The BEST Preserved Roman Colony in the World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 พ.ค. 2024
- Timgad was a Roman city built for retired veterans of the Roman army. It is located on the edge of the Sahara Desert, in modern day Algeria.
It is the best preserved Roman colony in the world, with a perfectly preserved grid plan, a forum, a theater, a triumphal arch, temples, bath houses, and even a library.
Many Roman colonies had a similar grid like pattern, but Timgad gives us the best idea of how such Roman colonies looked like, simply because it is so well preserved.
It had a forum, a theater, a temple to Jupiter, a triumphal arch, bath houses, markets, and even a public library. Timgad had all the trappings of a typical Roman city. It was like a miniature Rome, but far from the city of Rome, on the edge of the empire.
The video will show you all the monuments at the site, but also discuss how Rome rewarded its retired veterans and set them up in colonies such as Timgad.
Written, edited, and narrated by Jordan Amit
jordanamit.com
Special thanks to Milosh Kitchovitch for providing the ground shots of Timgad. His TH-cam and instagram handle is: @milosh9k
You can also check out his TH-cam channel here: / @milosh9k
Reconstructions made by Balage Balogh, who makes amazing reconstructions of the ancient world. His website is: archaeologyillustrated.com
#romans #romanarchitecture #archaeology #roman #archaeological #archaeologicalsites #archaeologicalsite #timgad #algeria #ancienthistory #ancientromans #ancientstory #ancientcivilizations #ancient #romanempire #romanemperor #romanarmy #romanart #romana #veterans #veteran #soldiers
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Populating colonies with battle hardened veterans as a first line of defense is genius.
And it keeps them far from Rome
Great point. That didn't even occur to me.
@@calebanderson6205 one of my favorite ancient Roman letters is one guy complaining that all his friends got sent to the new colony so he was gonna lose his election.
Absolutely!!
@@toastedt140 lose his opportunity to vote or to be elected. And if you mean elected then elected as what? Haha not clear imo.
This is the content TH-cam was made for. Thanks.
Thank you. Great compliment.
An entire city made for veterans? So no homeless veterans in tents on the sidewalk? Wow.
No, fortunately for them, Rome took care of them, so it seems. Unlike the US government. But maybe they had a harder life. I would imagine that.
No capitalismo liberal dos EUA é cada um por si, nem saúde pública vocês tem, bizarro 😂
Just like in America, right...?
@@Street-Gems
Bearing in mind that in ancient Roman times if you didn't take care of veterans you ended up creating a class of vagrants with military experience that might just decide to go and work for your enemies, if not just straight up turn to banditry or piracy.
Not a sensible thing to do in the ancient world.
I'm of the opinion that something like this may have happened with the Sea Peoples and their raids in the late 2nd millennium BCE - it certainly doesn't seem likely that a capable group of raiders just sprang out of nowhere.
If they survived the wounds they had taken. Medical care in the field was largely left to fellow soldiers.
As a 30 year U.S. Navy veteran, I appreciate the generosity of the empire with regard to its veterans.
Do you think veterans today get rewarded as handsomely?
@@Street-Gems Being homeless without access to medical care I'd say isn't rewarded handsomely
@@SpaceRaptor510 I hope that you're no longer homeless. I can't believe the US government allows this to happen.
@@Street-Gems I'm not no and I'm not a veteran but I know of plenty of them that are left unable to see a doctor and in abject poverty on the streets. There are an estimated 54,000 homeless veterans in the US
Wow, no kidding. I may have stayed in for 25 years instead of four if I had that kind of retirement. Though the only negative sounds like it'd be a sausage fest as you're in the middle of nowhere with your guy buddies.
I'm from algeria and im glad you are covering this , algeria has many roman ruins like literally many and still many to discover sadly our country is not focusing on archeology
I'm happy Algerians are discovering my video.
I am from Turkey where the Romans left many superb monuments too. Yet, we as Turkey, suffer fom the same "disease" as you seem to do: One of the resons (though it is not the sole reason!) is that we used to be inclined to consider these monuments as the works of an "infidel Western civilization". Things (mentality) seem to be improving in recent decades, yet there is too much way to go.... ☹
@@samilturnali3875 tell them that Turkey is also a western civilization.
@@ldubt4494
My friend; I wish I could claim that Turkey is a member of the Western Civilization. Alas, this is not true...
I have got to call a spade a spade!
@@samilturnali3875 but it is, if you think about it. What else should it be? Indian? African?
Algeria needs to promote its wonderful sites more... We often forget how historical it is and that it was part of the same empire like the west for long time
No. I don’t want trashy tourists destroying the site.
Are you guys from Algeria? Some of the best Roman sites are in Algeria.
@@Street-GemsI am obsessed with everything related to ancient Rome. I live in the ancient Roman city of Lambazis, which was founded before Timgad and was the center of the Third Legion of Augustus. It also deserves a lot of research, but unfortunately the city still needs a lot of work and research.
@@Street-Gems Not just Algeria but also Libya!
@@bilalfrahtia8486 Oh wow I haven't heard of Lambazis. So it served as a kind base of the 3rd Legion?
My home town in Britain was a Roman Colonia. Unfortunately, permanent occupation since then has obliterated everything except the standard north south, east and westgate streets which cross at the centre of the city. Its great to see somewhere where the original layout has survived.
Cool what is the name of your town? And apart from the north-south / east-west high streets, is the city center also a grid pattern?
The invasions that island got after Rome left was insane so it makes sense
In Algeria the only people that attacked the area are the vandals who were pushed out of spain during the end of the western Roman Empire. The Byzantines who re took this area. And then the Islamic Caliphates who honestly didn’t do too much destruction. The climate helps too since it’s dry in Africa. Preserves so much
I tip my hat to you sir for you are one lucky bloke indeed. Nothing like that around here north of Chicago.
I’m Algerian leaving abroad and I enjoy this type of historical videos. My home town is Called Tebessa and it’s also a Roman city. I’m hoping you do a video on it. Thank you
I just looked up your town. So right next to Tunisia. I love the fact that Algerians are discovering my video. Did you recognize Timgad by the thumbnail?
@@Street-Gems my parents actually are from a village not far from Timgad and we grow up in Tebessa because of my father’s job
@@Street-Gems no thumbnail I watch History channel on TH-cam a lot and your video just popped up
@@hassle-freehandyman7842 So you must have visited Timgad as a kid. Nice to hear from another Algerian.
Great video, and story of this ancient city. Well narrated, congratulations!
Thank you Milosh
You should visit Sbeitla, Dougga, Uthina and most importantly El Jem in Tunisia @Street-Gems
You should visit Sbeitla, Dougga, Uthina and most importantly El Jem in Tunisia @@Street-Gems
@@Street-Gems You should visit Sbeitla, Dougga, Uthina and most importantly El Jem in Tunisia.
Watching documentaries on Rome always serves as a reminder of how crazy advanced it was for its time. It’s incredible to think about, especially considering how long it existed and how long it took for nations to reach that level of sophistication again
its repeating again :)
that is why so many people study Roman History .
I had never even heard of this ruin!
Thank you
AS an American Veteran, permanently disabled, I find the way my current Govt. & 'Crew' treat us to be beyond reprehensible, but won't say further, here. Just hearing/learning about ancient Rome, for all it's faults/defects, treating theirs so much better? wow
Sorry to hear about your life experience man. The original title of this video was supposed to be "How did The Roman Empire Reward its Retired Veterans". So I was really trying to allude to that comparison. There are probably things we don't know about the lives of these veterans, but still, a whole city built for them says a lot.
One of my student's was a Marine whose spine was destroyed in a helicopter accident. Five years of rehab + four years tuition is pretty good. However, with a modern helicopter, he wouldn't have been injured. Musk injured 600 workers at SpaceX and isn't in jail
@@DrJohnnyJ Jeez
Mate, it was all built on slave labor.
@@DrJohnnyJ He didn't injure anyone. construction workers get injured all the time. that's why you have workers comp. do you have any proof that it was musk who did anything? he likely has a head of safety and an osha officer who are responsible for insuring compliance. you are just another sad liberal communist who hates musk because he supports free speech and you think it somehow is conservative when it is classically liberal. Modern helicopter? clarify. what model was he in? what do you consider modern?
A city of veterans, you'd certainly behave yourself in the taverna haha.
Incredibly well presented and informative video. Thanks for this!
Thank you man
💕💕💕 Narrator -gives the impression that he cares enough to actually add
Human touch - proper pronunciation and empathetic emotions. I will joyfully listen any time!!!
(anything using Adam voice gets immediate boot by me!)
@@TD-np6ze Thank you! I feel I was more emotive in this video than in my others. I also have a distaste for AI.
@@Street-Gems Truly expressing empathy to the Human Condition - with It's triumphs and pitfalls
How will mankind ever move forward if forsaking ability for self-relflection???
(just finished a 1990s book Telecosm - about how convoluted communions were back then.
The premise of the book highlighted how much better a world of small computerized phones would be?
As someone who's lived thru many eras, I can truly attest my contempt of the downfall of human existence!
I bet the taverns were interesting
Looks like these Roman soldiers got a better deal than our current soldiers do today .
For sure
I would love to live in a city of only vets!
Clearly…..
People have been brain washed and are willing to risk losing their lives anyway? I'm sure this wasn't done out of respect, but necessity.
Roman veteran retirement: nice simple clean home in a quiet neighborhood.
U.S. veteran retirement: street corners, alleyways, and vans down by the river.
I did 9 years active duty army, recently got out. I don’t know anyone who retired and isn’t living a very nice life. Military retirement is one of the best retirement packages not just in the US but in the world. Comes with lots of money monthly and on top of that full medical that in a lot of cases extends to the entire family. On top of that most people who did 20+ years also collect VA disability that extends the benefits. Usually they also get a civilian job that pays well over 100k. In my personal experience I don’t know a single soldier who is homeless. Let alone a retired one.
@@alexc9434 "In my personal experience". Your anecdotal experiences mean practically nothing and don't mean that there isn't an issue.
@@alexc9434 When people are talking about veteran homelessness, they're not talking about military retirees.
You've totally conflated the two groups, and they are very, very different.
No retiree is homeless. 20 years in the military just puts you on a higher track.
@@alexc9434 3 comments below yours I came across this:
"AS an American Veteran, permanently disabled, I find the way my current Govt. & 'Crew' treat us to be beyond reprehensible, but won't say further, here. "
Ive heard many stories and seen lots of reporting and articles on how the US treats its vets.
Your comment is the one and only time Ive ever heard anyone brag about how great it is.
And yet people are still willing to risk their lives in the army so there's no demand for respect or attractive retirement package.
Fun fact: the French Foreign Legion has similar place in south of France for those who serve 20 years instead of the common 5 year contract. They also train and work in Algeria to this day.
Very interesting. Did the Legion fight the Algerians in the 60's?
@@Street-Gems Yes, and the were very brutal (torture, etc.)
@@hansspiegl8684 somehow doesn't surprise me.
@@hansspiegl8684 colonialism goes hand in hand with crimes against humanity
@@noticiasinmundicias go cry about it
Beautiful documentary. ❤ Thanks!
Man I would like to see that in it's full glory.
What better place for skilled warriors who have survived decades of battle than a place as far away from Rome at the edge of the world's largest sand desert.
Wow good point. Keep powerful and dangerous men away from the capitol
@@rakim126 well I don't know how dangerous they were as veterans. A bigger threat would have been standing armies under the command of ambitious generals, like Pompey, Caesar, Constantine, etc. But I think these battle hardened veterans were acting as assets in the frontiers. They were guards of sorts, maintaining a Roman presence in the wild frontier.
It’s like the VA.
Everyone assumes the area is like it was 2000 years ago. Apparently, the city was temperate and fertile back then. Roman emperors weren’t going to give worthless land to retired soldiers because the current legions would hear about it pretty quickly.
@@thetooginator153 Yes I did mention it was more fertile in the video.
The quality and the level of detail of your video radiates that you have lots of passion concerning the topic. Great work!
I'm glad it comes through :)
This is wonderful! Thank you for the fine display and erudition!
Roma è stata la storia dell ' occidente mondiale per 1000 anni.
Ha costruito, civilizzato , meravigliato tutte le civiltà da lei conquistate e unite al suo destino.
Per lei non esiste il passat, ma l eternita'.
Concerning Algeria formerly Numidia Rome did not conquer the country by force, the king of Numidia Massinissa was an ally of Carthage and helped him defeat Carthage at the Battle of Zama.
At least initially the Romans settled in Numidia in complete friendship. Afterwards it got a little complicated but Numidia was Rome's greatest flagship in Africa. There are substantial Roman ruins throughout the country, from east to west and north to south to the edge of the desert.
I've watched thousands of documentaries or info videos of similar nature and this is one of the best. Subscribed.
Thank you! Watch my video called "The Death of a Great Roman City". It's one of my best.
Thank you SO MUCH for this content!
What an AMAZING place ... so well preserved by the desert climate.
Places with statues and marble buildings get all the love and tourists, but THESE types of remains are far, far more important in telling us how real people lived!
Its not a desert its in batna interior of algeria ,the desert is in the south actually the lands around timgad are fertile lands he just filmed during the drought season
well done amigo, these are the docs I can soak up, great info, presented eloquently.
Thank you. I'm happy you're liking my documentaries.
Excellent presentation about a little known ancient Roman colony site. I live in Portugal and I have visited a couple of towns that have pretty significant archaeological findings harkening back to ancient Rome. One being evora , in central Portugal,. its centerpiece is a temple to Dianá. the other Merida in Spain, which apparently was the capital of Iberia during the age of the Roman Empire. There’s so many places that are just treasures of ancient cultures. It fascinates.me.
Yes I'm familiar with both sites. Merida is one of the best preserved but it's mixed with the modern city right?
Cool video, appreciate stuff like this that dives into the everyday lives of ancient people.
Yeah these things often get sidelined by the big events and big men who shaped history, but it can be more interesting, definitely more relatable.
I've been there. It gives a really good impression of how a Roman city looked like. The stones in the well-preserved streets are very slippery when wet! The museum has great mosaics. You can see them googling 'mosaics Timgad'. Timgad has some nice restaurants, too. All in all, a great day out from Constantine where I was staying at that time.
Your videos on these ancient cities are so good. Your pacing in them is close to perfect. Love that I have found you! Keep doing them, you're great at it!
Thank you! I love appreciative viewers like you. I'll be making these videos for a long time coming. But my next major one will have to wait until July. Keep me on your radar.
I love the intricat and interesting painting in the roman bakery at 7:41
Yes it's a gem that one.
I noticed that too lol
See the movie " Legendof the Lost' 1957.They used the city of Timgad as a backdrop in that film.
oh cool thanks for telling me that. I've never heard of that film. Would have no idea how to get my hands on it though.
@@Street-Gems you can stream it off YT.
@@richardscanlan3419 oh great thank you. I will definitely watch it.
th-cam.com/video/Unt1BSyFVxM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uS5qLvI7hnXm0Wh-&t=17
Timgad was first choice, they then went for the Roman remains of "Leptis Magna" in Libya, that's what we see in the film.
That was an incredible documentary. Discovery Channel, National Geographic level. Well done! I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this incredible archaeological site. Thank you for sharing. Subscribed.
Hey thanks Nathan. It is not a well known site. Check out my other documentaries. I think you'll like them.
Video was well done. Provides real context for this period of time.
This was fantastic. I've read dozens of books on Rome and seen hundreds of videos, but somehow, hadn't seen this kind of footage of a Roman city. Fantastic! Subscribing, and hope to see more quality work!
Thank you! Yes Timgad is not a very well known Roman city, but it really is one of the best.
Thamugadi or Timgad, was embellished by four monumental arches, the ‘Arch of Trajan’, featured within this documentary, is the most famous and best-preserved. This entire area, outstripped its original designation to house 15,000 colonists and eventually, abandoned and left to nature, became little more than a few observables, protruding out from sandbanks, subsequently hinting at an archeological area of interest, leading to its rediscovery 1,000 years after being abandoned. The explorer, who found the site, while traveling through North Africa, was James Bruce, Scottish noble who served as a British consul in Algiers, now the capital of Algeria, in 1763.
This is the first video from your channel that I stumbled upon to and I really have to say that narration and production are top notch. Keep on going.
Thank you! I actually consider Timgad my lowest production value video haha. Check out some of my other ones. I'm happy you discovered my channel.
Thank you for showing this !!! Visually stunning and an excellent narrative!! 👌 MANY THANKS!!! 😊
Thanks Michael
FIRST VIDEO I HAVE VIEWED. GREAT CONTENT. THX FOR WHAT U DO. WE APPRECIATE IT. RESPECT TO ALL OF THE HISTORY LOVERS OUT THERE!✊️
Thank you!
@@Street-Gems RESPECT!
One of the best videos ever about this topic
Thank you so much.
Once again you have produced an outstanding presentation of research and photography mixed with reasonable speculation.
Very much enjoyed this.
Thank you Dr. Reason. I like your alias. Reasonable speculation is good feedback. I needed that, because someone else criticized me for making too many assumptions.
Fantastic- many thanks for posting this.
Very good and well made video, I learned a lot. Thanx!
Jordan, Fantastic video!!!
Thanks John
Oh my God, sooo AMAZING to know all this. It is a bucket list visit for sure...! Thanks for sharing...!
beautiful work
This was great 👍 you have a very good narrative style 👌
Thanks!
Thanks for this interesting content..
Excellent. Video. Commentary. Very well done 👍🏼
Great content, presentation, and narration!
Jordan, again, thank you for an entertaining and informative video! I had no idea that the soldiers were given this at their retirement! It must have been quite a calm, organized and peaceful life for them.....until it wasn't! Much appreciate your videos!
Hey thanks for watching my videos so keenly 😀
@RJ-go3sn I never caught your name. You will love my next one, although it will take a while till I can release it. Keep me on your radar.
I had to subscribe to your channel after seeing Empúries at 4:07 ; the town where I spent most of my childhood summers :)
Whao cool. nice to hear from someone from there. When I was thinking in my brain, which other colony can I show that has a clear grid pattern, Empúries came to mind right away. Then I found some footage of it luckily.
Wonderful video, thank you!
An enjoyable informative video. Well done and thanks for sharing.
Great content as always!
Leaving a comment for the algorithm, hope you get huge.
Thank you for helping me :)
🤯🤯🤯 I've been to various ancient archeological sites around the world, but this is such a stunningly clear, precise and comprehensive community. I only wish we took as good care of our vets as we did after WW2.
the problem was, even if you started at say 15 you'd be 40 by the time you got your land and money. 40 years old in the year 100 is like 80 today so you would not have had much time to enjoy it as most of them were probably dead by age 50
@@fredgarv79 Efficient turnover. 🤷♂️
yeah, I guess not much different than today, retire at 65 and potentially pass away at 80+. Relatively similar maybe.
@@fredgarv79 actually whilst the life expectancy was lower than today it wasn't that much lower for those who reached proper adulthood. they also did have wives and kids.
furthermore the militairy had the added benefit of not having to give salary and spoils of war to your pater familias.
Excellent point I forgot about the wife and kids inheritance
Well made video! Thanks.
Just a wonderful video, I’m so glad I found your channel! Thank you
I'm glad you found me then. Check out my other videos.
The fact that the Romans understood the importance of the grid pattern in 500 BCE, but Americans cannot in 2024 is wild.
Maybe not in 2024 but many American cities have a grid pattern, more grid than Rome itself today.
What you’re looking at is one artifact there’s been millions of artifacts over the years. They’re able to put together the information that we know today.
Grid pattern is bad design lil bro
gird pattern only works without cars
@@allanmsema6224 Frankly USA has wildly exessive, mindboggling amount of cars and car related infrastructure which leads to a lot of urban planning problems. Suburbs are satans invention.
Roman's were masters of masonry, stucco, fresco decor. And real quality concrete. It's sad to see these places where people thrived.
Sad to see that they are ruins today?
This was great! Thank you 💖
Nice video. Thank you for the knowledge
It's probably really stupid, but how do we know what this looked like with zero full structures?
yes good point. I had a hard time finding professionally made reconstructions, but since it was such a cookie cutter Roman city, we could safely assume that the theater would have looked like a standard Roman theater, the apartment blocks were just like other standard apartment blocks etc. Basically it would have looked like any other generic Roman city.
Archaeologists work it out by comparison with other ancient Roman sites, since they used similar structures wherever they settled. The way the stones or bricks were laid, the shape of columns or paintings gave indications of the time when the colony was built.
Guess
Good question. Fortunately , there are many well preserved examples of insulae and shopping precincts, so we have a very good idea of how they looked. Pompeii and Herculaneum are examples. There are many others. Pompeii was a colonial town and was set out in the classic grid form with many structures surviving intact. I’m unsure about Herculaneum. It was a pre-existing town that became allied to Rome in the 1st century BCE. Nonetheless its surviving architecture also gives a very good idea of what things looked like in the period.
@@lairddougal3833 Be wary of using BCE and CE . . . . continue with what we know and trust, BC and AD. The dating system revolves around the birth of The Nazarene.
The modern name for Dacia comes from the Roman obsession for eating fish eggs. They had a... roe mania.
A fine video. Well done!
Loved it. keep up the good work.
I can't help but think of the remote nature of the location. Why would they place a city for celebrated veterans so far deep into a desolate backwater? My best guess is that this may be one of the veteran cities for the auxiliaries that managed to survive and gain their citizenship, since the Empire still wouldn't trust or hold them to the same status as themselves and therefore place them far from anywhere valuable in case of a revolt/uprising. They were kind of treated like hazardous waste: placed far from any of the good lands of Italy or elsewhere, lands that no one wanted given to people they no longer wanted.
Just a thought.
Maybe it's a mix of reasons. For one, land in Italy was taken by then. But also, the 3rd Augustan Legion served in Africa, so they were already right there. They knew the territory, it was the province they protected all along, so it kind of made sense to settle them there. It's be a good question whether it was only auxiliaries, or also legionnaires. There's a lot we'll never know.
i thinka also the climate was a bit different say better as lots of crop came from there
@@user-nj1ob8ht3p Yes that's right
Those terrible Roman colonizers.
Bringing infrastructure civilization and occupation to the Sahara desert region. lol 😂
They gave the Britons 400 years of peace, basteds!
I'm Algerian and I have been there. It's not Sahara. It snows in winter and is green in spring.
And 2000 years ago the climate was probably even more rainy.
Thats not in the Sahara region but on the Mediterranian region
Fascinating to learn about these cities, just can't believe they existed. Great video, keep em coming!
Yeah this whole city just out in the middle of the desert.
Great video...congratulations!!!
Great video, Thank you.
Excellent Presentation; enjoyable and informative.
Just enjoyed several of your videos. I look forward to seeing more
Thank you. It'll be a while till I release my next one because I'm on the road right now, but follow me and you will see lots more content like this.
Really great video Thankyou
Thank you for all your edifying work!
🙂
Good video, thanks much
⚔️Another stunning, and clearly simplified but complex, documentary that again has left me transfixed to Ur historical research, where I was compelled to take many pics. Thx again. 🛡️
Glad you're enjoying my content.
Great content. Fantastic video
Fascinating thanks for sharing
Excellent video
Never knew about this community... Thank you!
this is an awesome video SPQR
Fabulous video. I learned so much and am so grateful for your efforts. Liked and subscribed. Cannot wait to see more of your videos.
Thanks for subbing. Check out my other ones in the meantime.
excellent sir
Great vid 👌🏻
Good job on this video 👍 well done
You’re videos are really good I want you to know that! This is beautiful history not many people know
Your comment means a lot to me. Thank you.
Gorgeous ruins and a great job explaining all about it. ❤
Thank you
Thank you for an interesting, informative video on a little known site. This was exciting.
Thank you. Are you from Ukraine?
@@Street-Gems No, I'm from Denmark. 😊 I support Ukraine in any way I can.
@@larsrons7937 Nice to hear from Denmark :) I also support Ukraine.
@@Street-Gems Thank you. I believe one must do, if one tries to be a decent, civilised person.
Thank you.
Timgad is such a great site. Thank you for this interesting video!!
Thank you. I can tell by your profile name that you like archaeology. Check out my other vids.
Great video. 👍
Awesome content man! I digged it
Thank you. Where in the world are you watching from?
@@Street-Gems germany
excellent video, man
Thanks Bro
These videos are awesome.
That was quite interesting thank you.
Excellent video! Gracie!
Lovely essay, mate.
Well done
Great video very interesting and good production
Thank you Harry
Keep going man, you are going to be a star.
Thanks Paul
great video