Naval Gladiator Battles - What Were they Like? DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 มี.ค. 2022
- What were Roman Naval Gladiator Battles like? Find out in our animated history documentary on these ancient Naumachia! Signup for your FREE trial to Wondrium here: ow.ly/cmOE30scebE
We continue our How They Did It series on the world of the Roman Gladiator. In a previous episode we set the stage for the Rise of the Gladiators and now we look to their naval evolution in this animated documentary.
The episode begins with a recap of the history of gladiators. These first began as private religious ceremonies meant to commemorate the passing of great leaders with a duel between slaves. However once the public got a look at them, it was not long before they became captivated by this new form of entertainment and the politicians discovered a new form of propaganda. By the end of the Republican Period, Gladiator battles had gone mainstream with hundreds of fighters and thousands of animals being featured in spectacles that lasted days.
Julius Caesar however would bring things to the next level by pioneering a new dimension of entertainment. This would be the Naumachia, or the Naval Gladiator Battles. The first one was reportedly held in a lake dug in the campus martius and featured dozens of ships manned by thousands of fighters. Such was the popularity of these first naval gladiator battles that many spectators and even several senators died in the stampeding crowd that flocked to see them. The Roman world had a new obsession. Over the next centuries the Julio-Claudian Emperors and the Flavian Emperors would go on to host ever more elaborate Naumachia. This would ultimately culminate in the construction of the Colosseum which was purpose built to be flooded and drained. We cover the engineering works behind flooding the colosseum and recount the many tales from this Golden Age of the Gladiators.
Stay tuned for more How They Did It episodes and let us know what other aspects of Gladiator history you would like to see us cover next!
Sources and Suggested Reading
“The Annals” by Tacitus
“Roman History” by Cassius Dio
“The Aqueducts of Rome” by Sextus Julius Frontinus
“Life of Titus” by Suetonius
“Naumachia Augusti” by F. Coarelli
“A Day in the Life of Ancient Rome” by Alberto Angela
“Daily Life in the Roman City” by Gregory S. Adrete
Credits
Research = Chris Das Neves
Script = Chris Das Neves
Narration = Invicta
Artwork = Beverly Johnson
Editing = Penta Limited
Super excited to release this video as a follow up to the community poll! Keep on the lookout for more polls on TH-cam and our Patreon page or let us know here what you'd like to see next
@Invicta I love the video!! But I would also love to see a video that goes into more detail about the gladiator fights that involve animals
Good work, guys. Btw speaking about Romans. Here I got some quotes about Slavs vs Roman Empire and some other peoples - watch?v=r0jLMDvsU4U
The Romans were horrible
I'm interested in government of Dominate period od Roman empire and i tried to find were there any appointed offices aka provincial governors but i couldn't.. For how long Praetorian Prefect would stay in office/how long was his term? And were there appointed vicars or they were somehow semi-inherited? And will u make video about Late Roman /Early Easten Roman government structure&bureaucracy?
Is it just me or does 7:30 seem like a Bow Chicka Bow-Wow scene?
So just let me get this straight, Rome basically had full blown naval battles with numbers that would equate to the actual wars of smaller countries and tribes (2000 or 3000 combatants and 4000 or more rowers) just for fun? Man Rome was hardcore.
And apparently I hadn't even watched the point where numbers truly went insane.
after Caesars triumph, games were held where 6000 men died in the arena
@@neutralfellow9736 Absolutely insane. Literal wars held for entertainment, all in their backyards. Phineas and Ferb would have been jealous.
The really big events did not happen too often. But yes. Put our quarter billion dollar movie projects in prospective.
@@Cythil this was more like liveshows though haha
@@neutralfellow9736 Yep. And only recorded in the tales of men that were there. So indeed the spectacle must have been pretty awe-inspiring.
Feel like everyone always just mentions the naval battles off hand when talking about gladiatorial stuff then moves on to other things. Love getting more detail on it so cool!
Diving into the material I was shocked at how much crazy history no one seems to have bothered to cover for some reason
So true
@@InvictaHistory Indeed. There is so much out there that is neglected to death.
Knowin how big naval battle re-enactments or normal gladiatorial fights were, the logistics for the supplies and the cost of sponsoring one is also interesting. I hope Invicta could make a video explaining it...
@@brianaguila6925 i smell a Wendover crossover. I mean that is logistics at the max.
Did they have aircraft's?
the pipeline systems within the cities by default were impressive, the one for the collosseum was insane
was? Better said still is. a large part of the water systems still work to this day. the fountains in Rome are still operated by the water that comes in to the city by the aqueducts
@@jakobinobles3263 and wasn't built in a day lol
The Aqueduc they built in Gard, France is still standing to this day, it's astounding. Look up "Pont du Gard"
@@sirBrouwer The Acqua Vergine
Using this type of a set in a movie would be so new that it would make that movie hard to forget. It'd be a selling point, at the very least.
Woke Joke Folk can't handle such Thing's nowadays
It's called Gladiator. Maximus the Merciful!
One day. I feel like people aren't caught up yet with how advanced or "cool" the past was. They think the ancients could cut rocks into nice shapes but anything else useful didn't show up til 1800 AD. It'd be hard to depict for a modern audience. It'd either be taken too far on some steampunk shit, or some sort of magical nonsense would be injected into it. Far easier to just crank out the 9th version of a superhero or action film franchise.
@@leggonarm9835 naumachia was not in gladiator
@@funfact8660 What the hell do you mean? I'm sure it'd be popular!
"these facilities were even shorter-lived than Nero"
Ouch.
Imagine being a tiger, kidnapped from your home to fight to the death only to hear some Roman yell "flood the arena!" Right after you defeat a gladiator
Roars, "For the glory of Rome!" Gets drowned mid charge.
Imagine that
Or a big fish or dolphin :)
Although, tigers can swim. So that could have been interesting.
I used to think it was impressive when they filled our local local stadium with dirt and rocks for a monster truck show or a dirt bike race...
You know this shows that the Roman public where the ultimate pedentic historical critics. If they would reenact a historical battle they would not accept just a couple of extras. They would demand an entire fleet of extras
Pedentic??? What's that?
Caveat Emptor
Its crazy how smart these mfs were but evil at the same time
@@Music1222 Pedantic means overly concerned with accuracy, precision. basically someone who obsesses over minor details. Spelled with an A not an E
@@Kurzxclan I know.
Invicta continuing to make videos addressing the questions that we often find ourselves wondering but never bother looking up an answer to.
I can just picture a dude named Michahel Bayus pitching to Caesar games with real war ships, 6'000 gladiators and a buttload of FIRE! And Megane Vulpes. Of course.
The closest I can picture this is when I went to the '83 US Festival on Metal Day in Glen Helen Regional park that had a HUGE natural amphitheater. I was among the first 2000 people allowed in. About 12 hours later it was announced that over 300,000 people were there...With room to spare!.
I like how the History Channel described it: “Roman gladiators had many problems. Old age wasn’t one of them.”
Well, the profesionals actually used to die of old age (mostly).
"Cannon-fodder" gladiators like those of naumachiae though certainly had no problem with old age.
A great example why History Channel is just fast food, it is an extremly simple view of a way more complex topic.
Most fights in the arena were not to the death. Which should be obvious if you think about it: Gladiators were expensive entertainers. That had years of training.
If most fights were to the death that would be way to expensive. And it would result in inexperienced fighters. Making the fights way more boring than when you see trained professionals at work.
Sure, there were several games were thousands died - but like Invicta said, those were criminals or prisoners of war that had to fight to the death.
That's why I compare most "History" channels to fast food. Easy, fast, cheap. Ok, if you are not really interested in a good meal and just want a snack (that is some shallow entertainment) that's ok.
But do not expect do get a decent meal (= real knowledge that is just not a scratch on the surface)
There are few channels on TH-cam that do not walk this easy way, channels that take time to explore a topic in detail.
Invictus is one of them.
And if you are interested in military topic I suggest Perun.
I had no idea about this and I've always had a certain interest for Roman history, thanks!
Also, that's insane
Im curious if the warships used In games were equipped with artillery and ranged weapons since the crowd would be well within range even an accidental bolt from a scorpion could kill dozens of spectators
I always wondered the same thing with any sort of projectile weapon at the games
@@InvictaHistory It's like Nascar - the possibility involuntary audience participation was just a part of the alcohol-fueled fun ;)
Makes it a wonder how they didn't spontaneously start a spartacus-like rebellion at least once at these events considering how there were thousands of armed slaves/gladiators fighting
@@jakobinobles3263 Said 'little rebellion' actually defeated legions of Roman veterans which is kinda nuts even if they didn't stand a chance against the full army. If you gave thousands of desperate war prisoners military-grade equipment then you've got to be prepared to have that turned against you if they decided to put aside their differences and actually work together to escape.
That one game with the emp sitting on an island with all the high ranking aristocrats surrounded by thousands of criminals sentenced to death was really tempting fate.
Great video and really interesting topic. Rome never ceases to amaze me in all they do: literally recreating massive sea battles just for the spectacle is astounding.
Yeeaah man! This is awesome! Thanks for covering this! Those battles must have been pretty impressive!! :D
This documentary has been truly fascinating! Just amazing!
So thankful for people who can consolidate knowledge and wisdom into videos like this.
Thank you for this detailed video.
I couldnt imagine what the colosseum after it was drained from a naval battle. All the corpses and ship parts left in the hole.
The Crocodiles cleaned that mess up before draining
I agree enjoy to hear details about these naval battles very interesting!
I'm soo glad I voted for you to do this! It's just amazing to think about filling and draining the coliseum at that time! Excellent vid!
This always fascinated the hell out of me as a kid. Thank you so much 👍
Good video 👍🏻 I enjoyed learning more information on ancient Rome
So excited for this one
thanks for covering a fairly overlooked perspective on life in classical rome!
Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job
Epic battles and Epic and educational video!
such a great video awesome work
I had no idea naval gladiator battles even existed, these vids always teach me something new!
The fluid engineering is very interesting. I liked the discussion on how they set up the dual-purpose colosseum with reserve cisterns so as not to drain the fluid network when it was time to fill up the water basin.
Thank you for your work.
Amazing, super informative video!
Thank you for uploading this. Rome is one of my interests and this fleshes out gladiators as well as the facilities which were used for gladiator naval battles.
It’d be awe-inspiring to see something like this attempted in modern day stadiums.
With Death Row Inmates
that is not really hard to do now. If you want to see warfare you can actually watch real warfare going on right now.
@@sirBrouwer But thats no fun, tanks and such are cool but fighting up close with swords is just more fun then shooting at someone from 300 meters away and being bored to death the rest of the time...
It's much more fun and exciting to have a big sword fight, see everyone fight around you, fight up nice and close and personal, and either you die having fun or you chop chop everyone up... satisfying :3
@@ukeyaoitrash2618 you have some very disturbing idea of fun. Bringing pain and suffering is not something i really enjoy.
@@sirBrouwer clearly you're in the minority, with how popular, combat sports and football is.
Thanks for giving this a full video most treat this as a foot note for some reason...
Thank You!!! This was so cool.
I'd like to point out that the reason these never had fleets meant to represent Roman forces is that this would create the possibility of the Roman fleet LOSING.
That would be very embarrassing for the Emperor, indeed.
Wonderful illustrations!
I remember How To Train Your Dragon book series covered mock naval battle in the coliseum. Hiccup were forced to join after got kidnapped. Forgot which book though.
Why has no one else made any content regarding this before? Excellent work.
The effort that went into building these arenas sounds a lot like some of the arenas for the Olympics we get today. Both Caesar's that falls into disrepair and Augustus' that becomes an important public area for years.
Great insides, thank you.
9:13 When you realise the gladiators could have teamed up , to make a bigger force and fight the army surrounding it .
Are there any archeological findings from these battles on the lac? Great videos BTW!!
ok, so i gotta say this but the guy pointing his finger and shaking at 2:40 is freaking funny to me, good job boys!
Good video thank you.
I've always wondered about this
Oh man I want to watch one!
This was interesting. I see at least one epic movie with these kind of fights from Hollywood! +1
*Now this what I want to see on the silver screen. How do you top the scene in **_Gladiator_** with the chariot skirmish on the floor of the Colosseum? With a sea battle on the floor of the Colosseum.*
Cool Thank you.
Travelling back in time for a day and attending one of these matches would easily be worth months of your life...say if you travelled back and then returned half a year older.
I'd pay that price...in fact, I'd probably get hopelessly addicted to trading bits of my life for satisfying my utmost curiosities. So addicted that I'd probably end up dying in a few years at the age of 86, having visited every major historical event from the first time a human created fire to the destruction of The Library of Alexandria through to the inside of Hitler's bunker...There's no way you'd stop once you started.
I'd also bring back some perfumes and colognes to trade for Roman coins, and small artifacts, and bring them home to 2022 in excellent condition
Don't forget the chlorine tablets.
Don't forget the chlorine tablets.
@@funfact8660 Oh yeah. There would be a million ways to become insanely rich if you could do this. Definitely 👍🏻
@@h.huffen-puff4105 I didn't. They're right next to my mammoth shotgun and shiny beads for the cave dwellers...
Great video. I kept thinking of the Opening Ceremony of Athens 2004 in which they built an artificial lake. Your video showed the failed promises of that 2004 Olympic opening ceremony.
Exactly what we need in this times.
great video.
I think some movie maker should try to put a naval gladiator battle into a movie about ancient Rome. It would be interesting to see how others would react to this.
Just don't expect Hollyweird to make it.
@@kaizokujimbei143---Don't you mean Hollywood?
No he meant hollywierd, just a bunch of pedos that don't rat each other out
Good stuff.
I played a text choose your own adventure game where you fight as a gladiator and one of the gladiators I met in the game was a sailor and there was an option to learn naval tactics from him. I didn't know why that was there but I learned all I could from about naval tactics, how many drum beats I needed to set for ramming speed or even to just keep up with other ships. Other gladiators thought I was being stupid for learning naval tactics when we were fighting in the coliseum. The next day the coliseum was suddenly filled with water and 3 boats for each team. I rammed 2 boats because I had learned that ramming speed was 16 drum beats
Writing a report for class about Staged Naval Battles. This definitely helped! (Especially since I have to present it)
That would have been something to see! ⚔⚔⚔
What I find fascinating is the way the Romans moved water. Granted lead is easier to work with than other metals at the time. But still great work! Really!
All the people watching naval battles at the colosseum were all a bunch of naval gazers
Well *sigh*
nice video
The depiction of the naval battle in the movie Ben Hur was brief but very good. (41).
So cool.
I really appreciate your videos,
Can you please make a video about Roman engineering tools that they used?
I think we could do an entire series on Roman engineering, honestly! There's just so much to cover :)
I think we could do an entire series on Roman engineering, honestly! There's just so much to cover :)
@invicta wait, medieval mock naval battles?!? Please tell me more! This is fascinating
Brilliant Video.
This realy is a crazy topic. Rome was sometimes even ahead of our time :)
Now that is the way to teach History!!!!!!!
If I may Invicta I really like the songs that play in your videos,mind sharing the link so we the fans can also enjoy them in our private time
That's interesting. We have heard often about that, but not seen a documentation.
, they need to make a movie about these battles!
Nice Video
Under the Flavia dynasty they were able to "Build back better" sounds ominous
Imagine how much it must have sucked to be short sighted back then. Everyone talking about the spectacle of a lifetime unfolding on the water and you can't see a darn thing.
"Build Back Better than ever before"
Beautiful
I can't believe that I've never heard of this, litrally the coolest shit ever
I'd first heard of this about 10 years ago and what I read made it seem like a rumor that may or not be actually true. I always thought it sounded absolutely crazy and here to see that it was way more crazy then I had been led to believe. Truly wild stuff!
Saw a documentary about these once back before the History channel became the used to be about history channel. They said one of the largest ones opened up with a giant statue of posideon rising up from the waters and the statue rising blew a horn that started the battle.
10:08 I wonder how could guards on rafts force people in boats to fight? I'd imagine boats to fight the guards instead if they had nothing to lose anyway.
How deadly were gladiator matches? I've heard from alot of people saying it was 10% mortality but was that the case for all of them? It's one thing if it's in Rome but what about in the provinces? We're some areas more famous for their love of blood or were they all mostly the same?
Alot of People ? Did these People actually witness these Spectacles ? If so they're possibly Witches, Warlocks and Vampires
@@funfact8660 Historians
the video perceiving this one will give you a idea about it.
But in short they often tried to avoid killing there gladiators if they could.
If only because training someone in to a good gladiatorial warrior was expensive.
However they did know how to fight in such a way that the actual damage was minimal but did show blood.
If it did happen more often it would not be the actual trained man but other convicted criminals that where ordered to fight to the death.
Actual "gladiators" were essentially the rock stars of their time. They did not fight to the death very often at all and when they did it was usually a huge deal and a big event so it's much more likely to happen in Rome than somewhere else. But there's a huge difference between a "gladiator" and everyone else who gets thrown into a colosseum. Most people fought to the death. The rockstars barely did and any deviance from that was a big event.
so basically between professional gladiators it was pretty low, and the medical techniques used on them when they were wounded (which was most often the case) were top notch, but they just sent slaves/POWs those would die a LOT more
Never knew they took the gladiators upon the waters. Thanks for the education.
Pulling this off was insane feat of engineering.
I love these stories and it's super interesting.. but: are those dolphins with vertical tail fins?
Oh yeah !
Personally love the idea, if I was on death row I'd want my shot at naval gladiator glory.
The arena made by Augustus seems to be around the Villa Sciarra.
What about the underground cells and spaces under the Colosseum? Were these flooded too or were these built later?
There was in the 15 hundreds a somewhat famous mock battle with Brazilian indigenous people, wich apparently shocked Europeans with their apparent brutality, since no one told the indigenous people they weren't actually supposed to kill people. Don't quote me though, my memory is a bit hazy on the subject.
I would totally watch some “best naval gladiator highlights 2022” videos if they existed 😭
I still cant get over the Romans discussing “gladiator metas” from ur last gladiator vid🤣
When hollywood is actually underrating a historical aspect
Constantly dude constantly
Desmond Doss comes into mind.
6:14
You can still see where this lake was on Google Earth! It's full of buildings now, but the hole is still there!
6:40 I'm surprised the V.I.Ps didn't feel trapped in the center of the man made lake.
What happened to the third video in the bad Julius Caesar lived series? I saw two were released but not the third?
Hiding in the near future!
Up until a few years ago you could visit Treasure Island in Las Vegas & watch two full sized pirate ships battle it out on the water with cannons & all, probably about as close as we’ll ever get to seeing such a spectacle! Imagine being so powerful you can literally throw away thousands of war ships for entertainment, then you get conquered a short while later 🙄😬💪
Looks like fun, I wanna play!
Man I would have love to see how their Naval Gladiator Battles would have worked out...
How did they get ships inte the Coloseum?