Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "How They Did It - Growing Up Roman" video.

  1. Tyrian purple, made with sea snails, was incredibly expensive, but it was not like Romans didn't know how to mix red and blue to make a substitute. It was only less bright.
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  2.  @BonaparteBardithion  Octavian, like the first emperor, means "eighth". Septimius (like Septimius Severus) "seventh". Quintus (like Quintus Fabius Maximus) "fifth". It was extremely common.
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  3. Numeric names were very common among males too. Octavian "eighth", Septimius "seventh". Quintus "fifth" ecc...
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  4.  @BonaparteBardithion  Infact there were a lot of nicknames. Actually the cognomen started as nicknames but, when someone became famous in his life, the nickname started to be transfered to his descendants, so gradually the cognomen became family branch names and another nickname (so a fourth name) was adopted, Ad es Quintus Fabius Maximus "Verrucosus".
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  5.  @revinaque1342  According to the tradition, when the envoys of the Senate reached Cincinnatus, to tell him he had been elected Dictator, he was plowing his field, so obviously he was dressed ligtly. As the first thing the envoys (and Cincinnatus' own son was among them) told him to wear the toga, since they had to give him an official message.
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  6. What's usually forgotten is that those stories had been handed down by the Roman writers exactly because they were considered extreme, not the norm.
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  7. Schooling rates were extremely high among Romans, and we know this from the very high number of street inscriptions they left, often obscene jokes, or advertisements. It's evident that it was not considered a thing of the elite, and everyone was expected to be capable to read.
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  8. Tyrian purple, made with sea snails, was incredibly expensive, but it was not like Romans didn't know how to mix red and blue to make a substitute. It was only less bright. The toga praetexta was universally used. It was a symbol and a protection, since a child wearing it was considered inviolable.
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  9. Those are not books, those are waxed tablets with some sheet of papyrus above. However books would have been anachronistic, but not of that much. They had been invented in I century BC and rapidly spreaded. The poet Martial was amazed on how small the Aeneid was in book format.
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  10. The TV series "Rome".
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  11. Not her wole life, but until her father (and husband in some case, since there were several degrees of marriage in rome) was alive. Since women could inherit, and tended to be younger, in case of the upper classes even much younger, that their husbands, Rome was full of rich widows that could do everything they wanted.
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  12. They had a calendar. Do you remember the date of your birthday?
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  13. The toga praetexta was universal among Roman citizens. It was a tradiction and a protection, since a child wearing one was considered inviolable.
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  14. Replace "patriarchy" with an ethnic group, religion or sexual orientation at will, and you'll know how those rant really sound like.
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  15. Human childs are bigger, in respect to the mother, than any other mammal. That's why human childbirth, firs than modern day medicine, was the most dangerous of all. Agricultural societies members lived in close contact with other species (farm animals), so were more subject to diseases that passed from a species to another. That took a high toll on children, that had still to grow their natural defenses.
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  16. Any Roman citizen that would have raised one from the floor, would have legally adopted him.
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  17.  @animatedawesome5550  Err... no. There were seveal kind of marriage in Rome. The only one where the husband had the same kind of power than a father had over his sons, was the mariage "cum mano". It progressively fell into disuse during the Republic, and in 1st century BC was already a relic of past times. Roman husbands had generally less power over their wives than 19th century westerners had.
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  18. There were. But the customs didn't differ that much, because they were all Roman Citizens. The lower classes tried to adhere to the traditions and to follow the example of the notable ones as much as they could.
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  19. There were several kinds of marriages. In the marriage "cum manu" it was impossible for the woman to leave the husband if she wanted, while he could repudiate her. However the marriage "cum manu" became increasingly rare, and was only a relic in 1st century BC. In the other forms of marriage, men and women could decide to leave at will and without much ceremonies.
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  20. Conservatives are on the wrong side of history.
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  21. It was common, but not a norm.
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