What Did Hoplites Eat on Campaign? - Greek Army Logistics DOCUMENTARY

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Documentary on Greek Army logistics. Download Warpath today using Code SNIPER24: bit.ly/AFKInvicta and join the Warpath Tank Tower 2 mini-game: tanktower2-warpath.lilith.com/
In this history documentary we explore the topic of what ancient Greek armies ate while on campaign. The video begins with a review of what ancient Greeks typically ate at home. This included a 3 meal tradition with lots of bread, cheese, olives, fish, legumes, leafy greens, and more. Their diet was rich but not all such products could be obtained whilst at war.
We next cover Greek army logistics to give you a sense for how hoplite armies would feed and supply themselves whilst on campaign. Finally we then reconstruct a typical greek army diet. This includes a sesame and honey snack called Itrion which was featured in Max Miller's Tasting History episode "Feeding a Greek Hoplite - Ancient Rations". Hopefully this gives you a good idea for what Greek Hoplites ate.
Credit:
Research = Chris Das Neves
Script = Chris Das Neves
Narration = Guy Michaels
Reenactment = The Greek Phalanx (www.thegreekphalanx.org/)
Art = Penta Limited
Sources:
"Anabasis" by Xenophon
"Hellenika" by Xenophon
"Peace" by Aristophanes
"Courtesans and Fishcakes" by James Davidson
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
02:21 Typical Greek Diet
03:54 Symposium
06:40 Army Logistics
09:36 Hoplite Breakfast
11:27 Itrion Snack
13:12 Obtaining Rations
15:01 Lunch
15:40 Dinner
18:33 Outro
#history
#documentary
#greece

Опубликовано:

7 июн 2024

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Комментарии : 248

@InvictaHistory 5 месяцев назад

What hoplite history should we cover next? Download Warpath today using Code SNIPER24: bit.ly/AFKInvicta and join the Warpath Tank Tower 2 mini-game: tanktower2-warpath.lilith.com/

@ugandanknuckkles9667 5 месяцев назад

I think you probably should add a link to Max's video

@artawhirler 5 месяцев назад

Please do a continuation of the series on hoplite battle with Paul Bardunias!

@t.wcharles2171 5 месяцев назад

The Roman Phalanx of the late Kingdom and early Republic would be interesting.

@t.wcharles2171 5 месяцев назад

@@jiyuhong5853 they have talked about but not in great detail.

@BryantVonMiller 5 месяцев назад

I'm so pleasantly surprised our friend Max Miller got to make an appearance in documentaries like this.

@InvictaHistory 5 месяцев назад

We've done a couple spots with him in the past and they always work so well. Glad you've enjoyed it 😊

@darkhorse13golfgaming 5 месяцев назад

I'm convinced Max is one of the most easy to get along with guys on RU-vid lol.

@alonzoellis3538 5 месяцев назад

as someone whom watches both of ya, always plesant to see @@InvictaHistory

@baysword 5 месяцев назад

Just got my wife his cook book!

@nicholasmaximus3412 5 месяцев назад

Max is a national treasure

@Alopex1 5 месяцев назад

Hello Invicta! Ancient historian here (MA, Department of Ancient History, University of Freiburg, Germany). I would like to thank you for this video. I have spent many years of my academic career researching ancient Greek eating habits and food and have experimentally tried recreating several dishes myself. Accordingly, I really enjoyed your video and must applaud you for including Max Miller (another one of my RU-vid favourites alongside your channel!). Your collaboration with the Greek phalanx made for some really nice and authentic depictions of Greek hoplites - so your video is visually really well-made. Broadly speaking, you present a very good overview over ancient Greek cuisine! However, as an obnoxious expert (pedant) in my field I feel the need to point out several mistakes and omissions you made. Please know that I absolutely love your channel and appreciate your hard work, so please take the following criticism as constructive. - Not all ancient Greeks had three meals a day. In some city states, it appears to have been more common to have two meals - ariston and deipnon. These were consumed mid-morning and late afternoon. (This is indeed indirectly mentioned by you in the video when you stated that deipnon could already begin in the late afternoon) - While you do mention "porridge", I was very disappointed that you did not mention the most critical of Greek foods - maza. Maza, usually made from roasted barley, could take many shapes and forms, but usually appears to have been consumed as flour mixed with oil and warm water to form a paste which was then kneaded by hand and then eaten in clumps or dollops. The closest modern equivalent is Tibetan tsampa, which is made much the same way. Maza could also be made as a porridge, with milk or water, and spiced with salt or herbs. Sometimes it could also take the form of simple flatbreads, like modern Scottish bannocks. Maza was so fundamental to Greek cuisine that it was often eaten for both/all three of the meals. So your omission of it really detracts from your presentation of Greek cuisine. (I have made and eaten maza myself and must say it's one the most underwhelming foods I ever tasted) - Teganites (the pancakes) could be made just as you describe them, however several recipes exist. In its simplest form, teganites could be made with just wheat flour, water, olive oil and salt. (I have made this myself and they turned out delicious) Honey was a luxury product and would not have been widely used. Curdled milk would only have been used by Greek populations with abundant access to milk (such as the Boiotians and Eleans), whereas milk products were not that easy to come by in other regions of Greece. - The krater: I'm really nitpicking here, but there appear to have been various vessels used for mixing wine - another (potential) candidate is the psykter. Some literary sources also mention the sale of pre-mixed wine, so the wine may not always have to be mixed in the krater. - An important thing to mention in regard to armies feeding themselves is that many Greek commanders often tried to attack enemy territory just before the harvest season. That way, the grain harvest had not yet been gathered, and the army could then gather the grain as it ripened and the men used up the supplies they had brought along. The Spartans tried (and sometimes succeeded) in doing this when they invaded Attica on a yearly basis during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War. - Thucydides' most famous quote ("The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must"): alas, I fear you have fallen into the trap that so many people (including renowned modern historians and, for a time, I myself!) have fallen into. The translation you quoted is a very old one (late 19th century) and sadly a very bad one. Here's my own translation, which doesn't sound anywhere near as dramatic but is much closer to the Ancient Greek original: "the strong exact whatever they can; the weak yield." - Milling the flour: while mortar-and-pestle-style mills were used to a degree, a far more common form of mill was the hand-turned mill. This was formed by a round stone base with a larger, round millstone placed on top, fixed to the base with a thick wooden peg in the middle of both stones. There was a separate hole on the topside of the millstone into which a handle was inserted, by which the millstone could be manually turned. These hand-turned mills were far less laborious to use and appear to have been quite common also in domestic contexts. - Leavened bread: here I again draw from personal experience. While leaven was known and was used by the Greeks, it's not actually that easy to produce and preserve. You can make sourdough and achieve really nice results, but it's very difficult to preserve for any length of time without a fridge. While drying sourdough is possible, we have little actual evidence for this being done in Classical Greece (though I personally believe it very plausible). In short: when on campaign, leavened bread could only realistically be a) bought/stolen from locals or traders, or b) made on the spot - which is only possible if the army stays in one place for at least several days, giving the attendants time to ferment some sourdough. Much more commonly, Greek warriors would have consumed maza from barley or unleavened flatbreads from wheat. Bread is rarely mentioned in military contexts, while maza (or "roasted barley") is mentioned very often. - Meat: you very correctly mentioned that meat was rarely consumed, as it was comparatively expensive and sometimes hard to come by. However, armies would engage in hunting. But more importantly, every army would, if possible, take livestock with them, sometimes entire herds of goats, sheep or, in rare cases, cattle. These were crucial to any army as the Greeks tended to offer sacrifices to the gods, sometimes even multiple times a day and even during battle. However, the sacrificial meat was almost always distributed to the men (this was also very common in civic/domestic contexts). Only the inedible parts of the animal and some organs were actually burned as offerings, the rest was consumed. So even warriors on campaign could count on periodical rations of meat. Please, please take my criticism construcitvely and understand that I love your channel and enjoy all the videos you make and appreciate the hard work and research that go into them! Kind greetinga deom Freiburg, Germany, and keep up the amazing work! Alopex

@joekenorer 5 месяцев назад

Interesting information.

@suedoe4316 5 месяцев назад

Thank you so much for sharing. Have you considered adding some of this knowledge to Wikipedia? I believe that is the best way for things to become better known!

@bliblablubb9590 5 месяцев назад

Hast du daran gedacht dich als Zweitkorrektor zu melden? Wer weiß, könntest ein guter Berater des Invicta-teams werden.😂

@Alopex1 5 месяцев назад

@@suedoe4316 Thanks for the kind words. In general I would really like to add my knowledge to Wikipedia, the problem is I'm something of a perfectionist and would want to do a good job and include citations, quotes from historical sources, footnores and a bibliograpy to support my claims. This is a huge amount of work and I simply don't have the time or energy to do that. But if you're looking for a great source on Ancient Greek Cuisine then I recommend the work Deipnosophistai by Athenaios, which contans hundreds of recipes and a lot of valuable information on Greek food (for instance, he mentions several different types of maza).

@Alopex1 5 месяцев назад

@@bliblablubb9590 Danke für das Lob! Prinzipiell gerne, aber leider lässt mir mein Alltag keine Zeit oder Energie für so was. Auch glaub ich nicht das Invicta die Ressourcen für zusätzliche Mitarbeitenden hat.

@dnkal2875 5 месяцев назад

The snack in 11:30 is still eaten today in Greece we just call it pasteli(παστελι) it's pretty much the same or it can has more honey or also with pistachio

@honzavasicek 5 месяцев назад

Its being sold here in czech republic too, i just cant remember the name of it. Its amazing for how long and how far food can go. To the point its just normal snack in shop you would never though of how old it actually is.

@robertajill3070 4 месяца назад

We have them here in Canada too. Just called “Sesame Snacks”…. Not very original I know. Our roadside assistance agencies recommend keeping a few packages in your car in case of emergency. I guess they pack a lot of calories and carbohydrates into a small package. Perfect for emergency rations.

@honzavasicek 4 месяца назад

@@robertajill3070 thinking about it, it might be called same just in czech 😂

@sarantissporidis391 4 месяца назад

And pancakes are called exactly like the ancient ones were called after so many centuries.

@kuessebrama 12 дней назад

@@honzavasicek yeah the good stuff stays. It is actually pretty amazing to thing that people hundreds or even 1000-2000 or more years ago eat the same things as we do today, atleast some of them.

@jojoxxi 5 месяцев назад

Please do more of these "what armies eat" videos. They interest me so much

@mercenarygundam1487 5 месяцев назад

Same

@MarcusAgrippa390 5 месяцев назад

It's mundane details like this that so often go completely overlooked but are crucial to get a better understanding of history. Well done Invicta!

@ravenbarsrepairs5594 4 месяца назад

15:27 ...... I can only imagine the smell of that bowl of onion, green onion, and garlic. Seems like the start to a tasty meal.

@DeepDarkSamurai 5 месяцев назад

An EXCELLENT episode. Greece was always one of my favorite ancient army topics

@Mereel401 5 месяцев назад

I love these types of videos. And it is always great to see Max. I can only recommend his channel.

@arissarkides1380 5 месяцев назад

Not sure it's the right niche but if anyone's brutally obsessed with anything hoplitic related I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's military history videos

@benjaminnurmentaus4232 5 месяцев назад

I love Invicta because of how the channel have shown me how we aren't so different to those ancient soldiers. They had family, Feelings and basic needs like us. The troops aren't just pawns but real people and that's why i like Invicta.

@stephencuffel4932 4 месяца назад

Schwerpunkt has fascinating topics, done in depth. I just wish I could understand the narrator better. Captions are machine generated and nearly useless.

@meinhoffendant 4 месяца назад

dude ancient soldiers were prone to mutiny and go home on the turn of an emotional dime; the modern anglo/germanic/whatever soldier would be a terminator-like robot to them@@benjaminnurmentaus4232

@ya_boi1586 5 месяцев назад

Good stuff; I always enjoy seeing y'all work with Max Miller 😊

@PakBallandSami 5 месяцев назад

“The hoplites drove the tyrants from power and created broad oligarchies in their place.” ― Donald Kagan,

@hannibalb8276 5 месяцев назад

A tale as old as time

@greekorthodoxmonarchist 5 месяцев назад

great documentary! You are amazing :) All the best, Invicta!

@davidhughes8357 5 месяцев назад

I've been interested in an studying ancient military history ( particularly Roman and Greek ) just short of 60 years. As always thank you all so much for the wonderful video work!!

@LeonidasSparta-Fun-History 5 месяцев назад

Great video once again Invicta crew! Always great to see the group in the videos too! 👏👏

@TheLoyalOfficer 5 месяцев назад

Wow - that Max Miller bit was awesome! Great work!

@isaack2084 5 месяцев назад

There’s a great book by Richard Gabriel called Phillip II of Macedonia: Greater Than Alexander that covers that era. It goes into great detail about the logistics of the armies and societies. The average Greek Hoplite was about 5’7 and no more than 145lbs based on mass graves from that era. The average hoplite consumed less than 1000 calories a day. Athens was the wealthiest city state amongst the greeks and they imported about half of their food (grain) from the Bosporus, and it wasn’t uncommon for sporadic famine and malnutrition to sweep across the region. Macedonia was in a more fertile region and eventually conquered the Bosporus as a strategic means of influencing Greek politics and providing feed for their calvary. It’s really mind blowing to see. Food before the invention of nitrogen fertilizers was less nutritious and provided less calories.

@John2r1 5 месяцев назад

That's about accurate until they got to Sparta which had a higher calorie , protein and complex carbs rich diet and a standard workout plan similar to modern military's more or less. And we get an average of 5ft 8in tall and around 154 to 176 lbs at most . But that was due to diet and exercise . Most Greek Hoplites were not full time soldiers. The Spartan Hoplites were full time soldiers. That was literally the Spartan mans only job form age 6 until he retired at age 60. From age 6 to age 20 was nothing but training . By age 20 he was expected to be a member of a mess. From then until age 30 a Spartan man slept in the barracks rather he was married or not. Until he turned 60 he was expected to train and to fight when called upon to fight. So there are exceptions to everything you just said. Oh and we actually don't know the exact amount of calories they consumed but it was likely more than 1000 calories considering that most adults need a minimum of 2000 calories to sustain metabolism, muscle activity, and brain function. The Greeks were biologically modern humans like we are. So the calorie count would depend on the amount of work they were doing and type of work they were doing but a good baseline would be that they consumed at minimum 2,000 calories a day. Soldiers today in the US military soldiers are required according to AR 40-25 to intake a minimum of 3,600 calories per day of field operations. In combat conditions soldiers can need up to 4,000 to 6,000 calories a day to account for the physical demands of the situation. So your average Greek on a daily would have eaten 2,000 or so calories while your average hoplite on campaign would have consumed probably twice as many calories as he would in his normal daily life in most cases. The Spartans being a special case since they were soldiers or hoplites 24/7 as a career for the State of Sparta until they turned 60. All the other Greeks didn't have a professional full time army. Sparta also did have a Navy . It was pretty much the neglected red headed step child of Sparta but they had a Navy as well. So you match your calorie intact to the amount of work you are doing. Marching and fighting in 60 lbs of equipment in the summer is hard work especially for the majority of city-states citizen -hoplites. Except Sparta of course beause they trained all year round.

@thodan467 5 месяцев назад

@@John2r1 Do you mean Homioioi or Spartans the Homoioio were mostly slave and manor owners

@Ramoreira86 5 месяцев назад

Maybe in macedonia, cuz i read in a recent study that the average greek was 5'9 which is still pretty tall if you ask me! 1000 calories per day sounds like not even the minimum, but I would assume that they had times that they would eat that much. I think 2200 calories per day is more likely.

@Ramoreira86 5 месяцев назад

@@John2r1based on what I read im with 100% with you

@Malikav0311 5 месяцев назад

What a great segment absolutely loved this!

@user-pm3tb5wz2o 7 дней назад

Thank you for all the work that went into this.

@artawhirler 5 месяцев назад

Another great video! Thanks! ( And the "special guest appearance" by Max Miller, one of my other favorite RU-vidrs, made it even better!) I'm eagerly looking forward to your next hoplite video!

@danukil7703 5 месяцев назад

Thank you for these excellent videos on classical and late antique logistics :)

@Xurium 5 месяцев назад

Man, I love the "Tasting History" channel, thanks for including him ;)

@nazarnovitsky9868 4 месяца назад

Thank You very much for the new video !!! 😊

@Kite403 5 месяцев назад

Always love these kinds of videos! It all sounds so simple, but I bet for those soldiers, it was a reprieve from campaign monotony.

@robbabcock_ 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for such a fascinating and insightful video! I love these looks the lives of ordinary soldiers.

@fpassow1 5 месяцев назад

Thanks! I love any content about common foods of common people throughout history.

@danielgrayling4287 4 месяца назад

Such a well made and interesting video -- loved the cameo!

@timonadjiev8965 5 месяцев назад

I love this! i hope we'll get to see more history about food and logisitcs like this!

@randalthor741 5 месяцев назад

I don't know why I find videos about logistics in ancient and medieval times so damn fascinating, but I really do. Nice to see Max Miller make an appearance too - I enjoy his channel and it's always nice to see him showing up on other channels that I enjoy as well! It's actually happened a few times recently lol

@Cherb123456 5 месяцев назад

Enjoyed to watch! Thank you!

@srinfinity5587 5 месяцев назад

I absolutely love your videos! Thank you for this. I like to heat up my meal and watch these whilst I’m stuffing my face

@user-er1ih6xt9x 5 месяцев назад

This is awesome I really enjoy learning what ancient people ate and how they prepared there food W Video 🎉🎉

@anthonyshannon5194 5 месяцев назад

That was such an incredibly interesting video!

@-RONNIE 5 месяцев назад

Thanks for the information in this video

@nicholasmaximus3412 5 месяцев назад

A wonderful video. I've long been fascinated by the diet of the ancients, especially around the idea of a soldier being combat fit on such a minimalist diet

@feildpres 5 месяцев назад

Great video guys!

@Blooberryx 5 месяцев назад

this was such a cool video

@emiralid 5 месяцев назад

Great video, thanks!

@eliech7112 4 месяца назад

Thank you great video

@davidcozziii 5 месяцев назад

Is it possible to get a full list of foods for each meal in a pdf?

@Filisteu1900 5 месяцев назад

Great content 🎉🫵🔥

@gm2407 2 месяца назад

Great video.

@404killer 5 месяцев назад

AMAZING video !

@fatalinsomn1a182 4 месяца назад

You guys are awesome.

@Iusti018 4 месяца назад

Thanks for your video! :-)

@darkhorse13golfgaming 5 месяцев назад

Nice to see Max and y'all in a bit of a crossover 🙂

@steveclark5357 5 месяцев назад

very well done thank you

@danieln6700 5 месяцев назад

These videos are so interesting

@barbiquearea 5 месяцев назад

Thucydides' account of the Spartan attack on Pylos in 425 BC includes a description of what the Spartan army had for rations, which includes; ground corn, cheese, wine, and "any other food useful in a siege." Sparta was famous for their signature dish known as black soup, which was a broth made from small chunks of pork meat put in a stew and doused with salt and vinegar. This particular cuisine was normally served during special occasions such as during banquets and festivals and could also been part of a Spartan soldier's diet when on campaign. Nevertheless, Spartan soldiers were typically well-nourished, meaning they were must have been very well provisioned with all manners of food stuffs during military campaign.

@John2r1 5 месяцев назад

That and the Spartans actually trained to fight year round and were taught to never over eat to fullness. They were taught to eat only what they needed to fill their calorie requirements. The other city states had citizen soldiers . Sparta had a professional army that trained all year long. And thus knew well how to live off the land when is where they got the grain and corn from and probably where they got the wine and other foods . They would have only brought with them their basic requirements and looted the rest.

@thodan467 5 месяцев назад

Spartans or Homioioi

@thodan467 5 месяцев назад

@@John2r1 how do manor owners who live on their manors and their workers train the whole year

@John2r1 5 месяцев назад

@thodan467 In Sparta it was required that men went to the barracks training area daily . Spartan men were not allowed to do any other trade or work until they are 60 years old. The household was ran by the women of Spartan. The men were training the women were running their households. Sparta was described as a military camp at war ,even in peace.

@thodan467 5 месяцев назад

@@John2r1 Did that Not end by thirty and after that they lived in their estates, doing such Spartan Pasttimes AS rearing horses and so on

@lowenergyvideos4658 5 месяцев назад

Love these videos but you added Max in? Fantastic!

@harriehausenman8623 5 месяцев назад

Amazing footage from *The Greek Phalanx* ! 🤗

@TheSaneHatter 5 месяцев назад

I *love* it when my favorite RU-vidrs team up! (I think I remember that episode, too.)

@ZombieLogic101 5 месяцев назад

Needec that today boss!

@JackSparrow-hh2lh 4 месяца назад

really great video, as always. Really cool to see ancient greece govered in a scientific way here on RU-vid

@csbanki 4 месяца назад

Fantastic content! Could you also make a video about Hungarian horse archers? I've learnt that they were impressive with their signature backward shooting, yet never found any videos about those armies.

@descendentcross4105 5 месяцев назад

More military food videos please!

@WalterWhiteFootballSharing 5 месяцев назад

Bread dipped in wine? The hard dry barley bread gets dipped in water nowadays, and just that with good green (extra virgin) olive oil and salt is pretty damn good. Add soft cheese like Myzithra or Feta and it's bangin'. It's too good, I can't keep it around I can't stop eating all that fat and carbs my ancestors used to work all damn day in the fields growing the barley and olives to make it. Workouts aren't enough; need the 20K steps uphill and downhill. Flat ground in Greece is so rare that's where the soccer fields are. If a firm tomato drops from a vine it'll roll away into a different province.

@Eurotool 5 месяцев назад

Itrion 😭just like the "Sesame Snaps" snacks my mom would pack in my lunch

@stayhungry1503 5 месяцев назад

onions are really healthy

@Pemmont107 5 месяцев назад

They sure make you gassy though..

@JonathanRivera-dj6mm 5 месяцев назад

And this is what the Greek Hoplites ate! I'm still wondering what the Roman legionaries, the Mexica armies, or the Samurai ate!

@Fire0warrior182 5 месяцев назад

Awesome ❤

@KyoushaPumpItUp 5 месяцев назад

Ooh another collab with Max Miller

@adamwelch4336 5 месяцев назад

I like that you guys made a collaboration video with Max Miller but i produced his video before your video maybe next time sink up release dates together so its less strange 😂

@user-ji7sv1oc1v 5 месяцев назад

About the food - here in Bulgaria it is called "SUSAMKA" , and it is still produced till this day!

@napoleonibonaparte7198 4 месяца назад

Makes you wonder the great effort of those quartermasters in Alexander's army.

@cstott121 5 месяцев назад

OMG I was so excited to hear “Max Miller” in an Invicta video!! What a treat! It felt like The Avengers movie… all my favorite heroes in one room.

@SEDNOHISTORII 3 месяца назад

Where can you buy such equipment?

@empereurnico6048 5 месяцев назад

neat video

@georgecristiancripcia4819 5 месяцев назад

In my country i find those sesame things in every store,theyvare a popular sweet.

@matthewburgar2626 5 месяцев назад

Now I know why some people in the ancient World lived as long as a lot of people do today in our World. Look at how well balanced their diet was!!! As opposed to many countries today where we have cruddy processed and unhealthy foods. Thanks for the videos. Keep them coming. I always enjoy watching them.

@Aginor88 5 месяцев назад

Interesting.

@TheCosmicGuy0111 5 месяцев назад

Nice

@iNDREI_Ro 5 месяцев назад

Oh wow... Miller is here.🤤

@ettan5812 5 месяцев назад

Theres nothing wrong with eating a raw onion like an apple

@ogedaykhan9909 4 месяца назад

oh yeaaaah. lets gooo

@Dantick09 4 месяца назад

Ancient war sounds pretty chill

@samsmith2635 5 месяцев назад

4:45 I have never seen a Happier Octopus 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@gamecheatmaster123 5 месяцев назад

I almost jumped when Max came on screen lol

@infoscholar5221 5 месяцев назад

Max is turning up everywhere these days. The other day he turned up as a judge on a US vs. UK Cooking contest on Mythical Kitchen.

@alexmilton4025 5 месяцев назад

Hello, Could you do one on how the Persian empire ruled that huge land? I'm asking this because it's just like what Alexander would run if he stayed alive since he adopted the exact system.

@andrewsuryali8540 5 месяцев назад

Alexander was ACCUSED OF trying to adopt the Achaemenid system, but as far as historians can tell he never actually did it. He may have wanted to in life, but the evidence doesn't point to any attempted implementation. Alexander's empire was actually governed through a vassalage system where kings ruled as overlords of several confederated semi-independent city-states. The city-states themselves then ruled over a significant land that they exploited for wealth. Alexandria-upon-Egypt is the best and most extreme example of this as the attached land it ruled was the entire country of Egypt, but Ctesiphon and Alexandria Eschate all the way in Bactria worked exactly the same way, and we know this for the two cities from independent accounts of completely different cultures. We know about how Ctesiphon worked from both the Romans and the Sassanids, and we know about how Alexandria Eschate worked from - of all things - Chinese Han Dynasty records. So if Alexander had continued to rule, it isn't clear whether he would have tried to revive the Achaemenid system instead of maintaining the system he himself had set up (inherited from Phillip). The greco-macedonian colony system was what eventually prevailed, all the way to the Roman era. Even the Parthians ended up adopting it instead of reviving the Achaemenid system, and they're Iranians who claimed Cyrus' legacy.

@alexmilton4025 4 месяца назад

You really think too highly of that expedition to the Persian empire and the Macedonian king, who, for the most part, was just a boy in his 20s. he clearly was appointing Satraps left and right and was never ACCUSED of copying Iranians. He copied them to the point of revolt in his Army, especially in Babylon when he returned. he couldn't have possibly created a system better than what Achemids had; I think it's the way people called him 'Great' that made people like you think he was some exceptional guy. Alexander was far from anything close to "Great". He was dumb, stupid and spoiled to the max. He caused his ancestor's dynasty to fall after 200 years of kingship; he left his wife, son and mother murdered. He NEVER ruled the Persian Empire, he died soon after coming back from his fu"ck up in India. He killed his father's best general and the man who was the reason of his "presumed" battlefield success. He killed the man who actually saved him in his first battle with the Persians. He lost a great portion of the Persian empire's land mass just because areas wouldn't submit to him (the same people submitted to the Persian kings with no fight). Alexander has broken his vows, lied, killed for no reason, and eradicated a whole city for no reason at all. He was a destroyer of great cities and cultures that had lived peacefully for thousands of years (Phoniceions, for example). None of his Generals respected him nor loved him; all his court and Greeks and Persians absolutely hated him. Greeks couldn't wait for him to die; they hated him and his father, too. His top generals wouldn't even crown his son as a next king, they killed him and then his whole family, just compare that to a simple Roman emperor who would die and they would easily crown his son, same went for the Persian side, when Cyrus died they crowned his son, but when Alexander died (got himself killed) they killed his son. Why? Because he or his seed wasn't worthy enough to rule, he knew that actually, that's why he wouldn't get back from campaigning; he couldn't rule; he never ruled Macedonia nor the Iranic empire. He would busy himself with worthless tribes, forcing his men to go up the mountain to kill and rape a bunch of nomads just so he wouldn't go back and actually rule. He was extremely bad in everything he did. His father knew that he was bad news. I can talk more about how we made him a legend because of the nonsense later Romans wrote or is it because they (Romans) couldn't beat the Persians; their fetishism with victory over them made Alexander a legend. In his own time, he was someone who should be killed asap. That's why they killed him as soon as he came back, and that's why he postponed his come back (after Darius' death) that much; looks like somehow, deep down, he knew they're gonna kill him; I pity him sometimes. He probably knew the night they fed him the poison, his own "friends" and generals. He could never be truly one of them the way his father was. I think about how he was alone, and after Hephastian's death, he had no one in the world. ( I think the same people who killed Hephastioans killed him too) Unfortunately, he could never be the great King; he never ruled that empire, nor did he have a battlefield brain. all the battlefield success was the result of his father's smart army and structure. His father would never risk everything just for dumb fun. He was building his Empire slowly, with great patience. Alexander really did fuck up his family; he really did fuck up the world peace that was going on. and it's too bad he burnt down a city inside Greece's mainland, too, destroying Thebes completely; imagine Cyrus burning a city to the ground in Iran. Yet Alexander burnt a city to the ground in Greece, and still, because of the lack of good guys in western history, that's our "great'. He they're y calling that "Great,." What is the metrics of being great? All I'm saying that he never could do the basic 1 2 3 of ruling in the ancient world; he was always on the march, mostly for no reason. so I think such a man needs help to devise an empire ruling system coming out of freakishly small (compared the Persian empire) Macedonia. @andrewsuryali8540 @@andrewsuryali8540

@asahearts1 5 месяцев назад

Yo, Max Miller!

@Tom-kc9hg 5 месяцев назад

Ancient and Classical Greeks ate cabbage and lettuce? Any sources available to back that up?

@DokturProfesur 5 месяцев назад

Commenting for that terrible and wrathful spirit known as Algorithm. Great job lads.

@polygonalfortress 5 месяцев назад

cheers

@nikosr265 5 месяцев назад

Amazing how many foods, like the sesame and honey dish, the Greeks still eat today!

@nosupes929 4 месяца назад

Soldiers are still called hoplites ( which essentially means bearer of a weapon) in Greece and Cyprus.

@mattheweagles5123 5 месяцев назад

Where can I find out more about this wild honey incident?

@artawhirler 5 месяцев назад

Either Xenophon or Joe Rogan, take your pick. 😅 Seriously, Xenophon described this incident in the "Anabasis", his book about that ill-fated Persian misadventure. (I would tell you exactly where, but I'm too lazy to get up and pull it off the shelf.) And then in more recent times, one of Joe Rogan's guests was in that same part of the world and brought back some of this so-called "mad honey" and they both sampled it right there in the studio. I'm sure that episode is still up on the Interwebs. But yeah, it was a real thing in ancient times and it's still a real thing today. Apparently the bees in that area visit the flowers of a local plant that gives the resulting honey some interesting side effects for humans.

@mattheweagles5123 5 месяцев назад

@@artawhirler honey from the Rhododendrons of Turkey apparently. I'll see if I can get a copy of Anabasis, I'm definitely not listening to Joe Rogan.

@artawhirler 5 месяцев назад

@@mattheweagles5123 It's easily available in English. Penguin Classics has a paperback version called "The Persian Expedition". This is the Anabasis but with a more user-friendly title. The story about the toxic honey is on page 215 of the edition that I have (which may not be the most recent one). I also recommend a modern book (2006) called "Xenophon's Retreat" by the excellent classical scholar Robin Waterfield. In this book, the story can be found on pages 154 - 155. Waterfield says the plant in question is "Rhododendron luteum". I hope this helps.

@benjamincolon5486 4 месяца назад

Can you Do a video of how Roman slashed Greek homeownership and property and real estate work was there like a Roman dream or something The ideal home being a domus

@eggsaladsamich7396 5 месяцев назад

Yay! I finally got a thumbnail choice!

@theteaman3357 5 месяцев назад

The importance of wine reminds me of the importance of tea for the british during ww2 and for our armies to this day. It unironically contributed to our success in wars due to having a calming effect without the negative effects alcohol gave troops and due its massive morale boost.

@jamieslingsby9907 4 месяца назад

and in earlier days helped prevent some diseases, because we were boiling the water to make tea so killing the bacteria.

@FaithRox 4 месяца назад

Wine was specifically used as water purification was very difficult to do on the march, and also not guaranteed to be successful. Most sitting water carried parasites or poisonous algae, could easily be sabotaged by the enemy, and calorifically empty. Throughout most of history, beer or wine was consumed as the main fluids of humans. The alcohol content was much smaller than what we would think of today, usually not enough to get drunk without actively trying.

@LoonaticOrbit 5 месяцев назад

Hahahaha was surprised that Max Miller appeared all of a sudden 😂😂😂

@relpmat 5 месяцев назад

Wine for breakfast? Now that's a diet I want to go on

@steeldriver1776 5 месяцев назад

They may have been hoplite but it appears the wealthier soldiers' diet was hopheavy.

@user-er1ih6xt9x 5 месяцев назад

W video 🎉

@ghostinquisitor7743 5 месяцев назад

Yum

@napoleonibonaparte7198 4 месяца назад

Did they put berries in their porridges though?

@johntheknight3062 5 месяцев назад

It almost sounds like Greek military campaigns were actually pretty fun affair. Except for the killing. Well.

@stanislavkostarnov2157 5 месяцев назад

my understanding is, that packing enough energy into a food that can be quickly consumed, was alone a real challenge by the standards of the day... most of the foods mentioned, whilst filling, did not have the calorie density to sustain an army upon forced march... nuts honey and meat would therefore be a totally vital part of making it happen... also, living in the Middle East, I find that sesame seed fried in honey in various forms, is still very much the staple of what your hard-laboring construction worker would eat on the job. the difference being, the staple drink of wine is replaced with coffee.

@theovlachotheo7814 5 месяцев назад

Nowadays it's called "pasteli",not only made with sesame but with a variety of dried nuts! Well played!

@coffeecocaine8878 5 месяцев назад

I’m curious when will part 2 of the Finnish ski troops come out, my ocd won’t let it go😂😂

@gm2407 2 месяца назад

If you wanted anything to last it had to be dried grains and nuts, salted meats or fermented items such as fish, fruits or veg, milk products. Honey was also great as it never spoils. Also herds of animals would be brought with armies to be slaughtered periodically over time to have meat.