adds vowels in front of them Examples : Scandinavia -> Iskandinavya, Spain -> Ispanya, Smyrna -> Izmir

[@user-rw6ww6xl4m]

@@gro2020 Not sure Spain is an example of Turkish addition, given Latin "Hispania", Greek "Ισπανία" and Spanish "España". Though I guess they haven't dropped that leading vowel, which is something at least.

[@_Diana_S]

Vowel E/I was added before two consonants, because two consonants in the beginning are very difficult to pronounce in Turkish. That's why Stambul is pronounced Istanbul and Smyrna turned into Izmir.

[@turplexx233]

It happens in Spain word for both Russian and Turkish. ispanya.

[@wythore]

In Portugal, even though the names of the cities have evolved since they were founded by roman settlers, we still use their latin names when refering to someone that inhabits that place. So for example, modern day Chaves was known as "Aqua Flaviae" so their inhabitants are known as "Flavienses" (as in, "inhabitant of Flaviae"); city of Braga was known as "Bracara Augusta", so their inhabitants are "Bracarenses"; the city of Castelo Branco was known as "Albicastrum" (litearlly White Castle, the same as the portuguese name), so their inhabitants are "Albicastrenses". I think this is really cool, keeps their original name still present in th people's mind and language.

[@kaloarepo288]

Same in England where an inhabitant of Manchester is called "Mancunian" and lots of other examples - Novocastrian for person from Newcastle etc

[@module79l28]

More examples: - Santarém: the romans named it _Scallabis,_ so its inhabitants are called "escalabitanos". - Évora: the romans named it _Ebora,_ so its inhabitants are called "eborenses". - Beja: the romans called it _Pax Julia,_ so its inhabitants are called "pacenses". - Lagos: the romans called it _Lacobriga,_ so its inhabitants are called "lacobrigenses". 🙂

[@kaloarepo288]

@@module79l28 And therefore Lagos in Nigeria -one of the world's biggest cities!

[@module79l28]

@@kaloarepo288 - Hum... I don't see your point.

[@kaloarepo288]

@@module79l28 Lagos in Nigeria was named by a Portuguese explorer either because of the lakes there or after the town of Lagos in Portugal

[@kacperwoch4368]

Interesting fact, many old Roman cities are known under their earlier names in Polish (and likely other Slavic languages), prolly borrowed during the medieval period and reflecting the Latin of that time, for example: Ratyzbona - Regensburg Kolonia - Koln Moguncja - Mainz Akwizgran - Aachen Trewir - Trier Koblencja - Koblenz Nicea - Nice Bazylea - Basel Mediolan - Milano Neapol - Napoli Trydent - Trento This is most common with German and Italian names, much rarer with French or Spanish ones. The name of the city of Rome is possibly the oldest borrowing into Slavic languages, so old in fact that it underwent phonological changes resulting in forms like Rzym/Rim/Řim which sound nothing like Latin "Roma".

[@napoleonfeanor]

More likely because of Latin having been the lingua franca and those places keeping a latin sounding name when written in Latin.

[@kacperwoch4368]

@@napoleonfeanor This may be true for Italy but definately not the case with Germany, German was the Lingua franca of central Europe during the middle ages.

[@balazsandrasfekete7121]

@@kacperwoch4368 Not when dealing with foreign people. For example the offical language of the Hapsburg lands in Central Europe (the territory that will later be the Austrian Empire) kept latin as an official language until Joseph II ordered it to be German in the 1700s.Educated people in Europe could speak latin and apart from the Catholic church it was the language of Universities as well.

[@swetoniuszkorda5737]

Kadyks - Cadiz Wiedeń - Wien Paryż (not Lutecja, alas!) - Paris Monachium - Muenchen Londyn - London Rodan - Rhone Sekwana - Seine

[@airsoftturtle307]

Where i live in Serbia we still call it Constantinople and Nicea

[@t.vanoosterhout233]

Several places named 'Noviomagus', one of which evolved into Nijmegen.

[@zxk]

some more cities i know in Algeria: Milevum became Mila Setifis became Setif Tipasa became Tipaza Vescera became Biskra

[@ahmetcanoral7671]

In Turkey there are many cities that keeps their original name; Sinope - Sinop Tarsus - Tarsus Pergamum - Bergama Side - Side Trapesozc - Trabzon Amasia - Amasya Moderna - Mudurnu Edessa - Urfa Biga - Biga Magnesia - Manisa There are much more...

[@davidsmithy123]

edessa and urfa doesn't sound even remotely close

[@vanmars5718]

Maybe only Moderna is of Latin origin while the rest are Greek (which the video oh funnily says that only cities in Greece have Greek origin name) or anatolian. Pergamum is the Latin pronunciation of Pergamon, Edessa is a Macedonian city in Greece founded by the Hellenistic dynasties after Alexander, as is Antalya, Antioch etc. Poor video

[@fishconnoisseur]

You used a lot of Greek origin ones, so I think it’s fair to mention the jewel itself Istanbul which has a Greek origin for the name as well, though not being the same as Konstantinyye

[@vanmars5718]

@@fishconnoisseur the video calls Greek cities as Marseille, Nice, Taranto, Smyrna etc etc etc as of romance origin...So how anyone can attribute the actual origin of the name to Greek when major roman history buffs always do the same thing again and again by handling Greek as something you can find in Greece alone? The entire Mediterranean was taken by Rome and these guys only use the latinised version of city names despite that half the empire spoke Greek as equal to Latin. Come on, its all starts with roman historians of the West, they do this thing since the middle ages.

[@fishconnoisseur]

@@vanmars5718 I’d argue modern Greeks are as Roman as Italians anyway, after all the Greeks held out as Romans far longer than Italy, and the modern Greek identity wouldn’t exist without Rome.

[@TriviRocks]

I knew some of those ancient names thanks to the Asterix comics (by René Goscinny). They taught me a lot about ancient Rome! 😊

[@dianecrepeault5423]

Vive les gaulois!

[@TriviRocks]

@@dianecrepeault5423 Haha, yes. But did you know Goscinny lived in Argentina, and Obelix's trousers have the colour of our flag on purpose? The protagonists's friendship takes after Argentinians' too... 🤗

[@riograndedosulball248]

I am 10.000 kilometres away from France, and I don't think I'll ever visit her, but the name Lutetia Parisorum is engraved into my brain because of Asterix lol

[@dianecrepeault5423]

@@TriviRocks I did not know that, thanks for sharing that 😀

[@thearcanamodernau8130]

I am Mexican so I have to admit that most of my knowledge of France/Roman history comes from Asterix comics lol I'm trying to complement with these types of videos

[@WYSKAtube]

Barcino is Barcelona, and Taraco is Tarragona... There is still a lovely, extremely well preserved Amphitheater in Tarragona! I live in what was known as "Castrum Octavianarum" in antiquity. I'd love to show you around Catalunya (GIRONA!!!!! Too!!!!!)

[@user-cf9cl4oi6l]

Baetulo is Badalona

[@leod-sigefast]

I used to live in Tarragona! I'm English but spent 6 lovely years there. I enjoyed my time there. I used to live in the Casc Antic ("Old Town") and found out from the local museum that that was built upon the administration/forum area of Tarraco with the Cathedral build on top of the basilica. I also liked how the main square plaça de la font was build on the footprint of the old circus (chariot racetrack stadium).

[@PoolD3ad007]

I didn't know that Latin word for castle 🏰 was Castrum , it sounds similar to Greek word 'Castro ' ( Κάστρο) like Fidel 'Castro '😂😂

[@AlexandruBurda]

Very interesting that Caesarea has the name closest to the latin one in Turkey (at 1:40). It even kept the classical latin pronunciation. 🙂

[@tzvi7989]

As does the Caesarea in Israel

[@oguzzengin9435]

because Turkish and Latin pronunciations are basically the same.

[@PoolD3ad007]

And Καισάρεια or Caesárea pronounced just the same in Greek except for the 1st letter "C "that is pronounced as (K) not as ( S) for example Kaesárea as the Turkish team kayserispor 😂😂 😜

[@XmarkedSpot]

Pécs in southern Hungary has an interesting history. The first (recorded) name was Sopianae, from the 3rd century on Quinque Ecclesiae meaning "five churches" which became an unbroken trend: the Germans call it Fünfkirchen (literally: five churches) to this day, during the Ottoman occupation it was Beş (literally Turkish: five) which then morphed into contemporary Pécs. EDIT: Some argue that it's rather derived from the Slavic root word for five [рętь] but the concept remains nonetheless: it is the City of Five Churches.

[@mfaizsyahmi]

So it's not named after the muscle after all? 💪

[@XmarkedSpot]

@@mfaizsyahmi ? Oh i see, pecs 🍗as in pectoral 😅

[@ekesandras1481]

Alba Iulia, Gyulafehérvár, Weißenburg, Belgorod

[@fatherofhistory]

I never realized how many modern city names stem from their Roman past. The connections between Cordoba and Cadiz are particularly cool.

[@jorge6594]

Turkey is full of disguised Roman and Greek names. Like Edirne (Adrianopolis), Trabzon (Trebisonda), Sinop (Sinope), Bergama (Pergamon), Antalya (Attaleia), Manisa (Magnesia), Lapseki (Lampsakos), Uskudar (Chalcedon), Didim (Didyma), Tarsos (Tarsus), Giresun (Kerasus/Cerasus), and I think there's a lot more. Maybe someone from Turkey can shed more light about this topic.

[@disasterpeace9009]

City names just changed in a way that is easy to pronounce in Turkish. Ottomans didn't bother the change the names, my guess of the reason is their claim of being a successor of Rome. After the republic, some of the names got even more Turkish sounding. Rarely, if they thought Ottomans messed up naming , the historic name was given back to the city.

[@tanervardal4201]

Most important missed in the video is Constantinople, again changed to Istanbul by the Ottomans! Not in to the city!!

[@disasterpeace9009]

@@tanervardal4201 'Istanbul' name was given by the Republic of Turkey, not the Ottomans. The city was formally called 'Konstantiniyye' between the years 1453-1929.

[@omerfidan892]

@@disasterpeace9009 you are right about ottomans and rome. they changed their title to empire after conquering the constantinopol and claimed that they are successor to rome. Noone acceepts its because of religion but rome has changed it before that. Ottomans copied many thing from rome like lifestyle and arcitecture etc.90 % of our mousques are copy of hagiasophia.

[@MindTrickMentor]

Chalcedon current ,Kadikoy Skutari current ,Uskudar ,true form is this. this 2 district is close next to eachoter.

[@lukasrentz3238]

11:35 An interesting Case might be "Porta Westfalica" in Germany, the Town was founded when 15 Villages united into a new Municipality. They have chosen the Name Porta Westfalica, which before was the Name of the local Landscape, a Gorge coming from the North being the Entrance into Westphalia, which itself was only in use since the 19th Century.

[@augth]

Most French cities have latinised Gaulish names. Usually it's a derivation of the name of the local tribe, Reims for the Remi, Limoges for the Lemovices, Saintes for the Santoni, Nantes for the Namnetes...

[@PoolD3ad007]

But we Greeks calls you Gauls not franks ( french) and the country Gallia ( Γαλλία) not France or Frankia , XD

[@xxAnaconta]

It should also be noted that a lot of Roman cities and settlements got their names from older local names. Especially in the Eastern provinces but also in the west in some cases, the Roman's were not the first settle most of these places.

[@leod-sigefast]

Same in Celtic Europe with many cities in Roman Spain, Portugal, France and England based on the Celtic tribe name or the name the Celts already used for the area.

[@EdMcF1]

The town of Serpa in Portugal's Alentejo (known for cheese and choral works) was in Roman times, also called 'Serpa'.

[@FrankyBabes]

MANCHESTER MENTIONED Manchester's Roman fort, at its height in the 3rd century, was a large stone-walled affair. Its outline is still visible on maps from the late 18th century. By the 19th century, with the encroachment of canals and the railway system, much of it had been dug away. It is still possible to trace the outline of the fort and partial reconstructions have been made for sections of the north and eastern walls, and one of the gatehouses. There have also been excavations of the civilian settlement outside the walls which have turned up some interesting finds. Most notably, the area in which the fort can be found is known today as "Castlefield" due to the remains of the fort which persisted for hundreds of years after the Romans left. It is on my running route!

[@Prefury]

That's very interesting. but I must ask, United or City?

[@FrankyBabes]

@@Prefury Not a football fan, which means I am the only true winner

[@lordgemini2376]

@@FrankyBabes Haha nice

[@leod-sigefast]

Yes, my home city too. The fort was built at the confluence of the rivers Medlock and Irwell - better defensive location. Like many Roman forts, a civilian _vicus_ often grew up outside the fortress. This basically was the birth of the cities. Another titbit, just as the Latin word Castra was borrowed in Anglo-Saxon Old English as C(h)ester the Latin word for small settlement _Vicus_ was borrowed into proto-Germanic was -wich or -wick. Hence, why there are a lot of placenames in Germanic speaking countries, such as England and parts of Scotland, that have the suffix -wich or -wick.

[@whachyagonnado]

keep in mind that alot of the roman names are versions of the prior native settlement's.. which morphed back to the native languages after roman presence...example zurich : celtic name ~600bc -15 bc turikon .. roman name: turicum ~15bc - 200ad .. germanic/ allemannic names ~200ad - present : turico, torico, turegum, ziurichi, zurih , züri/ zürich

[@tromboneman3037]

There's another in the Balkans that maintained fairly close to its roman name: Sisak, Croatia (roman Siscia).

[@knorfft]

Never would I have expected to see my hometown, Regensburg, be featured on your channel! Awesome work, as always!

[@BopWalk]

Great video, I have been longing for these kinds of videos, so fascinating to see the transformation of names.

[@michaelporzio7384]

Cincinnati, Ohio; Rome, New York; Cicero, Illinois and Hannibal, Missouri (sort of) Happy New Year to all! And thank you, Garrett for the great content.

[@guypalumbo7892]

Felice Capo d'anno from Gaius of Novus Eboraci (Guy from New York)! BTW, I work for a brilliant Justice of the NYS Supreme Court Here on Staten Island named Porzio!

[@raulpetrascu2696]

Constanța was actually named after Constantia, Constantine's sister

[@AlexandruBurda]

And during the ottoman period it was named Kyustendze. Name used in Bulgarian even today. 🙂

[@InAeternumRomaMater]

​@AlexandruBurda And we Romanian's use it since Rome

[@huskytail]

@@InAeternumRomaMater 🤣

[@InAeternumRomaMater]

@@huskytail Keep on laughing and jumping there little monkey. Both the name of "Dârstor", Constanța and Timocu are inherited by us from the Roman Empire, as Dorostolon, Constantiana and Timacum respectively. You are just too shocked to realise that both us and Greeks have a huge ancestral claim over all your homelands😁☝🏻

[@InAeternumRomaMater]

@@huskytail Laugh and jump how much you want, like a 🦧. But it is true, it is inherited in Romanian from Latin, just like "Darstor" and Timocu from Latin Dorostolon and Timacum respectively. The Romanian "Constanța" is inherited from Latin "Constantiana", and so is "Smirna" from Latin "Sirmium".

[@cllaudiusd521]

In Romania ( not only Constanta-Constanta ) : Ulpia Traiana Sarmisegetusa ( capital of Dacia Romana) - Sarmisegetusa , Napoca - Cluj Napoca, Drobeta - Drobeta Turnu Severin , Turris-Turnu Magurele and more.

[@InAeternumRomaMater]

Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa is named after the Roman settlement, it wasn't inherited. Drobeta and Napoca were renamed by Ceaușescus nationalistic party. Though Cluj is also Romance

[@nestingherit7012]

Sibiu Cibin river

[@cyberhikikomori5326]

I LOVE city historic nomenclature. Always love that AHA moment when you guess the root word of a city. Like in this instance, realizing Sevastopol came from Sebastos + polis made me feel it

[@PoolD3ad007]

That means respectful city 😜 , Greetings from Greece ,haha

[@dwls9986]

The correct Roman pronunciation of Caesarea is very close to Turkish Kayseri. For example, "Kaiser" in German is the correct pronunciation of "Caesar".

[@TXMEDRGR]

Thank you for the informational and entertaining explanation of city names.

[@alexj9603]

"Regensburg" is just a direct translation of the Latin name "Castra Regina" (castle on the [mouth of the] river Regen). The second name, Ratisbona, is of a completely different (and mostly unknown) origin and existed in parallel. As it was widely used by the church in Latin documents, it could easily spread into other languages like French and Polish.

[@swetoniuszkorda5737]

Me fool! Up to this very moment, I believed the name means "rainy castle". Now I firmly support "queen-castle". 😁 And this "Rati-" seems to me to be of Slavic origin. Like in "Racibórz"/pl -"Ratibor"/cz/de? But "-bona" sounds rather Romanesque.

[@alexj9603]

@@swetoniuszkorda5737 According to the German Wikipedia, the name "Radaspona" was first documented around 770 AD, but it probably goes back to a Celtic name.

[@swetoniuszkorda5737]

@@alexj9603 Well, thank you! Now it sounds like German "Spinnrad" - spinning-wheel. But Celtic origin likely too.

[@josephtrahan8045]

You know I always liked to see if I could make out there old names. Thanks for posting. This was fun & interesting.

[@ricardotabone3231]

What a fantastic video!! Not only for the quality and quantity of information, but also for the narration and visuals!

[@benjaminpratt2016]

Fantastic job my friend. Thank you for your work.

[@CanalTremocos]

My hometown was called Pax Julia by the Romans. Apparently medieval Arabic had so little phonetic overlap that Pax became Baja.

[@antoniof9756]

Beja, in portuguese.

[@silverchairsg]

My favourite city name of all time is still Wēh Antiōk Šāpūr, ie literally Shapur's Better Antoich. He captured the city and deported its inhabitants to elsewhere in his empire, and resettled them in a new city with this name. It never fails to make me chuckle.

[@ARx-mb6ig]

When talking about Aix you forgot the most important one: Aix-la-chapelle or Aachen in German, which seats the crowning dome for the Kaisers of the HRE. Also named after its thermal waters, which have a strong sulfuric smell, which was believed to alleviate symptoms of Rheuma.

[@kanfoosj]

The names of Cordoba, Seville, and some other Andalusian cities are Carthaginian (so Phoenician) in origin. Cordoba comes from "qrt juba" meaning the city of Juba (some Carthaginian general, I think), and this "qrt" is the same "carth" in Carthage, which comes from "qrt h'dash" meaning new city. And the Carthaginians also founded new Carthage in Iberia, which the Romans called Carthago Nova, literally "new new city". A cognate of "qrt" in arabic is qarya, meaning village. Another Roman "new city" is Nablus in Palestine, which was founded by the Romans as Flavia Neapolis, which morphed into Nablus, almost the same name as Naples, the most famous Neapolis. Also in the Levant, the city of Tiberias on the shores of the sea of Galilee, Tabariyya in Arabic, Tverya in Hebrew, is named after emperor Tiberius, whose name is in turn taken from the river Tiber in Rome. The sea of galilee (it's a lake), is called lake Tabariyya in Arabic (same as the city). So you have one body of water obliquely named after another body of water some 2300km away.

[@MegaMayday16]

Qrt could also be related to Hebrew kiriat or kariat?

[@kanfoosj]

@@MegaMayday16 yes.

[@MegaMayday16]

its so interesting. the encountere between indigenous people in north africa (amazigh) and semitic people from the east is so old. the phonician and the arabs later. but between phonicinan and islamic conquest north africa also saw the arrival of jewish communities that spoke hebrew or aramaic and settled among the amazigh. its interestig that these language families and word roots are around for such a long time

[@ryanradpictures]

What a fascinating exploration of how Roman cities got their modern names! This video provides a captivating journey into the historical origins and evolution of these cities' names. It's incredible to see how the influences of language, culture, and historical events have shaped the names we use today. The explanations and examples provided are informative and engaging, offering a deeper understanding of the rich history behind these city names. Thank you for sharing this enlightening content!

[@lauradekeyzer1945]

Thank you, Garrett! Again a lovely video ❤

[@ivoivic2448]

this whole process of name changes can be easily understood as a very complex game of broken telephone.

[@alexj9603]

Absolutely underrated comment. That's exactly how it worked over the millennia.

[@salihahzem]

In Turkey also among major cities; Kayseri from Caesaria (town of Caesar) , Sivas from Sebastia (from Tiberius), İskenderun from Alexanderetta (small Alexander); the list goes on and on.

[@ecurewitz]

This is the quality content I want! Thank you

[@gregorykinsey8135]

You do such utterly wonderful work!!! Many thanks from an East Asia specialist!

[@fapmashina1]

Great and very educative video but at the Croatian coastal region you've missed one very, very important place - large and important Roman city of Salona that was the seat of the Roman province of Dalmatia. This town is nowadays called SOLIN and it's name has changed only slightly. In early middle ages remaining settlers from this, once probably the most important Roman city at the Eastern Adriatic shore, inhabited nearby Roman emperor Diocletian's grand palace which marked the start of nowadays modern city of Split. At the other hand, in Continental Croatia there's also one more very important EX-Roman city that is still inhabited. In Roman times it was called Siscia and now it is known as SISAK. This is another example of very similar name although this area has been inhabited by the Slavs in middle ages. There are also some more examples in neighbouring countries such as (also once very important city) Roman Sirmium now known as SRIJEMSKA MITROVICA in Serbia. Greetings from the Ex-Roman settlement Marsonia originally written as Marsvnnia in Croatia

[@filipcamerman3473]

Many other cities in northern France also got their Celtic name replaced by the name of the tribe that lived there, just like Lutetia became Paris after the Parisii, as you mentioned. E.g. Durokorteron became Reims (after the Remii), Bratuspantion became Beauvais (after the Bellovaci), Nowiodunon became Soissons (after the Suessiones), Samarobriva became Amiens (after the Ambiani) and Nemetocenna became Arras (after the Atrebates). This because the Romans renamed them all "Colonia

[@leod-sigefast]

Did you know that the Celtic tribe that live in what is now Yorkshire, England was also named the Parisii tribe? I wonder if there was a link to the Gaulish Parisii? It probably came from a common Celtic word that described that tribe, like how the Germanic Franks were named after their throwing axe and the Saxons after their short swords, sax.

[@PoolD3ad007]

Fun fact : we Greeks calls you Gauls= gallous ,not the other ancient tribe of Franks( french)and your country Gallìa not France , but i don't know exactly why??🤔

[@filipcamerman3473]

@@PoolD3ad007 old habits die hard :)

[@thamuffinman6911]

Been waiting for this one

[@theslimelegacy]

Babe wake up, toldinstone just dropped!

[@1Rab]

This is the first time anyone has made this joke

[@implausibleimpossiblehypot4006]

Lol like a woman would watch a vid about ancient Rome

[@fabiansw8]

Its actually real cool to wake up and see an upload from toldinstone haha

[@hulkingmass]

Good one

[@fabiansw8]

@@Zigest yeah you are pretty lame, but thats ok.

[@theokaraman]

Some cities in South Italy got their Italian and Roman name after evolution of the Greek one, e.g. Agrigento comes from "Akragas", Taranto comes from "Taras" Napoli comes from "Neapolis" Messina comes from "Messini" and many others

[@PoolD3ad007]

And Crotone comes from ' Croton or Crotonas ' Κρότωνας in Greek . Also im leaving in same region of the ancient colonists that colonized Crotone long centuries ago 😜 , our team in football have great connection from the past with Crotone team as an Achaean guy !

[@ostrichhe4d]

Man I’ve been scrolling KZbin for so long and finally I find an actually interesting topic. Thanks👍

[@Shakazaramesh]

Thanks for making it easy to skip the ad, I could do it seamlessly.

[@pvito8570]

"Massilia" was the Roman name of the Greek origin name of "Marseille" (Greek: Μασσαλία, romanized: Massalía; Latin: Massilia) is a colony of the Greek city of "Φώκαια" (Phocaea) in Asia Minor.

[@G-Money124]

Thank you. This is an excellent video.

[@alessiorenzoni5586]

🇮🇹😉👍🏻How some Italian cities were known (some of which today, Nizza and Fiume, are under foreign sovereignty) in the times of ancient Rome: Abellinum-Avellino Aternum-Pescara Ancon-Ancona Ariminum-Rimini Arretium-Arezzo Asculum-Ascoli Piceno Augusta Praetoria-Aosta/Aoste Aususta Taurinorum-Torino Barium-Bari Bellum-Belluno Beneventum-Benevento Bergomum-Bergamo Bononia-Bologna Brixia-Brescia Brundisium-Brindisi Caesena-Cesena Caralis-Cagliari Catinum-Catania Cremona-Cremona Drepanum-Trapani Fanum Fortunae-Fano Florentia-Firenze Forum Livii-Forlì Genua-Genova Hasta-Asti Interamna Praetutia-Teramo Interamna Nahars-Terni Laus Pompeia-Lodi Leucum-Lecco Luca-Lucca Lupiae -Lecce Mantua-Montova Mediolanum-Milano Messana-Messina Mutina-Modena Neapolis-Napoli Nicaea-Nizza/NIce Novaria-Novara Novum Comum-Como Panormus-Palermo Parma-Parma Patavium-Padova Perusia-Perugia Pisae-Pisa Pisaurum-Pesaro Pistorium-Pistoia Placentia-Piacenza Potenti-Potenza Ravenna-Ravenna Reate-Rieti Regium Lepidi-Reggio Emilia Rhegion-Reggio Calabria ROMA-ROMA Sena Iulia-Siena Syracusae-Siracusa Tarentum-Taranto Tarsatica-Fiume/Rijeka Teate Marrucinorum-Chieti Tergeste-Trieste Ticinum-Pavia Tridentum-Trento Urvinum Metaurense-Urbino Verona-Verona Vicetia-Vicenza etcetera and etcetera

[@stevehammel2939]

Very informative, thank you!

[@miscalculatedmadness]

The starting music for this channel Is seared into my brain and I love it

[@lindat4294]

Thanks so much for this video. I new some names but you brought up many others. I've wondered about the topic for some time.

[@Ryan_Winter]

Zurich was founded approximately 40 AD under the name Turicum. When you look at its original name closely, you can tell that over time the ending "-um" fell away (--> Turic) and the T morphed into a Z ( --> Zuric). The Romans called the swiss town of Chur "Curia Raetorum", as it was a local meeting place, however, the Romans didn't found that place as it is much older. Its settlement began 11'000 years ago.

[@randomvintagefilm273]

Awesome video as always ❤

[@thetooginator153]

I like the painting “The Romans Leaving Britain” because the scene depicts something that certainly happened - a Roman soldier leaving his sweetheart forever. There was almost no way the soldier would ever return. This idea would make a great movie.

[@vanmars5718]

One major correction that all "Roman history buffs" should start to explain in the beginning of every video. Roman means both Latin and Greek in the actual context of the empire. Half the names you said in the video are actually Greek (Nice, Iznik, Izmir/Smyrna, Attaleia/Antalya, Massalia/Marseille, Tarantas/Tarentum, all cities ending with ~ polis etc etc.). But when you call them "Roman" people directly think of a Latin origin, or that were founded during the Roman period...which non of that is true. So, it's a bit frustrating to see Marseille or Nice in France or the South Italian cities or the cities in Anatolia to be under the "roman" categorization when in fact in the actual context is Greek which later became part of the Roman Empire and actually the main language for half of the empire.

[@v0rtexbeater]

We know

[@swetoniuszkorda5737]

Good point, but as far as I know, some Greeks called themselves "romanoi"?, and were quite proud of this.

[@vanmars5718]

@@swetoniuszkorda5737 Romaioi not romanoi, and they spoke Greek. But my comment isn't to draw a line in some sort of antagonistic relationship/competition btw Greek & Latin (since both were official languages of the empire) but to set things in their proper status. Cause if we have videos like these, believing that Greek names only remained in greece proper (and there only they pronounced it as Greek lol) while all other names were Latin or became latinised then makes no sense for someone to understand why the Roman Empire survived in the East and being officially Greek speaking. It would appear as some sort of linguistic conquest of the later Roman state which is absolutely false. The latin speakers might have the Greek names of the cities latinised for their language use but these cities and their inhabitants never really spoke Latin (at least in the Eastern part) or called their cities in this latinised version...it wasn't a drift there, but a continuum and their language was also official in the empire (which is never understood or presented as such). I'm only trying to make justice for the Eastern part which never really presented as it should and this lead to the surprise when we hear that this part remained Roman, believed to be Roman and had this continuum for the next 1000. My opinion of course, I might be wrong.

[@swetoniuszkorda5737]

@@vanmars5718 As far as I can follow, I can agree with you.

[@GeoBBB123]

@@swetoniuszkorda5737 All Greeks did - certainly by the end of the 'Byzantine period' and most well into the 19th century.

[@awebb4868]

I love this episode. Thank you.

[@andrespico9613]

Modern Ercolano in Italy used to be Resina, beneath which the famous Herculaneum was discovered in 1750 buried by Vesuvian ash; the town was renamed after it in 1969.

[@jonescrusher1]

Outstanding work here.

[@renaatsenechal]

I grew up in Tielt, a town of 20k people in Flanders. The earliest mention of the name is in 1105, where it refers to Tiletum, aka Roman road tiles. Or it could be Tilia, aka the lime trees wich we still have rows of in the center of the town. Lime trees where a symbol of love, friendship and family back then apparently.

[@slavkovalsky1671]

Just the other day, I realized that Cartagena might have something to do with Carthage. A few minutes later, I tracked down a fascinating story of how the "New New City," or Carthago Nova, got its name, first from the Punici, then from the Romans... Thank for this delicious treat of how some other city names weathered the passage of time.

[@clementeperez2870]

During the Second Punic War, the Hannibal's journey, crossing the Pyrenees and the Alps to attack Italy began from Cartagena, Spain.

[@citricdemon]

i'm a little stunned at your comprehensiveness

[@Lonaticus]

Besides Cluj-Napoca, there's also another city with a compound name to the south. Drobeta-Turnu Severin, located on the old roman castrum of Drobeta near the site of Trajan's bridge over the Danube.

[@vladconstantinminea]

Also Alba Iulia

[@ekesandras1481]

The town's true name is Cluj in Romanian and Napoca is an archeologic site whose name was added for nationalistic reasons. The real Latin name of Cluj is Claudiopolis, or Klausenburg in German or Koloszvár in Hungarian.

[@daciaromana2396]

Also, Apulum became the modern Alba Iulia. The castrum of the 13th legion in Alba Iulia.

[@3wL7]

@@ekesandras1481 The name of Cluj comes, most likely, from the Latin "Castrum Clus". It is mentioned in 1213 AD as "(Castrum) Clus" in Hungarian documents. The first Romanian name of the city was "Cluș", so the oldest name mentioned in Hungarian early medieval documents was the Romanian name "Cluș" which has been Magyarized later as "Kolozsvár". "Clusa/clausa" means "closed" in Latin and refers to the hills that surround the city. "Napoca" is a Dacian name that was used by Romans too after the Roman conquest of Dacia.

[@-Blast]

It’s weird you forgot to mention Tunisia where most modern day cities kept their original Roman names, some examples like: Tabarka Thabraca Bizerte Hippo Dhirythus Tunis Tunes Nabeul Neapolis Kelibia Clupea Hergla Horrea Caelia Lamta Leptus minus Gabes Tacapae Djerba Girba Beja Vacca Gafsa Capsa Tozeur Thusuros Nefta Nepte

[@PoolD3ad007]

Neapolis is Greek origins word not Latin and there is a city in South italy that called Napoli if you know and means ' new city ' 😜

[@lewissmith350]

I click like on toldinstone vids as soon as I start watching, as they are always so good.

[@turan_kaya]

My city in Anatolia was called Sebasteia and later Sivastopolis and now Sivas

[@GeoBBB123]

Nice Greek names there 😀

[@ezekielbrockmann114]

Your content is top shelf.

[@Raptorozaur]

This is very helpful, because I am readrawing hereford mappa mundi right now, and this helps me recognise different cities.

[@morganholon2648]

Amazing video, thank you so much

[@mr.booboo1]

i personally support this sponsorship. love ground news

[@MatthewDoye]

The closest to me is Ilchester from Lindinis, itself derived from the Brithonic for swampy lake, still a fairly accurate description after winter rains. Slightly further is Exeter from Isca Dumoniorum and Dorchester from Durnovaria. Possibly because Brithonic Celtic was still widely spoken after the collapse of centralised roman rule in Britain the names have a tortuous history. Many have their origin in tribes or pre existing place names adapted by the Romans, re-celticised in the post roman period, then brought into Old English by Anglo-Saxons. English itself has evolved enormously over the intervening circa 1400 years so some are barely recognisable.

[@martinhughes2549]

York in modern Welsh, is called Caer Effrog, which clearly has a link to Eborucum. Manceinion pretty similar to Mamacunium.

[@williamladine7591]

Let’s gooooo new toldinstone video

[@joaquinmig]

Two interesting and opposite examples of cities where I’ve lived! - Argentoratum became Strasbourg after Germanic tribes took over (since it was a bit crossroads it became the city of streets, Strassburg) - Tarraco became Tarragona, which is pretty close! This city has amazing Roman ruins including walls, an arena, a huge aqueduct, etc and it’s very proud of its heritage, having been a provincial capital back then!

[@ManInAHouse]

Happy New Year!

[@PeculiarNotions]

Another great video.

[@MarkusLegner]

very interesting and informative!!

[@adamchiasson1774]

great work awesome loved it :D

[@airingcupboard]

Fascinating. Thanks.

[@joeguerra8435]

Now this was a useful YT video, an easy to follow tracing of common modern European cities to their Latin origins.

[@antonioconde1020]

another fantastic video. my only critique is my bias that you didn't mention more Portuguese cities 😂

[@akaramata4544]

This video is a little misleading. The author consistently makes relation between cities within the Roman Empire and the Romans themselves, which is not always true. Skupi for instance was a Dardanian city, York was Celtic, Massalia was a Greek colony, etc. It's misleading to treat their names as Latin.

[@Bloopsan]

Great video