A Roman Ghost Story - The Haunted House in Athens

As Halloween comes around, we take a look back at an ancient Roman ghost story. This spooky tale is brought to us by Pliny the Younger who writes of the Philosopher Athenodorus and the Haunted House of Athens.

Bibliography
Pliny the Younger, Book 7, Letter 27, to Licinius Sura

Music
"House of Horror" by Martyn Harvy

Artwork
Beverly Johnson

#Halloween
#RomanHistory

[atreides]

That philosopher is pretty badass. The restless ghost who drives other people insane is standing right there, beckoning him, and he’s like, “Give me one sec, dude, you’re breaking my flow.”

[LogicalMan]

3:00 - 3:02
*GHOST LOUDLY RATTLING CHAINS*

Holds up one finger: "Yes, I'll be right with you, just need to finish this writing."

[StefanMilo]

That's incredible how similar it is to modern ghost stories. The most be something really fundamental to humans that finds this stuff scary.

[georgekokkos]

The Greek philosopher was Athenodorus, a stoic, that was the teacher of none other than Octavian (Augustus) himself!

[codekillerz]

I like this channel because it’s different from the standard channels about Rome. The fact that you don’t concentrate on just military stuff is superb.

[AA-bntf]

Step 1: B homeless old man.
Step 2: steal chain
Step 3: walk into cool house
Step 4: Rattle chains
Step 5: stare down owner
Step 6: Free House acquired

[apocalypselemon]

I love that it's a philosopher who's the "hero" of the story.

[sidetracker]

This dude basically just got a sweet ass deal for a countryside manor in exchange for walking around a bit and getting some bones dug up.

[sonofriggnarok]

"Buried at the publics expense." Is the scariest part.

[swordsmen]

2000 Years later in the west and our stories have barley changed. Great Video Invicta!!!

[paolofumarola]

This story was one of the first i translated from latin and greek at school. We were all struck by how modern it was

[deedadee]

I'd definitely like to hear another ghost story from antiquity

[ancientsurvival]

Yes! And well told. Another roman ghost story is about (for lack of a better term) a hitchhiker who turns out to be not what she seems.
It's interesting to me, though, that the tropes in that one as well are still completely relevant.

[fryingpancakes]

Haunted ghost house sold for cheap.

A 60 CE cliche that is still alive today.
Edit: Typo

[JumbalayahJihad]

"Hold on a sec, ghost, I need to finish writing my next video's script! I'll lay you to rest later because if I don't finish this then people will lay ME to rest!"

[isaacalves]

guys mabye its the ghost of Imperador Augustos demanding Varus to give him back is legions
.

[korstmahler]

No small amount of in the story.
"This house is so terrible the people who live in it died of it and nobody is brave enough to go near it! Won't a stoic, learned philosopher man _(not unlike Pliny himself as coincidence holds)_ come along and suddenly have this amazingly luxurious house at half price?"

It came off more as comedy to me, with the philosopher getting a ghost to hold on a moment whilst he finishes the sentence.
That, or it's a sneaky tale about how if you buy a haunted place and tell everyone you fixed the ghost, you might just make a profit.

[adainhoodges]

My favorite part is that the just tells the ghost to wait so he can finish writing.

[cleveque]

This should be called "The Spectre Who Briefly Inconvenienced A Guy Who Got A House For Half Price", the classic tale of a ghost who had his remains, which were anonymously buried in a house, dug up and anonymously buried somewhere else.
YOU WILL BE SHOCKED as he achieves his grim purpose by asking someone to do it!
YOU WILL GASP IN DISBELIEF at the relative courtesy and efficiency of this foul apparition!
YOU WILL SPEW VOMIT not just from your mouth, but both nostrils as well, at the ghastly penance of the Guy Who Got A House For Half Price, who was last seen doing whatever it was that he did after that. Probably eating or something.

[chrais]

Definitely want to hear more haunted history