For many, the only exposure to Ancient Rome comes from what they have seen in the movies or on television. Unfortunately, films like Gladiator, Spartacus, Barabbas, and Demetrius and the Gladiators don’t present a very accurate depiction of life in Rome and the arena.
Considering the fact that the Roman Empire existed for so long, and so much of our own Western society has derived from it, it is no surprise that we all have at least one or two misconceptions about the Empire and its people.
For this reason, we have put together a list of the most misconceptions people hold about the Ancient Roman society and customs. Fortunately most are easily proven wrong as you will see when you read on:
Contrary to popular belief, the emperor did not give a thumbs up or down for a gladiator as a signal to kill his enemy. The emperor (and only the emperor) would give an open or closed hand – if his palm was flat, it meant “spare his life”, if it was closed, it meant “kill him”. If a gladiator killed his opponent before the emperor gave his permission, the gladiator would be put on trial for murder, as only the emperor had the right to condemn a man to death. In the image above we see this myth in action.
HBO/BBC created an excellent series called “Rome” which covers a number of years of the Roman Empire. In the series they have, unfortunately, slandered the good name of one of the main Characters, Atia (Mother of Octavian – Augustus – and niece of Julius Caesar). In the show she is seen as a licentious, self-absorbed and manipulative schemer who is Mark Antony’s lover. In reality, Atia was a highly moral woman, well regarded by Roman Society at the time. Tacitus had this to say of her:
In her presence no base word could be uttered without grave offence, and no wrong deed done. Religiously and with the utmost delicacy she regulated not only the serious tasks of her youthful charges, but also their recreations and their games.
A very persistent myth about the Romans is that they would feast until they were full, then visit a room called a vomitorium to “vomit” the food out so they could start over again. This is a myth – the vomitoria were actually passages that enabled people to move quickly to and from their seats in an amphitheater. These vomitoria made it possible for thousands of Roman citizens to be seated within minutes. In the photograph above [source] we see a real vomitorium.
While it is true that the Romans did speak a form of Latin known as vulgar Latin, it was quite different from the Classical Latin that we generally think of them speaking (Classical Latin is what we usually learn at University). Vulgar Latin is the language that the Romance languages (Italian, French, etc.) developed from. Classical Latin was used as an official language only. In addition, members of the Eastern Roman Empire were speaking Greek exclusively by the 4th century, and Greek had replaced Latin as the official language.
In modern days we tend to use the term plebeian to refer to the common or poor classes, but in Rome, a plebeian was just a member of the general populace of Rome (as opposed to the Patricians who were the privileged classes). Plebeians could, and very often did, become very wealthy people – but wealth did not change their class. Wikipedia has an excellent article on this which you can read here.
When we think of Romans, we almost always imagine men in togas. But in fact, the toga was a very formal piece of clothing – to say that the Romans always wore togas would be the same as saying that the English always wear top-hats and tails. Juvenal says this: “There are many parts of Italy, to tell the truth, in which no man puts on a toga until he is dead”. The average roman would have worn tunics.
There is a popular misconception that when Rome conquered Carthage, they salted the farmlands to prevent anything from growing. In fact, this is a 20th century myth which has no bearing in reality. When the Romans conquered Carthage, they went from house to house capturing slaves and slaughtering the rest. They burnt the city to the ground and left it as a pile of ruins. This resulted in the loss of a great deal of historical information on Carthage, which makes the study of it difficult in modern times.
Caesar’s last words were actually “And you also” as recorded (in Greek) by Suetonius: Και συ ΤÎκνον (kai su teknon). These words were spoken to Brutus, which is undoubtedly the reason that Shakespeare coined the phrase: “And you, Brutus”. The meaning of his last words is unknown – but it would seem fair to think that he was telling his murderer: “you will be next”. Caesar was bi-lingual (Greek and Latin) and Greek was the dominant language in Rome at the time, so it is not unreasonable that his last words would have been uttered in that language.
In fact, women were gladiators too (though they were called gladiatrices – or gladiatrix for singular). While the first documented appearance of gladiatrices appears under the reign of Nero (37 – 68 AD), there are implications in earlier documents that strongly suggest they existed before. A strong condemnation against female gladiators of the Flavian and Trajanic eras can be found in the Satire VI of Juvenal, decrying the fact female gladiators were typically from upper-class families and seeking thrill and attention. Emperor Severus banned female gladiators around AD 200 but records show that this ban was largely ignored.
In fact, most modern historians believe that Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started. The fire started in shops selling flammable goods, though it was later blamed on the Christians (which brought on a new onslaught of persecutions). Nero was actually in Antium when the fire started, and when he heard about it he rushed back to Rome to organize relief efforts. According to Tacitus: “the population searched for a scapegoat and rumors held Nero responsible. To diffuse blame, Nero targeted a sect called the Christians. He ordered Christians to be thrown to dogs, while others were crucified and burned.”
Ahhh, finally a list right down my alley, nice job.
Very interesting list!
#11 Invented the Roman Candle.
Nice list!
let’s see what randall has to say about this list as he is the residing roman expert.
i thought it was very interesting as i have either heard or passed along most of these misconceptions.
Great list. Its amazing how many misconceptions we believe.
very interesting.
its weird cause in my world history class last year i remember talking a bout acouple of these while covering anceint rome
Open/closed fist seems a hell lot cooler than thumbs up/down.
ian: It’s very common for teachers to repeat interesting facts and anecdotes they heard in the hopes of keeping their students’ attention. Too often, they don’t actually verify what they’re teaching. Worse yet, things like this make it into textbooks for the same reason.
Love this list! I always like lists where myths are busted. Like a previous list said, debunking myths makes you look smart in conversation. I’d always heard the vomitorium stories as true. Same with the salting of Carthage.
As far as Greek replacing Latin by the 4th century, historians usually say that about the eastern half of the empire. If Greek had become the dominant language in the west, then how’d those romance languages develop?
yeah, they mentioned some of these in my history class too. maybe i need to have a talk with my history teacher.
Hey….cool list.
robneiderman: You are correct – I didn’t differentiate in the text but I have updated it now – thanks for pointing that out.
Nice list. I took Latin to GCSe and remember learning about a lot of these.
*insert political joke about “garlic nose” about here*
Interesting list. I have definitely believed a few of these myths myself. Now I want to find a way to incorporate the term “gladiatrix” into conversation.
Very interesting. I knew that the thumbs up/down thing was wrong, but I always believed that it was thumbs up for “let them live” and pointing your thumb (and touching) the chest for “death”
Seems I am wrong again
I knew that thumbs-up and thumbs-down was wrong. However, I belive that the historical account I read said that the emperor used “pressed-thumbs.” I don’t know what that means and apparently nobody else does either.
LOL! I looked at the title of this list and said, “Damn, I could’ve written this one”. Then I read it and said, “Damn, in my 3 years of Latin, I didn’t learn anything!”.
Thank you for proving my Latin teacher wrong. She made us learn the culture of Rome when learning Latin and she perpetuated some of these myths, such as the vomitarium and the thumbs up/down.
There was another BBC mini-series we saw that really slandered people’s names: I, Claudius. I can’t remember if it was the same woman portrayed as a power-hungry, conniving woman. I want to say it was Caligula’s great-aunt.
I’m glad you mentioned the toga thing.
While it may have been much warmer 2,000 years ago, the current winter average temperature is
Regardless of where he was at the time, Nero couldn’t have fiddled while Rome burned. Violins– in fact the entire viol family– hadn’t been invented yet.
maxrad: I think it must mean fiddled in the sense of “fiddling around” which means “to mess about” – in other words, he was doing something trivial. Having said that, some say he played a lyre and sang – but neither of the stories are true.
A lot of errors corrected–thanks for this great list!
this is history, so a large part is made of conjecture and the popular theories of the day, but here are some pseudo-corrections:
Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down – the Emperor was the final decider, but the crowd made gestures with their thumbs, thumbs down for sheath your sword and let him live, thumbs up for gut him from groin to neck, the preferred method of killing.
Et Tu, Brute – yes, it was in Greek, but the translation is highly dubious. It may have been, “you too, my son” implying Caesar may have been Brutus’s father (its very possible he had an affair with Brutus’s mother) or he favored him, but it could also have been “you too, my sweet one” (or something to that affect). Caesar was known to sleep with men and women, and he could have been having an affair with Brutus.
Just the versions I learned in my Classics classes for what they are worth.
…gladiatrices appears under the reign of Nero (68 – 37 BC)…
Actually Nero’s dates are (37 – 68 AD) or the dates of his reign (54 – 68 AD).
Re: Gladiatrices…Yup, David is right, Nero’s dates are 37-68 AD, his reign was from 54 to 68 AD. What now?
David: many thanks – it is now corrected.
77 or 88: On a recent trip to Rome an expert in the games told me that only the emperor had a say in the final death or survival of the victim of the gladiator; additionally he said that thumbs up and thumbs down was not used in the arenas at all. If you can give me a citation for what you say I am happy to accept it – but in the meantime I have to go by what an expert I know personally told me
77 or 88: you are right about the translation of “teknon” – it could mean child, son, or a person bonded without blood relations but in a similar relationship – so yes, there are a variety of translations that can be used. I have just chosen one of the many. But the fact remains, he did NOT say “and you, Brutus”
Suetonius did not live until a hundred years after Caesar, any dialog he recorded, including last words, would have been totally fictitious. The point of history back then was to tell a narrative, not record facts, so anything like last words would have been made up by Suetonius. The myth might be in the translation, but you can’t settle the actual words of Caesar.
Woot, I knew all of these except the thing about the female gladiators. Hardcore women those must have been…
I like the Life of Brian Romans myself, Wewease Woger!
not very accurate… to say romans didnt speak latin is to say americans dont speak english. when an empire spans continents like the Roman Empire did without any forms of media or long distance communication language changes. the language evolved and people started making their own dialects, not a different language at all
I agree with Steve Wilkos, a better myth would have been that Latin was the language of Rome, b/c it was actually the language of Latium, in which Rome as apart.
edwf and Steve Wilkos: classical Latin was long gone as the vernacular tongue at the height of the empire. Vulgar Latin versus Classical Latin is not the same as the difference between English and American English – they had dropped the neuter form of verbs and had adopted the indefinite and definite article which do not exist in Latin (Classical) – the differences were immense. So much so that a person who only spoke vulgar Latin would have difficulty understanding Classical Latin.
Ahhh, finally, a good informative list which I love since I love to studt the Romans.
Jfrater: I would be wary of taking advice from Jerry Springer’s head of security.
sorry, “study”
One of the major problems I have with a film like Gladiator was when they tried to kill their general out in the field. That was totally ludicrous. Generals who led their troops to victory were absolutely loved by the troops, they would have slaughtered anyone who tried to touch him. Only the generals who lost battles would have feared for their lives. Conversely, a gladiator would never stand a chance against the emperor in the Coliseum – his guard would have chopped him to bits.
Hollywood rarely gets it right.
buclism: does hollywood ever get right with historical films? If they actually decided to tell these stories the right I might actually go see a historical film.
sorry, again, “right way”
SlickWilly: I don’t understand your comment – extrapolate…
I love the vomitorium part! Great list! I also just noticed the subtle “Just paying the bills…” before the ad, hahaha
In the intro, it says ‘in the Rome and the arena’,
Ghidoran: Fixed – thanks
jfrater: SillyWilly is talking about an american tv show. It is a show which shows the “trash” of america.
Fantastic list…i’d love to see more of the ‘historical inaccuracies’ variety of lists.
These are all fun but that last one needs some clarification. The issue is not that Nero was sitting in the city of Rome fiddling but that he was , in fact, so obsessed with his own artistic talent that he ignored Rome as a whole (not just the city itself) and the Empire suffered greatly due to his neglect.
Hmmm… interesting. When I visited carthage the tour guide who was an expert in that area said the romans sewed salt into the fields to kill the crops. I guess historians are the only ones who know the real deal.
It was a little heart breaking to read this list. My Godmother and Latin Teacher went to school in Switzerland and America and earned her Masters. It’s hard to know that she is ever wrong. But I guess even the smartest people make mistakes. I still don’t think I’d ever have the heart to tell her.
Excellent List.
I knew the vomitorium wasn’t for puking. I was told that our word vomit does come from it. You can even understand; the throngs pouring out of the amphitheatre; not much of a leap to see the similarity there.
I thought the “and you also” quote referred to his participation in the plot. Geez I’m wrong again?
You are mistaken about the myth “Romans Spoke Latin”, Romans in fact spoke what we know as classic latin. Vulgar latin did not appear until the late 3rd century, many years later the people began to make a difference between classic and vulgar, but any baker or slave spoke “classic” latin in the 1st century.
Gladiatrix, that sounds hot.
@ Willis -
Haha that’s what I thought too. Gladiatrix sounds so much like Dominatrix.
haha i learned some of this in school not too long ago
Absolutely fascinating.
Another wonderful list! Interestingly enough, I remember being taught nine out of ten of these myths at the beginning of the year in history class. However, that’s probably largely due to the fact that we actually learned about what was written down by these people at the time. If I can make a suggestion, I’d say you should make a list about the ancient Egyptians. I find them to be even more fascinating than the Romans, even though my teacher and I disagree. Once again, great stuff, jfrater!
Going back to what you said about gladiators.. they actually put blind people against each other as well as children in some instances which was rare but it did happen, maybe not so much in the Flavian Amphitheater (the Colosseum) but it did happen.
wait wait wait… you mean to tell me that the English don’t wear top hats and tails?
Dischuker:
Randall is the site’s resident expert on ALL things, not merely Rome. Remember that.
But I joke. In fact, I will lay claim to being the site’s resident expert on all things GREEK in nature, particularly ancient Greece–but I am less well-versed when it comes to Rome. I never liked the ancient Romans (I find them despicable, in fact) and never much bothered with studying them as intently as I did the Greeks (I am part Greek but also part Italian–though mostly German and English).
One thing… there *was* a persistent rumor, if I recall, that Brutus WAS Caesar’s bastard son. Generally, I believe it was treated as truthful.
Also… Nero *couldn’t* have “fiddled” while Rome burned anyway–fiddles (violins) had not been invented yet. Nero would have plucked a lyre perhaps, but no fiddling.
Manuel Montoya is right; Latin remained reasonably closed to what we learn as Classical (except for the pronunciation! but that’s another story) well into the Common Era. Moreover, the change was a gradual one when it did happen, and the linguistic difference is more *****ogous to the difference between Chaucer’s English and Shakespeare’s English than to that between modern British and American English.
Also, jfrater: Latin *verbs* have no neuter form, nor any other agreement forms for gender. I think you may mean that the neuter gender was largely syncretized with the masculine (initially as a result of the loss of phonemic nasal vowels and coda simplification at word boundaries). Furthermore, the “indefinite and definite articles” of the Romance language evolved out of Latin deictic determiners; in Vulgar Latin, as far as I know, they were not full-fledged articles yet, but were well on their way—I think what happened was that the deictic meaning became generalized to refer to discourse rather than real deixis.
Anyhow, great list overall! Good to see poor Atia’s name cleared.
Thanks Manuel Montoya and Mike! Latin is an awesome language, it’s important to have the facts right!
not only were there female gladiators, they also formed the first feminist movement. When they were banned from fighting in the arena around 800 of them marched on the senate in protest. The first time in history that a group of women stood up for their rights.