Did Ancient Rome have Organized Crime?
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- čas přidán 6. 08. 2024
- This edition of the Toldinstone subscriber Q&A explores left-handed people in ancient Rome, the rise of Macedon, and intriguing hints of organized crime in the ancient world.
Check out my other channels, @toldinstone and @scenicroutestothepast
Chapters:
0:00 Was there a stigma against left-handed people in ancient Rome?
2:02 Did the Romans have botanical gardens?
4:00 Why did Macedon only rise to power after the Peloponnesian War?
5:19 Why don't the Basques speak a Romance Language?
6:37 Did Roman cities have organized crime?
last time I was this early, the Celts were still wearing trousers.
Jesus nike's
Aka sandals
🤣🤣🤣
Last time i was this moderately early, Rome was still a city of brick.
i'm going to blow your mind here, celts still wear trousers.
@@Catonius Only if they're barbarians.
*I wrote to you a year ago about a possible video on roman furniture* , since im a woodworker. You answered and said that it sounds like a good idea - really i only needed some inspiration to go ahead and film a youtube video of me making some of that furniture, wich i now have done! Im still hoping for a video from you on that subject good sir;)
In the interim --
czcams.com/video/mWz823PDM3o/video.html
Cool, I want to see that !.
It's still on the list! As it happens, I'm going to Naples soon, where I plan to take detailed pictures of the carbonized Roman furniture in the museum.
@@toldinstonefootnotes awesome! Appreciate the work you do, greetings from Sweden🤝
That sounds like an interesting project. I would love to see more about it. Cheers from Denmark.
Mr. Toldinstone. I hope this message finds you well, I have but one request. A follow-up interview about the Vesuvius challenge as the breakthrough has been made!
Jonas
_Erastes Fulmen has entered the chat_
Nothing like a good Falernian grape is there?
Thank you very much for your video, Dr. Ryan! Your answers have inspired a number of questions, at least one of which I hope will interest you.
1. On the topic of language in the Roman Empire, what was the extent of Latin's presence in the Eastern provinces, the stomping grounds of Greek, Coptic, Aramaic, and other languages?
2. Related to the above question, it is known that the study of Greek was popular among the Roman patrician castes. Did the study of Latin ever enjoy any popularity among the aristocracies of Macedonia or the Greek city-states?
3. Why did Latin and Romance languages overtake Greek in the former Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean (e.g., Naples/Neapolis, Marseille/Massalia, etc), but fail to replace Greek in the Eastern Mediterranean?
4. How long did the Punic language survive in the Roman province of Africa? What was the attitude of the Roman state to the language of their legendary rival?
5. Finally, moving beyond the Mediterranean, how extensive was the Roman presence along the northern Black Sea coast, in the Greek colonies dotting what is today modern-day southern Ukraine?
Thank you once more for your commitment to public history, Dr. Ryan :)
Love these!
Q: Why did the Romans *not* invent printing? Most of the components and skills needed to print books existed, but used for some other purpose. So why didn’t they?
They were content with what they had
Paper (or rather, papyrus) was very expensive. Reducing the cost of copying texts can't cut the price of a book/scroll to below that of the raw materials. And if that floor is still high, then demand isn't high enough to warrant investment in mass production.
@@QuantumHistorian”MUSCLE MILK! HGH! PROTEIN BARRRSSS”
*“CAPITAL GOODS!” “PRODUCTIVE IMPUTS!” “AUSTRIAN ECONOMICSSS”*
Just because it is obvious to us. That does not mean it was obvious to them.
If the Romans had borrowed that technology from China, would they not have banned it at once? When the printing of books and pamphlets began in Europe, the immediate response of the rulers was to insist that everything had to be licensed, in other words censored. The church added its own system of "nihil obstat" and "imprimatur," plus "imprimi potest" for monks. The Ottoman Emperor was so alarmed by the effect of printing in Europe that he banned printing in Arabic. Hebrew and Aramaic were OK. In our own times, dictators treat typewriters and photocopiers in the same way.
Thanks!
Dr. Garrett, you spoke about people losing hands in ancient Rome and how doctors helped them and they survived such bad injuries. But how?
How was such a bad injury survivable? How skilled were Roman doctors(surgeons).
Thank you.
Q: Were pirates ever a significant problem for the Romans?
Absolutely, especially in the 1st Century BC. Julius Caesar himself was taken captive by pirates as a teenager. Pompey famously led a huge 40 day campaign with unprecedent legal authority to get rid of them. After that, Imperial control of both the seas and the coast was generally good enough to prevent it being a huge problem.
yes. Illyrian and Cilician pirates among others.
Did ancient people work out for cosmetic reasons? Especially in men who may not have done as much physical labour?
Have you ever considered doing a tour of your bookshelves?
2 Garret uploads in 2 hours??? What a treat!
‘Flavio’s not coming…’
Always wondered: in the case of child abandonment (in sickness but moreover healthy babies), were there institutions for the displaced, or were they left to the elements or worse, slavery? Love your vids btw🫡
For abandoned babies to become slaves (and then be reunited as adults with their birth family) was a literary trope, so we can probably presume that it wasn't too rare.
Before Christianity where every human being has value including the handicapped, charity for the poor and disadvantaged was virtually unknown - if you were poor or handicapped it was usually ascribed to bad karma. Christianity became very successful because every human life was important - in the New Testament we have the poignant words "In as much as you did it to one of these THE LEAST among my brethren -then you did it to me (Jesus)
Slave traders would sometimes go around to places where babies were known to be abandoned, in order to gather babies to raise and then sell.
Wealthy Christians also established orphanages, where abandoned babies would, again, be collected, and raised as Christians.
Of course all of this is only if the Carthaginians don't find it first and fix up a nice baby sandwich.
Even in comparatively more recent times Christian missionaries in places like China and Japan were renowned for attending to the abandoned and handicapped and the locals thought this was a bit unusual!@@goodlookingcorpse
Awesome video, as always!
I don't know if have already answered this question before, but I'd like to know if there were some sort of natural history museums back in Roman days.
Sincerly,
Bruno from Brazil
I keep looking at your bookshelf. It would be interesting to learn about your collection. Are all the green book Roman Imperial Coinage? I hope so and that you have the full set.
No, those are all Loebs - slightly more affordable!
Hi, I’m really enjoying this content, focusing more on every day life of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
My question is: get ready with me videos are popular on CZcams, I was wondering if there were ancient texts other sources that would explain how an ancient Greek or Roman woman did their make up and style their clothes for special occasions and for everyday life.
Lets gooo get to eat my gbreakfast with some toldinstone
hi Garrett, love the videos! i wanna ask how the immigration culture was like in rome and the whole empire in general, did fathers live in the city temporarily for better work opportunity? how did they communicate with their loved ones?
You may have already discussed this somewhere already, and it's a pretty big topic, but I have a fairly general question about sculptural copies. Obviously museums are full of Roman copies of Greek originals, but how much do we know about the culture of producing/consuming copies in the Roman world?
(I'm wondering along the lines of: Are there any ancient texts discussing it? What were people's attitudes towards these works? What was their status and value? How were they likely to be displayed? etc.) I've always assumed most of the time it was the equivalent of having a reproduction of a painting by Mark Rothko or Edward Hopper on your wall at home. However, some of the examples found in Rome (in former imperial gardens, for instance) are clearly very high quality and must have had a more ambiguous (and intriguing) artistic status.
Q: What was the fate of the Panhellenic games post roman conquest of Greece?
The thumbnail for this video is absolutely beautiful. If it's no trouble, could somebody tell me who created this masterpiece.
Cassius Dio often says that senators 'changed their clothes'. Book 41: '...left the senate house and after changing their clothes came in again...'. Book 46: 'Furthermore they changed their clothing again, - they had resumed citizen's apparel in honour of Caesar's consulship...'. Book 41: 'The rest, indignant at this, voted to change their garb...'. I'm very interested to know what all this swapping of attire was for. Thanks - Tim
This is top quality historical nerdery
What were some common hobbies of regular Romans?
No question about ancient history, but instead about your book collection: What's the long series of green-spined books there in the middle? Their large number and relative uniformity compared to the rest has got me curious. :P
Almost certainly the Loeb Classics. Translations (usually taken as the canonical ones) of many important ancient sources.
The green ones are Greek with an English translation on the facing page. The red ones are Latin and English. The Loeb series was originally published in London by Heinemann but now belongs to Harvard University.
My mother had a saying, “a left-handed compliment.” This meant an insult in the guise of a compliment.
The needle pricking of people with poisons always made me wonder. I remember reading Dio's Roman history and he mentions this a few times, and they were years apart from each other, so there must have been a strange cult maybe who were doing this for a religious reason? Hard to figure out
Rome never went away the jesuits even today are known as poisoning assasins its in their oaths, they kill their own popes if theybare not loyal
I don't know if this is a little outside your wheel house but do you happen to know about how torsion engines and other such weapons evolved with the transition from late antiquity into the byzantine Roman empire? I understand torsion engines fell out of use in the west but I've sometimes seen references to catapults and similar weapons talking about byzantine naval warfare but I've struggled to find out the details of how these weapons would have operated.
I asked this on another video, but I wanted to ask again on this one in case you only look at comments from the most recent videos for topic suggestions. Here's a question: How much effort did Rome and Greece put into garnering public support for their wars? Did they come up with reasons? Such as bringing civilization or democracy or human rights? Or did they just not really care about what the public thought and only focus on making sure the military was well paid? Was there much propaganda? Is there evidence of people questioning that propaganda? Were there any musicians spreading skepticism of this? I'm curious if there was some roman equivalent to Rage Against the Machine, or the type of subculture they represent.
How common were mirrors? How likely was it for someone living in the larger Roman empire to know their own appearance? How did this contrast with someone living in the city of Rome?
What do you think the Roman Dodecahedrons were used for?
D&D obv.
In the late Republic, you also had the gangs of Milo and Clodius too, which I would say fits organized crime.
As far as I can tell, every nation in our times has organized crime in one way or another. Although it is apparently mostly unrecorded, it seems like Rome must have had this kind of thing too, but this brings to mind a possible question for a future video. Much of the organized crime of our times involves things which are illegal, such as drugs, prostitution, or "undocumented" immigration. It seems like there might be less incentive for these criminal organizations if the goods and services they provided were not illegal in the first place. So, my question is: did Rome have lots of laws regulating the things that ordinary people could do in their private lives (such as drug use or hiring prostitutes), or controlling who was permitted to enter or leave Rome? That's actually at least three different questions. I would be happy with an answer to any of them!
I have two questions:
- Was a sesterce from the time of the first triumvirate more valuable the a sesterce from the time of Markus Aurelius, sort of like a older coin in modern times.
- Do we or better yet did we find any dead Carthaginians in the alps from Hannibal's crossing in modern times.
My guess would be, that it was much harder for organized crime to thrive under a state that could punish much more swiftly and much more severely. The mob probably would not have lasted very long if they were threatened with crucifixions.
I think it would depen on just how connected it was to local officials.
Has any one calculated or documented the periods known to be without reported civil war, rebellion and border wars etc throughout the republic and empire? It seems to be "one damn thing after another".
Yes they did have organized crime, and one of the most famous, but completely forgotten Crime Lords was Donicus Corleonius he was even thought of as a deity to some, many called him….
The Godfather.
😃
And, I hear. once he tried to get out of the business, but they pulled him right back in...
He couldn’t even get a daughter married off without someone asking him for a favor too
I have a question. Did the Romans have Trade and Craft guilds?. If they did, were they only in Rome, or Empire wide?.
Organized crime was quite common in the past up until industrial revolution, it was just in the countryside: Highwaymen, Brigands, Outlaws, Bandits
Q: How prevalent was banditry in the Roman Empire and Late Republic? What hazards could you face traveling between major cities?
Well even Roman citizens could be snatched up by wealthy estate owners and pressed into slavery.
interesting
did not realize the factor of public gardens in Rome being like parks today... whilst I heard of them, in my mind, I always presumed gardens were something for the élite of the day or as a part of the Thermae/sports complexes.
who were the gardeners in those gardens, was there an equivalent of a park-authority or ministry? was it government slaves? or were these the estates of rich medsenati/benefactors...
What kind of furnishings would be in the houses/apartments of the more middle-class Romans? How were these items protected while the residents were away? Did someone always have to stay home or was a police force of any kind effective enough to discourage burglary even on behalf of modest Romans? I know that's several associated questions in one but interested in a good full response. Thanks!
Many ancient communities had a system of night-watchmen and others for keeping the peace. Such early police forces existed in Egypt (from at least the 4th dynasty), Babylon and China. Augustus divided Rome into a set of precincts patrolled at night by vigiles who were both police and firemen.
There is Toldinstone and Toldinstone Footnotes. Please remind the name of your 3rd channel so I can subscribe.
Scenic Routes to the Past
Were the Romans ever concerned about the deterioration of the environment in the same way we are? Like deforestation or pollution and similar things
What were sparsio missilium and would we want them shot ftom a tee canon today?
What was it like being an artist in Ancient Rome ?
slave work.
Can you clarify if Roman roads were actually the complex multilayer construction of popular imagination? I’ve seen some other folks with decent credentials suggest that that picture isn’t quite right. Thanks if you get to this!
He has made a previous video detailing Roman roads.
@@DesignatedMember thanks I’ll look for that!
Hell yeah brother I love Rome ancient
Q: As a free man without capital to start your own business, how would you have landed a job?
Did the romans experience snow?
Wasn’t organised crime in Rome known as senatorial factions and individual senators?
I have a multi author book called Organised Crime in the Ancient World. Need I say more?
How many people in a normal household were breadwinners needed to pay bills and provide food?
Did the romans have no parking, areas for chariots or other wheeled vehicles in rome.
Did the romans consume anything caffineated? Did tea or coffee ever come in from the east?
What did the average layman in say... the time of Theodosius... know of Roman History to that point?
Q: Did the Romans have some ancient form of or something resembling labour unions?
The collegia come close, although they're very poorly understood. They were probably closer to medieval guilds or modern professional associations than labour unions, and some seem to be as much social clubs as anything else. In a world with very few formal employees - people who worked for you were either slaves or (to use modern parlance) short term contractors - a labour union like we see them in the 20th century wouldn't make sense.
Rome itself was a huge crime syndicate.
The Imperial Mafia?
It's amazing to me that the Romans, or Greeks, never invented pasta or noodles. They ate a lot of bread, which has the same ingredients.
You really stopped caring
Yes. Yes it did.
Please tell us about pets in the ancient world. I know people had pets but little more than that. Thanks.
how do you know so much
Conversely, did ancient criminals organize Rome ?
Of course there would have been organized crime in acient Rome. I've read Lindsay Davis's Falco mysteries. 😂
It shouldn't be so easy to have a crush on you, but I find intelligence attractive.
Crassus was effectively an organised crime lord, getting rich quickly as a corrupt landlord.
Yea but he got his comeuppance
He was the original oligarch.
What do you think the third triumvirate was? I mean Crassus himself was an organized crime . That dude. Pay me or we watch your home burn.
I mean it's Italy.
"Dictator of Canada"?! Wow! Justin Trudeau is a Toldinstone fan!!!
Did Romans believe in demonic possession?
this title feels like an anaphora
yeah, it was called the Senate, lol
Finally a youtuber that looks exactly how I imagined. You look like a roman senator.
🏛🏩🏛🧙🏻♂
title question was the most boring one because the answer is so obviously "yes"
Did Romans eat any form of junk food? Food with little to no nutritional value?
why is this even a question i pretty sure we all know [ROME WAS MADE OF ORGANIZED CRIME] 🤣
Face and voice don't match
🤔
Why didn't u mention about street mob for hire in 1st century BCE? Except gladiators and plebs they were often used in political rivalry in these times
State run crime syndicate actually, christianity