Did the Romans use Soap?
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2024
- This edition of the toldinstone Q&A explores why there was never a German Roman emperor, the dog tags worn by legionaries, and whether the Romans ever got around to using soap.
Check out my other channels, @toldinstone and @scenicroutestothepast
Chapters:
0:00 Were there any German Roman emperors?
3:13 Did Western Roman families flee east when the empire fell?
4:42 Did Roman soldiers wear dog tags?
5:50 Did Roman soldiers live longer than civilians?
8:52 Did the Romans use soap?
Sounds like Olive Oil Industry had very good lobbyists in Rome.
With our new Clean Olive Initiative...
The soap that took over the Mediterranean world was made from olive oil.
Big Olive at it again
Known back then by its true name, corruption!
Olive Oil industry was BIG. Rome produced about a million tonnes of oil and 2 million tonnes of pomace (solid oily remains of olives) Waste oil and pomace was used everywhere as fuel. They use them in furnaces, glass and amphora making, heating baths etc.
Urine has been used historically as a cleaner, because it contains ammonia. Ammonia is effective at breaking down stains from fats, vegetable oils, and wine stains.
Yeah, for clothes, but you can't wash yourself with ammonia. It's caustic
@antoniousai1989 i am not saying you should wash your body with urine, but if it is safe inside the uretra it should be fine on skin. Pure ammonia is another thing.
@@giacomo8875 They didn't just use urine. They let urine go through decantation to produce ammonia from urea.
@antoniousai1989 as long as you don't use it pure is fine, my uncle use an urea shampoo for example.
Also the slaves who washed clothes with this stuff used their bare feet. For sure they diluited the stuff after the decantation you mentioned.
What did Romans think of left handed people vs right handed?
They felt left handed was Sinister ;)
Nawce
We still call left handed "mancino", from mancare, means lack of strength.
@@MassimoShire1981 I understood this. Therfore " nawce ". 😃
@@MassimoShire1981 One likes wit!
Did the Greeks/Romans have children's literature? That is, stories written specifically for children, or a children's version of adult classics.
Aesop's Fables
Hey Garret, i bought your two books for my father, im going to borrow them after he's done reading!!
Much appreciated! I hope you'll both enjoy them
Very clever, especially your father is not into history!
I got your newest book for Christmas (made sure to drop lots of hints to my hubby so he didn't forget haha) I got your 1st book as soon as it came out a while back. Can't wait to read the new one!
Thanks; I hope you enjoy the book!
I think about the Roman Empire 3 times a day.
Amateur.
@@Raiden_Ei_Narukami_Ogosho Funny
@@jmctigret
Not funny. True.
Unless it becomes a lifestyle, you are not thinking about it enough.
Fascinating. Thank you as always
You have such a wonderful voice
Thank you! Your erudition and dedication are admirable.
Thank you for this video and sharing a small part of your vast knowledge.
Fascinating.Thank you and merry christmas.
This is my favorite series on CZcams!!
Garrett, you go from awesome to awesome. 🙌🙌 Merry Christmas!
Fascinating stuff!
I got both your books for Christmas! Loving them!
Glad to hear it!
There were many Senators that went west during the devastating gothic wars. That is except the Senators that were on the gothic side or were taken hostage. Those unfortunate ones were put to death near the end of the war by the goths either on totilas order or after his death in battle
This video was great. Also my left ear enjoyed it.
Before when Roman units were like families after any battle they would easily be able to go out and make a list of who died. After reforms where units got bigger and less familiar they adopted the lead tag to identify those whose faces they probably didn't commit to memory. They would have all been collected and melted down to be reused after a list of names was made so its hard to think of when one would be lost and found in the record.
Excellent
Hi Garret, I love all your work! I was wondering how Romans dealt with the changing purity of their coins. During periods of debased coinage did high purity coins from earlier times have more purchasing power?
I feel like him or one of his contemporaries answered this. They end up hoarding coins of high purity, and using them for their material wealth.
@@PopBROMOSGamingJust like US coins with precious metal content? History does rhyme.
I would LOVE to see a demo of the olive oil and striggel(sp?) technique! Along with analysis and comparison to modern and other antiquated washing techniques.
It's called a strigil. You may find a demo here on YT if you search for that.
Urine was used well into the modern era to clean clothes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it was still a very normal technique.
Personally I use a strigil every few weeks in combination with modern shower gel, it leaves me with extremely smooth skin!
Interesting questions and answers. Here's for the algorithm.
I actually have two questions, 1) How prevalent were tattoos among the Romans? and 2) How did they track the years, as in was it just a string of who was in charge for how many years (2nd year of the rule of Augustus for example)? Thank you so much for your content!
As i understand in the mediterranian tattoos were strongly associated with marking of criminals and slaves or the military.
As to counting years tge romans counted by tge emperor on consul incharge. They also used the year of the foundation of rome. Like we would use ad and bc
I think the Romans might have handled it like the Greek, and to my knowledge, the Greek word for a tattoo is literally *“stigma”,* so there is some food for thought here 😉
@@mediocreman6323 exactly in the med tattoos have been associated with crime punishment and servitude since ancient times. Unlike northern europe where tattooing was common.
Im sure the romans also considered tattooing a sign of barbaric primative and violent culture. The greeks very much did in regard to the sythians
@@mediocreman6323Yep, look at all the people who carry such stigma today!
I don't even remember posting that questiong but I love the answer all the same!
Happy Hoildays!
This video is awesome. It's like Scotty Kilmer but roman history
My left ear loved this
What is the green set of books behind you?
Fun fact, public urinals can be called 'Vespasiennes' in French
I have a lot of soaps. Laundry, house hold, dish, hair, and of course body. The truth is I've found that body soap is generally unnecessary as I wash my hands almost always with a certain dish soap in the kitchen, before, during and after preparing food and in general. Soaking or showering in slightly warm water is almost always sufficient. I can understand getting by without body soap, but I am really curious how dishes were cleaned.
Ash
You shower in only slightly warm water? You might ask those around you whether this is truly effective 😂
@@KC-fb8ql I don’t use extremely hot no, but warmer than luke warm. Probably 115 degrees? I really can’t measure the temperature. There’s no need to scald yourself. I stay in the shower or bath a relatively long time. I try not to remove all the natural oils from my skin. I’m very sensitive to BO so I’m sure to attend to that. I’m sure there are people who work in hot sweaty dirty environments that need to use lots of soap, I’m not one of them. Oh I forgot about toothpaste. That’s a recent invention too. I do use it but more importantly a also use floss and a water pick. Toothpaste just leaves a nice taste.
Ricimer is a guy who knew how to play the game of thrones
Were there art schools in ancient Rome? Did fresco painters take on apprentices? Were there any women artists? Who were the most famous painters?
-- Love your channel and books.
Toldinstone is my #1 source for all things Roma.
Michaelangelo used the strigel as well, and considered bathing with soap unhealthy.
he was wrong
Excellent. I’ve read a lot about the period, but I don’t think Tacitus or Pliny the younger discussed soap or hair dye among the Germans.
The dog tag question was interesting. First, I noticed how many viewers have numbers in their usernames. A feature shares by bot and trolls.
Then you said, to paraphrase, tattoos are more permanent than (lead) dog tags. True, while the person is alive. Not so true after death.
Hi,
I was wondering about roman customs of suicide? From Mark Anthony trying to stab himself in the heart to others falling on their sword is there a connection between method of death and the idea of a dignified death?
Thank you
What security measures were implemented for the road infrastructure in the Roman Empire, and how did these measures change over time in terms of development or decline?
Soap was invented in Sumeria, and was still being used after portions of that region were conquered by Rome. Egypt had their own form of soap. China also had a form of soap. Garrett is FAR more knowledgeable than I for the "Rome Rome" era, but like him I've never seen any real indication that it was ever used in Rome, even as a luxury or novelty item. I DO know that in the Byzantine Era, soap was something that was used almost exclusively in the Eastern marches of the Empire; after they were lost to the Islamic tsunami there is no indication of its' use in the Empire. When researching my Masters Thesis I DID find a mention in a Hebrew text from a Jewish merchant in Dyrrachium that MIGHT have been a form of soap... but I mainly remember it because the description was odd (I MEANT to get back to it but never did... hejjjjjjjjjjjjj... a quest now that I'm retired!).
I have a question, was mail accessible to the common people and how good was it?
How common and extensive was the worship of foreign gods such as Isis ( I'm thinking here about the final chapters of Apuleius's the Golden Ass) among ancient Romans and where did they rank in devotion and veneration, say by the number of temples and cult sights we can identify, in comparison to the more familiar pantheon of Olympian gods. Thanks and have a great 2024!
Hmmm I think I've got a question: How were battlefield wounds treated? All we hear is "the army treated their wounded" but what did this treatment actually look like
Did the Romans and Greeks have public gardens in likeness to botanical gardens and arboretums of modern day? If so what did they put in them?
Ancient Greeks knew and used soap. According to a legent soap was first made in Lesbos island after the burning of sacrificed animals the fat and ashes flowed to the river where women washed their cloths and noticed that they cleaned better by that yellowish soap. Soap reffered by Sappho, Iatros the Athenian etc. Lesbos used to produce soap in Ancient Greece. Most Greeks used water, ashes, mud, sand, pumice and they apply oilive oil after cleaned. Galen recommends soap also.
1950's American: Thanks, but I'll pass on the urine and just stick with gasoline.
Leanin' hard in the left ear btw
Hi did Romans do common operations? Like appendicectomy? And did people survive this?
Did roman latin have dialects by region? Could a citizen in Britannia understand a citizen in syria clearly?
They had dialects. It's a huge empire. Vulgar Latin was different in each region
Since Vulgar Latin is what eventually lead to modern romance languages, I'd have to assume that they did.
A Syriac wouldn't speak Latin, they would speak Aramaic and probably Greek as a second language. So probably not if we're talking about lower classes, but yes if we're talking about aristocracy (both would know Greek and use that to communicate).
@@claudiodidomenico You're talking about the Eastern Empire. He's asking about Latin dialects, so the western empire. Vulgar Latin did not exist in the eastern part of the Roman empire.
@@antoniousai1989 That's exactly what I said as well. He asked if a citizen in Britannia could understand someone from Syria in terms of dialect, and the point is that someone from Syria wouldn't speak Latin at all.
Were there patents and trademarks back in the ancient Greek and Roman times?
Did the Romans have dedicated medical specialists, and if so, were there any certifications or quality control measures regulating medical practice?
The one thing I remember about Roman toilets is that they used a sponge to clean their bottoms because obviously they didn't have paper which was a later Chinese invention. I don't know if each person had their own or if they shared the same sponges - these were natural sponges from the sea and not synthetic ones.
Why did so few statues of Julius Caesar, arguably the most famous man who ever lived, survive as opposed to Augustus, Marcus Aurelieus, Hadrian, etc?
Without maps or gps, how did the Romans visualize the world around them. How would an emperor understand the borders of their so many provinces and regions?
How many breadwinners would be present in one household?
How bad would air pollution have been in Rome during the height of the empire since the main fuels were wood charcoal possibly coal and did the Roman’s start to run out of fuel wood near the later empire as civil war’s demanded ever more material and trees may not have been replanted
Did romans experience snow?
Bathing: on campaign? Was Caesar doing without? Were the men?
If no schism in The Church between west & east(no crusade sack included) do you believe it possible Constantinople would still be called Constantinople to this day.
Even if the name remained i wonder if we'd have continued to see the name evolve over time somewhat.
that's nobody's business but the turks (i apologize)
No..... Why ask hypotheticals? It didn't happen that way and to ask that is kind of pointless
What was retirement like in Rome.
Did the Colosseum have ticket scalpers?
Urine was used for millennia. Even 18th and 19th Century America America, laundry women used urine.
Use wet clay and sand. When I get my hands drenched in chain oil changing a bicycle tire, I use a handful of dry dirt and water bottle. The sand scours and carbonate sticks to all the oil. The purpose of soap is to get oil off your skin.
Did the cities and towns of the Late Roman period had their own town militias or did they had to rely only on the roman army?
Sesenta Tiberius III Roman emperor and German?
Were there grades of olive oil?
I believe they took baths with milk or scented water from flowers
This soap question is obviously of great interest, what's the commonality between Romans cleaning himself with olive oil and Ancient Greeks doing the same, specifically Warriors preparing themselves before battle?
thanks, comment for algorithm
Sounds like they had amazing skin. Olive oil followed by some hot water and towel drying would be about the best skin care routine you could hope for in antiquity.
sounds disgusting to me
How did the Roman army deal with multiple languages?
What are those things on your shelves behind you? Not the top. The weird coloured things.
So nice to hear you refer to the eastern empire as Novo Roma (New Rome). The old western medieval name 'Byzantium' should really be retired.
👍
Are there any descendants today of old Roman families like the Julii / Brutii / Corlenii ?
Absolutely, mostly spain, sometimes france, rarely england
Why wasn't the WRE able to train soldiers to fight barbarians like they had against Hannibal despite having a much higher population? Did late Romans keep their army intentionally weak like Gaddafi kept the Lybian army weak to prevent military coups?
The late Roman army was actually very powerful snd defeated the barbarians most of the times. The problem was the economy, at the start of the 5 century it became very difficult for the West to pay for its army as it didn’t have the tax revenue to do it.
Video interaction
Have you read Colleen McCullough's series of novels about Rome. (Roughly from Marius to just post-Caesar? If so, how do rate their historicity?
Re potential German emperors. There were plenty of German tribes on the left bank of the Rhine and like others they acquired citizenship. Some of them had a reputation for providing many recruits to the army so could have risen to command and had the opportunity to seize power. It's not hard to imagine a series of _virtus germani_ emperors in the third century just as we had _virtus illyrici_
Did the Goths that conquered the Western Roman Empire attempt to further the conquest toward the East?
I scrape the oil right off my skin with cymbals. I mean bronze. Mmmm. Bronze. Albino Tunisians.
Question,
Did the church destroy most of roman buildings for the contruction of churches specially the Vatican?
I saw on another channel about late roman history, that the Roman army was as large as half a million men during later western Roman times. If this is true how did people like Athilla the hun torture them so?
At what point did tattooing soldiers become common practice?
Did the Romans have a good idea of just how far back Etruscan civilization went?
How are you defining German?
Because I think either 1. West Germanic excluding North Sea Germanic, or 2. Any Germanic language with the 2nd Germanic Sound Shift. Theodoricus was Gothic, and his name was probably Gothic *Þiudareiks, so his name isn't German in either sense. A generation later, Totila's nickname was definitely not Gothic *Dauþila, so his nickname is German in the latter sense.
Were the Romans aware of the existence of dinosaurs in the past?
Were the Romans afraid of spiders?
Did Romans have stories about where babies come from like the stork?
We know that Romans were pretty prone to pearl clutching about "barbarian" customs making their ways into Roman life, but was there a time where Romans went "these fellas have the right idea" and enthusiastically adopted a "barbarian" custom?
I am, of course, excluding the whole business of hijacking Greek culture, of course
they adopted Celtic weaponry and armour
No bubble bath for you!
In mid republic, could a non citizen, say a Socii from Neapolice, buy property in proper Roman land (Ager Romanom)?
In other words, was anyone who owned property in ager Romanom and took part in census be automatically considered a Roman citizen?
Was citizenship about “residence” or did Roman have some racial concept for citizenship?
Google the social war.
You can clean with oil and ash.
White ash, the black stuff is just carbon.
Can I use your voice for AI warhammer 40k lore? 😂
It is always amazing to find out actually, how much more "civilized" the Gauls, including the Germans or "barbarians" as the Romans called them were - than the Romans themselves.
The barbarians wore pants, they used soap, were notoriously fastidious about their hair (almost all carried combs for instance) they were fairly well organized societies and yet..the Romans managed to civilize so many of them to early death.
Better administrative/construction/military capabilities. Winners write the history.
Wearing pants is a sigh of civilization? They arr simply convenient in colder climates.
Everyone is a barbarian to someone
Is there a chance that we may uncover more written historical sources from antiquity? Or are we certain that there are no other potential surviving sources?
The majority of actual literary or history writing comes down to us through copies of copies of copies in medieval monasteries and universities in the Arab world that were "rediscovered" and slowly disseminated throughout Europe in the Renaissance, and not recovered through archaeology or anything like that directly from the ancient world. In terms of purely literary sources, there are sometimes new fragments found via e.g. the rubbish dump at Oxyrynchus or advances in technology allowing us to read rolled up scrolls which are too damaged to dismantle. A lot of these are likely to be just snippets of the Aeneid or other texts we already have in abundance, but I believe there was major hope that the libraries of Herculaneum, near Pompeii, might yield some new texts belonging to the Epicurean school of philosophy. In terms of historical sources however, it's much easier to find new coins and artefacts as well as all sorts of textual sources. We have found edicts carved onto stones and bronze (e.g. the Res Gestae of Augustus and some decrees of Tiberius and Claudius, I believe) which can often be matched up with speeches or decrees described by the historian Tacitus. It's pretty unlikely that we'll ever find the lost sections of Tacitus himself or any number of histories which don't survive in full, though. (Source: Oxford Classics degree)
Archeologists believe the average Roman had one testicle. Statistically speaking.
😅😅😅
I'm writing a story set in ancient Rome and some of the characters use sarcastic humor with each other. Which has got me wondering, was sarcasm actually a thing in ancient humor, or is it more of a modern thing? If you said something sarcastic to a Roman, would they understand your meaning or take it literally?
Read some Martial, you'll see the sarcasm dripping off the page
Remember that the human brain has not changed enough (if at all) in the span of recorded history, and therefore human psychology is more or less the same. Language, humour, different rhetoric tools - these are typically not new inventions. There's easily recognisable sarcasm, irony and satire in the Bible, some of which was written hundreds of years before the Roman Empire. My educated guess is that sarcasm goes back almost as far as language itself.
Was there any german emperor? No.
Was Odoacer german? Yes. He was half skirian and half thuringian - both were german tribes.
Odoacer became king in Rome after the last roman emperor Romulus Augustus.
There was no german emperor, but there were german kings.
yes Italy was a germic kingdom ever since