Did the Romans live better than us? | Quality of Life and Salaries

In this video, we cover the lives of 3 REAL individuals who lived and died in 3 separate social classes. We found a way to recreate their salaries and living expenses as accurately as possible, and put it in a simple video packed with unexpected pleasures and tragedies…

SOURCES:

Primary sources:
-Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum.

Secondary Sources:
-Allen, R. “How prosperous were the Romans? The evidence of Diocletian’s Price Edict (AD 301).” A. K. Bowman and A. I. Wilson, eds., Quantifying the Roman economy: methods and problems, Oxford, 2009, 327–45.
-Barnes, T. D. The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine. Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1982.
-Corcoran, S. The empire of the Tetrarchs: imperial pronouncements and government AD 284–324, Oxford, 2000, 205–33.
-Goffart, W. Caput and Colonate: Towards a history of Late Roman Taxation. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1974.
-Jones, A.H.M. “Census Records of the Later Roman Empire”, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 43, 1953, 49-64.
-Kropff, A. An English translation of the Edict on Maximum Prices, also known as
the Price Edict of Diocletian.
-Williams, Stephen. Diocletian and the Roman Recovery.New York: Routledge, 1997.

Intro (0:00)
Tenant Farmer (1:38)
Soldier (6:58)
Aristocrat (12:51)

[HistoriaMilitum]

We hope you enjoyed the video as much as we enjoyed making it. Make sure you make it to the Aristocrat's lavish feast at 20:24!

[fifervonpiper]

Today: "What color is your Bugatti?"

Roman times: "How purple is your purple?"

[tijlaerts]

When you look at factors like occupational hazards, working hours, child labor, pollution, ... It's quite possible roman plebeans had much better lives than 1800's factory workers.

[andyknolls]

Yes I agree, the rising cost of slaves is most troubling.

[josephmauck]

The first guy was an employee. It sounds weird to read in history books that "all the food he farmed had to go to the landowner and he received a small payment in return", but it's simply employment.

[RJStockton]

Historians of AD 4122:
"Richard had to spend $100 a week on food, $40-50 on gasoline, $12.75 on internet pornography, $45 for the phone the tax collectors used to spy on him, $25 on ammunition, $10 on lottery tickets, $5 on headache medicine, $10 on coffee, and $100 each for his car loan, credit card interest, insurance, and other things he keeps putting off until they're in collections. Once a year he dropped $1, 000 on the delusional belief he was good at playing blackjack."

I really hope none of our records survive the centuries.

[Njss]

1st guy: *lives*
2nd guy: *lives and goes to a tavern*
3rd guy:, ,i want this ostrich''

[inventor]

A single income providing for an entire family AND having savings? That's the Millennial dream

[laughremixsquad]

“Military recruiters always preferred recruits from the countryside to the city.”

some things never change

[qstorius]

Just one observation regarding Theodorus... beeing pesant is not like beeing a xix or xxth century factory worker... there are no 8h factory shifts... some times theodorus would work on a field for 10 h but for majority of the year he would have a much more free time than present day workers... so it is probable that like early modern european pesants he would use that time in meaningfull way like reparing shoes or making table pottery or tanding to animals of his own for extra income

[xmaniac]

One can only imagine how the modern world would be if politicans at al levels would be held personally liable with their properties as guarantees for any shortcomings. Oh, what a (world) it would be.

[TheSaracen]

This type of content is very rare. Most of the other history channels focus on flashy topics like warfare and politics. Thank you for this. You could expand this type of content to other time periods and cultures. Although you should have mentioned how these prices were significantly bloated because of massive inflation and currency debasement

[dereksindler]

Videos like this make you feel connected to history, that human existence is universal through time and cultures

[childofcascadia]

These are my favorite type of history vids. Most history vids are about the names in the history books, wars, big things. Not the lives of the average people and how they may have lived.

[nickkorkodylas]

As modern Greek I can attest I live exactly on Theodorus' budget.

[louisazraels]

The area in which industrialization most impressively reduced prices is clothing (even before manufacturing moved to low labor cost countries).
The price of basic clothing in ancient and even medieval times seems ludicrous.
For instance the fact that a sturdy wagon costs the same as a plain tunic is hard to comprehend.

[Alphalezginka]

Fast forward thousands of years, and the same class system still exists, with people almost universally choosing to opt for the same options as did once the romans.
Such a fascinating world they lived in, and this video truly puts it into perspective. Well done

[BassPlayer]

Fascinating stuff. I love the little details of their lives. I am getting tired of hearing about Caesar and Cleopatra.

[dragonfly]

I would really love a cost of living breakdown of any historical period. It's so hard to get a good set of numbers. Middle ages, vikings, industrial revolution, Byzantine, Renaissance Venice, Holy Roman Empire, French Revolution, middle ages middle east, China, feudal Japan, early America, Aztecs. Whatever you may care to put together, I would watch.

[bfcalixis]

Fun fact, my country's government (Argentina) has been trying to enforce similar legislation to combat our rampant inflation and, of course, it doesn't work and just makes things worse. But, looking at the bright side, it's a nice homage to Diocletian.