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As far as I understand it, they didn't have racism but more...xenophobia. if you didn't speak Latin and weren't accustomed to their culture, you weren't Roman, and therefore, you were less-than. A barbarian. A wild, dirty freak.
@surgeonsergio6839 no, seriously. They really are viewed literally anyone outside Rome or not yet assimilate to Roman culture (except Greeks) as a barbarian savage. When romans mentioned "uncivilized barbarians", they merely mean "anyone that wasn't part of us".
Pffftt. Kelsey from 74Gear was saying something similar about hiring real pilots as consultants on aviation based scenes. In the end of the day, all that was left for him, was creating "Holywood vs reality" series.
I thought this was a movie made to entertain not necessarily raise the viewers historically accurate understanding of long gone times. And I think Metatron should get into the same frame of mind: movie (Metatron stay out of it) versus documentary (Metatron give it all you got to get it straight).
@@cestmoi1262 The only thing to deter Metatron, and all other History lovers, is if you just use your damn mind and label your "Roman" movies as "inspired by real history".
As much as I agree with that sentiment, that most likely will not ever be happening. The people Who make these "series" care more about entertainment value & pandering for subscription sales than historical accuracy, That's why I don't think they would be scrambling to be hiring our dear metatron unfortunately.
What a joke! I just watched the first episode and I must say it was hilarious!!! "NUMEDIA" was the kingdom of Northern "Algeria", and as an Algerian I can confidently say that the people of Numedia were white not black, the land was green not a dry desert, and the language was Amazigh not that jiberish everyone was speaking in the show, which is still a spoken language by the locals until this days.. So much for historical accuracy LOL
Exactly :( I was astonished to see that no one talked about this. It's the most striking and ridiculous mistake. It's not only in this series. it's also in the Colosseum on the History Channel. Macrinus was also of berber origins and they chose a black actor for the part. I'm not even going to talk about Hannibal. ( Hannibal was also portrayed by a black actor in Barbarians Rising, a documentary aired by the History Channel.) This has been a pattern for a while now. Our heritage and our history are being stolen right before our eyes by people who do NOT represent us in any way. We're so different. It's like choosing the cast of Vikings to represent Numidians, same thing. Utter nonsense and very provocative. I urge Metatron to talk about this.
I mean they had to add black people somehow, btw it s not legal in hollywood yo make a movie and not include a minority (basically you can t have a movie with full white people, it s not legal)
I mean, was the main character himself ethnically Amazigh? Bcoz then your criticism is 100% legit. Otherwise, Blacks did have some presence in these areas. And if you wanna talk about Berbers, Berbers of primarily Sub-Saharan African genetic origin are a thing as neighboring Black communities have had history with Berbers with certain tribes assimilating into Berbers. Take the Tuareg Berbers inhabiting Mali and Niger for example.
"The modern rediscovery that ancient Greek and Roman statues and buildings were originally painted with bright colors is generally credited to the German art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann in the mid-18th century." I thought this was new recently but seems it was known long before that. I guess Johann didn't tweet on X or made a youtube video about his dicovery.
@@kev3d They did have something like Twitter which was called Coo due to the sound a Pigeon makes. The Romans used Coo messengers to aid their military over 2000 years ago. They also created air mail delivery of food as they made a nice snack.
I think the historians that are hired by productions like this are summarily ignored and overridden by the art director... but it's a paycheck for the historians, I guess?
Big movies (specially those from Hollywood) are generally made by privileged elitist people who don't know and don't give a sh*t about things like accuracy, truth, history of mankind or any other science.
i think Lindybeige had a bit about that. Yes, they seem to be only hired so their name can be put into the end credits and pointed at when someone criticizes the film. Other than that they're ignored. Found it: th-cam.com/video/aJFFLvwNLlM/w-d-xo.html
5:55 To distinguish themselves, equestrians (wealthy class) wore tunics with a thin purple stripe called an angusticlavia. This stripe represented their wealthy status. Senate members wore a toga praetexta, which bore a thicker purple stripe called a latus clavus. Furthermore, equestrians were required to be, at a minimum, 400 times richer than the average Roman in order to qualify as an equestrian.
@@SageOfLimitlessHands The Roman tax classes denoted what unit type someone could be if conscripted back when the Roman Republic still had a citizen army, because those that were drafted needed to buy their equipment themselves. Horses are expensive, so the "Equites" class was consisting of those rich enough to afford them and form a cavalry.
The closer culturally correct depiction of Roman culture was in the HBO series Rome. I watched the behind-the-scene clips & that day I found out that Romans loved colours. That's why the set designers painted almost everything, like the palace, baths, columns, & including the statues. Sure, they missed some things like armours & bracelets, but architectural-wise, it was great.
Yes the romans did encounter subsaharan blacks, in Nubia, Kush, and brought from subsaharan Africa in the slave trade by the Garamantes, to some cities of North Africa, like you said, but the problem is that the black characters depicted in the show are portrayed as numidians, and we absolutelly know that ancient numidians were Amazigh, or 'berber', people, not black africans, and spoke a 'berber' afroasiatic language, not yoruba, from Nigeria, or other west african language, as it seems in the show... there is only one name for that misrepresentation of ancient numidians, that, notice, have direct descendants nowadays in the Kabyle, and other modern amazigh people from northern Algeria, and that is CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, like the one being done by the fanatical cult of black 'kemeticists' over Ancient Egypt... And I would be equally annoyed if they represented ancient nubians as white europeans, for example, as an historian its a matter of just being truthfull .
It doesn't matter, they need to make inclusivity checks, they don't care about accuracy. You will never see a historical accurate movie from Hollywood. Also they don't care about other minorities like asians, middle easterns, hispanic and so on which i don't get it. Like if you wanna temper to minorities do it with all of them.
for those that don't known, this show is based on a Daniel P. Mannix's novel and the emperor in question Vespasian. It should be known that Mannix's novel was the basis for Gladiator.
The problem with that is Vespasian died just before the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum) was completed in 80 CE. The events in Gladiator took place around 100 years later.
then, very glad that no one told that story before, as they claim. As for Vespasian, Titus and co - stuff was boiling in the empire at that time. Why not make a movie about that, or even a series. There is plenty of historical material. But let's do gladiators, that always works right?
Hey Raf, idea of a video for you: marriage laws pertaining to incest in medieval Europe and marriage laws pertaining to class, etc. A lot of people seem to have this perception that Europeans were inbred and that there was a total free for all in reproductive selection, but in actuality; there were strict laws regarding incest and the only high profile people disregarding taboos like uncle/niece marriage that I could find were the Habsburgs, and they were heavily criticized then, I believe. Anyway, this request comes after a lot of tiktok comments I’ve seen. Hopefully this gets enough likes to be seen.
And don't forget Demetrius and the Gladiators (the sequel to The Robe) with Victor Mature, Barabas with Anthony Quinn, the Silent Movie version of Ben Hur before the remake with Charlton Heston.
Actually the series is less about gladiators and more about a crime lord helping Domitian to become emperor. The title is chosen badly. The races are more important than the gladiators, which are more of a warm up before the race.
If anything, someone should do a prequel to HBO's Rome, focusing on the rivalry between Marius and Sulla (my obsession) and setting up the conflicts in Rome. I'd love to see a good live action depiction of the proscriptions.
10 CGI lions vs 20 men in loincloths and armed with spears, who will win? The men, according to this tvseries. The lions can do nothing but run in fear, but they can't even outrun the men. All you need to capture a wild lion is also just 2 men with a small net. The producers have obviously tried this themself with a real lion, I'm sure.
they don't outrun them the men chase the lions into an ambush, also yes Lions are animals if they see 20 tall apes screaming at them they will run they even say that lions need to be stagetrained for the colosseum because if a wild lion is in a big circle of thousands of screaming people it will just freeze or run away instead of attacking anything.
The only thing I wish to correct you on, well to give context is the coloured cloths at 5 minuets in. They have these cloths to support what team of chariots they support, the reds, the blues, the greens or whites. I would say the main issue I have is how rich the colours are in the cloths as some of those colours would be more expensive than their clothes.
Have you ever seen a Northern African in any movie set in the roman empire? I find it strange that so many movies show subsaharan Africans or people mixed with Sub Saharan African but no Northern Africans as it seems.
That’s because this just want to throw a specific type of black person (sub Saharan because northerners are too arab looking) into any European setting for representation
Exactly. Hollywood is using negroes as a political weapon to discredit and destroy the imagery of Roman history whole at the same time enflaming the egos of the afrocentric community. Egypt already sued and won billions for misrepresentation of their history. I say Europe grows some balls and Italy and Greece start doing the same! Because no matter how much we try to justify it, it's just out of hand now.
@@karljonson3287 right on top of my head, no. I remember two in Troy Fall of a City, but that was greek, not roman. Maybe there were some in the egyptian part of the tv show rome, but that was it.
Speaking of the Flavians, there is an amazing series of books written by Robert Fabbri on Vespasian's life from his youth as a soldier and friend of a teenager Caligula to his ascension as Emperor. It's pretty curious the way the author describes how Vespasian and his family had an important role i Rome's most important events even before the ascension of the Flavians, like the end of Sejanus' reign of terror, the crucifixion of Christ, the victories of Claudius' military campaigns, etc. His war against the jews was also depicted in the docu-series "Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire". I absolutely recommend them!
Mannix chose the title of his work in the late '50s, which may offer some explanation. I've read it - a long time ago - and it's obviously not the work of a serious or even amateur historian.
They don't have it in danger tbf it just mauls helpless slaves and the big white lion was chosen to represent Titus himself as it mauls the judean soldiers(unarmed slaves)
I always love learning from you. As an almost 40 year old woman, I appreciate your honest content and your advocacy for the depiction of historical accuracy.
Numidians are present day ALGERIANS. The black dude was supposedly a Nubian (actual Soudan) from Numidia (Algeria) 😂 and they also had the mother walking as a free woman in Ancient Rome 😂
Definitely, but they should also start using more southern european actors. Why is a northern european welshman (Hopkins) playing a roman? Id like to see more Italians, Greeks, Spanish, French, Romanians getting these roles
I am enjoying it a bit, it’s not as good as Rome, but I just found out that Rome the series is almost 20 years old, it I love it still. I’d love you to review this show, I enjoy hearing what you have to say 😊👍
Oh look! The colour is desaturated and everything looks brownish-sepia-grey. Makes sense. After all we all know the world had no proper colours until the 1950's. So sick of this.
i learned so much from this video and i love ancient Rome. please definitely review each episode as i would love to learn more and you deliver information very well.
I have watched the whole season and there are a couple of things that make a bit more sense in that context where the trailer may give a different impression. The series begins with Flavian (Anthony Hopkins) and the Flavian Amphitheater is under construction and by the end of the season, Domitian is Emperor. The people in the crowd waving the coloured cloth are fans of the different chariot racing factions. the green faction is the worst so maybe they spent all thier dinari on fan merchandise and skimped on the chariots? The white lion is connected to the back story of the black gladiator so it is there for a reason. The 'Celtic/Africans' were not gladiators but dancers and acrobats as part of the opening games entertainment. Overall, it is not by any means historically accurate but best taken as a loosly Roman themed story, As always though, I enjoyed your video.
This show is actually not the first live-action portrayal of Domitian. That emperor appears in the movie "The Bible Collection: Apocalypse", in which Richard Harris portrays St. John.The most hilarious thing is that Domitian was played by Bruce Payne, the overacting bald man with blue lips from the movie Dungeons & Dragons. 😂😂😂
The funniest scene I have seen on TV for many years, causing me to burst out loud laughing ( a very rare event in my house when watching TV) was the sight of crocodiles, the size of dinosaurs meekly and obediently in line of order marching out of the arena while Roman soldiers effectively poke them with cocktail stick size spears to do so. As well, as all the water for the crocodiles to swim in had conveniently all gone and the sand is bone dry.
Historical accuracy would probably kill off the series of Roman themed movies...gladiators NOT dying! But, it would be very interesting to watch - they should contact AND listen to (you) Metatron. It would be something very special and stand alone epic. Great channel. Keep going strong! Always interesting to learn new stuff.
Honestly, I think that a soap opera or period drama would be more fitting if it's about historical accuracy, by going to your point about gladiators, imagine 2 rich families bickering, going into a d measuring contest by sponsoring gladiators and then go bankrupt in the process while the gladiators do a wwe style show
Have you thought about about making a video on how one could climb the social ladder in Rome? I know that the Auxiliary units soldiers would get citizenship if they served 20 years and the citizens would get land for serving 20 years but I also know that if you were good enough to become a centurion and climb the ranks of the centurions and become the primus pilus and after that the Praefectus Castrorum. The Praefectus Castrorum was the highest rank a legionnaire could obtain. Also, once the Praefectus Castrorum retired he would become an equites.
Recently there was a sunken Roman Merchant ship found south of Morocco on the west coast of Africa. So yes they encountered Negroid Africans, they traded with Sub Saharan Africa as did the Carthaginians before them, and in addition to merchants from Sub Saharan Africa there would also would have been slaves sold to the world's wealthiest empire - Rome - and Negroid slaves would have been a novelty since the Roman Empire was flooded with Celtic and Germanic slaves. This was no different than Germans or Britains trading German and British slaves captured from tribal warfare. However, the overwhelming population of North Africa, was Caucasian not Negroid. Hollywood is determined to show North Africa as predominately Negroid - fake history to satisfy a wokist American cult. Even with the modern mass migrations from Sub Saharan Africa, North Africa is still predominately Caucasian.
Hey Meta love the video. Can you do a video describing what a typical gladiator fight would be like? If the gladiators don't typically die how do they know when to stop and how would they decide the winner?
17.04 By ''his ridiculous tottering gait'' I assume the Claudius he is/they are talking about is the Claudius who followed Caligula. In which case surely the Colosseum/Flavian (next to Julius Caesar my favourite emperor has always been Vespasian) amphitheatre hadn't yet been built. I must admit, I enjoyed the series - books and television show - I, Claudius and for me Derek Jacobi will always be Claudius (I was also a huge fan of Livia, would like to have met and talked with her). Ave Caesar
I’d love your take on “I, Claudius “. Sure it’s old now (1976 so older than me by two years!) but I remember watching it in TV in the UK and it awoke my interest in Ancient Rome and history in general.
I wish a good director and producer would do a film based solely on the Siege of Alesia, probably my favorite battle of all time. I hope this happens before I die.
I thought the plot, acting, and visual of this show were excellent. And although historically may not be accurate, I do think it will encourage more people to become interested in Roman history.
If you haven't done it already, we would all love a breakdown of the worst aspects of the 2000 movie, 'Gladiator'. Say, the opening scene with onagers being used in the German forests, lol.
The guys at 12:04 are not soldiers they are the at the time very famous group of "Metallicum" bards known as "Ferrea Virgo". Everybody knew the song that made them famous "Numerus Bestiae" back then.
A great review as always Metatron, especially drawing out the Hollywood tropes...From the guy who didn't intend to "debunk" the Romans and bacteria vid from a few weeks ago, I've a few observations to (impertinently) add. For those who don't know, in the crowd scene in the Circus Maximus at minute 5:07 the colours are clearly meant to represent the four racing teams - the blues, reds, greens and whites. So that's good. Likewise, in a departure from most other films containing chariot racing, is this the first time that lightweight racing chariots are shown rather that the heavy triumphal types? Hats off to the production for that alone, but then they go and ruin it with the legionary (Praetorian?) costume as you rightly point out from minute 10:43 to 12:12. Agreed wholeheartedly, the black leather lorica is completely wrong when compared to the archaeological examples, but once again the designers have clearly been inspired by similar depictions on Trajan's Column. Still, why leather? And why the effing bracers...aargh? In the same scene, the shields being carried seem to be a throw back to the oval Republican versions, which seems a little strange given the setting, but carrying a hasta rather than the ubiquitous pilum is a nice touch. But what's with all the chest thumping from minute 23:37? As I understand it, that was an early Hollywood attempt to avoid what was thought to be the Romans' straight-arm salute. The latter, however, may be incorrect since what is depicted on Trajan's Column may actually represent the ad locutio and not a salute at all. Oh, and finally, when discussing naumachia in Emperor Claudius' reign mention was made of the Colosseum. For those not aware of the history, construction of the Amphitheatrum Flavium (Flavian Amphitheatre), popularly called the Colosseum, did not start until 16 years after Claudius' death. Moreover, in AD 210 when I think the series is set, the underground two-storey hypogeum would have prevented the flooding of the arena and any subsequent naval battle. Hopefully all that makes sense and expands, albeit briefly, on an otherwise great review. Best wishes, Mark from www.tastesofhistory.co.uk
I love Your content, man. It helps kids too because they are not taught proper history in school. When I had a Stepdaught, she loved the Greek and Roman Empire and was only 12. We need content like yours. Thanks!
Some world argue we haven't seen much of the Roman era as it is, only fantasy loosely inspired by it (names and some clothing, mostly). But yeah, I get what you mean. I know one problem with some cultures is verbal history. I know that some cultures consider writing it down to be taboo, and others even mentioning it to outsiders is taboo, so we lose a lot of rich history just by lack of access. As for other cultures it could be lack of subject matter experts that are willing to work with Hollywood. (Or those experts in general. Ancient Rome in ancient Greece have a mystique that a lot of researchers seem to want to spend their time and focus on, Even if circumstances mean they have to work in other areas.) Either way it leads to circumstances like this where there are people that have a very shallow understanding of a given culture and miss key points. Such as with The Woman King, which, if I understand correctly, people from the area depicted remember the person as a tyrant that won influence in terrible ways.
Eh I love roman culture (even if I'm not as anal as Metatron) so please keep going back to Rome! No other culture is even remotely as interesting, the only close culture is Greece.
That may be your opinion but ancient Rome is not only one of the greatest civilizations and the foundation of most modern cultures but it is also the most popular and legendary !
I guess one of the most apparent use of 'creative licence' is that the Colosseum was nowhere near complete in Vespasian's time, yet we see him presiding over the games there. The other is that the Circus Maximus did not look like this until Trajan, who built most of the stone edifices to replace the timber structures. Overall, the trailer is not too promising, but it's not explicitly bad either - let's see.
He's actually presiding games at the circus maximus not the coliseum. As bad as this series is the chariot races are quite good even though they refer to some horses as "andalusians" 😅
Just saw the first episode, and the depiction of Numidia and Numidians had me rolling my eyes and groaning. WHY IS EVERYONE BLACK IN NUMIDIA?!!! Numidians were Berbers in what is now Algeria, and they looked like Algerians of today, more or less. We have Numidian coins depicting Numidians, and they were not black African. Yes, there were black individuals in Numidia - mostly incomers from the south - but they were probably never there in overwhelming numbers, let alone being the entire freaking population. And it got worse. Why is Apedemak, a Nubian god from northeast Africa, being worshipped by Numidians who were on the opposite end of Africa from Nubia? It's like watching a movie set in Athens and suddenly we see a scene of Athenians making obeisance to the Slavic god Svetovit. And it got 'worser'. There was a Numidian called Kwame. KWAME! An Akan name from Ghana in West Africa! 🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂ Again, imagine watching a movie set in Ancient Rome, and then appears an ancient Roman whose name is Robinson. It's like when it comes to Africa there is absolutely zero effort invested in getting the culture correct or at least as close to correct as possible. Just slap anything on and keep it going. Who cares? It's Africa - no one's paying attention. Someone could have spent less than 5 minutes on the internet and could have come up with a few Numidian names. Heck, I found this link in just 2 seconds: tekeli.li/onomastikon/Africa/Ancient/Numidia.html
Blue and green were teams at the chariot races, this can be found in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (he states that one of his continuing life goals is to avoid going for one team or the other, essentially to be neutral) that is (probably) why there is so much blue and green at the stadium. I am not sure when, but at some point it also took on a political slant.
How is Vespasian watching games at the Vespasian Amphitheater? He died in 79 AD, the theater wasn't completed until 80 AD...... I guess he was just that good.
I watched the show and he does die before the amphitheater is completed. he's watching the chariot races in a different arena. The amphitheater is completed in the last episode when Titus is emperor.
@@battlepope669 yeah lol that's one thing they did get right. Even tho it's not historically accurate with some things, I did enjoy it. Definitely not Emmy worthy tho lol
It’s from the stands in the circus Maximus, few hundred meters from the colosseum. They show it completed near the end of the show and they made it out to be a hell of a lot smaller than it actually was even with cgi. Even the seat of the emperor was in the wrong spot, unless they were trying to go for the pre earthquake build
as I saw the trailer, I immediately thought on you. I was not surprised over your reaction in fact I was surprised the video didn’t end as you told after 2 mins =)
22:40 I've always been curious about theblunt/axe type of weapons used during the Classical period if there were any at all. It's very strange how they seem to have almost gone away between the bronze age and the medieval era. There's a topic for a future video.
Hey Meta love the video. Would be interesting to hear you describe what a typical gladiator fight would be like? If the gladiators don't typically die how do they know when to stop and how would they decide the winner? We have been getting lots of gladiator type trailers lately and it would be interesting to hear the truth.
Fun fact : the gladiatiors who were selected to die were those ones who didn't wear the correct LEATHER arm brace when saluting the Emperor !! Learned in our diligent researches (i.e. asking Robbo down at the pub, he's seen Gladiator 9 times!!)
Ok... it's enough, I have to say it... I LOVE how you chat (not talk) to the camera during the intro and intermissions of these videos. I know it is scripted, but still feels more natural than when you drone off the text to explain some deep dive in a semantics war of attrition. Keep it up! Many smiles have been had, many more to come, I'm sure!
I love Metatron's sardonic biting reactions so much, that my parrot has learned to love it too. We laugh together, and it's great. Thank Metatron for his suffering.
Why is it always leather bracers? Anything medieval or older ALWAYS has leather bracers with no basis in history. It looks so stupid. Where did this fixation come from?
Having just finished the 4th episode in the series, I think that it deserves a review at least, Metatron. It does a lot of things right. Although, what really bothers me is Titus' look. Completely adoring Diocletian and of course, Vespasian, though.
My deepest apologies for putting you through it, Metatron- but I figured if I suffered through it, no reason you couldn't too... 😈🤣😈🤣😈 I believe Hopkins is playing Vespasian, & Tom Hughes was cast as Titus
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@@Jiiiiim ahah, you did.
How on earth did the Romans keep the water inside the arenas to make the pools?
@metatronyt - Okay, serious question, on a scale between eating a pineapple pizza and watching this film, what would you choose?
"Romans were not racist, they just hated everyone equally" that got me 😂
More like "slave is slave" TBH.
As far as I understand it, they didn't have racism but more...xenophobia. if you didn't speak Latin and weren't accustomed to their culture, you weren't Roman, and therefore, you were less-than. A barbarian. A wild, dirty freak.
I think I would be a good roman😅
But I bet they hated some more equally than others!
@surgeonsergio6839 no, seriously. They really are viewed literally anyone outside Rome or not yet assimilate to Roman culture (except Greeks) as a barbarian savage.
When romans mentioned "uncivilized barbarians", they merely mean "anyone that wasn't part of us".
Seriously though, can't they make another Roman film without involving POW/Slaves-turned-to-Gladiators plots?
No fucking chance.
I knew from the beginning I was waiting for the black character that overpowers the whites
The only words people know about Roman history is: "gladiator" , "Caesar" , "legion" , "slave" , "Goths"
@@RomanCigić Such a mess, people should really read more about it's history especially the fall of the republic and western empire.
christian non sense is still strong in this world, Nietzsche would call it "morality of the slaves".
The last time I was this early, Spartacus was still throwing his sword at everything..
Metatron needs to be hired as the lead consultant for ANY documentary or historically accurate video game so history isn't re-written.
Pffftt. Kelsey from 74Gear was saying something similar about hiring real pilots as consultants on aviation based scenes. In the end of the day, all that was left for him, was creating "Holywood vs reality" series.
I thought this was a movie made to entertain not necessarily raise the viewers historically accurate understanding of long gone times. And I think Metatron should get into the same frame of mind: movie (Metatron stay out of it) versus documentary (Metatron give it all you got to get it straight).
But they want to re-write history.
@@cestmoi1262 The only thing to deter Metatron, and all other History lovers, is if you just use your damn mind and label your "Roman" movies as "inspired by real history".
As much as I agree with that sentiment, that most likely will not ever be happening. The people Who make these "series" care more about entertainment value & pandering for subscription sales than historical accuracy, That's why I don't think they would be scrambling to be hiring our dear metatron unfortunately.
What a joke! I just watched the first episode and I must say it was hilarious!!! "NUMEDIA" was the kingdom of Northern "Algeria", and as an Algerian I can confidently say that the people of Numedia were white not black, the land was green not a dry desert, and the language was Amazigh not that jiberish everyone was speaking in the show, which is still a spoken language by the locals until this days.. So much for historical accuracy LOL
Exactly :( I was astonished to see that no one talked about this. It's the most striking and ridiculous mistake. It's not only in this series. it's also in the Colosseum on the History Channel. Macrinus was also of berber origins and they chose a black actor for the part. I'm not even going to talk about Hannibal. ( Hannibal was also portrayed by a black actor in Barbarians Rising, a documentary aired by the History Channel.) This has been a pattern for a while now. Our heritage and our history are being stolen right before our eyes by people who do NOT represent us in any way. We're so different. It's like choosing the cast of Vikings to represent Numidians, same thing. Utter nonsense and very provocative. I urge Metatron to talk about this.
I mean they had to add black people somehow, btw it s not legal in hollywood yo make a movie and not include a minority (basically you can t have a movie with full white people, it s not legal)
No surprise
I mean, was the main character himself ethnically Amazigh?
Bcoz then your criticism is 100% legit.
Otherwise, Blacks did have some presence in these areas.
And if you wanna talk about Berbers, Berbers of primarily Sub-Saharan African genetic origin are a thing as neighboring Black communities have had history with Berbers with certain tribes assimilating into Berbers.
Take the Tuareg Berbers inhabiting Mali and Niger for example.
Good point. And a Numidian couldn't have a name Kwame which is actually Ghanaian (thousands of miles down in West Africa)....
"The modern rediscovery that ancient Greek and Roman statues and buildings were originally painted with bright colors is generally credited to the German art historian and archaeologist Johann Joachim Winckelmann in the mid-18th century." I thought this was new recently but seems it was known long before that. I guess Johann didn't tweet on X or made a youtube video about his dicovery.
Tweeting took weeks back in those days.
Yeah its like a misconseption of what the ancient Rome looked like. They think it was all white marble.
@@kev3d They did have something like Twitter which was called Coo due to the sound a Pigeon makes. The Romans used Coo messengers to aid their military over 2000 years ago. They also created air mail delivery of food as they made a nice snack.
@@kev3danalog tweets 😅
There are also things that are known in German, but not by English speaking historians.
"those about to die" I hope they mean Hollywood
Hollywood is dying. Look at box numbers
I agree
Same
Why do you hope that?
@@Markunator if they crash hard due to keeping making awful movies, maybe they'll make good movies again
The black leather praetorian armor is missing Harley-Davidson logos on it… 😂
More like the Batman logo
Aren't the Hell's Angels also on some kind of...security business? 😂😂
or Darth Vader!
I'm still trying to figure out how Peacock could afford Anthony Hopkins.
maybe he has bills to pay lol
He’s probably most of the casting budget
THey really needed a big name.
Considering some stuff he's been in I wouldn't say that he cares that much what he appears in.
That's were all the budget went 😂
I think the historians that are hired by productions like this are summarily ignored and overridden by the art director... but it's a paycheck for the historians, I guess?
That or they hire the sort who think there were black viking warrior women.
@@lonelystrategos Hadn't thought of that possibility! 😂 Well said
Big movies (specially those from Hollywood) are generally made by privileged elitist people who don't know and don't give a sh*t about things like accuracy, truth, history of mankind or any other science.
i think Lindybeige had a bit about that. Yes, they seem to be only hired so their name can be put into the end credits and pointed at when someone criticizes the film. Other than that they're ignored.
Found it: th-cam.com/video/aJFFLvwNLlM/w-d-xo.html
@@richardaubrecht2822 Yep, like I said: drink coffee, eat candy-bars, and collect a paycheck!🤣 Thanks for the link!
Honestly when I saw the thumbnail of the trailer I thought this show was fake, even when I saw clips from ads I still thought it was fake.
I did too
I wish it was!
5:55 To distinguish themselves, equestrians (wealthy class) wore tunics with a thin purple stripe called an angusticlavia. This stripe represented their wealthy status. Senate members wore a toga praetexta, which bore a thicker purple stripe called a latus clavus. Furthermore, equestrians were required to be, at a minimum, 400 times richer than the average Roman in order to qualify as an equestrian.
I thought those were just called horse riders lol
@@SageOfLimitlessHands The Roman tax classes denoted what unit type someone could be if conscripted back when the Roman Republic still had a citizen army, because those that were drafted needed to buy their equipment themselves. Horses are expensive, so the "Equites" class was consisting of those rich enough to afford them and form a cavalry.
Good info, but I think he's just referring to the completely dyed clothing being anachronistic.
@@SageOfLimitlessHands horse riding ain't a cheap thing, even nowadays. You can ride a horse, but its feeds, equipment, housing, then armor, etc.
400 times is insane to think about but then again, i see our world and it is not that much insane really.
Congrats on hitting 900k Metatron.
Thanks!
@metatronyt you'll be hitting 1 million fast! The amount of knowledge in this channel is crazy
*Its not that Rome didn't have homosexuals....its that Hollywood feels compelled to emphasize the fact...to promote..."The Message."*
Exactly this, they will nitpick every minor possibilities if it fits their agenda, I bet it doesn't add to the story at all like it never does.
I have suspicion Numidians are not black.
Oh this is one of those TH-cam channels
It was a good series except for the gay shit
@@sickosylum360 yes it was. It was fun to watch in spite of all the vvoke tropes
The closer culturally correct depiction of Roman culture was in the HBO series Rome. I watched the behind-the-scene clips & that day I found out that Romans loved colours.
That's why the set designers painted almost everything, like the palace, baths, columns, & including the statues. Sure, they missed some things like armours & bracelets, but architectural-wise, it was great.
Pulo and Vorenus both wore lorica hamata so they did a decent job of portraying armor.
Yes the romans did encounter subsaharan blacks, in Nubia, Kush, and brought from subsaharan Africa in the slave trade by the Garamantes, to some cities of North Africa, like you said, but the problem is that the black characters depicted in the show are portrayed as numidians, and we absolutelly know that ancient numidians were Amazigh, or 'berber', people, not black africans, and spoke a 'berber' afroasiatic language, not yoruba, from Nigeria, or other west african language, as it seems in the show... there is only one name for that misrepresentation of ancient numidians, that, notice, have direct descendants nowadays in the Kabyle, and other modern amazigh people from northern Algeria, and that is CULTURAL APPROPRIATION, like the one being done by the fanatical cult of black 'kemeticists' over Ancient Egypt... And I would be equally annoyed if they represented ancient nubians as white europeans, for example, as an historian its a matter of just being truthfull .
It doesn't matter, they need to make inclusivity checks, they don't care about accuracy. You will never see a historical accurate movie from Hollywood. Also they don't care about other minorities like asians, middle easterns, hispanic and so on which i don't get it. Like if you wanna temper to minorities do it with all of them.
I will never be able to read the title of this show without it being in the tune of AC/DC “For those about to rock”
We sa lu te you!
Stand up and be counted for what you are about to receive
😂😂😂 Thank you, I thought the same thing. How dare they rip off AC⚡️DC jk 😂😂😂😂😂
Same 🙋🏻♂️
The fact that that album cover and "Or not." came from the same moment in history is so awesome.
for those that don't known, this show is based on a Daniel P. Mannix's novel and the emperor in question Vespasian. It should be known that Mannix's novel was the basis for Gladiator.
Vespasian, uh? Them "pecunia non olet" must have been the motto that pushed Hopkins to accept the part.
Is this found while watching the movie, or on any synopsis?
The problem with that is Vespasian died just before the Flavian Amphitheatre (Colosseum) was completed in 80 CE. The events in Gladiator took place around 100 years later.
then, very glad that no one told that story before, as they claim. As for Vespasian, Titus and co - stuff was boiling in the empire at that time. Why not make a movie about that, or even a series. There is plenty of historical material. But let's do gladiators, that always works right?
@@Gynra historical accuracy isn't important in most fictional works
Random Roman dude in background wearing a white leather cowboy hat. Metatron has a heart attack.
Hey Raf, idea of a video for you: marriage laws pertaining to incest in medieval Europe and marriage laws pertaining to class, etc. A lot of people seem to have this perception that Europeans were inbred and that there was a total free for all in reproductive selection, but in actuality; there were strict laws regarding incest and the only high profile people disregarding taboos like uncle/niece marriage that I could find were the Habsburgs, and they were heavily criticized then, I believe. Anyway, this request comes after a lot of tiktok comments I’ve seen. Hopefully this gets enough likes to be seen.
HBO's Rome got the colors of Rome right
Yeah, it would be good to refresh serie. Also @metatronyt - what You think about reaction about HBO Rome?
Rome got so many things right. It wasn't perfect, but it made a lot more sense than this shite.
Still one of the best historic shows
@@MastemaJackI’d call that show semi-historic but at least it was good lol
@@Flash244MCGaming way more historical than most
''Never told before...'' so that old movie with Kirk Douglas, I must have dreamed it.
And don't forget Demetrius and the Gladiators (the sequel to The Robe) with Victor Mature, Barabas with Anthony Quinn, the Silent Movie version of Ben Hur before the remake with Charlton Heston.
Actually the series is less about gladiators and more about a crime lord helping Domitian to become emperor. The title is chosen badly. The races are more important than the gladiators, which are more of a warm up before the race.
@@oliverkersting2852 So, as fake as the salespitch.
''Never told before...'' I wonder who approved this claim within Peacock Originals and more so why?
If anything, someone should do a prequel to HBO's Rome, focusing on the rivalry between Marius and Sulla (my obsession) and setting up the conflicts in Rome. I'd love to see a good live action depiction of the proscriptions.
metatron will need stress therapy soon after all these historical inaccuracy reviews lol
So, I guess we shouldn't ask him to review the most recent spartacus series? 😅
Which one? @@deaderthendead041
Interesting profile image, did you design it yourself. A lot of colours.
Leather Lorica Segmentata seems to be ubiquitous in media depictions of Rome.
Judging by the copious amounts of black leather, Hollywood sure is into hardcore BDSM.
Those colored cloths are colors of racing Teams. Red, Blue, Green and Yellow.
Second that.
Power Rangers
exactly the comment I was looking for
@@wizardofahhhs759 GO GO ROMAN RANGERS!
I think it's white not yellow.
10 CGI lions vs 20 men in loincloths and armed with spears, who will win? The men, according to this tvseries. The lions can do nothing but run in fear, but they can't even outrun the men. All you need to capture a wild lion is also just 2 men with a small net. The producers have obviously tried this themself with a real lion, I'm sure.
they don't outrun them the men chase the lions into an ambush, also yes Lions are animals if they see 20 tall apes screaming at them they will run they even say that lions need to be stagetrained for the colosseum because if a wild lion is in a big circle of thousands of screaming people it will just freeze or run away instead of attacking anything.
Why’s it so difficult to get historically accurate outfits
because Hollywood hates roman history, but needs it for profit, then they do it to mock and misrepresent it, on purpose
It's not difficult. They don't care because 99% of the audience don't care.
it's called artistic direction. it's a choice for the screen colors. no need to be always accurate on everything. would looks dull.
@@Eri4JpHistory was more colourful. And a director chooses the approach to a scene. It's within their ability to shape things to work.
@@TechnoMinarchist it's a personal choice. gladiator is far from history accurate yet it's a great movie.
The only thing I wish to correct you on, well to give context is the coloured cloths at 5 minuets in. They have these cloths to support what team of chariots they support, the reds, the blues, the greens or whites. I would say the main issue I have is how rich the colours are in the cloths as some of those colours would be more expensive than their clothes.
Have you ever seen a Northern African in any movie set in the roman empire? I find it strange that so many movies show subsaharan Africans or people mixed with Sub Saharan African but no Northern Africans as it seems.
That’s because this just want to throw a specific type of black person (sub Saharan because northerners are too arab looking) into any European setting for representation
Exactly. Hollywood is using negroes as a political weapon to discredit and destroy the imagery of Roman history whole at the same time enflaming the egos of the afrocentric community.
Egypt already sued and won billions for misrepresentation of their history.
I say Europe grows some balls and Italy and Greece start doing the same! Because no matter how much we try to justify it, it's just out of hand now.
Are you sure? You've never seen like a middle eastern phenotype?
@@karljonson3287 right on top of my head, no. I remember two in Troy Fall of a City, but that was greek, not roman. Maybe there were some in the egyptian part of the tv show rome, but that was it.
@@inotaishu1 I've 100% seen them in jesus/roman movies
Judging from the title, I thought that this might be a parody of gladiator films.
Speaking of the Flavians, there is an amazing series of books written by Robert Fabbri on Vespasian's life from his youth as a soldier and friend of a teenager Caligula to his ascension as Emperor. It's pretty curious the way the author describes how Vespasian and his family had an important role i Rome's most important events even before the ascension of the Flavians, like the end of Sejanus' reign of terror, the crucifixion of Christ, the victories of Claudius' military campaigns, etc. His war against the jews was also depicted in the docu-series "Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire". I absolutely recommend them!
Speaking of Ancient Roman history, I can't wait for your video on Pompeii!
Almost ready! It’s coming out this week
To be honest "Those about to die" sounds more like a sitcom name than a serious drama to me
Ave, Honey, I'm Home!
Mannix chose the title of his work in the late '50s, which may offer some explanation. I've read it - a long time ago - and it's obviously not the work of a serious or even amateur historian.
a white lion might have happened and would definitely been sold as an oddity, but I don't think it would have been put in the arena.
Would’ve been given as a gift over some sort of conquest as a pet or something like that for sure. It was common to exchange exotic animals
They don't have it in danger tbf it just mauls helpless slaves and the big white lion was chosen to represent Titus himself as it mauls the judean soldiers(unarmed slaves)
Congrats on 900k!
Thank you!
Soon 1M!!!!
I always love learning from you. As an almost 40 year old woman, I appreciate your honest content and your advocacy for the depiction of historical accuracy.
Numidians are present day ALGERIANS. The black dude was supposedly a Nubian (actual Soudan) from Numidia (Algeria) 😂 and they also had the mother walking as a free woman in Ancient Rome 😂
Yeah a total joke .not sure about how he didnt notice this Bs unfortunately north africans arent vocal about this
Confusing Nubia with Numidia
Unforgivable
You guys trying to pick out exact ethnicities for actors are really weird
@@nuudelz3711 it's not especially if you are from Africa Numidian and Nubian isn't even confusable they are worlds away from each other.
Those About To DEI.
Exactly
lol
Definitely, but they should also start using more southern european actors. Why is a northern european welshman (Hopkins) playing a roman? Id like to see more Italians, Greeks, Spanish, French, Romanians getting these roles
@kenopsia6748 I 100% agree with this too. BUT atleast he's White so it's more believable
Nice lol
I'm happy you are close to 1 mil subs. You deserve it ❤
Thanks very kind of you
I am enjoying it a bit, it’s not as good as Rome, but I just found out that Rome the series is almost 20 years old, it I love it still.
I’d love you to review this show, I enjoy hearing what you have to say 😊👍
I appreciate Metatron [reluctantly] talking himself into doing a reaction video for this trailer.
dear lord, Centurion was one of the first games I played as a kid, on Amiga 500
Oh look! The colour is desaturated and everything looks brownish-sepia-grey. Makes sense. After all we all know the world had no proper colours until the 1950's. So sick of this.
i learned so much from this video and i love ancient Rome. please definitely review each episode as i would love to learn more and you deliver information very well.
I assume that Anthony Hopkins is playing Vespasian. There was the early shot of the Colosseum and it looked like it had scaffolding and such...
I have watched the whole season and there are a couple of things that make a bit more sense in that context where the trailer may give a different impression. The series begins with Flavian (Anthony Hopkins) and the Flavian Amphitheater is under construction and by the end of the season, Domitian is Emperor. The people in the crowd waving the coloured cloth are fans of the different chariot racing factions. the green faction is the worst so maybe they spent all thier dinari on fan merchandise and skimped on the chariots? The white lion is connected to the back story of the black gladiator so it is there for a reason. The 'Celtic/Africans' were not gladiators but dancers and acrobats as part of the opening games entertainment. Overall, it is not by any means historically accurate but best taken as a loosly Roman themed story, As always though, I enjoyed your video.
Can you imagine how amazing the costumes would look if they just hired Metatron
Gladiator 2 plus Those About to Die. The gladiators must be rolling in their graves
There is more.Google "House of Ashur".
Well they cannot hear you.😂
@@jackwei22 Maybe they’re in the fields of Elysium with Maximus Decimus Meridius listening 😂
This show is actually not the first live-action portrayal of Domitian. That emperor appears in the movie "The Bible Collection: Apocalypse", in which Richard Harris portrays St. John.The most hilarious thing is that Domitian was played by Bruce Payne, the overacting bald man with blue lips from the movie Dungeons & Dragons. 😂😂😂
The funniest scene I have seen on TV for many years, causing me to burst out loud laughing ( a very rare event in my house when watching TV) was the sight of crocodiles, the size of dinosaurs meekly and obediently in line of order marching out of the arena while Roman soldiers effectively poke them with cocktail stick size spears to do so.
As well, as all the water for the crocodiles to swim in had conveniently all gone and the sand is bone dry.
Historical accuracy would probably kill off the series of Roman themed movies...gladiators NOT dying! But, it would be very interesting to watch - they should contact AND listen to (you) Metatron. It would be something very special and stand alone epic. Great channel. Keep going strong! Always interesting to learn new stuff.
Honestly, I think that a soap opera or period drama would be more fitting if it's about historical accuracy, by going to your point about gladiators, imagine 2 rich families bickering, going into a d measuring contest by sponsoring gladiators and then go bankrupt in the process while the gladiators do a wwe style show
Have you thought about about making a video on how one could climb the social ladder in Rome? I know that the Auxiliary units soldiers would get citizenship if they served 20 years and the citizens would get land for serving 20 years but I also know that if you were good enough to become a centurion and climb the ranks of the centurions and become the primus pilus and after that the Praefectus Castrorum. The Praefectus Castrorum was the highest rank a legionnaire could obtain. Also, once the Praefectus Castrorum retired he would become an equites.
Recently there was a sunken Roman Merchant ship found south of Morocco on the west coast of Africa. So yes they encountered Negroid Africans, they traded with Sub Saharan Africa as did the Carthaginians before them, and in addition to merchants from Sub Saharan Africa there would also would have been slaves sold to the world's wealthiest empire - Rome - and Negroid slaves would have been a novelty since the Roman Empire was flooded with Celtic and Germanic slaves. This was no different than Germans or Britains trading German and British slaves captured from tribal warfare. However, the overwhelming population of North Africa, was Caucasian not Negroid. Hollywood is determined to show North Africa as predominately Negroid - fake history to satisfy a wokist American cult. Even with the modern mass migrations from Sub Saharan Africa, North Africa is still predominately Caucasian.
Hey Meta love the video.
Can you do a video describing what a typical gladiator fight would be like? If the gladiators don't typically die how do they know when to stop and how would they decide the winner?
Presumably the fights would be done to like submission or just be outright staged.
17.04 By ''his ridiculous tottering gait'' I assume the Claudius he is/they are talking about is the Claudius who followed Caligula. In which case surely the Colosseum/Flavian (next to Julius Caesar my favourite emperor has always been Vespasian) amphitheatre hadn't yet been built.
I must admit, I enjoyed the series - books and television show - I, Claudius and for me Derek Jacobi will always be Claudius (I was also a huge fan of Livia, would like to have met and talked with her).
Ave Caesar
I’d love your take on “I, Claudius “. Sure it’s old now (1976 so older than me by two years!) but I remember watching it in TV in the UK and it awoke my interest in Ancient Rome and history in general.
I wish a good director and producer would do a film based solely on the Siege of Alesia, probably my favorite battle of all time. I hope this happens before I die.
I thought the plot, acting, and visual of this show were excellent. And although historically may not be accurate, I do think it will encourage more people to become interested in Roman history.
If you haven't done it already, we would all love a breakdown of the worst aspects of the 2000 movie, 'Gladiator'. Say, the opening scene with onagers being used in the German forests, lol.
The guys at 12:04 are not soldiers they are the at the time very famous group of "Metallicum" bards known as "Ferrea Virgo". Everybody knew the song that made them famous "Numerus Bestiae" back then.
I like your channel so much at this point that I WOULD unironucally watch 30 minutes of you playing pacman.
Ahah I appreciate
A great review as always Metatron, especially drawing out the Hollywood tropes...From the guy who didn't intend to "debunk" the Romans and bacteria vid from a few weeks ago, I've a few observations to (impertinently) add.
For those who don't know, in the crowd scene in the Circus Maximus at minute 5:07 the colours are clearly meant to represent the four racing teams - the blues, reds, greens and whites. So that's good. Likewise, in a departure from most other films containing chariot racing, is this the first time that lightweight racing chariots are shown rather that the heavy triumphal types? Hats off to the production for that alone, but then they go and ruin it with the legionary (Praetorian?) costume as you rightly point out from minute 10:43 to 12:12. Agreed wholeheartedly, the black leather lorica is completely wrong when compared to the archaeological examples, but once again the designers have clearly been inspired by similar depictions on Trajan's Column. Still, why leather? And why the effing bracers...aargh? In the same scene, the shields being carried seem to be a throw back to the oval Republican versions, which seems a little strange given the setting, but carrying a hasta rather than the ubiquitous pilum is a nice touch. But what's with all the chest thumping from minute 23:37? As I understand it, that was an early Hollywood attempt to avoid what was thought to be the Romans' straight-arm salute. The latter, however, may be incorrect since what is depicted on Trajan's Column may actually represent the ad locutio and not a salute at all. Oh, and finally, when discussing naumachia in Emperor Claudius' reign mention was made of the Colosseum. For those not aware of the history, construction of the Amphitheatrum Flavium (Flavian Amphitheatre), popularly called the Colosseum, did not start until 16 years after Claudius' death. Moreover, in AD 210 when I think the series is set, the underground two-storey hypogeum would have prevented the flooding of the arena and any subsequent naval battle.
Hopefully all that makes sense and expands, albeit briefly, on an otherwise great review. Best wishes, Mark from www.tastesofhistory.co.uk
I dont understand why Hollywood dont call experts but sometimes they do if the listen to them is another story.
I love Your content, man. It helps kids too because they are not taught proper history in school. When I had a Stepdaught, she loved the Greek and Roman Empire and was only 12. We need content like yours. Thanks!
Gallus (Gaul) was an actual gladiatorial class.
So chickens (genus Gallus) are named for the gauls?
@@lonelystrategos that’s a coincidence, though it is why the rooster has become a symbol of France.
ACDC wrote "For Those About to Rock - We Salute You". That's close enough for me.
Hollywood needs to find some new material. There’s plenty of other ancient cultures. We don’t need to keep going back to the Roman well
Some world argue we haven't seen much of the Roman era as it is, only fantasy loosely inspired by it (names and some clothing, mostly).
But yeah, I get what you mean.
I know one problem with some cultures is verbal history. I know that some cultures consider writing it down to be taboo, and others even mentioning it to outsiders is taboo, so we lose a lot of rich history just by lack of access.
As for other cultures it could be lack of subject matter experts that are willing to work with Hollywood. (Or those experts in general. Ancient Rome in ancient Greece have a mystique that a lot of researchers seem to want to spend their time and focus on, Even if circumstances mean they have to work in other areas.)
Either way it leads to circumstances like this where there are people that have a very shallow understanding of a given culture and miss key points. Such as with The Woman King, which, if I understand correctly, people from the area depicted remember the person as a tyrant that won influence in terrible ways.
They’re too afraid to try something new.
Totally agree with you. There's also few movies and shows about Ancient Greece as well, why always fucking Rome?
Eh I love roman culture (even if I'm not as anal as Metatron) so please keep going back to Rome! No other culture is even remotely as interesting, the only close culture is Greece.
That may be your opinion but ancient Rome is not only one of the greatest civilizations and the foundation of most modern cultures but it is also the most popular and legendary !
Nice dude, closing in on a MILLION! So WELL DESERVED.
Greetings from a Dutchie in Rotterdam,The Netherlands.
Those celts look like modern hippies.
Great eye on the random plebes clothed in purple, people have no idea how expensive the dye to make purple was.
I guess one of the most apparent use of 'creative licence' is that the Colosseum was nowhere near complete in Vespasian's time, yet we see him presiding over the games there. The other is that the Circus Maximus did not look like this until Trajan, who built most of the stone edifices to replace the timber structures.
Overall, the trailer is not too promising, but it's not explicitly bad either - let's see.
Appreciate your knowledge and research!
He's actually presiding games at the circus maximus not the coliseum. As bad as this series is the chariot races are quite good even though they refer to some horses as "andalusians" 😅
In the show Vespasian dies before the Colosseum is completed
Just saw the first episode, and the depiction of Numidia and Numidians had me rolling my eyes and groaning.
WHY IS EVERYONE BLACK IN NUMIDIA?!!! Numidians were Berbers in what is now Algeria, and they looked like Algerians of today, more or less. We have Numidian coins depicting Numidians, and they were not black African. Yes, there were black individuals in Numidia - mostly incomers from the south - but they were probably never there in overwhelming numbers, let alone being the entire freaking population.
And it got worse. Why is Apedemak, a Nubian god from northeast Africa, being worshipped by Numidians who were on the opposite end of Africa from Nubia? It's like watching a movie set in Athens and suddenly we see a scene of Athenians making obeisance to the Slavic god Svetovit.
And it got 'worser'. There was a Numidian called Kwame. KWAME! An Akan name from Ghana in West Africa! 🤦♂🤦♂🤦♂
Again, imagine watching a movie set in Ancient Rome, and then appears an ancient Roman whose name is Robinson.
It's like when it comes to Africa there is absolutely zero effort invested in getting the culture correct or at least as close to correct as possible. Just slap anything on and keep it going. Who cares? It's Africa - no one's paying attention. Someone could have spent less than 5 minutes on the internet and could have come up with a few Numidian names. Heck, I found this link in just 2 seconds: tekeli.li/onomastikon/Africa/Ancient/Numidia.html
Blue and green were teams at the chariot races, this can be found in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (he states that one of his continuing life goals is to avoid going for one team or the other, essentially to be neutral) that is (probably) why there is so much blue and green at the stadium. I am not sure when, but at some point it also took on a political slant.
How is Vespasian watching games at the Vespasian Amphitheater? He died in 79 AD, the theater wasn't completed until 80 AD...... I guess he was just that good.
Absolutely true!!!!!!
I watched the show and he does die before the amphitheater is completed. he's watching the chariot races in a different arena. The amphitheater is completed in the last episode when Titus is emperor.
@@PrittyInPynk ah okay, at least that's correct.
@@battlepope669 yeah lol that's one thing they did get right. Even tho it's not historically accurate with some things, I did enjoy it. Definitely not Emmy worthy tho lol
It’s from the stands in the circus Maximus, few hundred meters from the colosseum. They show it completed near the end of the show and they made it out to be a hell of a lot smaller than it actually was even with cgi. Even the seat of the emperor was in the wrong spot, unless they were trying to go for the pre earthquake build
as I saw the trailer, I immediately thought on you. I was not surprised over your reaction in fact I was surprised the video didn’t end as you told after 2 mins =)
22:40 I've always been curious about theblunt/axe type of weapons used during the Classical period if there were any at all. It's very strange how they seem to have almost gone away between the bronze age and the medieval era. There's a topic for a future video.
Flax?
Congrats on the 900k milestone. 1 million is just around the corner.
Hey Meta love the video. Would be interesting to hear you describe what a typical gladiator fight would be like? If the gladiators don't typically die how do they know when to stop and how would they decide the winner?
We have been getting lots of gladiator type trailers lately and it would be interesting to hear the truth.
What hurt Italians the most: Broken spaghetti
What hurt Metatron the most: Roman leather bands
My apologies to all Italians, then. I always break my spaghetti before cooking it to fit it in the pot.
Those leather bracers are for screen aesthetic.
Fun fact : the gladiatiors who were selected to die were those ones who didn't wear the correct LEATHER arm brace when saluting the Emperor !! Learned in our diligent researches (i.e. asking Robbo down at the pub, he's seen Gladiator 9 times!!)
So much interesting Roman history & yet they keep rehashing the same stuff. I personally would love see a series on Belisarius, Justinian & Theodora.
Ok... it's enough, I have to say it... I LOVE how you chat (not talk) to the camera during the intro and intermissions of these videos. I know it is scripted, but still feels more natural than when you drone off the text to explain some deep dive in a semantics war of attrition. Keep it up! Many smiles have been had, many more to come, I'm sure!
Im surprised this isn’t made by Netflix
Gotta love Metatron murdering these shows/movies with facts, best content ever 🍿
23:50 Those soldiers look straight out of Monty Python.
I love Metatron's sardonic biting reactions so much, that my parrot has learned to love it too. We laugh together, and it's great.
Thank Metatron for his suffering.
Why is it always leather bracers? Anything medieval or older ALWAYS has leather bracers with no basis in history. It looks so stupid. Where did this fixation come from?
God bless you and your family and your team sir Metatron ❤❤❤ form Croatia-Europe ❤❤❤
The metatron has spread his wings!
Salve Metatron congrats on almost a million , thanks for the vids, I’m a Mexican and I’m Latin
Whenever the story is about History, i always find myself coming to Metatron's channel 😅
Were the buildings also painted?
Having just finished the 4th episode in the series, I think that it deserves a review at least, Metatron. It does a lot of things right. Although, what really bothers me is Titus' look. Completely adoring Diocletian and of course, Vespasian, though.
It goes really down hill
another sword and sandal remake
Long time watcher, first time subscriber. Happy to be part of getting you to a cool million.
Watching Netflix without private internet access is like going to Naples and eating at Pizza Hut.
You’d be shocked at how many Americans visiting Rome go to the McDonald’s by trevi fountain 😂
My deepest apologies for putting you through it, Metatron- but I figured if I suffered through it, no reason you couldn't too... 😈🤣😈🤣😈
I believe Hopkins is playing Vespasian, & Tom Hughes was cast as Titus