Thanks again to Brilliant for sponsoring this one! If Brilliant sounds interesting to you, please do go help support Todayifoundout using this link: brilliant.org/todayifoundout Thanks!
When I signed up for Curiosity Stream I thought it would ask me who the referrer was, but it didn't :( So you guys didn't get the credit for it. Boo. Dad loves it. He's had a heart attack and a back injury this year and has spent a lot of time on his back watching historical documentaries, so it opened up a whole new world of stuff to watch. Another Nero story to recommend: When he had his men sabotage his mothers boat so he could kill her on her way home from dinner with him. It's covered in one of the lectures available from The Teaching Company :)
@@kvltizt let me build a bridge that exceeds intended load capacity by 3000%, extremely hard, low deg. rock and a naturally stable foundation and call me an engineering genius in 4000 years...
@bmhiscd1 England has a ton of Roman stuff still. King Arthur's castle walls are still standing, I forget the name of that castle, the King Arthur story is just a myth though. Lots of stone circles and road markers all over the place too
@@paddington1670 What happened to the world? In the past they made buildings and monuments that could stand thousands of years and was very pretty to look at. Today everything is made to break within 150 years xD
@@DainHunter castles were made to last and be so strong because if they failed your friends and family living in it could possibly be slaughtered en masse. Many castles are now ruins and its only been a few hundred years, some haven’t even shown signs of aging. You are only seeing the things that survived, you dont see the countless things that didn’t because... well they’re dust
I was once on a job that got halted when we came across a roman road. To the untrained eye (like mine) it looked like a rocky strata. But once the guy pointed it out, you coukd see the camber on the road and the drainage ditches at each side. In fact one of the drainage ditches was still being used as a culvert that was running under the nearby A-road. Incredible.
I love a bit of mundane, geek nostalgia! Yes, I remember it. Seems so long ago that we actually burned CDs...And like the other guy said, the failure rate was high, plus some of those writable CDs used to 'go off' after a year or more and they wouldn't read. Good riddance to that format.
NERO burning CD program was one of the greatest things invented until higher security DRM came along. Also the DVD creation/editor was awesome when you bootlegged a movie on Kazaa and wanted to make a high quality DVD with menu controls and scene selectors!
In Ireland, where the Roman's never reached, the Irish word for road is Bothar. Bo meaning cow and thar meaning west or sideways. Boreen means a small road, a cow facing head on or maybe just little. Driving cows on paths caused the name of what a road was. There are roads everywhere in Ireland but none are straight. We have a phrase "it's a long road without a turning" meaning life changes. I just thought some of you might enjoy that biteen of history.
I grew up in a town founded by the Romans and over 2000 years old. Interestingly enough, the Romans weren't only good at building roads, they also built a sewer and water system in that town which is used to this day and has less leaks than modern sewer systems. It was just declared a world heritage site and I had the opportunity to go down into the "catacombs" which house the sewer channels (essentially open channels in an underground tunnel). Very impressive - if smelly :-)
@@uweschroeder it was a joke... I was reading the comment like you, too, were 2000+ years old. Hence, I asked, "What was Julius Caesar like?" Your opening sentence, in the comment, could be read like you were 2000 years old.
As someone that works in civil engineering, it’s surprising how many similarities there are between ancient construction and modern methods. Tech has improved, but some basics are very similar
Interesting enough with all the advancements and technology the quality of workmanship has gone drastically downhill I'm guessing it has to do with the attitude of the workers.
@@bobbyhempel1513 I don't think that's true at all. It's easy to look back with Rose tinted specs and think worker attitude used to be better and work quality was higher, but if you actually think about the subject we have surpassed quality speed and efficiency a hundred fold. We have never been as rich, a advanced and as humane as we are nowadays. Remember 99%of the workforce were slaves or indentured civilians
@@user-cl7yr Nope, it's merely a modern road build where the Romans had build one first. Giuseppe probably meant actual surviving ones - without modern asphalt and such
Eh, romans had slaves, we don't. Romans could loot a neighbouring country and build whatever they wanted with the spoils or forced labor, we can't, it's kinda against EU regulations.
Really though, if you have a few thousand men doing the work, each man only has to move a little bit of earth. The Roman legions used to build wood forts basically overnight Edit: spelling
ErgoCogita Yes “by hand” meant absent power. Isn’t this pre Iron Age? So perhaps a description of the those tools. Bronze shovels and bronze picks? I know bronze tools were used in Egypt. Even slavery labor and criminal labor, it’s quite an achievement.
as a road construction worker i can say with fair certainty that the Roman method is better than current methods. the main difference is that typically new roads consist of sand covered with gravel and paved. starting with larger stones that get smaller towards the top layers would provide a superior base.
The attitude is that the next election is never more than 4 (or 5 or at the most 6) years away, so why should one think in the long term, as a politician?
The Roman roads were pretty useless. 1 they were there to send soldiers from Rome to conquer, control and carry back tribute. 2 they led to Rome but were of little commercial use. 3 after the collapse of the Roman Empire the goths ran it for 250 years and increased GDP. Rome’s population fell from 2 million to 30,000. Rome was a parasitic state. 4 Roman roads were designed for soldiers on foot not carriages. All up up the roads were of little use.
Super1di0t They were not using “slaves” They were using a significant component “impressed labour”. It was drafted labour for sure that but paid and intended to be released at the end of the war. Some was indentured, people that had little choice but to sign up to to feed themselves or their family. Some were POW. One guy I knew that was one of these was a Serb who was arrested for handing out anti German leaflets at a railway station in Belgrade. He was forced to work on a farm. They clearly assigned people to jobs they were suited to or to ones they weren’t likely to sabotage.
I had a teacher back in primary school who once told us that you could tell the difference between roads that were laid down by the Romans, vs roads that were made by the British. She said if the road was straight, then it was built by the Romans. It's been maybe 40 years since that day, but I never forgot that anecdote, for some reason.
@@keirfarnum6811 Noun and adjective have to agree with each other, so either "gulpae magnae" (which is plural for some reason) or "gulpum magnum" (which sounds weird) or "gulpa magna" as a nice compromise. :D
If you go in Italy you can find that the main highways of the cities have exits that are always called with a cardinal number. But given that these places names are so common I've never paid attention it. One example is Settimo Torinese which is in Turin and literally means Seventh From Turin and its because of the romans. Another one is Sesto San Giovanni which is in Milan. There are towns named like that everywhere and people rarely know why
There are even too for the bridge s....nearby my house in centro of Italy there is a Town called pontecentesimo....It means that Is 100 th bridge from the Rome.....and i stay only 130 km at north of Rome in regione of Italy called UMBRIA
@@Fred_the_1996 Especcially on stone roads as the water can go into the stone or inbetween the gaps. Once it freezes, the stones move apart or fracture.
No one could ever fill Alex Trebek's shoes the day he is no longer Jeopardy's host, but Simon Whistler might be the closest anyone could get to filling Trebek's shoes.
@@TannerSwizel Oh, yes! Simon would be a WONDERFUL Jeopardy! host once Alex decides to retire. Trebek has just battled cancer but I don't think he is quite ready to retire.
There is a Portuguese village near a stone quarry built by Julius Ceasar. They still use the bridge built by the Romans. They have other bridges built in the last 30 years that the same trucks use and have had to rebuild those bridges.
The main reason our roads don’t last long is heavy vehicles constantly driving over it, and water seeping in and freezing, thus creating potholes due to the asphalt being typically one large solid substance. If you’re using cobblestones there’s more room for water to freeze and expand
As a surveyor in the modern age, hearing the ingenuity of ancient world surveyors leaves me in awe. Being one of the most vital part of any construction, surveying is mostly overlooked in any analysis but this video makes an effort to point it out. 👍👍
Surveyors: Serveying is the most vital part of any construction Diggers: Digging is the most vital part of any construction Builders: Building is the most vital part of any construction 😬
@@ian7666 I appreciate what you're saying, I'm not trying to sound smug or somehow diminish the importance of the other processes. However, none of the construction steps you've mentioned can be done without a survey in place. Granted, digging in your back garden or erecting a shed might not require one (even though legally it is required in most places), but there's no construction happening if you don't know where the thing you want to build has to go. More than that, there's no design being made without a topographical survey of the location you're trying to build on. Obviously every job is important, but the point I was making was that surveying is mostly overlooked in cases like this and I am happy it was given some prime-time for once.
Back in the 1960s when a little boy at private school in England, the teacher emphasised the brilliance of Roman road building including an explanation of the different materials used. The implication was clear, worthwhile Great societies build well. The British used to and an Indian gentleman I recently met said how good the old British bridges are in India. Now we struggle to run things in the U.K, as a society we are going backwards, you can see and feel it happening.
Are any of these dudes still around? My county apparently cannot fix the washboards on the dirt roads in my neighborhood. Excellent episode, Simon! Thank you.
I live in a city with bad roads, many pot-holes. Every spring and summer they fill in the holes and repave some roads. Every year. They don't do a good job like the Romans did. They don't want to, obviously. This way they can keep employing people to fix roads every year; they value the quantity of work, not the quality.
@@magistrumartium I think you're right. Same deal here. I live in a rural area near Denver, and the roads are dirt because many people have horses. They don't want paved roads. Fair enough, but the county could run a blade over them once in a while and take out the washboards. My truck is going to rattle apart one of these days.
@@johnmontt5285 hey, no one said Seger sucked or anything. All they said was that Metallica did it better. That's a matter of taste, and not a knock on Seger. I love both versions, but the newer version is still my favorite of the two. Again, no knock on Seger. 🙄
This channel never ceases to amaze me. It has been in my top 3 creator list for a long time. Super impressed again. Thank You! All the best to you and yours!
"Decimate" has come to mean, "almost complete destruction". However, it meant to eliminate one tenth of something as in killing one tenth of garrison as punishment.
jmchez I can’t help but think that whenever it’s used incorrectly, as in “ the entire town was decimated!” And I’m like, you mean one tenth of the entire town was decimated?
@keir farnum But you see it's not used incorrectly. It is the people who say it's *only* correct if referring to 1/10th that are incorrect. While it is true that was once the definition, starting all the way back in the 17th century the generic “kill/destroy” definition started popping up and became quite common in the 19th century and on through to today (according to the OED). As for today, Oxford gives the following definitions for decimate: “to kill large numbers of animals, plants or people in a particular area. To severely damage something or make something weaker” Websters includes, among other definitions: “to cause great destruction or harm to.” The word has evolved its definition. :-) -Daven
Maybe it was actually used the opposite of what you explained. Instead of destroying 1/10th of something, perhaps it was used to describe when all but 1/10th of something was destroyed. Said differently, when only 1/10th of something remained.
Visiting Italy, you’ll come across Roman things you’ve never heard of that will blow your mind. Like mount Sapon where they performed certain sacrifices and below it, where the fat and ashes mixed, they found certain waters cleaned clothes better. Yeah, they invented soap there and the way soap works is called “saponification” because of that mountain. But what staggered me was a time we were driving through a mountainous area and every so often you’d see one that was almost like the skeleton of a mountain with huge boulders all around. My mother explained to me that the Romans would bore tunnels all through the mountain, then divert a river into them and break the entire mountain up to mine what they wanted. This might not sound too crazy until you see the scale of what they could do. These guys could break up entire enormous mountains with their engineering.
On a side note the romans were the first civilization to change the atmosphere of the planet with their immense industry mainly mining silver, silver also has lead mixed in and scientists can take ice core samples and see a significant rise in atmospheric lead during the height of the Roman empire and a drop after its decline.
Ruina Montium. I fully believe that if the Roman empire would have survived the middle ages we would have colonized other planets by now. But humanity was not and is not to this day ready for unification, were too greedy and self centered. It's a shame out of the 1000 years of history of the western Roman empire all you hear about was the decadence of the last couple hundred. You don't hear about how western culture recieved it's military, industry, culture and government from the romans, you just hear about Nero and Caligula. It's a shame really.
@@eugenetswong Maps are just a drawing meant to represent the ground. - And no surveying tools? Every dangle a weight on a string (yo-yo even)? You used a plumb line. - Balance a stick on your finger? a level. - Hold your hand or finger up at arms length to try and see how big or far away something is? You just used a surveying tool. - pull a string taut between two points? Straight line tool. - - - You don't need leaser or devices with optical lenses to survey, not do you need anything much better than a lodestone and a reliable pace to make a decently accurate map.
@@MonkeyJedi99 I was just joking that Ricky Bobby burnt his cooking without the use of surveying tools. My humour isn't usually that good. That being said, I actually apprecite your explanation. It's good to know what can be done with simple technology and walking.
Never heard it and not historically familiar enough with the roman empire to even know if its true but still got a good chuckle #dadjokeoftheyearnomination
Caesar was a cognomen, with origin already not certain at the time of Gaius Julius, but suspected origin meaning exactly a c section, because the word means "to cut"
@4:37 "and cut the price of corn in half" Had to look this up. Apparently in British English "corn" is a general word for any type of grain, whereas in American English corn refers specifically to maize. In Warhammer English, Khorne refers to something else entirely.
@@TodayIFoundOut"14:38, he said corn!!" Definitely sent me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out how he could get that wrong. Did not realize corn does not mean maize.
To be fair, all you need in order to build a rudimentary straight road out of flagstones is two large nails and a very long piece of string. You put one nail where you start and another where you finish and just follow the string.
Basically. The Hadrian wall was built because the emperor Hadrian knew that when soldiers get bored they get rowdy, and that tended to be bad for the locals. So to keep them occupied he made them build the wall. The same was probably true for roads
Ancient Near East, India and China all have similar paved roads as Rome. I wonder if the construction is the same just differs on material available locally.
If all three were indeed building roads using the same technology, the former Persian Empire, bordering both China and India, becoming the Parthian Empire when Rome had its empire, was situated in the middle of them. There was trade of goods and maybe ideas. Perhaps a question should be who built their roads this way first?
Romans weren't allergic to taxes like we are in the USA. Roads are expensive and don't pay off in the short term, but look what the Freeway system did for commerce in the US and how the Autobahn (the first modern highway system) affected Germany.
I grewup in the country and we lived off a dirt road. It was graded just like a roman road with center higher than the edges with gutters on both sides. It lasted okay but a neighbor decied to grade it flat. Every winter after that the road became a quagmire in a couple of places. Those Romans knew a thing or two.
@@Mostlyharmless1985 In a bit more detail, potholes happen because of the substrate underneath the road moving/collapsing, causing the road above to weaken and collapse. The water that this hole allows to collect hastens the process.
Ryodraco not to mention the fact that even Roman roads required maintenance and repair, they were made ever bit built to a price that modern roads were, it’s just they didn’t have the same materials we have access too. It’s not unusual to see the same pothole forming year after year because the earth underneath the road shifts. People also never notice the miles and miles of road that aren’t under maintenance and need of repair that they drive across every day. My own street had the same tarmac for nearly 60 years. We didn’t get a new sheet until after they ripped it up to change the utilities.
@@Ryodraco also the concrete used by Romans was entirely different. Roman roads don't weaken from rain and snow. Our concrete does break apart like limestone when exposed to the two and it's all due to the materials recipe used by Romans in the concrete manufacturing making the difference. The secret ingredient wasn't discovered until a few years ago, it was volcanic Ash and rock, but in what amount they used in the mix is still being figured out.
@@vguyver2 Apparently the water they used in the mix was sea water, not fresh, and that made a difference as well. They never specified *salt* water, though (one supposes simply taking it as a given), which is why we only figured out *that* factor very recently as well.
I mean... society was a thing. And with enough human minds working together instead of trying to kill each other all the time. One can achieve great things
I spent years as a kid doing surveying and my dad was a great repository of good info.. I asked him about this.. he said a) basically three sticks on hill tops is all you need.. you make the middle guy walk back and forth etc.. b) measurements were transmittable.. the roman numerals were also visible at extreme distances and numbers could be passed back and forth easily.. i. e. XII can be made in a body shape.. with a simple sort of body shape you can effectively "talk" up 2 miles away.. (i.e with a confirmation being possible)
@@neiltappenden1008 one roman goes to the horizon, one stays where he is, one goes half way, they communicate with hand signals and can even "demonstrate" numbers as numerals are body shapes. Then the rear most roman hops on past the two after lining them up. To help understand it, maybe you need to actually try doing a survey. It's obvious within about 5 minutes of not being in an office 2 mins.
I think, perhaps, some confusion is arising less from what you’re saying but from what you’re talking about: you say you asked your dad about “this,” but this video talks about all sorts of things, including Nero and the great fire in Rome! Are you describing how they made their roads so straight? Or how they went over mountains? It’s certainly interesting, but I’m not sure which challenge of road building this applies to. Maybe you were replying to someone else and it became its own comment? I do like the notion that Roman numerals are easily mimicked with a body: Is this something your father intuited or did he learn about it somewhere?
@@b.w.22 my point is: the Romans had an entire holistic system for EVERYTHING except mass production. It was based on practicality in a largely illiterate world, but where the "standard narrative" that get parrotted (as nauseum) breaks down is where people, who've never been outside and done a hard day's job, or trekked anywhere dangerous, assume woeful platitudes about the hard core world conquerers who all still had the same IQs as today.
One of the coolest thing I have done to date is stand on the marble Roman road leading from Ephesus to its former bay, where you can still see the marks of the chariots in the road. It is a remarkable experience. You feel strangely connected to these people of the past. I also have one of the major Roman roads of Britain running right past my house :o)
If you ever read a history book, you would know that the 'ancients' had very advanced knowledge and already were upto date concerning astronomy and an awareness that the Earth was round and was not the centre of the universe. The Roman Church/Established Religion wanted a dumb populace to live in a denial of reality and accept the apparent 'truth' according to a 'holy scripture' that was written long after the supposed life of their 'messiah' to establish a society easily moved by words from dead men.
Ben Keller to pick your brain, how intelligent do you think the ‘ancients’ were...? Because fuck... the pyramids are a thing still... Roman roads... the Greeks measuring the earth’s circumference to be ~400 or so Km off. I singlehandedly believe that the fire to destroy the Library of Alexandria really took out a chunk of how much we knew about them. Edit: Sorry to rant, but didn’t the Greeks (don’t quote me) ask every ship entering a harbor for their books, transcribed them and made copies to collect?
I wish you success. I am constantly amazed at their designs for durability. Even there walls and sewers are still functional today even past two thousand years.
I also find it strange how people of the past are underestimated, there were allot of brilliant people, they just didn't have the technology we have now, that's the main difference.
I really like watching your videos. I always learn something new. Did you know that the names for the majority of imperial units come from Rome? This includes: mile, feet, pounds, gallons, etc. It is kind of interesting the history of the imperial units. I do like that system.
As long as you use those roads at a horses walking speed they are fine. They are quite bumpy. A modern smooth surface creates a sealed top which suffers from the changes in temperature and humidity.. Particularly in more polar locations which have water freeze in the small cracks.
Is something wrong with the syncing of the video? I can notice subtle stutters and several de-sync? I can notice one at around 2:50. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Krok Krok No dude. The Inca did not have metal tools, beasts of burden, or even a written language or the wheel. It’s more of a wonder how they managed to build a road system rather than the romans.
That is pretty amazing how modern that really is. They built their roads, then the horse stations and inns pop up along the route, followed by carriage repair shops, and eventually entire towns being developed along the road, initially to built to serve those using the roads, entirely due to the roads. That seems to be a thoroughly modern concept, and here the Romans are perfecting it 2000+ years ago. Amazing.
It happened long before Rome also...a trade trail from point a to point b...some enterprising person or group starts an inn or ferry (basically a raft with ropes to pull from one side to the other) to relieve traders of a few mass produced flint tools...
Sand (with filter fabric beneath it to keep the flora from growing up through it) crushed stone, and pavers with sand brushed into the joints is the best imaginable way to build a road or walkway or sidewalk. The same types of roads and sidewalks still exist from their original state all over the world. The Romans were very much THE pioneers of masonry work and techniques that we use today. The Roman arch is still used in the field of masonry in fact, and the key stone is of course what ultimately bears all of the weight of the arch and everything above. In my experience the lead mason is always the one to stand beneath the arch once the wooden arch brace is removed, and I have worked on many huge masonry job sites and never seen an arch fail!!
It really is very interesting. The more you learn about history, the more you learn that humans have changed very little. Recorded history is less about how we used to be and more about how we still are. Just under specific circumstances. Take away much of our modern knowledge and our modern connectivity... and especially our modern comforts... and anyone born today would be just like any of those Romans. Or any of the people from ancient Damascus for that matter. In fact, I believe some people posit that we are very, very similar to people even 50,000 years ago. One side of Behavioral Modernity I believe.
Ya, the most mind blowing thing there is that humans we commonly depict as "cave men" that lived tens of thousands of years ago intelligence wise and looks weren't really different than us. They simply lacked a proper education and the tools we've developed in the interim. ;-)
🎶 Be it ever so crumbled, there’s no place like Rome. Nero was emperor, the palace was his home. But he loved to play with matches, for a bonfire he yearned So he burned Rome to ashes and fiddled while it burned. 🎶 (Bugs Bunny)
I gotta be honest, I never once even considered that there was a literal interpretation of the phrase until Simon started talking about playing a violin - I always thought it was "fiddle" as in "to fiddle around with something"/"waste time".
I think the term fiddle, as in violin, and “fiddling with something” come from the same thing. Like how your hands look when playing a violin is fiddling with it. Kinda funny how that came about, but curiously “fiddle” is an older word for the instrument than the word “violin” and what you use to play it is a “fiddlestick.”
Exactly. A string line. Or, (the eye see's straight) Place one stack in the ground and another further away, within reasonable distance. The 3rd stack place at even a further distance. Simple, look down the 3 stakes, adjust one or another stakes to form straight line(road). So That took 3 stake and good eye site to make a straight line that can carry on forever with only 3 stakes, a hammer and an eye. Simple.
Or, (the eye see's straight) Place one stack in the ground and another further away, within reasonable distance. The 3rd stack place at even a further distance. Simple, look down the 3 stakes, adjust one or another stakes to form straight line(road). So That took 3 stake and good eye site to make a straight line that can carry on forever with only 3 stakes, a hammer and an eye. Simple.
As it’s said, “if it’s worth doing, do it right” a good rule to go by. I was a engineer, and had a Swiss engineer here for observing our road construction for a couple weeks. The Swiss and Germany, have very few if any pot holes, as she stated the Swiss go down 12 feet, with layers of large and small rock, before the driving layer is finished. In US we are lucky to start 1 to 2 feet with very little base, giving us the famous “pot holes” we enjoy patching each year.
Major road on my commute was shut down last summer to be completely redone. They finished it in November. As of May, they are patching potholes in it already. 🙃
Can't wait until we (here in Florida) start mixing in the radioactive waste from phosphate mining into our roads! Great solution for those companies to sell their radioactive waste. It's a win/win; what could go wrong?
Check out the Pantheon. Solid concrete, still in good shape. They made fairly dry concrete using lime and volcanic ash. They had slaves carry the concrete in baskets and it was strapped into the forms. Their concrete was superior to the concrete we make today.
@ 8:17 Wow, I didn't know a "mile" meant 1000 paces. Learned something new, yay! Thank you Simon's researcher! There are nuggets in all your videos guys. (@9:59 There are "way stations" in BC too. The town of 100 Mile House, 170 Mile House etc for resting the horses.)
Nope, but I do think about his upside down head though, the 70's Mullet and Afro of today. Later people will look back on this time with all the upside down heads, top knot hair, tattoos amused and cringing. lol
Roman roads still in use 2 thousands years later. Roman aqueducts still in use 2 thousand years later. Roman sewers still in use 2 thousands years later. Meanwhile today we can’t build so much as a driveway without it needing to be redone after 30 years.....
I mean you can get a driveway in an afternoon, or a road in a week with modern construction materials and practices. Romans couldn't make these compromises in costs on labor and materials, so they wanted to ensure that they were built to last hundreds of years. There's also the fact that they're not designed to be smooth enough for what we'd expect out of a road in the modern day, and thus would have enough tolerance within the design to avoid issues with weather such as freezing rain. Its the same with the aqueducts, they're not mechanical pumps of water, but just gradual slopes that allow towns to access water. And while the water was flowing, it isn't the same as a closed water system that is under constant pressure with constant fluxes in pressure at individual access points. It also doesn't make sense to build for 200 years in advance, because of the ease at which we can build infrastructure in the modern era, as well the much more frequent advances in engineering.
To back up a comment above, not merely does Roman concrete last so much longer than modern concrete, we still aren’t quite sure how they made it! Because that technology was lost, until modern times buildings had to be made from stone and a cathedral took a century to build.
Autobahn and US Highway system use similar ideas, with mile or Kilometer markers, rest areas, etc. Interstate highways have rest areas every 50 miles. Also certain areas are made straight on purpose.
I get your point however our modern roads can't last over millennia like the roman roads, even in perfect conditions. also the Romans had underwater cement, and many other things.
I expect it was something akin to Bush reading kids stories while the twin towers were being destroyed, true but not without reason. Probably Nero was playing music when he was notified or was waiting for transport to the city, or even as a means to calm his nerves (look at bush's face when he is left with nothing to do while he waits, speaks volumes to the merit of doing something in such a helpless situation) with time and rumour and negative image, changing the story.
I have a suggestion for a related video. How did the Romans accomplish these amazing feats of engineering using Roman numerals it just seems like it would be difficult to the point of impossible.
I, II & III means 1, 2 and 3. V=5. IV=4 because 5-1 is 4, but since we already have the numbers for 1, 2 and 3, then it doesn't make sense to make IIV and IIIV. However, it does make sense to make VI, VII and VIII as 5+1=6, 5+2=7 and 5+3=8. To write 10, you use X. And since IV=4, then IX=9 and XI=11, while XII and XIII equals 12 & 13. XIV=14 and XV=15. XVI, XVII and XVIII equals 16, 17 & 18 respectively, while XIX=19 and XX=20. The same system continues like this, until you hit XXXIX which equals 39. To write 40, you write XL as L=50 and X=10. 50-10=40. XLI=41, XLIV=44, XLV=45 and so on. C=100, D=500 and M=1000. Here's something less confusing to understand than this comment: mathworld.wolfram.com/RomanNumerals.html
*_I love history~i live just couple of hundred feet from an 8th century Catholic Church. Was in use til recently when we got a bigger, granite Church._*
Personally, I like gravel. Main roads are 3 wide, village roads or secondary roads are 2 wide with a mix of coarse dirt also. Simple trails are just coarse dirt 1 wide. Regular bridges are 5 wide allowing for 3 wide road surface and an edge for safety barriers or whatever. Really big bridges are 7 wide allowing for 5 wide road surface and an edge on each side. System works for me although I've seen all sorts of different road systems. Road net makes it easier to explore also. Rail net is different from basic roads.
Francis Keough Oh yeah, gravel is a great looking surface. I like it in desert biomes. I usually excavate 2 down or more for a cobblestone base to support gravel, since gravel is influenced by gravity, 3-5 wide, with a cobble siding, and 2 fencepost+Block torch lighting
You covered a great deal more than the title. I won't comment further on that. It's interesting that so many modern roads are lacking in durability and would never last 100 years, much less 2,000 years, without frequent reconstruction. To be sure, megaton trucks didn't use Roman roads, but a bigger factor is cost. The Romans had millions of workers, both slaves and idle soldiers, to make the base really deep and solid, and they didn't have to pay for seizing land by eminent domain. Today's roads are often built by the lowest bidder as cheaply as possible. And it shows. I've also observed that a typical highway overpass has a lifetime of about 50 years, whereas there are Roman bridges that are still in use today.
I have a friend who thinks everything in the past was done by aliens. When I explained how you can measure the circumference of the equator with a stick and a clock his mind was blown.
@@themichael3410 I am sure that after our civilization has collapsed and someone finds the remains of our buildings and technology, aliens will be their obvious explanation.
@@themichael3410 I suspected as much but I've seen enough flurfers and other tinfoil hat weirdos to know there are real people like this. That said, I was talking about OP's friend.
@ablackprep Of course I did, it is easier to visualize stuff when you are high. I even did the math in my head.....which was probably the part that really blew his mind. LOL The ancients had very simple tools to measure distance, angles and time, but if you do it correctly the methods are extremely precise. Most involve only sticks and string.
@@themichael3410 So you don't think the human race managed to create a advanced civilization in the millions of years they existed, and only just got off their butts 10 000 years ago? With that amount of time, we could have had many previous human civilizations that maybe were even more advanced than ours, all without any alien interference. The ruins themselves show evidence of highly sophisticated machinery and machining processes. These are not hand cut stones or hand drilled holes. But it would also be strange if any metal tools from that era would not have been recycled into other stuff, so unless we find a relatively intact crane or stone milling machine from 10 000 years ago, we must judge by the ruins and artifacts themselves. Try asking some stone quarry experts about the amount of time and labor these ancient ruins represent. It is no piece of cake moving a 2000 ton block of stone down one hill and up the next, unless they at the time of building were by the sea and not high in the mountains. There is clear evidence of much higher sea levels too, so I think there is some error in the climate models. I've seen coastline at 450 meters many places around the equator. There is no need to presume an alien influence on these ancient people, as we have already in just 10 000 years progressed from stone tools to atomic weapons and gene editing. It seems probable to me that we were once at a comparable technological level as today, and were almost wiped out by a global extinction event that also affected many other species.
made them so much easier to dance upon as whilst going to and from battles and regions in the hinterlands soon to be put under the rule and "protection" of the Roman Empire
"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble" - Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome, declared by the roman senate as a God for his good will towards SPQR ( short for latin: "Senate, and the people of Rome") Did you know that the month Juli is short for Julius (as in Caesar) and August is short for Augustus (Caesar). I love these fun facts ^^
At about 10:40 , we hear that Nero "cut the price of corn, as well as provided food directly." Much as the fiddle wasn't invented until the 11th century, thought the discovery of corn happened when European explorers found the Indians growing it in America a millennia later.
Thanks again to Brilliant for sponsoring this one! If Brilliant sounds interesting to you, please do go help support Todayifoundout using this link: brilliant.org/todayifoundout Thanks!
fiddled is another term for molestation.
You can do anything if you have enough slaves and are willing to throw endless amounts of human suffering at the project.
I noticed that you do, 'today I found out' about food. Are you able to do a 'today I found out' on Vegemite?
And I pay for TH-cam Premium to avoid ads ☹
When I signed up for Curiosity Stream I thought it would ask me who the referrer was, but it didn't :( So you guys didn't get the credit for it.
Boo.
Dad loves it. He's had a heart attack and a back injury this year and has spent a lot of time on his back watching historical documentaries, so it opened up a whole new world of stuff to watch.
Another Nero story to recommend: When he had his men sabotage his mothers boat so he could kill her on her way home from dinner with him. It's covered in one of the lectures available from The Teaching Company :)
These dudes built a footbridge like 5 mins from my house here in Scotland and it's still in perfect condition. Crazy.
Watch how long it lasts when someone drives 20 tons across it going 80 kph.
@@I_Art_Laughing Exactly what kind of vehicle traffic do you think a "footbridge" is designed to handle...?
@@bobw1678 ever wonder which part got (edited) there genius?
So they built a footbridge that lasted. What an engineering marvel.
@@I_Art_Laughing Yes.
@@kvltizt let me build a bridge that exceeds intended load capacity by 3000%, extremely hard, low deg. rock and a naturally stable foundation and call me an engineering genius in 4000 years...
When Romans declared that Rome will last thousands of years, they took it to heart.
pretty much
As opposed to Herr Hitler.
@bmhiscd1 England has a ton of Roman stuff still. King Arthur's castle walls are still standing, I forget the name of that castle, the King Arthur story is just a myth though. Lots of stone circles and road markers all over the place too
@@paddington1670 What happened to the world? In the past they made buildings and monuments that could stand thousands of years and was very pretty to look at.
Today everything is made to break within 150 years xD
@@DainHunter castles were made to last and be so strong because if they failed your friends and family living in it could possibly be slaughtered en masse. Many castles are now ruins and its only been a few hundred years, some haven’t even shown signs of aging. You are only seeing the things that survived, you dont see the countless things that didn’t because... well they’re dust
I was once on a job that got halted when we came across a roman road. To the untrained eye (like mine) it looked like a rocky strata. But once the guy pointed it out, you coukd see the camber on the road and the drainage ditches at each side. In fact one of the drainage ditches was still being used as a culvert that was running under the nearby A-road. Incredible.
Anyone remember "NERO Burning ROM" as the best CD ripper of the 90's?
Yeah :) Software buffer that compensated for the anemic amount of ram they put in CD burners, which caused burns to fail far too often :)
I love a bit of mundane, geek nostalgia! Yes, I remember it. Seems so long ago that we actually burned CDs...And like the other guy said, the failure rate was high, plus some of those writable CDs used to 'go off' after a year or more and they wouldn't read. Good riddance to that format.
NOW i get it! Damn 20 years too late. xD
@@drigorobot XD saaaame
NERO burning CD program was one of the greatest things invented until higher security DRM came along.
Also the DVD creation/editor was awesome when you bootlegged a movie on Kazaa and wanted to make a high quality DVD with menu controls and scene selectors!
In Ireland, where the Roman's never reached, the Irish word for road is Bothar. Bo meaning cow and thar meaning west or sideways. Boreen means a small road, a cow facing head on or maybe just little. Driving cows on paths caused the name of what a road was. There are roads everywhere in Ireland but none are straight. We have a phrase "it's a long road without a turning" meaning life changes. I just thought some of you might enjoy that biteen of history.
Michael Harris, Mighty fine. So, would you refer to them as cowpaths?
alphadawn2015 lennon, It is an exercise for Sisyphos I suppose.)
That is fantastic information. Thank you!!
@@wkdravenna
Because our women are so much better looking, obviously.
@@BeingFireRetardant that doesn't make sense.
"Join the army" they said, "see the world" they said. All I've done is dug holes!
Then call me a shovel because I'm diggen it -DGR
Where’s my Condo? - Goldie Hawn
Asterisk
Strange that so many soldiers are doing the same thing now that the soldiers of ancient times did.
Army Corps of Engineers. Not a new concept.
I grew up in a town founded by the Romans and over 2000 years old. Interestingly enough, the Romans weren't only good at building roads, they also built a sewer and water system in that town which is used to this day and has less leaks than modern sewer systems. It was just declared a world heritage site and I had the opportunity to go down into the "catacombs" which house the sewer channels (essentially open channels in an underground tunnel). Very impressive - if smelly :-)
Wow! How old are you!? What was Julius Caesar like?
@@Hellheart What does the history of the town I grew up in have to do with my age?
@@uweschroeder it was a joke... I was reading the comment like you, too, were 2000+ years old. Hence, I asked, "What was Julius Caesar like?" Your opening sentence, in the comment, could be read like you were 2000 years old.
@@Hellheart funniest German:
@@Bolognabeef nice! 🤣🤣
As someone that works in civil engineering, it’s surprising how many similarities there are between ancient construction and modern methods. Tech has improved, but some basics are very similar
Interesting enough with all the advancements and technology the quality of workmanship has gone drastically downhill I'm guessing it has to do with the attitude of the workers.
@@bobbyhempel1513 I don't think that's true at all. It's easy to look back with Rose tinted specs and think worker attitude used to be better and work quality was higher, but if you actually think about the subject we have surpassed quality speed and efficiency a hundred fold. We have never been as rich, a advanced and as humane as we are nowadays. Remember 99%of the workforce were slaves or indentured civilians
@@bobbyhempel1513 man, you just romanticize the roman. We could make better stuff than the romans, but it's down on the design and money available.
Too many pot holes today
@@bobbyhempel1513 i agree before romsns took pride in there architectural designs and everything they built makes designs look like shit.
I've been to Italy many times and I can tell you they have forgotten about road quality all together
i'm italian and i can tell you all that the best roads we have now are the the ones built by the romans and survived
Same in England, the A1 our main motorway is a Roman road
@@user-cl7yr Nope, it's merely a modern road build where the Romans had build one first. Giuseppe probably meant actual surviving ones - without modern asphalt and such
Eh, romans had slaves, we don't. Romans could loot a neighbouring country and build whatever they wanted with the spoils or forced labor, we can't, it's kinda against EU regulations.
@@sacciuchi bloody EU regulations, can see why UK left
"Take me Rome country roads."
To the time of legioooons
I belonggg, west Romanian, mountain Momma take me Rome
On a country roam
You are just a little sick and it love it. 😆
You must be "Alpine Mountain High" to come up with that!
1-2 meters deep hand dug is deep. That’s a huge volume of material.
Really though, if you have a few thousand men doing the work, each man only has to move a little bit of earth. The Roman legions used to build wood forts basically overnight
Edit: spelling
Matt TheChosen, Kind of like some of the stuff I did in the army.
_"1-2 meters deep hand dug is deep. "_ Hand dug doesn't necessarily mean with bare hands. Still a huge volume but tools greatly expedite the process.
ErgoCogita, Give me a shovel any day.
ErgoCogita
Yes “by hand” meant absent power.
Isn’t this pre Iron Age? So perhaps a description of the those tools. Bronze shovels and bronze picks? I know bronze tools were used in Egypt.
Even slavery labor and criminal labor, it’s quite an achievement.
Imagine if the Romans had developed steam train technology. The possibilities are immense.
they did invent the steam engine! but because of slavery there was no need for it to be developed into anything useful
They didn't have coal, did they? The wood required to run a steam economy would have been rapidly exhausted.
@@sanniepstein4835
yeah, the Romans had coal
Or steam power wagons
@@sanniepstein4835
"Necessity is the mother of invention"
They'd find something
I mean the ERE figured out basically flamethrowers...
as a road construction worker i can say with fair certainty that the Roman method is better than current methods. the main difference is that typically new roads consist of sand covered with gravel and paved. starting with larger stones that get smaller towards the top layers would provide a superior base.
They clearly had the attitude of "Build it Right, Build it Once". Now the attitude is "That's Good Enough".
The attitude is that the next election is never more than 4 (or 5 or at the most 6) years away, so why should one think in the long term, as a politician?
The Roman roads were pretty useless.
1 they were there to send soldiers from Rome to conquer, control and carry back tribute.
2 they led to Rome but were of little commercial use.
3 after the collapse of the Roman Empire the goths ran it for 250 years and increased GDP. Rome’s population fell from 2 million to 30,000. Rome was a parasitic state.
4 Roman roads were designed for soldiers on foot not carriages.
All up up the roads were of little use.
Of course they'd make them build it right, they were using slaves
Super1di0t They were not using “slaves” They were using a significant component “impressed labour”. It was drafted labour for sure that but paid and intended to be released at the end of the war. Some was indentured, people that had little choice but to sign up to to feed themselves or their family. Some were POW. One guy I knew that was one of these was a Serb who was arrested for handing out anti German leaflets at a railway station in Belgrade. He was forced to work on a farm. They clearly assigned people to jobs they were suited to or to ones they weren’t likely to sabotage.
@David Murphy indeed
: (((((((((((((
I had a teacher back in primary school who once told us that you could tell the difference between roads that were laid down by the Romans, vs roads that were made by the British. She said if the road was straight, then it was built by the Romans. It's been maybe 40 years since that day, but I never forgot that anecdote, for some reason.
The History channel should make a 5 part series about why it might have been aliens.
~ Being the History Channel, it would wind up being about Hitler.
@@5jerry1 Hmmm. Interesting. So Hitler was an alien.
Used to love that channel.now it's about aliens or how somebody smuggled Hitler to South America in their prison wallet
Hi, I'm from the history channel, don't mind me, just writing down all of these juicy facts from you experts and scholars
Literally came to this video for this comment. xD
One day while walking along one of these roads I saw an ancient sign that read VII - XI. So I stopped in and purchased a Big - Gulp.
Ha
kab kab
You mean a gulpae magnum?
@@keirfarnum6811 Noun and adjective have to agree with each other, so either "gulpae magnae" (which is plural for some reason) or "gulpum magnum" (which sounds weird) or "gulpa magna" as a nice compromise. :D
keir farnum
Thanks for the correction.
Μεγάλη γέλια - Google Translation
If you go in Italy you can find that the main highways of the cities have exits that are always called with a cardinal number. But given that these places names are so common I've never paid attention it. One example is Settimo Torinese which is in Turin and literally means Seventh From Turin and its because of the romans.
Another one is Sesto San Giovanni which is in Milan. There are towns named like that everywhere and people rarely know why
There are even too for the bridge s....nearby my house in centro of Italy there is a Town called pontecentesimo....It means that Is 100 th bridge from the Rome.....and i stay only 130 km at north of Rome in regione of Italy called UMBRIA
“I came, I saw, I built some awesome roads.”
-Some Roman guy
Augustus
-Appius Claudius Caecus
slave*
You're nearly right. its actually "Veni, Vedi, Concreti"! I came I saw I concreted.
Chris L. 😂 thanks for that correction
As a Brit who grew up with the classic Roman road stories THANK YOU for finally covering this.
Answer: by not allowing 80,000 lb trucks on them.
Also a warm climate. Ice is a bitch on roads
@@jac981 not on stone roads
@@Fred_the_1996 Especcially on stone roads as the water can go into the stone or inbetween the gaps. Once it freezes, the stones move apart or fracture.
@@Fred_the_1996 cobble and stone roads suffer the worst. Look it up.
@@sinisterthoughts2896 the cobble roads where I live aren't affected by ice
I guess by now you're generally banned from any establishment hosting a quiz night.
And any general knowledge based game show.
zadok23 he could make so much money with his level of knowledge
No one could ever fill Alex Trebek's shoes the day he is no longer Jeopardy's host, but Simon Whistler might be the closest anyone could get to filling Trebek's shoes.
@@TannerSwizel Oh, yes! Simon would be a WONDERFUL Jeopardy! host once Alex decides to retire. Trebek has just battled cancer but I don't think he is quite ready to retire.
He's reading information off a cue card that was researched by other people... Are you guys really that gullible?
There is a Portuguese village near a stone quarry built by Julius Ceasar. They still use the bridge built by the Romans. They have other bridges built in the last 30 years that the same trucks use and have had to rebuild those bridges.
The main reason our roads don’t last long is heavy vehicles constantly driving over it, and water seeping in and freezing, thus creating potholes due to the asphalt being typically one large solid substance. If you’re using cobblestones there’s more room for water to freeze and expand
5 minutes of Roman roads, 15 of Nero's history. I'm not complaining, I really enjoyed both!
As a surveyor in the modern age, hearing the ingenuity of ancient world surveyors leaves me in awe. Being one of the most vital part of any construction, surveying is mostly overlooked in any analysis but this video makes an effort to point it out. 👍👍
Surveyors: Serveying is the most vital part of any construction
Diggers: Digging is the most vital part of any construction
Builders: Building is the most vital part of any construction
😬
@@ian7666 I appreciate what you're saying, I'm not trying to sound smug or somehow diminish the importance of the other processes. However, none of the construction steps you've mentioned can be done without a survey in place. Granted, digging in your back garden or erecting a shed might not require one (even though legally it is required in most places), but there's no construction happening if you don't know where the thing you want to build has to go. More than that, there's no design being made without a topographical survey of the location you're trying to build on.
Obviously every job is important, but the point I was making was that surveying is mostly overlooked in cases like this and I am happy it was given some prime-time for once.
Back in the 1960s when a little boy at private school in England, the teacher emphasised the brilliance of Roman road building including an explanation of the different materials used. The implication was clear, worthwhile Great societies build well. The British used to and an Indian gentleman I recently met said how good the old British bridges are in India. Now we struggle to run things in the U.K, as a society we are going backwards, you can see and feel it happening.
Are any of these dudes still around? My county apparently cannot fix the washboards on the dirt roads in my neighborhood. Excellent episode, Simon! Thank you.
I live in a city with bad roads, many pot-holes. Every spring and summer they fill in the holes and repave some roads. Every year. They don't do a good job like the Romans did. They don't want to, obviously. This way they can keep employing people to fix roads every year; they value the quantity of work, not the quality.
@@magistrumartium I think you're right. Same deal here. I live in a rural area near Denver, and the roads are dirt because many people have horses. They don't want paved roads. Fair enough, but the county could run a blade over them once in a while and take out the washboards. My truck is going to rattle apart one of these days.
21st century vehicles would pound the shit out of those old roman roads. lol
@@magistrumartium
Doesn't the US also have some weird budgeting laws
And almost no gas tax
Actually the gas tax pays for about 90 percent of new road construction and maintenance.
I like how you have a picture of a curved road for the thumbnail
"On a long and Roman highway,
East of Omaha"
"You can listen to the Nero,
Fiddle out as one long song....."
I read that one singing hehe
Okay, that's good, really good. Thank you for that. Metallica did it better than Bob Seeger.
Also works for hotel california
@@johnbarber4549 shut your mouth n never speak on Segar like that
@@johnmontt5285 hey, no one said Seger sucked or anything. All they said was that Metallica did it better. That's a matter of taste, and not a knock on Seger. I love both versions, but the newer version is still my favorite of the two. Again, no knock on Seger. 🙄
I love learning everything about ancient Rome, can you please make this a series? You go into so much detail and I appreciate that.
This channel never ceases to amaze me. It has been in my top 3 creator list for a long time. Super impressed again. Thank You!
All the best to you and yours!
In hindsight, I can appreciate the foresight needed to accomplish this.
"Decimate" has come to mean, "almost complete destruction". However, it meant to eliminate one tenth of something as in killing one tenth of garrison as punishment.
So the true meaning is closer to the truth.
jmchez
I can’t help but think that whenever it’s used incorrectly, as in “ the entire town was decimated!” And I’m like, you mean one tenth of the entire town was decimated?
@@keirfarnum6811 If the town was decimated then it was reduced by 1/10th. If 1/10th of the town was decimated then the town was reduced by 1/100th....
@keir farnum But you see it's not used incorrectly. It is the people who say it's *only* correct if referring to 1/10th that are incorrect. While it is true that was once the definition, starting all the way back in the 17th century the generic “kill/destroy” definition started popping up and became quite common in the 19th century and on through to today (according to the OED). As for today, Oxford gives the following definitions for decimate: “to kill large numbers of animals, plants or people in a particular area. To severely damage something or make something weaker” Websters includes, among other definitions: “to cause great destruction or harm to.” The word has evolved its definition. :-) -Daven
Maybe it was actually used the opposite of what you explained. Instead of destroying 1/10th of something, perhaps it was used to describe when all but 1/10th of something was destroyed. Said differently, when only 1/10th of something remained.
There are some roads in Edinburgh that are stone and still going strong.
Visiting Italy, you’ll come across Roman things you’ve never heard of that will blow your mind. Like mount Sapon where they performed certain sacrifices and below it, where the fat and ashes mixed, they found certain waters cleaned clothes better. Yeah, they invented soap there and the way soap works is called “saponification” because of that mountain.
But what staggered me was a time we were driving through a mountainous area and every so often you’d see one that was almost like the skeleton of a mountain with huge boulders all around. My mother explained to me that the Romans would bore tunnels all through the mountain, then divert a river into them and break the entire mountain up to mine what they wanted. This might not sound too crazy until you see the scale of what they could do. These guys could break up entire enormous mountains with their engineering.
On a side note the romans were the first civilization to change the atmosphere of the planet with their immense industry mainly mining silver, silver also has lead mixed in and scientists can take ice core samples and see a significant rise in atmospheric lead during the height of the Roman empire and a drop after its decline.
Ruina Montium. I fully believe that if the Roman empire would have survived the middle ages we would have colonized other planets by now. But humanity was not and is not to this day ready for unification, were too greedy and self centered. It's a shame out of the 1000 years of history of the western Roman empire all you hear about was the decadence of the last couple hundred. You don't hear about how western culture recieved it's military, industry, culture and government from the romans, you just hear about Nero and Caligula. It's a shame really.
Romans: builds perfectly straight 50 mile road without any accurate maps or proper surveying equipment
Me: burns easy Mac for a third time
Dan Ryan
Women were still cooking back then. (Another secret to a functional society perhaps. 🤷🏻♂️)
@@briansinger5258 So were soldiers.
You didn't have surveying equipment or maps either. That's cool.
@@eugenetswong Maps are just a drawing meant to represent the ground. - And no surveying tools? Every dangle a weight on a string (yo-yo even)? You used a plumb line. - Balance a stick on your finger? a level. - Hold your hand or finger up at arms length to try and see how big or far away something is? You just used a surveying tool. - pull a string taut between two points? Straight line tool. - - - You don't need leaser or devices with optical lenses to survey, not do you need anything much better than a lodestone and a reliable pace to make a decently accurate map.
@@MonkeyJedi99 I was just joking that Ricky Bobby burnt his cooking without the use of surveying tools. My humour isn't usually that good.
That being said, I actually apprecite your explanation. It's good to know what can be done with simple technology and walking.
Mr Whistler, I could [and have] listened to you for hours. Much obliged for your efforts. 🤠
the romans and ancient egyptians really were fascinating civilizations.. their craftsmanship is still unmatched to this day.
How was the Roman Empire cut in half?
With a pair of Caesars
Edit: All those likes for a dumb dad joke....
BRILLIANT! I'm stealing this!
Never heard it and not historically familiar enough with the roman empire to even know if its true but still got a good chuckle #dadjokeoftheyearnomination
what the hell that joke was on a tv at my school during lunch on friday
Caesar was a cognomen, with origin already not certain at the time of Gaius Julius, but suspected origin meaning exactly a c section, because the word means "to cut"
@@scotthappy6885 hm
We stood on a part of Via Egnatia in Northern Greece just last month. You could still drive it today.
It amazes me that you say “davinsy” then immediately correctly pronounce antikythera
I noticed that. "Davinsy"? Really? Who hasnt heard of da vinci?
@4:37 "and cut the price of corn in half"
Had to look this up. Apparently in British English "corn" is a general word for any type of grain, whereas in American English corn refers specifically to maize. In Warhammer English, Khorne refers to something else entirely.
That's actually how maize got the alternate name corn. :-) -Daven
Even better: all grains can be used to make beer! 🍻
And in metal English Korn is something else again.
@@TodayIFoundOut"14:38, he said corn!!" Definitely sent me down a rabbit hole trying to figure out how he could get that wrong. Did not realize corn does not mean maize.
To be fair, all you need in order to build a rudimentary straight road out of flagstones is two large nails and a very long piece of string. You put one nail where you start and another where you finish and just follow the string.
How long of string, ropes or chains do you think they had? Even a 1degree difference at every "nail" would be a deviance.
Not to mention wind
string is...MAGICAL
@@jamesahern9864 they don't need to be long at all just need to stagger a second string so it run parallel to the first
"No one to conquer this year?! Then build a road!"
Basically. The Hadrian wall was built because the emperor Hadrian knew that when soldiers get bored they get rowdy, and that tended to be bad for the locals. So to keep them occupied he made them build the wall. The same was probably true for roads
Building roads was critical to conquering nations. So much easier to move troops and supplies than through forests and bogs
Larry Roux, you can't conquer the earth if you don't conquer the earth 😂🤣
@@megannewman8917 haha i see what you did there
Ancient Near East, India and China all have similar paved roads as Rome. I wonder if the construction is the same just differs on material available locally.
Even Roman roads differed based on what materials were in the region.
If all three were indeed building roads using the same technology, the former Persian Empire, bordering both China and India, becoming the Parthian Empire when Rome had its empire, was situated in the middle of them. There was trade of goods and maybe ideas. Perhaps a question should be who built their roads this way first?
Seeing how thats how roads are made now, it might just be the only way to economically do it.
they should teach illinois how to build roads
Wisconsin too!!!
Same with Florida. Our highways have been a mess for years now, completely destroying my tires
Romans weren't allergic to taxes like we are in the USA. Roads are expensive and don't pay off in the short term, but look what the Freeway system did for commerce in the US and how the Autobahn (the first modern highway system) affected Germany.
@@tylerchaney1533 ...and Ohio, and the rest of the Midwest.
As a resident of Illinois I think they aught to teach how to not have corrupt governors
Mr. Whistler, Thank you so much again for sharing your brilliance.
I grewup in the country and we lived off a dirt road. It was graded just like a roman road with center higher than the edges with gutters on both sides. It lasted okay but a neighbor decied to grade it flat. Every winter after that the road became a quagmire in a couple of places. Those Romans knew a thing or two.
Romans build roads to last 2000 years. Modern roads don't last 10 years. An 10 years to build.
To be fair, ancient Roman roads didn't have to deal with hundreds to thousands of multi ton vehicles traveling at great speed over them each day.
@@Mostlyharmless1985 In a bit more detail, potholes happen because of the substrate underneath the road moving/collapsing, causing the road above to weaken and collapse. The water that this hole allows to collect hastens the process.
Ryodraco not to mention the fact that even Roman roads required maintenance and repair, they were made ever bit built to a price that modern roads were, it’s just they didn’t have the same materials we have access too.
It’s not unusual to see the same pothole forming year after year because the earth underneath the road shifts. People also never notice the miles and miles of road that aren’t under maintenance and need of repair that they drive across every day. My own street had the same tarmac for nearly 60 years. We didn’t get a new sheet until after they ripped it up to change the utilities.
@@Ryodraco also the concrete used by Romans was entirely different. Roman roads don't weaken from rain and snow. Our concrete does break apart like limestone when exposed to the two and it's all due to the materials recipe used by Romans in the concrete manufacturing making the difference. The secret ingredient wasn't discovered until a few years ago, it was volcanic Ash and rock, but in what amount they used in the mix is still being figured out.
@@vguyver2 Apparently the water they used in the mix was sea water, not fresh, and that made a difference as well. They never specified *salt* water, though (one supposes simply taking it as a given), which is why we only figured out *that* factor very recently as well.
DAMN! The massive amount of planning and work involved in that era just boggles the mind.
I mean... society was a thing. And with enough human minds working together instead of trying to kill each other all the time. One can achieve great things
I spent years as a kid doing surveying and my dad was a great repository of good info.. I asked him about this.. he said a) basically three sticks on hill tops is all you need.. you make the middle guy walk back and forth etc.. b) measurements were transmittable.. the roman numerals were also visible at extreme distances and numbers could be passed back and forth easily.. i. e. XII can be made in a body shape.. with a simple sort of body shape you can effectively "talk" up 2 miles away.. (i.e with a confirmation being possible)
Still haven't a clue
@@neiltappenden1008 one roman goes to the horizon, one stays where he is, one goes half way, they communicate with hand signals and can even "demonstrate" numbers as numerals are body shapes. Then the rear most roman hops on past the two after lining them up. To help understand it, maybe you need to actually try doing a survey. It's obvious within about 5 minutes of not being in an office
2 mins.
Have never thought of that, but this makes perfect sense
I think, perhaps, some confusion is arising less from what you’re saying but from what you’re talking about: you say you asked your dad about “this,” but this video talks about all sorts of things, including Nero and the great fire in Rome! Are you describing how they made their roads so straight? Or how they went over mountains? It’s certainly interesting, but I’m not sure which challenge of road building this applies to. Maybe you were replying to someone else and it became its own comment? I do like the notion that Roman numerals are easily mimicked with a body: Is this something your father intuited or did he learn about it somewhere?
@@b.w.22 my point is: the Romans had an entire holistic system for EVERYTHING except mass production. It was based on practicality in a largely illiterate world, but where the "standard narrative" that get parrotted (as nauseum) breaks down is where people, who've never been outside and done a hard day's job, or trekked anywhere dangerous, assume woeful platitudes about the hard core world conquerers who all still had the same IQs as today.
One of the coolest thing I have done to date is stand on the marble Roman road leading from Ephesus to its former bay, where you can still see the marks of the chariots in the road. It is a remarkable experience. You feel strangely connected to these people of the past. I also have one of the major Roman roads of Britain running right past my house :o)
The earth was flat in roman times, they would find it more difficult now that the earth round
Nah, the earths shape was mostly agreed to be round. Even the ancient greeks thought so
If you ever read a history book, you would know that the 'ancients' had very advanced knowledge and already were upto date concerning astronomy and an awareness that the Earth was round and was not the centre of the universe.
The Roman Church/Established Religion wanted a dumb populace to live in a denial of reality and accept the apparent 'truth' according to a 'holy scripture' that was written long after the supposed life of their 'messiah' to establish a society easily moved by words from dead men.
If the world was not round why was Atlas depicted holding a globe on his shoulders?
@@jamest39 What does it feel like to have the whole weight of the world on your shoulders? Atlas shrugged
Ben Keller to pick your brain, how intelligent do you think the ‘ancients’ were...? Because fuck... the pyramids are a thing still... Roman roads... the Greeks measuring the earth’s circumference to be ~400 or so Km off.
I singlehandedly believe that the fire to destroy the Library of Alexandria really took out a chunk of how much we knew about them.
Edit: Sorry to rant, but didn’t the Greeks (don’t quote me) ask every ship entering a harbor for their books, transcribed them and made copies to collect?
Holy shoot I was JUST DOING research in Roman road building yesterday!!!!
*queue xfiles*
*holy shoots*
I wish you success. I am constantly amazed at their designs for durability. Even there walls and sewers are still functional today even past two thousand years.
Where was this?
V Guyver thank you! I appreciate the support.
That wasn't a bonus fact... That was a second episode! Thanks for the very detailed information on Nero!
It's interesting to me how we see the people of the past so lowly,
They're just a bit smarter than we thought.
I also find it strange how people of the past are underestimated, there were allot of brilliant people, they just didn't have the technology we have now, that's the main difference.
As far as reasoning and problem solving goes, people were probably smarter then they are today.
@@jasonhenry8067 yes..... Witch trials, slavery, wars, famine, plague medicine sure were a great display of reasoning and problem solving...
@@psiangel
Because that never happens anymore... outrage mobs, human trafficking, antivaxers are just a thing of the past...
@@jasonhenry8067? And?
I really like watching your videos. I always learn something new. Did you know that the names for the majority of imperial units come from Rome? This includes: mile, feet, pounds, gallons, etc. It is kind of interesting the history of the imperial units. I do like that system.
@Anthony even soldier came from Latin soldo that Is even a italian Word for cash dinero.....
@Anthony then words Chester from castrum.....history from historia.....names from nomem......65% of anglo Saxon words come from Latin.....
It always amazes me how fast you guys pump out such informative and well researched content. Thank you for your brilliant channel.
you can do such things with an an amazing talented staff that possesses an exceptional degree of extreme cleverness
As long as you use those roads at a horses walking speed they are fine. They are quite bumpy. A modern smooth surface creates a sealed top which suffers from the changes in temperature and humidity.. Particularly in more polar locations which have water freeze in the small cracks.
Is something wrong with the syncing of the video? I can notice subtle stutters and several de-sync? I can notice one at around 2:50. Correct me if I'm wrong.
AceSoulz same here
I saw it too, i thought my internet was just messed up, but yeah there were a couple stutters in the video
And i thought it was the editing, or something...xD
Well to be fair... 95% of Roman roads were straight, but at least 5% of their roads were gay, and a few were kinda questioning...
Bet you'd know lots about that 5% struggle
Mike Hunt
Some roads were in the closet LOL
You do know that it was the Ancient Greeks that invented the joy and art of love making, it was the Romans that invented it with women😂😂😂
@@DavidGarcia-oi5nt ...says the guy who's YT name suggests...yeah. ;-)
Lol
Roman architecture is honestly amazing.
If the Inca can do it why not the romans? Video on Incan infrastructure next?
Krok Krok No dude. The Inca did not have metal tools, beasts of burden, or even a written language or the wheel. It’s more of a wonder how they managed to build a road system rather than the romans.
That is pretty amazing how modern that really is. They built their roads, then the horse stations and inns pop up along the route, followed by carriage repair shops, and eventually entire towns being developed along the road, initially to built to serve those using the roads, entirely due to the roads. That seems to be a thoroughly modern concept, and here the Romans are perfecting it 2000+ years ago. Amazing.
It happened long before Rome also...a trade trail from point a to point b...some enterprising person or group starts an inn or ferry (basically a raft with ropes to pull from one side to the other) to relieve traders of a few mass produced flint tools...
Sand (with filter fabric beneath it to keep the flora from growing up through it) crushed stone, and pavers with sand brushed into the joints is the best imaginable way to build a road or walkway or sidewalk. The same types of roads and sidewalks still exist from their original state all over the world. The Romans were very much THE pioneers of masonry work and techniques that we use today. The Roman arch is still used in the field of masonry in fact, and the key stone is of course what ultimately bears all of the weight of the arch and everything above. In my experience the lead mason is always the one to stand beneath the arch once the wooden arch brace is removed, and I have worked on many huge masonry job sites and never seen an arch fail!!
It really is very interesting. The more you learn about history, the more you learn that humans have changed very little. Recorded history is less about how we used to be and more about how we still are. Just under specific circumstances. Take away much of our modern knowledge and our modern connectivity... and especially our modern comforts... and anyone born today would be just like any of those Romans. Or any of the people from ancient Damascus for that matter.
In fact, I believe some people posit that we are very, very similar to people even 50,000 years ago. One side of Behavioral Modernity I believe.
Ya, the most mind blowing thing there is that humans we commonly depict as "cave men" that lived tens of thousands of years ago intelligence wise and looks weren't really different than us. They simply lacked a proper education and the tools we've developed in the interim. ;-)
@@TodayIFoundOut "The clothes make the man" takes on a whole new meaning now.
@@TodayIFoundOut In fact their social structures and interpersonal drama were as deeply complex as they are on Desperate Housewives.
🎶 Be it ever so crumbled, there’s no place like Rome.
Nero was emperor, the palace was his home.
But he loved to play with matches, for a bonfire he yearned
So he burned Rome to ashes and fiddled while it burned. 🎶
(Bugs Bunny)
I gotta be honest, I never once even considered that there was a literal interpretation of the phrase until Simon started talking about playing a violin - I always thought it was "fiddle" as in "to fiddle around with something"/"waste time".
Yeah me too, like be idle or hesitate
I think the term fiddle, as in violin, and “fiddling with something” come from the same thing. Like how your hands look when playing a violin is fiddling with it. Kinda funny how that came about, but curiously “fiddle” is an older word for the instrument than the word “violin” and what you use to play it is a “fiddlestick.”
Did they use ultra sophisticated equipment like a thread?
Thread? Easy with the sci fi terms guy.
Exactly. A string line.
Or, (the eye see's straight) Place one stack in the ground and another further away, within reasonable distance. The 3rd stack place at even a further distance. Simple, look down the 3 stakes, adjust one or another stakes to form straight line(road). So That took 3 stake and good eye site to make a straight line that can carry on forever with only 3 stakes, a hammer and an eye. Simple.
Or, (the eye see's straight) Place one stack in the ground and another further away, within reasonable distance. The 3rd stack place at even a further distance. Simple, look down the 3 stakes, adjust one or another stakes to form straight line(road). So That took 3 stake and good eye site to make a straight line that can carry on forever with only 3 stakes, a hammer and an eye. Simple.
The main road in downtown Bayeux, france is a repaved, original location, perfectly straight Roman road.
As it’s said, “if it’s worth doing, do it right” a good rule to go by. I was a engineer, and had a Swiss engineer here for observing our road construction for a couple weeks. The Swiss and Germany, have very few if any pot holes, as she stated the Swiss go down 12 feet, with layers of large and small rock, before the driving layer is finished. In US we are lucky to start 1 to 2 feet with very little base, giving us the famous “pot holes” we enjoy patching each year.
Major road on my commute was shut down last summer to be completely redone. They finished it in November. As of May, they are patching potholes in it already. 🙃
Can't wait until we (here in Florida) start mixing in the radioactive waste from phosphate mining into our roads! Great solution for those companies to sell their radioactive waste. It's a win/win; what could go wrong?
Check out the Pantheon. Solid concrete, still in good shape. They made fairly dry concrete using lime and volcanic ash. They had slaves carry the concrete in baskets and it was strapped into the forms. Their concrete was superior to the concrete we make today.
I'd love to see Roman aqueducts covered in this amount of detail. Possibly the greatest step forward to modernity!
Seriously. When I saw the title I was expecting a fair amount of coverage of the aquiducts. Sup with that?
@ 8:17 Wow, I didn't know a "mile" meant 1000 paces. Learned something new, yay! Thank you Simon's researcher! There are nuggets in all your videos guys. (@9:59 There are "way stations" in BC too. The town of 100 Mile House, 170 Mile House etc for resting the horses.)
does anyone else act out Simons facial expressions in the thumbnails, i highly recommend it
Nope, but I do think about his upside down head though, the 70's Mullet and Afro of today.
Later people will look back on this time with all the upside down heads, top knot hair, tattoos amused and cringing. lol
Roman roads still in use 2 thousands years later. Roman aqueducts still in use 2 thousand years later. Roman sewers still in use 2 thousands years later. Meanwhile today we can’t build so much as a driveway without it needing to be redone after 30 years.....
I mean you can get a driveway in an afternoon, or a road in a week with modern construction materials and practices. Romans couldn't make these compromises in costs on labor and materials, so they wanted to ensure that they were built to last hundreds of years. There's also the fact that they're not designed to be smooth enough for what we'd expect out of a road in the modern day, and thus would have enough tolerance within the design to avoid issues with weather such as freezing rain. Its the same with the aqueducts, they're not mechanical pumps of water, but just gradual slopes that allow towns to access water. And while the water was flowing, it isn't the same as a closed water system that is under constant pressure with constant fluxes in pressure at individual access points. It also doesn't make sense to build for 200 years in advance, because of the ease at which we can build infrastructure in the modern era, as well the much more frequent advances in engineering.
Roman concrete lasts 2,000+ years - modern concrete lasts 200 if you're lucky
To back up a comment above, not merely does Roman concrete last so much longer than modern concrete, we still aren’t quite sure how they made it! Because that technology was lost, until modern times buildings had to be made from stone and a cathedral took a century to build.
Romans didnt drive several ton vehicles and plow trucks that scrape the ground on their roads either
@@ethanstaaf404 No, but the Italians now do on Roman built roads. And they are still holding up.
Autobahn and US Highway system use similar ideas, with mile or Kilometer markers, rest areas, etc. Interstate highways have rest areas every 50 miles. Also certain areas are made straight on purpose.
I never get enough of Rome's glory.
They were brutal genicidal maniacs, worse than even the Nazis.
Run tens of thousands of vehicles, many of which weigh over 35,000 pounds, going over 60 miles per hour every day and see how well they hold up.
I get your point however our modern roads can't last over millennia like the roman roads, even in perfect conditions. also the Romans had underwater cement, and many other things.
The Sign works and Simon says DaVinci wrong. OG Whistleverse content here!!
I expect it was something akin to Bush reading kids stories while the twin towers were being destroyed, true but not without reason. Probably Nero was playing music when he was notified or was waiting for transport to the city, or even as a means to calm his nerves (look at bush's face when he is left with nothing to do while he waits, speaks volumes to the merit of doing something in such a helpless situation) with time and rumour and negative image, changing the story.
Incredible. Rome should have built more roads!
Their bushcraft skills weren’t much cop...
Informative. I know loads about Roman times already, but learned loads from this.
One phenomenon, two phenomena. One millennium, two millennia.
I have a suggestion for a related video. How did the Romans accomplish these amazing feats of engineering using Roman numerals it just seems like it would be difficult to the point of impossible.
That really is the more interesting thing isn't it. Their math and numeric system was so rudimentary. :-) -Daven
I, II & III means 1, 2 and 3. V=5. IV=4 because 5-1 is 4, but since we already have the numbers for 1, 2 and 3, then it doesn't make sense to make IIV and IIIV. However, it does make sense to make VI, VII and VIII as 5+1=6, 5+2=7 and 5+3=8. To write 10, you use X. And since IV=4, then IX=9 and XI=11, while XII and XIII equals 12 & 13. XIV=14 and XV=15. XVI, XVII and XVIII equals 16, 17 & 18 respectively, while XIX=19 and XX=20. The same system continues like this, until you hit XXXIX which equals 39. To write 40, you write XL as L=50 and X=10. 50-10=40. XLI=41, XLIV=44, XLV=45 and so on. C=100, D=500 and M=1000. Here's something less confusing to understand than this comment:
mathworld.wolfram.com/RomanNumerals.html
*_I love history~i live just couple of hundred feet from an 8th century Catholic Church. Was in use til recently when we got a bigger, granite Church._*
I pave my roads in cobblestone. Gotta use those 64 stacks in cobblestone for something.
Nothing sucks quite like aligning your roads 1-2 blocks off
Personally, I like gravel. Main roads are 3 wide, village roads or secondary roads are 2 wide with a mix of coarse dirt also. Simple trails are just coarse dirt 1 wide. Regular bridges are 5 wide allowing for 3 wide road surface and an edge for safety barriers or whatever. Really big bridges are 7 wide allowing for 5 wide road surface and an edge on each side. System works for me although I've seen all sorts of different road systems. Road net makes it easier to explore also. Rail net is different from basic roads.
Francis Keough
Oh yeah, gravel is a great looking surface. I like it in desert biomes.
I usually excavate 2 down or more for a cobblestone base to support gravel, since gravel is influenced by gravity, 3-5 wide, with a cobble siding, and 2 fencepost+Block torch lighting
Francis Keough And clearing the sides of roads to deter -Highwaymen- Creepers
"what's your favourite song?"
"1, 000, 000 paces"
I would walk 500,000 paces and I would walk 500,000 more
You covered a great deal more than the title. I won't comment further on that. It's interesting that so many modern roads are lacking in durability and would never last 100 years, much less 2,000 years, without frequent reconstruction. To be sure, megaton trucks didn't use Roman roads, but a bigger factor is cost. The Romans had millions of workers, both slaves and idle soldiers, to make the base really deep and solid, and they didn't have to pay for seizing land by eminent domain. Today's roads are often built by the lowest bidder as cheaply as possible. And it shows.
I've also observed that a typical highway overpass has a lifetime of about 50 years, whereas there are Roman bridges that are still in use today.
I have a friend who thinks everything in the past was done by aliens. When I explained how you can measure the circumference of the equator with a stick and a clock his mind was blown.
It's staggering how many people have unlearned basic high school knowledge...
@@themichael3410 I am sure that after our civilization has collapsed and someone finds the remains of our buildings and technology, aliens will be their obvious explanation.
@@themichael3410 I suspected as much but I've seen enough flurfers and other tinfoil hat weirdos to know there are real people like this. That said, I was talking about OP's friend.
@ablackprep Of course I did, it is easier to visualize stuff when you are high. I even did the math in my head.....which was probably the part that really blew his mind. LOL
The ancients had very simple tools to measure distance, angles and time, but if you do it correctly the methods are extremely precise. Most involve only sticks and string.
@@themichael3410 So you don't think the human race managed to create a advanced civilization in the millions of years they existed, and only just got off their butts 10 000 years ago? With that amount of time, we could have had many previous human civilizations that maybe were even more advanced than ours, all without any alien interference. The ruins themselves show evidence of highly sophisticated machinery and machining processes. These are not hand cut stones or hand drilled holes. But it would also be strange if any metal tools from that era would not have been recycled into other stuff, so unless we find a relatively intact crane or stone milling machine from 10 000 years ago, we must judge by the ruins and artifacts themselves.
Try asking some stone quarry experts about the amount of time and labor these ancient ruins represent. It is no piece of cake moving a 2000 ton block of stone down one hill and up the next, unless they at the time of building were by the sea and not high in the mountains. There is clear evidence of much higher sea levels too, so I think there is some error in the climate models. I've seen coastline at 450 meters many places around the equator. There is no need to presume an alien influence on these ancient people, as we have already in just 10 000 years progressed from stone tools to atomic weapons and gene editing. It seems probable to me that we were once at a comparable technological level as today, and were almost wiped out by a global extinction event that also affected many other species.
It took 14 minutes for me to realize the neon sign was his initials. And I don't know how many videos I've seen with it. I'm a doofus.
I was just looking at it during this video, and it just dawned on me what it was too
Congratulations for making a comment that isn’t about aliens 😆
It’s B.C.E & C.E. Simon!
Everybody don’t forget,
All roads lead to Rome ;
Which is contra to this video 🤔
I don’t have time to watch this right now but my answer is “a military republic and a bit of pride.”
made them so much easier to dance upon as whilst going to and from battles and regions in the hinterlands soon to be put under the rule and "protection" of the Roman Empire
Scott Mantooth
I’d rather be conquered by Rome than anyone else.
Thank you for these excellent videos. I wish they were required viewing for all politicians making "infrastructure" decisjons.
When Simon says “corn”, he means the European definition of corn, which means most grains. Maize corn arrived after 1492.
Thanks
Good observation! Also, the Europeans got tobacco, tomatoes, coffee and cocaine, among many other things, from the Americas after 1492.
Oh good, i thought he was referring to Korn, the band.
Well yes because he’s European and this is about European history, see a pattern?
All roads lead to Rome😊 Now I know where that saying came from.
IT actually came from the mongols
@@user-cl7yr did it? How?
@@katherinetutschek4757 lmao being sarcastic
@@user-cl7yr 😅😅
"I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble" - Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome, declared by the roman senate as a God for his good will towards SPQR ( short for latin: "Senate, and the people of Rome")
Did you know that the month Juli is short for Julius (as in Caesar) and August is short for Augustus (Caesar).
I love these fun facts ^^
At about 10:40 , we hear that Nero "cut the price of corn, as well as provided food directly." Much as the fiddle wasn't invented until the 11th century, thought the discovery of corn happened when European explorers found the Indians growing it in America a millennia later.
Corn doesn't refer to maize in that context.