How Dangerous was the Front Row of the Colosseum?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 พ.ค. 2024
- Stray arrows, leaping tigers, and unstable emperors made the first rows of the Colosseum a dangerous place…
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Chapters:
0:00 The Elephant Incident
1:25 Seating at the Colosseum
3:19 Factor
4:18 Safety measures
5:15 Disasters in Roman arenas
6:10 Escaped animals
6:54 Gladiatorial mishaps
8:02 Imperial whims
That story about a child-eating python lurking in the slums of Rome sounds exactly like something that would be a side quest you'd find in an RPG.
Or what your grandparents would tell you to scare you into not going too far away when you were a kid
That or Florida
Definitely needs to be included in a AC game set in ancient Rome playing as Aya
Yummy fresh week old food sitting in the fridge for 7 days after it gets harvested transported to the one factory made and delivered to you!
Maybe It just was a member of the tribe of the god's chosen ones
I love that an engraver from about 1500 years later still had only the sketchiest idea of what elephants looked like. He must have been particularly sceptical when he was told about their height.
It's an unbelievable creature even now.
You’re thinking of rhinos, and Albrecht Durer was a woodcut producer.
@@Pantsinabucket No, he was an artist. He may have produced woodcuttings but he also painted (ie, watercolor).
@@atlantic_love durer is most famous for his woodcuts though.
@@Pantsinabucket He may be, but he was an artist. No shame in calling him that. Artists often have multiple disciplines. I can assure you he was not simply a "wood cutter" LOL.
I now actually want to see Paulus Blartus, Colosseum Cop as a movie
Ai can make that happen
i wonder what his hourly wage in sestertii would be
It can't be any worse than Paul Blart Mall Cop 2.That stunk.
Absolutely, i want to watch it too
@@bazzatheblueLike the first one was cinema verite? Lol.
20.000 people died in a wooden amfitheater collapse? That's a lot of people.
I agree! 20.000.....alot of humans
Imagine if it started burning, then people get nervous and move a lot, then it collapses, people panic and stampede and the fire gets way worse.
People get trampled, fire smoke chokes and poisons people everywhere in an era with zero fire crew, zero mass people control or (at least in the wooden theatres) mass exit designs, etc. And also bear in mind people were probably stacked a lot closer than we allow today.
Just go back to 1912 where there was 250,000 people for some event, gathered standing up, in a stadium that we would only allow 60,000 into today.
larger than some stadiums in the Premier League
Yeah I'm sceptical. 2000 maybe
@@RossKempOnYourMum01 google is free
Imagine being able to time travel and be able to witness something like this first hand.
Probably horrific. But awesome to 🤘
I'd free the elephants upon Rome let them stomp them haha
@@brettk9316you’d get rag dolled by the guards and die in prison like a rat
Sounds like great fun NOT
There's nothing stopping us from doing this again now.
Just like being in the splash zone at Sea World.
Nope.
Exactly
Red zone~
Blood splashes yay!!! 🤣
I had bad rashes behind my knees as a kid. The splash zone exacerbated it. Never forgot.
Killing random spectators. Thats the ancient Imax experience
0:22 "you can draw elephants yeah" ?
"don't worry fam, i got ya"
Last time I was this early, Rome was still a republic!
That’s nothing, last time I was this early Romulus and Remus were still being breast fed.
@@kiely4561HA! You don’t know early. Last time I was this early, Aeneas had finally arrived in Italy.
Huh, you guys were kind of late. Prius was still king of Troy last time I was this early
Last time I was this early, the Sabine women were still virgins
Those were the days
My family lore tells of how one of my Roman ancestors, though a man of meager means, was always able to get great seats at the Colosseum through Stubbus Hubbus.
Maybe he met a very important man named Bigus Dickus
cap
biggest cap 😂
Super cap
Let’s be honest most of our ancestors are Gauls and nords
I’m in Arles , France right now. It’s like living in an ancient Roman town , I’m loving it
Bullfight?
@@paulkoza8652 that's only in Spain, maybe also in Portugal (not sure)... everywhere else in the west (where it is not part of the cultural identity) that's basically become illegal due to various (obvious) animal rights issues with the practice.. even in Spain it's very much reduced in terms of how many events are still run... effectively, a fringe activity
if you are in Normandy though, the Chariot-racing scene is pretty awesome...
You mean Arelate in Gallia
@@paulkoza8652 it’s a huge part of the culture here … I think it’s illegal
@@Michael_the_Drunkard yes ! That is correct
Caligula once ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into an arena during the intermission to be eaten.
Caligula was truly a madman
Which is why he got murked by his own guards
Sounds like the mad king in game of thrones
@@jackcock2465partly. I mean everyone wanted him gone.
The POOR elephants!….I would so HATE such a “spectacle” 😢
Great video as always.
There's a show called Spartacus Blood and Sand that often showed the crowd getting sprayed with blood, or skewered by a flying sword from the gladiatorial combat. Nice to know those finer details held some accuracy even with the overall show taking enormous liberties.
Especially with all the gay shit.
It was a good show though!
@@mattysykes2121 Yes! One of my favorites. Bit of a rough start, but then it gets good. I probably rewatch it every year or two.
People can say what they want with Spartacus, but one thing the show did well is hiring historian consultants for research, from its gladiator battle to slavery
8:20 the emperor was like "blasphemy. I don't have ANY control over what happens at these games. And to prove it, I'm going to control what happens next by feeding you to the dogs."
‘paulus blartus, colosseum cop’ has me losing it
Those sunhats look quite modern!
no need to reinvent the wheel I guess haha
@@orfeo793 More convergent design than direct copying I imagine
@@QuantumHistorian true, but it could have also ended up looking like a sombrero.
If it aint broken don’t fix it
I love your channel for how much life you bring to ancient history with all these specific looks you do at details like this. Just the colosseum alone I feel like your channel has made me understand what it would've been like so much more than other things that talk about gladiators
Made-up stories.
Thank you for all of your videos, I always enjoy them and learning something I may have not known before, and if not just hearing history in an unbiased outlook is always a treat.
Aboslutely love this channel! one of my favourite subscriptions on youtube thank you Toldinstone!
I was considering going to Rome for this years vacation, and your vids have tipped me over the edge. Gonna be going this October.
That’s a great time of the year to go, also to Naples if you have the chance. It’s not unbearably hot at that time.
@@Matts_Ancient_Coinsif you get to Naples, avoid taxis if possible
What I love the most about these videos, and it may seem odd, is the rock tapping sound at the beginning.
That is indeed odd...
@@AverageAlienScratches the brain just right.
ASMR
I get age of empires 2 vibes from it.
It's very soothing.
I visited the ruins of a coliseum in Trier Germany in summer of 1989. Then was in Kaiserslaughtern Germany when the Berlin wall came down. I still have pieces of the Berlin wall. History is too cool
Answering questions I never knew I needed answered yet again!
For those about to die no refunds.
Dr. Ryan, with those nutrimental props, it is understandable that you deal so passionately with the issues of ancient Rome.
5:57 - that '1,500-year-old late Roman grasswork "Panama hat" from Flinders Petrie's 1901-2 field season in Egypt' is insane - how the hell is it that the only info I can find on this, is Twitter, F/b & Reddit? ..... How & where was it found?
Never a dull day in the empire.
Garrett, I heard that it is estimated that throughout the Colosseums active usage, (80AD - 520 isch iirc), about 400,000 people died.
I can't remember the source, but I think it was basically doing a spreadsheet of every games we know was held there and average casualty count, if the event was not so special that we actually know the exact numbers like the giant games in the 100AD era.
Does the 400k numbers sound off to you? (over 400 yrs of usage)
No. This is false. I visited the colosseum yesterday, many of the animals were easily killed. Furthermore, most gladiators did not battle to the death despite what most think, they surrendered by holding up a finger or two, and only some were deemed to die.
@@cod7140bro was using internet explorer to post this comment 2000 years ago
The Colosseum Cop image cracked me up. I wasn't ready for Paulus Blartus.
Very cool historical video. While only a quasi comparison, I am reminded of the one time I went to the Indianapolis 500. The infield of turn one and the stands across from them were the most likely to receive debris from crashes like fuel, flying tires, etc.
Oh hell yeah! Can't wait for the new book
You seem to have countless interesting vídeos, i hope I keep bumping into more of these on my feed
If you caught a foul arrow, as it were, I wonder if you were allowed to keep it.
Get hit with an arrow, you get to keep it- and you get a free sausage roll..........
That was rule 74 on the list of Rules for Coleseum Games. It depends how you received it. If it landed near you, or you caught it, throwing it back was expected. The crowd would go mad if someone didn't. But if impaled, you were allowed to keep it, if the depth was sufficient for it to hold in place. So an impaled spectator would be examined by an inspector, & if found to be sufficiently impaled, received permission to walk out in possession of the foreign arrow. These occurrences happened frequently enough that rules needed to be established on the proper etiquette of arrow reception.
Yes, however, it was forbidden to sell them on Ebay.
Rumor is, all weapons and paraphernalia leaving the arena floor, was authenticated by Colosseum staff using a hologram sticker and sold at the emperor’s gift shop.
😂😂😂😂
When are you gonna cover Gluteus Maximus, the Thickest ruler of the roman empire?
He's a bum, I tell ya!
Or Biggus Dickus, who holds the highest wank in Wome?
His conquests brought much booty to Rome. 😀
No doubt related to Incontinentia Buttocks, wife of Biggus. And I think my son, when he was young, could possibly related to Gluteus because he was also known as Gaseus Maximus.
@@Mulavi Yes! Haha
seen a rodeo bull leap over an 8' pipe fence into the grandstand. i imagine a motivated lion could clear a much higher barrier.
Love your vids homie. The kids i tutor love your insightful and entertaining delivery which as ive always said is important to capturing the minds of our youth rather than boring them to death
His-story without an ounce of truth to it.
I never really thought of a question such as this but damn that's pretty interesting.
I never knew how much i want the answer to this question until today!
Fascinating, as always, the chariot segway was a nice touch. 😆🤙
This is something I have never wondered about but I’m glad it came on my fyp.
I mean this channel.... im just so happy i found it a couple of months back. You answer questions i never thought i wanted the answer to :D
TOLDINSTONE is literally my chill time where I get philosophical ideas for my SpongeBob memes.
🗿
@@JD-jl4yy 🗣️ SpongeBob & Patrick Get Stabbed In The Front Row of The Colosseum
Always great to see one of your videos
Spectators certainly aren't free from danger in modern times as we've seen in crowd crush incidents and horrific car racing accidents.
Thank you for this different perspective of a different part of the Colosseum, historically speaking.
I never understood the level of cruelty mankind was/is capable of for nothing that had to do with survival, let alone purely entertaining purposes. Fighting/torturing lions, elephants, eachother, ... to the death.
Playing with life in such an arrogant disrespectful way is such a waste.
I mean, even human life was much less valuable back them. As many young children died than grew up to be adults... the ones who grew up stood a decent chance of going to war, being enslaved, catching an illness. So if humans are so fragile/disposable it shouldn't come as a surprise animal life wasn't held high.
I'm not saying it's right, but that's been most of history up until the last 120 years
@@highbread817 What has changed in the past 120 years...nothing! It's just not a "spectacle" anymore with a few exceptions remaining. Roman armies have been replaced by huge corporations and conglomerates that exploit people, lands and animals and give back zilch! Just in the US alone! At least the Romans left beautiful architecture, art, literature and other cultural aspects handed down for centuries.
@zsigzsag uhh, there's a ton wrong with the way the USA is ran. But that's irrelevant to lifespan and child mortality comparisons between 100 AD and 2023
We don't hand down death sentences nearly as frequently, we don't slaughter animals sheerly for spectacle. In fact, we now have people dedicated solely to the equitable treatment of animals.
The modern world has a big greed problem, but there's no need to be cynical about humanity in general.
@zsigzsag the Romans went on conquest, destroyed and slaughtered their neighbors, enslaved foreigners, and did a number of awful things. Never mind the mass persecution of certain religious groups at points.
They threw their slaves into pits to fight lions for fucks sake
@@highbread817 I do not believe that only in the last 120 years - the things you say - have started to change. Simply because of the many different countries and cultures or the evolutions thereof.
Certainly, the mortality rate of children was higher due to less advanced medical science (if any at all). Infections from wounds killed more during the wars than actual deathblows. I think that's the only thing that was pretty present throughout it all. Anything else depends on region and time.
I appreciate your view on trying to explain the cruelty.
I went to a festival in the french town of dinan early evening my wife said not to sit to close to the low barrier (she had been there 2years before) these where wise words as horses and other animals in the show weren't happy about the tiger led into the arena on a chain by one guy.the horses stared to panic and seeing this the tiger started to pull to get at them the guy on the chain got pulled off his feet and only stopped with the help of three more dudes pulling back .the whole place was in uproar and we got out fast as we could.i didn't think I would ever see a beast show in Europe but typically french every one shrugging there shoulder's and wanted the show to continue.we where told to watch the fireworks from outside the town as they where set off from the roof of the gas station ! I have lots of witnesses and am cautious about going to anything else in rural towns now🤪
Can you further explain the perfumed mist coming from the Colosseums walls?
Are you kidding me?
In some theaters and amphitheaters, the Romans built pipes into the walls that drizzled perfumed water in hot weather, forming (at least in theory) a fragrant cooling mist.
@@toldinstone this is some really advanced luxuries, where i live we don't even know the history of 2000 years ago
@@toldinstone wow, that sounds fascinating! Thanks! 😊
@@CR7Ashironaldowhere do you live?
thank you for the video
The pic of the lavatory is horrifying.
There was also the risk of getting a beer spilled on you by some spectator dodging a spear. Great channel.
A wine.
Or taking an arrow in the knee.
What an interesting premise. Great video
What a great topic! ❤
I think it's a really good idea to drop related videos from your channel. Ted Ed does a really good job at that and they're worth emulating.
Maybe trying to sell food while showing a picture of Romans taking a dumb isn't the best visual for a culinary selling pitch at 3:14.
Dude exactly what I was thinking! They are even talking about food while shitting lmfao
Great video!!! Looking forward to the new book. Did you ever do a video about citizenship in the empire? I would still really like to hear about the privileges that the empire would give its citizens.
Glad to hear it! No, I haven't done a video on citizenship yet.
That's an interesting topic, although, I think it could be more interesting to hear it from the perspective of what it was like to live as someone who was not a citizen.
@@valkeakirahvicitizenship as a whole would be good, covering both sides. Nom citizens, roman born citizens, non Roman born citizens etc
Could be interesting.@@toldinstone
I agree. @@ckbs1
Lol, that Paulus Blartus joke cracked me up
Please make a video on ancient ufo sightings. Im sure many of those can be explained away, but would be interesting to know if any match with the current tic tac/cigar shaped ufo etc. Livy and Plutarch did cover ufo sightings.
Damn, that's the smoothest segway for a frozen food ad
Thank you
Wonderful!
And people thought being in the front rows of a Gallagher show got messy.
Splattered with red matter, but it isn't watermelon.
I was rooting for the elephants
I was there. They rent out ponchos for a few Sestersius. Well worth it to keep the brain matter off my toga.
Another certified Campitelli classic!
Are you planning on eventually releasing your new book on Audible as well? Many would be grateful.
Hey quick question! I heard that anyone on their way to be executed would be spared if they caught sight of a Vestal virgin. Assuming this is true (feel free to let me know if it isn't) how did this work with people being executed via gladiator or beasts in the colosseum? Was this just an exception? Was it not considered execution since technically they could fight?
Good question! Vestals could pardon a condemned criminal if they encountered him on the way to execution, but they did not do so automatically (and it had to be an accidental encounter - i.e., willed by the gods). We don't know how often they actually attended games in the Colosseum; but since they couldn't claim to have chanced upon the men condemned to die in the arena, those poor souls lay beyond their power to reprieve.
@toldinstone Ahh. For some reason I thought it was an automatic process. And I didn't know it had to be a random encounter. Thanks a ton! I love your videos and the ability to just ask you questions like this is an amazing resource!
This reminds one of today's modern form of entertainment the Bullfights, where you root for the bulls and more so when they jump the barrier and attack the audience.
Why are the bulls there in the first place?
Great stuff 🎉🎉🎉
I highly recommend the book, "For Those Of Us About To Die", for more amazing stories about the games.
Bro is literally the best TH-camr
You might think about flying spears, arrows ,severed limbs and lots of blood, of course. Those people had to be accustomed to seeing people getting eaten by animals, and killed by every kind of weapon. A tough crowd.
When I visited the Colosseum, I was very interested to note a whole big pile of marble chairs, each engraved with a name, which I took to be a senator's name. Did they bring their own cushioned chairs, and if so, who were these chairs for? Obviously they were a permanent benefit. Or did the senators merely bring cushions for these (very uncomfortable-looking) chairs?
If I recall correctly, those bits of inscribed marble were parts of the podium platform; the senators set up their chairs on top of them.
@@toldinstone What I saw was definitely a pile of bone-white chairs, made of travertine or marble or some such, each with a name definitely engraved on it. They were piled up behind a chain-link fence with no signage so they may not have been there long.
Early Rome was famous for their "Italian Plexiglass"....
I assume it was relatively safe for the time as they are usually reserved for VIPs. Everything back then was more dangerous than we are used to but nothing that would realistically kill a senator.
Even today VIP ≠ safer
Take that submarine thing for example. The people who went on it were “VIP” per se and it wasn’t safe in the slightest.
@@brek2569 That's more comparable to Crassus deciding to fight parthia than it was for a senator going to the games. They did something they knew was dangerous.
I would definitely watch Paulus Blatus coliseum cop!
If 20,000 people really died in the amphitheater collapse in Fidenae then that's by far the deadliest building collapse and stadium incident in history.
Your voice is very relaxing I use these videos to go to sleep, I also think they are interesting so no offense there
Congrats on the sponsor!
There's a meme that made me think of something, were there sometimes sponsors for Coliseum fights and chariots races? As in businessmen promoting themselves or something similar
It was a splash zone during the naval battles.
A surviving sunhat. Very interesting.
I really enjoy learning about ancient history. But, laughing unexpectedly makes it better.
Roman Empire history really fascinates me.
this is something i didn’t know i wanted to know
Answering a question that I didn’t know that I wanted answered
The "M'Lady" was a nice touch. 😄
Sounds like the good old days in Philly at The Vet!
Told In Stone: Did gladiators in the Roman Colosseum, in Rome, fight to the death? I thought that they did this, especially if they were condemned criminals or condemned prisoners of war, who were given a chance to redeem themselves by being gladiators. Your video does say that battles were sometimes staged in the colosseum, in which hundreds of men took part. Did they die, in these battles?
It must had been really dangerous sitting in the front row.
"Everyone seated in the first few rows will get wet!" - some random vampire.
Paulus Blartus
Honestly you can’t miss it, it gets crazy in there. I was there
0:32 I like how the artist chose to clearly engrave the elephant's anus. He must have thought it would be an important detail to include.
Heat, eat, and enjoy. Just what the Colosseum vendor told me.
Paulus Blartus...LOLOLOLOLOL
Fyrst! Dangerous or not who would’ve said no to the front row?
Best not wear your best toga. Imagine the splashes of blood and gore that would result from ruptured organs and severed arteries and veins!
@@CliveofEngland a spectacle for sure
Me. I would have said no to the whole thing.
Around 12 years ago, during the NFL halftime show on Fox TV, former Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw who had the previous week off, returned to say that he had just come back from Las Vegas. When asked how it went, he replied that if you go to 'Vegas to see Don Rickles' act, don't sit in the front row! Apparently, he did!
All hail PAULUS BLAUTUS!!
Holy hell I'm dying!!
5:00 Wait a minute. Romans invented the Segway ??
Alien technology, left behind from when they built the Colosseum. Saw it on the History Channel 😃