Trajan's Bridge and the Roman Empire
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In the early part of the second century the Roman emperor Trajan needed a way for his troops to cross the mighty Danube river to fight Rome’s enemy the Dacians. Calling upon his great architect Apollodorus of Damascus, he built what would be the longest arch bridge the world had ever seen, or would see for another thousand years.
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So with the Danube being the border between Dacia and Rome, who were uneasy neighbours at the start, and it being troublesome for Rome when trying to invade, I guess this truly was a bridge over troubled waters.
And I remembered the song, until I read your post...lol
What hits you hardest when you study that history is how far the west was set back by the collapse of the western Roman empire. We "forgot" how to make structural concrete, for example, for a thousand years. Not to mention the hydraulic concrete the Romans used in creating ports - concrete that could cure underwater. Folks continue to marvel at what so many engineers of antiquity accomplished in many parts of the world. But that's largely because we have grown so accustomed to our tech that we've lost the ability to imagine life without it 😂
Tech has exponentially increased its presence in our lives in the past 40 years...I hope it actual speeds up its progress...
the world would be both alien and familiar to an year 0 Roman transported here today..
It says something about government, and law and order. Well, the correct kind of government. There are so many accounts of things getting destroyed intentionally by the rulers. It was mentioned in this video. And then there was ISIL/ISIS. And the CCP in China went around destroying ancient symbols and artifacts. ETC...
It is interesting to see how much of what we think of as modern engineering is ancient engineering with powered machines, rather than human effort.
Exactly, pretty amazing
Numbers are numbers
We still can't make concrete as well as they did.
@@capt.bart.roberts4975 That’s actually a common misconception. The Roman’s built more durable concrete because they prioritized longevity over material performance due to the stratospheric cost to build anything. Today building something is comparatively cheap, and so we prioritize material performance over longevity. That way we can build a taller and more useful building. The trade off is that modern reinforced concrete doesn’t last forever without constant maintenance, so todays buildings tend to have a service life of about 80-100 years or so. But if you look at how much cities change over time that service life is long enough that we expect to knock it down well before then.
@Stephen Ng The mid 90s were by and large the only decade autos were built to last.
Few cars 20s- 80's had any life in them beyond 100k without a rebuild. Clear coat didn't arrive until early-mid 70s so 4 yo vehicle was already dulled out. Besides that, models changed so frequently and drastically they'd look like dinosaurs within 7 years.
I love the old models (stylistically) but I'd argue 2022 automobiles would last much longer than that earlier era.
Still blows my mind how advanced ancient engineering was. Great video!
Yeah and to think they accomplished those feats without machinery. Amazing.
@@charlesdudek7713 they definitely had machinery, they knew about pulleys, gears, levers, ramps, and the capstan because the Greeks figured these things out beforehand. They also had horses and were perfectly capable of working as a group which you can use for a lot of effort.
@@thomasrogers8239 yep, it was machinery, just had different horse power then ours does now. I think people think that they were pretty primitive. But a lot of their buildings, bridges and roads are still their. Look at the aquaduct system they built, that needed machinery to build also. A timber crane with pullies and a capsaicin is a machine. 👍
@@thomasrogers8239 Okay, I knew I should have said modern machinery but I was trying to cut down on words. Even with pulleys and levers and animal power, it's pretty amazing what they accomplished.
Good morning! I wish I had something clever and droll to say, but it's just the usual impressed appreciation. Thank you kindly sir!
The Dacian War was the last Roman war in which they garnered more treasure than it cost them. It deserves to be remembered as the high point of the Empire. There was thereafter literally no point in invading the poor tribes that surrounded them.
True,Decebalus Treasure had 5,000,000 lbs 2,200 tonnes of gold and 10,000,000 lbs 4,500 tonnes of silver. Also objects made of precious metals.
"A bridge between humanity's past and its present." All you need to know about why we subscribe to The History Guy. Thank you for the stellar content.
Yes, the bridge... clever ending.
I've been facinated by the Romans since I was a kid. Their engineering skills were mind boggling.
I was always fascinated by the great Roman generals. Reading the histories by Roman writers was so incredible, to imagine reading the comments of contemporaries who lived thousands of years ago and witnessed much of it is just crazy. Hunting druids, auctioning off lakes full of gold offerings, all the intrigues and brilliant military strategies. I felt like I was witnessing it all from the dusty racks of the library.
any book recommendations?
@@Mikefantasia22 all the primary sources. Many if not all are available gratis online and even here on CZcams as recordings.
@@animula6908 I read the 12 Caesars. Slow at times but good. Looking for more
A few weeks ago I have been travelling along the Danube in Romania. Also I have been near this place. Not far from here in Germany, when the Brigach + Breg come together the Danube starts. Then Riedlingen and Ulm (where Einstein was born).
This video gave me some more background.
I never knew the history guy was psychic. Doing a bridge episode the day before history was made.
Not to be that person, but the longest bridge in antiquity was Constantine's bridge a little further downstream on the Danube at Sucidava. Trajan's bridge was 1135m meters long, while Constantine's bridge was 2437 meters long. Both bridges were built in the same manner. The remaining piers of Constantine's bridge could still be seen in the late 19th century, but have since washed away or are invisible beneath the surface. I only mention it because it is virtually unknown in popular history, and very few studies have been done on it.
It was built as part of Constantine's campaigns against the Goths and Sarmatians, when he reestablished a Dacia province north of the Danube.
One of the most amazing facts to me, was that Roman engineers/ architects had only Roman numerals to calculate with. Their mathematical system was unbelievably cumbersome and difficult.
I doubt scientists of their times used ‘Roman numerals’. It is possible I suppose.
@@glenn6583 Well the only alternative was the number system used by the Babylonians, and that was hardly better (they had math errors due to it being position based system, but without a zero, thus 101 was written 1 1 (only a small space in-between), and sometimes the space was missed later on.... (note here, it was NOT base 10 but base 60!)
One of the things about the Romans that I love is that while you when a battle or two or even an entire war but they will ALWAYS be back and when they do they’ll burn your cities and destroy your kingdom. The stubborn mindset is the best thing to have. Like Rocky Balboa said “it’s not how hard you hit, it’s how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward.”
What magnificent engineering. Thanks, Lance for sharing.
This is one of two great bridge stories I viewed today. This one about past history and the other one about current history… in Crimea. :-)
Back in the Saddle Again Naturally!
For your information, any "C" in Latin or Greek, is always a "K", just as your map shows,Dakia,Thraki,Makedon,Kaisar etc.
There is a monument in Romania in in the town of Adamclisi in the county of Constanta dedicated to the Roman victory. As i remember there are soma crazy things depicted on it. Apparently during battles Dacian women stayed home and tortured prisoners of war and stuff like this. Don't know if this was a Roman thing but overall the monument shows respect to the Dacians.
In the end they liked it so much around here that part of the soldiers stayed behind when the Roman empire pulled back. It is fascinating to live in this part of the world, especially near the Black Sea. No deeper construction project can pe accomplished without finding some unique unique Roman basilica or a piece of the old city of Tomis. But it can be also frustrating at times. I remember a few years ago that a important road project was blocked for a couple of years because while digging they found lots of Roman buildings and artefacts.
Thanks!
Fun Fact: Trajan is actually praised in the Romanian National Anthem: "Now or never, let us show the world
That through these arms, Roman blood still flows;
And that in our chests we still proudly bear a name
Triumphant in battles, the name of Trajan"
Thanks again,
Excellent THG, thank you.
Trajan is actually featured in the Romanian anthem!
thanks for that valuable update, Sir!!
Rome’s enemies:
Oh look. They’re building us a bridge!
Now you've switched it to a helmet with a feather. Can you please give a history behind the feathers, or fur plooms of military hats? I appreciate your material and show, thanks!
Best segue ever!!!!!!!!
Much awaited much appreciated excellent insights as always.
Thank you for this snippet of history discussing an item of which I have heard, but never knew exactly.
I'm still amazed how we've not been able to replicate Roman concrete in its amazing abilities.
Actually they can. It takes volcanic soil.
Always fascinating. Thanks, HG!
I wish someone would do a series about the German empire constituent counties other than Prussia, Hanover, bavaria, and Munich. I think that is history that deserves to be remembered.
German empire I love them more than other europeans . German empire is little about to known .only nazi became famous. German empire they gave us a lot of technologies during ww1
Prussia is fascinating
@@SanjayKumar-jd3bv so do I but there is a lot already it there about them.
@@carlclouseriii8519 yes it was but most of the channel was hidden because of low subscription .some if the channels are not clear .they lack few things that's why
Boring
Excellent episode as always!
Did I hear you mention Hadrian was the successor to Trajan? Would that be same the Hadrian of Hadrian's Wall fame in Britain?
The very same.
And he would probably be rolling in his grave if he found out the only thing people remember him for is that time he spent a couple months in Britain and told them to built a wall 🤣
@@restitvtororbis5330 Good fences make good neighbors.
Thank you for making this happen !
Once again you've knocked it out of the park. Thanks THG.
Last time I was this early, they still knew where Trajan's Bridge was.
Fascinating, thank you. Wonderful content as usual. Great stuff!
There is still alot of gold.
Thank you for this wonderful video.
Great video! Thank you for this awesome content!
People who lived a long time ago could do so many amazing things, how so much of it was built is lost, it certainly wasn't slaves over 200 years building a single building.
Thank you history guy! Always enjoy your shows, I was wondering what's with the neon lightning bolt behind you?
Great one!
Roman engineering. Whenever I see our local council taking several weeks just to repair a few potholes in the road, I often ponder how many miles of new road a marching Roman army would have laid in the same time!
outstanding!
This is very good. Underrated
#1.5k👍🎉This bridge was evidence of the great ability of Rome to utilize expertise from others and to plan then create great infrastructures that aided its rise to empire status and to plunder from places otherwise beyond the reach of its Legions. The wealth gained by the expense of building this bridge is tremendous by modern standards!! What was the modern equipment of the unit you mentioned for the gold acquired from this place across that great river?
A livre is/was a unit of currency/weight, divisible into 20 sols/sous, which were themselves equal to/derived from the Roman solidum gold coin.
A livre was approximately equal in weight to an avoirdupois pound, or roughly 0.454kg.
That means the stated totals would be approximately equal to 2,270 metric tons of gold and 4,540 metric tons of silver.
I think.
Yes what is the modern equivalent unit in lbs/kg?
@@glenn6583 Once again, a livre is 0.9988 lbs/0.454 kg.
The Livre was pretty equivalent to the pound, and is the reason for the English pound sign, which looks like a cursive capital L - £
thanks
"Romanes Evnt Domus!"
- A Random Dacian, maybe
I’ve been watching your videos for months and enjoy them. I’d love to see one on the Stonewall Riots.
Maybe- it is difficult since images aren't in the public domain.
Yes you are still making videos I am. Rey pleased!
Amazing even for the time.....Thank THG🎀
Shoe🇺🇸
Subscribed within 20 seconds of watching your video on Rudyard Kipling, new personal record
Mans path is inevitable but when we leave is still a question
Roma, il più grandioso e glorioso Impero della storia; Roma ha conquistato, dominato, costruito e CIVILIZZATO; la grandezza, la potenza, la forza, la magnificenza e la gloria di ROMA EST AETERNA, ROMA INVICTA ET LUX MUNDI; AVE OPTIMUS PRINCEPS ULPIUS MARCUS TRAIANUS, divino e immortale 💪💯
구독 좋아요🇰🇷
전쟁 없는 모든 나라 평화만 있기를 바래봅니다🙏🙏🇰🇷
After watching this please watch Monty Python's Life of Brian, in particular the scene "What diid the Roman's ever do for us?"
"Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel
LOL
I needed that [You, too, up top]
[[Edit: GrocMax -- Max, I'll call ya lol ]]
The full account is here
Thanks lol
I remember that slightly
[Very memorable -- but my mind is apparently gone]
Lol
😂😂
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel
[I think I remember you from television -- good that you continued and have a CZcams channel -- good job ]
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel
[I remember -- you were too similar to Andy Rooney -- You switched networks or something -- so maybe you were doing both a show and a CZcams channel.
I think I got it straight.
Btw, I'm in these bracket because it's a side issue -- off the topic in other words , lol.
Good job -- luv'd the Captain Kangaroo piece -- a lotta' nice info I wasn't aware of -- I always liked that show as opposed to Captain Noah.
Enough of an Off-the-topic for Ya?! Lol ]
Good job 😂😎☕️☕️
Here: 44°37'3.91"N 22°40'4.29"E (cut and paste the coordinates to the search bar of your map of choice, for example Google Earth). The Iron Gates are roughly eight miles upstream.
History Guy, You may want to speak with publishers and distributors of history books that form your Reference library aiming for a source of advertising and marketing revenue as publishers pay you to display their books on your background shelves or by making a Translight screen that shows books and book titles as readable on their spines. (A trans light is a translucent poster like screen typically placed behind the TV stage and lit from behind. When I worked on the Guiding Light we put lights on the floor that illuminated such "screens" seen as outdoor views of stage.set windows.) For photographers there exists an amazing variety of backgrounds to place behind characters the photographer then pictures. They are varied and amazingly inexpensive of top of all that. My conception would simply show books you select with little comment. It is more marketing, as in product placement than advertising.
Blast furnaces are the only thing that have allowed humanity to reach higher into the sky. Everything else has been built upon the knowledge of the Romans, Greeks and Persians.
I'd like to see you team up with some of the time team archeologists from their original cast for some of these stories on the other side of the pond. Good guys and gals I bet some would do it.
Love Time Team.
Yep
Good night
Ahh finally something from my country
Goes to show you, you should always have packs of Trajans with you if you want to accomplish great things...
LOL
One in every crowd 😂
I also considered, "Because, don't all good stories involve Trajans?"
@@mja2001 , somethings, unwanted side effects occur when you perform certain physical activities *without* Trajans!
Henny Youngman approves...
Does anyone see the irony in this being released just before the destruction of Putin‘s Crimean bridge?
Obviously I had not forewarning.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Serendipity! 😁
Aquaducts and Vitruvius's 10 books were already a thing in 90AD,
My sound is dead, BUT, I have read that the later Romans did discover the truss, but since their construction material would have been wood which can rot or burn these trusses were lost in Antiquity. Their stone arches survived much longer being basic compression structures--and curved stone pieces aren't as desirable for stones stolen for some other purpose. Unfortunately European engineers were too often fixated on What Would [a] Roman Do (WWRD)--hence the European predilection for arch bridges even when they started building iron and steel bridges. Nineteenth-century Americans with little pro-Roman bias and a lot of home-grown talent tended to approach bridge spans as a trussing problem akin to building a long roof span. Mssrs Howe, Pratt, and Warren (and Whipple and Post, etc.) were all Americans. Of course Americans needed long spans over wide rolling rivers in low valleys. What would be peculiar was the long-standing prejudice of American engineers against riveted joints for structural members. We Americans preferred pin-connected joints--with the result that an American bridge looked a whole lot different from a British/European bridge until after WW1 when Americans finally started accepting riveted structural joints.
SUGGESTION A History Guy bit on George S Morrison's great Portageville High Bridge (1875-2017) in Letchworth State Park in New York, the Great-Granddaddy of the design of the American Railway Viaduct where the concept of trusses between successive towers was demonstrated. That huge wrought-iron wonder of a bridge lasted IN SERIVCE for 142 years until replaced by a giant steel arch and demolished. Yet Morrison's bridge would take only from the May 6, 1875 fire that took out the giant wooden trestle making a new bridge necessary to August 1, 1875 when Morrison's new bridge was placed in service and the first train crossed over the Genesee River! Yes, there ARE a lot of photographs! If you won't do it--Simon Whistler (your competition!) might!
If the Romans built truss bridges, they mustn't have been very popular, because they continued building arched bridges of stone, brick/masonry, and wood throughout antiquity and into the middle ages.
Attack the power of Rome, you will regret it.
Attack the power of Rome again, now its personal.
The Danube might be Europe's 2nd-longest river, but that's hardly a relevant factor in assessing it's 'bridge-ability'. WIDTH at the most advantageous crossing point is, surely, most important..
Sorry, but it bugged me. The architect's name is APOLLODORUS not APOLLODORIUS.
Hey History Guy 👋🤓Isn't that where Alexander the Great is buried ?🤔
Alexander's tomb was in Alexandria until it went missing.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Where he was secretly buried there under the water 💧 near the bridge
Rafael Semmes, captain of the Alabama...pirate-ish, thank for considering.
Story included in this episode: czcams.com/video/oJWjTp7DHEk/video.html
How we "forgot" a bunch of pillars at a great spot for a bridge in an important water way is beyond me.
Now write it out one hundred times.
9:24 "...(the Danube) had a consistent height of about 8 yards." By "height" do you mean depth of the river? It would be great if anyone would clear this up. Thanks.
Well, that is a quotation from a museum regarding an ancient work, so it might be difficult to translate. But river gauge height usually means height above a reference point.
How about, quite aptly, a history of the bow tie? 😃
Difficult to equate 2003(exactly 1900yrs)w/ Trajan's reign of 16mo, w/ time it would take ta build a 3,200ft bridge on 240piers en 100ad...
They sure did a lot of Roman around. Terrible I know 😖
Aye! I get it!
BOOOOOOO! (throws rotten fruit). 🙂
CLK, you are aptly named....
Thank you for this great coverage of this fascinating story. I do have one friendly nitpick I'd like to share, though: Please reconsider the use of over-enhancement on still images using AI-based upscaling or sharpening tools. There are use cases where this can be very useful (portrait and landscape photos and images of any other amorphous shape would probably be among such cases), but the enhancement of maps or engravings containing partially deteriorated fine text does not appear to be one of them. The enhancement turns the letters into barely recognizable shapes, resulting in something that looks like a fictional extraterrestrial script. Seeing almost illegible scribbles on what otherwise looks like a fairly sharp and detailed image looks very unnatural and jarring. A simple upscaling that results in blurry but natural-looking text would be a lot better.
Fun fact. There is similar fairy tail, probably a version, like one about Midas but in Serbia it is about emperor Trajan having goat ears.
It is said,that the bridge over the Danube River was there before it was build by the Romans. Correct pronunciation of emperor Trojan's is TRAIANUS,Latin alfabet did not have letter J .
Dacia?
Good news!
Why is your map in 05:04 partly in Finnish?
As Spike Jones pointed out, the Danube is not blue, its green (weh,weh)
1:21 IMHO it's not the river but the many peoples and borders that made it the most international river in the world.
The river crosses through more nations than any other.
???
@@Exedus20 IMHO many small countries make many borders. That's why it's so international.
@@greggweber9967 We got it
Would it have killed them to show current pictures of the remaining bridge?
Worst part is that Trajan was the high water mark of the empire and his successor Hadrian , imo, laid the foundation for the eventual collapse of the empire.
GREAT ARTISTS BETWEEN ATHEN AND DAMASCUS, and ROME,
Bianchi Bandinelli and Apollodorus of Damascus
The famed Italian archaeologist Bianchi Bandinelli states, “It is possible that Apollodorus of Damascus drew the idea of Trajan’s Square From the great square in front of the Temple of Damascus. Anyway, his idea is more oriental than Roman."
PHIDIAS’ MODEL FOR THE OLYMPIAN JUPITER.
Phidias, being asked how he could conceive that air of divinity which he had expressed in the face{162} of the Olympian Jupiter, replied that he had copied it from Homer’s celebrated description of him. All the personal strokes in that description relate to the hair, the eye-brows, and the beard: and indeed to these it is that the best heads of Jupiter owe most of their dignity; for though we have now a mean opinion of beards, yet all over the east a full beard carries the idea of majesty along with it; and the Grecians had a share of this Oriental notion, as may be seen in their busts of Jupiter, and the heads of kings on Greek medals. But the Romans, though they held beards in great esteem, even as far down as the sacking of Rome by the Goths, yet in their better ages held them in contempt, and spoke disrespectfully of their bearded forefathers. They were worn only by poor philosophers, and by those who were under disgrace or misfortune. For this reason Virgil, in copying Homer’s striking description of Jupiter, has omitted all the picturesque strokes on the beard, hair, and eye-brows; for which Macrobius censures him, and Scaliger extols him. The matter might have been compounded between them, by allowing that Virgil’s description was the most proper for the Romans, and Homer’s the noblest among the Greeks.
APOLLODORUS OF DAMASCUS, THE ARCHITECT.
This great architect, who flourished about A. D. 100, was born at Damascus. By his great genius he acquired the favor of the emperor Trajan, for whom he executed many works. He built the great Square of Trajan, to effect which, he leveled a hill, one hundred and forty-four feet high; in the centre he raised the famous column, of the same height as the hill that had been removed, which commem{164}orated the victories of Trajan, and served as a monument to that victorious Emperor. Around the Square, he erected the most beautiful assemblage of buildings then known in the world, among which was the triumphal arch commemorative of Trajan’s victories. The marble pavements of this Square are fifteen feet below the streets of modern Rome. Apollodorus also erected a college, a theatre appropriated to music, the Basilica Nepia, a celebrated library, the Baths of Trajan, aqueducts, and other important works at Rome. His most famous work was a stone bridge over the Danube, in Lower Hungary, near Zeverino. It was one mile and a half long, three hundred feet high, forty feet wide, and was built upon twenty piers and twenty-two arches. Its extremities were defended by two fortresses. Trajan had it constructed to facilitate the passage of his troops, but his successor dismantled it, fearing that the barbarians would use it against the Romans.
APOLLODORUS THE ATHENIAN.
Apollodorus, one of the most famous of the ancient Greek painters, was born at Athens B. C. 440. Pliny commences his history of Greek painting with{163} this artist, terming him “the first luminary of the art.” He also says of him, “I may well and truly say that none before him brought the pencil into a glorious name and especial credit.” The two most famous works of Apollodorus, were, a Priest in the act of Devotion, and Ajax Oileus Wrecked, both remarkable, not only in coloring and chiaro-scuro, but in invention and composition. These paintings were preserved at Pergamos in the time of Pliny, six hundred years after they were executed. Apollodorus was the first who attained the perfect imitation of the effects of light and shadow invariably seen in nature. If we may depend upon the criticisms of ancient writers, the works of this master were not inferior in this respect to those of the most distinguished moderns. His pictures riveted the eye, not merely from their general coloring, but also from a powerful and peculiar effect of light and shade, on which account he was called “the Shadower.”
I thought one of the beliefs was aureillian had it destroyed during the crisis years to slow down the invading forces?
Aurelian not Hadrian destroyed the bridge. Good Ole crisis of the 3rd century.
Aurelian evacuated the province and resettled its inhabitants in Moesia and elsewhere, but he didn't have a bridge to do it with. Even if Hadrian hadn't dismantled the bridge, the wooden superstructure would be very unlikely to last 150 years without a lot of regular maintenance
✌️
1:50
Dachia (short first 'a' as in cat) not Dassia.
Designs based on trial error failure success..
Asia also had advanced technology often ignored by west.
Sort of difficult to ignore the great wall. Remember that China and Japan were very distant and isolated from the Western world and most people are interested in their history more than the history of others. Most people wouldn't even know where the Mongol horde came from if it wasn't in the name.
Lol, as if Asian don't willingly ignore western advances. It works both ways, pal!
@@pakde8002 Su Song water clock 1100 CE and gears mechanisms navigation math compass gun powder paper money ..
Long before Rome had such.
@@joe18750 Actually that's my point ....But ignored.
Buddy
@@pakde8002 , Chinese engineering and technology well predates the Great Wall. For an overview, I recommend "The Man Who Loved China" by Simon Winchester.
Roman Concrete, lost to history.
Not really sure why people say that as we know exactly what it's made from and as someone from the construction industry who actually studied concrete I can tell you that making concrete isn't that complicated.
Is that a galea proudly on display?
Yes, but not a high quality reproduction
Where would Rome be without it's engineering skills 🤔