Boris Johnson: 'The Romans were bastards'

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Filmed at Central Hall Westminster on 19th November 2015

[Caesar_Himself]

Boris was massively pro-Roman a few years back.

[wiszak]

"The Romans were imperialist, can you imagine how cruel is this " said the British guy

[liamlyons]

Here just to see my next PM actually answering a question

[madmacca_]

Sorry Boris but the question should be "what did the Romans do for us" as asked by the Judean popular front or is that the popular front of Judea 🤔

[alfredvinciguerra]

Rome was a republic for 500 years that is a fact

[javierperezbarreto]

The Romans gave us Londinium, turned it into a major port and centre of commerce. Simply put, there would be no London without Rome.

[anthonyaferrara]

Boris is so right; of course the English won their empire politely and with total kindness..

[TheGreatGodPan]

Boris was wrong about several things:

- The gladiator games were ritualistic and "sport" to a degree, comparable to the olympiad and pankration martial arts of Greece though potentially more lethal, but if I am correct the most praised gladiators were those who won without drawing blood, it was probably more like modern reenactment battles but without the modern health and safety measures. They originated as Etruscan funerary rites, which involved two slaves fighting (to the death I think).
- The empire was not all bad, the late republic was decadent and corrupt, Caesar was a sleazy dictator and war criminal but August was pious and brought in new laws against adultery, several others in the Juleo-Claudian dynasty despite their reputation and smearing by historians actually couldn't stand the corrupt elite class of sycophants and Caligula better than anyone else exposed them for what they were and cut through all the pretence, and paid the price for it. Also worth noting the republic was responsible for the devastating Punic wars which were hugely costly for the Romans, just so they could destroy Carthage and gain trade dominance in the mediterranean. So no, it wasn't a case of democracy good empire bad, and several emperors were really worthy of praise.
- Roman punishments were no more brutal than Greek ones, nor were they more brutal in the empire than in the republic, they just brought in stricter laws as said to clean up the decadent state of the late republic. Also scenes depicting women whipping each other relate to agrarian rites that were still practiced in the early modern period, in Friuli especially. Not everything revolved around fear instilled by the emperor, and some were consciously "populist" emperors, notably Commodus (because he was seen as mad and hated by his peers so went for people appeal instead). He probably dislikes the empire precisely because its absolutist monarchy had nothing but disdain for the sleaze and corruption of high society that he and his party revel in today.

[Trecesolotienesdos]

they didnt end democracy on purpose.

come on boris, don't judge romans by our moral standards. the greeks were as harsh. the romans didn't kill babies like sparta did.

you say democracy, but then how many greeks could vote? men? and only rich men?

[shekels]

"Can you believe people from the past didnt live up to the moral standards we have today?? Ludicrous!"

[suzannenoble]

Mary Beard sitting there trying not to lose her wits in the beginning is the best part of this video

[PedroUR]

And what did the Brits do at the time? Talking about brutality!
Let's judge people from 2.000 years ago by today's standards, why not?

[Basedlocation]

Brit just mad the romans already accomplished what his country did thousands of years prior 😂

[Constantine_IA]

Modern Democracy has nothing similar to Ancient Greek Democracy

[JimOverbeckgenius]

Boris' Germanic ancestors slaughtered the Romans & his Turkish ancestors slaughtered the Byzantines.

[smonz]

He's just doing it for the theater. I'm sure he's aware what he's saying is daft. The Coliseum, for instance, was not a slaughterhouse, for if 200, 000 people had died there would be nobody left to fight and no one would want to take up the job of being a professional combatant.

[LiterallyGod]

Why won’t Boris Johnson talk about his parents and what they did? He’s hiding something

[harambe]

How many people died under British imperialism??

[antoniomartellini]

Boris would be right if we made the comparison with our current yardstick. This time, however, all peoples were bastards and behaved in the same way. When Brenno (Gallo leader 390 BC) conquered Rome he pronounced the famous phrase: "Woe to the defeated" and Brenno was not Roman.

[slappy]

He thinks the Greeks lived in a blissful utopia merely because of theater and democracy, and blames the Romans for killing it, when in reality, the Romans loved Greek plays, and Athenian democracy had self-destructed long before through in-fighting, as democracies always do. It's amazing how ideology can turn otherwise intelligent people into complete idiots.