What Julius Caesar really looked like

Рет қаралды 56,706

3 жыл бұрын

I wanted to know what Julius Caesar really looked like. So I used Metahumans Digital Humans for Unreal Engine to test it out - and it was a lot of fun.
Twitter: / philedwardsinc
Instagram: / philedwardsinc
Patreon: / philedwardsinc
So, so many sources for this one about what Julius Caesar looked like. First, just check out the busts I reference.
ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/i...
Next, I’m gonna link the papers I read for this. Most are behind paywalls. There are secret ways to read these papers if you don’t want to mortgage your house to pay the fees. Let me know if you are curious. That said, I’m giving you the legit links.
Paper about Caesar being sick that touches on his fitness level (IE the reason I didn’t make Fat Caesar).
www.jstor.org/stable/24858427...
Nice bust overview:
www.jstor.org/stable/4166364
This is one of the machine learning guys - he actually didn’t do Julius. I think it’s a cool project, but the phrase “machine learning” papers over the fact that it’s basically colorizing guesstimates. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s more than just a little fun (I’d say it’s even less scrupulous than this video). Nevertheless, great guy I’m sure, etc ad inf.
/ 1296664858411270144
One of the best coins:
nms.scran.ac.uk/database/recor...
Another beaut:
collections.mfa.org/objects/1...
Overview of portraits of Caesar that helped me kinda smell check the idea that we don’t have a ton to go on. Also includes a lot of the Suetonius translation/interpretation I draw on.
www.jstor.org/stable/641005
Good popular article about Caesar’s faces:
/ the-many-faces-of-juli...
The new Caesar (yikes):
popular-archaeology.com/artic...
Another Caesar appearance overview:
www.jstor.org/stable/3288326?...
This professor does crazy weird biometric analysis of Caesar based on the busts. Too much of a can of worms for this video, but fun to dig into her work:
zenodo.org/record/1405085#.YN...

Пікірлер: 160

@juliuscaesar4082 2 жыл бұрын

Hmm.

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

pinned

@heh2393 2 жыл бұрын

Lmao

@_Stercore 2 жыл бұрын

is it real that you got a deadly disease of among us?

@golemraven7765 Жыл бұрын

that's wrong, doesn't look like.

@crispysteve42 Жыл бұрын

any chance you could do a face reveal so we can get a more accurate picture of you?

@Rhythmicons 2 жыл бұрын

If one wanted to know what Caesar looked like, he had a very great friend in Rome who went by the name Bigus Dickus who may have some extant records available.

@bornanagaming3329 2 жыл бұрын

He has a wife you know

@obamacare9755 2 жыл бұрын

@@bornanagaming3329 yes, Incontinentia

@shakul12 2 жыл бұрын

@@obamacare9755 Incontinentia Buttocks

@benjamincasatimcintosh2918 2 жыл бұрын

Well I think it's a joke name

@AsterAstrovich77 2 жыл бұрын

RIP Biggus Dickus Killed by Biggus Chungus

@Xanderall 2 жыл бұрын

I think you did a great job with your Digital Caesar, the only think I would've changed would've been to make the lips a lot less red, since blood circulation tends to diminish with age. Red lips are more of a young man's game.

@forwardslash1 3 жыл бұрын

10:44 You should have put him in front of a Little Caesars

@hawat81 2 жыл бұрын

In my mind, he looked like the Grand Moff Tarking. And he probably was as threatening as him in person.

@riikkaalanen3429 Жыл бұрын

If necessary, but he had great charm too, and a sense of humor. I doubt Moff Tarkin had a sense of humor.😁

@PDG1188 2 жыл бұрын

Some Roman busts from this time were redone to look like later figures. This may explain the big top heads in comparison to the faces. They were also almost always viewed from below, so from a point of perspective, the top of the head wouldn’t have looked so large.

@enfleuri 2 жыл бұрын

So happy I discovered your channel, as I've always looked up to your storytelling skills in the Vox videos. Your way of making engaging stories is a great inspiration! Also the Metahumans program looks like a glorified Create-a-Sim from The Sims franchise 😄

@sumitagarwalsmart 10 ай бұрын

>Also the Metahumans program looks like a glorified Create-a-Sim from The Sims franchise 😄 This is different because this software will allow game developers to develop human models faster to speed up the game development process. Right now, a AAA game takes anywhere between two to five years with games like RDR2 taking eight years. With latest tools like Generative AI (eg: Dall-E 2) and metahuman this time will probably be reduced by an year or so. That will mean that we will be able to play more games.

@daniloduarte3372 2 жыл бұрын

Great video! Watching just before reading Sallust's "The Conspiracy of Catiline", it will definitely make the the young Caesar a more colorful character. Loved the baldness anecdotes, and appreciate the linked references.

@uncinarynin 2 жыл бұрын

I guess that most depictions of Julius Caesar that a lot of us have seen were actually drawn by Albert Uderzo ... giving him a very recognizable face that stays in memory.

@jigowatts1304 3 жыл бұрын

Great video Phill, such a fun watch. That unreal engine is insane. Props for thinking of an interesting way of using it! 👏

@AndrewChiNguyen 3 жыл бұрын

SUETONIUS!!! this is def one of my new favorites of yours, you should do this for more unseen historical figures!!!

@PhilEdwardsInc 3 жыл бұрын

I wonder who else would be good. Metahumans is so cool, I could waste all day there.

@daniloduarte3372 2 жыл бұрын

@@PhilEdwardsInc Maybe famously ugly characters? like Homer (the writer) or Socrates, wold have a lot of versions and descriptions to go from. Or famous figures like Cleopatra, or a notorious pirate!

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

@@daniloduarte3372 Oh I’m adding all these to my list - but Pirate is definitely my fave at the moment…

@semscoolcontent6787 2 жыл бұрын

I am thankful that youtube led me to your channel man, this is AWSOME make more videos

@QuintusAntonious 2 жыл бұрын

I think you may have accidentally put the "Tsar" in Caesar--as in, he looks a bit like Vladimir Putin.

@simons1120 2 жыл бұрын

This depiction has very Asian eyes.

@csypoygshovssutcgj9501 2 ай бұрын

@@simons1120Not true. There are no Asian eyes at all. This is stupid😂

@ShapeShifter499 2 жыл бұрын

Does the program let you export settings? Would be cool to have the same similar settings that you used for this.

@blackbear92201 2 жыл бұрын

Another awesome video. Completely agree with the premise re: better connecting with historical figures. Mystery Scoop does tons of this sort of work. thanks for posting! :D

@benklingman 2 жыл бұрын

Wow this is awesome! I would love if you did a continual series using this software and your investigative research abilities to make more simulated leaders and icons that were never photographed. Good research and cool video keep it up!

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Yeah, I gotta give it a try when I get a fancy new computer. I wasn't super happy with Julius here, but I know Unreal Engine can do some amazing other stuff with geography.

@kaustavmandal5226 3 жыл бұрын

Hey Phil, great video as always. This video has given rise to a question in my mind. Did Caesar always wear the laurel wreath as an emperor, it being a symbol of victory and success amongst the Greeks and Romans as was seen in the Olympics, or did he start adopting that appearance specifically as a cover up for his baldness. Would love to hear what you think or might have found out in your research. Cheers!

@PhilEdwardsInc 3 жыл бұрын

So I think the laurel element opens up a whole level of stuff I'm under-read to talk about, but...(warning: longwinded answer) I *think* the right way to think of the laurel as one of the many ways Caesar scooped up symbols of power, using them to affirm and enhance his own stature and, at the same time, creating a cycle in which they became more important. Caesar earned the civic crown at the Siege of Mytilene in 81 BC, which was kinda the justification he kept using. Imagine, like, an Olympian running for President and just always wearing their medal (or maybe a general running for office and always wearing his uniform). As far as the relationship to baldness...I kinda take Suetonius with a grain of salt. For me, the jab certainly affirms that Caesar really was going bald, but because of the one-source problem I mention in the video, I'm hesitant to say that's the one reason Caesar adopted it (though that is what Suetonius jokes). I think we just will never know where the line is between symbolic aggrandizement and agricultural Rogaine.

@kaustavmandal5226 3 жыл бұрын

@@PhilEdwardsInc Yeah, agree with you on that. Thanks for the reply. Keep up the good work

@jaehaerys48 2 жыл бұрын

Suetonius is hardly accepted by modern historians and classicists on face value. "The Twelve Caesars" is often jokingly compared to modern tabloid newspapers, and pretty much every historian who studies ancient Rome will tell you that the stories it contains have to be taken with several grains of salt. There's no need to throw the whole field under the bus for something that anyone in the field already knows and recognizes. Suetonius's works are valuable historical documents because we simply don't have many sources to go off of for that period of history, but everyone knows that they can't be taken as 100% truths. "Reliability" when describing ancient documents is very much a sliding scale, and Suetonius is viewed as more reliable than some but less than others.

@newq 2 жыл бұрын

Yeah him saying that REALLY bugged me. Suetonius should only be used when you absolutely have nothing more reliable.

@anoon- 2 жыл бұрын

He seems from every depiction, even from his time, his cheek bones are very pronounced. You could have bulked them more.

@AlexanderTBratrich 2 жыл бұрын

Some of your caesar shots (from below) give me these Dr. Strangelove vibes when Ripper (Sterling Hayden) does his monologue

@SylviaRustyFae 2 жыл бұрын

I rly wish you cudve shown what your Caesar looked like wearin a laurel; bcuz yea, it is near impossible to think of Caesar without a laurel, which makes perf sense to me now.

@LinusBoman 3 жыл бұрын

Monster Factory meets history channel. Whodathunkit? Great video, Phil!

@simonescalici5302 2 жыл бұрын

well done! but um i think you just made putin...? or...did putin make himself the Caesar?

@jasonscott-jones1260 2 жыл бұрын

You should try and do this with Genghis Khan, I'd wager it'd be more difficult due to the lack of written history on the Mongols but would nonetheless be really cool to see your interpretation:)

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

That's crazy you say that - I actually had noodled around on that a bit! Maybe when I get my new computer I'll give it a try.

@jimbrittain402 2 жыл бұрын

Can you fix the smile lines? I found it distressing that they didn't match the reference bust.

@BritneyLaZonga 2 жыл бұрын

7:42 Kinda reminded me instantly of Peter Weller (of Robocop fame).

@underarmbowlingincidentof1981 2 жыл бұрын

he probably would be far more tanned. I mean have you SEEN italians ?? Put them in the sun for a few hours a day and theyre browner than ... welll ... theyre really brown

@uptown3636 2 жыл бұрын

Smiling Caesar is pure nightmare fuel. I love it.

@erwendadea4688 11 ай бұрын

PLS DONT STOP MAKING VIDEOS

@newq 2 жыл бұрын

Calling Suetonius "reliable" is a stretch. Any classicist will tell you that he was basically the second century equivalent of a gossip columnist. My Latin professor stressed this point heavily when we read his works, but I think a lot of Latin teachers ignore that and treat him like a historian. He absolutely wasn't. He wasn't even a historiographer. It was retroactive Roman aristocratic gossip. Unfortunately, it's the closest we have to a primary source on many of the events he wrote about so we have no choice but to very cautiously use Suetonius, but with a huge boulder of salt.

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

I felt I hedged quite a lot when describing the quality of sources.

@Dushmann_ 2 жыл бұрын

Bruhhhh come on, that thing is the epitome of uncanny valley

@Dexcesss Жыл бұрын

You should do Cleopatra! I think that's someone who has been greatly misrepresented from a physical perspective.

@carlramirez6339 2 жыл бұрын

Can anyone really say for sure? He wasn't mummified, and his bones aren't with us either because he was cremated.

@benjaminbowman1866 2 жыл бұрын

wow this program is leaps and bounds ahead of when I played The Sims 4 lol

@richardmullins1883 6 ай бұрын

Is the presenter Garth's (from Wayne's World) metahuman?

@semscoolcontent6787 2 жыл бұрын

this is awsome

@scottw5315 8 ай бұрын

For a man who conquered most of the known world at the time, Caesar's countenance would reflect the struggles of the many campaigns he fought. "A man's face is his autobiography and a woman's a work of fiction." Oscar Wilde

@Spencer-vq7se 2 жыл бұрын

I definitely didnt need a new creative and intelligent channel to subscribe too, but im glad i found one

@thatsnailisfast 2 жыл бұрын

What about the brow ridge??

@FakerBjersen 2 жыл бұрын

I NEED TO FIND THE NAME FOR THE SONG IN THE START ITS AMAZING PLZ HELP ME BROS

@Zizhou 2 жыл бұрын

Jukebox by Patrick Patrikios. It's part of the KZfaq audio library.

@lizc6393 Жыл бұрын

Taking into account beauty standards for men at the time in evaluating the accuracy of the bust would be interesting. Like, what would the artist feel pressured to downplay or enhance because Caesar himself might have had input on the final product. And therefore which features could we guess are less true to life.

@PhilEdwardsInc Жыл бұрын

and who knows, maybe Caesar defined some of the beauty standards too.

@unchartedthoughts7527 3 ай бұрын

*9:40** You made him look like a philipino transwoman in her 60s*

@ihrkenntmeinennamennicht2729 2 жыл бұрын

Where's the Keeps sponsorship?

@nat7278 Жыл бұрын

Love the content and the story. The choice of shooting you in the dark made it a bit hard to watch. I kept thinking there was going to be a transition where you would turn the lights on at some key moment in the story but it was just hard to see you.

@PhilEdwardsInc Жыл бұрын

agreed!

@PercivalBlakeney 2 жыл бұрын

That silhouette looks a lot like Dominic Cummings. Perhaps the next video should be on Caligula.

@VAM_Physics_and_Engineering 3 жыл бұрын

I wasn't aware metahumans was a thing... very neat

@PhilEdwardsInc 3 жыл бұрын

It’s so cool. It killed me not to learn Unreal Engine for it - I got Julius in there, but just couldn’t make the time to learn the cameras and settings. Amazing hobby opportunity though.

@thomaswalsh4552 Жыл бұрын

I enjoyed the video, but it does completely ignore some of the history. For example, the Romans values age and equated it with wisdom, so the neck rolls and such could definitely have been heavily played up or even entirely made up, and Caesar especially was quick to use and quite skilled with propaganda, so some of your inspiration pieces aren’t exactly reliable sources, but can be read slightly more reliably when you know the history

@ironcomics99 Жыл бұрын

i wish phil was my history teacher in high school

@g.v.6450 2 жыл бұрын

I always thought he looked more like Rex Harrison or maybe Ciarán Hinds. 🤔

@neroclaudius7284 2 жыл бұрын

This video in a nutshell "I wanted to play with metahumans"

@neroclaudius7284 2 жыл бұрын

Fascinating though.

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

you’re not wrong…

@Rishi-ko3jv 2 жыл бұрын

Caesar was looked like Putin

@boptics643 2 жыл бұрын

Caeser got them DSLs

@SamiKankaristo Жыл бұрын

Julius Caesar looks like Peter Molyneux.

@QuestionMan Жыл бұрын

So, based on this we know that the unholy progeny of Julius Caesar are: Paul Simon and Billy Crystal. Mama Pajama, he looks marvelous!

@matthewdrummond1340 2 жыл бұрын

I didn't realise I need this in my life. I did tho.

@JustinVodden 2 жыл бұрын

pump, pump it up.

@hannibalkim 2 жыл бұрын

Suetonius is still unreliable because he was a historian from a century away from caesar’s death. Furthermore coin from caesar’s days might be accurate.

@fllnthblnks9681 2 жыл бұрын

I would absolutely invade Gaul and Brittania with this man.

@mortenvonsildskjde7847 Жыл бұрын

Why the lip stick?

@GizmoSeven 2 жыл бұрын

The Tusculum bust along with the Rhone river bust are considered the likely most accurate depictions of Julius Caesar as contemporary coinage agrees with the details of the busts and the discovery of the Rhone river bust which is very accurate to the details of the Tusculum add great legitimacy as it is one of the oldest known depictions of Caesar and was likely dumped in the river to distance the owner from Caesar after the tumult of his assassination.

@randallcraft4071 2 жыл бұрын

When you put that mustasch on him he looked like a chef of police in a a video game

@SnabbKassa 2 жыл бұрын

Render unto Caesar his rendered polygons He looks like Richard James of Aphex Twin crossed with John Malkovich

@bkohatl Жыл бұрын

I don't agree, Your and the first atrocious busts can be thrown out altogether. The Arles bust is believed to be a much younger Caesar, early 30's, while the Vatican bust is from his late 40's, early 50's. I have seen recreations based on these two busts which track together. You have to remember women were very much attracted to him, calling him extraordinarily handsome.

@marial8235 4 ай бұрын

Totally true about the horrible “Freakshow” version. Caesar was thought handsome and had little problem seducing women (and men). The portraits also, besides Chiramonti, capture him near the end of his life, not in his prime. I think the brows are a little too slight and arched. The lip color is off a bit too. But a cool exercise.👍

@PhilEdwardsInc 4 ай бұрын

i think it'd work better with the tech today!

@scottprendergast5262 9 ай бұрын

Would you want to be the artiste who accentuated the most negative features of the most POWERFUL MAN in the world

@PimpinBassie2 Жыл бұрын

Warning: Uncanny Valley with all these 'lifelike' avatars

@wrightsong 2 жыл бұрын

Looks like John Malkovich...

@stylico Жыл бұрын

Caesar with lipstik Look like China MAN

@shrimpfry880 Жыл бұрын

male pattern baldness is a universal pain

@wrydfate 11 ай бұрын

its not an unusual skull shape the side of his hair grows fast than the top so you get that puffy sides

@AndrewJ951 Жыл бұрын

"Distinctive neck folds"

@PhilEdwardsInc Жыл бұрын

a great line for bumble profiles

@big_protein 2 жыл бұрын

why is Jordan Peterson on the thumbnail?

@reddcube 2 жыл бұрын

You should use CE instead of AD

@syrthdr09sybr34 Жыл бұрын

Most "experts" won't admit it, but apparently he was physically a giant as well. Not just tall but an actual giant.

@zachzintel3408 2 жыл бұрын

He looks like John Lithgow a bit.

@jakub_pie4940 2 жыл бұрын

Plot twist the person talking throughout the videos is just the AI

@christianh2581 2 жыл бұрын

If i think of cesar i think of him how i know him from Asteris & Obelix

@joypratt6949 7 ай бұрын

Lol not the guy saying all of the models made up of him are ridiculous because of picking and choosing busts only to do the exact same for his depiction 😂

@PhilEdwardsInc 7 ай бұрын

yea it's just for fun

@erikjonromnes 2 жыл бұрын

Putin your spin on this portrait makes him more like Julius Caeszarnoff.

@treyendoalvarez8908 2 жыл бұрын

you turned caeser into a old karen

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

“Um excuse me Brutus, you too? OH MY GOSH.”

@AlexBrucki 2 жыл бұрын

His dentures you mean XD

@khairulnaeim756 Жыл бұрын

Maybe looked like my neighbor.🤣

@covenantfemboy 2 жыл бұрын

i thought he was a seal

@gregoryalliger3341 2 жыл бұрын

It's... Bloomberg

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

this is very true

@centralpoint8184 2 жыл бұрын

He kind of looks like Putin

@scottprendergast5262 9 ай бұрын

Who was the degenerate that did Caesar that horrific injustice- that was a.joke right?

@brintheboy4612 2 жыл бұрын

jerma

@Citricpie 2 жыл бұрын

ave true to caeser

@tunkunrunk Жыл бұрын

you failed his skull shape and noise

@thedonmecca5554 2 жыл бұрын

This doesn't look anything like the tusculum statue, cool tech but this wasn't given enough effort

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

I feel that - I think it’s a combo of tech and artist (me) limitations, though that statue is a bit over the top imho….

@thedonmecca5554 2 жыл бұрын

@@PhilEdwardsInc is there a way to use the statue as a base and add textures to it? Also adding minor adjustments that might be more accurate (predictably). For some reason I've always wanted to know what ceasar looked like and I hope there's something undiscovered out there that is an accurate gold standard representation

@PhilEdwardsInc 2 жыл бұрын

@@thedonmecca5554 I think you could pretty easily paint it. If you're looking for a literal version, this one is as good as you could get: www.reddit.com/r/spqrposting/comments/l49xgn/caivs_ivlivs_caesar_face_reconstruction_based_on/ I kinda wanted that facial animation/modeling too for mine.