How Dangerous was the Front Row of the Colosseum? 

That story about a child-eating python lurking in the slums of Rome sounds exactly like something that would be a side quest you'd find in an RPG.

I now actually want to see Paulus Blartus, Colosseum Cop as a movie

I love that an engraver from about 1500 years later still had only the sketchiest idea of what elephants looked like. He must have been particularly sceptical when he was told about their height.

20.000 people died in a wooden amfitheater collapse? That's a lot of people.

Imagine being able to time travel and be able to witness something like this first hand.

Just like being in the splash zone at Sea World.

0:22 "you can draw elephants yeah" ? "don't worry fam, i got ya"

Killing random spectators. Thats the ancient Imax experience

Last time I was this early, Rome was still a republic!

I’m in Arles , France right now. It’s like living in an ancient Roman town , I’m loving it

My family lore tells of how one of my Roman ancestors, though a man of meager means, was always able to get great seats at the Colosseum through Stubbus Hubbus.

Caligula once ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into an arena during the intermission to be eaten.

8:20 the emperor was like "blasphemy. I don't have ANY control over what happens at these games. And to prove it, I'm going to control what happens next by feeding you to the dogs."

Those sunhats look quite modern!

Great video as always. There's a show called Spartacus Blood and Sand that often showed the crowd getting sprayed with blood, or skewered by a flying sword from the gladiatorial combat. Nice to know those finer details held some accuracy even with the overall show taking enormous liberties.

The POOR elephants!….I would so HATE such a “spectacle” 😢

‘paulus blartus, colosseum cop’ has me losing it

I was considering going to Rome for this years vacation, and your vids have tipped me over the edge. Gonna be going this October.

What I love the most about these videos, and it may seem odd, is the rock tapping sound at the beginning.

The Colosseum Cop image cracked me up. I wasn't ready for Paulus Blartus.

I visited the ruins of a coliseum in Trier Germany in summer of 1989. Then was in Kaiserslaughtern Germany when the Berlin wall came down. I still have pieces of the Berlin wall. History is too cool

5:57 - that '1,500-year-old late Roman grasswork "Panama hat" from Flinders Petrie's 1901-2 field season in Egypt' is insane - how the hell is it that the only info I can find on this, is Twitter, F/b & Reddit? ..... How & where was it found?

Thank you for all of your videos, I always enjoy them and learning something I may have not known before, and if not just hearing history in an unbiased outlook is always a treat.

Aboslutely love this channel! one of my favourite subscriptions on youtube thank you Toldinstone!

Answering questions I never knew I needed answered yet again!

I love your channel for how much life you bring to ancient history with all these specific looks you do at details like this. Just the colosseum alone I feel like your channel has made me understand what it would've been like so much more than other things that talk about gladiators

For those about to die no refunds.

Never a dull day in the empire.

I never really thought of a question such as this but damn that's pretty interesting.

seen a rodeo bull leap over an 8' pipe fence into the grandstand. i imagine a motivated lion could clear a much higher barrier.

You seem to have countless interesting vídeos, i hope I keep bumping into more of these on my feed

This is something I have never wondered about but I’m glad it came on my fyp.

If you caught a foul arrow, as it were, I wonder if you were allowed to keep it.

Garrett, I heard that it is estimated that throughout the Colosseums active usage, (80AD - 520 isch iirc), about 400,000 people died. I can't remember the source, but I think it was basically doing a spreadsheet of every games we know was held there and average casualty count, if the event was not so special that we actually know the exact numbers like the giant games in the 100AD era. Does the 400k numbers sound off to you? (over 400 yrs of usage)

Oh hell yeah! Can't wait for the new book

Very cool historical video. While only a quasi comparison, I am reminded of the one time I went to the Indianapolis 500. The infield of turn one and the stands across from them were the most likely to receive debris from crashes like fuel, flying tires, etc.

I never knew how much i want the answer to this question until today!

When are you gonna cover Gluteus Maximus, the Thickest ruler of the roman empire?

Fascinating, as always, the chariot segway was a nice touch. 😆🤙

Love your vids homie. The kids i tutor love your insightful and entertaining delivery which as ive always said is important to capturing the minds of our youth rather than boring them to death

Spectators certainly aren't free from danger in modern times as we've seen in crowd crush incidents and horrific car racing accidents.

Dr. Ryan, with those nutrimental props, it is understandable that you deal so passionately with the issues of ancient Rome.

Always great to see one of your videos

thank you for the video

What an interesting premise. Great video

Thank you

TOLDINSTONE is literally my chill time where I get philosophical ideas for my SpongeBob memes.

Lol, that Paulus Blartus joke cracked me up

I was there. They rent out ponchos for a few Sestersius. Well worth it to keep the brain matter off my toga.

Can you further explain the perfumed mist coming from the Colosseums walls?

There was also the risk of getting a beer spilled on you by some spectator dodging a spear. Great channel.

And people thought being in the front rows of a Gallagher show got messy.

Wonderful!

I mean this channel.... im just so happy i found it a couple of months back. You answer questions i never thought i wanted the answer to :D

Great video!!! Looking forward to the new book. Did you ever do a video about citizenship in the empire? I would still really like to hear about the privileges that the empire would give its citizens.

Maybe trying to sell food while showing a picture of Romans taking a dumb isn't the best visual for a culinary selling pitch at 3:14.

A surviving sunhat. Very interesting.

What a great topic! ❤

I really enjoy learning about ancient history. But, laughing unexpectedly makes it better.

Thanks!

I think it's a really good idea to drop related videos from your channel. Ted Ed does a really good job at that and they're worth emulating.

Great stuff 🎉🎉🎉

I was rooting for the elephants

Another certified Campitelli classic!

Thank you for this different perspective of a different part of the Colosseum, historically speaking. I never understood the level of cruelty mankind was/is capable of for nothing that had to do with survival, let alone purely entertaining purposes. Fighting/torturing lions, elephants, eachother, ... to the death. Playing with life in such an arrogant disrespectful way is such a waste.

If 20,000 people really died in the amphitheater collapse in Fidenae then that's by far the deadliest building collapse and stadium incident in history.

Hey quick question! I heard that anyone on their way to be executed would be spared if they caught sight of a Vestal virgin. Assuming this is true (feel free to let me know if it isn't) how did this work with people being executed via gladiator or beasts in the colosseum? Was this just an exception? Was it not considered execution since technically they could fight?

I would definitely watch Paulus Blatus coliseum cop!

Around 12 years ago, during the NFL halftime show on Fox TV, former Steelers QB Terry Bradshaw who had the previous week off, returned to say that he had just come back from Las Vegas. When asked how it went, he replied that if you go to 'Vegas to see Don Rickles' act, don't sit in the front row! Apparently, he did!

All hail PAULUS BLAUTUS!! Holy hell I'm dying!!

The "M'Lady" was a nice touch. 😄

I went to a festival in the french town of dinan early evening my wife said not to sit to close to the low barrier (she had been there 2years before) these where wise words as horses and other animals in the show weren't happy about the tiger led into the arena on a chain by one guy.the horses stared to panic and seeing this the tiger started to pull to get at them the guy on the chain got pulled off his feet and only stopped with the help of three more dudes pulling back .the whole place was in uproar and we got out fast as we could.i didn't think I would ever see a beast show in Europe but typically french every one shrugging there shoulder's and wanted the show to continue.we where told to watch the fireworks from outside the town as they where set off from the roof of the gas station ! I have lots of witnesses and am cautious about going to anything else in rural towns now🤪

Please make a video on ancient ufo sightings. Im sure many of those can be explained away, but would be interesting to know if any match with the current tic tac/cigar shaped ufo etc. Livy and Plutarch did cover ufo sightings.

The pic of the lavatory is horrifying.

Damn, that's the smoothest segway for a frozen food ad

Roman Empire history really fascinates me.

Congrats on the sponsor!

This reminds one of today's modern form of entertainment the Bullfights, where you root for the bulls and more so when they jump the barrier and attack the audience.

@AgentHeroic title translation: PAULIUS BLART COLOSSEUM VIGILUM Pronunciation: Po-l-e-oos Bl-art co-l-o-see-um wig-I-lum Vocabulary: Paulius: Paul Blart: Blart Colosseum: Colosseum VIGILUM: the police Meaning of translation from English to Latin to a new English version: Paul Blart The Colosseum Police/Cop And if a movie like that comes out in the near future I’ll probably be seeing it.😅😂

Paulus Blartus...LOLOLOLOLOL

Sounds like the good old days in Philly at The Vet!

:) thank you

Your voice is very relaxing I use these videos to go to sleep, I also think they are interesting so no offense there

Life was cheap in Rome. BTW - have you done a video on the Republic's Constitution?

I assume it was relatively safe for the time as they are usually reserved for VIPs. Everything back then was more dangerous than we are used to but nothing that would realistically kill a senator.

5:00 Wait a minute. Romans invented the Segway ??

When I visited the Colosseum, I was very interested to note a whole big pile of marble chairs, each engraved with a name, which I took to be a senator's name. Did they bring their own cushioned chairs, and if so, who were these chairs for? Obviously they were a permanent benefit. Or did the senators merely bring cushions for these (very uncomfortable-looking) chairs?

Bro is literally the best RU-vidr

I would love to know more about that falsely reconstructed segment of the seats you show. When was it built? Why has it not been replaced by a more accurate segment?

Heat, eat, and enjoy. Just what the Colosseum vendor told me.

this is something i didn’t know i wanted to know

Well, the popcorn vendors never made it down there.

Are you planning on eventually releasing your new book on Audible as well? Many would be grateful.

It must had been really dangerous sitting in the front row.

This is why I stopped going to the Colosseum, and just streamed from the comfort and safety of my villa.

1:16 what kind of hybrid animal is that? Was the romans breeding different varieties of animals and getting weird-looking things like whats shown in that picture?

Man, it was wild back then.

I mean, considering how many deadly catastrophes we had in Football Stadions over just one century I would say their record isn't any worse as far as we know. The one with 20.000 Deaths is insane but then again. We had similar things happen on a smaller scale multiple times.

There's a meme that made me think of something, were there sometimes sponsors for Coliseum fights and chariots races? As in businessmen promoting themselves or something similar

how Fun was the front row of the museum :D