Absurd Things The Romans Believed Were True
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- čas přidán 31. 03. 2023
- Were the Romans insane? In this video, we read some passages from Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" to find out.
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Sources
[1] Pliny the Elder. The Natural History. Translated by John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., and H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Taylor and Francis, 1855. Accessed through the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/...
Picture Attributions
By Dimitris Kamaras from Athens, Greece - Pliny the Elder, Loggia del Consiglio, Piazza dei Signori, Verona, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Kleon3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Ahmet Q. - Own work, ile:Geographic_map_of_Balkan_Peninsula.svg, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By ArchaiOptix - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Léna - Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
That last quote is so true. Imagine if I returned from a distant land, and I discovered a new animal. This animal is shaped like a beaver and has a similar tail, it also has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, and although it is a mammal, it lays eggs. People would probably say I’m crazy or that I clearly mistook the animal for something else
Nice one
When platypus were first brought to Europe for examination, the biologists thought it was a joke.
They declared it was a prank and someone had seen the parts together from different animals.
As soon as Plinius mentioned Cato I immediately though "It's going to be something about cabbages. Or destroying Carthage". The man had a bizarrer obsession with cabbage
Cabbage man!
Have you ever thought that cabbage sounds a lot like Carthage? Cato was on to something.
Another similarity: both are better salted.
Must’ve been related to Diocletian. Oh those were some fine fine cabbages!
its not bizarre cabbages are great
Diocletian was a cabbage man aswell
The "men with dogs' heads and beast skin" thing was most likely the Greek/Roman way of describing monkeys, which they never would have seen before going to India.
Though monkeys dont resemble a man much
@@arte0021 Monkeys are animals closest to resemblance to men, so that comment may be true.
The observation about elephants is actually not exactly absurd. It is observed that elephants perform ritualistic actions. Some still speculate even today that this is a spiritual habitude.
True, they mourn their dead for example, and as far as intelligence, they have well...the memory of an elephant
@@Minskpotato Yes. High intelligence and good memory could be described as a kind of animal "wisdom".
There are theories that the "Dog-headed men" are slightly exaggerated stories of baboons, which does make a fair amount of sense.
For real, I was like ok that's odd, but not too far-fetched, considering the Era, then he started talking about where bears come from
It’s absolutely true
He could easily be right about the cabbage wine thing, which would be a cure for the hard of hearing for those whose hearing ailment is caused from earwax. Today we do the same with hydrogen peroxide or astringents like, well, alcohol and vinegar, which is basically the same idea.
2:20
"Unlicked bear" (ongelikte beer) is an oldschool Dutch insult.
In France we call a cranky person a badly-licked bear, but I don't think it came from that ^^
@Krankar Volund Yes it did.
Gekoloniseerd
The putting the vinegar on the forehead thing gave me flashbacks to "Head on! Apply Directly To The Forehead!"
I hate you for putting that back in here 🧠. 🤣🤣🤣
APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD! APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD! 🤣🍻
Now do: “True things the Romans thought were absurd.”
Now I have to make a DnD character that heals people with the most absurd and bizarre remedies.
Interesting fact: Pliny the YOUNGER documented Vesuvius erupting and destroying Pompeii and his descriptions are still crucial to the study of volcanism.
Enjoyed your edits 😅
But also happy you pointed out that Pliny was just working with second and third hand sources (and acknowledges the implausibility of some theories). He was just obsessed with consolidating information.
I'm really thinking that alot of Pliny is lost in translation.
Pliny was in more ways just plain crazy. It does not matter how much of a migraine I have as even if I whisper I have a migraine into my smart phone, it will not get a horrible show I am watching taken off the air. A quiet, dark room, migraine meds, & consulting a doctor truly work.
The "wetting the bed" part literally gave me bellylaughs!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
In tried it and my GF left. Maybe its it's actually a remedy for getting away from annoying women?
@@UserBeenBanned 🤣
I wonder how many of these weird folk remedies will come back into vogue if they are updated, written on a meme next to a Minion, and shared on Facebook.
I believe Plenii may have eaten some strange mushrooms for breakfast.
Such fun. Did Mr. Pliny publish on First April?
Much of the claims about elephants are observably true. Elephants travel great distances on well known roots, showing a great degree of navigational skill, which would explain why Pliny might believe they used/worshipped the stars. We're aware of Elephant "Grave Yards" that they seemingly know to go to when they feel they'll die soon. That they have an agreed upon site, and that multiple different herds are aware of and share this practice. It seems very much like a burial ritual, that they have grounds they consider hallowed to die in. If they are aware of and concerned about life and death, and whether they die in the "proper" place, it seems they have at least some form of belief system, possibly a whole religion communicated within their herds. But thats a lot of speculation!
🤣 This is awesome. Wisdom from Pliny. Thank you for a great April Fool's Day gift.
I'm pretty sure he put this stuff in to make sure his students did the reading
I think the donkey is called a beast of burden for a reason.
I have a feeling the ones like “obtain a tick from the left ear of an entirely black dog and wear it as an amulet” was just elders trying to distract people they have no answer for.
I wonder if the story about people with one leg who hop about all the time could possibly be a very distorted account of kangaroos?
that capyboara at 6:20 has me rolling
I do always like to wonder what sort of things that we take for granted today, people in 2000 years will think are utterly absurd.
I just keep thinking it's gonna be really mundane things, like sleeping on our backs or drying ourselves with towels or wearing socks with shoes. Or it might be some genuine crimes against humanity... Like bubble-tea. 😂
Yeah, that’s how I feel like when people put historical people to our standards, our standards are gonna be judged the same by stuff we don’t even know is wrong in their eyes yet.
Wearing masks to stop Covid.
I've yet to come across anything in our time that beats the Victorian recipe for "beef tea". I mean, seriously - WHAT THE HELL??
That's what I think when I hear people make fun of the Romans for using lead in everything
@@Serai3 I'm sorry to be the one to tell you tell you this but, look up Bovril..
Lesson learned: Even the world's most influential empires filled with the best intellectuals for their time had the dumbest of beliefs
Today too
I don't agree I love the Roman empire buy Yes Roman empire had done many bad things like this but the Roman empire was more influence than the Germanic tribes and more likely all empires and conquers are better than the USA USA was never a empire and in my opinion I love Augustus and Julius Caesar better than George Washington and Tomas Jefferson disclaimer this is just my opinion so don't hate on anyone
@@rahulchander5165 have you ever heard of full stops?
@@cerdic6305 Wdym
@@cerdic6305 This is just my opinion I am not saying everything Roman empire did was good but better than the USA and USA was never a empire and I love empires and conquers more and I do support Julius Caesar Augustus Napoleon Bonaparte Alexander the great and all conquers not George Washington or Tomas Jefferson or whatever but remember do not hate on them for anything this is just my thoughts and don't hate on USA this is all my opinion
Some of these sound like hearsay and legends being writen as facts, but most sound like a know it all making stuff up when asked about something instead of saying "I don't know" like a decent person would.
"Bro, one time I was out in the mountains and I saw these dudes fucking running with backwards feet, like they were fast as fuck and they had some white substance under their nose.. I can't give you proof of them and bring them here though, they'll just die."
Pliny while writing this….. 😏
Some of these have to be Farmers Almanac type jokes and trolling. Especially the lighting one
prime example of not studying before the exam
that's the ultimate troll, when you choke on bread put 2 more pieces in your ears ='D
I love your channel. Long live history
If you'd be interested in doing so, the history of Brazil is quite a ride, full of plots, failed rebellions, authoritarian presidents (the 1st one basically quit because he could not be absolute in power lol), failed parliament, brutal dictatorship and a whole bunch of funny, and quite interesting, if i can say so, stories, like when the emperor got diarrhea and decided to declare independence, or how the very first president after dictatorship got impeached (see the paralels here?) and got back into senatorship afterwards. I'd love for more people to know the crazy lore of my country.
I snickered at some of these... legends Pliney described. I burst out laughing when FOL said "So what was wrong with this guy?" On a serious note though, I'm glad that even Pliney was skeptical of a lot of these claims, no one in their right mind would believe this stuff... unless they were on drugs. :)
I'd rather bet on mercury or lead. Many of the roman elite had quite unhealthy intake habits of such.
enjoy your videos, hope all is well
Some of these had me in stitches 🤣🤣😭😭💀
Can't tell if this is a serious video about hilarious misconceptions in Ancient Rome, or if this video is just an April Fools joke and no one in Ancient Rome believed this. *edit:* After watching the full thing, I guess not everyone believed these claims, even back then, but Pliny the Elder definitely wrote this stuff down.
I imagine it just as modern myths. Today we have myths like let's say Bigfoot, alien abductions (not talking about alien life in the universe as a whole), cryptids etc. Some people genuinely believe they are real, others who don't believe in such things but find them interesting or entertaining (I fall in this category). If something disturbs our world and a lot of knowledge is lost for centuries, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that future people who find pieces of our civilization may think that we as a whole actually believed in these things just because we put a lot of attention towards it in media even if it's only for an entertainment, but if future historians have only limited knowledge about our word and have bits and pieces they may fall into a conclusion like this. That's why we have to be careful with assumptions about the past especially thousands of years ago and if it was an actual belief for most people, or was just used as interesting maybe even fun stories.
Observation about elephants is quite right in a certain way
Brilliant! Cheered me up enormously. No longer gonna queue to get a doctors appointment, just looking for a black dog.
Very entertaining video.
Yeah "different standards for evidence" is a understatement, and I mean that in a charitable way. When your world is full of many things you don't understand, phenomenon you can't explain, and tragedies that seem to happen at random... it probably made sense to collect whatever knowledge you could, dubious though it may be, and report on it. Throw it at the wall and see what sticks, as they say.
It also occurs to me that people today think we have it "all figured out"... some of the things modern culture takes for granted may be seen as laughable sometime in the future. I could think of a few things, but I digress.
Très bon vidéo M. Laviolette.
I’m convinced bro was jus trolling half the time
He died tragically trying to rescue people from the vulcanic eruption which gave us Pompeii as Pliny the Younger (his nephew and student) writes in his famous letter collections. They also end suddenly so his tenth book without satisfactory ending was likely published posthumously
0:23 I'd die because I'd feel terrible about passing the pain onto the donkey.
Ave Justinian! He has returned! 🙌
4:21 sounds like they’re describing seals…
Awesome video...never heard of this book...reminded me of reading Mark Twain biography of Joan of Arc
this video was actually amazing
The "ask your doctor if a harness by which man was hung is right for you...." Made me lol.
Thanks Mr. Plinkett
Videos we all want to see:
History of ancient greece
History of hellenic world
History of bronze age
Video on bronze age collapse
It just sounds like an insult: "If you want your child to have dark eyes, go eat a rat."
I almost feel like that opening line was a form of meme in its day
Ancient telephone and mistraslations allways create these helariòus ideas
You mean to tell me ear bread isn’t a thing? My whole world is shattered! Much dissapoint.
The little mosaic animations are cracking me up
My mother used say that you can make a wart disappear if you cut a potato in half, rub one piece on the wart, put the two pieces together again, bury them under a bush at midnight, and the wart will go away when the potato sprouts. Nowadays they treat potatoes with something that keeps them from sprouting, so I don't know if it will work the next time I do it.
Should be noted that these is what Plinius the elder believed not all people of his time
Lucian for instance makes fun Ctesias claim of one leg people and names him a liar
My guy Pliny writing these things like he is telling us how to unlock Waluigi in Mario 64
If you got the plugin to see dislikes, you'll see the ratio is crazy, keep up the good work im contributing to said raito. 714/4
Hey what happened to you napoleon top 10 tips video it was my favorite and now it’s gone ???
I'm more so curious about how the knowledge of such things spread. Did he know or have an idea? I wonder how he heard of them and other things?
Most stuff was spread orally by elders to a new generation and people used to meet in towns (unlike now) and have discussions with each other.
@@BananLord thank you!
@@robertortiz-wilson1588 also, there was the respected elders in the village/town that knew spiritual and medical stuff. Like, there would be an old woman that helped with all births in the village, priests and nuns with their knowledge, "witches", etc. When my aunt was a child and had her foot injured, she went to an old woman in the village to get her foot popped back in place,it was done correctly since there were no complications.
@@BananLord I see!
He was speaking in code. He knew that if he had said what he really meant, the vigiles would target him.
This is my favourite April Fools joke!
I think Pliny the elder died trying to save people on the pompeii eruption (He took a ship along with other people across the bay) but he died suffocated by the volcano gases. Pretty heroic way to go.
the dolphin bit got me and i still dont know why 💀
I like to imagine he just sat around thinking "lol I wonder if ppl will believe this one lol"
On April First, they might.
That first line is probably one of the oldest memes out there
Zany or not, Pliny the Elder has a fine, fine beer named after him. The Younger is said to be good too.
3:53 Sounds like a bunch of furry role players.
By that I mean, a bunch of fellows killed some wolves, skinned the heads to make them into headsets, went to the mountains, & formed a little furry haven.
This is how future generations are gonna view people who take astrology signs seriously
The elephant thing actually seems plausible imo
Pliny has definitely left his mark on history
Couldn't hear a thing. I've bread in my ears.
Wake up babe a new fire of learning video just dropped
Pliny the Elder was at Pompeii when the Volcano erupted. He died on a rescue attempt
one of these has to be true
@Fire of Learning could you please make a video about the Absurd Things The Greeks Believed Were True
Amazing opening
Dropping salt on the floor is a bad omen
Did Jonathan Swift just rip off Pliny the Elder with Gulliver's Travels? 😅
Me: Source?
Rome: I made it all up
Pliny discribed Scooby Doo's ancestor
2:40 the bear one just sounds like someone saw a mama bear lick away some fetal membrane that covered her Cubs.
Those guys with faces on their chests have me laughing so hard I'm literally in tears. So if we had a time machine we could go back and seriously find people stuffing bread in their ears and pissing on dog's sleeping arrangements? Or was this stuff actually commonly practiced?
Majinger Z antagonists.
@@vandagylon2885 No. NOT Majinger Z antagonists.
@@s.deegan3740 the guys with faces on thier chests are. Yes.
@@vandagylon2885 oh okay I get it now. Sort of. I'm not really familiar with the media franchise to which you are making reference.
Look who's covering Rome again!
goated video. W channel; 690k subscribers lmao
Good to know the Ancient Romans were writing comedic literature.
When you got to the part about babes re-entering the womb, I was immediately reminded of the WKUK (Whitest Kids U Know, for those not familiar) "We Got a Runner!" sketch.
Ancient life hacks
One story my latin teacher told me is that the romans thought that elks did not have knees, and thus, to hunt them, you would have to cut the forest down that they live in (because they would lean on trees to sleep, and will die from exhaustion without them)
I wonder if some of his more bizarre claims were political commentary or something. Like the bread symbolizes the glut of the gladiatorial games choking out the masses, and bread in the ears the idiocy of politicians.
Perhaps Pliny the Younger wrote some of those prompts
Our politicians "tribe of human beings with dog heads"
Stuff about elephants was pretty accurate actially
The elephant one sounds like it could be legit tho
ahhhh... April
These Romans must've had some kick-ass drugs !!