Fun note: the Han send an expedition to try and make contact with the Romans. They made it as far as Parthia but were told by the Parthians that Rome is further west and the journey is impossibly long. The expedition returned to China, unknowingly deceived by the Parthians who shared a border with the Romans.
2000 years ago, travelling between Rome and China must have felt like travelling from Mars to Earth. The challenges, distance and travel times would have been enormous, even from Roman Syria. It's baffling to me that despite the audacity, technical know-how and spirited hearts of both the Romans and the Chinese, it still took the better part of 1500+ years for our 'modern day civilisation' to emerge.
@Trashthlete agreed, but that is not what I meant. I was thinking that it took 1500+ years to go from their level of technology and science, which was already qutie advanced, to our current knowledge of all things. For example : If we found a Roman-Empire-esque society on the nearest star ,Proxima Centauri, we would still have to wait 1500 years for them to invent the technology to send us a message back.
We didn't emerge. We stumbled around, tossed by history.. Forget Great Men & such. Somebody invents a printing press, a few hundred years later: the Pope just has a city. We still commit genocide. Many countries haven't reconciled their own. Iran &: Nicarague fell in 1979, 1980 because of Eisenhower in the 50's!. He picks Nixon as his running mate! China and Putin rise because Bush goes to war. Emerge? Look at how backwards much of Conservative America is...highest poverty rates, lowest motivation and innovation, uses more taxes than they pay. Kentucky is part Russia. Without the New Deal and the Feds, it would be Russia.
China did send delegates to the Empire in the reign of An-To-Nin (Antoninus Pius). They got to Antioch in Syria. Roman got as far as the ‘Golden Chersonnese’, Malaya. There’s an excellent book, ‘The Romans and the Indian Ocean’ by Rahul McLaughlin.
Is the book reasonably scholarly and well researched? I've checked it out and i see its from Pen & Sword Publishing, which I've found very hit and miss in terms of publishing things that are completely BS.
@@patrickmccarron2817 Well, I have read in English the Chinese accounts, where they describe arriving overland and the sea was to their west. That implies Syria, and they describe a major city, which they had initially assumed was Rome, but it can really only be Antioch.
"Flying snakes" is actually probably a reference to "winged snakes" which is how those unfamiliar with the cobra might describe a cobra's hood. "Winged snakes" is just a misinterpretation of the cobra when it spreads open it's hood. The area identified as "Sanaa" on your map is well within the range of the Arabian cobra (Naja arabica). It lives in what is now modern day Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman. The Egyptian and the Indian cobras also have hoods.
That is very interesting. I can imagine that people would hesitate to go into areas that have venomous snakes with wings. I wonder if that is where the idea of dragons comes from.
@@j.pershing2197 I've seen that one, and many other Thunderbolts Projects videos, thanks. I find only some of the premises somewhat convincing. On the one hand, it does seem mysterious and unexplained as to why ancient peoples would describe heavenly bodies like Venus and Jupiter in such awe-inspiring and even frightening terms, considering that to our eyes these are simply tiny lights in the sky. And it's true some of the prehistoric art perhaps not coincidentally does resemble certain electrical discharge forms, and some of the geological scarring seen on other planets perhaps could have been created by electricity. On the other had, the videos never provide any credible evidence the support the notion that the planets of our solar system were ever as close to the Earth during the Neolithic stone age as has been claimed, nor do they ever offer any theories as to WHY, all of a sudden, the other planets would suddenly get knocked out of their near-Earth orbits to go hurtling outwards to settle in their present orbital positions, nor why, evidently, the Earth DIDN'T get knocked out of it's present orbit when all the other planets did! And the reason why know the Earth didn't is because it would have had to remain here in the "goldilocks zone" for life here to survive.
Lmao I could just imagine some Roman mates travelling across Arabia and one of them goes “Woah watch out! There are flying snakes over there with wings!”
For those interested in knowing more, _"Ancient Geography"_ by _Duane Roller_ is an absolute delight of a book, it covers questions like this from Homer to Justinian, as well as the development of geography/cartography as a science. Very accessible and readable too.
I’m currently reading The Greeks by Roderick Beaton and it goes through all of Greek history starting from Mycenaean era to the liberation of Greece from the Ottomans. It also goes into a lot of Roman history but I haven’t gotten that far. I hope it discusses Byzantium and Constantine’s reign in depth.
@@eutropius2699 Well good for you, but I struggle to see the relevance? There's probably a book on ancient history published every week. Unless we're at a book club, mentioning a random one seems entirely pointless. I only mentioned Ancient Geography because it's closely related to the topic of the video, not because it's vaguely linked to ancient history.
I never knew that the Romans had gone as far south as Zanzibar on the African east coast. That’s why I love your channel, I always learn new bits of history, and in a fun way.🙂
The "Romans" in this case were actually Greek merchants based in Egypt who sailed down the Red Sea and traded along the East African coast as far as a town called Rhapta which IIRC is believed to be the island of Pemba near modern day Zanzibar. We know this because of a document called the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea written by a Greek-Egyptian merchant around 50AD. It is a guide for merchants trading to South Arabia (modern Yemen and Oman), East Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Socotra, etc) and the whole west coast of India. It provides details of the products available at each port and of the imports that the merchant can expect to offer in return. Evidence in the text indicates that author had visited many of the places himself, presumably as a merchant.
Polynesians were probably already sailing all around these regions by then, they essentially discovered Madagascar afaik. Further fact, the Persian (I believe, possibly Assyrian) Empire once tasked Phoenician sailors to find a way around the South of the African continent. These sailors supposedly completed their mission, returning 3 years later but assuring that the voyage was too long to replace any routes. It was quickly forgotten.
Thanks for making a video about my favourite subject! One thing to note about Indo-Roman trade is that the vast majority of merchants were in fact Greek Egyptians, although many were financed by wealthy senators in Rome. Most treatments of this topic have always been heavily Roman-biased - we should remember that many Indians also travelled west to Egypt for commerce. The island of Socotra, in modern Yemen, was probably the ancient island of Dioscurides, which was home to a flourishing Indian merchant colony. Inscriptions in Indian languages have been found in a cave on the island, but the major settlement is yet to be identified.
@@aka99 It wouldn't surprise me at all, but in terms of actual archaeological evidence we have very little for that. We do have definitive proof of Indians in Egypt
The descriptions of the "Mountains of the Moon" are actually more befittning the Rwenzori Mountains than mount Kilmanjaro. Not that I know of any point where the Romans mention encountering the mountains, but the Ptolomeic description fits the Rwenzori range better. Thank you for another fascinating video!
@@georgelacy4915 yeah there’s a whole video on this somewhere as well. It pretty much describes both of what you said and it was founded as recent as 1860 or something and most of the glaciers on the mountains are now going away
I am so happy this channel has soo many different sponsors it goes to show that people still value quality and good writing on TH-cam! Keep up the great work!! 😄
I honestly do believe because we humans are adventurous and curious about what lies behind a Horizont that maybe some Greeks/Phoenicians/Romans tried to travel to America but either failed because of bad winds/ got lost in a storm/ starvation or maybe maybe even reached the goal there but then decided to stay or even got killed by the foreign and dangerous environment there. It really must felt like being on another planet for them I can imagine.
Right, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings were the first people to try island hopping to Greenland. If the Romans could sail from Egypt to India they could have reached Iceland from Britain/Faroe Islands.
The ships built by Portuguese were so much more advanced than what the Roman’s had access to it may have well been the difference between a car and space ship. Romans wouldn’t have been able to make the voyage
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@@Cyd98 The real difference between the Portuguese and the Romans was that the first knew that they could sail into the Atlantic as to avoid the westerlies when returning to Portugal. Cabral maybe overestimated the winds and discovered South America.
Amusingly to foreign ears, the Isles of Scilly off the SW coast of England are actually pronounced as the Isles of Silly (not Skilly), or more simply as the Silly Isles.
I actually laughed out loud when I saw the Big Foot photo east of the Baltic. I enjoy the subtle humor you throw into your highly informational videos.
The ancient Finns were a mystery at that time. Their neighbors thought that they were wizards and seers and tried but failed many times to conquer them. It didn’t surprise me at all when he put that picture. They were a mystery to everyone including the Romans. They also dwelled in swamps and hill forts deep in the forest. Big foot does too so it makes sense
You forgot to mention one more destination of Roman merchants and it was the Baltic coast. In today's Poland. The Romans ventured there to buy amber and furs. Amber in Rome was considered a magic stone not only because it is used to make jewelry, but also because amber burns for a long time, giving off a pleasant smell.
Thanks. According to ancient literature in Sri Lanka, a delegation from Sri Lanka had visited Rome. (I think during emperor Claudiious time). And Roman coins have been discovered in the country, which too proves your point of trade links between Roman empire and South Asia.
Even many Roman glassware bowls are found in grand tombs of Korean Kings and nobles of Shilla Dynasty. hey are made in Eastern Europe (around Crimean P.) and Syria, circa 1st C~ 5th C, AD. There are few record of Roman/Arabian merchants visited or lived in Korea. The trade between Roman Empire and Korea was quite frequent and well trodden.
I remember learning about a grave in Italy dating to the Roman period that contained the remains of a person apparently born in what is now Vietnam. Am I remembering this correctly?
Yes, the remains were discovered of someone who had apparently been born in eastern Asia. Unfortunately, nothing found with the bones allowed them to be identified.
Loved how throughout the years the Romans continued to send envoys and merchants to China especially during the Northern and Southern Era which saw vast changes in China and the north was ruled by the Xianbei Tuoba in the north
Those less populated areas between Rome and China have fascinated me since I was a child. Long before I even really know ancient Rome was even a thing. The Taklamakan and Gobi deserts have enticed me since I was old enough to look at a map. Then later on the simple similarity between the words Bactria and bacteria (when I was young I literally thought the name of the region was just a different pronunciation of "bacteria") made me wonder what the region was. As soon as I started learning about it, I was snared by that region just as badly.
I became convinced many years ago the Taklamakan desert has a much more important history than we know. I don't know if the environment was most hospitable, or if it was just because it was the easiest route from Europe to China, but there was a lot of trade and mixing of cultures there.
@@promontorium You have to love the stories told to explain its name as well. Stuff ranging from 'that place over there' to 'place of ruin/ruins' to 'ye be screwed' (to put a more contemporary spin on some of them)
@@promontorium The Taklamakan desert has truly fascinated me ever since I first spotted it on a map when I was a kid. It essentially looks like a sandbox in the middle of nowhere, when the scale is such that you can see both China and Eastern Europe. Things like historic trade routes in the region and it being a potential avenue for cross pollination between Asia and Europe, just make it more interesting imo. Usually it is the history that brings me to a location. The Taklamakan desert is one of the few exceptions, where the location is what brought me to the history. btw, I would assume that generally speaking, any routes of travel there, skirted around the desert, on the fringes. There are some rivers crisscrossing the desert, but they are basically seasonal. If you look at known historic settlements in the region from 2k years ago or so, they are all on the outskirts of the Tarim basin. Even if you take a best case scenario where some rivers were longer and thus more interconnected in ancient times, you still have to deal with the fact that they tend to be seasonal and even if extended past their current boundaries, don't do all that much (relatively speaking) to further the ability to move people and goods. Nothing like the increase you get with the proposal that one used to be able to navigate a ship from the Mediterranean to Caspian (via the Black Sea > Sea of Azov > Don river > Caspian) Which is another really really interesting topic imo.
@@promontorium One other related thought, just because I'm bored. Another part of that whole avenue of approach so-to-speak, in that general part of the globe which I find immensely interesting, is the Amu Darya, historically known in Europe as the Oxus river. It is just on the other side of Tajikistan from the Taklamakan desert. It connects the historic region of Bactria with the historic Aral Sea (if a couple of decades ago can be called "historic times"). Combine that, with the idea that it might have been possible (during certain times of the year, possibly) to navigate from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea and then take the Oxus all the way into the heart of ancient Bactria. This puts the eastern fringe of the Taklamakan about 400 miles or so away. 400 miles of mountainous terrain, but terrain that has been settled since forever and thus has, at the very least, a basic network of valleys, rivers, roads, paths and whatnot which could be used moving people and goods. We even know that Alexander III settled several of his Alexandrias in those eastern areas. But that then gets into a discussion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, then later in history the Indo-Greek Kingdom and well.. both of those are massive topics in and of themselves.
Thank you for this eye opening video. I learned about Chinese Nubian and Indian contact with Rome but not all of this. Im just a casual history enthusiast. To me it always seemed to be that Romans only knew the world within their borders and neighboring Parthia and outside of it was just sparsely populated with barbarians and complete nothingness. Thanks for shining light on this question
Garrett, you did a fantastic job on this. I have wondered about the contact and relationship between the various civilizations at this point in time. I would find it hard to believe that they did not have contact with each other, probably through trade, if not political. Thanks for opening this topic up for thought and analysis.
7:00 having read a lot about this subject i believe Romans did not find madeira but lost islands / sand banks between madeira and the Sagres cape. There are now submerged sand banks halfway between madeira and the algarve cape as low as 30 metres . I, along with many others, believe once islands stood there, having been submerged after the great earthquake and tsunami flood of 1775, which originated in the area - the islands stopped appearing in maps then.
If there were such islands, surely those are well documented in maps from several centuries of Portuguese explorers (late 1300s onwards). Do you have such evidences?
@@pedroedsos you can search old maps on the internet , at least 25% of the maps from 1500-1700 show that there were extra islands between madeira and portugal. You can search modern nautical charts to see that the lowest point is barely 20 metres below sea level in some areas there. Also you seem portuguese?
Never would have guessed the Canary Islands are named after a wild dog. Always thought of it as Tweety Bird's home. Lol. Great history, loved it, thanks!
It’s always funny to me that whenever ancient humanity talked of unknown lands or waters there was always some sort of story of fantastical monsters and strange men that live there.
We love your channel, especially the humor. We are interested in Roman connections with Buddhist teachings. You did a Greek art video, is there enough material to do a talk on the relationship between the Romans and their contemporary Buddhist practitioners? Many thanks, we enjoy your work very much.
Unfortunately, I don't think I could add much to my video on "Ancient Greek Buddhists" from last year. There may have been some Indian Buddhists (or even local converts) in Roman Alexandria, but the evidence is ambiguous.
@@toldinstone India is where Buddhism came from and the entire empire of Ashoka was buddhist. So there is lots and lots of evidence for Buddhists being in India. The Romans much less, but there was a Buddhist temple in Alexandria. Also, the Gospels. In the Gospels Jesus quotes the Buddha multiple times and uses some of his parables.
Also this is offtopic, Charlemagne send 2 Frankish Nobels and a jew, named Isaac from Aachen to Bagdad on a diplomatic mission. They had some gifts for the Calif there. Isaac returned back from Bagdad to Aachen with several gifts by the Calif. Among the gift was an adult Elephant named Abul Abbas. The whole journey too about 3 years. It is the first recorded elephant north of the alps since the Roman’s and one of the first jews north of the alps named by its name. Back to topic: great video! Would love a video about some certain Roman cities in the imperium!
@@VanderlyndenJengold you're thinking of the Channel Islands - Jersey and Guernsey are famous for early potatoes and strawberries. The Scillies are best known for exporting cut flowers, especially winter daffodils.
Astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled a golf club and balls during one of the Apollo missions to the moon. I would have taken Roman coins to leave as a confusing future artifact.
I'm disappointed that you didn't review the rather solid evidence for sporadic contact between Imperial Rome and Central America, including for example the presence of New World plants in the kits of Roman military doctors, very clear depictions of the pineapple in some Roman mosaics, and one small Roman sculpture found buried at a Mexican archaeological site,
As a Greek I would add to the story that there is also a nerdy one with them that speaks your Greatgrandfather's language and now you have to be a translator.
I live in a city near the river Elbe in north eastern Germany and recently in my town remains of a Roman made furnace, coins and even a sword was found. In the bigger city 30km east of me has been found remains of again Roman shields and swords. The wonders me how far eastwards the Roman adventures actually went. Probably they’ve seen the Baltic Sea and even the coast of Sweden or Finland
Dopo la battaglia di Idistaviso vinta dai romani contro i germani, l'esercito di Germanico si spinse fino al confine dell'odierna Polonia. Il sud della Scandinavia era chiamato dai romani Scandia, da cui deriva Scandinavia ( il paese degli Scandi)👋
a roman made furnace would be odd trade goods often made it far beyond the Limes, but craftsmen building furnaces, hm......maybe a captured skilled slave ? the Hamburg thing concerning Pytheas voyage he mixed up with something else as you don't reach Hamburg via the Baltc Sea metal detecting in Northfrisia and having found more augustean silver Quinari (kinda soldier coins) than the much more common Denari, I somewhat think that ships of Drusus his scattered fleet somehow ended up here
Please note: Isles of Scilly is pronounced ..."Isles of Silly." The "c" in Scilly is not pronounced. It is silent. It happens that the Greeks could have been the ones that actually named the islands following Celtic traditions. Their name in Latin was "Insulae Sillinae" which could be translated as "Islands of the sun "
I had always wanted to know how much contact ancient peoples had had - travelling being so difficult then. Now please make another video about the situation at the times of Marco Polo... I'd be so grateful!
@@ljss6805 Thanks! You see, some people think civilizations had no contact at all in ancient times. That's not true! There have always been adventurers and merchants all around the world...
If you already know all about Marco Polo, there is an account of contemporary travels which, as it also involves Kublai Khan and the Pope but is reverse it in direction, is often compared to the literature of Marco Polo. Around 1888, the Europeans discovered that a written account survived in the Middle East of the travels of the Nestorian monks Marcos and Bar Sawma. Bar Sawma traveled from Beijing to the Atlantic Ocean. Marcos became the Patriarch-Catholicos, the head of all Nestorians, adopting the name Yabhalaha. The heads of the Armenian church and the Nestorian church today are also called Catholicos.
Y'all should get together with Dr. Raoul McLaughln here on YT -- he specializes in ancient Roman trade. Not-so-fun fact: Roman coin was debased in part because most of their silver went east to buy luxury goods and other ephemera. Sound familiar?
@@sankadines sorry that someone from that area of the world is so ignorant. If you check the Wikipedia page for Taprobane you will see that I’m right. You might find the book The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean by Raoul McLaughlin to be worth reading before you make such an ignorant comment. The island was in antiquity a major source of copper and the name comes from the Sanskrit word for copper. Next time don’t be such a pushy man.
Two Roman expeditions got to Lake Chad. Also earlier Egyptian-Phoenician expedition c. 600 BCE sailed round Africa. Also both Egyptian and Phoenician traders got to Cornwall in their search for tin to manufacture bronze as early as 1500 BCE. Finally it is worth noting that St Thomas The Apostle is buried at Mylapore in Tamil Nadu.
The Egyptian-Phoenician trip around Africa was mentioned by Herodotus, although he didn't believe it. The Christians of Southern India have long claimed that their church was founded by Thomas, but I'm not aware of any evidence to support it.
At 6:38 a major clue is unveiled regarding the Carthaginians, who were descendants of the Phoenicians. It is very likely that the Phoenicians had navigated much more of the planet than history will ever know, possibly even to America.
This was really great! I have long been I interested in the Roman Empire's interactions with other countries and this video provides an excellent overview of the subject. Thank-you!
I'd love to imagine a Roman ship off the coast of West Africa get caught in a storm and blowing it off course. Only for the Roman merchants to survive the storm and live off the ocean. Only for one to spot land and the ship crashlanding into an island in the carribean or some jungle off the coast of Brazil or South America.
I’ve often had similar thoughts as well and figured it was possible, given the right set of circumstances. But now I wonder if Roman era ships could have survived that kind of voyage. We know that ancient shipbuilding was much different than that of Europe in the 1400s. I wonder if there are ship experts out there that could confirm or deny this.
@@sabatino1977 It's fascinating to think that if any Roman castaways happen to have landed in the shores of the Caribbean or South America. I would be intrigued to know what kind of contact they would've made with the Native tribes and how they would've managed relations with them. If that sort of senerio would've ever happened those Romans would've never thought they've set foot in another continent and never returned home.
Un giornale di Galveston (Texas, USA) nel 1886 pubblicò la notizia del ritrovamento di una nave romana di fronte al suo porto. Personalmente non ci credo, anche se sono state trovate monete romane lungo la costa che va dagli USA fino al Brasile del nord. C'è anche un'altra storia, il ritrovamento di una spada romana da cerimonia (in legno) in Nuova Scozia (Canada) 👋
Hearing about these ships laden with extremely expensive goods makes me wonder if piracy was a common issue, and if so to what degree and what was done about it. I'm also kind of curious exactly how merchants managed to find their way to extremely distant places that weren't well mapped. I'd assume they hired guides or something?
Merchant expeditions were extremely dangerous and were often attacked. Many of them never returned. It was always a difficult balance for the traders and investors to decide how many 'security personnel' to take with them - too many and the cost ate into profits, too few and you might not make it. And there was of course always the fear that they themselves might highjack the caravan on its return. I suspect that the success of an expedition mostly depended on the traders' knowledge of the destination and places/people en-route, and almost certainly the use of local guides/protectors.
Romans were awful sailors, and most of their naval capabilities involved ramming their opponents to fight them hand to hand. I can only imagine any pirate looking at a Roman ship would probably not be too fond of boarding it, which is the only real way to secure the loot since you can't sink it.
Sometimes I try to imagine how places looked like millennia ago, and how it must have felt for a Roman too see Mount Kilimanjaro or the Chinese Capital.
Excited for this one 😁 always love the content! Latin was a language option at my high school and I took it all four years. I’m pretty rusty but I always love learning history about the Romans
I wish I had your grounding in Latin, I’m struggling to learn it on my own. I’m sure it will come back to you with a little practice. No local college teaches it and I can’t commit to a second degree program now.
@@kimberlyperrotis8962 yeah that’s unfortunate :/ your best bets are Jesuit institutions, it being the official language of the Catholic Church and all
What were the logistics or roman travel and exploration? Especially in less populated areas like northern Europe. Would they have food stores? Did they navigate based solely on geography or word of mouth of people's? What was the population density? There is something so fascinating to me that at a certain point in history a place like Spain or England could be considered the remote wilds by other population centers.
I note for your consideration that I currently have a bottle of Vietnamese fish sauce which I regularly use. The ingredients, appearance and manner of preparation in the factories where itcis traditionally produced is identical to the descriotions of Roman garum. I even use it in the same manner that garum was said to be used. It's a normal condiment here in LA County and in almost every general grocery store and supermarket. I buy mine in the 99 Cent Store. Except for its distant cousin Worcestershire Sauce, garum was long extinct in the West until post Vietnam War. To my mind the only way to explain the coincidence is that Roman merchants, missing their favorite condiment in Southeast Asia, took advantage of the anchovies and similar climate there to the North African home of garum and taught the locals how to make it. It caught on and after the last Romans left local entrepreneurs continued to manufacture it until the present day. I consider it pretty good secondary evidence of substantial Roman contact.
As far back as China's Zhou dynasty, which predated Rome, fermented fish sauces are documented as having been used as a condiment. They were also popular in the Han Dynasty, which was a contemporary of ancient Rome. It developed independently and had no tie to Rome's garum. If Vietnam's fermented fish sauce was a foreign important and not a local food custom that developed independently, China would seem a far more likely source than ancient Rome.
I note for your consideration that I currently have a bottle of Vietnamese fish sauce which I regularly use. The ingredients, appearance and manner of preparation in the factories where itcis traditionally produced is identical to the descriotions of Roman garum. I even use it in the same manner that garum was said to be used. It's a normal condiment here in LA County and in almost every general grocery store and supermarket. I buy mine in the 99 Cent Store. Except for its distant cousin Worcestershire Sauce, garum was long extinct in the West until post Vietnam War. To my mind the only way to explain the coincidence is that Roman merchants, missing their favorite condiment in Southeast Asia, took advantage of the anchovies and similar climate there to the North African home of garum and taught the locals how to make it. It caught on and after the last Romans left local entrepreneurs
I think your hypothesis is wrong. A lot of Asian countries that haven't been touched by western influence until a lot later that have been using fish sauce. Korea was one of those countries that mastered fermentation, including fermented fish sauce, as they started their fermentation journey around 56 B.C.E, but they were mostly pickling vegetables. Japan also had their own way of conserving and fermenting food. Nice theory though, just a very western POV
@@ghmj2607 yep, who would have thunk island, peninsula, and coastal based civilizations would base their food sources from the sea? OP has definitely never been to east Asia.
Garum originates from Greece where it had been made for a long time, your hypothesis is wrong the two condiments developed simultaneously winouth contact from each other
Your transitions into commercials are perfect💜 love the videos
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Another great video as usual. It would be awesome if you made a video about the supposed roman shipwrecks and amphoras found in the 80s off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, and other places in the Americas.
The lack of European crops in the Americas and of American crops in Europe before the 15th Century makes mink cross-Atlantic contacts pre 15th C must have been very rare indeed - if there were any.
for the the Canary Islands there were native berber people that are called "the Guanches" .. so they had already relations between berbers from Morocco and the the Canary Islands
I would question any further information from your sources…… its well established that the greeks knew of hibernia (ireland) centuries before the romans even existed
Didnt he reference the explorer from Messalia who traveled along the British Islands and Thule? Besides, this was a video of the furthest points the Roman's reached, not the Greeks. The information about Ireland may have been lost to the Roman's so they wouldn't know about it, same as the Scandinavian explorers finding North America centuries before Columbus set sail and "discovered" the new continents.
There was a statement that the British isles were not known to Mediterranean peoples before the Roman conquest... Early in the video, before mention of Pytheas. I too was left scratching my head
This is an interesting video, because I’ve watching it less than 6 minutes in when the narrator was talking about Roman travel on the Nile. I’d keep watching it if locations on the map were actually indicated in some manner.
Your statement that the. Canary Islands were named for the wild dogs that were found there by the King Juba II expedition got me wondering: Where did the dogs come from? Isolated oceanic islands don't usually support a terrestrial mammal population. Wikipedia tells us that although Juba II expedition found the island uninhabited by people, the expeditionaries did find signs of prior habitation in the form of ruins of great buildings. So the dogs must have been brought by some of these earlier visitors
If I remember right there's not really a definitive answer to who populated the islands before the Romans found them. Eventually they were populated by the Guanches who are thought to be related to the Berbers
@@aryabhata499 Google translate leads me to believe you are writing in Italian, which I don't speak, and also leads me believe you are asserting that the Carnary Islands are named after the birds. (If I have misunderstood you, please accept my appolgies for my ignorance). But if you are asserting the Islands are named after the birds, you are incorrect. The birds are named after the Islands and the Islands are named based on the Latin word for dog. Here are quotes from Wikipedia The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name that was evidently generalized from the ancient name of one of these islands, Canaria - presumably Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the island Canaria contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size". and The name of the islands is not derived from the canary bird; rather, the birds are named after the islands. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands
Sorry, but the map at 11:06 has lots of errors. The river north of the Black sea labeled "Don" is actually Dnieper (or Borysthenes in Ancient Greek or Latin). Don is the river to the right of it, where Tanais is. "Tanais" is the Ancient Greek and Latin for Don). Lots of river names are modern (such as Danube and Wolga), and lots of others are ancient (Oxus, Jaxartes, etc.).
Fun note: the Han send an expedition to try and make contact with the Romans. They made it as far as Parthia but were told by the Parthians that Rome is further west and the journey is impossibly long. The expedition returned to China, unknowingly deceived by the Parthians who shared a border with the Romans.
@@curiodyssey3867 huh? It wasn't random at all. It was directly related to video subject and was an interesting, factual addition.
Tony Depalma doesn’t know what random means, I guess
@@curiodyssey3867 what’s not random is how low your intelligence is
And thus trade middlemen survived to this day.
@@bigblueocean oh, would probably help if I watched the whole video before I replied huh
2000 years ago, travelling between Rome and China must have felt like travelling from Mars to Earth.
The challenges, distance and travel times would have been enormous, even from Roman Syria.
It's baffling to me that despite the audacity, technical know-how and spirited hearts of both the Romans and the Chinese, it still took the better part of 1500+ years for our 'modern day civilisation' to emerge.
well if the Romans had discovered how to produce and exploit fossil fuels the world would have been cooked over a thousand years ago!
@Trashthlete agreed, but that is not what I meant.
I was thinking that it took 1500+ years to go from their level of technology and science, which was already qutie advanced, to our current knowledge of all things.
For example : If we found a Roman-Empire-esque society on the nearest star ,Proxima Centauri, we would still have to wait 1500 years for them to invent the technology to send us a message back.
As primitive as can be
We didn't emerge. We stumbled around, tossed by history.. Forget Great Men & such. Somebody invents a printing press, a few hundred years later: the Pope just has a city. We still commit genocide. Many countries haven't reconciled their own. Iran &: Nicarague fell in 1979, 1980 because of Eisenhower in the 50's!. He picks Nixon as his running mate! China and Putin rise because Bush goes to war. Emerge? Look at how backwards much of Conservative America is...highest poverty rates, lowest motivation and innovation, uses more taxes than they pay. Kentucky is part Russia. Without the New Deal and the Feds, it would be Russia.
You omit the destruction of the west for a 1000+ years by the tirany of christianity. With that in mind it's no surprise.
China did send delegates to the Empire in the reign of An-To-Nin (Antoninus Pius). They got to Antioch in Syria. Roman got as far as the ‘Golden Chersonnese’, Malaya. There’s an excellent book, ‘The Romans and the Indian Ocean’ by Rahul McLaughlin.
Is the book reasonably scholarly and well researched? I've checked it out and i see its from Pen & Sword Publishing, which I've found very hit and miss in terms of publishing things that are completely BS.
@@QuantumHistorian No, it’s a serious work.
I thought they got to the Red Sea? Had they made it to Antioch surely they would have known they had made it to Roman territory.
@@patrickmccarron2817 Well, I have read in English the Chinese accounts, where they describe arriving overland and the sea was to their west. That implies Syria, and they describe a major city, which they had initially assumed was Rome, but it can really only be Antioch.
Dr Mclaughlin's you tube channel is far too under appreciated.
I visited a Roman house in Pondicherry, in the eastern coast of India. I had no idea that Romans had gotten so far before visiting
It’s amazing to realize how viable travel was back then, obviously it was more difficult, the idea of Roman’s trading in Vietnam is mind blowing to me
Even back then they loved you long time.
"Flying snakes" is actually probably a reference to "winged snakes" which is how those unfamiliar with the cobra might describe a cobra's hood. "Winged snakes" is just a misinterpretation of the cobra when it spreads open it's hood. The area identified as "Sanaa" on your map is well within the range of the Arabian cobra (Naja arabica). It lives in what is now modern day Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman. The Egyptian and the Indian cobras also have hoods.
That is very interesting. I can imagine that people would hesitate to go into areas that have venomous snakes with wings. I wonder if that is where the idea of dragons comes from.
@@j.pershing2197 I've seen that one, and many other Thunderbolts Projects videos, thanks. I find only some of the premises somewhat convincing. On the one hand, it does seem mysterious and unexplained as to why ancient peoples would describe heavenly bodies like Venus and Jupiter in such awe-inspiring and even frightening terms, considering that to our eyes these are simply tiny lights in the sky. And it's true some of the prehistoric art perhaps not coincidentally does resemble certain electrical discharge forms, and some of the geological scarring seen on other planets perhaps could have been created by electricity. On the other had, the videos never provide any credible evidence the support the notion that the planets of our solar system were ever as close to the Earth during the Neolithic stone age as has been claimed, nor do they ever offer any theories as to WHY, all of a sudden, the other planets would suddenly get knocked out of their near-Earth orbits to go hurtling outwards to settle in their present orbital positions, nor why, evidently, the Earth DIDN'T get knocked out of it's present orbit when all the other planets did! And the reason why know the Earth didn't is because it would have had to remain here in the "goldilocks zone" for life here to survive.
@@anonyarena
They knew about the poles. They knew about the scars on Mars. Much more evidence but like most things its just a matter
Lmao I could just imagine some Roman mates travelling across Arabia and one of them goes “Woah watch out! There are flying snakes over there with wings!”
You think the Romans didn't see the Cobra snake in Egypt?
For those interested in knowing more, _"Ancient Geography"_ by _Duane Roller_ is an absolute delight of a book, it covers questions like this from Homer to Justinian, as well as the development of geography/cartography as a science. Very accessible and readable too.
Cartoons about geography! I would love that. ❤️
@@Fetherko Who said anything about cartoons?
I’m currently reading The Greeks by Roderick Beaton and it goes through all of Greek history starting from Mycenaean era to the liberation of Greece from the Ottomans. It also goes into a lot of Roman history but I haven’t gotten that far. I hope it discusses Byzantium and Constantine’s reign in depth.
@@eutropius2699 Well good for you, but I struggle to see the relevance? There's probably a book on ancient history published every week. Unless we're at a book club, mentioning a random one seems entirely pointless. I only mentioned Ancient Geography because it's closely related to the topic of the video, not because it's vaguely linked to ancient history.
@QuantumHistorian Oh stop being an uptight arse.
It’s TH-cam, on a history channel. he can talk about his history book if he likes
I never knew that the Romans had gone as far south as Zanzibar on the African east coast. That’s why I love your channel, I always learn new bits of history, and in a fun way.🙂
The "Romans" in this case were actually Greek merchants based in Egypt who sailed down the Red Sea and traded along the East African coast as far as a town called Rhapta which IIRC is believed to be the island of Pemba near modern day Zanzibar. We know this because of a document called the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea written by a Greek-Egyptian merchant around 50AD. It is a guide for merchants trading to South Arabia (modern Yemen and Oman), East Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Socotra, etc) and the whole west coast of India. It provides details of the products available at each port and of the imports that the merchant can expect to offer in return. Evidence in the text indicates that author had visited many of the places himself, presumably as a merchant.
The average everyday Roman didn’t travel this far. Just merchants and envoys.
@@stuartm2106 dude, I would love to see a tv series based on the document.
Polynesians were probably already sailing all around these regions by then, they essentially discovered Madagascar afaik.
Further fact, the Persian (I believe, possibly Assyrian) Empire once tasked Phoenician sailors to find a way around the South of the African continent. These sailors supposedly completed their mission, returning 3 years later but assuring that the voyage was too long to replace any routes. It was quickly forgotten.
They been to America too
Thanks for making a video about my favourite subject! One thing to note about Indo-Roman trade is that the vast majority of merchants were in fact Greek Egyptians, although many were financed by wealthy senators in Rome. Most treatments of this topic have always been heavily Roman-biased - we should remember that many Indians also travelled west to Egypt for commerce. The island of Socotra, in modern Yemen, was probably the ancient island of Dioscurides, which was home to a flourishing Indian merchant colony. Inscriptions in Indian languages have been found in a cave on the island, but the major settlement is yet to be identified.
And font forget Indians in the city of Rome or Pompeii
@@aka99 It wouldn't surprise me at all, but in terms of actual archaeological evidence we have very little for that. We do have definitive proof of Indians in Egypt
There is so much Roman Bias that I can't find what the Chinese called "the silk road"
The descriptions of the "Mountains of the Moon" are actually more befittning the Rwenzori Mountains than mount Kilmanjaro. Not that I know of any point where the Romans mention encountering the mountains, but the Ptolomeic description fits the Rwenzori range better. Thank you for another fascinating video!
Ruwenzori Mountains were known to the Greeks. Some Greeks thought these the source of the Nile.
@@georgelacy4915 yeah there’s a whole video on this somewhere as well. It pretty much describes both of what you said and it was founded as recent as 1860 or something and most of the glaciers on the mountains are now going away
@@Ibelikemj atlaspro has a good video on this, i think that's the one you're referring to
I am so happy this channel has soo many different sponsors it goes to show that people still value quality and good writing on TH-cam! Keep up the great work!! 😄
The writing and narration are atrocious. Mispronunciations and robotic inflections.
I honestly do believe because we humans are adventurous and curious about what lies behind a Horizont that maybe some Greeks/Phoenicians/Romans tried to travel to America but either failed because of bad winds/ got lost in a storm/ starvation or maybe maybe even reached the goal there but then decided to stay or even got killed by the foreign and dangerous environment there. It really must felt like being on another planet for them I can imagine.
Right, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings were the first people to try island hopping to Greenland. If the Romans could sail from Egypt to India they could have reached Iceland from Britain/Faroe Islands.
It seems like the Romans weren't particularly fond of the cold
The ships built by Portuguese were so much more advanced than what the Roman’s had access to it may have well been the difference between a car and space ship. Romans wouldn’t have been able to make the voyage
@@Cyd98 The real difference between the Portuguese and the Romans was that the first knew that they could sail into the Atlantic as to avoid the westerlies when returning to Portugal. Cabral maybe overestimated the winds and discovered South America.
Amusingly to foreign ears, the Isles of Scilly off the SW coast of England are actually pronounced as the Isles of Silly (not Skilly), or more simply as the Silly Isles.
Additionally, Thule should be pronounced “tool -ah”. No matter! Garrett always has some fascinating stuff for our delectation!
Ah, my mistake. I should have checked that before recording.
Silly hilly billy willy
@@toldinstone No worries, a great video all the same. But the Scillies make me wonder how Scilla (and Charybdis) is pronounced.
*and before somebody makes the common mistake: Illinois = “ill-annoy” not “illa-noise”
These videos always make Ancient Roman history so much more interesting than schools do
Then you went to cheap ass schools.
@@robertgiles9124 So is this the kind of stuff that gets taught in private schools?
@@ShlumpGaming TH-cam has courses for Yale here with Professor Kleiner on the history of Rome. For free. Just one example.
@@robertgiles9124 Thank you!
@@robertgiles9124
Nah, US education is *mostly* garbage, especially history.
I actually laughed out loud when I saw the Big Foot photo east of the Baltic. I enjoy the subtle humor you throw into your highly informational videos.
The ancient Finns were a mystery at that time. Their neighbors thought that they were wizards and seers and tried but failed many times to conquer them. It didn’t surprise me at all when he put that picture. They were a mystery to everyone including the Romans. They also dwelled in swamps and hill forts deep in the forest. Big foot does too so it makes sense
"Eratosthenes head = round. Earth = round. Can't be a coincidence." xD
You forgot to mention one more destination of Roman merchants and it was the Baltic coast. In today's Poland. The Romans ventured there to buy amber and furs. Amber in Rome was considered a magic stone not only because it is used to make jewelry, but also because amber burns for a long time, giving off a pleasant smell.
He did mention that, between 9:17 and 9:20 in the video
Als9 for years Germanic. My grandparents. Halo!!!DANZIG. 600 years......and so on
Thanks. According to ancient literature in Sri Lanka, a delegation from Sri Lanka had visited Rome. (I think during emperor Claudiious time). And Roman coins have been discovered in the country, which too proves your point of trade links between Roman empire and South Asia.
Even many Roman glassware bowls are found in grand tombs of Korean Kings and nobles of Shilla Dynasty.
hey are made in Eastern Europe (around Crimean P.) and Syria, circa 1st C~ 5th C, AD.
There are few record of Roman/Arabian merchants visited or lived in Korea. The trade between Roman Empire and Korea was quite frequent and well trodden.
I remember learning about a grave in Italy dating to the Roman period that contained the remains of a person apparently born in what is now Vietnam. Am I remembering this correctly?
Yes, the remains were discovered of someone who had apparently been born in eastern Asia. Unfortunately, nothing found with the bones allowed them to be identified.
A Freedman originally from the Land of Chin perhaps ?
Which Roman period
Loved how throughout the years the Romans continued to send envoys and merchants to China especially during the Northern and Southern Era which saw vast changes in China and the north was ruled by the Xianbei Tuoba in the north
Those less populated areas between Rome and China have fascinated me since I was a child. Long before I even really know ancient Rome was even a thing. The Taklamakan and Gobi deserts have enticed me since I was old enough to look at a map. Then later on the simple similarity between the words Bactria and bacteria (when I was young I literally thought the name of the region was just a different pronunciation of "bacteria") made me wonder what the region was. As soon as I started learning about it, I was snared by that region just as badly.
Same
I became convinced many years ago the Taklamakan desert has a much more important history than we know. I don't know if the environment was most hospitable, or if it was just because it was the easiest route from Europe to China, but there was a lot of trade and mixing of cultures there.
@@promontorium You have to love the stories told to explain its name as well. Stuff ranging from 'that place over there' to 'place of ruin/ruins' to 'ye be screwed' (to put a more contemporary spin on some of them)
@@promontorium The Taklamakan desert has truly fascinated me ever since I first spotted it on a map when I was a kid. It essentially looks like a sandbox in the middle of nowhere, when the scale is such that you can see both China and Eastern Europe. Things like historic trade routes in the region and it being a potential avenue for cross pollination between Asia and Europe, just make it more interesting imo.
Usually it is the history that brings me to a location. The Taklamakan desert is one of the few exceptions, where the location is what brought me to the history.
btw, I would assume that generally speaking, any routes of travel there, skirted around the desert, on the fringes. There are some rivers crisscrossing the desert, but they are basically seasonal. If you look at known historic settlements in the region from 2k years ago or so, they are all on the outskirts of the Tarim basin. Even if you take a best case scenario where some rivers were longer and thus more interconnected in ancient times, you still have to deal with the fact that they tend to be seasonal and even if extended past their current boundaries, don't do all that much (relatively speaking) to further the ability to move people and goods. Nothing like the increase you get with the proposal that one used to be able to navigate a ship from the Mediterranean to Caspian (via the Black Sea > Sea of Azov > Don river > Caspian) Which is another really really interesting topic imo.
@@promontorium One other related thought, just because I'm bored. Another part of that whole avenue of approach so-to-speak, in that general part of the globe which I find immensely interesting, is the Amu Darya, historically known in Europe as the Oxus river. It is just on the other side of Tajikistan from the Taklamakan desert. It connects the historic region of Bactria with the historic Aral Sea (if a couple of decades ago can be called "historic times"). Combine that, with the idea that it might have been possible (during certain times of the year, possibly) to navigate from the Caspian Sea to the Aral Sea and then take the Oxus all the way into the heart of ancient Bactria.
This puts the eastern fringe of the Taklamakan about 400 miles or so away. 400 miles of mountainous terrain, but terrain that has been settled since forever and thus has, at the very least, a basic network of valleys, rivers, roads, paths and whatnot which could be used moving people and goods. We even know that Alexander III settled several of his Alexandrias in those eastern areas. But that then gets into a discussion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, then later in history the Indo-Greek Kingdom and well.. both of those are massive topics in and of themselves.
Thank you for this eye opening video.
I learned about Chinese Nubian and Indian contact with Rome but not all of this.
Im just a casual history enthusiast.
To me it always seemed to be that Romans only knew the world within their borders and neighboring Parthia and outside of it was just sparsely populated with barbarians and complete nothingness.
Thanks for shining light on this question
Garrett, you did a fantastic job on this. I have wondered about the contact and relationship between the various civilizations at this point in time. I would find it hard to believe that they did not have contact with each other, probably through trade, if not political. Thanks for opening this topic up for thought and analysis.
It was the Phoenicians
7:00 having read a lot about this subject i believe Romans did not find madeira but lost islands / sand banks between madeira and the Sagres cape. There are now submerged sand banks halfway between madeira and the algarve cape as low as 30 metres . I, along with many others, believe once islands stood there, having been submerged after the great earthquake and tsunami flood of 1775, which originated in the area - the islands stopped appearing in maps then.
If there were such islands, surely those are well documented in maps from several centuries of Portuguese explorers (late 1300s onwards). Do you have such evidences?
@@pedroedsos you can search old maps on the internet , at least 25% of the maps from 1500-1700 show that there were extra islands between madeira and portugal.
You can search modern nautical charts to see that the lowest point is barely 20 metres below sea level in some areas there.
Also you seem portuguese?
@@gui18bif I find no such islands in old maps. Please post links to your claims.
very interesting, thanks on the info
What's the deal with Romans having found madeira or not? It doesn't seem to me all that interesting historically speaking.
Never would have guessed the Canary Islands are named after a wild dog. Always thought of it as Tweety Bird's home. Lol. Great history, loved it, thanks!
Good grief, a "flying snakes" emoji for the map... you are the man.
It’s always funny to me that whenever ancient humanity talked of unknown lands or waters there was always some sort of story of fantastical monsters and strange men that live there.
Just like et and the bots when we talk about life in other planets nowadays. Maybe they are just our long lost DNA cousins, no? Hahaha
What an amazing encyclopedic video. The transition to the ad was very smoothly done. Thank you for all your work.
We love your channel, especially the humor. We are interested in Roman connections with Buddhist teachings. You did a Greek art video, is there enough material to do a talk on the relationship between the Romans and their contemporary Buddhist practitioners? Many thanks, we enjoy your work very much.
There Is a french video about It
th-cam.com/video/WKdlIpBmOrA/w-d-xo.html
Or probably another video on the same Channel
I’d be interested in this, as well.
Unfortunately, I don't think I could add much to my video on "Ancient Greek Buddhists" from last year. There may have been some Indian Buddhists (or even local converts) in Roman Alexandria, but the evidence is ambiguous.
@@toldinstone India is where Buddhism came from and the entire empire of Ashoka was buddhist. So there is lots and lots of evidence for Buddhists being in India. The Romans much less, but there was a Buddhist temple in Alexandria. Also, the Gospels. In the Gospels Jesus quotes the Buddha multiple times and uses some of his parables.
I enjoyed the content, and the pace it was put forward. Clear, concise and very interesting! Thank You!!
Also this is offtopic, Charlemagne send 2 Frankish Nobels and a jew, named Isaac from Aachen to Bagdad on a diplomatic mission. They had some gifts for the Calif there. Isaac returned back from Bagdad to Aachen with several gifts by the Calif. Among the gift was an adult Elephant named Abul Abbas. The whole journey too about 3 years. It is the first recorded elephant north of the alps since the Roman’s and one of the first jews north of the alps named by its name. Back to topic: great video! Would love a video about some certain Roman cities in the imperium!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the famous silk worm heist during the reign of Justinian
Absolutely loved the "snakes on a plane" joke for the flying snakes
As a Cornishman, it’s pronounced Silly not Scilly.
Many Mediterranean people traded with us for tin due to its scarcity btw.
So you say :-)
Oh you Celts 🌿🤣🌿
That’s silly…😂
Nowadays Scilly is well known for its early potatoes, strawberries and a silent 'c'.
@@VanderlyndenJengold you're thinking of the Channel Islands - Jersey and Guernsey are famous for early potatoes and strawberries.
The Scillies are best known for exporting cut flowers, especially winter daffodils.
Astronaut Alan Shepard smuggled a golf club and balls during one of the Apollo missions to the moon. I would have taken Roman coins to leave as a confusing future artifact.
I'm disappointed that you didn't review the rather solid evidence for sporadic contact between Imperial Rome and Central America, including for example the presence of New World plants in the kits of Roman military doctors, very clear depictions of the pineapple in some Roman mosaics, and one small Roman sculpture found buried at a Mexican archaeological site,
The ad was so smooth I fully watched and liked the video. This is why I love good content makers (if I could contribute I would)
Always the coolest, most interesting topics I've always wondered about. Thank you
Bro imagine chilling in your kingdom and some mf rock up from a place 5000 miles away.
As a Greek I would add to the story that there is also a nerdy one with them that speaks your Greatgrandfather's language and now you have to be a translator.
I live in a city near the river Elbe in north eastern Germany and recently in my town remains of a Roman made furnace, coins and even a sword was found. In the bigger city 30km east of me has been found remains of again Roman shields and swords. The wonders me how far eastwards the Roman adventures actually went. Probably they’ve seen the Baltic Sea and even the coast of Sweden or Finland
Dopo la battaglia di Idistaviso vinta dai romani contro i germani, l'esercito di Germanico si spinse fino al confine dell'odierna Polonia. Il sud della Scandinavia era chiamato dai romani Scandia, da cui deriva Scandinavia ( il paese degli Scandi)👋
a roman made furnace would be odd
trade goods often made it far beyond the Limes, but craftsmen building furnaces, hm......maybe a captured skilled slave ?
the Hamburg thing concerning Pytheas voyage he mixed up with something else as you don't reach Hamburg via the Baltc Sea
metal detecting in Northfrisia and having found more augustean silver Quinari (kinda soldier coins) than the much more common Denari, I somewhat think that ships of Drusus his scattered fleet somehow ended up here
5:18 Are they living on islands in a marsh??
Please note: Isles of Scilly is pronounced ..."Isles of Silly." The "c" in Scilly is not pronounced. It is silent.
It happens that the Greeks could have been the ones that actually named the islands following Celtic traditions.
Their name in Latin was "Insulae Sillinae" which could be translated as "Islands of the sun "
What a scilly name
@Bocão If the intention is to inform, then mispronunciation is misinformation. Me, I check things like that, and make corrections when I'm wrong.
Great video - loved the sly comedy in the slides, overlayed by the very informative audio.
Portugal discovered Madeira, in the mid 15th century. Only almost 50 years after Spain started navigating the oceans.
I had always wanted to know how much contact ancient peoples had had - travelling being so difficult then. Now please make another video about the situation at the times of Marco Polo... I'd be so grateful!
In a word, some of them traveled FAR---the Ethiopians bounced all the way to India and Indonesia.
@@ljss6805 Wow!
@@TriviRocks The Chinese also knew of the Ethiopians by the 3rd century.
@@ljss6805 Thanks! You see, some people think civilizations had no contact at all in ancient times. That's not true! There have always been adventurers and merchants all around the world...
If you already know all about Marco Polo, there is an account of contemporary travels which, as it also involves Kublai Khan and the Pope but is reverse it in direction, is often compared to the literature of Marco Polo. Around 1888, the Europeans discovered that a written account survived in the Middle East of the travels of the Nestorian monks Marcos and Bar Sawma. Bar Sawma traveled from Beijing to the Atlantic Ocean. Marcos became the Patriarch-Catholicos, the head of all Nestorians, adopting the name Yabhalaha. The heads of the Armenian church and the Nestorian church today are also called Catholicos.
Y'all should get together with Dr. Raoul McLaughln here on YT -- he specializes in ancient Roman trade.
Not-so-fun fact: Roman coin was debased in part because most of their silver went east to buy luxury goods and other ephemera. Sound familiar?
Sounds just like the billions we've sent to one particular country.
Great, interesting topic! I'm looking forward to the short video topics too!
Taprobane, the island towards the bottom right, is Sri Lanka (Ceylon), so we can see the distortion.
Taprobane is tamirabarani river flowing in souther tip of tamilnadu. Nothing to do with lanka
@@sankadines sorry that someone from that area of the world is so ignorant. If you check the Wikipedia page for Taprobane you will see that I’m right. You might find the book The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean by Raoul McLaughlin to be worth reading before you make such an ignorant comment. The island was in antiquity a major source of copper and the name comes from the Sanskrit word for copper. Next time don’t be such a pushy man.
@@Joanna-il2ur try to deduce the word origin and river name. You ll understand. It is the name of the river.
Very good segue into the sponsor. Thanks for the video.
Two Roman expeditions got to Lake Chad.
Also earlier Egyptian-Phoenician expedition c. 600 BCE sailed round Africa.
Also both Egyptian and Phoenician traders got to Cornwall in their search for tin to manufacture bronze as early as 1500 BCE.
Finally it is worth noting that St Thomas The Apostle is buried at Mylapore in Tamil Nadu.
How did you learn this?
Pseudo History.
Egyptians and Phoenicians didn't go to Cornwall for tin directly, it was traded using intermediaries
Literally none of this is true
The Egyptian-Phoenician trip around Africa was mentioned by Herodotus, although he didn't believe it.
The Christians of Southern India have long claimed that their church was founded by Thomas, but I'm not aware of any evidence to support it.
Thanks, much more comprehensive than I could find when I tried to look up this information !
Scilly is pronounced "silly". Love your videos, they are always interesting, thank you!
Only silly’s on silly?
@@aka99 silly's what?
@@Pete9Tails scilly island of course.
Skilly, during Roman times.
At 6:38 a major clue is unveiled regarding the Carthaginians, who were descendants of the Phoenicians. It is very likely that the Phoenicians had navigated much more of the planet than history will ever know, possibly even to America.
This was really great! I have long been I interested in the Roman Empire's interactions with other countries and this video provides an excellent overview of the subject. Thank-you!
Love this channel! 👍
I'd love to imagine a Roman ship off the coast of West Africa get caught in a storm and blowing it off course. Only for the Roman merchants to survive the storm and live off the ocean. Only for one to spot land and the ship crashlanding into an island in the carribean or some jungle off the coast of Brazil or South America.
I’ve often had similar thoughts as well and figured it was possible, given the right set of circumstances. But now I wonder if Roman era ships could have survived that kind of voyage. We know that ancient shipbuilding was much different than that of Europe in the 1400s. I wonder if there are ship experts out there that could confirm or deny this.
@@sabatino1977 It's fascinating to think that if any Roman castaways happen to have landed in the shores of the Caribbean or South America. I would be intrigued to know what kind of contact they would've made with the Native tribes and how they would've managed relations with them. If that sort of senerio would've ever happened those Romans would've never thought they've set foot in another continent and never returned home.
Someone make that movie.
Un giornale di Galveston (Texas, USA) nel 1886 pubblicò la notizia del ritrovamento di una nave romana di fronte al suo porto. Personalmente non ci credo, anche se sono state trovate monete romane lungo la costa che va dagli USA fino al Brasile del nord. C'è anche un'altra storia, il ritrovamento di una spada romana da cerimonia (in legno) in Nuova Scozia (Canada) 👋
Just Noticed that you passed 250k subs. Just wanted to say congrats on that. Your videos have been great and the more that see them the better.
Why yes, I am going to add 3-6 months to my journey and go through uncharted southeast asian land and sea to avoid a toll road.
Thanks. Great presentation.
Hearing about these ships laden with extremely expensive goods makes me wonder if piracy was a common issue, and if so to what degree and what was done about it. I'm also kind of curious exactly how merchants managed to find their way to extremely distant places that weren't well mapped. I'd assume they hired guides or something?
Don't forget about Caesar and the Pirates
Merchant expeditions were extremely dangerous and were often attacked. Many of them never returned. It was always a difficult balance for the traders and investors to decide how many 'security personnel' to take with them - too many and the cost ate into profits, too few and you might not make it. And there was of course always the fear that they themselves might highjack the caravan on its return. I suspect that the success of an expedition mostly depended on the traders' knowledge of the destination and places/people en-route, and almost certainly the use of local guides/protectors.
A work of fiction but in Ben-Hur he serves on a ship seeking out a pirate fleet.
@@jamesfields2916 not according to Livy
Romans were awful sailors, and most of their naval capabilities involved ramming their opponents to fight them hand to hand.
I can only imagine any pirate looking at a Roman ship would probably not be too fond of boarding it, which is the only real way to secure the loot since you can't sink it.
Another informative and interesting post.
Sometimes I try to imagine how places looked like millennia ago, and how it must have felt for a Roman too see Mount Kilimanjaro or the Chinese Capital.
man these videos are great. Thanks for taking the time to make these'. If I had money I'd support that patreon too
Excited for this one 😁 always love the content! Latin was a language option at my high school and I took it all four years. I’m pretty rusty but I always love learning history about the Romans
Wow, you watch every video of toldinstone!
@@aka99 yessir the bell is on
I wish I had your grounding in Latin, I’m struggling to learn it on my own. I’m sure it will come back to you with a little practice. No local college teaches it and I can’t commit to a second degree program now.
@@petezy8892 Me, too.🙂
@@kimberlyperrotis8962 yeah that’s unfortunate :/ your best bets are Jesuit institutions, it being the official language of the Catholic Church and all
Wonderful video!
What were the logistics or roman travel and exploration? Especially in less populated areas like northern Europe. Would they have food stores? Did they navigate based solely on geography or word of mouth of people's? What was the population density?
There is something so fascinating to me that at a certain point in history a place like Spain or England could be considered the remote wilds by other population centers.
The question for the next video is where Ptolemaeus IV places visited , in Australia, in America, in China? Maybe a Magellan journey?
I actually laughed out loud at the intro to the sponsor. So true hahaha. Great content as always!
I'm so glad they set up a shop in Vegas and left their mark there, thats still standing today :) it's amazing
This makes me want to go on an adventure
An Adventure in Space.
4:19 I really appreciate that little detail
I would love videos like this every Friday.
Ok, but Rome has much more to offer.
Fantastic insight
Rome had trade networks in Ireland and we’ve found Roman Army pension documents in a bog in Tipperary.
A Roman general circumnavigated Ireland. He reported that he could subdue it with a single legion!
Love this stuff. History is often more fascinating than fiction.
I note for your consideration that I currently have a bottle of Vietnamese fish sauce which I regularly use. The ingredients, appearance and manner of preparation in the factories where itcis traditionally produced is identical to the descriotions of Roman garum. I even use it in the same manner that garum was said to be used. It's a normal condiment here in LA County and in almost every general grocery store and supermarket. I buy mine in the 99 Cent Store. Except for its distant cousin Worcestershire Sauce, garum was long extinct in the West until post Vietnam War. To my mind the only way to explain the coincidence is that Roman merchants, missing their favorite condiment in Southeast Asia, took advantage of the anchovies and similar climate there to the North African home of garum and taught the locals how to make it. It caught on and after the last Romans left local entrepreneurs continued to manufacture it until the present day. I consider it pretty good secondary evidence of substantial Roman contact.
As far back as China's Zhou dynasty, which predated Rome, fermented fish sauces are documented as having been used as a condiment. They were also popular in the Han Dynasty, which was a contemporary of ancient Rome. It developed independently and had no tie to Rome's garum.
If Vietnam's fermented fish sauce was a foreign important and not a local food custom that developed independently, China would seem a far more likely source than ancient Rome.
I appreciate the subtitle of the picture at 2:36
I just love your videos, they instantly have me clicking in them, and I always learn so much fascinating information on my favorite historical era!
Little known fact is a Roman Legion made it to Vegas but lost it all and left merely two days later, Roulette can be brutal on your pocketbook!
Dr. Raoul McLaughlin of Belfast writes and talks about these contacts between the Romans and Asian kingdoms.
He also had a TH-cam channel that is far too under appreciated.
I found him when searching for romans and the black sea. Impressed me enough to buy and read his books which are really fascinating.
Cool, is that in English? Btw it’s pronounced silly not scilly
Sir Richard Burton, the British 19th century explorer and linguist, made the argument that Ptolemy's "Ultra Thule" was actually Iceland.
Another great video. I love learning about the outskirts of empire
the romans definitely knew there was land beyond what was shown on the maps, they just didn't have to resources to explore more
man this makes the ancient world sound like the Legend of Zelda, i love it
Fascinating- great job, as usual Garrett 👏
I note for your consideration that I currently have a bottle of Vietnamese fish sauce which I regularly use. The ingredients, appearance and manner of preparation in the factories where itcis traditionally produced is identical to the descriotions of Roman garum. I even use it in the same manner that garum was said to be used. It's a normal condiment here in LA County and in almost every general grocery store and supermarket. I buy mine in the 99 Cent Store. Except for its distant cousin Worcestershire Sauce, garum was long extinct in the West until post Vietnam War. To my mind the only way to explain the coincidence is that Roman merchants, missing their favorite condiment in Southeast Asia, took advantage of the anchovies and similar climate there to the North African home of garum and taught the locals how to make it. It caught on and after the last Romans left local entrepreneurs
Is that a hypothesis or is it true? Cuz it could also just be that two groups of people independently made a tasty fish sauce
I think your hypothesis is wrong. A lot of Asian countries that haven't been touched by western influence until a lot later that have been using fish sauce. Korea was one of those countries that mastered fermentation, including fermented fish sauce, as they started their fermentation journey around 56 B.C.E, but they were mostly pickling vegetables. Japan also had their own way of conserving and fermenting food.
Nice theory though, just a very western POV
@@ghmj2607 yep, who would have thunk island, peninsula, and coastal based civilizations would base their food sources from the sea?
OP has definitely never been to east Asia.
Garum originates from Greece where it had been made for a long time, your hypothesis is wrong the two condiments developed simultaneously winouth contact from each other
Your transitions into commercials are perfect💜 love the videos
Another great video as usual. It would be awesome if you made a video about the supposed roman shipwrecks and amphoras found in the 80s off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, and other places in the Americas.
The lack of European crops in the Americas and of American crops in Europe before the 15th Century makes mink cross-Atlantic contacts pre 15th C must have been very rare indeed - if there were any.
for the the Canary Islands there were native berber people that are called "the Guanches" .. so they had already relations between berbers from Morocco and the the Canary Islands
I would question any further information from your sources…… its well established that the greeks knew of hibernia (ireland) centuries before the romans even existed
Didnt he reference the explorer from Messalia who traveled along the British Islands and Thule?
Besides, this was a video of the furthest points the Roman's reached, not the Greeks. The information about Ireland may have been lost to the Roman's so they wouldn't know about it, same as the Scandinavian explorers finding North America centuries before Columbus set sail and "discovered" the new continents.
Yes... He mentioned Pytheas of Massalia. He should question his sources because he agrees with you??
There was a statement that the British isles were not known to Mediterranean peoples before the Roman conquest... Early in the video, before mention of Pytheas. I too was left scratching my head
The fact that they made it to southeast Asia is crazy
Does anyone know if Titus has a patreon account ?
Brilliant. Love the way that you say Scilly Islands and Hamburg hilarious. Good content nevertheless
Buddhist frescoes painted by Romans in China. Mind blowing.
2:20 lol
That caption made me laugh.
Good one, thanks
This is an interesting video, because I’ve watching it less than 6 minutes in when the narrator was talking about Roman travel on the Nile. I’d keep watching it if locations on the map were actually indicated in some manner.
But they were!
Your statement that the. Canary Islands were named for the wild dogs that were found there by the King Juba II expedition got me wondering: Where did the dogs come from? Isolated oceanic islands don't usually support a terrestrial mammal population. Wikipedia tells us that although Juba II expedition found the island uninhabited by people, the expeditionaries did find signs of prior habitation in the form of ruins of great buildings. So the dogs must have been brought by some of these earlier visitors
If I remember right there's not really a definitive answer to who populated the islands before the Romans found them. Eventually they were populated by the Guanches who are thought to be related to the Berbers
Le Canarie prendono nome dai canarini, non dai cani
@@aryabhata499 Google translate leads me to believe you are writing in Italian, which I don't speak, and also leads me believe you are asserting that the Carnary Islands are named after the birds. (If I have misunderstood you, please accept my appolgies for my ignorance). But if you are asserting the Islands are named after the birds, you are incorrect. The birds are named after the Islands and the Islands are named based on the Latin word for dog. Here are quotes from Wikipedia
The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Islands of the Dogs", a name that was evidently generalized from the ancient name of one of these islands, Canaria - presumably Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the island Canaria contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size".
and
The name of the islands is not derived from the canary bird; rather, the birds are named after the islands.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands
Romans made it all the way to Nashville, Tennessee USA……..I saw him playing guitar last night with a cowboy hat.
Sorry, but the map at 11:06 has lots of errors.
The river north of the Black sea labeled "Don" is actually Dnieper (or Borysthenes in Ancient Greek or Latin). Don is the river to the right of it, where Tanais is. "Tanais" is the Ancient Greek and Latin for Don).
Lots of river names are modern (such as Danube and Wolga), and lots of others are ancient (Oxus, Jaxartes, etc.).
wow dude a map from ancient times has some errors? color me surprised.