Did the Romans live better than us? | Quality of Life and Salaries
In this video, we cover the lives of 3 REAL individuals who lived and died in 3 separate social classes. We found a way to recreate their salaries and living expenses as accurately as possible, and put it in a simple video packed with unexpected pleasures and tragedies…
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SOURCES:
Primary sources:
-Inscriptiones Graecae, XII, III, 343. -BCH 188o, 336-8. -CIL V, 895: lupa.at/14019
-Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum.
Secondary Sources:
-Allen, R. “How prosperous were the Romans? The evidence of Diocletian’s Price Edict (AD 301).” A. K. Bowman and A. I. Wilson, eds., Quantifying the Roman economy: methods and problems, Oxford, 2009, 327-45.
-Barnes, T. D. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1982.
-Corcoran, S. The empire of the Tetrarchs: imperial pronouncements and government AD 284-324, Oxford, 2000, 205-33.
-Goffart, W. Caput and Colonate: Towards a history of Late Roman Taxation. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1974.
-Jones, A.H.M. “Census Records of the Later Roman Empire”, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 43, 1953, 49-64.
-Kropff, A. An English translation of the Edict on Maximum Prices, also known as
the Price Edict of Diocletian.
-Williams, Stephen. Diocletian and the Roman Recovery.New York: Routledge, 1997.
Intro (0:00)
Tenant Farmer (1:38)
Soldier (6:58)
Aristocrat (12:51)
We hope you enjoyed the video as much as we enjoyed making it. Make sure you make it to the Aristocrat's lavish feast at 20:24!
очень интересно и познавательно, но не могли бы вы уточнить цены на покупку, рент дома, квартиры, комнаты и стоимость лошади
ppl didn't change a lot for the last 2k yrs.
You said that Theodorius works 6 days a week but you didn't say how many hours a day he works.
@@gabor6259 dusk till dawn, every hour of light was important
Ahh the good old Stronghold 2 soundtrack
Today: "What color is your Bugatti?" Roman times: "How purple is your purple?"
Let's see Pualius Allenus' purple.
"There is a sheer moment of panic when i realized Pualius Allenus's villa overlooks the Mare Nostrum, and is obviously more expensive than mine."
@@chadbrochill19 “Look at that deep Rich purple so bold. And is that a Bone belt.” 😤
When you look at factors like occupational hazards, working hours, child labor, pollution,... It's quite possible roman plebeans had much better lives than 1800's factory workers.
I'm pretty sure Roman plebeian children worked in the fields with their parents.
@@timothymatthews6458 which wouldn't be much more then basic farming
@@thewildcardperson Farming can be hard labor. Ploughing, for example, is difficult and slightly dangerous.
@@thewildcardperson you have no idea how hard 'basic farming' is because it makes factory work look pathetic. I bet you did not see a farm in your entire life
@@timothymatthews6458 During sowing and harvest absolutely. not all year round.
Yes I agree, the rising cost of slaves is most troubling.
have you heard of the most expensive sugar produced in the history of the world?
I know right can't buy slave cheap these days all of them are too expensive. Looks like I gotta get them myself like the Roman legionnaire did. Anyone up for some raiding?
@@hunterofdarkness8329 It is tho. Sex trafficking and forced labor still exist. Just because it is illegal sadly doesn’t mean nobody has slaves anymore.
we need more wars so decrease supply probllems.
@@REALletsfail But have you seen the prices?
The first guy was an employee. It sounds weird to read in history books that "all the food he farmed had to go to the landowner and he received a small payment in return", but it's simply employment.
It's similar to employment, difference in terms are important.
That sounds exactly like centralized command economy tax and spend communism. You mean that's why capitalism and free markets became a thing.
@@8qk67acq5That's not socialism because that arrangement is consensual and voluntary. Socialism requires threat of physical violence.
@@allanshpeley4284 not physical violence. Socialism is simply having codified laws against wealth aggregation. Even communist countries aren’t communist right now.
@@DiogenesTheReaper and how do you enforce those laws on wealth accumulation? With threats of physical violence.
A single income providing for an entire family AND having savings? That's the Millennial dream
Consider they only buy food and sustain the basic needs. They don't have to purchase electronic devices, go bar resturants, internet and telephone connection.
@@betacenaturi9354 shhhh, let them leave in their dream world where a bunch of farmers with no access to modern medicine, entertainment, limited oportunities of growth, no education and limited food options aside from high child mortality somehow had a better lifestyle than modern humans because they could have some savings
Yep. A dream made utterly impossible thanks to inflation.
You could do it today. Just live mostly on bread, which you bake yourself. Dont use any electricity, dont travel and wear the same clothes for several years
@@carso1500 I'll put my two cents in. The benefits of modern civilization may be quite misleading. We may not have as high infant mortality as in the past but we make up for it with child obesity and myopia epidemics (and also youth depression and suicide rates). We don't have plague and smallpox outbreaks anymore but have HIV pandemics (and sporadic outbreaks of ebola and other extremely deadly pathogens). The modern medicine may be close to cure some forms of cancer but still there are a lot of people that can't afford basic health insurance. There are people outside of western civilization that cannot afford any healthcare at all. We may not have as many wars as in the past but the wars that are yet to come will be far worse than that (think of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, armed drones, rocket launchers, machine guns - last weeks have shown us that the time of relative peace we have now is very fragile, I would rather be an ancient hoplite armed with a spear than a modern soldier or civilian during war getting shot or blown up by a rocket). The rich in the past didn't have many options to hide their wealth or transfer it to other countries - they had to stay with the common people and fight together to save their homeland. The modern rich can say sod off to the people and escape with their fortunes to exotic countries. Also money in the past was linked to tangible goods like gold or silver or even grains. Modern money is not linked to anything tangible. Authorities can indebt whole counties at the expense of the working class to make financial elites even richer. Real estate ownership becomes out of reach for ordinary people. Families are becoming poorer. Children are giver far less options than their parents. During ancient times youth were taught civic virtues and practical knowledge of geometry, rhetorics, law, logic etc. Modern youth is taught that using wrong personal pronouns or peeing while standing up is morally unacceptable, hahaha.
1st guy: *lives* 2nd guy: *lives and goes to a tavern* 3rd guy: ,,i want this ostrich''
Sounds about like modern life tbh
@@snesguy9176 1st guy: lives 2nd guy: lives and goes to the cinema, gets a takeaway 3rd guy: I want this Bugatti
@@pauldog what color is your ostritch
Poor 3rd guy, no money left.
@@snesguy9176 Everyone nowadays, in Europe and America and many parts of Asia, live waaaaay better than anyone from the past ages and if you disagree with that you should educate yourself more. Obviously they didn’t live like shit back in the days, however non of them had a hot bathtub, a stove, washing machine (all at your own home) enough and affordable clothing, electricity, light, enough food, variety of food, a car, a safe and warm house, …
So what I’m really hearing here is that you should make clothes in Ancient Rome. 4000 denarii for a cloak? With an average weekly pay of 125 for an average worker and less for a soldier? Insane!
These are my favorite type of history vids. Most history vids are about the names in the history books, wars, big things. Not the lives of the average people and how they may have lived.
Agreed. I'm an old guy. In my high school, they taught me Latin and Roman history. We got all the Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra stuff which was interesting enough. But then, we got a textbook 'Publius, A Roman Boy. ' It told the twelve years of his life, ending with his death from an infection. Absorbing stuff, more interesting than the Punic Wars, etc. as you said.
Historians of AD 4122: "Richard had to spend $100 a week on food, $40-50 on gasoline, $12.75 on internet pornography, $45 for the phone the tax collectors used to spy on him, $25 on ammunition, $10 on lottery tickets, $5 on headache medicine, $10 on coffee, and $100 each for his car loan, credit card interest, insurance, and other things he keeps putting off until they're in collections. Once a year he dropped $1,000 on the delusional belief he was good at playing blackjack." I really hope none of our records survive the centuries.
Just imagine what they might think of us 😂🤣
If they browse Wall Street bets they’d develop a strain of contagious aneurysms
😂
@@JonEtxebeberriaRodriguez atleast we arent the egyptians, have you ever heard the story of the competition between the gods horus and osiris?🤢
@@JonEtxebeberriaRodriguez Historians: This is the 21st century, also known as the Century of Strife. From plagues, to risk of all out nuclear warfare, to world wide economic crashing, supermassive volcano eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis to all at the same time, it is safe to say that this is one of the most important turning points in human history. This is the age where humanity proves that even if all things can't possibly get any worse, we persevere and make sure we set new records on all time lows by triggering a nuclear warfare. Humanity only survived due to the efforts of the Swiss Government, who amidst all the chaos retreated to their bunkers and brought out their ancient jewish superweapons and brought all superpowers to heel, and stopped the war
As modern Greek I can attest I live exactly on Theodorus' budget.
And for sure you cannot sustain a family of three on One wage.
@@tonnuz87 Right now at Greece, we are actually at the point that we need a basic wage of three, to sustain a family of two.
I'm in Serbia. Wife is unemployed and we have a 5 yeard old kid. My salary is exactly 2.5 times bigger than average salary here and we live quite modestly since i'm paying a credit for apartment. I wouldn't be able to live if i had less money.
as a modern Turk I can attest I can't earn as much as Theodorus
And I'm eating a damned peacock. Lol
Poor Tatianus, so many expenses to keep track of. I hope his feast was successful.
Videos like this make you feel connected to history, that human existence is universal through time and cultures
One can only imagine how the modern world would be if politicans at al levels would be held personally liable with their properties as guarantees for any shortcomings. Oh, what a (world) it would be.
A perfect world? Impossible.
I wish this could be applied to the average worker as well.
World*
You may be interested in The Natural Law Institute. It's had some similar takes on this.
@@alsanchez5038 palabra
This type of content is very rare. Most of the other history channels focus on flashy topics like warfare and politics. Thank you for this. You could expand this type of content to other time periods and cultures. Although you should have mentioned how these prices were significantly bloated because of massive inflation and currency debasement
they often focus on that because history of old was often written about the rulers, not of normal people. or at least their records were the best kept ones. but likely historians were hired to write only about the rulers.
Gotta hand it to Diocletian for having all the items valued and written down in a lot of places. These records are rare.
Have some sympathy for this poor scribe. He must have toiled soullessly like a slave to produce these figures. OTH the tenant farmer will have been better off, since he will have produced his own olive oil and wine, had goats grazing beside his chickens, plus bartered things like leather with his sibs, cousins and in-laws. Wealth is a measure of how we compare to poverty.
It's actually difficult to track a direct exchange value to the US dollar from the Denari. Because their economy was partially still based on a bartering system, prices would fluctuate with the season, sometimes food was more valuable than actual currency, or if there was a grain shortage which could last years money was worthless if everyone was starving people needed to keep their food.
Literally the only difference between now and then is level of technology and levels of general knowledge. That's wild
I think they had much more knowledge than the people nowdays
At least they knew what a woman is.
@@cattleherder1912 actually right before Rome fell they went through the same type of social problems. Other society's have as well right before they went down
Also one peasant income was enough to feed the whole family
@@donsolos Its true that Roman leaders vastly overestimated Romes capability to assimilate other cultures. But again there were no mobs of peasants running wild, cackling about identity politics and crying about the prospect of being miss-gendered. I guess the closest thing was Neros army of thots.
It is inconceivable that Theodorus would not have access to a small family plot, so they could grow their own produce. And they lived on an island, so the odd fishing trip would not be out of the question. Given that he is committed to farming his landlord's land, he will have had time to take part in other trades in his local community. Also, feast days were fairly common and sacrificed animals would be made available for consumption. So there is a possibility the family had access to meat on such occasions.
the guy was a wagie. didn't have the independent entrepreneur billionaire top-g winner mindset.
I agree, he probably didn't spend much on his daily necessities. There's no way fish would cost that much on a Greek island; he probably would have eaten a lot of it and gotten it from some extended family member for free or cheap.
@@MartialGandhiAnd his wife may have had gone out on occasion to pick up wild herbs, helped with her husband, was a nursemaid or carer in the neighborhood or done menial labour every now and then, alongside caring for her kid, so what is presented here is sort of the bare minimum of what could be expected (Then again, this is all conjecture, so, we can just about estimate their family’s weekly expenditure)
His wife may have owned a vehicle and could stay at her moms home when the husband acted up. She also had a second income since up keep for a 2nd vehicle was costly in antiquity. @@odd-ysseusdoesstuff6347
Remember yall he was also payed in food. Produce appears to have been cheaper than today. Try to get the same veriety every week for a family of 3 and you be looking at a salary of someone who makes 60-70k to pick fruit ffs. Not to mention that everything is organic and he gets a veriety so he litteraly eats better than some uper middle class people today. Also with clothing uless you like to dress in synthetic garbage that lowkey isn’t even comfortable(cold sweaty or stinky people wondering why they have acne allergies and are lowkey breathing in plastic fibers!) We work more we get payed less we eat lower quality food and are surrounded by toxins.
Just one observation regarding Theodorus... beeing pesant is not like beeing a xix or xxth century factory worker... there are no 8h factory shifts... some times theodorus would work on a field for 10 h but for majority of the year he would have a much more free time than present day workers... so it is probable that like early modern european pesants he would use that time in meaningfull way like reparing shoes or making table pottery or tanding to animals of his own for extra income
@Jo Jo 100%, there’s never time for leisure even on a small farm, something’s always breaking or getting lost
@Jo Jo "If it was anything like being a rural farmer today" It was not. Farm workers were idle for large portions of the year, and often took up other employment. This is part of why the city of Rome had much less population in late summer. The work you are talking about is the problem of the land owner. The number of workers he would need when not planting or harvesting crops is far less.
@@matthewalexander1943 yeah Most of modern day farmers own their land so they have to give everything to tend the land....which is not a small task My town grow tobacco and corn....sometime a bad harvest would force them to take a loan which need two good harvest to get rid of the debt Alot of young people left to work in the factory, even if it was 9-10 hours work with minimum wages cause they don't have to worry about work all the time like farmers
@@johnpaulcross424 It depends how you run your farm too.... as someone who's worked in farms before, I promise you we had some leisure time. And modern farmers do take time off on occasion. But theirs is a more continuous job than most.
@@MyHentaiGirlNeko Exactly correct. This is one of the things people get wrong about the Industrial Revolution. People moved into the cities to work factory jobs precisely because they paid more and required less work. They seem awful by our modern standards, but they were a blessing to the poor former farmhands.
The area in which industrialization most impressively reduced prices is clothing (even before manufacturing moved to low labor cost countries). The price of basic clothing in ancient and even medieval times seems ludicrous. For instance the fact that a sturdy wagon costs the same as a plain tunic is hard to comprehend.
Imagine selling clothes at just half the market price while having Victorian Era Automated Looms. Now I get how the first industrialized countries and people got so rich lol
@@sirnikkel6746 that and they destroyed all the other nations
True but we tend to forget how much work it takes and how difficult it really is to weave and make good quality clothing by hand
@@Saber23 *HAHA AUTOMATED LOOM GOES SHRICK SHRACK*
@@sirnikkel6746 the fuck does that even mean?
As a retired military, I can say not much has changed in the last 2000 years
Because war, war never changes
You get allocated land when you retire?
Not exactly, in my case it is apartment, after 20 years of military service
@@nonamechicago2716i wonder are you proud with what you do?, i see the politican is more rich than the military hard work.
Well, İ definitely not ashamed of my choose, and i am aware of my abilities (NOT politician or entrepreneur), in the end got what I deserve no more no less@@Zystiria
It was surprising to learn about how industrious medieval serfs were in England. Archeological evidence now shows the average serf owned a gold broach, and laws had to be passed to prevent them from dressing like nobility, as they'd make their own clothes in a similar fashion, able to make a few garments very fine at home, for themselves.
There is a venetian diplomat's account from 1498 where he marvels at how wealthy the English are.
where can we find this? @@ingold1470
Slaves marketed as serfs dont own. They can have possession of something. Lie be lied about.
Fun fact, my country's government (Argentina) has been trying to enforce similar legislation to combat our rampant inflation and, of course, it doesn't work and just makes things worse. But, looking at the bright side, it's a nice homage to Diocletian.
Cue Monthy Python "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life"
ah pero el Cesar Macrium XVI...
United States government printet like 80% of us dollars in circulation in the last 2 years, causing biggest inflation since '70, it also propose to fix it with lot of bullshit, including government fixing prices. And commanding coroprations to silence people, because govt can't do it directly without breaking constitution's 1st amendment. And questioning government is "suspected ter-ra-arism". Authoritarian times...
@@RobertSmith-mr1zd this has been happening in the usa since it's founding
@@justinallen2408 Are you including the several decades where the United States functionally didn't even have a national currency?
Fascinating stuff. I love the little details of their lives. I am getting tired of hearing about Caesar and Cleopatra.
true i know ceasar life better than i know my dads xD
@tyrrant Dads? How many times did your mother divorce?
Very true. It's tiring to hear about the scheming of the kings again and again. None of those can relates to daily lives
@@nekomancer4641 it's not supposed to be relatable. It's supposed to tell you why things turned out the way they are, and there the details of the daily lives of the average person don't say much
@@tomlxyz nor did I said it's supposed to?
The stronghold music is a nice touch. Thought i was hearing thing for a moment.
Ahhh a man of culture i see
This is very educational. You should also make videos about the lives of people in different centuries / countries. Even a video about people living today in different countries would also be entertaining.
I would really love a cost of living breakdown of any historical period. It's so hard to get a good set of numbers. Middle ages, vikings, industrial revolution, Byzantine, Renaissance Venice, Holy Roman Empire, French Revolution, middle ages middle east, China, feudal Japan, early America, Aztecs. Whatever you may care to put together, I would watch.
Whatever the specific numbers are, you can bet that our wealth increases dramatically all around the world as you go forwards in time. Nowadays we are all extremely rich. And every person born makes us even richer, it's pretty insane. You would think we are a burden, but we really are a blessing. If we wanted to, no one of us would ever have to go hungry ever again. But even with our stupid conflicts and self sabotage holding us back, we are still growing insanely quick. I've heard that by 2100 we will be about 300% richer than today again, which is almost unfathomable. Once we all start working together, humanity will explode into insane progress never seen before.
The way things are going, the average wealth will be 300% of today but the mean wealth will be 10%. For the average Joe, protein will be vegetable fortified with insect protein and on rare special occasions, some vat-grown “meat” 3D printed into a meat shape. In the Great Reset, you will own nothing and like it, and virtually all your income will go to rent, food and heavily rationed energy. Even clothing will be rented.
Didn't once mention africa
Mauritania is in Africa
@@katarinalove8649 to which purpose does this comment serve?
This was super useful to my Worldbuilding for my Dungeons & Dragons setting.
Same!
super useful for my minecraft world
Super useful for my dungeons and dragons Minecraft world
Isekai story
Quoting homer simpson "neeeeeeeeeeeerd"
The fact that the tenant farmer can support a family at all shows that they were better off than our working class.
I've supported a wife and child on minimum wage for the last 8 years. It isn't easy, but it isn't farming either. Maybe where you live has a bad minimum wage to cost of living ratio.
@@HopeisAnger you have to keep in mind that people before industrialization worked a lot less than we do now. Your minimum work was like 40 hours a week. This man wouldve worked maybe half of that.
@@werwar27this highly depends on the season, on average sure they would of worked less but during harvest season they would of worked nearly the whole day to harvest the crops and even during their free times they will have to do repairs
Not if they were to farm year round.
A todays worker surely can save more than the tenant farmer who spends almost everything on just food an clothes.
Great video on Roman economics and day to day expenses in different socioeconomic classes never seen a video like it great work ! I like history a lot and think you did a great job on this topic !
My grandparents lived for a long time as farmers and some of them have surviving stories of how their grandfathers tended the land and the thing is, that it didn't change much and from what I hear from Theodorus's life it was more or less the same back then. You could argue that machinery existed back in the 1800, but very few in eastern Europe had access to them so it was still land toiling as it was back in the day. Which means a few things for poor Theodorus: 1. The summer and fall were the most prosperous time for him and his family, even if he had to work 12h a day, from sunrise to sundown on a field, he would most likely skip a lot of expenses because fruits and vegetables are plentiful then and most farmers, even those who didn't own any land could easily get their hands on them for next to nothing, so he would be able to save up a lot more money, especially during the harvest when landowners would usually pay extra. 2. Winter is very problematic for a tenant farmer, because there isn't much work to be done, I mean other than chopping firewood, cooking and doing small chores around the house, there isn't much he could do, but live off the money he had earned during the summer and fall and relax. 3. Living as a farmer has its charm and benefits, but it is a very arduous lifestyle. Most of the time there is something to do, a field that need plowing, a crop that needs watering, a weed that needs picking, a load that needs transporting... I am sure that many who live or lived around farms could attest that there is always something to do and I've worked the fields myself, it is not a pleasant experience sitting in the summer heat for ten hours picking up potatoes with your hand and then placing them into sacks...
It’s not for everyone but the simplicity and direct your-work-is-your-food has an ease to it, namely a joy to the work and a lack of monotony, that the world of specialization doesn’t have. But even among the family members and communities that farm there can be specialization.
Great point on the seasonal impact on farmer civilizations. This leads me to believe that civilizations in more northern latitudes with colder weather were inclined to raid their southern neighbors for resources to survive the winters or to escape the colder environment. Vikings, Mongols, etc.
My grandparents were farmers and I would stay there often. My grandfather would often sleep on the floor right in front of the furnace (for heating the home) which was right next to the front door. He did this because he would have to get up in the middle of the night every couple of hours to change irrigation flows and he didn't want to wake his wife. He didn't sleep much.
The Ancient Sumerians wished they had modern technology to keep out hostile tribes and ensure the vast majority of babies and birth mothers survive!
@@NeoN-PeoN depends on season. But doing something for yourself has a different motivation then working for others.
A few comments about the peasant/farmer: 1. You calculated your example based on one infant child. What about in a few years when they have 3-4-5 children, some of whom are 8-12 years old? 2. A Peasant may have had the option to take some fallen/low quality produce for themselves. 3. Foraging for greens/herbs/fruit/oysters was (and still is) very common in Greece and other mediterranian countries. 4. Hunting small animals via traps would also be an option for someone who lives in the countryside.
Yes, you are right but this is a snapshot of all the Roman Empire. As you said, there are multiple variants and lots of different scenarios. In this case we followed the sources to the letter. If we started adding stuff for which we have no clear reference the video would lose it's scientific aura and fall into the "what if" realm. Hope that you liked the video :)
Kids were not such a problem, as they add work force. 8-12, as you suggest, would be less productive, but still work. By ages 12 to 14, they are already strong enough to work as adults, so they would actually add a lot more to the family income. The idea of teens, or even children, not working is quite modern.
also, greece, which is where thera is located, was historically one of the richest regions in the roman empire. You would expect a gallic (ancient french) peasant to earn a whole lot less. these children that you mentioned, would help a lot with the farmwork
As the growth of the global and known Roman empire's population will tell you... very few children survived to adulthood. The world population grew extremely slowly at this period due mostly to infant mortality.
There is another thing to add: it would have been relatively rare to buy thread, cloth, or clothes. His wife and any female children would have worked wool, spinning it into thread to weave and sew into garments. The spinning portion took the most time, but even very young children could participate in that. Emperor Augustus even boasted (potentially propagandized) that he wore clothes spun and made by Livia Drusilla rather than purchasing at the market
Love the stronghold 2 music!!! Immediately caught my ear, great video!
😂 i were looking for this type of comment❤
I think this might be the best video on youtube that I have found in a very very long time.
It looks to me that ancient Rome was a society where labour was cheap but goods were expensive. I grew up in Malaysia and live in the UK now. I see the same dichotomy, that labour is cheap but not nice things like fancy clothing or food or travel, while it seems to be reverse in the UK, where foreign travel, nicer clothing and buying something nice like smoked salmon or game meat is relatively cheaper (as in a smaller part of your income) but hiring workers or skilled tradesmen is expensive. I see also that food makes up the majority of household expenditure, which is something of a rule of thumb in modern economies, that in poorer economies, expenditure on food makes up a higher proportion of household income than in wealthier economies, though the Romans didn't have to spend on things like electronics, computers, and had a more limited range of entertainment. My modern carnivorous diet would be completely unsustainable in Roman times. Thank you for such an excellent video.
That's a good observation. The reason for the weird reversal in the west is twofold. First of all our agriculture is exceptionally efficient, secondly we outsource or automate most of the production jobs. Simply put luxury items like electronics are still exceptionally expensive... in the countries that produce them. If a factory worker in Asia earns $4/hour assembling $400 laptops they would need to work non-stop for 100 hours. With my job I make almost $40/hour so I'd only need to work 10 hours. By shipping the luxury item to a more affluent nation the relative price drops. This is also true for labor. A native westerner is more expensive than foreign labor. A Polish carpenter will build a house for much less than a Norwegian carpenter because the cost of living in Poland is lower than the cost of living in Norway. This is all to say that the western world is a pretty weird place.
@@apotato6278 thank you potato
@@apotato6278 exactly, the slaves of the Roman world who did the menial manufacturing work for finished goods have been replaced with the low labor cost and regulatory lax third world arenas worth of workers. Kind of an indirect servitude sort of thing.
@@kyledavis4890 except capitalism develops their wages with time, too. some are now complaining china is becoming too expensive to outsource, that they need to find cheaper place because wages have naturally risen. people aim for education with the money, they don't want their children to be factory workers like they were for 40 years. chinas GDP has risen multifold in 40 years while western world, at least European unions, GDP has stagnated for 40 years. so its not permanent slavery system compared to romans. in roman times, a slave would be same slave for thousands of years. in capitalism, china has developed and become wealthier in 40 years, a lot wealthier relatively. in 1980, chinas GDP was 190 billion. now it is 17 trillion. that is not ten times increase, that is 89 times increase. they are not slaves, forever stuck. if you think so, that is not only offending to them, but also highly factually incorrect.
@@Redmanticore I'll concede that China's GDP has improved drastically over the last forty yeara, and even in the restrictive governmental system thye have, that rising boat has lifted almost all. And, in comparison to the slaves of Ancient Rome, despite still living in a restrictive government, they are better off, on the whole.
Wow, excellent video, so detailed. As a retired Army officer (today's Centurion?) with 28 years of service, it gave me flashbacks. Things have changed, but not that much! Thanks.
Getting bitched at to replace expensive uniforms and wasting all your money on booze for parties does sound familiar
Superlative video. I have been teaching History por more than half a century and I love to learn with you. In my peronist Argentina we still use laws with "maximun prices" so we suffer near 130% /150% inflation each year and unstoppable. Cheers from Patagonia.
Very thorough, enjoyed the video a lot, keep up the great work!
Great Video! Looks like even Roman peasants lived better lives than many people in impoverished countries do currently. Also love the Artwork.
Thank you! ;)
Yep
But those ancient inequalities were terrible! Good thing our society evolved beyond this. Also, Musk has 100x more money than all of commenters on this video combined....
They lived better than I did for 2 years when I was working at Gatwick Airport in England, from the looks of things.
@@Megan-ii4gf How is that possible? We get paid decently in the UK and can get so many luxuries
Hey man, I'm from brazil, I'm an English teacher, and I always use youtube docs (especially about history) to practice my listening... Sir, I don't know how to thank you! Your videos are just so RICH! It's incredible the amount of information!
We are very glad you enjoyed it, and wish you all the best in your teaching career!
I like this...a historical account of the day to day livelihood. That's how most people lived and it's good to know more about it than the wars or other major events.
amazing that after his civic duties, an opulent gift for his wife, and a MASSIVE feast, Tatianus still has more money to throw around that week than Theodorus is likely to see in a whole year.
Theodorus should have gone to school and become an aristocrat too if he was after the prestige and the wealth. he just didn't have the right mindset for it.
@@ua2894 not really the point
By the way people really need to bring back dressing like their ancestors did. I think they had a very good sense of fashion. The clothes that people in ancient China, Rome, Persia, Sweden, England, and so forth just look immaculate.
I agree
You couldn’t pay me a billion dollars to wear a puffy shirt or a toga for the rest of my life
@@worksv3 hm it was worth a try
@@worksv3 I agree, you'd look too good for what you are wearing those
@@worksv3 If your body was better taken care of, you might enjoy showing more of it off.
This is the kind of history I find uniquely fascinating, the kind of thing we still do today. Budgeting, in this instance.
It's very helpful for writers and dungeon masters.
This should be fascinating.... But unfortunately its not TRUE
@@markod4635 Care to elaborate?
@@Hungabrigoo for starters the description of the diet is completely false. and if you don;t know what people are eating then ... you dunno how they are living
This is fascinating, thank you for making this
This is great information! Thank you so much for making this.
Did they mention the purity of the denarius? It was 98% silver during Caesar but dropped to just 2-5% during the end of the 3rd century!
I just love these videos. It is the combination of music, the nice drawings and facts I have never heard about that really make me feel like I am diving into ancient Rome. Please keep making these videos!
The music is taken from Stronghold 2... or it's free and Stronghold 2 uses it as well.
Oh my God I hear the stronghold music in the background. What a great game.😊
To be honest, it sounds like living a normal life in the Roman Empire really wasn’t too bad. It also sounds like you could earn a pretty decent wage being a skilled labourer judging by how much some of those items costed
It's bad when our modern day family can't live on a single wage. Even if they try to go bare minimum. Heck, it wasn't too long ago when a family living on single wage was the norm only decades ago
@@silverhawkscape2677 look towards the richest of the rich - hoarding vast amounts of money that are so ludicrous they are useless to them and serve as nothing more than a high score in a video game does - to find out why the average modern family can no longer live on a single wage. How giant corporations that rake in billions every year have employees that need to live off of government support because they aren't being paid enough - just so that the profits of the companies are even more abstractly high despite covering all their expenses many tens of times over. Just so some blithering idiots like Bezos or the Walton family have more numbers in their bank accounts. Poverty is basically artificial in the western world. And I'm not even calling for communism here... just some fucking oversight over bloated American and European capitalism.
You forgot barbarians, violence, a less then 40 years life expectancy, diseases, and watching your children die young. That's assuming you were not a slave, or a woman, or a non citizen. Still compared to how people lived outside the empire it was remarkably good
@@apc9714 I imagine it wouldve been super dope at Rome's peak
@@silverhawkscape2677 You can thank doubling the workforce by letting women work, outsourcing of jobs and importing cheap labor.
Diocletian’s price list would be a fantastic reference for DMs. Just replace denarii with a silver piece, or copper depending on how much the DM wants things to be worth in their game and you get a list of the prices of hundreds of items in a culture at about the same level that most FRPG worlds are. I wish I'd known about it back when I ran table top games.
For reference a Roman denarius was a silver coin the size of a modern dime... but in the time of this video it was greatly debased in terms of the silver content
Ancient Rome was just a game xD
My players already accuse me of being expensive. Imagine if I trying to charge 36000 sp for a draft horse.
As mentioned, the coins of this time were very devalued. If you want real silver pieces, maybe divided Diocletian's prices by 25. In Nero's time a soldier might receive 250 denarii a year, plus military support. The Greek drachma was similar to the original Roman denarius, and a drachma/day was good income for a skilled worker; Athenian jury duty paid half a drachma. In actual weight, the drachma was about 4.25 grams of silver -- 100 to a pound! -- while the early denarius was a bit less. D&D coins have tended to 10 or 50 per pound though, 43 grams or 9 grams.
@@tallgoofyb By the time of Diocletian the Denarius was no longer struck since it had been replaced by the Antoninianus. The amount of silver in the Denarius coins that were still circulating was based on their production year. But you are correct about the large debasement of silver in Roman coins.
That stronghold music 👌really nice video too!
thanks for listing resources, much appreciated
Really cool and informative video. I find myself fascinated imagining how different my modern life is compared to ancient people. Yet despite those differences on the surface, we also share so much in common. We still need food, water, and shelter. We still have to work to earn a living. We still start families, smile, laugh, and have fun with friends. We still want to impress our colleagues, and neighbors. We still splurge on the occasional expense to treat ourselves or celebrate. We still have to pay taxes and save what we can. Many things have changed, but many other things are the same as they've always been.
You are very right! The true human nature and instinct did not change a bit. If you took a baby from their time and grew it up in ours, there would be no way to tell it apart from us. 2000 years is too little for us to change! :)
Programmers that make virtual stuff for pleasure mostly earn the most. They don't improve system for bringing food which is bad, they don't build houses, so yea
@@mrbane2000 no-cushy-webdev-job guy takes an L
As long as we are Homo Sapiens, we will have things in common.
@@mrbane2000 Programmers are building the modern world, my friend. Most definitely they contribute to the system.
Thank you! Would be very interesting to see more videos of the Roman city dwellers' living arrangements
I like how passionate you are story telling
As you stated, The first guys Theodorus gets a daily food ration ,so the expenses on food should be hugely reduced, making his situation much better… you can easily remove 30/40 dinaris, also he would take some food from the land… it shows u live in a city and do not understand the meaning of having a garden to grow food and veggies… cheers
Yeah, its funny how he mentions that but then goes to list all the food they need for a week as family.
Try buying a veriety of vegetables today. Or in general try to eat healthy thats more for middle class people now.
It's also mentioned later that the rich were taxed to feed the poor.
At least the rich fellow is putting his money back into the economy to circulate, not hoarding it. That is what makes economies run well.
It was his wife's birthday, it was a special occasion. Plus the feasting was not only a flex of wealth, but it was also a time to network with other aristocrats, propose marriage alliances, business opportunities, and ways to get over the Roman state or their workers.
Actually, speculation was a very serious issue in Ancient Rome, especially at the end of the Republic. And believe me, I don't think that one can say that "the Roman economy worked well". Conquest was the only way Rome has ever managed to sustain its insane expenses (500 000 soldiers active under Diocletian, which is more than almost every nation on Earth today, etc). The inflation was a nightmare, trade was irregular at most, inequalities were prodigious, fraud and extortion were everywhere, and so on. When the Empire stopped conquering under Hadrian, things started to break down.
The same happens today too but it's done within companies
Nobody hoards the literal money, that's not how money works. They hoard assets that produce money. Real estate empires, key industries, agricultural land, businesses, stocks, etc. Money that's sitting in the bank is money that's just wasting away due to inflation - no one with enough financial education to be wealthy is going to let all that potential income rot in a bank account.
This video is so good, i like to rewatch it from time to time.
I am very happy you enjoy it so much, It was very animating it and doing the math :)
i really really enjoyed this video, thank you!
Oh man I'm already feeling the pinch and the stress of managing money just from watching this vid. Anybody else feel the same?
Only with Theodorus, but yeah
I get nervous if I think about it! :D I lack natural balance in many ways, so I've learned not to think about it, but to live in a way which doesn't cost too much. I'm very thankful I don't have to live too close to the line.
What a great video! I love learning about the day to day life of our ancestors, especially since there's so much information about battles and politics of the time already.
This was interesting and informative-- thanks!
When I heard the stronghold soundtrack in the background, that put a big smile on my face
Life at that time doesn't seem too bad honestly
Pick a god and pray you weren't born with deformation, or have chronic physical or mental disease
@@tappajaav this dude thinks mental illness is real
@@marcuswagner1396 Take the ill-pill
@@tappajaav Wait. You think mental illness existed anywhere outside of modern times?
@@AndrewTheMandrew531 Of course. They've been around since dawn of humankind. Just called different things at different times
Damn, and here i am working my ass off to only be able to afford 2 marble pillars custom made each weak, and this guy can get 3 easily
Really good video It is obvios you put in the work
Interesting reading that last quote, some things never change.
I really enjoy these type of videos! The kind that shows the view from the people, how they actually lived, not just the super-rich or famous that's usually portrayed in history books! Definitely got my sub!
Reech Milesian Purple leather adorns the 200 BC Chrysler Cordoba! Thank you for this video, I appreciate the attention to detail and the enjoyable presentation. Clear but not dumbed down. Just what I have difficulty finding on tv!
Thoroughly enjoyed this! More like it plz!
Super interesting and well done video! Thank you for it 😊
At 4:05, when the Stronghold 2 music kicked up, I was suddenly thrown back to 12years old building kingdoms.
This kind of ordinarily lifestyle details really makes the history comes alive!
From middle class to the rich class, a very interesting weekly summation of living expenses.
theodorus and his family would also have a small garden around his house or hut , which remained as a tradition for at least 2k years in all colonized regions by the romans , family structure allowed a lot of handcrafting in the house as there were living together more generations in the same house
Thank you for this interesting video . I would kindly suggest that you add a summary of weekly or yearly (better in my view) income and expenses at the end of each section of the video. A comparison with the empire budget or the province budget would also help. I would greatly appreciate a video on the monetary and economic changes that occured in the 3rd century AD . It is not an easy task but it would be great to watch such a work from your team . Many thanks for the work you performed . Kind regards.
Absolutely beautiful! Daily life in history is VERY important to our work! Because Ta Mando is directly modeled after Ancient Rome, this is very helpful! Love this stuff and this was a great vid! Keep up the great work!
Awesome vid! Keep it up.
I found your channel by accident, and it's pretty interesting. Thank you.
This was positively fascinating. Thank you.!
Loved this! So many insights.
Fascinating and engaging. Thank you.
It would be cool to get a second part of this video... Perhaps the price of living in a different era of the empire or before that. To be honest that sounds like too much work but i really liked this video.
This was amaizng to watch. Stories like these are very often not told
As a DM myself, your videos help me to flesh all of my sessions, and my player friends enjoy. Thank you!
they ate a peacock and had an ostrich running around? Tatianus' party is lit.
As usual, the poor work and the rich steal.
Fantastic video, thanks for giving us something different again, I really enjoyed the dynamic and the small details like why some clothes costed more were a great plus 💞
would love to see videos like this on other historical periods. the lives of common people are always left out of the historical record so this type of video is really fascinating.
I've been doing the research to see how people like the Bennett's & other characters of Jane Austen's books would _really_ live in the Regency era - it's quite an interesting study; maybe I'll publish it one day...
This was actually extremely interesting!
This is so damn interesting. Bravo!
Awesome video, this is great content! Interesting to note the difference from the Biblical account's time and place, when a Denarius was about a day's wages.
a single man working a labour job, able to pay for rent, food, other expenses for himself a wife and a child and being able to save a bit every week. doing much better than where I live
I'm sure you can save money if you lived like him, give up your phone,internet, electricity, etc.etc. Remember, you have saved money and maybe buy a tunic with it.
@@joeiborowski9763 sure pal. The way the system works , you need a car you need a phone a smart phone at that . Unless you have enough money already or inherited land you'd be in a difficult position.
just like the 60s man. the dream
Reminds me of life in the 70's when a family man making $80 per week could live well.
Reminds me of life in the 70's when a family man making $80 per week could live well.
Thanks for this amazing information
Oh heck yeah is that some Stronghold II OST I hear? Great choice for background music
Love videos like these, really helps to humanize our ancestors.
Good, thought provoking video. As usual, the people at the bottom are scraping by and have to do a lot of things for themselves while those close to the top live very well indeed. The people at the bottom at least have some real self reliance and survival skills but next to no safety net.
I'm a little late to the game but this is one of the best documentaries I've seen on KZhead, quite entertaining and one of the best like I said!
With the price of beef today in our post-covid economy, I usually turn to pork and I feel very lucky that we have some very good quality locally produced pork meat in my region. I had some amazing marinated pork loin tonight. Nevertheless, I definitely see more and more long-lasting vegetables, pasta and legumes coming into my meal options for purely financial reasons. I even see lamb chops on special being more affordable than beef, and you can be sure I leap at those when I see them. We really have no idea just how priviledged we are in our modern society, the extensiveness of the abundance we have access to. Historically speaking, we are beyond spoiled. It's mind numbing that I can just buy frozen smoked salmon at literally any grocery store - and I even have relatively affordable access to non-frozen one at specialty fish stores!
Yeah, here in Norway, beef is insanely expensive and pork is fatty and unhealthy so I’m living on a combination of chicken and salmon (salmon is obviously in abundance here and is significantly cheaper than beef).
Very interesting video. Thank you!