Who Are You? Proving your identity in antiquity? Documentary [YouTube]

YouTube ^ | June 18, 2021 | Invicta

[SunkenCiv]

How did people in the past prove their identity? How common was identity theft? Let's find out!

In this history documentary we ask the question: how did people prove their identity in the past? The results of our research actually resulted in a far more sophisticated answer than I could have ever imagined and which sheds light on the true complexities of antiquity.

We began by quickly reviewing the reasons why you might even need to prove your identity in the first place. This involves things like property claims, inheritance, marriage, and more. But perhaps the most important use of ID was to prove your citizenship. This is such an important idea in the makeup of societies as it governed the rights and responsibilities of all individuals within a community. We therefore spend some time looking at citizenship in the Spartan government as well as in Athens, Carthage, and Rome. The discussion of Roman citizenship in particular is quite revealing.

We then move on the main topic of how to prove your identity. This involved all kinds of methods such as trust, testimony, seals, citizen rolls, birth certificates and more. We then finally conclude by discussing how to falsify your identity and if there were any cases of identity theft in antiquity.

[SunkenCiv]

Who Are You? Proving your identity in antiquity? Documentary | Invicta

[SunkenCiv]

I set up the link to time index 1:39, to skip the ad, as it isn't one of those Google-did-it intrusive inserted kind. Also, this is interesting, but the slightly amateurish production can be seen in the occasional misspellings of captions and whatnot.

[Da Coyote]

But, but, post modern cretins (e.g., low achievers who pretend to have above two digit IQ) simply reply that you are whoever/whatever you “identify” as.

Note: When someone “identifies” as something they obviously are not, this gives one free license to punch them in whatever place of their poor warped (probably obese) place you would like to “identify” as been punchable.

[a fool in paradise]

Medusa turned you into a statue.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Who Are You

[SunkenCiv]

Still awful.

[Red Badger]

Who Are You?.............. Great song..................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNbBDrceCy8

[Red Badger]

Well, one method was branding.

Or a scarlet pumpernickel..

[rfp1234]

[outofsalt]

I know! Photoshop a Hawaiian birth certificate.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Who Are You?.............. Great song..................

👍

[LIConFem]

Incontinentia Buttocks.

[Leaning Right]

My extended clan has always used a secret handshake to help identify each other. I really shouldn’t post it, but here it is:

[Openurmind]

Excellent topic and find! :)

[Texan5]

Thanks! that tune always reminds me of the lean years-malaise, inflation and gas lines and all...

[I want the USA back]

How far back do you go? Go back to the time of small tribes and everybody knows everybody else in the tribe, so there was no need for drivers licenses, vaccine passports or microchip implants.

[Larry Lucido]

[SunkenCiv]

I’ve heard that the town bakers were in charge of that.

[SunkenCiv]

Everyone wore the same style of clothing in Rome, so it wasn’t that much of an issue. ;^)

[SunkenCiv]

I’d make a Hillary joke about that, but it would pretty mean to do that to Medusa.