The Last Roman - Ultimus Romanorum

The Roman era came to a complete end more than 5 centuries ago, but it still one of the most discussed historical periods. One of the discussions is on the prominent figures of Rome and Byzantium. Some of them are called the Last Romans - Ultimus Romanorum, which signifies their deeds and exploits. This is our, highly opinionated list of the Last Romans. :-)

Our documentaries take hours and days of research, but then we have to compress the scripts, in order to have a manageable watch time and to balance the historical accuracy and the entertainment. Naturally, many fun facts, bits and pieces and so on are not covered. So, we decided to change that by having a new series called the Bits and Pieces and to share our views, opinions, lists etc. This videos will not influence the release of our documentaries in any way and this Sunday you will be able to watch our video on the Battle of Austerlitz - the Battle of the Three Emperors within our series on the Napoleonic Wars. We also took into account the poll that showed that majority of you would like to see videos explaining the armies, tactics, weapons and their evolution. We already started research process and soon you will see the first results.

We are grateful to our patrons, who made this video possible: Ibrahim Rahman, Koopinator, Daisho, Łukasz Maliszewski, Nicolas Quinones, William Fluit, Juan Camilo Rodriguez, Murray Dubs, Dimitris Valurdos, Félix Gagné-Dion, Fahri Dashwali, Kyle Hooton, Dan Mullen, Mohamed Thair, Pablo Aparicio Martínez, Iulian Margeloiu, Chet, Nick Nasad, Jeyares, Amir Eppel, Thomas Bloch, Uri Sternfeld, Juha Mäkelä, Georgi Kirilov, Moe Mia, Daniel Yifrach, Brian Crane, Muramasa, Gerald Tnay, Hassan Ali, Richie Thierry, David O'Hare, Christopher Commins, Chris Glantzis, Mike, William Pugh and Stefan Dt.

Used art from Total War: Attila and Rome TV show

Songs used:

[Synystr]

"No Emperor should outlive his Empire" - Constantine the XI to a subject begging him to flee the city, before tearing off his Imperial garments, so as to let nothing distinguish him from any other soldier, and leading a final charge against the Turks.
We remember you, dude. RIP.

[blinkyrem]

Rome was founded by Romulus and is often thought to have fallen with Romulus Augustulus and a whimper. However, the East was founded by Constantine the Great and ended with Constantine XI and a sword in his hand!

[bygjwwo]

I would add Majorian, the last true emperor of Western Roman Empire, he attempted to reconquer Italy, Gaul and Spain

[Leo_Zanza]

Constantine XI Palaiologos for me, what a brave last stand he made:)

[fredtred]

Belisarius should be considered a last Roman. He was an awesome general.

[georgethanos]

ON NIKA RIOTS.
"NIKA" actually is the imperative form of the Greek verb ΝΙΚΩ (to win) and proves that the crowd at that time spoke Greek. "Win! Win!" is the shout we could hear today in a modern hippodrome full of English-speakers. "Vinci! Vinci!" it would be the cry of a Latin-speaking crowd. But at the 6th century AD, the Eastern Empire was totally hellenized and the crowd shouted "NIKA! NIKA!"; that is "win!" in Greek.

This is also the case with the most illustrious buildings in the capital. HIPPODROME was the official name of Constantinople's race track (meaning "horse-track" in Greek) and not CIRCUS, its Latin counterpart. As we can further see in 2mins30secs of this video, all parts of the Hippodrome have also Greek names. SPHENDONE is called the far end and means "slinger" in Greek (because its form resembles a slinger pocket) and KATHISMA ("seat" in Greek) is the name of the Emperor's throne.

Furthermore, the most iconic building of Constantinople - the Hagia Sophia cathedral - has its name in Greek (literally meaning "Holy Wisdom" and consequently God's Wisdom). Sophia and Sophy is a common female name today; it means exactly that: Wisdom. A variety of words also exists using the prefix "sopho-" (Greek for wisdom): Sophomore, sophist, Sophocles etc. If Hagia Sophia was built by Romans she would be named "Santa Sapienza" or something like that.

It is not a chance that 25 years after the Nika riots, Emperor Mavrikios aknowledged exactly that fact: That the people of the Byzantine Empire werenot speaking Latin at all; so he decreed that all official documents were to be issued in Greek "because this is the language of the people". In the same direction, Emperor Heracleios decreed 20 years later, that all official documents should be issued exclusively in Greek and not in both Greek and Latin "because the people doesn't speak it (the Latin) any more".

Indeed, there are no recorded official documents in Latin since 610 (10 years after his decree).

This process however (the bilingual issue of the imperial decrees) had begun centuries earlier. For example the famous "Edict of maximum prices" of Emperor Diocletian was carved in Latin to the west and in Greek to the east. The year was 301 AD. (Both stones have been found today).

The conquest of the then Greek world (modern Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt etc.) by the Romans was a gradual process that lasted about three centuries. It was a copmplex approach in order to succumb all the kingdoms of the Diadochoi (Alexander the Great's successors) by the famous Roman policy of "freedom of Greece". It was not a process that lasted a decisive battle or a single war.

After that process was completed, around the begining of the first century AD, a new reality emmerged: A unified Roman world with two cultural components: The Latin-speaking in the Western Empire and the Greek-speaking in the Eastern part. Most Roman aristocrats at the time spoke Greek too.

This fact was recognized (amongst others) by famous Roman poet and philosopher Horace in his Epistles, book II, epistle I, line 63:

“Graecia capta ferum victorem capot et arts intuit agrestic Latino”.

(Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium).

For that reason, when in 330 AD Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (a Romanised Illyrian-Greek) transferred the Imperial capital from Rome to a prosperous Greek settlement named Byzantion (founded by Greek king Byzas almost a millennium before) he knew he was entering a territory that everyone were speaking Greek and had virtually no one natural Latin-speaker.

That's why historians (since 15th century AD) begun calling the Constantinople-centered Empire "Byzantine" and not "Roman": Because, especially after the fall of Rome to the Germanic tribes, nothing "Roman" or "Latin" was left to.

The demise of Rome (that at the time of its conquest by the Goths was a shrinking city of 50 thousand) and the contemporaneous growth of the Greek east (note: in the same era Constantinople - formerly known as Byzantion - was a thriving Greek city heading towards its first million in population) led historians to this shift of name: Because all the imperial decisions were not anymore made in Latin Rome but in Greek Byzantion (Constantinople).

For that reason, modern linguistics also adopt this thesis. The language of that era is classified as "Constantinopolitan Greek" and not as "Constantinopolitan Latin".

The term "Byzantine-Greeks" is also coined to describe the dominant ethnicity of the Byzantine Empire.

If, using a time machine, a modern person
had travelled in the Byzantine Empire and had asked a Byzantine-Greek the question "What are you?" he would have received one of the two following answers:

1. If this was a citizen of the Capital, he would have gotten the answer "ΠΟΛΙΤΗΣ/POLITES" short form in Greek of the word "Constantinopolitan" (CONSTANTINOPOLITES).
2. If the Byzantine was coming from anywhere else in the empire, he would have said: "Eemae Romios" ("I'm a Roman" in Greek).

If that time traveler had gone to a medieval European citizen and pointing to a Byzantine-Greek had asked the former: "Who is he?" the European would have easily replied "This is a Greek".

If the same time traveller comes to modern Greece and asks randomly a Greek "Eesae Romios?" (Are you Roman?) he will get the stunning answer "Yes!".

If he asks a modern Greek from Instabul (modern Constantinople) "Eesae Politis?" he will also get a positive answer as 1500 years ago.

So, are modern Greeks Romans? Of course not. At the early stages of the Byzantine Empire, when Christianity was spreading, the demonym HELLENES was reserved only to pagan Greeks in order to distinguish them from ROMIOI who were the "Christian Greeks". When gradualy all Greeks became Christiams and Rome was lost from the Empire, that distinction became meaningless and the term ROMIOI became a descriptive demonym for all Greeks that lasts untill today.

For all that reasons and in order to lift the confusion of the true essence of the Byzantine-Greeks, modern historians still call them Byzantines or Byzantine-Greeks but never Romans.

[napoleonibonaparte]

The last Romans were the ones that escaped Constantinople before the imminent siege. They spread the Roman ideas after they exiled themselves. They initiated the Renaissance

[KingsandGenerals]

Don't forget to share your opinion and vote at the end. There is a poll at 4:31

[swe]

Please do fall of Constantinople and how brave the last bysantine emperor was

[njujuwd]

Pretenders: *exist*

Holy Roman Empire: *Hold up*

[username]

I agree 100%. Brutus and Cassius were victims of Idealism vs Populism battle, they died fighting for "the Roman dream" if you will. I do think ERE should've done better. they had some major screw ups, as did Rome tbf.

Poor Trebizond, Komnenos had no chance in Caucasus, Despite Georgian and Armenian support it was just a matter of time before another Barbarian horde swept through the area.
It's a bitersweet story though, Colchis and Armenia were one of the first allies that Rome actually acknowledged as Independent Roman allies, and they Remained so until Rome's last days when rest of the world had abandoned them. Pompey would never have imagined that two small tribes he discovered on the far reaches of their world would end up being the last allies for his nation.

[edoardodipaolo]

Very good job! This is my list: Emperors Julian, Majorian and Constantine XI Palaiologos; Generals Stilicho, Aetius and Belisarius; Intellectuals: Rutilius Namatianus.

[beeebz]

How come you didnt mention Emperor Aurelian? He restored the emire that was devided in 3! Not 2. 3.

[gbendicion]

I still remember when this video first appeared. Now this channel has almost a million subscribers. Wasnt that hard to forsee that K&G would one day becomr the best history channel in YT

[constantinexi]

Being a history buff, I love your videos. I have a passion for Ancient Rome and I watch these videos at least twice.

[vasiliykolebanov]

Good job with this video. I like the topic and the style. Flavius Aetius called "The Last of the Romans" was born in the city where my grandfather and my mother are from and where I lived a part of my life. A city of history and every well educated person knows more than the average about history due to history being all around you. Excavations, ruins and historical landmarks are everywhere, not to mention that people often and randomly find Roman coins and other objects, while working the land.

Cato, Brutus and Cassius were portrayed by historians living in time when the successors of Caesar ruled Rome. We cannot expect a very commendable description of their personalities, characters and actions. Although I am prone to believing part of it, I think it is exaggerated even continuously so today. I do not approve their method of preserving the republic, yet the motives were just. Just imagine what responsibility and weight did Brutus feel when he saw the shadow of a king looming over Rome. The republic was his family's doing after all.

[thelonewolf]

The last Roman was the Roman emperor Constantine XI Palailogos.

[benwerkhoven]

I don't think it's really fair to put the republicans on the list. Saying they are the last romans, is like saying a monarchy is unroman even though the empire started and ended that way. The roman empire is not defined by a form of government in my opinion, but by culture and mentality/ideals (hard work, efficiency, never giving up and doing everything you can for the benefit of the state). You would then also imply that Augustus is very unroman, even though you can arguably claim that he is (one of) the most roman men ever produced by the empire.

[BerendSimons]

this channel is just getting better and better

[mehennifares]

Your videos are so good that they should be aired on TV so that a lot can benefit from them