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This video covers some of the most impressive bridges constructed by the Ancient Romans. Whether it was to make war or trade, no river was deep or wide enough to act as a barrier for the great Empire. The Romans not only possessed some of the most skilled engineers and architects of their time, but also the sheer man power of the disciplined legions to make their creations come to life!
Primary Sources:
-Ausonius, Ordo Ubium Nobilium, 8.
-Caesar, Bello Gallico IV, 16-19.
-Caesar, Bello Civile I, 64.
-Cassius Dio, Roman History, LVIII, 13.
-Procopius, On Buildings IV, 6.11.
-AE 1973, 475. edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/...
-AE 1973, 473. edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/...
-CIL III, 1699. edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/...
-CIL III, 1698. edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/...
-AE 1944, 70. edh.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/edh/...
Secondary Sources:
-Brown, R. D. “Caesar’s Description of Bridging the Rhine (Bellum Gallicum 4.16-19): A Literary Analysis”. Classical Philology, Vol. 108, 1 (2013), 41-53.
-Gilles, R. C. “How Caesar Bridged the Rhine”. The Classical Journal, Vol. 64, 8 (1969), 359-365.
-Golvin, J.C. Le Génie Civil de l’Amrée Romaine. Actes Sud, 2018.
-Hyde, W.W. “Trajan’s Danube Road and Bridge”. The Classical Weekly, Vol. 18. No.8 (1924), 59-64.
-Mehrotra, A. & Glisic, B. “Reconstruction of the appearence and structural system of Trajan’s Bridge”. Journal of Cultural Heritage (2014), dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.20...
-Serban, M. “Trajan’s Bridge over the Danube. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 38.2 (2009), 331-342.
The author's website: jeanclaudegolvin.com/en/
The book on amazon USA: www.amazon.com/g%C3%A9nie-civ...
Intro (0:00)
Sponsor (1:00)
Caesar's bridge over the Rhine (1:51)
Highway over the Iron Gates (4:31)
The bridge of Arelate over the Rhone (6:40)
Trajan's bridge over the Danube (9:44)
I love the Roman empire, mostly its famed legions of antiquety, but I'm always left in awe when i see some of the things they build. Great video, could you also do one on how they made roads?
Roman roads are a fascinating topic! We might cover them as a part of a video about their logistical network.
@@HistoriaMilitum sounds cool, thanks
@@HistoriaMilitum I would greatly appreciate that too I would also love to hear about their Aqueducts The colosseum And their trade route with india through egypt
Your videos are really amazing actually Thank you for taking the time to make them I really appreciate
@@HistoriaMilitum Definitely subscribing!
With engineering feats like this, it makes you wonder where we would be if Rome hadn't fallen
Depending on if they kept slavery or not we might actually be worse off than today haha
@@lucaslimo if HRE still exist Nazi never exist
Problem with Rome is that whilst they did some really amazing engineering stuff, you'll note that all the things listed here occured in the Early Empire or Republic. They simply weren't a progressing society once the Empire became unstable. It was a political system which inevitably failed. The administration became an oppressive hindrance to populations as the 'barbarians' became more advanced. The fall was inevitable due to that, but even if you somehow hypothetically kept it alive, it really wasn't going anywhere. It's easy to see the fall as a tragedy, but it was more of a necessity.
@@albertsuseintsus7355 you're literally a commie, far worse than any Germans of any era for eternity.
@@dubsy1026 Fair point. The surviving east part also it is an indication. Also China. It needed the particular and divided Europe. Edit: I will add that despite current world state the majority of humanity along ages has always been more or less stagnant. I just hope the sea people doesn’t show up again hehe.
Phenomenal video! As an engineer, this is a win win to be able to learn about these engineering marvels of the Roman era! Looking forward to anything else you put out about their engineering accomplishments!
I like to think of the Roman empire as an experiment on what an empire run by engineers would look like From administration, logistics to military expeditions and well, construction, they embodied the engineering spirit throughout it Taking a pragmatic, iterative approach to everything and always looking to tweak and optimise
10 days to build a bridge to cross the rhine? Amazing!
My favorite Roman building, is the Pantheon. Purely because the dome is the largest, self supporting, pure concrete dome that exists, and multiple modern day calculations, have shown that it isn't possible to build a larger dome, without reinforcing the concrete. But as if that wasn't enough, the dome also has a giant, circular hole at the top, meaning that they intentionally created a hole, at the weakest point of the dome, yet still managed to make the overall integrity, as strong as a similar dome, without the center hole. But wait, there's more. The weight distribution of the dome, is managed in steps, that "lean" away from the inside of the dome. In the meantime, the inside of the dome, is covered in a massive relief pattern, which both adds to the overall aesthetic design of the building, as well as reduces some of the inwards leaning weight, of the dome. The Romans were master builders.
Aside from the step design I also read they changed the concrete mix for each level, with each one above having more pumice to make it lighter.
Blue's alt account lmao
i knew Caesar crossed the rhine with a wooden bridge, but man that's genius using the currents to keep it together.
how they could cut & mill that much timber in 10 days defies belief
@@hillwalker8741thousands of legionairres makes a good work force
@@hillwalker8741 alli express from china
@@hillwalker8741 Well when you have 40k engineers at your disposal...
Even as a child here in Australia, I was in awe of the ancient engineering used by the Romans. Since then my admiration for them has only increased and I am now in my seventies. Blessings from Oz. 👍😎🇦🇺
I'm Australian and i spent a month on an archeological excavation in Italy on a site of an Roman town. Without a doubt the best experience of my life thus far. Sadly there's nothing really of note archeological wise in Australia.
So densely packed with information I had to watch it 3 times. And that is exactly the type of video I love, well done.
Those bridges are simply brilliant and beautifully, perhaps "accidentally". Their understanding and implementation of mathmatics and geometry was really impressive. I had fun getting my head wrapped around just how much lunber was required to build some of these projects! I can't even imagine how expensive that would be today and how challenging it would be to source the very old and strong trees that had to come down with bronze and iron tools, then get milled to shape and transported to these complex build sites. I can't figure out why I am only now discovering your body of work on this channel! Ave Felaxim History!
Never new I wanted to learn about ancient Roman master builders until I saw this. Thanks for providing an excellent intorduction, hope to see the next one along these lines soon.
Glad you enjoyed!
Read "the Ancient Engineers" by Sprague DeCamp. Awesome look at the history of engineering and tecnoloty.
I was just thinking about you this morning "i feel like he may have posted by now" only to be blessed with this masterpiece
You have great timing, my friend!
@8:51 Angry French noises. It's both cute and very confusing that you describe Arles as the biggest city in modern France (Paris, anyone?). Although I learned something, and I think it's what you meant, that it's the city with the largest administrative area (in terms of territory) in France. Thank you for the interesting video, keep it up !
The "biggest city" fact has indeed caused some confusion. Will be more careful with wording next time. Thank you, and I am glad you enjoyed!
@@HistoriaMilitum was it largest city in France during Roman times?
@@nunyabiznes33 It may have been them, hosting 75-100,000 inhabitants, while Lugdunum (Lyon) and Massilia (Marseille) had about 50,000, and Lutetia (Paris) about 80,000.
From Wikipedia: "A large part of the Camargue, the largest wetlands in France, is located on the territory of the commune [of Arles], making it the largest commune in Metropolitan France in terms of geographic territory." But yes, the wording in the video was very confusing (which is what prompted me to look this up).
@@chocolateer Nice. I never knew this. Though largest in Métropole doesn't means much compared to some of the overseas.
Just incredible work
I recommend reading the trilogy on Trajan's life by Santiago Posteguillo. I describes in great detail how the bridge over the Danube was constructed and follows the daily work of some (fictional) roman soldiers who took part in the construction. One interesting detail is that the legionaires carved into each brick the name of their legion and unit. This can still be seen on the pillars that remain today. The romans were proud builders.
No English translation tho
This is a great coincidence, a day before you released the video I had watched a Spanish TV show called "Roman Engineering" in a public channel about the roman highways and they spoke a little bit about bridges and their outstanding stability and endurance. So your video is like a detailed continuation. Thank you, man.
If I had been a Germanic man witnessing Caesar's army building a bridge across the Rhine in 10 days, and finally understanding what they were doing, I would have likely been very scared. I'm soon to be a certified land surveyor, and I would have LOVED to take part in the construction of any of those. Such amazing works of engineering.
Always love seeing an upload from you because I know it'll be quality work.
I appreciate your kind words and will not let you down!
These types of videos about historic industry are much needed
We would be hard pressed to build a 1km bridge over the Danube in 2 years today. Roman engineers and soldiers were very impressive.
it would be almost impossible, today we have worker's rights, greenpeace and a dozen other bureaucracy stuff they have to deal with.
@@tyrrant1374 yeah dude that’s why there are no bridges anymore 😂 wtf you talking about
@@KannabisMajoris we are talking about the speed bozo
I lived in Drobeta Turnu Severin, where the bridge built by Apolodor was, there is a very beautiful mock-up of the bridge at the local museum. Back when I was a kid i used to scale the last remaining pillar on the r Romanian side.
Oh wow! 😱 I envy you. Sadly it's the only thing that remains from the megaproject of the Iron Gates, Trajan's channel and bridge
@@JonEtxebeberriaRodriguez yeah, there is also a castrum built to protect the bridge, they have rebuilt it marking the different layers(new ones levels are clearly marked) also, with the modernization project they have unearthed romann baths and i think also a small theater that where previously unknown.
And after living there for 13 years I moved to Italy 🤣 I changed sides.
FOR ALL WHO WONDERS WHY HE MENTIONED ARLES AS THE BIGGEST CITY IN FRANCE: "A large part of the Camargue, the largest wetlands in France, is located on the territory of the commune, making it the largest commune in Metropolitan France in terms of geographic territory."
In order to build the Danube bridge, they’ve also dug a canal to partially redirect the flow of the mighty Danube. The canal can be seen on satellite photos, starts from Kladovo and rejoins the Danube at Mala Vrbica. Not sure how they’ve done all that in just 2 years.
Once again an amazing job done. Not only an impressive research but really interactive. Hopefully you will start doing again videos on the roman legions and their battles :)
Don't worry, next video will be Legio XI Claudia. Its on the editing process, if all goes well it will be released next week 😎
Brilliant video..always wondered how all these processes happened..Brilliant and informative
Wow I saw a different video from you recommend and was checking to see if you posted, what a lucky afternoon!
thanks for this great video and keeping your word in the legion recruitment vid!
You are most welcome! Apologies for the long wait.
The channel is amazing, I just binged all the videos and they were all great. Something other channels do not have, interesting details that are not just dates, battles and consequences! Pease keep the channel going, you will soon get a ton of subscribers, this is beautiful! I already told about you to everyone I know that is into history :)
Thanks for making this compilation of fascinating bridges! Also, metric cubes is the funniest unit of measure I've ever heard.
Man, I love your videos. The quality is Invicta level. Keep it up!
Amazing video! One of your best :)
I'm sure there were plenty of worker bees to help build these fascinating structures. The time for completion is amazing! I would do just about anything for a few cameras to record a time-lapse video of the process. Looking forward to the Appollodorus of Damascus video
Always wanted to see this kind of video. You have my deep thanks :)
Excellent piece of work here
Great video, always impressed by what the Roman engineers were capable of.
You sell drugs
I remember my visit to *Pont-du-Gard* in France, combined aquaduct and bridge, truly impressive and still standing today.
Another great video The roman engineering is fascinating
8:50 biggest *Roman* city in France I think you mean.
This is so interesting! thank you so much for your work!! I wish you'd cover the fifth or sixth legion next! Cheers!!!
Glad you enjoyed! The audience has already voted the 11th legion to be the next video, but the 6th legion was the next in line and will probably be the next one ;)
Cool video
Fascinating piece of history!
Simply amazing.
Great lecture thanks
Great content! Love almost all of your videos. In the future can you do a video talking about how a normal legionary can become an centurion? The average time span of that. And what a legionary have to do to earn such a position. Thanks!
Thank you! We have already made a video on the ranking system of the Imperial Roman army. In that video, we cover the promotions and how to achieve the rank of centurion, based on all available sources we have. Be sure to check it out!
Great video!
Hi excellent video! Just curious about the Batavian Cavalry Auxilia, by any chance do you have more info or a source where i can read more about that river crossing cav? Thanks and again, very detailled video, keep on the great work. :D
Below quote from Cassius Dio is copied From wikipedia page Batavi_(Germanic_tribe); "The barbarians thought that Romans would not be able to cross it without a bridge, and consequently bivouacked in rather careless fashion on the opposite bank; but he sent across a detachment of Germanic tribesmen, who were accustomed to swim easily in full armour across the most turbulent streams. [...] Thence the Britons retired to the river Thames at a point near where it empties into the ocean and at flood-tide forms a lake. This they easily crossed because they knew where the firm ground and the easy passages in this region were to be found; but the Romans in attempting to follow them were not so successful. However, the Germans swam across again and some others got over by a bridge a little way up-stream, after which they assailed the barbarians from several sides at once and cut down many of them. (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book 60:20)"
Amazing content!
Amazing that they built cofferdams for pier construction.
Roman engineering has always amazed me.
I would love to see a full documentary of that last bridge
Very interesting, thanks !
You’re most welcome!
They were fantastic
Trajan took only 2 years to build a bridge over the Danube. That is impressive! How long did it take us to build our bridges?
i dont know if its due to the fact that i just got up or because english isnt my first language. but man, you fire the informations like busta rhymes :D great work, very interesting topic. i'm really fascinated by logistics, as its (kind of) the overseen backbone of war. EDIT: I cout bridgebuilding to the wider field of logistics (for obviouse reasons) :D
That Iron Gates bridgeworks sounds like some of the ancient Chinese works on the Yangtze, incredible stuff!
learned something new
It's Amazing what Ancient Romans built..
You should make a video talking about the Roman Navy, surely needing someone to conquer the waves was important
This is a testament to what the psychopath or sociopath will do in certain situations.
Yeah it is definitely interesting to consider the self confidence of Roman leaders in their decision making.
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Great video
I think that if Ancient Roman Engineer could have time travel into 21st century he would still make pretty good career after a few years at modern day university
If only we ignore the language problem and the extra mathematics concept.
Roman engineer: what in Janus cunt is CAD??
There are aqueducts still in use today. Amazing.
Well done.👍
I would love to see some teams replicate building a few of these especially Caesar's using only what the Romans had.
They don't make bridges like they used to. Ancient Romans did everything better
if romans did everything better, then would you want to live in a world where we're still stuck with their technology?
@@micahistory yeah I'd have no problem with that
@@michaelscarn5625 you say this but I bet you'd never actually abandon the internet. It's easy to see the past with rose coloured glasses but you probably wouldn't actually like living there
@@micahistory exactly lol , wouldn't survive a day
Everything ? Even by staying on the subject of bridges, we have : - A 165 km long bridge ( Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge ) - a 171m long bridge which completely rotate on its base to let ships pass (Swing Bridge) - In 1945 the US army has built a poontoon bridge crossing the rhine in 16h and 45 minutes Etc...
Gauls: *Exist Cesar: So anyways, I started blastin.
i love the art. where is it from/ called?
what amazing is that basically all of these methods are still in use today.
@FilaximHistoria, may I ask how you processed images like the one at 3:13? It looks like it had some AI stuff applied.
Thank you
I've been to Drobeta Turnul Severin in Romania where the Trajan bridge was built. The opposite side of the Danubio river Is Serbia and it's quite a long distance. There are still bases of the bridge pillars right in the middle of the river wich they call "Ruine".
I say what ever the Romans done for us? Em bridges? Very informative video thank you!
The fact that the Roman troops had to learn how to swim shows their foresight. The fact that hundreds of seamen drowned at Pearl Harbor shows lack of attention to history.
When carving holes into the stone of the gorge did they use drills?
An amazing empire
It is humbling to see that most of our current practices were mastered by the Romans. Often with wood in place of steel, but the results were the same.
That's the reason one of the highest religious title awarded in ancient Rome was PONTIFEX MAXIMUS (yep, even before christianity). It came from latin "PONTIS" and was the authority that had full rights over waterways and bridges. Rome itself was built around Tevere, a river, and rivers always had a special meaning to romans.
Pont means bridge in French.
Constantine also constructed a large bridge across the Danube in a separate location (not a rebuild of Trajan's bridge). It seems to be much less well documented than the Trajanic bridge (which still had some stone/brick piers remaining in the river into the early 20th century) with very few archeological remains. Its location would make it bigger than Trajan's bridge.
it took romans 10 days to build a bridge across the rhine, but my hometown needs about 2 years to fix a bridge over a 6 meter wide river. that's sad
We'd be already hanging out at Proxima b if the Romans hadn't gone and let everything fall apart. They were so far ahead in many areas.
Corruption infiltrated their entire society eventually. They became bloated and stretched too far. i don't think they were very innovative toward the end. in fact, just the opposite. The catholic church and the the Holy Roman Empire were descendants of the empire. They were not exactly lovers of science and discovery. their reason for everything was very simple: Deus Vult, or God Wills it.
Arele isn't the "biggest city in France" is it? it's larger than paris? It has 50k ppl i think. Paris has millions. or did you mean largest city at the time? i would've thought that would also be Paris
No we wouldn't at all because the only advancement the Romans made was for construction, they just like the Ancient Greeks didn't believe in the scientific method and thus any invention that was made was an insult to the philosophical aspect of science both cultures believed in.
What makes you think the thought and ideas of Roman society wouldn't evolve with time? People from Nordic countries do not think as their ancestors did 1,000 years ago. Why would it be different with the descendants of the Romans?
@@user-dl1bs6lm1g Technology evolves exponentially. It only needs a substrate upon which research and development can hang. The problem is that psychopaths come along every so often, trying to fill their greed-hole, and disturb or obliterate that substrate and the continuity of technical advancement is interrupted. I'm not saying the Romans needed to remain stuck in the same culture, but rather that they needed to maintain a society in which technical advancement was possible.
4:04 now you cant even get planning permission in 10 days lol
rome: alright, lets make the most technologically, unprecedented creations ever also the romans: destory it
The Iron Gate had a brig across the Danube too.
How they handled math in engineering with Roman Numerals is beyond me. Surely they used another numerical system - abacus ?.
what AI did you use to get the images?
They didn't. It's just filters. This video was made before ai images could be widely used
Alexander didn’t build a bridge. He built a peninsula.
"Even the mighty Rhine couldn't stop the Romans from reaching their GAUL" Goal Gaul get it?
always help the sweaty
We certainly still live in the Roman shadow.😮 10 days? That slaps
A foot of the bridge built over Danube is still visible in Drobeta Turnul Severin, Romania.
2:33 two thousand what now? 7:50 again... I get what you're trying to say but sometimes it's like someone just stuck some words in there that don't quite fit.
I love Julius Ceaser... He was a genius... ✅✅✅✅✅✅✅✅
The Roman urge to cross rivers… ugh…
metric cubes is a rather creative way to refer to cubic meters :p
..and then I remember that Cyrus tried to build a floating bridge over the Bosphorus. He failed but it was half a millennium earlier and mutch more ambitious (> 2km wide with strong currents).
Over 2,000 metric cubes per second? That's.... Something....
nice
0:35 are you telling me that the Romans were better swimmers than the Royal Navy in 1800s
Me clicking in this video: expecting a big stone bridge. Minutes later: "and they built a permanent pontoon bridge across the decks of as many as 20 ships"
Caesar’s bridge across the Rhine is one of the greatest pieces of trash talk on history. River ! Pfft. Bridge Crosses bridge Finds no one wants to fight. Goes back across his bridge. Takes bridge with him.
Awesome and enchanting video, thanks for publishing it! But ad of those sellouts Skillshare leaving bad sentiment. I guess 1 year before noone knew they are so dirty money-milkers.