Back in late 2018, the international Jewish advocacy group *B'nai B'rith* (or its Greece based "Philon" chapter) with support from the Mayor of Sparta and the Greek-Israeli Cooperation Institute organised an international confererence titled *“Sparta-Israel: Renewing an Ancient Friendship”* with various academics and officials and even the then Greek Army Chief attending. So this type of cultural diplomacy continues to this day, just instead of being mediated by gods and priests, it's now mostly done by academics and lobby groups...

I've noticed a lot of push backs from others saying that it is a fake and the analysis was poorly done. Would love someone who actually knows about coins presenting both sides of the evidence.

I've read a few articles about those. I'm far from an expert on aurei, but I have to admit that I'm puzzled by some of the characteristics of the Sponsian coins - in particular, the fact that they were cast, not struck. If they're real, they're absolutely unique. If they're fake, they're very bad forgeries.

The Maccabees were the Taliban of their time.

@@TheZinmo I second that

@JoeBidenIsTrash 1 Based baby seal clubbers.

One and Two are of my favorite books from the Bible. Fortunate enough to be Catholic and grew up knowing about them.

well, technically, theyre not part of the bible.

Babylon, as a political and cultural centre, declined steeply over the whole of the Seleukid Empire as the Greek cities they founded took over its economic, religious, and administrative function. The Parthians continued the trend. By the time of Trajan there would be very left of the actual city and knowledge of it would have been very faint and distant indeed. Here is an excerpt from Paul-Alain Beaulieu's _A History of Babylon 2200 BC - 75 AD_ : After the middle of the first century BC cuneiform texts from Babylon are all astronomical, the last one being datable to the year AD 75, although arguments have been advanced that one isolated astronomical text from Uruk might be assigned to the year AD 79-80 but this is a moot point. Knowledge of cuneiform probably ceased around that time. It seems likely that excerpts of Babylonian scholarly and literary texts continued in Greek or Aramaic transcription, but these would have been written on parchment or papyrus and all disappeared. According to the testimony of Classical writers the site of Babylon had become deserted by the second century AD. After that the memory of Babylon was preserved mostly in the Bible and the works of Berossus, Herodotus, and a few others. In the sixth century of our era the Neo‐Platonist philosopher Damascius, in his treatise on the First Principles, quoted accurately from the list of primeval gods appearing in the first tablet of Enuma elish, the Babylonian Epic of Creation, but this constitutes an exception. The world had to wait until modern excavations in Iraq and the decipherment of the cuneiform script to rediscover the lost history of Babylon.

The Historian’s Craft has a cool video on that called “Did Ancient Civilizations have Ancient Civilizations?”. I’d love to hear Garrett’s take too, but in the meantime that’s worth a watch.

5 feet? Are you a giant?

@@overcorpse A "pace" is a right step plus a left step. It's not just the one.

@@Reziac I know what a pace is. A pace is generally 30 inches, which 2.5 feet. Not 5. What you stated is wrong. A pace is a single stride. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ppOPp5mLkrixgmw.html&ab_channel=AdrianSnood In the United States the pace is an uncommon customary unit of length denoting a brisk single step and equal to 2+1⁄2 feet or 30.0 inches or 76.2 centimetres.

@@overcorpse Not as the Romans used it.

@@Reziac You must be the only person on the planet to still use a 2000year old measurement. That, or you obfuscating.

That's a good question. Locally, at least, units were standardized (we find modius containers approved by civic officials, for example), and Diocletian's Price Edict assumes basic Empire-wide standardization, but I'm not aware of any concerted government initiative to that effect. In matters ranging from coinage to religious customs, the imperial administration was generally content to leave local conventions in place, and I imagine units of measurement were no exception. The influence of the military was probably an important means of standardization.

@@toldinstonefootnotes Thanks for the speedy answer!

As an Israeli and a Jewish person, I never heard of this claim. Like Ever. It makes no sense.

@@bob-wo3ir Free the apartheid Israeli state to the hands of the rightful Palestinians.

@@bob-wo3ir it makes perfect sense, satan

I do the very occasional book signing, but unfortunately that's the full extent of my live appearances. If I'm ever asked to give a lecture, I'll be sure to mention it in a community announcement!

There was a lot of factionalism and instability during the Republic because all of the rival oligarchs were always fighting each other.

didnʼt the Spartians firmly believe that they werenʼt native Greeks but rather immigrants, who conquered and subjugated the native Greeks? Is this true? And where did the Spartians think they came from?

@@deutschermichel5807 That is interesting. I wasn't aware that they believed that.

I'll add your question to the Q&A list!

The Spartans conquered their neighbors around the late 8th early 7th century BCE, and then created a militaristic society in order to control those neighbors as what amounts to serfs. While the Athenians and other city states had slaves, those slaves were in the minority. The helots in Sparta outnumbered the Spartans by as much as 8 to 1. The way their society was organized, the Spartans were effectively all warrior nobility in order to control those helots, who did all the farming. The other city states relied on part time citizen soldiers and mercenaries. The Spartan army was professional, with every male getting years of training. Now, 1 on 1, Spartans weren't any better than the best warriors of other city states. But battles were not fought 1 on 1. They were fought in phalanx formations, which require a high degree of cooperation and coordination. The Spartans simply spent more time drilling that anyone else could, and because of that, they were the best at phalanx warfare. Before Thermopylae, they'd only lost two battles in the prior 300 years, neither on their own territory. And they did win the Peloponnesian war in the end.

@@VulcanLogic The Spartans were greatly admired by authoritarians all over Europe in the following centuries. Those who came nearest to emulating them were the Teutonic Knights who "crusaded" and colonized what was then heathen Poland and Lithuania. Their protestant successors formed a militaristic society In Prussia, whose Dukes and Kings kept a large standing army of mercenaries who were hired out to other rulers when they were not expanding Frederick the Great's domains. The Junker warrior class provided the officer corps in exchange for a free hand with their serfs and exemption from taxes: in return they made no fuss about democracy. It was all funded by Brandenburg, of which their King happened also to be Prince-Elector. In our times, militarised societies who controlled large subject populations were found in Rhodesia, South Africa, North Korea and Israel/ Palestine. Maybe also the antebellum South of the USA and the European colonial regimes in Africa, Asia and America?

@@faithlesshound5621 Yes, that is unfortunate. The American republic is more closely modeled on Sparta than Athens or even Rome. You see, Sparta was a democracy. As long as you didn't count the women or helots.

Sparta won basically every land battle in the war. And Athens won most of the sea battles. Sparta had a very isolationist philosophy and never wanted to stray to far from Laconia. This hindered them as aggressors. The Peloponnesian war proved that naval superiority is instrumental and can lead to greater more effective conquest. But then again, Spartas aim wasn’t necessarily expansion, at least not traditionally. That would change through the war and you saw the Spartans expand their navy and eventually improve in naval warfare. It’s a very interesting dichotomy. One of the greatest ever. Most philosophers saw Sparta as the pinnacle of Greek civilization, but it seems most average Greeks mocked their overly restrictive lifestyle. Many people later saw a combination of the two societies as being ideal. I believe it was Voltaire that said “Sparta in the morning, Athens in the afternoon”.

Hammer of Judea was an epic name

Rich people still do a lot of charity work and donate public buildings. Owning a sports team should probably be included. This enhances their reputation, takes eyes off their business dealings and at least in the UK can also bring then honours and titles of nobility.

The romans made a couple expiditions down the nile and also south of the sahara, around the area where modern day Mali is. The carthiginians also travelled down to western and possibly even central Africa, so they didn't know nothing to say the least.

I don't think it's a tenuous connection to explicitly tie themselves to one of the central characters of the Trojan war. They were obviously of different stock to the Greeks, but by claiming descent from the Trojans they could tie themselves to most important mythological/historical tradition of the Greek world and the prestige that came with it. Secondly, though they had more respect for the Greeks than any other civilization, they also liked to contrast themselves to the Greeks, who they'd stigmatize as effeminate, sometimes impious (or subverting Roman institutions with Orientalizing influence), as well as "tricky". This negative archetype could be seen with their negative valuation of Odysseus/Ulysses as a dishonorable trickster. Third, I think there was a pre-existing notion in the Etruscan civilization, which obviously influenced the Romans, of having been descended from the people of Asia Minor / Anatolia, which some modern scholars have also speculated.

Most underrated history comment of the year.

There's a chapter in his book about exercise regimes and training methods. But you definitely don't need steroids to get a body like that seen on statues.

Short answer for the statues, math. There's a lot written about the proportions used by sculptors. Athletes, soldiers, and gladiators trained with weights, gymnastics, and cardio. We've found examples. As for the body fat ratios, these were people who walked and ran everywhere they had to go, and didn't have any processed sugars or trans fats in their diets.

The romans warred with virtually all surrounding peoples but when you consider this as normal then Roman Jewish relations weren't actually that bad. For example Jewish religious freedom was tolerated at a far higher level then early Christianity.

@@Sapnfap early Christianity was seen as a hostile outside religion. Interestingly, archeological findings for philistine graves in Israel show very close genetic relationship with Mycenaean Greeks. Initial Roman interaction with Jews involved genocidal warfare and the maccabean rebellion killed something like 600k Roman civilians around Jewish occupied territories.

@@Ian-yf7uf I don't debate any of what you've said but I don't find it particularly different from the status quo of how Rome interacted with any of the other surrounding peoples. Still there was a Jewish Quarter in Rome itself and Prominent Jews like Josephus were integrated into Roman society.

@@Sapnfap yes, what you are saying is true and I agree with it. Jews were treated much like many other people in ancient Rome. The main difference is the Jewish people were able to keep their ethnic identity which sparked much of the precursors to anti semitism in Europe.