Amazing that these inscriptions have survived. It really reminds you of how they were actual people with real lives and real problems, not simply an abstract concept
Years ago when I lived in Mexico I was fascinated by The Day of the Dead. Not the gaudy parades so much but things I can remember seeing, such as in a small fishing town on the Pacific for instance. The entire cemetery twinkling that night with candles, the sound of music, laughter and all the people feasting and communing with their dead, kids running around. It seemed to me to be very different but very wholesome. Perhaps the Romans were the same. Good post.
Romans had a number of festivals to commemorate the dead and they could be quite lively - it's likely that Roman graveyards looked like this several times throughout the year
@@tribunateSPQR Certainly throughout recorded history until recently you can see that humanity has struggled to deal with mortality and bereavement. A thousand years ago life was short and we lost so many family members to disease, famine or war. Nowadays we are shocked that an 80-year old dies of COVID or saddened that a 45-year old woman failed to carry her second artificially implanted egg to term. Our species' view of life and death is just, to me at least... WEIRD.
@@cerberus6654 Death is always a tragedy, however I think you're right that there seems to be less to mourn when an 86 year old dies of natural causes than the routine deaths of children under 5 in the ancient world.
"You who read this, go and bathe in the bath of Apollo, which I did with my wife. I wish I were still able to do it." That one in particular really gets me. Thanks for the recommendation, stranger. 😭
@@tribunateSPQR I don't remember if you've talked about this on the channel yet, but... we can't even use the Roman baths anymore, right? Most of them are swimming with bacteria, like (the coincidentally named) Legionnaires' disease.
@@andrewphilos we did a video about baths - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DXxmMeQ5o48.htmlsi=4XFuVp9gyU9be8aR While most are out of commission, there is still a bathhouse in Algeria that is still in use: www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24493177
i keep returning to this video because i am so, absolutely blown away and moved by the idea of these people and their love surviving thousands of years. the idea of loving someone so much that evidence of your pure love lasts longer than every empire to exist. it really does tug on the heart strings.
I completely agree - this was such a sobering episode because it reminded me of just how human these people all were, how wracked by grief they would have been at the passing of their loved ones. It's easy to do history when we think of those who occupied the past as simple people that were not as complex and multi-faceted as us sophisticated moderns - but that isn't real history and doing so makes it impossible to really learn from ancient societies because it makes them less than human.
Pretty touchy some of the inscriptions on those plates, couldn't avoid but to tear up a bit. Great video, keep up the good work; it baffles me why you are such a small channel when you are on par quality wise with the bigger roman channels.
They really are quite moving, reminds us of how much we have in common with the Romans. Thank you for your kind words - we're growing everyday and as a 2 man operation I'm honestly surprised to be where we are now after just over a year. Comments like yours do help us though, both from the encouragement standpoint and also from the algorithm boost.
Our kids were learning about coat of arms in school and asked us what our family motto would be if we had a coat of arms, and I proposed memento mori. I was outvoted.
this video reminds me of the epitaph of seikilos, i recommend you listen to the song, i believe it was writtin in 200 bc but could be wrong. also great video, what are your thoughts on the propaganda augustus used with ceasars death?
