Top 10 Myths of Ancient Rome YOU Thought Were True!

[@metatronyt]

Thanks to Long live the emperor for sponsoring my video! Check out the book and get your copy here! Thanks Jaron! www.summertimestudios.net/welcome-nobel-ones-italian-version-now-available/

[@bongdonkey]

Do Siciliano consider themselves simply Italiano, or something other. My mom is from Cefalu, Sicilia. But, whats your opinion? Saluto!

[@hansolowe19]

I would have liked to see you properly pronounce the Latin M, now I saw a Roman officer.. It helps me learn the correct pronunciation to see how it is done. Maybe next time? Thank you. Ps. Good content, many of your videos are good shit. 👌 Pps. I believe about 20% of children died before age 15 even a century ago. A cut could be enough. It may have been higher 2000 years ago. But even that statistic draws the average age down by an enormous margin. If another 10-20% die before their thirties either during challenging manual labour like mining or agriculture, not to mention the "always at war" military, that doesn't leave so many to get to 60 or 80, which can be hard even now.

[@FaidoPlays]

@@hansolowe19 dude. I am literally 12 years old. Why are you saying saying this stuff about how so many kids die before they are 15.

[@hansolowe19]

@@FaidoPlays this is a part of history. We managed to change this in the past 200 years with modern medicine, antibiotics, vaccines, anesthesia and microscopy. We understand ourselves a lot better now. Not so many kids die these days, you will be fine. You can do great things if you want to.

[@keithdean9149]

@@hansolowe19 I think I saw something about people dying young in the middle ages. The authors took care to point out that "average" life expectancy was low if you made it past about 10 or 12 you had a pretty good chance of living into your 60's.

[@99zxk]

Life expectancy is misunderstood in every era. I did see in a documentary that half of Romans died before age 10. Just for simplicity, if half of them died at 10 and the other half died at 60, the average is 35.

[@ayumikuro3768]

Just for accuracy, no. If half of them died before the age of 10, half of them died after the age of 10. Otherwise that would imply nobody between 10 and 60 died. But it illustrates the problem: Average life expectancy tells you nothing. You can have really weird probability distributions.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

Half seems a bit high, half dying before 20 seems more likely. Something like 25-30% of people died before 1, probably another 10-15% during childhood in most cases, with those fluctuating up to 50% during particularly hard times.

[@AnotherDuck]

@@ayumikuro3768 But that's exactly what was implied. Or directly stated, the way I read the words. They died either at 10 or at 60. Which obviously isn't a real example, but that wasn't the point.

[@AnotherDuck]

@@Nick-hi9gx Well, if you dig into real numbers, the way I've heard it was basically that if you survived to your mid teens or early adulthood or something like that, you had a life expectancy not too much shorter than a modern person. The natural life span of a person hasn't really changed, and you could achieve that with a generally healthy life, even in the middle ages or ancient Roman times. Modern medicine has mostly meant diseases are less likely to kill you, and you can be saved from more severe accidents, but even those weren't all that common back then.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

@@AnotherDuck Ah, so that isn't lifespan, that is longevity. Lifespan is an average of what you can expect something to live in a natural state, meaning no intensive medical procedures. For humans, that is like 60-80, it is always given in a range; like dogs are 8-16 depending on the size, but they CAN live well outside of that. Span basically covers the central ~50% of the bell curve. In places that have adequate nutrition and basic healthcare and water, span is like 70-80. Longevity is how long people actually live, and this one can't really be averaged in any meaningful way that is predictive, it can only be measured after someone dies. The longevity of humans has increased pretty significantly, by 15 or so years. Span has only gone up a bit, by about 10 years. However, the extreme outliers on the one side (young deaths) have decreased dramatically, and the outliers on the other end (living past mid-80s) have increased dramatically. People can now live to 111. For the AVERAGE Roman, life expectancy would have been much lower than our own, even if you factor out IMR, CMR and MMR. But for the Roman ARISTOCRACY, the LE would not have been dramatically lower than our own average. However, our own "aristocracy" tend to live to an average of more than 85. If you are rich in the US, Japan, UK, Germany, Canada, many other places, you can pay to keep yourself alive much better than the national average. It is important to understand that yes, while there were Romans that lived to 80, 85, that was quite unusual. Like someone now living to 100. Not crazy unusual. Just outside the norm. Rant complete

[@doppelgaenger_]

Metatron, have you considered making a video about Roman geography, provinces and differences between them? I'm very curious about the difference between a Roman from Gallia and a Roman from Hispania. I love your videos so much! Gracias por tu contenido y desde Argentina, salud!

[@metatronyt]

It was planned but I decided to scrap it for now since I didn’t think it would get much traction. But I might still bring it back eventually

[@tjsho417]

I second this motion! I would love to see a video about Roman geography!

[@TGPDrunknHick]

@@metatronyt it would be interesting even as a side project. like say something you spend some off time preparing for and not as major focus of your research time. even if it's just an overview with some direction towards resources we can find more with.

[@TwistedAlphonso1]

@@metatronyt yes yes. Geography with Metatron 🤌🤌🤌

[@galadballcrusher8182]

As a Greek i would be interested in a multiple episodes tour of important provinces cause there is much to say about Greece, Hispania, Brittania, Judaia Egypt, Gallia, Germania, etc. And for example could start every episode for a province with a small history of it's annexation campaign, leaders on both sides, then a story about the governance times of various prefects etc. And then are also important events taking place there like the civil wars of Rome for power taking place on various provinces of the empire's map as they did not allways fight in Roman soil.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

I must admit I was also guilty of the misconception that Romans essentially only translated the Greek pantheon to Latin. Interesting to hear of the core differences in the conceptions of similar gods.

[@wulfheort8021]

The Romans had many deities that are exclusively Latin, such as Janus, Sylvanus and Bellona, etc.

[@Assassin559971]

@@wulfheort8021 although for Sylvanus and Bellona they would be later equated to Pan and Enyo respectively. Thing is merging and equating gods to one another was a pretty common thing back in the day, so it is a very common thing to get wrong. To be fair it isn't even really wrong, since these things would evolve, but it's also not entirely correct.

[@wulfheort8021]

@@Assassin559971 I didn't even know that, thanks. But yeah, Greeks were Greeks and Romans were essentially Latins, like the Etruscans and Samnites, but many people don't realize that and think Romans just copied every single Greek thing.

[@matthewheald8964]

I also used to think something like that.

[@QualityPen]

What people miss is that deities don’t have to be stolen. They can be mapped onto one another by different cultures. “Oh, you worship the thunder god too?” “Yes, we call him Zeus.” “Cool, we worship him too, but we know him as Jupiter.” “Nice. Well, I’m off to make offerings to Zeus or Jupiter, or whatever we’re calling him.” -- Since Greek and Roman (and many other) gods are made based on physical and civilizational cornerstones like rain, the harvest, sex, it’s very easy to find similar gods across cultures and just interpret them to be the same god. We today don’t think of that because culturally we exist in a monotheistic context where “our God is not your god, and your religion is wrong.” That Judeo-Christian approach is also what caused so much hostility between Rome and the Jews and Christians until Rome converted.

[@hughmongus6191]

I would like to suggest an idea for an episode: How historically accurate is Asterix the Guall?

[@stein1919]

you might need Fortress of Lugh for that one

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

It's stuffed with anachronisms on purpose, and the Gauls' appearance is not historically accurate, they look more like the Franks 5 centuries later. Uderzo & Goscinny know history very well and play with it

[@g00gleminus96]

Don't make me come over there and throw an menhir at you.

[@Ninja-Alinja]

They certainly perpetuated the (flawed) idea of Roman armor and equipment at the time (Segmentata vs. Hamata, spears vs Pila, imperial helmets vs earlier ones). They basically look like on the Trajan Column (minus the spears). About the Gauls, they got the trousers right, I think. But they might have had larger swords. And Rome, when shows also showed a peak Imperial city, not late republic.

[@aule10]

it's fiction, so not a lot.

[@robertallcock882]

The gladiator myth was touched on by the Spartacus TV series. His best friend was a voluntary gladiator due to gambling debt

[@fpicotte]

The Spartacus series was really good. Mostly fiction (story- and character-wise in particular), but there are some real good hidden gems like this one. I would love to see a video focusing on its historical accuracies and inaccuracies.

[@lazios]

@@fpicotte Sorry (firstly for my "eng", I use Google) but I don't think so, the first season, partially season two also, it was quite accurate (some bullshit but acceptable), then the series became a sort of cartoon: men and women (slaves) who in few months turn into super gladiators able to (easily) defeat more than one roman legionary into hand-to-hand combat, the young Caesar who is raped (inside the roman camp) by a guard of the Crassus son (unbelievable, a noble of the Giulia Family, who "accepts" the punishment as nothing happened, a humiliation that in the roman world led to death ... lol), not to mention the silly battles in which legionaries were unable to fight basically against anyone (young guys and women included). C'mon, I understand that the series it's called Spartacus but what we saw after the first season is not only unrealistic, it doesn't make sense, also because these are the first things that came to my mind after all these years but the ridiculous things are much more. "The Barbarians", if we want to make a comparison, is much better, of course, even in this case there are scenes like the Eagle stolen from the roman camp (that's another big lol) and some other bullshit but at least, it's far more accurate and, while presenting the story not from the roman side, manages to do not too many silly things (compared to Spartacus, it's almost a documentary). Sure, now it will be necessary to see what they will do in the season two, with the roman revenge, Germanicus, the death of Arminius etc, I hope it doesn't become a farce like Spartacus. Again, sorry, I hope you understand despite my english.

[@johndurham6172]

@@fpicotte you mean Julius caesar wasn't a 6foot sandy haired surfer dude.

[@dandyx12]

@@fpicotte my favourite thing about that show was the old English bordering on Yoda speak they cooked up for the show, rather than have a bunch of Americans, Kiwi's etc take on offensive cod latin accents they just went with something that sounded old and unlike today

[@mrkiky]

And they killed him on command just on a whim to show how worthless a slave's life was 😂

[@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight]

One of the greatest myths that I never believed: that Rome didn’t exist 😂 Gotta love Metatron for making that video.

[@drakehashimoto685]

Oh boy, lol, I absolutely depise that one, the misconception that is, and the person who spouted out that complete nonsense.

[@jarongreen5480]

And the number one question is "Did Rome ever exist or is it just a Greek disney land?"....Said no one.

[@TheRyujinLP]

@The Philosoraptor Don't use that term for her, conspiracy theorists are usually right lol

[@jarongreen5480]

@@TheRyujinLP It is true that conspiracies are a common occurrence which we see in history and all the way up to the present. It is unfortunate that the term has been used for crazies.

[@101Mant]

@@jarongreen5480 if you are talking about actual historical conspiracies you aren't a conspiracy theorist, it's not a theory. Most conspiracy theorists are loons, flat earthers, 911, Q Anon, anti-vaxers, UFOs (yes there are flying objects that are unidentified, no aliens aren't probing people) and the like.

[@JohnMiller-zr8pl]

Said a tik toker mostly "sane".

[@TheRyujinLP]

@@andregon4366 M'kay. You're wrong but you're also free to believe whatever nonsense you want to.

[@thermalreboot]

Re: Roman life spans, when I was studying my genealogy I discovered that the real trick to a long life was surviving childhood. It was stunning how many of my ancestors made it into their 80s or older. It actually seemed common. Dying in your 50s seemed to be an industrial revolution thing, it looks to me like moving to the city was the greatest health concern you could face.

[@josephdemartino6053]

Exactly, average lifespans seem very short before modern times due to infant and childhood mortality. Most of America's Founders and Framers lived into their late 70s or 80s, and some beyond that. (John Adams was 90 when he and the 83 yr old Jefferson both died on 7/4/1826)

[@woodyhorton8537]

@@josephdemartino6053 Yup Humans are quite resilient which is why we are at the top of the animal kingdom!

[@mrfitz96]

It's also a myth that life expectancy increases because of advances in medicine. Historically it's often idue to stuff like better sanitation, nutrition and housing. Less war and violence probably helps too.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Yup. Prevention is better than cure.

[@mungo7136]

You probably miss a little part that better sanitation or nutrition are somehow part of the medicine. Thus general knowledge of the health subject is part of this increase. It is not limited to vaccination or modern drugs and so on. So it is not a myth.

[@GonzoTehGreat]

I think the point is that medical advances decreased infant mortality, thereby increasing average life expectancy.

[@emmitstewart1921]

About the relationship between average age of death and life span. When I was about 12 years old, I remember reading Dr Tom Dooley's books about his efforts to train medical workers in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. His comment said that a newborn infant stood a ten percent chance of reaching five years old, a five-year old stood a twenty percent of reaching ten years old, and a ten-year-old stood a twenty percent chance of reaching maturity but, once reaching maturity he or she stood a 95% chance of reaching 90. (These are not his actual figures. It has been sixty years since I read the books, so the exact numbers are a little fuzzy.) The massive infant mortality in ancient times skewed the average figures way off. The reason, he said, that such long lives were achievable was that by the age of fifteen a child had been exposed to every contagious disease known to man and was immune to almost all of them. That left trauma as the main cause of death in most mature people until old age began to set in. If you were to delete the infant and childhood mortality, the average age of Romans was probably not much different from ours. Their rates of death by warfare, political murder, and infected injuries would be more than offset by our rates of traffic fatalities, gun violence, and lung cancer.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

If you factor out IMR, CMR and factor maternal mortality down to our modern levels, the LE of Rome would be somewhere in the low-to-mid 60's probably. You gotta remember how many people also still died of infections from simple wounds, things like impacted teeth, impacted bowels, a heart attack that we could save the person now with a single aspirin. Even without a single piece of machinery, just our knowledge of things makes a massive difference. I mean, we don't evaluate people based on how clear and yellow their pee is.

[@peterdaoust404]

And anyways, where do we get the stats we base our averages on? Did Romans really log these things? And if they had, would the data have survived? Pure speculation I think.

[@emmitstewart1921]

@@peterdaoust404 If the Romans recorded births and deaths, as most known cultures do, it would be easy to assemble these statistics. For a culture with a strong belief in astrology, which I believe the Romans were, it would be essential knowledge preparatory to every major decision.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

@@peterdaoust404 @Peter d'Aoust Yes, Romans did a census. Many of them. And yes, they survive. We also have graves, literally thousands and thousands of grave sites, which we can determine general ages from. We also have written records of peoples births and deaths, including some few records kept by individual families.

[@dewayneweaver5782]

So gun violence is different from sword, dagger, spear, javelin, or arrow violence? Writing like a pink, perhaps you should first study the blood baths of the leftist regimes of Stalin, Mao, and Po Pot. Compared to them the Romans were sweethearts.

[@ThePerfectRed]

Fun fact: Iron was used long before the iron age. Most famous might be the iron dagger found in Tutanchamun's grave. However, this was iron gathered from meteorites. The actual iron age eventually began after people learned to smelt iron themselves.

[@baconghoti]

Nope, just like almost every other "fun fact" posted in a comment it's wrong. Bronze/Stone Age gives way to Iron Age when the majority of the tools used in the area are iron not when some items are iron or iron ore can be processed. Every culture which natively progressed from bronze to iron used iron during it's Bronze Age.

[@txorimorea3869]

Wrong, you don't need iron smelting technology to work with non-meteorite iron. Even steel can be crafted without iron smelting technology, however that requires lots of skilled manual work.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

@@baconghoti Came here to say this, except that the use of smelting as a technology readily available to many cultures in Iron Age Europe, and the time when iron tools replace bronze as the majority, happen to coincide nearly all of the time. This wasn't true with the Bronze Age, and isn't true of the Iron Age in East Asia, but they do happen to coincide in Europe, so he was...sort of accidentally kind of correct.

[@rachdarastrix5251]

If I was mining meteorites I would be hoping for a metal much more magical than iron.

[@scrappydoo7887]

@@Grauenwolf it does.

[@hempsellastro]

With regard to the similarities in the god pantheon. Greek and Roman gods derive from a common Indo-European base, together with all other Indo-European cultures like Germanic, Norse and Celtic. So, the Romans did not get their gods from another culture, but the cultures around them would be very similar. These similarities are so strong they could hardly not be noticed and commented on at the time.

[@Michael_the_Drunkard]

True, they had them already, when their predecessors, the Italo-Celts migrated (1 of many indo-european migrations) from the Eurasian stepps into Italy. Their attributes were influenced by surrounding nations. But they certainly weren't godless, until a different people introduced them to a religion.

[@brucetucker4847]

While that is true, they were mostly separated for thousands of years before coming in close contact again during the classical era, and their conceptions of the gods had changed radically during that time. Many Hindu gods originally derived from the same Indo-European base, but even by 400 BC or so Indians' conceptions of those gods was radically different from those of the Greeks or Romans. And the Romans were enormously influenced in their religion by the Etruscans, who had a completely different, non-Indo-European language and culture. The Romans tended to impute qualities of their own gods to the gods of people like the Germans and the Celts based on superficial similarities - for instance, they identified Odin/Woden/Wotan with Mercury/Hermes because both of those gods acted as psychopomps (those who escort the dead from our world to the afterlife), but in actual fact the similarities pretty much ended there and they almost certainly had completely different origins. Likewise they interpreted the German Tiwaz/Tiw/Tyr as Mars/Ares because both were gods of war, and sometimes even associated Thor with Hercules, even though the latter two had nothing in common except that both often fought monsters wielding a club or hammer.

[@Saironi]

For that money Gilgamesh was the same as Thor because he has a club and fights a dragon and also he is the same as Orpheus because he goes to the underworld. By the way, Gilgamesh is not Indo European, he is sumarian. People had different cultures and different gods. We used to look for the origin of this or that God as if it enlightens us. Jackson Crawford has some interesting videos on why this isn't really useful. Tyr is a character that's totally different from Zeus, they existed in cultures that had long split apart, in cultures and language that were not mutually intelligible. In contrast, the Romans explicitly borrowed and added Greek gods to their pantheons. That doesn't even necessarily indicate recognizing a common cultural root, it just shows how much they respected, admired, and were fascinated by Greek culture.

[@hempsellastro]

@@Saironi The realisation that the religions of the many Indo European has a common source goes back to William Jones 1788 paper and is generally accepted. Of course, like the language, the religions evolved as time progressed (as @brucetucker4847 points out). Yes, Romans were fascinated by Greek and other eastern (non Indo European) religions, and there are clear influences on theirs. However, that the Romans had an Indo-European religion of their own is clear from the fact their gods have different names. Which would not be the case if their religion was a direct Greek import. Gilgamesh was a king, not a god, and never fights a dragon, and Thor has a hammer not a club. Gilgamesh is actually more like Hercules. Superficial resemblances like this, I suspect are largely because they are stories addressing universal human concerns. Tyr would more closely match Mars than Zeus (who matches Thor).

[@dantton1987]

Neat video. As a brazilian, I can say the way you pronounced Imperium Romanum sounds A LOT like portuguese. Loved it.

[@drakehashimoto685]

As soon as you added the next point belonging to Julius Caesar, my historical perspective, identity and all that I've studied in detail just plummeted because of the PAIN I felt from that misconception. I've heard my peers say he "fought for the throne", or he was, as you mentioned, "emperor". this absolutely kills me and am glad people like you are addressing these. Much needed in the case of educating those. Great video as always :)

[@Dellphox]

I took a Latin class for a few years back in highschool and I'm really impressed because my teacher addressed all of these myths minus #1.

[@kitirena_koneko]

One thing I've always admired about the Romans--when they saw a good thing, they adapted it to their own culture and ran with it. This is probably why they were so good at conquering most of the world!

[@oktusprime3637]

They didn’t conquer anything close to most of the world.

[@kitirena_koneko]

@@oktusprime3637 You're right, I misspoke. They conquered a large chunk of the KNOWN world, and if I'm not mistaken, had even encountered the Chinese Empire. Had Heron of Alexandria taken that one final mental step and invented the steam engine, with the Roman ability to take a good idea and run with it, there's a damn good chance they would have landed on the Moon by the year 1000 CE!

[@TertiusIII]

@@oktusprime3637 They didn't, sure. But they thought they did. As far as they were concerned most of the world was under their control at one point in history.

[@ancientsitesgirl]

I love your new outfit!💗

[@metatronyt]

Thank you very much!

[@ancientsitesgirl]

@Metatron You wrote back

[@jaelge]

You, Sir, are the only one whom I trust for my authentic and accurate Roman history. As well, being aware of almost all of these myths made this video no less enjoyable for me.

[@rondemkiw4492]

I believed number 10. Another myth - I believe that the Roman use of galley slaves is a myth - mostly due to Hollywood. I think galleys were rowed by professional rowers - in the Navy by marines. The galley slave myth does not bear under logical analysis. If you were the Commander of a Roman warship, and you were going into a sea battle, you would want every single human being on your ship to be on your side, and have the capability of picking up a weapon and joining the big fight on the deck of the ship. If the rowers were slaves you would have a huge mutiny in every sea battle.

[@motaman8074]

You are correct. Check out the video on History Hit, where Dr. Simon Elliot discusses this very topic. ( I'm sorry, I don't know how to link. Search for " Historian reacts to movies about Rome").

[@monteparnas]

@Tommy Taffy I'm not sure about the rowers specifically, but bear in mind that Roman slavery was very different from modern colonial slavery. Many slaves were very skilled professionals and slave labor in general, while forced, was paid. Specialized work, well paid, actually. And they already had slaves in the army. So the idea that slave = wretch doesn't hold up. The details of slavery are very varied and complex through history, and we effectively saw what was probably the worse slavery system in the most recent centuries.

[@ZosimusNova]

Galley-slaves have been used in the past though, particularly in the 16th-17th centuries by powers like France, Spain, and the Ottoman Empire. At Lepanto, when Ottoman ships were taken, the Christian slaves on board were freed and did join the fighting.

[@darthplagueis13]

Well, two things to consider: 1: A good old mutiny is kind of difficult when you're chained to your seat. And no, you wouldn't want the rowing crew to intervene in combat. Casualties amongst your soldiers are acceptable and to be expected. However, to many casualties in your rowing crew meant losing maneuverability and speed. Roman galleys were not particularily seaworthy ships, comparatively speaking, and being able to quickly reach the shore could be essential. 2: As others have pointed out already, slavery was in many cases a very distinct social status compared to later slavery. Most slaves were working towards being able to buy their own freedom and that meant being obedient and cooperative. Plus, a revolt is not a situation you could win. There's an entire ship full of well-trained and well-geared soldiers above you and even if you defeat them or blackmail them into making concessions, that's only gonna last until you reach the coast.

[@patrickstewart3446]

You can blame that one one guy: Lew Wallace, the writer of Ben Hur. He did for Roman Galleys what Robert Louis Stevenson did for pirates.

[@Pengalen]

Correction: Zeus and Jupiter are linked etymologically by a word meaning celestial or shining, that is the same root (*deiwos) as such words as deus and devas, essentially meaning Sky God. The -piter part of Jupiter is father, and the whole of the word is approximate to Zeus Pater, aka Sky Daddy. "The Romans were a bloodthirsty people."

[@crusaderACR]

Not daddy. That would be Papa in Latin and PIE. Dyeus Pater is the name in PIE. It means Sky-Father, or All-Father, or God-the-Father. Dyeus would turn to Zeus in Greek (pronounced "Tseus" at first) In Latin it'd be Deus in the case for a generic god, and for the specific God-the-Father Jupiter, I guess you see the connection? That J sounds like an English Y. Certainly not a Latin Y tho, thats more like a U.

[@FaidoPlays]

Can I just say, that I have been trying to convince my parents that Julius Cesar was not an emperor. But no! The go with what the media says and what they were told by their friends in middle school. So in conclusion, being a 12 year sucks because literally every adult interaction that I’ve had and I try to prove a point, the adult says: You don’t know this stuff.

[@Sanguicat]

Unfortunate, my friend. As a 14 year old, I can relate to this

[@monteparnas]

Show them the video without making statements, just say it is something you find interesting and that you would really like that they watch. Dealing with adults can be daunting even for adults, I'm 35 and sometimes deal with similar issues.

[@jessicascoullar3737]

As a 40 year old I can tell you it does get better a bit better with age but not completely. People can be very stubborn with “facts” that are long established in their minds. Sometimes you just need to be satisfied with knowing the truth even if those around you don’t want you to share it. Most of the time it doesn’t matter if they are wrong, it is just annoying. Save your energy for the fights where it does matter, e.g. “No mum, essential oils do not cure cancer. Go and see a doctor.” In the meantime, keep learning, practice your critical thinking skills and find friends who share your love of knowledge and truth.

[@Chris-Smith]

Bro, we have adults that think Biden lost, covid is fake and their sources of info are perfect, dont let it bother you

[@kathleeenmcclintock4931]

Started studying Cleopatra in elementary school and always knew she was 100% Greek. Yet even now hear people say she was Egyptian or black. They will even argue to the death about it. Just let them have their fantasy. ( I'm 64 now) Lol

[@low_profile458]

Quick question: how heavy were roman training weapons? Are there any good replicas for sale? Thank you lol just got to the end of the video

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Twice as heavy as regular ones for strength training so maybe 1.5 to 2 kg for a gladius. For full-speed training, the regular weight.

[@jabba6749]

For were the ancient romans evil. As someone with a social worker for a mother sexual abuse is common and takes place on mass . During Ancient Rome they all had slaves and were allowed to kill them if they want and they were able to have sex with them/ rape them at free will including children. Imagine during Ancient Rome how much more sexual abuse and rape would take place. And we have no modern combat sport where you actually try to kill each other with weapons.

[@rachdarastrix5251]

Training armor was also 3 times heavier than what they would actually wear in combat and they took 3 times the number of pilums into the training arena as they would actually take into combat.

[@Mediocre_JT]

Have you seen the M-1 fights? Dude's swinging a sword as hard as he can right over someone's head. Can you imagine how loud and how much it'd jar your head wearing a helmet

[@rachdarastrix5251]

@@Mediocre_JT Imagine surviving and wishing you hadn't because the massive migraine hurts more than having a cleaved skull.

[@proudcanadian5713]

Very informative. I was a little shocked at how many I knew and also blown away by some that I didn't have a clue about until you mentioned them. As usual, you have done considerable research and your knowledge is exemplary.

[@metatronyt]

Thank you very much!

[@koosh138]

I remember reading and being told about the Roman gods being copy/pasted with the Greeks', but I also remember reading about how a lot of the Mediterranean cultures kind of referring to each god by the name of their own variant. Like some greeks even referring to Bael as Hercules and the people of Tyre being worshippers of Hercules. Even some of the early depictions of Ba'al Heshmon resembling the Minotaur of Crete, or in some early bronze age statuettes he resembles Pan. (apologies if I get the name wrong. A lot of the Canaanite dieties get blurred together.)

[@NefariousKoel]

The problem is that many people, today, view ancient polytheistic worship with monotheistic bias. Back then, the polytheistic religions simply saw other cultures' gods the same as their own since they often had similar purviews (god of the sea/water, god of war, god of harvest/farming, etc). They were effectively interchangeable to some degree, and quite fluid, due to the nature of polytheism. Modern monotheists can have difficulty grasping how fluid and interchangeable it was, and inadvertently box them into narrower definitions.

[@petriew2018]

There's also the very real but poorly understand fact that much of the mediterrenean world shared a common indo-european origin, so the native gods inherently shared many commonalities well before the classic period. Thanks to the huge amount of trade even in pre-roman times, these similarities would have been further reinforced as migrant populations just sort of assimilated the local customs into what they found familiar. So it's not really a matter or the Romans just renaming greek gods, it's more Romans taking greek mythology and reading it through a local lense, changing some names and some details to be more familiar to them. people back then were also far more flexible about this, given they already believed in multiple gods for the most part, so why wouldn't there be other gods they didn't know about? When a new foreign cult shows up and they're generally peaceful, the usual response would be to just give that god a name the locals can pronounce easier and add it to the list. Religious strife usually came about when the religious practices contradicted each other. The idea of rigid pantheons and clear cultural division of these pantheons is a very modern way of simplifying the dynamics that actually existed in the ancient world.

[@koosh138]

@@petriew2018 That's what I was kind of noticing with several re-occurring trends with some deities. Like, I wonder how much of this cohesion was lost possibly due to the Bronze Age collapse? The Minoans replacing their mother deity with an Octopus thing, Ishtar replacing multiple deities in their own temples, Pan being pushed into the background while we kind of see a similar deity in the guise of Cernunnos/Green man/Oak King. (The Minoan Mother goddess, I wonder, if she was actually the original form of Gaia. Before Demeter and Persephone were canonically added as her daughters.

[@jl696]

I believe on your last point that marching with more weight than the normal combat load would have beneficial effects. This was true during my time in the Marine Corps. However, you have a good point about its negative effects in sword play. I think there would be more benefit in carrying a heavier shield. However, even in that, it could cause problems because the shield was often used as a weapon itself or, at least, it has been theorized by many to have been used that way.

[@GonzoTehGreat]

I suspect the problem with training using heavier weapons was more to do with balance than weight. A heavier weapon which was similarly balanced could be used as a strength training aid, but one which wasn't would handle differently. Also, crafting a wooden sword which was balanced similar to a gladius probably wasn't that easy. Regardless , they had to train with something, so wooden swords were probably used initially, before moving onto using blunted, steel blades.

[@wolftal1178]

Metatron, there is a game that has recently come out in the last two year or so called the forgotten city, it’s very historical, and very mythological as well where your character is thrown through time to this sort of cut off city in the Roman era just after the great Fire. You actually get to explore and conversed with the population and even find that some of them are secretly Christian. Would you mind doing a video to see how historically accurate it is because I think you’d find it quite interesting???

[@jamesmayle3787]

Jesus Christ is Lord. It is all true. Please take your salvation seriously. Read the Bible and do what it says

[@wolftal1178]

@@jamesmayle3787 Oh I do, however I do take the old Testament with a bit of salt, However I follow mostly the new Testament. However I simply thought because this is his most recent video he’s more likely to see these comments and I thought considering he likes to prove or disprove historical facts and settings he might be interested in doing a video on this game, thats all. Considering it was describing many historical figures and facts from the Game characters point of view as first hand.

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

@@jamesmayle3787 There's a fun Christian game. You take turns opening the Bible and do exactly what it tells you to. The last person not in prison is the winner.

[@Jiub_SN]

@@jamesmayle3787you're going to be sent to hell for the amount of prostelyzing you're doing in KZbin comment sections buddy. Spreading gods word was a twist of his message by people in the middle ages

[@Gorillainatoyotaecho8]

It warms my heart to see you still making videos on KZbin all these years later. I only recently started getting back into history after a few years hiatus. I legit thought “man, wonder if that guy still makes history videos about Rome and stuff?”. Keep up the good work 😎

[@GallowglassAxe]

Great video as always. On the part about the Romans were bloodthirsty Invicta also gives some great insight to this. He says that during the colosseum games there was segment where they did public executions. Even though the style of executions would be very stylize and pretty twisted in many ways many Romans usually took this time to go get lunch or take a break since it was in the middle of the event. One person wrote his displeasure of this saying it was bad taste and not honorable.

[@facundobinelli6077]

I love your content man, probably those who have been following you for a few years knew most of these were not true. I personally knew about all the myths except number one.

[@joshbuddha6112]

I once had a friend tell me that Spanish and latin shared many similarities and pronunciation. Dont know how true this was, but it is interesting and a nice point that you brought up about latin not sounding like Italian. Interesting how languages change over time.

[@forcaaereabrasileira5394]

Let me tell you, while I was looking though word's etymology in my diccionary, I found many words that Hispanics kept the same way of writing, while in my mother tongue they kept some, or changed the end.

[@yourmum69_420]

It makes sense really. I mean in Hispania they spoke Latin too. There's no reason the Latin in other provinces should change any faster than the Latin in Rome. Having said that, Spanish does have some Arabic influence from the Muslim Iberian conquest, which is probably the biggest source of its deviation from ancient Latin. But then again, the Christian kingdoms did remain quite culturally distinct from the Muslims until they eventually re-conquered the peninsula. This means the languages didn't fully mix and Spanish remains very Latin, but with loan words and some pronunciation quirks left over from the Arabs.

[@curtisbailey78]

Some of these misconceptions were dispelled for me a while ago, some I'd never even heard of (like #1), but the only one that you actively dispelled with this video was #10. Thanks for making this video! It's always invigorating to get more context and detail for something that you loosely understand.

[@Aswaguespack]

When I was 6 my Grandmother began tutoring me in the pre-Vatican II Latin Prayers of the Roman Catholic Liturgy. Later in life I came to realize there was such a thing as Ecclesiastical Latin and Classical Latin with pronunciation differences between the two. As far as the Gladiators go I suspect they were considered Professional athletic competitions. Someone invested money in feeding, training, and medical needs of these Gladiatorial athletes. I’m sure like modern sports wagering it was quit likely that sports wagering was also very popular and helped fuel the popularity of the sport. If gladiatorial combat resulted in a 50% attrition rate, then gladiatorial combat would lose popularity pretty quickly with a rapid thinning of experienced trained combatants, the quality of the product would suffer. The Roman “Sports Books” would not stand for that. I might suspect that Female Gladiators were very popular among the Arenas spread throughout the Roman Empire and that in itself could be an obviously interesting topic for further study and research. Excellent topic Metatron. Thanks.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

True. Gladiators were expensive. There were deaths but they did what they could to avoid that.

[@Aswaguespack]

@@silverhawkscape2677 I agree. Technology might have changed and we have advanced in our development and dependence upon technology but the basic human emotions and spirit and those qualities that drive society and social skills are basically similar now to what they were at the time of the Roman Empire (oops can I say that? 😉). Love, greed, a quest for power, hunger, the acquisition of wealth and land, survival etc are very similar today as it was then.

[@Jiub_SN]

I doubt female gladiators were popular if they did exist due to Roman sensibilities. It'd probably feel the same to them as allowing a woman to join a legion

[@Aswaguespack]

@@Jiub_SN Very Good Point but I wonder when Money is involved in some way of those “Roman sensibilities” may have been temporarily set aside for “entertainment value”. I wonder if Metatron has found any evidence or indication of Female Gladiatorial Combat at any time during the Roman Empire in any one of its vast territorial colonies.

[@jessecunningham9924]

Thanks for this wonderful video! As an amateur medieval historian, the myth of the lower lifespan drives me nuts. Yes, you are correct that infant mortality skews the average, but the actually definition of “infant” in that term further skews the results. In a wonderful book that studies medieval peasant life in England by examining the death rolls called The Ties That Bound (highly recommend), the author shows that the infant mortality death rate is heavily skewed towards 3- and particularly 4 year-olds. Now, for anyone who has ever had a 4 year old child, this will be of no surprise. At age 3 they want to do everything for themself, and at age 4 they have the physical capability to get into trouble without the physical capability of getting out (such as drowning). Keep up the great work Metatron!

[@JustSumGuy01]

Would you call the Rome series that HBO made a more authentic experience of what ancient Rome was like?

[@rayhamilton4775]

It's the most authentic show I have seen about rome as far as detail (painted buildings, Caesars red mask of Mars, graffiti painted on the walls in Latin, the way the legionaires fight, etc) The only thing that was off is the general storyline, alot of the characters are fictionalized and do weird sexual stuff that is not documented they had to shorten the series alot too, so they missed alot of history and important battles but it's good to watch for the setting, they got the costumes and depictions etc spot on

[@ulfhedtyrsson]

Other than every single person wearing leather bracers even while nude

[@ulfhedtyrsson]

I liked the effort though. Better than to leave people with a view of Rome from Shartacus or something

[@admirekashiri6651]

That's actually a good idea for a video him reviewing the accuracy of the TV show if he hasn't already.

[@patrickstewart3446]

@@ulfhedtyrsson It does seem everyone in these Roman/Medieval/Fantasy films wear bracers… except archers. 😁

[@sulaymankindi]

Thank you for speaking to us calmly and not yelling. Repeating my request to do a video on correct pronunciation of common Roman names

[@windhelmguard5295]

in regards to number one i would like to ad that, as far as i remember reading, they the legions that used double weight weapons and shields only did so during technique drills to train muscle, when actually preparing for combat they would spar with regular weight equipment.

[@scipio7837]

No surprises mate, but enlightening detail providing context. Thanks Raf, a great, detailed vid.

[@Old_Harry7]

Regarding point number one I think is sufficient to say that the whole Mediterranean civilization shared the same archetypes of gods, each adapted by the single people in every city state; heck before Alexander Greek polis themselves had different understanding of the same gods. It all started with the Indo-European migration in the old continent, this people brought with them their native religion and later intermingled with the local population giving birth to different but similar civilizations, geography did the rest. Never questioned why the Germanic gods were so similar in myth with the olimpian ones? Or why etymologically speaking many gods share the same rout word? That's because originally they were one and the same. Therefore Romans did not simply copy Greek gods, they had their own gods which in turn belonged to a common Indo-European mythology shared with the greeks and other civilizations, Etruscan comes to mind for example. What is important to say is that these Roman gods were influenced in their understanding by the geography of the latin's settlements, perfect example is Neptune who, since the early romans were not skilled sailors, was not a sea deity instead being a sort of river/spring god. After the Romans conquered Greece and developed some knowledge on sea traveling the original Roman understanding of Neptune was merged with the Greek understating of Poseidon. Hope I made my self clear here. Fun fact: this Indo-European theory can be seen with the Roman God Janus and the Indian God Brahman, both share sort of the same appearence and the same role in mythology eventhough early romans and Indians never knew about eachother.

[@pjhood3770]

Great video as usual and I didn’t know the first one about their gods and you have one of the best channels on KZbin

[@metatronyt]

Thank you very much!

[@FelixstoweFoamForge]

Well, I certainly believed number 10. Thank you for enlightening me.

[@geholohorroh]

About the last point: as a drummer, I used to do this actually. I'd practice with heavier sticks so I could play the same super fast and hard bits with greater ease at concerts. It's probably not the same as swordplay (lol), but you'd be surprised how fast muscle memory is able to "switch modes" if you practice both this regularly. 4 hours of heavy sword followed by 30-60 mins of light swords, for instance.

[@ZosimusNova]

I can't say I knew the one about the pronunciation of the final M, but studying Latin here in Australia emphasised translation and grammar moreso than actually speaking the language. Also, on the topic of the bloodthirstiness of Roman games, while I agree the Romans were not especially unusual in that department, I am reminded of Augustine's comments on his friend Alypius attending the games. "Seeing the blood he drank deep of the savagery. He did not turn away, but fixed his gaze upon the sight. He drank in all the frenzy, with no thought of what had happened to him, revelled in the wickedness of the contest and was drunk with lust for blood." Not to say that people today are not violent too, far from it, but even then there were Romans, especially Christians, who were highly critical of the violent nature of the games, hence its eventual decline, even as other sports such as chariot racing continued to thrive.

[@TGPDrunknHick]

to be fair to the teaching of latin it's a dead language. no nation actively speaks it. certain churches use it but, that's not even classical latin so it makes sense for the focus to be on reading it. after all it's most useful now for studying original sources or for understanding linguistic roots.

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

Seneca also describes a sadistic sports fan calling for blood at a game, though it's specifically an execution game where the fencers have no protective gear at all.

[@jacobitewiseman3696]

Funny how dueling was okay.

[@SilverionX]

I knew some of them, didn't know some of the others, was entertained and learned some things. Loved the video. :)

[@vudoga6082]

Great video, as always, most of these I knew, but the one about the gods was very interesting. I personally would love a full video about all of the differences. Also the dying young thing annoys me a bit too. Not just for Rome but all of history. The infant mortality rate was a lot higher, but it brings down the average age overall. If you could survive past childhood living into your 50s and 60s was super common.

[@matthewheald8964]

I’d love a video on the gods too

[@andreperrault5393]

I appreciate the common sense and humanity you bring to your presentations

[@akiva2112]

I would love to see a video from you in this style about Roman Britton, what’s actually true and what’s just a well told fiction

[@jontuell5338]

Gr8 stuff, Metatron! Your vids are super refreshing

[@undertakernumberone1]

The No. 1 myth about Rome we all thought was actually true was: That Ancient Rome actually existed! :P *call back to that crazy woman that claims that Ancient Rome never existed*

[@prunabluepepper]

Oh right! Lol 🤣😂

[@timmyturner327]

@@prunabluepepper indeed. Rome is a myth!

[@Kapitaen_Flauschbart]

00:01:40 | A single video explaning all similarities between greek and roman dieties? I am sold! 😎

[@DrEllert]

14:50 It's also really confusing in my language, since the word for "Emperor" is "Keisar" (קיסר) so I also thought from a young age that he was the emperor (the same manner one says "Alexander the Great") up until I read about Battle of Actium recently and learned that he was indeed not the emperor. 17:45 What do you mean? they were the strongest since they ate the best of magical pizza that we will never manage to replicate, like spinach to Popeye!

[@juanzulu1318]

From what country do u come? Here in Germany we use a very similar word: "Kaiser"

[@amirhosseinmaghsoodi388]

We used to historically call Roman rulers Qaisars too. I wonder when the word "emperor" or "emperator" came to be the more common name for a Roman ruler.

[@galadballcrusher8182]

@@juanzulu1318 funnily enough, and not unrelated to the english adaptation of the word the Greek word for it is Αυτοκράτωρ and yes it means he who holds the power himself, autocrat

[@juanzulu1318]

@@galadballcrusher8182 interesting. This greek word sounds/looks like "Autokrat" in German.

[@juanzulu1318]

@@amirhosseinmaghsoodi388 thats interesting. Indeed very similar. . In which country is this word used?

[@fredazcarate4818]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge on Tining in the Classical Period. Stay awesome my friend!

[@greekmetalhead1805]

Number 11: "Rome existed". 🤓

[@exantiuse497]

Regarding the Romans' life expectancy part: In the middle ages, when average life expectancy was around 30, if you lived to the age of 20 your expected remaining lifespan would be 40 years, meaning if you didn't die in childhood you would probably live into your sixties. I don't know the data for Romans but I imagine it was roughly the same. Child mortality makes a huge difference. That being said, today in wealthy countries that number (expected remaining lifespan at 20) is over 60 years so modern medicine (as well as reduced likelihood of war, reduced crime etc) makes a big difference as well

[@italiastoria]

BTW, fun fact: Narses of Justinian time died at 96, Liberius 94...they were contemporaries and important people! And Justinian was 83...

[@kaloarepo288]

Narses was a eunuch -I wonder if eunuchs live longer than integral men?

[@italiastoria]

@@kaloarepo288 I doubt it, and we have other romans that we know that lived above 90, like his contemporary Liberius (which has all his things intact)

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

@@kaloarepo288 Eunuchs don't really live longer. It just SEEMS longer!

[@gagemcmahon9485]

Love your videos Metatron thanks for all your hard work

[@Gearparadummies]

I believe (I might be wrong) Caesar referred to himself as 'dictator' after winning the Civil War against Pompeius? Actually he may be the first autocrat to be called that.

[@undertakernumberone1]

there were a number of Dictators in roman history. For example Cincinnatus and Sulla. It's a rank of supreme authority and was usually limited to 6 months in case of crisis. Sulla and Caesar were awarded that Rank for life.

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

Dictator ("the one who dictates") was a temporary function granted by the Senate in times of emergency, allowing massively expanded powers for 6 months or until the crisis was over. The idea was that during a time of crisis, a faster reaction was required than regular Senate voting. The meaning was very different than in the modern age.

[@darthplagueis13]

"Dictator" as in an autocrat who rules without the approval of the people is a slightly more recent definition. In the roman republic, a consule could temporarily be made a dictator in times of need. It's basically just emergency powers, which is quite fitting considering how assuming emergency powers and not giving them back is basically a staple of modern dictatorships.

[@geargrinder7714]

Another note on the gladiator: Lindybeige made an excellent video on the subject, very well researched and presented

[@MacRemHor]

Phew, as a latin teacher in middle school, I'm glad that I didn't taught too much wrong stuff to my students ! I did know about the vowels' length, but not about the specificity of the m and the s. And since I'm not a specialist about the Roman army, though I did heard that the number of soldiers under a centurion's command would variate, I didn't know the very details. Now, the gladiatorship nerd in me must protest : WHY at 5'22 the thraex and the murmillo aren't wearing any ocreaes ?? That's not professional, mi filii ಠ_ಠ As for the bloodthirsty myth, I would suggest an interpretation of the violence in the Roman games : those were linked to a religious mindset (the games were under the guidance of the gods, and the tradition of gladiatores is thought to come from ancient funeral games), besides in Roman rituals (as well as in Greek ones), spilling blood was a strong sacred and propitiatory gesture. Therefore, while seeing blood spilled in the amphitheatrum could still had an entertaining aspect (call it Schadenfreude, blood lust, madness, whatever suits you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), maybe it was also touching the viewers at deeper and more spiritual levels. And thank you always Metatron for your work, I'm usually a quiet noble one, but I reeeeeeally enjoy your content. Vale !

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

"I didn't taught"? Thank Jupiter you weren't an English teacher!

[@MacRemHor]

@@alexanderhay-whitton4993 I know, right ? xD Well I'm not an English native speaker either, just a Frenchie, and I do this mistake on a regular basis because in my language, you compose the past tense with an auxiliary and a past participle, whether the sentence is negative or not, so it's a kind of an unfortunate automatism ! ;)

[@rsacchi100]

Thank you for correcting these misconceptions. I hope you do get around to explaining the differences between the Greek and Roman gods.

[@sevenproxies4255]

I agree about the part about not judging ancient people's by our own moral standards. We tend to think that our moral standards and ideals are some sort of "ultimate human condition" to the point where some people can't understand how anyone would be capable of thinking differently. Like for example about slavery, equality, empathy and so on. But one has to understand and accept that our morals are not the norm in history. They are the exception. Our ideas have existed for such a short time as to be considered tiny in comparison to the ideas held by ancient peoples. Their civilizations lasted for thousands of years. Our modern day civilization has barely made it through it's first 150 years. And from the looks of the instability and chaos in the world right now, i'm not so sure it will last much longer without being significantly changed. One thing I have learned from personal studies of the way ancient people's thought, is that they had a more categorical mindset compared to ours. People were much more associated with their class and family and profession. There was no such thing as "equality" between classes or genders or ethnicities. This would be a very foreign concept to an ancient person. Some political activists today consider this to be evil. But how can it be evil? The reason we think the way we do about class, equality and human value is because we have the privilige of being schooled by certain prominent thinkers who were born many many centuries after ancient rome. So to dismiss romans or any other ancient people's as evil, is kind of like being religious and dismiss people not a part of your religion as evil, even though they had no way of knowing about your religion and it's teachings to begin with. We don't consider slavery to be evil today because the "yearn for freedom" is some sort of objective and intrinsic human trait that all humans share. We consider slavery to be evil because we have been taught to think that. The ancient romans weren't. They were taught differently.

[@jacobitewiseman3696]

Well it is evil but because it replaces your own people.

[@samsonthecurrent]

Hey, Metatron! I just found your channel a few days ago & I’ve been watching a ton of your videos. This is really great & honest work…very well done, my friend.

[@joerggering5156]

I admit having fallen for the god misconception, although I learned soon after that at least some roman gods weren't anyhow related to the greek pantheon and so fortunately figured that out somewhat. The centurion point was close, but we read De Bello Gallico in latin class in school and the book contained an organizational plan for a roman legion, hence I learned early on that military organization is, uh, complicated. The rest I've never actually heard of or contemplated about, probably would've erred with the gladiators, but not surprised about the reality at all.

[@lakenomad4846]

Hey Metatron! I would love a video that covers the Greek/Roman gods and the differences between the two. I’m a teacher and I really love your videos.

[@metatronyt]

I’ll make it!

[@lakenomad4846]

@@metatronyt Thank you! I truly appreciate it!

[@ettecnal]

I'm not going to lie, I'm almost certain I've been wrong about all of these. But I feel especially sheepish not knowing the first mistake you mentioned about the differences between Greek and Roman gods. Thanks for this video, Metatron! I love listening in and learning these tidbits of information.

[@metatronyt]

I’ll make a dedicated video to study that difference in depth

[@rogersledz6793]

Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

[@jeffreygao3956]

Dang! I was hoping this would make it on the list: No, not all Roman soldiers wore segmented armor. That's just a very popular, iconic, and stereotypical armor style to draw Romans in. Depending on the time period, Roman soldiers might well be wearing muscle cuirasses or chainmail.

[@AymanAnasi]

Nobody has ever had this misconception.

[@ultimateshipper8997]

@@AymanAnasi Except... Hollywood and every media on the Romans ever.

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

@@ultimateshipper8997 And, by your leave, there really never has been such a thing as "chainmail". MAIL, however, was a leading iron age armour.

[@jimmynaylor1759]

Another great video. Thank you for addressing this. I have debated many people of the years and corrected them on these issues.

[@RagPlaysGames]

10. Always thought the most well-known ones were pretty close to the Greek equivalents, but knew at the same time that the Roman populace would adopt other foreign Gods into their Pantheon or conflate them with their own Gods if the portfolios were similar enough. They also had the Imperial Cults, Sol Invictus and so on. Learned this from Time Team and the various local shrines they dug in Britain. High degree of syncretism in the Roman religion. 9. Knew about free Gladiators, didn't know about female Gladiators. 8. Never really knew this was a thing that people debated, however I always assume modern people will not be capable of speaking ancient languages correctly without a lot of experience in the ancient language itself. Same linguistic groups get a leg up in some ways, but can also be hindered by false-friends. Either way, I certainly wouldn't gloat over it. 7. Your channel taught me otherwise. 6. "Short" is a relative term. Short compared to what? These kind of statements usually strike me as over-exaggerated. 5. They were people of their time. Judging them by the standards of modernity, which is often just as degenerate, is retarded. 4. Augustus was the first Emperor. I wouldn't consider the "Julius Caesar was the first Emperor" crowd as falling for a myth, rather than them falling for the conflation of two titles that have merged meanings in modern language. Caesar and Emperor to the average normie are synonyms. Most couldn't name you a single emperor let alone the first, nor any other Roman. Julius gets all the press, other than Pilate for Christians. 3. Some steel always occurs as a byproduct of ancient iron-making. 2. I learned this from Matt Easton, I think. Not for Romans, but for Medieval Europeans but the same principle applies across the board. Early Childhood death numbers skew the reality. 1. I mean, extra strength training is useful to build stamina, but would that necessarily improve actual skill at arms? I don't know for sure but I'd lean towards no.

[@evelynafton]

The latin pronunciation one makes so much sense! That's why Italian likes vowels so much and the consonants disappeared so easily, it's because people basically already talked that way! I'm from Romagna and you saying we already have the authentic Roman S made me so freaking happy haha

[@StallionFernando]

Having muscle memory for a heavier weapon would increase the possibility of over swinging with a lighter weapon, it could throw you off balance and/or leave a bigger opening to get countered.

[@silverhawkscape2677]

Only if you didn't get a few practice swings in to get a feel. It doesn't take long to get used to the lighter weapon.

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

But the gladius was a primarily stabbing sword. Less macho than a swinging northern weapon, but far more effective in prolonged close fighting with a heavy shield. The later spatha was, of course, no less Roman, but stereotypes tend to ignore most of what happened before Julius Caesar and concentrate on very inaccurate versions of anything after Augustus, especially if Nazarenes are involved.

[@paulhanks5566]

I just started watching your channel and I really appreciate the work you put into producing these videos. I watched this video and I had no idea Romans had access to steel, but now that I think about it seems silly to think they wouldn't be aware of it or use it.

[@silverhand9965]

10 : I knew they didn't copy them one for one. I didn't know quite how much, but it made sense they would at the very least have a mix of both their own pantheon and the Greeks'. I did learn a lot of specifics here though 😃 9 : I knew about the status of gladiators as being closer to professional athletes than chattel being sent to die. I had no idea about female gladiators tho. Make sense the Romans wouldn't pass up a chance to see half naked women after all 8 : This one makes sense especially as a native speaker of another romance language. The links to latin are clear but it's definitely not quite the same 7 : I feel like *you* taught me about that one before. Someone on youtube did at least 6 : I think you got me here 🤔Never thought about it but I generally assume people grew taller over time 5 : This one feels silly. Life isn't a hollywood movie where an irredeemably evil bad guy is needed. In real life generally people are people. Cultures change but we're still humans 4 : Julius Caesar wished he was the first emperor 😏 3 : I thought they didn't specifically create steel 🤔 2 : Never thought about it 1 : I knew that one. Or at least knew it was done by specific legions and that it could even be detrimental because of the different balance. I knew a fair bit but still learnt a lot especially in the details. Was a nice video

[@monteparnas]

To be honest on 9, most athletes of both sexes would practice naked or half-naked at the time anyway. Chariots were probably an exception rather than the rule, and the Romans loved them even more. On 6 the thing is that the proportion of this growth is actually extremely overblown all over the place, as is the height difference between ethnic groups. The difference in average height is usually a fraction of the mean variation, so it's actually not something noticeable (and pointing to particular cases as evidence is greatly misleading). 3 they didn't create it, they had it, like most people at the time, just that. Working steel or getting your hands on it was pretty much a thing, just much more expensive.

[@coe3408]

There absolutely is noticeble average height between ethnic groups. As a Portuguese I am average height, in Holland or Scandinavia I am shorter than most men.

[@monteparnas]

@@coe3408 noticeable isn't the same as factual or measurable. Even in Portugal I doubt most men you see are exactly your height. They'll be either shorter or taller. In numbers to exemplify, Portugal has an average male height of about 173 cm, while Denmark is 180 cm. but both has a Standard Deviation of about 7 cm, which means 68% of men in Portugal don't have exactly 173 cm, but anything between 166 and 180, and 68% in Denmark have anything between 173 and 187. So even taking one of the taller populations around to compare to the Portuguese (that are pretty average for the world), about half of it actually overlaps. A person that is a little tall in Portugal, but still within the average, would be a little short in Denmark, but still within the average. Most people in any Bell Curve distribution (as is the case) aren't average, just relatively near it.

[@petriew2018]

just a few notes 4 : uhhhh... not exactly. Ceasar was ambitious, no doubt, but the idea that he was intending to become emperor rather than simply dictator for life (and there is a difference) is dubious. From the period accounts considered credible there's little evidence he had any sort of plot in motion to make his position hereditary. Ceasar is one of those historical figures who seems to have lost his nuances over the centuries. 3 : again, not exactly, because the definition of steel isn't as rigid as people think. The oldest know steel sword dates to what we know as the bronze age. High carbon 'wootz' steel predates the Roman Empire. It was known to many cultures, it's just incredibly hard to make without specialized tools, thus what we'd consider steel was rare there's many types of steel, though, since it's just iron with extra carbon added. If you know how to forge an iron blade, you can easily figure out that adding in wood ash when processing the raw iron and then proper forging to spread it around results in a harder final product... technically steel, if low grade. The Romans actually had better access to this fairly crude but effective steel than most through their contact with the Celts, some of the most advanced metalurgists of the ancient world. One of the most important early romans allies was the celtic kingdom of Noricum in what's now Austria, a center of iron mining, where the early roman Legions preferred to source their equipment from. swords specifically marked in latin as 'noric steel' have been found dated to as early as 100 BC. so yeah, roman steel was a big part of their military might. it just wasn't quite what the modern person thinks of as 'steel' based on what we're used to.

[@Athalfuns]

I love your work. You're awesome! Love from Portugal!

[@youngimperialistmkii]

I used to believe that the Roman deities were analogous to the Greek ones. I learned some years ago that the truth is more complex than that as you said.

[@AnotherDuck]

Reality is rarely as simple as we're usually taught.

[@staroceans8677]

I ♥ Ancient Rome and could listen to your facts and stories endlessly! You're amazing!

[@Lttlemoi]

I often like to think the Greek gods just sort of evolved out of an actual real family who lived hundreds of years earlier, their family stories and schandals slowly being distorted and exaggerated into the mythology we now know..

[@mark_williamh1340]

Metatron, a series on ancient gods presented with your knowledge, passion and attention to detail would be most entertaining!

[@Rart95871]

Great video. 2 notes, though. First, on the nature of the roman religion compared to the greek, it is important to note that the characteristics described in the video concerning the tangibility of the deities changed considerably thought time. It seems like you compared 4th-5th century BCE greek religion to late republican or imperial religion. The greeks themselves strongly shifted towards abstraction by the 3rd-2nd century BCE due to the rise of platonism and all signs of belief in physical deities was gone by the time Rome conquered them. A good example of this would be Celsus. I'm pretty sure there is some contention regarding wether the greeks actually believed in concrete gods or if that interpretation was mostly artistic. There aren't many surviving texts from that long ago. Regarding the status of Julius Caesar as emperor, he WAS emperor (imperator). I'm going to be petty here because I'm pretty sure you have already talked about this in a previous video and are just simplyfying things, but it's just that the term "emperor" as we understand nowadays does not hold the same meaning of its historical equivalent. Imperator was a commendation given by the soldiers to their leader after considerable military success. Several other roman consuls in the republican period were also emperors, like Pompey. The title used by civilian autocrats of Rome since Octavian was Princeps, and since Diocletian, Dominus (although not permanently as titles became messy from this period onwards).

[@laughingmask3118]

I KNEW #10 AND IT'S SOMETHING I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO TELL PEOPLE FOR YEARS THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INCLUDING THAT ONE OMG

[@MrAllmightyCornholioz]

I am 100% sure the Romans had British accents. Is that true?

[@metatronyt]

Only cockney

[@sirdidymus62]

According to Rome: Total War, if you were any kind of advisor you sounded Australian! =D

[@daless3526]

Like the guy I know who thinks the British are the descendants of the Romans.

[@darthplagueis13]

"Ave, Guv'na!"

[@yrh002b8]

😆

[@martinajunkers4315]

I love how your Italian pronunciation gets so strong in English when you talk about Rome and/or Italy.

[@benjamindover2601]

"The ancient Roman's were a bloody thirsty people" My grandparents fought in the two bloodiest wars in human history.

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

I get bloody thirsty in Rome in summer myself.

[@decem_sagittae]

Zeus = PIE *Dyēus = sky/day/daylight. Day and Deus are also derived from this. Jupiter = contraction of *Djous Pater < PIE *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr = day father/sky father

[@jonbaxter2254]

One of mine is that Severus the Emperor was black, because he was African. That region has plenty of pale and tanned people, like Punic, Vandals and Berbers. Not all of Africa is black.

[@dravenocklost4253]

I'm pretty sure its mainly central and southern africa that is but idk >.>

[@tomjongman4797]

@@dravenocklost4253 Generally the term is "sub-Saharan Africa".

[@admirekashiri6651]

@@tomjongman4797 misconception not all black people are Sub Saharan some lived and still live in North Africa above the Sub Saharan line.

[@Regulator2000]

Vandals didn't arrive in North Africa until long after Severus was dead, but other than that, you're basically correct.

[@jonbaxter2254]

@@Regulator2000 Point is, Africa isn't a uniform colour. Annoys me people think it is one ethnicity.

[@jamesshuttlesworth]

I must confess, I hadn't even heard of most of these myths before now.

[@a-blivvy-yus]

I studied Latin for 3 years, and while I was doing so, I was told by several teachers that as a general rule, but not for everything, the closest modern languages to Latin in terms of pronunciation were Spanish and Portuguese, and that Italian has a lot of similarities, but also quite a few very noteworthy differences.

[@bwoah525]

6:45 Come on man... Female gladiators were extremely rare, vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts, they were an exotic sight only reserved for lavish spectacles and holidays like Saturnalia.

[@lamename2010]

Something to consider in regards to the "bloodthirstiness" of the past is that people back then walked with death. Consider this: the average family had 5-6 kids if not more, who grew up into adulthood. But this doesn't account for the miscarriages and those who died in childhood. So everyone knew someone close who has died, unlike today, where it is just the grandparents who might be already dead or dying. This in a way changes the worldview of people, as they see death as inevitable and thus not something to necessarily avoid. So both audience and gladiator don't see death the same way we modern people do and this changes how we interact with those who could die, not seeing it as much of a taboo as it is today. Modern man fears death, ancient man not so much, and because we fear death, we put so much more value on people being able to live no matter what the cost may be.

[@Vitorruy1]

thats an interesting point, I dont think ancient people were stoic badasses fearless in the face of death but it was more normalized.

[@lamename2010]

@@Vitorruy1 There are accounts of people having sex while watching an execution through a window. (Dan Carlin's podcast episode on executions talks about this) So the difference in regards to their worldview on death is huge.

[@AVKnecht]

Number six hits homebase with me. I'm 1,85 (born 1985), my father is 1,78 (born 1954), my grandfather was 1,76 (born 1928)and his father was 1,82 (born 1894). He was the only dude besides me wo didn't experience any kind of food shortage in his "growing" life. Nutrition does have a massive impact!

[@gizel4376]

you made a mistake about Augustus, the following emperor will indeed incorporate Ceasar in their name as a title, but Octavian was called Ceasar because he was adopted by Ceasar, he was called Ceasar way before becoming the first emperor also, Ceasar was not an emperor indeed, but he wasn't the first "Tyran" either, Sulla was

[@alexanderhay-whitton4993]

"Tyrant" wasn't entirely a term of condemnation. And you have to look closely to see how ancient republics or democracies thought the terms described their systems.

[@maunz5791]

Nice video! I was aware of some of those misconceptions, although I didn't know about the special subtile differences between the greek and the roman pantheon. Regarding steel in antiquity it would be nice to have a video about steel from gaul, as I heared the gauls had a very advanced steel production for their time and some high quality wares. But I don't really know much about it, so maybe the Metatron has some more information about it? 😉

[@philipglover3295]

Great video Metatron can you do a video on how a person who was deified after death such as Julius Caesar or Marcus Aurelius were treated in the Roman pantheon gods and if they were worshiped differently to the mythical gods

[@hans_bier]

I LOVE how you insert stock footage in your videos, its so funny

[@compota334]

this is one of your best recent videos

[@ladystarfall1539]

I really hope you are a professor somewhere because your knowledge and the way you explain is fantastic!

[@YellowTissueBox]

great video as always metatron!

[@nilsbabcock7686]

On the iron/steel point, I can confirm that Metatron is correct. There is a diagram that metallurgists use that explains exactly what blend of iron and other materials (be it carbon or other metals) is considered steel, vs "iron" from a metallurgical stand point. What is now commonly referred to as "iron" has a very similar chemical makeup to a large range of steel, but the cooling speed and specific carbon content (around +-2% carbon content difference) are the only differences. In short, what we now call steel has been in use far longer than most people believe. The only real difference is method of manufacture, which results in less impurities overall to work out of the material when forging.

[@SonsOfLorgar]

exactly, it's the homogenous cast blast furnace steel we use today that was impossible prior to the late 19th century, but it is and was perfectly possible to make decent quality forged steel in ancient times.

[@ricepaddyreasons]

Amazing video! I had always thought that Julius (who was assassinated) was the first emperor. Thank you for setting that straight!

[@glkeele]

I love watching your vidoes then regurgitating the facts at work and pretending im really smart. You're doing gods work