Pompeii: Upper Class Meets Working Class

In ancient Pompeii, the richest and poorest lived amid each other, often separated only by a thin partition wall. Their lives & worlds also mingled on the streets. The smell of bakeries, the din of smithies, the hustle and bustle of taverns and shops. Take a short tour of the various industry & commerce, patronage & charity one could find within steps of the elite House of Sallust.
Source of many photos & details: "Pompeii In Pictures" pompeiiinpictur...
-- House of Sallust is Regio VI, Insula 2, Units 1-6 and 30-32.
-- Smithy & taverns of Acisculus / Phoebus are Insula 1, Units 14-18
Music:
Hang Massive, "Once Again"
• Hang Massive - Once Ag...
Michael Levy, "Ancient Greek Music"
• Ancient Greek Music - ...
Ophira Zakai, "Renaissance Lute"
• Ophira Zakai - Renaiss...

[@starsnstrife]

This is pretty amazing stuff. When i thought about the ancient world it seemed more like another world to me, but now i see how similar they were to us leading their unremarkable lives. would have loved to be able to go back in time and be a silent observer

[@karenfromfinasse8430]

I appreciate you making this. I often wonder what it was like to live even in my parent's generation let alone ancient Rome.

[@alexsanderrain2980]

This channel is amazing. criminally underrated :). Love your work

[@Stori3d_Past]

What a nice thing to say, thank you much & I'm glad you've enjoyed it!

[@davidjones-owen2793]

Yes, I second that - "criminally underrated". There have been some good filmic recreations e.g. BBC's "Rome" but this channel gives us a really good overview of what life in the Roman period was like without following a dramatic narrative, so we get a better idea of the workaday, everyday life.

[@hmax1591]

Nice video. your description only makes me want to see an animation of what you are describing. People doing every day work, their parties and dinners.

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thank you for the note. Yeah the biggest disappointment of the software was being unable to add any real “life” to the city. Either animals roaming or people doing their activities. I had always hoped they would add that but it never happened.

[@adhc8560]

Thank you! This is wonderful, incredibly interesting.

[@Stori3d_Past]

I'm glad you enjoyed, thanks much for the note!

[@TheRADIOMAN03]

Loved it Stori3d. Always an education. Your bread mention being something given to the poor reminds me of the scene in the Gladiator where they throw bread to the crowd prior to the games starting. Really great stuff.

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thanks much Radio! And yes, I had forgotten that scene. Yeah, feed the masses, score the votes. :)

[@deanronson6331]

​@@Stori3d_Past Alas, in the modern political strategy of the GOP, the motto is "Never mind the bread; feed OUR stupid masses lies, conspiracy theories, and culture war pablum, and the votes will keep flowing in."

[@davidlafleche1142]

@@Stori3d_Past In those days, any rich snob could have snatched you from anywhere, and forced you into slavery. Both the Republicans and the Democrats are using illegal aliens as slaves, in much the same way that Romans were doing in Pompeii (Revelation 18:13).

[@pacificrules]

WOW... amazing work.

[@sassyfood]

I just love these. Thanks so much for making them! I hope you have found new software so you can continue to make more. Would love to see bodies moving about to get a sense of the scale and the activity on bustling streets and within shops.

[@aquastar4336]

I can not thank you enough for these videos. This is EXACTLY what I was needing. I wanted to feel Pompeii 🌹 tysm!

[@robertdavis3433]

Well done. Ur imaginings were beautiful. U brought it to life. Thanx

[@christophertempone4870]

The accuracy is amazing. It really bring to life our creations in the game. With the desert biome a Egyptian mod is definitely on the wish list lol. Great work!

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thank you much for that note! Yeah I'd also love to see more ancient cultures (and Medieval too) represented in the game. Hopefully some day!

[@robinfereday6562]

Brilliantly informative the best on KZbin thank you 😊

[@scronx]

Fabulous -- the best yet on the subject. Wish you'd translate those red signs ;-)

[@Twentenaer]

I love your work! Keep it up!

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thanks much, I'm glad you're enjoying these!

[@ashdjin8530]

Love your channel. Love the animations, the accurate descriptions and information. Very cool. Congrats and keep it up!

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoy it! I can't wait to dive in and get more content up.

[@peterartboy]

I really enjoyed that presentation. I believe it would have been really balancing to have neighborhoods in which all classes of peoples lived side-by-side. Just all the fresh food and artisans able to make a piece of furniture or other bespoke objects for you. I'd like that. No National Brands or Corporation retail. I'd go back to that time in a heartbeat.

[@Stori3d_Past]

I agree with you. Everyone can benefit from stepping outside "their world" and seeing how other people live, experiencing it, sharing in it and trading in it, etc. And I also agree how nice it would be to hold and use things that were made by people's hands -- generally people you know, who live right down the street!

[@jmitterii2]

But it wasn't quite that cozy. The patrician to equit to pleb classes were more like a feudal lord, knight, and serf relationship... and the patrician to knight was more like a mafia lord to a merchant taking out loan shark money... the plebs being Guito to do the dirty work if you don't pay up your rent or your loan money or don't deliver the correct goods in good condition and/or on time. And there was still plenty of advertising based on evidence at Ostia with the mosaics of the corporation. Again though, the mass amount of goods like olive oil, sweet wine, sour wine, garum, chick peas, lentils, wheat, barley, etc. were often owned by the very patricians who were in members of the senate, consul, or legit of a province. Even emperors were the corporations in their day, case in point, Trajan who was a Spaniard from a wealthy olive vineyard along with olive press dynasty. The olive oil amphora were stamped with the merchants and often craft maker, much of the state and the commerce was one in the same, with minor squabbles between the patricians who happened to own the same oligopoly production; and that advertising was done all the time, but not only were they trying to sell your their olives or olive oil or grain or fish sauce, but they also wanted you to know they were the ones putting some games up and some plays, and that they should strongly consider voting for them in the next election for whatever position.

[@mwj5368]

Thanks for creating what life would be like. So many times they talk about other subjects and not so much about what life was really like. You are also very talented in creating the interiors and the streets so realistically. The part I was wondering about was home cooking. So the poor people didn't cook either and ate at the taverns too? How could they afford to eat at the taverns. In today's world I am "poor" and rarely eat out anywhere. I'm probably way off historically ha! Maybe I'm too ethnocentric, yet contemplate possible universals to the human condition. The Romans were so dominating that they didn't need to be prepared for invasions? I wonder if the Barbers, or the Huns etc ever attacked. Thanks for opening such a fine window into the intriguing past.

[@Hey_BK]

LOVED this!! I want more!!

[@aaronlovell6026]

Pompeii was just like a modern-day New York. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[@jeannettejimenez5228]

Que hermosa recreación, los felicito, muy bello!!!!

[@DarrenHughes-Hybrid]

I love these video's of yours/ I wish you'd make more!!!

[@Insectoid_]

If I had a chance to go back in time I’d go back in time to the summer prior to the eruption. Just to walk round the city at its height would be amazing.

[@Mr.56Goldtop]

This is really amazing. If we could only go back for a quick sneak peek.

[@annalisette5897]

I so enjoy computer graphics of historical places! Thank you so much for this! (How about doing one on the ancient culture of the Orkney Islands?)

[@Stori3d_Past]

I would love to do something on Skara Brae or one of the other sites there in the northern isles. This software is getting better & better about what it can recreate. Thanks much for the note!

[@annalisette5897]

I would love to see Skara Brae. I try to imagine how things were at the historical sites but it is work by people like you who make it come alive. You can learn a lot but work by people like you makes it alive so you feel you have been there. (I have earned my living as a professional artist but have NO idea how to do the computer animation. I am always in awe of those who can. One of my relatives worked on James Cameron's "Titanic" movie. I remember how computer animation was still developing at that time. Now much more can be done from the home computer.)

[@quail333]

I think that an important function of the enclosed patios and atriums was to keep the air fresher from the omnipresent smoke of human activity.

[@tacey01]

Wonderful creation! Bravo!!

[@michaelpisani5962]

More information and good work. Thanks.

[@cyrilchui2811]

I am sure Roman Tavern was just as busy and noisy than their high class neighbour; particularly for multi-room Tavern that offer additional service.

[@wizzardofpaws2420]

Wonderful set of documentaries you made thank you

[@dedmo79]

So cool! I wish I could watch more of these but the camera motion makes me terribly dizzy. not sure why…😵‍💫

[@donadams5094]

Great human and social details. They were so like us, and so unlike us at the same time.

[@silviaamorearte411]

Thank you!!!

[@ValMartinIreland]

Are any of the spring wells that supplied water still running.

[@Mshine2]

good good job man! thank you

[@melbaerstrada9037]

Beautiful, entertaining, very educating video!

[@ginnys1010]

They ate out all the time, even with take out. Love it. Thanks

[@njm3211]

Don't forget the numerous brothels. Even the patrician villas had slave prostitutes they pimped on their property.

[@tlowenbraun]

Awesome!

[@SteveRay911]

Amazing. If I was a History teacher I would be using this. You have a patreon??

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thank you much! I did have a Patreon, but I have shut it down. The developers who made the game software that I used for these videos updated their game, broke a lot of things, and now have basically abandoned it. So without being able to create any new mods or videos from it for months, it didn't seem right to keep the Patreon running.

[@alexkha]

@@Stori3d_Past Omg, this is so unfortunate. I'm a game developer and I use Godot engine and Blender 3d editor for making 3d games. Have you ever tried those tools?

[@itsjerry_7933]

well my teacher used this, but its for Latin not history

[@lkmuks]

good

[@KonradAdenauerJr]

Nice glimpse into Pompeiians’ daily lives.

[@magdalenapalichleb5181]

Wow this is helping my drawing

[@KolasName]

I think a stone wall is quite good in soundproofing and since there were no loudspeakers and sub-woofers back in Pompeii so that bottom-middle class could slip tight.

[@76Boomer]

What Medieval Engineers mod did you guys use?

[@deadmetal8692]

Very cool

[@socialbutterfly9529]

Nice!

[@miniprepper8284]

Very nice-

[@uomodonore245]

Cool video.

[@michaelkitchen4174]

who got to eat the stamped bread piece was 5hat a good or bad piece.the thought of having a outside garden study that would be fantastic e ven a emperor did have that.

[@tgtg-ud7ch]

How did you know they put pillows on their heads up 🙂

[@prow9999]

No mention of the goings-on at the local brothel !

[@pp312]

He didn't want to identify you in one of your previous lifetimes. :)

[@fibrodad1354]

brilliant. what software do you use

[@Stori3d_Past]

Thank you much! I use a game program called "Medieval Engineers." It's in early release (so it's still in "alpha" stage and they're adding & fixing stuff all the time). Available on the Steam gaming website. I love the things that it's able to do to really create walkable & playable worlds.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

2:22 Pipes made of lead.

[@Stori3d_Past]

Some historians have even wondered if the use of lead pipes was one reason the empire crumbled -- that it was literally poisoning the minds of generation after generation. I *think* they decided recently that the limescale from the water would have coated the lead early in its life so that it wasn't nearly so toxic. Still....

[@zzulm]

Wow it's so interesting

[@scot60]

Fascinating. No wonder the Romans were so brutal to the Sparticus slave rebellion. Look how closely they lived to the slaves. What a strange lifestyle ancient Rome had.

[@jatindsaini]

They used lead pipes for plumbing 😱😱

[@Stori3d_Past]

They did so many things that seem to make sense today. And then things like lead pipes that seem absolutely insane!

[@horsewithnoname8795]

Sallust was probably a plebeian who made money in some type of business and then built his house in the back of the business, where he lived, a very common model that has survived to these days. The real rich and the nobles lived in big villas on the hills or in the outskirts of the city, on their own lands, they did not mingle with the common people.

[@karasimon6766]

The more things change the more they stay the same. LOL

[@nwascorpio]

The cart was driving down the wrong side. Ancient Romans drove on the left side.

[@mr.perfect8746]

I'm curious about the dishes used to serve people fast food. I don't find any information.

[@Stori3d_Past]

Hi Mr. Perfect. That's a really excellent question. Interestingly, I can't find any information either yet about archaeology of the taverns where they found large quantities of plates and bowls. There are frescoes and paintings that show all varieties of things -- bowls, plates, cups, platters, saucers -- which were made of various materials like clay, pewter, glass. At least one workshop preserved a whole bunch of ceramic plates, mixing bowls, etc. (the workshop at I.10.5-6). But I'm not sure of the taverns yet. One thing that's often overlooked is just how much wood was used. I think simple wooden plates, bowls, and mugs were much more common than we think of -- and they would have rotted away in the ground leaving no trace. It's a great question though and I'm going to do some more digging around.

[@p.f.886]

hi, I know something interesting that might answer to that question about food in taverns. I've been to Ostia, which was the city port of Rome in ancient times. Ostia (the ancient part of the city) is very well preserved, considered as well preserved as Pompeii and Hercolaneum. There is a tavern in Ostia which still has the ceiling, and on the backyard you could take a seat and eat, while upstairs there were the apartments if you needed to sleep. Inside there is still a "table" (sorry for my English. I don't find the exact word for the kind of "shelf" behind which stays the owner or the person who is given the money by the customers and who gives the food to who buys it) and there is still a oven and a pot too. Nearby, there is a painting on the wall showing different kind of food and in front of it shelves. What I was told is that the painting and the shelves were used for people to choose what food to order in case they didn't speak Latin. In front of the tavern there was also enough space to eat quickly something and people used also to buy some food and eat it while walking, so taverns were also used as "fast foods". The kind of food that was served was bread, meat or fish (cooked in the oven I mentioned before), legumes (such as peas, chickpeas, beans (of course only European beans, not American ones)), wheat, some kind of porridges, vegetables, rarely fruits and for drinking wine and water. The fact that this tavern had all this diversity of food was thanks to the fact that Ostia was full of storages, being an important port so an important trade city. This entire city (which is today called Ostia Antica, 10 minutes far from the modern Ostia) is an enormous archaeological site. It took me half a day to visit less then 1/3 of the city!

[@Stori3d_Past]

@@p.f.886 That is wonderful, that so much still remains at Ostia. That has always surprised me. Pompeii I can understand, because it was buried by the volcano. But I am surprised that so much at Ostia is still around. It was never buried -- it was just slowly abandoned as the ground became wet and swampy. It is amazing that there is so much there to be learned.

[@p.f.886]

@@Stori3d_Past Ostia is built next to the river Tevere, and I was told that after Ostia was abandoned, the river banks wore out and so Ostia was buried by the debris and the clay brought by the floods of the river Tevere, and that's what saved Ostia from the weather and from people who would have taken and used the materials of the houses and buildings. I've never been to Pompeii and Hercolaneum, and I would love to go there. But since I live in Florence, it is a bit far, but I am planning to go there this year.

[@kjkonrad]

“Providing to the poor was a […] tradition” - in Poland, when some owner of the bakery was giving away his unsold bread to the homeless people for free, the tax office charged him to pay donation tax. So he has stopped such activities and began simply throwing the bread to the waste bin. Wonderful! :( _Vive le capitalisme!_

[@songohan4668]

Wow.

[@runningsocal00]

I don't understand. The rich residents would keep their front doors open?

[@Stori3d_Past]

That's right. During daylight hours, most rich homes considered the atrium inside their house like a semi-public space. People could come in, wait to meet with the owner about business. Maybe even have a look around at artwork, like a museum. A rich house was a public statement about the wealth & power of the family. So they liked showing that off. These households always had a number of servants and slaves keeping an eye on things to make sure that nobody went where they shouldn't, or took something they shouldn't.

[@denisehall4818]

more,pease.

[@damisummers160]

Good work, but the mouth noises are really off-putting. I'm a studio engineer and a hint I'd give is that they are usually a lot worse with dehydration.

[@Stori3d_Past]

Yes there are things I wish I had done differently, looking back. My technology was pretty rudimentary as were my recording skills!

[@viking670]

So the question remains. Would you rather be living under covid restrictions with ongoing vaccines as lab rats here in 2021 or, go back in time and live in Pompeii...answers please !

[@raybon7939]

you can bet id be on the other side of the wall rubbibg elbows with a Rich nobels , x wife, work for a Roman living wage screw that. wondering what the real economy was beyond the side economy. prob agregerian, but there had to be a principal industrial type economy. or some heavy export economy ,cuase empire would of needed some industrial base beyond stores and shops for taxes.

[@jmitterii2]

The economy of the Rome 100 BCE to 300 CE was similar to feudal structure in the medieval era. The patrician family owned essentially all the land for rent or purchase, as well as being the government. Even empire age, the emperors were wealthy oligopoly owners often of vast tracks of land such as Trajan who was from an oil vineyard dynasty in present day Spain. The equits were either body guards or soldiers or merchants who produced items that were not easily mass produced like bakeries, taverns, laundries (fuller), artisans and construction like sculptors, painters, etc. some of which employed freemen serfs aka plebs, or had slaves. The plebs serfs were a little more free as to how to seek their fortune unlike the middle age peasant. But not by much; often going into debt to some equit or patrician, many plebs would settle their debts by putting themselves into a form of indentured servitude or completely selling themselves into the slave market. The patricians owned the mass production sectors, and most of the trade of mass production. The equits managed the small front store retail distribution services. The plebs worked were the serfs doing the dirty work in all areas of the economy in close proximity and often replaced by the influx of slaves or the slaves sometimes becoming the pleb population as freedmen depending on death rate and Rome's expansion rate for that period of time in history.

[@justinmasters220]

Pompeii = where the USA is headed.

[@iloveanimals4081]

I notice everything is whitewashed. Was that normal?

[@Stori3d_Past]

For exterior or workshop spaces, whitewashing seems to have been normal. (On the other hand, the important places in the interiors of homes and public buildings were almost all highly painted in very bold colors, patterns, images.) Almost all of the buildings that have been found at Pompeii had at least some plaster on them when first uncovered. Much of that has now sadly rotted away from exposure, leaving just the bare stones. So it's harder to get a sense for how "finished" the buildings once looked.

[@iloveanimals4081]

STORI3D PAST Productions 👍🏼😃

[@rundbaum]

well this thought of everything except the prostitutes everywhere . . .

[@Stori3d_Past]

Yeah, it's funny -- very few reconstructions of ancient Roman life really show its grit. The dirt, the poor, the prostitutes. It's often made to look a lot tidier than I'm sure it was.

[@rundbaum]

@@Stori3d_Past god i'm just now remembering the driftwood, 'elite' walking around, sleeping inches from one other. this was a good vid!! . . .

[@iamgermane]

Never understood why the Allies bombed Pompeii. So there might have been Germans in there. So what? Just go around them.