The Ancients
Ancient history topics, dense with archaeological and textual evidence
50:01The Vandals weren't barbarians: cutting the tax supply is what killed the Western Empire
In Roman sources the early Vandals were a minor people who lost nine battles out of ten, yet by seizing North Africa and severing Rome's tax revenue they were able to sack Rome in 455; the word ‘vandalism’, meanwhile, was invented as a political metaphor during the French Revolution.
45:14Terror birds weren't killed by humans — the Isthmus of Panama closed first
Terror birds were the apex avian predators that emerged on the island continent of South America after the dinosaurs died out, and they ruled for tens of millions of years; their eventual disappearance is tied to the great species interchange that followed the joining of the Isthmus of Panama, earlier than the arrival of humans in South America.
1:07:17The Maya ballgame was ritual, not sport: the sacrificed-winner story is invented
The Mesoamerican ballgame is humanity's earliest rubber-ball team sport, but it was religious ritual first: the court re-staged the creation myth, and the people who could be killed were captives who lost a ritual re-enactment. The idea that the winners were sacrificed was made up later.
1:07:26The Roman Empire ran on enslaved people, not on its legions
Rome's administration, its army, its domestic work, its workshops and its mines ran almost entirely on enslaved people; after Carthage fell in 146 BC slavery became the engine of the economy, and once Augustus stopped expanding, that population reproduced itself by birth.
59:55Romans knew the founding myth was false and used it as a diplomatic tool
Rome's origin myths were not history carved in stone but an elastic narrative Romans used to negotiate, to absorb other peoples, and to digest civil war; the archaeology even contradicts the 753 BC founding date outright.
58:15The Persian King Who Took a Roman Emperor Alive Was an Enemy Rome Built Itself
Shapur I destroyed two Roman armies and captured the emperor Valerian, making him Rome's most dangerous enemy in the East; but his victories were more a consequence of the third-century crisis than a cause of it.