Pompeii Changed How I Think About The Roman Empire - Smarter Every Day 310

My son is 11, and I will most definitely be showing it to him! Every subject matter in this video that may be considered "taboo" or "sensitive" content is delivered to us with the utmost regard for dignity and making it as educational as can be! Thank you Destin for your careful and diligent planning and execution of this great video!! 👍

Your tour guide was amazing with the breadth of his knowledge of the area and processes used back then

I love the fact your wife was able to visualize the efficiency of the 'double-cone' mill as better than the mills you had seen before. Smart cookie there.

This Italian man is the best tour guide.

This tour guide taught me more about Rome than I ever learned in all my years of school in this video alone!! This was great

damt. i was there twice and this single guide told more that anybody during my visit.

It's interesting. "It was a vile time" was not what I came away with when I visited. It was a very different time. They had guiding priciples like all of us and they were shaped by the times and teachings of those that that raised them. There is a lot about their culture that was objectively bad. Open corruption. Slavery. Rampent exploitation and yet after thousands of years the bulk of humanity still wrestles with all of that. What struck me is that minus electronics and engines, they brought about modern society. Engineering, art, planning and design. You can look into apartments in Pompeii and see a world not far from what we still know today. It strikes me that without the Greek and Roman influences we might all still be hauling our grains in leather skins and riding horseback. They made the very foundation of the modern world from their own work. It's not vile, its amazing.

It's pretty much the way I thought of Rome, but I didn't know about the raised water tanks or the automatic street washing system! Very cool

It's always great when people realize that ancient humans were no different from us. They were just as intelligent, just as playful, just as sexual, just as evil, and just as good as we are today. The only difference now is that the collective wealth of knowledge available today is greater than it was back then.

I can never get over how puritan people from the USA are, even ones as smart as Destin. None of this would be shocking to anyone from anywhere else in the world.

History can’t be judged by modern standards. One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the video is that the Vettii brothers were freed slaves, they lived through the adversity of that status and wanted to show they had made it. Unlike during the worst moments of slavery in the US, in Pompeii a freed person could build wealth and even take part in local politics. Their views on sexuality were also different: nudity wasn’t taboo, and Christianity hadn’t yet reached Pompeii. Life then was complex, just like today, and calling it simply “vile times” risks misleading people. In the end, history is our shared human story. Maybe the "vile times" never ended then

Days without thinking of the Roman Empire: 0

The tour guide was like a character you meet in a game. Didn't skip a beat on his script and not a single interruption or pause 👌🏻

As an educated American living abroad, I really don't get why any of these topics are "difficult" topics. They're objective facts. Arguably if these topics are censored or altered, then you're not learning history or facts, you're being fed propaganda.

Fun fact! Destin has already encountered Priapus in a previous video of his without realizing it. In his video about the Brazilian Wandering Spider, the medical term used for a dangerously long-lasting erection is "priapism", which is named after the god Priapus!

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Dustin: clear out the room from children.

Me, a (then) Italian child that visited Pompeii on school trip: oh yes, Priapus, that was hilarious.

As a teacher in Norway I just have to say I don’t understand why this video shouldn’t be shown to children? Over here we show this to kids any day of the week without any problems. They are curious and should be able to learn about the realities of our history without censorship

i like how ciro noticed destin's love of plumbing and refocused around showing destin more of it, that's very thoughtful and the mark of a great guide. not just on autopilot, but trying to appeal to each group of tourists. i can imagine it's a hard and repetitive job, and ciro really set a high bar!

I've been wanting to visit Pompeii ever since I first read about it. Like most of us, I think about Ancient Rome all the time, and what my role in such a society would look like. I've thought about the aqueducts, the pipes, what it would be like to eat there.... but then I actually went, and I found myself thinking about very different things than I anticipated. Travelling here was a tremendous opportunity for Tara and I and I am sincerely grateful to all Patron supporters of Smarter Every Day who made this happen. If you feel like this video has added value to your life I'd love it if you'd consider supporting on Patreon to send me the signal that this is the sort of video you enjoy. Thanks! patreon.com/smartereveryday