Lucius Verus - The Overlooked Emperor #16 Roman History Documentary Series
2024 ж. 15 Мам.
86 795 Рет қаралды
On this channel we focus on Roman History and right now we're doing a video on every Roman Emperor, if you're interested in that subscribe or watch the playlist here:
bit.ly/32CUA2g
Shout out to The History Chronicles!
Check out their video on 'The Invention of Flight' here: • The Invention of Flight
Narration by: Alexander Dobby
www.alexanderdoddy.com
Music
Family Imperator Rome OST
Relaxing Roman Music - Aetas Romana
Legionnarie - Free KZhead Audio Library
Imperator Rome Complete Soundtrack.
Intro: 0:00
Shout out: 0:26
Early Life: 0:45
The New Emperors: 05:10
War in the East: 07:41
Death of Lucius Verus: 18:50
Final Thoughts: 20:20
#Emperorsofrome #Romanemperors #SPQR #Romanhistory
It is very pleasant to hear that the two brothers were not imbued with greed for power, that they co-existed with each other was heartening.
Lucius Verus was an highly educated person
It was the first thing I noticed when I learned about them as a kid 30 years ago: "Wait, whaaaat? They were roman co-emperors and they didn't kill each other? This book must be a cheap fictional story, I want my money back !!"
Cough cough… Caracalla
Lucius Verus is the good version of Commodus. He's a hedonistic himbo, but knows when you're supposed to work rather than party.
Well he wasn't a paranoid sociopath so I'm sure that helped
@@johnmiller8975 Sociopath is debatable. If we're talking Caracalla yeah, but Commodus? Paranoid? While it doesn't justify his later actions, early in his reign his sister did try to assassinate him so his trust issues didn't come out of nowhere. Commodus was a terrible ruler, but not completely without explanation
@@redjirachi1 oh certainly there is an explanation & paranoia doesn't mean everyone is innocent either. Commodus has always struck me as the worst of Nero & Domitian in one foul package. it is also a heavy strike against Marcus Aurelius who should have seen what he had become
Like a "chaotic good" or "chaotic neutral" sort of character.
@nuovissimi Hmm I would add Vespasian to that list as it was more fixing a devalued coinage But that is a very good point. Sometimes even the worst monarchs (Richard III & the law) do things no others can
I can only imagine Marcus' grief when his brother died, it was clear they were close and he ended up outliving his little brother by over a decade. Considering everything Marcus Aurelius went through it's like the universe was trying to break him.
Lucius And Marcus were the first emperor duo to actually work well together.
Rome were once ruled by 2 consuls that shared power during the republican times.
@@mysterious8152 Hence why *Emperor duo*
@@michaelbilotta1567 Augustus and Agrippa, Vespasian and Titus?
@@histguy101 What about them? Agrippa and Titus, although they had a lot of powers, were not co-emperors of Augustus and Vespasian and only Titus of those two became Emperor.
@@michaelbilotta1567 Titus was proclaimed imperator in Judea, and made Caesar upon his return to Rome. He was the junior co-emperor all through Vespasian's reign. Agrippa was de facto co-emperor. He held all the power that Augustus had, including the all important Tribunician power and the Imperium Proconsular Maius, giving him power to Veto any Senate proposal, and power over both consuls. Often when Augustus was given another power by the Senate, it was given equally to Agrippa. Coins were minted with Augustus' s image, Agrippa's, or both of them side by side. Agrippa was married to Augustus's daughter. If Augustus had died, Agrippa would've been sole emperor, and Agrippa's sons were made heirs, but Augustus outlived them all. Agrippa also ruled the eastern half of the empire and commanded half the legions.
"Hadrian saw something in the young boy" Something's wrong I can feel it...
the monument at 2:11 with Marcus Aurelius, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus and Hadrian is actually sort of sweet. Like a family portrait
It was political propaganda and far from 'sweet'. This was an empire backed up by brutal force, not lollipops and sparkly pants.
@@thadtuiol1717 That too of course, but it seems like they had a pretty good relationship; Marcus Aurelius is full of praise for the personal qualities of Lucius Verus and Antoninus Pius in his meditations for example
@@huldrrrr9486 considering it was a private journal Marcus would have no reason to make stuff in a personal journal to himself so their relationship must have been good.
I looked down to expect this to have 100,000s of views; but only 2,000! The quality of this is amazing. This is going to blow up sometime.
Thanks for putting your comment mate.After reading it I looked at the subscribers and was surprised that I'd missed this channel so you got him a sub from me!😁👍👍👍
Wait did someone actually lived long enough to see both Hadrian and Alexander Severus??? I'm actually shocked
Historia agusta is bullshit source
Probably not 💀 maybe someone, but, they would never be recorded lol.
@@johnbarkl1700Gordian I was born in the past years of Antoninus's reign. So there's one guy at least
I always loved how Verus looked like the kind of guy your gf told you not to worry about
Cucktastic comment.
@@thadtuiol1717 That doesn't make a lick of sense, dude
Lol, he deleted his comment!!!
I always thought that your next video would combine both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus so this was a welcome surprise.
He was remarkably loyal to his step brother, IMO.
The SPQR Historian uploads a video. Instant watch, like and comment. Love your content, keep up the good work!
Thanks I appreciate it!
Thank you for such a positive and fair description of Lucius Verus. I'm familiar with some of the other sources, including other modern documentaries and biographies. We don't have a lot on his life and we do have to consider historical context to flesh out truths and potential inaccuracies. With this stated, and to borrow from a whole other genre of internet users, I have seen historians "uwu" over actual horrible figures, going out of their way to explain and excuse certain actions, while dismissing Verus as the lesser emperors and a horrible human that did x-thing (that they might even excuse in their favorite figure). We don't know enough about him to be unfair. I greatly appreciate the work you've put into this video and the other episodes.
Wow that was amazing and when you talked about the delay of Lucius and the possibility it was because he needed to wait for the rest of army to march from Dacia and Pannonia that was amazing these type of speculation and theories are one of the reasons why I love history. Also I would like to ask about the client kingdom in Syria could you give me the name of it or a link since I've never heard of it, I know about Armenia but not the other one.
Agreed. The part about communications and troop movements was very informative. The client kingdom was Osroene, between Armenia and Syria.
18:04 that vine gunshot killed me it didn't do it's intended effect. lmfao
Thank you for a well-balanced view of Lucius Verus. He is so often overshadowed by Marcus Aurelius.
Can't wait for roman emperor diocletian.
Yeah in 3 Years
You would be correct @@Qwerty-yp3jq
In St. PETERSBURG there is a magical statue of Luis that seems to radiate his soul. It is at the Winter Hermitage Palace. Being with the statue I have the sense of having met him.
Kings and Generals do Alexander, SPQR Historian does Lucius Verus. Good day today… ☺️
Lucius' hair looks voluptuous and healthy ;-)
18:04 that vine boom noise killed me XD
That was the longest 3 months ever Glad to see you post again!
Excellent video...well spoken narration.
Excellent presentation. I watched all of it.
fantastic video cant wait for Marcus Aurelius
I just found your channel, and I am looking forward to watch more of your content! This is great stuff !
This reminds me of the story of Germanicus the nephew of Tiberius who also died suddenly of some kind of mysterious fever upon returning to Rome after a successful campaign in the East.
The praetorian prefect at the time, I can't remember his name, most likely had him murdered.
Thankyou for letting me throw a little ad for The History Chronicles into the video, it is really appreciated!
Long live Rome 🇮🇹🇬🇷
Sadly it didn't.
Marcus: you're supposed to do work rather than party, Lucius. Lucius: party pah-tay!!!
Good one!,-Good detail. never seen one of him with this much detail
Nice to see Lucius getting a fair crack of the whip for a change.
Its bout time! Love all the vids. Good job!
Wonderful video!
I would love to see an opinion on Julius Caesar. I know he can be taken a lot of different ways. Was he actually a man of the people? I just notice some of the people who hated him were not the greatest people themselves (i.e. Cato....), and the Senate genuinely did represent only the wealthy essentially in all reality. Caesar did seemingly pass populist reform which very much was for the people (although it certainly benefited him as well). He was also seemingly very popular with the people themselves. He seemed to show moments of great judgement, and he was a talented military commander no doubt. Though, there are also the things he did in Gaul, some of which were pretty cruel and even genocidal. War ain't pretty, but it seemed that after Gaul, Caesar cooled down a lot and became all about forgiveness. To be fair, in Gaul, he was also very forgiving and tolerant as well at many moments if you go by his account (does not make up for some of the acts he did commit even if taken at face value as true). But in the Civil war with Pompey, it is said when he learned of his assassination that he wept greatly and only wanted him to surrender, not killed, and Caesar often presents himself that he wants to make Friends. In the HBO Rome series, it gives Caesar a similar appearance throughout that everybody he meets he just wants to make friends with, I noticed it through almost every episode of the first season. He never really went out and murdered those against him (if I'm correct), but those against him did murder him. In fact, Augustus murdered more political enemies than Caesar ever did, and Sulla before him as well. Was Caesar planning to if he succeeded in his bid? Perhaps, we can't say for sure, but a lot of signs do also point that maybe he was a man of some compassion for his fellow Roman, but simply viewed the gauls as barbarians (back then, this wouldn't be so farfetched perhaps). Caesar did seem to have higher ambitions and very likely aimed for what Augustus would have. But were his intentions in, his mind, the best interests of Rome and Romans out of disdain for the broken system, or was he doing this simply to strengthen his own foothold and power and nothing more and he was just a dictator who would've been ruthless had he lived? It's hard to say but he did seem a very diplomatic type too, and he is often displayed as a man of clemency especially after the Gallic wars through to his assassination. Sorry for the rant. But maybe that gets some creative juices flowing. Feel free to correct anything or add to it, but it'd be interesting to see a video with your take on Caesar and whether he was good, bad, or neutral, or if you could even judge him at all in that sense.
What about Cato? What flaws did you find in him?
@@mateuszpiatek3516 I perhaps may be a little harsh on Cato in specifically pointing him out, politically there could certainly be a lot to agree with Cato about. However, he certainly held major faults of his own. Cato the Elder said this of managing slaves - If a slave is too old and sick to be productive, set them free so that you have no obligation to care for them. He talked about how slaves were indispensable and how it was cheaper to work them to death than to take care of them. While this seems insignificant or "somewhat normal" for the time period, it also clearly displays his mindset as well, perhaps not one of the people after all, though again slaves were another class even below the common people so he could perhaps get away with that in itself. This can be further proved, however, by how out of touch Cato was to normal people. Cato, while a martyr in the sense of keeping the Republic, failed to ever actually help the people, and actively ignored reforms to benefit the people. Thus this further inflates the idea that the Republic, even at its best, never once had the idea to help the common people. When you consider the composition of the Republic, and that the only people of lower class to really get elected in was the Tribune of Plebs, which really could only veto, and the rest of the Republican senate was filled with wealthy aristocrats, it would seem that Cato was likely on the wealthy aristocrat side. He was against corruption and bribery, so he wasn't rotten to the core, but perhaps misguided. Cato failed to realize that change was needed, reform was needed, and yet that was probably the last thing on his mind. So I see Cato as not necessarily a terrible person, and it was probably a bad pick to use him specifically as an example, but someone who was a part of the problem of the Roman aristocratic senate. Cato and his father did seemingly have a disregard for the lower class peoples, so perhaps he was honorable among his constituents and more well off, but Cato's biggest flaw was his inaction to pass anything meaningful in the Senate, something Caesar had no problems doing. Caesar in fact hated Cato the most, but was still willing to pardon and forgive him, but Cato refused even the thought of it and would rather die. Also, one further point. I almost think, if this account is true, that Cato let his blind rage for Caesar cause the roman civil war that ended up happening. Caesar constantly offered negotiations, surrender terms and peace terms throughout before crossing the Rubicon to march on Rome. In fact, there was a peace talk with none other than Cicero, Cato, and Pompey, with Mark Antony about Caesar - he would hand over everything except one legion for his own protection. Everyone found this agreeable, even Cicero, except for Cato, who said he'd only accept it if Caesar would remove all his legions, and this was not agreeable to Caesar's party. Cato seemed to have a fierce, undying hatred for Caesar, because once Caesar came into light (even before the march on Rome, back in Gaul), Cato would make every single move to block Caesar constantly, though wasn't always successful, it seemed as if he only lived to block every action Caesar did, regardless of the intent. Even before this peace talk, the Senate asked of one legion from Pompey and one legion from Caesar. Caesar obliged and followed the Senate's orders, but then took his legion to use against him. Mind you this was before the peace talk. So it seems like Caesar still trusted in the senate to some degree, but the Senate did not trust him. If he was a rebellious commander, would he have willingly given up his own legions? Perhaps it could even be argued that Cato added fuel to the fire constantly. Cato, as much as he attempted to defend the Republic, may very well be a role in why the Republic fell, from his ignorance of the common people, to his intense hatred and focus on Caesar (neglecting everything else), to his refusal to even talk peace terms reasonably. It is certainly possible Caesar would never have marched on Rome had Cato accepted the peace terms of allowing him to relinquish control of most everything except a legion and a province. This is just one point of view of how to take things. There certainly is many good things Cato did and believed in to his core. He wasn't a terrible person per se. But I think his hatred for Caesar was so blinding, he couldn't make good judgment calls often, and it totally consumed him and his life seemingly. Sorry for the word wall, and I know a lot of people are probably gonna be upset that I may be saying anything negative about Cato, but I think it's important to note these were men too, and just as I am being critical of Cato, I have been critical of Caesar as well, I am simply trying to determine the true landscape of things and sometimes that requires a bit of reading in between the lines. Feel free to point out anything you think is incorrect. I'm just a human being too, and I can make mistakes as well.
None of them were men of the people, rather they used the people for their personal gain. The closest modern equivalent of that sort would be people like Trump.
@@Tugela60 yep blondie certainly fits the bill👍
I think Caesar who witnessed the back and forth prescriptions and both Marius and Sulla and saw the horror of it and wanted to ensure that they would never happen again.. So most likely if he was never assassinated he probably would have been dictator until his natural death for it is clear the Optimates would If ever came to power again would continue with their decisive Politics and carry out prescriptions to eliminate those od the populare way of thinking for 2 reasons...they became so corrupt and greedy and truly felt that those like Caesar where true enemies of the state
I seriously thought this was a documentary from like pbs for longer than I'd care to admit. Well done man
IMHO, Lucius Verus was the hottest Roman emperor.
I always thought so too lmao
Definitely. He’d be very popular on social media today.
Thank you very much.
Verus got bad press. I think he was less stupid then they say. He just didn't live long enough.
I like this narrators voice. Very calming
Interesting video
They shouldnt have sacked the temple of Apollo 😕
Welcome back, i can’t wait till you get to Gallienus
it is fantastic how wedgewood antimicrobial nano curls of beard replaced roman lead paint
Underrated
I think you should make a video about Probus , he is very overlooked aswell and overshadowed by Aurelian even tho Probus deserves much more recognition aswell
Cut down to soon by sickness and overshadowed by the Philosopher Emperor Marcus. But quite capable in his own right. He just enjoyed the good life occasionally in a time when life was too short!
18:05 was there seriously a vine boom aound effect in a Roman Emperor documentary? 😂 The whole video is so serious and then all of a sudden I hear a vine boom 😂
That caught me off guard too 😭
Marcus considering himself a philosopher it's not ironic at all, if you've read his 'Meditations'.
Its ironic that he did not consider himself a Warrior...
He wasnt a warrior he was imperator, it was his duty To protect rome and if you know anything about Stoicism, doing your duty is a big deal
I just got to the part talking about him and Marcus on THOR podcast lol just in time
I'm glad you ended the video acknowledging that it's hard to say how much responsibility he could take for the successful campaign(s), because frankly it doesn't sound like he can take any. And successful as his delegates were, I think it's exaggerating to say their successes matched Trajan's. I don't see how anyone could actually argue that.
Excellent video, as always. Btw, can I ask, how are you going to count the emperors of the Third century crisis and other later disputed emperors? That is whom would you consider to be legitimate emperors, since there are dozens upon a dozens of usurpers and even most historians can hardly agree onto who has the actual legitimacy?
I dont really know, its a mess. I'll just go by some arbitrary list - perhaps emeprors recognised as such by the senate. But there are some iteresting ursurpers aswell...
@@TheSPQRHistorian Yeah, I thought that it would be just absolute mess to figure out whom to include. I guess that even if going by whom the Senate acknowledged, it would be an absolute mess, taking into consideration that some people literally served as stopgap emperors or even as children. I mean, how do you evaluate stopgaps like Vetranio or children like Heraklonas?! Not to mention that later you come to the point where there is like half a dozen semi-recognized emperors ruling at the same time (looking at your time Honorius), which I suppose will be an absolute mess to work with. Man, writing it like this sounds really discouraging. But I'm sure that you'll work something out. Because honestly, if someone is dedicated to do this right, it's you my friend. I mean, look it from the bright: with so many emperors, you're not going to run out of topics for videos for like 10 years!
Question: If Lucius Verus was co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius then why isn't that period of time called the Six Good Emperors? Nerva Trajan Hadrian Antoninus Pius Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus Just asking!
I wonder why Lucius Verus isn’t considered one of the 5 good emperors instead of Nerva. Nerva kind of sucked lol.
If he had meditated and had been a stoic philosopher like Marcus Aurelius,the world would have taken notice of him. In double acts,one has be boring and the other cool,(in the pop group Wham,George Michael was the cool one while the other, Andrew Ridgeley was easily forgettable). Lucius Verus was not the only Roman Emperor to suffer that fate. History hardly remembers Geta,but everyone knows about Caracalla.
Ave Divus Verus!
he's one the '5'(6) 'good'....the only way to correctly regard him in my book :)
GG guy
18:04 The Plague 🗿
Lucius Verus is my favorite emperor. He got things done while still maintaining a healthy work/life balance. Workaholics prefer Marcus Aurelius. I am definitely NOT a workaholic. I believe we should be working to live, not living to work.
At last!!!
Lucius' Parthian campaign was much more successful than Trajan's better known one. Neither are well documented.
Highly unlikely, knowing what we know of Roman roads, and their fast-paced couriers that changed horses, etc, that it took 2 months for Rome to learn of Parthia's invasion.
That's actually not what I state in the video though... I state that it would take about a month for the news to reach Parthian, of Pius's death and about a month for the news to reach Rome of the Parthian Invasion. You can use the ' _Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Ancient World_ ' to calculate travel time in ancient Rome. Circa 30 days seems plausible - orbis.stanford.edu/
@@TheSPQRHistorian Well if I heard wrong I apologise but such important news would be carried everywhere swiftly. Either by ship or by horserider. You mention yourself, I believe, how quickly Hadrian travelled to get to Trajan.
@@TheSPQRHistorian never knew there is a Tool for easy calculation of travel time in the ancient world. Thank you very much for highlighting this.
He was always compared to Marcus by ancient historians. There was no chance of him getting a fair shake. There isn't any contemporary historian on there rule. Cassius Dio is close, but there are some lost parts on Pius and Marcus's rule. I'm sure we would have a better idea of the man and deeds
Emperor Lucia Verus's mother Avidia Plautia who was probably a "ANCESTOR?" of Emperor Claudius's general Aulus Plautius? Ancestor? I was never good at math, but wouldn't that make her his probable ""DECENDANT?"
For the love of God, it would not take a month to inform troops in Hungary and Croatia. It would take a week at the most. You know, they had good roads and could change horses and riders at regular intervals.
They moved troops from Pannonia and the Moesian provinces. Moesia is in Bulgaria... Its estimated it would take roughly a month to get there and for the troops to mobilze and start moving Yes.
Roman roads were very often not as good as some people make them out to be, especially in far away provinces like Britannia or during the late Roman empire when hyperinflation and corruption, as well as sustained lack of spending on government infrastructure, caused roads to become potholed and little more than dirt tracks. Think country of the global south.
Honestly if you get made an emperor for being a cool guy you did something right
👍👍👍
He sure changed is name enough.
Lead singer in E.L.O.
18:04 💀💀
18:05
The man himself next.
Our perception of Lucius Verus is likely tainted by over-exaggeration & outright deceit, as you laudably noted at the end. He wouldn't be the first emperor to suffer from inaccurate portrayal, with Domitian also posthumously libelled. Historical records of antiquity (and most of humanity, really) typically tinge their stories to suit whatever the author's agenda was.
Optime
He was cool actually. I wonder who he married.
Coming after Antoninus meant still time to keep the army strong before the huns showed up.
He married Marcus Aurelius daughter 'Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla' - I should've mentioned that in the video!
The SPQR Historian You did.
Instantus Noodlesus Hairus 🍜
Is there a possibility he was murdered or poisoned? As he suddenly had become so popular, it’s hard to believe he didn’t make enemies, even in his brother Marcus. It’s strange to me that his illness was not documented throughout his life whatsoever.
Do your writers know what an ancestor is? Did you mean descendant?
🤔👍👍
Lucius verus son of maximus
We pronounce lu-chi-us Not lusious 😀 Romans still use such a name I had a Roman friend whose name was Lucio
@6:17 The way the narrator pronounces 'epitome' is laughably bad. Guess this was a one-take recording session, huh?
His pronunciation of Ctesiphon (as Stesiphon) likewise. If you're being recorded, don't just guess at words you don't know.
Bro my name is Lucius
Did I just hear "Historia Augusta"? Oh gods, no.
If Lucius Verus had outlived Marcus Aurelius I wondered what Commodus would have done. I expect he would have tried an usurpation or assassination given his character. If there had not been a Commodus, would there have been a 3rd century collapse of the Empire? Without that collapse, which severely drained the Empire, would the Western Empire had survived at least a little longer? My guess is no. The forces at work in the latter 4th century and early 5th were just too much even if the Empire had been at it’s strongest. Still it’s nice to ponder. However, without the fall of the Western Empire there would not have been an England, France, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, etc…
I think the idea was Lucius to reign longer than Marcus and then Commodus when he was “ready” but Lucius die too soon. I wonder if Commodus would have tried to kill Lucius or maybe Lucius get rid of Commodus and name successor to someone else. We’ll never know 🤔
Antonine Plague Rome s punishment for its wickedness
lead poisoning & various STD's took his life.
Did you know that the Romans measured distance in miles? So, what's this metric measurement business? Be more Roman when you are reporting on a past individual or event.
Its because a Roman mile is shorter than a British mile, it would just add confusion or I had to explain that every single time...
@@TheSPQRHistorian I think you would be surprised how many of us would understand it. The British mile is still a mile. Kilometers do not compute for most of us.
What a tiresome narrator. Can't listen.