How the Romans Armed 400,000 Soldiers [8:38]

YouTube ^ | December 22, 2023 | Garrett Ryan, Ph.D (as toldinstone)

[SunkenCiv]

 

How the Romans Armed 400,000 Soldiers | 8:38 
toldinstone | 587K subscribers | 159,503 views | December 22, 2023

Chapters: 
0:00 Introduction 
0:35 Legionary arms 
1:03 Auxiliary arms 
1:42 Auxiliary cavalry 
2:12 Buying and selling arms 
2:56 Customizing arms 
3:35 War Thunder 
4:33 Weapon manufacture 
5:01 Civilian contractors 
5:37 Camp workshops 
6:16 Military craftsmen 
6:40 Arms factories

---

TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: garrettryan; godsgravesglyphs; romanempire; toldinstone

[SunkenCiv]

 

The War That Ended the Ancient World | 14:14 
toldinstone | 587K subscribers | 2,131,709 views | June 10, 2022

 

Chapters: 
0:00 Introduction 
1:50 Rome vs. Persia 
2:55 Babbel 
4:07 Enter Khosrow II 
5:37 The Persian attack 
6:44 Persia triumphant 
7:55 The (Roman) Empire strikes back 
8:50 The siege of Constantinople 
10:11 The battle of Nineveh 
11:04 Roman victory 
12:16 The collapse of the ancient world 
13:10 Back to Mren Cathedral 

[SunkenCiv]

A team of researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), the University of Oxford, and the University of Innsbruck has reconstructed the intricate history of the ancient aqueduct system in Arles, located in Provence.

Their analysis focused on aqueduct carbonates -- limescale deposits -- that had built up over time in channels, basins, and lead pipes, as well as on fragments of carbonate used as construction material in the roof of the Baths of Constantine...

Although historians had previously hypothesized connections between different components of the system, the team was now able to confirm these links using physical evidence from carbonate deposits found throughout the Arles water infrastructure, offering strong proof of the aqueduct's longevity.

...a second aqueduct was constructed to bring water from the northern side of the same range.

The new flow merged with the original system at a basin that had been part of the initial aqueduct infrastructure. Once the northern aqueduct became operational, the original southern channel was repurposed to power a large 16-wheel watermill complex at nearby Barbegal -- a change previously identified by the team in an earlier study through analysis of carbonate layers...

Architectural evidence revealed that the northern aqueduct was added later in a makeshift fashion, as seen in its higher entrance point into the basin. Another key discovery came from fragments of the collapsed ceiling of the Baths of Constantine in Arles. Until now, the source of water for these baths had remained a mystery.

Scientists Unravel 2,000-Year-Old Roman Aqueduct Mystery | SciTechDaily | Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz | July 5, 2025

• Archaeologists Discover Perfectly Preserved Roman Treasure Shipwreck [52:27] [07/03/2025]
• Divers find Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C. [05/14/2008]

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

The ancient city of Soli, later renamed Pompeiopolis, used Roman concrete imported from Italy to build a spectacular artificial harbor. In this video, I explore the remains. 

The Roman Concrete Harbor of Soli | 5:00 
Scenic Routes to the Past | 41.5K subscribers | 4,775 views | July 18, 2025

--> YouTube-Generated Transcript <--
0:01	·	So was one of the great cities of the
0:04	·	Roman eastern Mediterranean.
0:06	·	It was the birthplace of the great stoic
0:09	·	philosopher Chrysopus and the poet
0:11	·	Aratus.
0:13	·	At its height, it may have had a
0:14	·	population that exceeded 100,000.
0:18	·	Unfortunately, thanks to centuries of
0:20	·	earthquakes and stone robbing, you
0:23	·	wouldn't know that now.
0:27	·	I'm standing beside what was once a
0:29	·	magnificent colonated avenue, the spine
0:32	·	of the ancient city.
0:35	·	Originally, it was almost a third of a
0:36	·	mile long with shops in the shadows of
0:39	·	the porticos on either side. There must
0:42	·	have been almost 200 columns originally,
0:45	·	all erected in the second or third
0:48	·	centuries AD.
0:50	·	Most, unfortunately, were felled long
0:52	·	ago by scavengers trying to retrieve the
0:55	·	lead that held their drums together.
0:58	·	Let's uh take a closer look here.
1:02	·	Many columns, as you can hopefully see
1:04	·	from here, were fitted with brackets for
1:07	·	honorific statues.
1:09	·	Note the elaborate Corinthian capitals,
1:12	·	some of which were ornamented with
1:14	·	figures from Greek myth.
1:18	·	The avenue heads off into those
1:21	·	nondescript tower blocks. We're going to
1:23	·	turn toward the sea and Sully's most
1:25	·	remarkable feature, its concrete harbor.
1:34	·	By the time its harbor was built, Soleie
1:36	·	had renamed itself Pompeiopoulos in
1:39	·	honor of Pompy the Great, who had
1:42	·	cleared the surrounding seas of pirates.
1:45	·	It consisted of an oval basin protected
1:48	·	by a huge concrete breakwater based on a
1:51	·	natural reef. The concrete that held
1:54	·	rubble core together was true Roman
1:57	·	concrete made from potana volcanic sand
2:02	·	imported from the Bay of Naples. The
2:05	·	concrete was capped with courses of
2:07	·	stone blocks that were strongly clamped
2:09	·	together.
2:10	·	The harbor has silted over, making it
2:13	·	hard to imagine how impressive this
2:15	·	engineering marvel once was.
2:18	·	We'll walk out to that breakwater where
2:20	·	that guy is fishing for a better look.
2:24	·	This is the surviving part of the
2:26	·	breakwater.
2:27	·	You can see the huge stone blocks that
2:29	·	capped it
2:33	·	and up ahead
2:36	·	the concrete core.
3:00	·	Not bad for 19th centuries with no
3:03	·	maintenance.
3:13	·	See here that the sea has cut deeply
3:15	·	into the aggregate and conglomerate base
3:18	·	here.
3:29	·	Walk out to the edge where you can kind
3:30	·	of see the shape of the lost harbor.
4:08	·	A closer look at how the breakwater was
4:10	·	made. It was faced with these huge stone
4:14	·	blocks which were clamped together.
4:17	·	You can see here the impressions left by
4:19	·	the clamps, but the metal was dug away.
4:24	·	Here's the reel core bonded with
4:26	·	concrete.
4:28	·	Here's a loose chunk so you can get a
4:30	·	closer look.
4:34	·	Well, that's a wrap. It's a ghost of
4:37	·	what it was, but the ghost is still
4:39	·	pretty impressive.

[Adder]

Bet they didn’t have 6000 sesterces toilet seats...

[Blennos]

Interesting. And I learned something new. The word “fletcher”, now a common name, means an “arrow maker.” I didn’t know that.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fletcher

[pierrem15]

One of the bigger changes from the pre-Marian reform Roman army was that the soldiery were not expected too bring their own arms and armor. The poor who enlisted for pay had to have that provided to them, which represented an additional public expense and need to more public armories and manufacturers of arms. The costs were deducted from a soldier’s pay, but the up-front cost was publicly borne.

[Red Badger]

They were a bunch of pricks...................

[linMcHlp]

bttt

[Lurker]

The last name of Cooper referred to those who made barrels for wine.

L

[Blennos]

Yes. I did know that one. And more obvious names such as Miller, Smith and Baker.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks p. The Roman Empire wouldn't have come about if Rome's none-too-neighborly neighbors hadn't been invading, sacking, or burning the city every once in a while.

[SunkenCiv]

:^) The Roman army built the road system, canals, bridges, had at least a hand in aqueduct construction, some frontier barriers (Britain, Germany etc, the Middle East, I think N Africa...), and at least five large naval bases. And they were good at it, and fast, and cost effective.

They kept local order, guarded frontiers, basically eliminated piracy, and supplied a stream of retired soldiers who settled throughout the Empire.

[SunkenCiv]

Shakespeare comes from one of Bill’s ancestors who, you guessed it, shook his spear in some battle. :^)

[snip] Patronymic and matronymic names... Occupational surnames... Characteristic surnames... Place surnames... Geographic names... Estate surnames... Patronage surnames [/snip]

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/help/surname-types

[pierrem15]

I read that when Pyrrhus achieved his eponymous victory, he counseled his southern Italian Greek compatriots to sue for peace. When asked why, he supposedly said, "Because the Romans will simply raise another army, and you will get the best terms now." At that time, Roman reserves from Rome and allied Italian city-states numbered over 430,000 men: a far better trained and larger force than anyone else near the Mediterranean apart from Persia.

The expansion of the Empire and the creation of a professional army meant permanently maintaining such a force at huge public expense, although amazingly, most of that expense was paid for by the imperial estates and mines into the beginning of the third century.

It was also brittle: the old army could call up and release reserves as needed from city-state militias. A professional army made the militias redundant and even a danger to the regime, so they faded away. In addition, Diocletian and Constantine divided the Roman Army into the limitanei along the borders and a mobile field army that accompanied the Emperor (the Presential Army, i.e. the Army in the Emperor's Presence). If the field army were defeated, however, there were no mobile reserves and no city-state militias to stop an invader, which is what happened after Adrianople in 378.

[Blennos]

Fascinating stuff. Thank you. I’m going to spend a bit of time researching surnames on this site.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure. The Cartright name is mentioned in there, which harkened me back to “Bonanza”.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks p. And the conquered peoples wound up relying on the legions, and intertribal fighting ceased, such that when the legions pulled out (as in Britain), the locals had no fighting skills. In recent decades (in part thanks to Time Team) evidence has emerged that villas that had prospered for generations were abandoned, perhaps because the owners fled with the legions, or perhaps were driven out by interlopers after they’d gone.

[HereInTheHeartland]

Rome is rearming?
Will they form the same legions as 2,000 years ago?

[SunkenCiv]

“We’re the legions and we’re back!” [teeth fall out]

“Sit down before you fall down.”