What Did Ancient Rome Smell Like?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- Ancient Rome smelled like...well, feces. But it was also redolent of other things...
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:59 Via Appia
1:38 Tombs and shanty towns
2:50 The Roman mob
3:27 Scentbird
5:02 The streets of Rome
6:04 Litters and ladies
7:30 A bath and a fountain
8:09 The circus and its shops
8:59 The Aventine
10:00 Forum Boarium
10:53 The Theater of Marcellus
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With the war in Ukraine and inflation, I struggle to make ends meet. I need your vids though. Please do one on Butrinti, Albania. I am sure you know how overlooked it is. Respects!
Do you know what a satyr play is? Ancient Greek comedies seem to be already satires so it begs the question what exactly is one?
Gross advertising, soulless shilling for overpriced garbage you would never use. Be better.
This is my favourite channel on TH-cam. I’ve long been a fan of Rome, but it seems most histories are about the politics, wars, and a few powerful individuals. I love how you breathe life into the average and mundane aspects of Roman life. Please never stop making these videos!
Could I recommend you read the novels of Marcus Dideos Falco? He is an informer during the AD 70’s and the series then jumps to a slightly later period when his adopted daughter also become an informer. The novels have earnt accolades from Roman historians as being very accurate depicting Roman life of that period.
@@goldenineke Heck yeah you can! Thanks for the recommendation, friend :)
@@joshuakruger1777 our FB friend on this video mentioned the Aventine - when the novels I recommended were set the Aventine was a downtrodden area of Roma. Falco lived in a dodgy multi storied apartment with a laundry on the ground floor.
@@joshuakruger1777 Agreed with IJH. Falco's books make for a great reading. The books about Gordianus the Finder by Steven Saylor give a very interesting insight of the Republic from the time of Sulla to the later Civil War, mainly focused on the disparity between the average citizen and the wealthy patricians. Also, and if you're in the mood for a Lord of the Rings "alla Romana", the Masters of Rome series of books by Colleen McCullough are a must. Lots of politics and war, but the snippets into every day life add a lot to the reading.
Cheers.
And a lot of people are offended this sort of content exists for some reason. Check out Invicta's video on female gladiators and how half the comments there is saying it's not true...
I love when someone asks a question I've never considered before. Well done.
Hm, I did ask this question a while ago... I wonder if that germinated the idea?
there is a novel called "perfume" patrick suskind. about a boy with an exceptional sense of smell who lives in paris in the 18th century. if you found that interesting and would like to expand on it.
I lost my sense of smell nearly 5 years ago and this was such an amazing journey to close my eyes and be transported and regain a sense lost. Thank you this was a great on so many levels .
Your ability to appreciate something you have lost without despair is admirable.
I've heard of aromas bringing back memories but this is the first I've heard of stories of smells bringing back the sense.
Stay smelly my friend 👃👍.
There is a way to bring it back you should look up Luca Turin and bringing back lost sense of smell, it can be done
Ah I can’t find it but it was in one of Luca Turin’s main books.
Ah I’m sorry I believe it was the emperor of scent by chandler burr. But that book features Luca Turin scent scientist
When I was younger, it was the obvious that interested me. Who ruled who, who fought who, who lived, who died and how. Now it's these less obvious questions. How did they live? Why did they live that way? What changed them? How did these changes effect who ruled what, and who fought who?
What was for lunch, how were the children raised, what games did they play?
@@kellysouter4381 "What was for lunch" is a perfect question!
What was "vibe" of day to day life in any given period? Did life in Rome "feel" different, how did individuals in society perceive it? How different were these peoples from ourselves, and how? And of course- have we forgotten or are we taking something for granted?
Glastonbury Festival after 2-3 days of 300,000 drunks pissing, crapping and puking everywhere.
At that point all the human effluent smells of cheese.
That’s why the Festival sometimes misses a year, to let the land recover.
It sounds a lot like St. Patrick's day here in New York City !
I always think this question whenever time travel comes into a discussion, higyene and smell.
I read your answer on Reddit the other day about why Greek didn't diverge into several distinct languages like Latin and the Romance languages; it was an immensely interesting read!
Thank you for all the fantastic knowledge across platforms, you're a gentleman and a scholar🙏
Which sub?
@@silverbackag9790 r/AskHistorians
@@dmdrosselmeyer Thanks!
Link?
This narrative approach is so much fun! I believe, "quivered on the edge of transparency" is my new favorite phrase. Thanks!
I loved the format of following a fictional character on a tour of what you wanted to show
A surprisingly interesting question for a more civilized age, but a welcome one.
The writing on these scripts simply get better and better. This is outstanding. Thank you
I live in Albania, not far from ancient Rome. I so appreciate these vids. They help me understand and appreciate where I live. Thanks!
How is your account name on youtube so suited to this video? Cheers
Albanians are excellent barbers
Good at making snuff films too
@Fanrabbit Rome is about 700 km from my home. There are Roman ruins all around my town.
Please do a vid on Butrinti, Albania.
Gaius? Or however that's spelled....has a strong resemblance to one Sylvester Stallone. 😄
I was never able to say good buyius.
Yeah I am commented too!! 😄
You are always covering topics I have thought about but didn’t know where to find answers. Discussing topics like this just makes history more accessible and, perhaps, a little more immediate. I would like to see some information on what and how ordinary people talked. What was their vocabulary like compared to others. What slang was used and it’s origins. What things were considered important and what things were held in contempt and how were these things discussed.
That's a very interesting question. I'll add to the topic list!
@@toldinstone That'll make a nice trip through the city.
Nah bro it definitely smelled like piss
My sojourn into Rome began as the express train approached from the north. Everything was moving together toward a great destination; the center of the world. The aqueducts especially impressed as they marched towards The City. Even before reaching the outskirts I was experiencing centuries simultaneously. Grander than I could have ever imagined.
Did you really have to call it a sojourn
@@cb7235 Its an English word. Why does everyone insist on speaking like a vagrant these days.
@@cb7235 did you really have to lexicon police?
I wonder what happened to all the grave monuments lining the Appian Way after the fall of the Roman Empire? Did they gradually deteriorate, with the stones being used for other structures? It would be great to explore the sad unpacking of the great Empire.
I will not be surprised about it being reused. "Spolia" is coined to describe such stone recycling...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 I wonder how many grave monuments were dismantled and reassembled into churches? 🤔
Another question about ancient Rome that I had: How was music notated and taught? My thinking is, maybe more people in ancient times knew how to read music than actually read Latin. Because I imagine that music was more universal than the need to read/write. So how did music literacy compare with literacy literacy?
There's not much proof that the Romans had any codified system of music notation. There's speculation that they may have borrowed a Greek system called "enchiriadic notation", but it's not directly attested in Roman sources.
That would suggest that far fewer people read music than read Latin, just as today far fewer people read music than read English. Most people learned music by doing, or by verbal instruction from a teacher.
These topics aren’t covered anywhere else. Your eye for topics that enthrall the average person is unmatched on the platform. God bless
You really did right by Scentbird. I’ve never seen a TH-camr match the theme of the their video to a Scentbird sponsorship so well. I hope they appreciate you and the effort you put in.
I always jump on a new video from toldinstone!
Wow, I was there for just a moment, thank you
This format is phenomenal! Really brings history to life by looking through the eyes (and now noses) of people in the past 👌🙏✨
Garrett, you are hilarious. Especially in the commercial. I love these "man in the street" videos.
Someone once described to me the smell of New York in a very similar war. Trash roasting in the sun, weed, exhaust fumes, and expensive perfume, all coming together in a strangely addictive cocktail of scent.
disgusting.
NYC is horribly hideous, so it isn't worth going back. I hated it. I LOVED Rome.
I really appreciate that your videos are divided in chapters.
I was born with anosmia (lack of sense of smell) so I wouldn't have smelt anything, but this was still fascinating. Thanks.
I love how Gaius works so well as a ready-made name for a hypothetical Roman. He's just... he's just this guy, you know?
The picture showed in the thumbnail of the video is quite poetic and ironic, actually. It shows an environment full of beautiful flowers with a wonderful smell worthy of the best places in Olympus. However, the center of the image is occupied by Emperor Elagabalus, one of the most loathsome and infamous figures Rome ever had.
Depicting the possibly untrue story of his killing a bunch of people by smothering them in tons of roses.
Loathsome and infamous? Because Elagabalus was trans and used self referential feminine pronouns? Or because E. was a horny gay teenager who couldn't get enough of the 'd'? Everything we have about this emperor comes from historians who described the person with venom.
Armpits and fish sauce, that’s what I’ve always assumed
Farts too
Well, pretty much...
I recently bought a bunch of woodworking tools, its a new hobby of mine. But then i thought hay, how about mixing it with my fanboying of roman history! Could you do a video on roman furniture or woodworking??? Im genuinely curious about that
That would be interesting. We have some carbonized Roman furniture and doors from Pompeii, which would provide a great set of examples. Stay tuned...
You have the perfect narrative voice for Ancient Rome videos. 👍
Very immersive storytelling!
Absolutely wonderful video! Never before have I gotten such a vivid sense of the bustle, size, and reality of Ancient Rome.
A great re-imagining of their world 🙂 Cinnamon might have been a very common fragrance in Rome. Vast amounts were being imported from the distant east. This sweet scent is also highly effective at masking the smell of body waste. Street sellers peddled unguents outside busy theatres and other over-crowded venues. Maybe your ancient traveller made a purchase?
I'm delighted to hear that you enjoyed it! As it happens, I can return the compliment, since I had the pleasure of reading "The Roman Empire and the Silk Routes" while researching my last video.
This was amazing! Thank you for the ride
So appreciate learning from you, thank you Garrett
Vinegar was probably a common source of odour. Posca, a blend of vinegar and water, was a favoured soft drink, and sponges dipped in vinegar were often used to clean up after using the latrine.
With the scattered ruins being all that's left, we tend to forget that Rome in its day as an imperial capital was just as busy and complex a city as it is now. This video, along with the epigrams of Martial that I've just begun reading, attest to the fact that it was a loud, bustling metropolis of about a million people, a number that wouldn't be surpassed in Western Europe until the 19th Century by London. Thank you for taking us on this sensory and, aside from the feces part, rather pleasant tour.
Edo's population had rapidly grown to a million by around 1700, for one. But maybe you meant only in western Europe.
@@zpxlng also ignoring Alexandria, Baghdad and the 10 or so in China
@@zpxlng, thank you for bringing this to my attention! Yes, I meant in Western Europe, but didn't know about Edo. That truly is impressive.
Thank you Garrett. Always a pleasure to travel back in time with you. ☺️
This is definitely one of my favorite channels on TH-cam. This was another great video 🤠
Loved this style! enraptured the whole way through
This is a question I never thought to think but I'm glad I get to learn about it.
Beautifully written. Thank you.
This is an amazing video. It's so well written and entertaining. Good use of visuals too. I've never felt so immersed in Rome
Another wonderfully evocative video!
Great video as usual! Just finished the book on audible as well. Will be revisiting it for dinner conversation forever!
Great job, per usual, Garrett 👏
Hands down the best channel on TH-cam! Absolutely love your work. I always thought I was weird growing up being so interested in Rome. Turns out I was based all along
This was a Fun video 😃
Thanks!
Really love this style of video!
Another excellent video- evocative, informative and inspiring! Thank you!
excellent episode
this is great. more narrative videos like this please!
No one else does content and sponsor plugs with such style.
Great video, thank you very much!
What a goldmine of a channel. Absolute legend.
I feel like I was picked up and dropped right into Ancient Rome. You have an incredible gift for description.
Beautifully told.
I'm not so sure about the entity of the smell from biological waste though...
The aqueducts delivered an average of 1 ton of water per person every day. Strabo tells us how most houses had plumbing (presumably for fresh water). Pompeii had upstairs toilets with piping. And, by the 2nd century, Roman homes were even connected to the sewage system.
My point is that the waste must have been hugely diluted and easily carried away, vastly diminishing its smell.
And people washed in the public baths and uses public toilets that had running water and were clean, unlike the public toilets of today.
As I recall, actual complaints about the sewage in the river have survived to today.
Well presented. Congrats
Love the narrative 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Wonderful video!
I love how well you segue your sponsorships into the topics of the videos themselves. Unparalleled!
I wasn't expecting it to be so relevant.
👁👃👁
That was really interesting. You've got a play in there or something. Maybe just a poem. It seems like you take these weird sponsors sometimes as a challenge to do a tie in for them. THis was great man.
Excellent video. It made me imagine that day in spring 21. Marvellous
Great video! The portrait you used for Gaius had me doing Sylvester Stallone impersonations in my head. Dead ringer.
Very nice. Pleasant and encompassing. I'm gonna watch more
When he paints ......told in stones ...masterpiece!.
Long cemetery on the side of the road? With people living among the tombs and running taverns? Sounds like something out of a dream lol
Words cannot express how greatful I am that effluent does not run in the streets of my home city.
Incense, wine and candles.
Rome is such a freaky scene.
That was some good prose there, great story, thanks.
If you ever write a novel set in ancient Rome, i'd totally buy it!
Great video thank you!
Your cologne ad was comedy cold, loved it😎
In the best way you can say this: this video put me to sleep. Your voice, the picturesque scene you paint, and the intriguing world of Ancient Rome lulled me into a nice sleep. It was great.
Roses in Roman times bloomed only once a year, so their blooming season was well worth celebrating.
So beautiful and vivid as always 😍
Anyone that really wants to travel back in time hasn't considered how godawful everything and everyone would smell
You would go nose blind to it pretty quick
Brushing teeth with urine would be a dealbreaker
@@AR-rg2en so how about dont?
@@RichieD_21 others would do
@@AR-rg2en so set an example
The image of Gaius is a Fayum mummie portrait that I reckon looks a bit like Sylvester Stalone. There's another reminiscent of Minnie Driver and several remind me of friends....art nerd here. Enjoyed your video about the far travelled Egyptian Roman Gaius 😄
I thought about using a random marble bust, but decided that a mummy portrait would be much more evocative. The fact that this particular guy looked so much like Stallone was icing on the cake.
I’ve ordered the book on audible, it’s really fun thanks! Love the dry humor! 🤣
"i found a riverfront apartment"
"oh how unfortunate. perhaps something will open up next year"
I was just wondering about this!
Awesome video.
Awesome video
A question I never I knew I needed answered 😂 thank you good sir
Very clever. Love it.
the advert fit in so seamlessly that it wasn’t disturbing
Thank you for the very insightful video, toldinstone! I was wondering, though, what texts you referred to for this narrative? I never thought this aspect of Roman life would intrigue me so much, so thank you for that!
It was really a blend of sources, but the epigrams of Martial were especially useful for helping me imagine the ancient city.
@@toldinstone Thank you very much. I'll add it to my reading list!
I can almost smell your atmospheric re-creations. They're delightfully transportive to times of yore. 😎
Wow, history come alive. Very nice. Thank you..
I didn't realize I wanted to be a tourist in ancient Rome until now. I probably couldn't blend in well as a 6'3 250 lb white male who speaks no Latin at all and very weak Greek, but just to see, smell, and hear it for one day would be amazing as there really aren't any analogs to classical civilizations left to experience.
Nicely done, thanks for the very descriptive and imaginative story. 😀 God bless you, your family, and your work. Perhaps a story of the change to Rome when the Christians began to take control, how did this change the fabric of the city and empire?
I love videos like this about what it really would be like to have been alive back then
Told in stone. I would like to tell you this video sat in feed for 5 days even tho I did not click it. Where as other subs videos will disappear after one day of not clicking. So TH-cam smiles upon you as of this week.
Double bonus points for "off-scourings"
Well done as always!
Peace
General Sam brought me here and I bought your book.
We’re not all dumb.
That was a godly sponsor transition
the contempt for past times finds its perfect expression in the widespread believe that the past must have smelled much worse than our time.