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

This video is not for kids. We're going to talk about death. difficult issues, exploitation of people by other people. We're going to talk about the reality of living in the Roman Empire in a way that I did not expect. But I think it's a really interesting video, and there's some really important lessons to be learned here and how people don't change. With that being said, I'm going to give you a moment to get all children out of the room unless you, as a parent or guardian, think it's appropriate for them, and you've reviewed this material. We're going to start now. When I was a kid in Sunday school class, Ms. Jamie Ray sometimes would tell me stories about a thing that happened in the Bible, which a lot of Roman Empire. I used to imagine that when she brought the feltboard out, she'd put these kids on here, or she'd put these people on here. Everything just came alive to me. But I remember these being very vibrant and exciting stories, but everybody looked happy. If you zoom in here, these ladies, they have makeup on, and they look like me, which I don't think is what really... That wasn't really the way it was. It's interesting because when I think of Roman times or the Bible stories that happen in the Roman Empire, I often think about a scene like this. When I went to Pompeii, which was a city that was locked in time by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius, I was expecting to see the engineering marvels of the Roman Empire. I was expecting to see the streets, and we are going to see that, but I was expecting to walk away from that with a very different feeling than what I actually walked away with. Let's start with the simple facts of what happened in a city called Pompeii. I know the name Pompeii sounds like some Polynesian island, but it's actually located right on the Mediterranean Sea in Italy. It's located right here in between the modern cities of Sorrento and Naples, which at the time of the eruption were called Surrentum and Neapolis. Mount Vesuvius rises high above Pompeii, here in the Northwest. In 79 AD, Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplantis, and Herculaneum in ash and pyroclastic flows. Most historians believe this occurred on August 24th of that year, but some think it may have been later in the year. It doesn't really matter. What we do know is that Herculaneum and Oplantis were hit immediately by pyroclastic flows, killing people almost instantly. But because of the direction that the wind was blowing that day, Pompeii was covered in ash first, and then it was later hit by subsequent pyroclastic flows. I really don't know what a pyroclastic flow is. When I think of a volcano erupting, I think of red, molten rock, lava, and magma flowing down a hill and covering things. But a pyroclastic flow, as I understand, is a little bit different. It's like rock and ash that's shooting down a hillside with hot gasses mixed in very, very quickly. And that creates this wave of all this what will become sediment flowing over the city. But there's this little layer, this boundary layer of hot gasses that these rocks and ash are floating on and just covering everything. It's a terrifying thing. There's a lot of interesting footage of pyroclastic flows online, but the only ones that I had the rights to were the US Geological surveys. Back when Mount St. Helen's erupted, there was a photographer that was in an aircraft with a 16 millimeter film camera. This is an eight millimeter film camera. We said this is a Bell and Howell film camera, but he was flying in the aircraft and he was shooting Mount St. Helen's from the air. You can see the pyroclastic flow running down the side of the mountain. It looks like dust running down really, really fast. That is extremely hot ash and rocks and all kinds of stuff like that. That is pyroclastic flow. There's a lot of modern footage, but I didn't have the rights to any of that. So this gives you an idea of what that cloud might have looked like as it was rushing towards Pompeiii. So these pyroclastic flows just instantly hit these cities and covered them and locked a Roman city in time. And I have thought about this my entire life. And my beautiful wife, Tara, planned a trip for us for our 20th anniversary, and we're going to get to see something that's been on my bucket list forever. So let's go get Smarter Every Day. My wife is excellent at planning and logistics, which is why I thought it was fascinating that she elected to hire a tour guide for Pompeiii. Why did you decide that a tour guide was the right decision? Just for that particular place. It was so big and there was so much to do that the only way to get in the door and to see the highlights was to have somebody do that for us. Tara likes to plan with Rick Steve's tour guides. If you know, you know. And on one of the forums about Pompe, she learned about pompetourguide. com, which we were very excited about because it says that Ciro is a fourth-generation tour guide. Hey, nice to How are you doing? Nice to meet you.

Hey, Tara. Tara, nice to meet you. How are you? Ciro helped us get the correct tickets for the site, and then we followed him in to begin our tour. [C] So Pompeii was never destroyed by a river of lava, but was just buried and preserved under 25 feet. It means seven, eight meters of a Pommie Stone and ash. All what you have to imagine is a rain of a Pommie Stone and ash from the sky. That's the reason why all the roofs, all the upper part of the buildings collapsed. 30% of Pompeii, one quarter of it is still under the volcanic ash. 79 AD, the first eruption, 1748, the first excavation. It means for 18 centuries, all the other Roman cities and towns were all destroyed by the Barbarians, and all the other folks come after them, while Pompeiii was always so well preserved under a green hill, just like frozen in a time. That's the reason why nowadays it's so well preserved. Now we are in front of one of the main entrance the big arch over there is called the Porta Marina. Porta Marina, it means a sea gate. Why that? Down here there was the sea. Pompeii, it was a seaport town, commercial town, trading center. About 20,000 people used to live here at the time, and they used to sell really good quarts of olive oil, wine, clothes, wooden furniture. Every day, they used to come here, travel the sailors, merchants. That's a Vegas of 2000s ago. Imagine seven different gates like this one in front of us, all around two miles of city wall. And outside of the city wall, we have these buildings, where on the lower part, the public bath, the spa of the time. Right next to this ocean. The ocean would have been here. Yes. This one of the reasons why the Roman Empire it last so long, 12 centuries, from 700 years BC to 500 years AD. Until now, no other empire or democracy to last so long. Another reason why it lasts very long is because they did everything considering the needs of the common people. So aqueduct, sewage system, theater, spa, roads, all in a way to improve the daily lifestyle. So people felt to be loved by the Roman Empire, and they were always ready to fight against any others in a way to preserve the good lifestyle they got and supporting the Empire of Rome. [D] We headed into the street and it was surreal to be standing on stones that were built as a part of a road that belonged to the Roman Empire. [C] I would love to give you two important information before we go inside this complex of Spa. First important information, Pompeii, at the moment of the explosion, eruption of Vesuvius, it was a 700 years old town. Now, Pompeii was first to build 600 years BC, buried in 79 AD. So 700 years old town, which means twice older than modern states. To give you a better idea, very old. That's the reason why whenever we go around, all the buildings are all originals, but built using different stones and techniques. That's why in some parts we find the bricks, tuffa stones, marble, basalt. Second important information, you have to imagine all the walls inside and outside used to be covered by plaster and decorated by colors. So you have to imagine a very colorful building all around you. [D] Like painted? [C] Yeah, painted. You know why? It's a good combination of colors. It makes them feeling good. Once again, they are prepared psychologically. All the travels spend money in a happy way. Colors, wine, women, not just the walls of the wealthy houses like many people used to think, but the walls of the entire town, inside and outside, covered by plaster and decorated by colors. [D] That's awesome. [C] Amazing. The first part now of every complex of a spa. This opening in front of us, it was the gymnasium of the time where they did the rum or whistling a bit of sports before going in a spa. Please, let's go inside. Mind your step, watch your feet. I thought I knew what to expect when going into the spa. I thought it was be a hot water place, a cold water place, but I wasn't prepared for the brothel. First of all, the roof is not original. The roof has been redone by the archeologist with the same shape and the same stuff. So all the original roofs were done like this. What I mean with the wooden beams carved by terracotta tiles. Then you have to imagine the decoration all over 360 degrees. What I mean payments, walls, and also ceiling. The ceiling in some part is very well preserved, other part collapse at the time. But you have to imagine decoration and colors everywhere. We have original mosaic floor in all of the complexes of a spa. Why that? Beautiful decoration, not slippery with a wet feet. Beautiful and functional. For the Romans, everything is to be beautiful and functional, not just beautiful, just function, but both. We are talking about original colors, frescoes on walls of 2000s ago, and on your right, the reception of the time where they did a welcome to the complex of a spa. [D] So this is where you check in? [C] Yes.

Welcome. And then the colors after 2000 years look so new, so vivid for a special technique they use at the time. They prepare every walls with the three layers of a plaster, very thick layer of plaster. On the last layer of plaster, still fresh, they paint it. That's why fresco's painted on the fresh plaster. It absorbs all the colors and stays forever. I always do the example of a tattoo. When we do a tattoo, the colors goes through the seven layers of skin and stays forever. The same technique they use at the time. That's why you find all the walls carved with this very thick layer of plaster all over, just on the last layer of the colors. And the colors from all what they can find in the nature, the pigments of a flower, of a plant. [D] That looks like an angel. [C] A CUPID, yeah. [D] Oh, it's CUPID. [C] What is important to see over here in this first room? To the right, we have a door. Of course, it's not the original door of the time. Behind the door, we have the stairs leading up to the second stories. And we have many erratic paintings on the walls showing different positions of sex. Now, nothing to do with the modern pornography, but always don't avoid any misunderstanding between the travelers and the girls, speaking different languages. It was like a menu. Look at the numbers. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The numbers indicate the lockers where they put clothes, but also the position of a sex. Unfortunately, we miss the other speciality of the house. Number 13, 14, 15. Just your imagination. [D] Seeing this was pretty heartbreaking. There's the exploitation of people, many of them slaves by other people for sexual pleasure, financial gain. There's just a lot wrong here. And I think I would be naive if I just pretended like, Oh, the ancient world was the only place where this thing exists. There are probably more slaves on Earth today than in the ancient Roman Empire. That's just like raw numbers. That's just the way it is. And there are financial incentives today for people to be sexually exploited and trafficked. So I just thought about the total depravity of human nature and how it was just a very sad thing to see it all here. But there's something about seeing people being able to be ordered on a menu that really bothered me. As a Christian, in thinking about the context of Jesus entering into this society where the normalization of sexual exploitation was everywhere. It's very interesting, and it helps me understand how radical and dangerous the teachings of the young Christian church would have been in a location like this. Fascinating. A There's a lot of stuff to think about here. We looked around the rest of the spa, and I saw all kinds of interesting engineering things that went into how they made the floors warm and things like that. But as we exited the spa, I asked Ciro an interesting question, and he gave me a fascinating answer. When it was uncovered, initially, was it colorful? [C] Yes, it was more beautiful than now. Pompeii, first time, excaved it, there was something left intact. Colors everywhere, original mosaic flow, original statues all around. Then after the first excavation, during the years, the colors disappearing under the pollution, rain, sun. Then the Second World War. During the Second World War, more or less 160 bombs exploded in this archeological area, destroying much others. And then the pollution, and then we don't have a good technical preservation. That's why I'm totally agree with the archeologist to go very slow with the excavation. To preserve for the next generations. Otherwise, in a bit of time, we lose everything because the things today are better preserved underneath than outside. Pompeii today is still very unique in all over the world, but first time, excaved it may be more beautiful than now. At this point, we walked up towards the center of the city on the hill where Pompeii was built, and we got our bearings. Up here, you can see that Pompeii was built in an amazing location. We are on top of a hill in the middle of everything. We have all the Sorrento Peninsula on your left, the islands of Ischian cover in this direction behind by the wall, the Mediterranean Sea down there, which was once much closer. Nice breeze from the sea. Can you feel it? Yes. That's why locations, locations. But the Romans were the first to pave the roads all around. They did the 75,000 miles of highways all around. That's why the expression, All the roads lead to Rome. But they realized, very soon that on the same road is

to go the animals and the people. So now there was a problem because the animals left excrements on the floor and people used to walk on it. This was not really good. What the Romans invent for the people for the very first time are the sidewalks, left and right, everywhere. All along the sidewalk is the people, just the animals. The sidewalks. All right, Destin, but the problem is still on the floor. Pee-pee, poopoo, how to wash the roads. In all of the city, they got many water fountains always left open, cleaning and washing the roads every time. Fantastico, clever. Yeah. How to cross road avoiding wet feet? Look down there. The central stepping stones to cross the road, avoiding wet feet. That's amazing. Clever. Yes. But during the night, no illumination, no electricity. How to recognize the roads by the sidewalk? The small and white marble chips, the reflectors, the cat's eyes, to reflect either the moonlight or the torches light people normally got during the evenings. So smart. [D] So the white rock in the road. [C] We have the central stepping stones to cross road, avoiding wet feet. So you can avoid the poop. But the wagon wheels, is this the same gage as the wagon wheel? Yes. But the wagons, the chariots, how they were able to pass through. Now, first of all, they all got the same gage, so standard. Always pulled by two animals, usually two donkeys in a line with the two wheels. Imagine, one can wheel to the right, left, one wagon in this direction, another one to the other side. So two-way road. Whenever you find the three or four central stepping stones, it means two-way. But if you find one or two, it's one-way only. But once again, one-way, two-way, sidewalks, crosswalks. [D] One thing I find interesting about crosswalks in modern society is these white squares are like the raised stones in Pompeiii at pedestrian crossings, which I think is really cool. It makes me think about not stepping here from now on, but I think that's neat. Isn't that cool? Okay. Yeah. [C] The most funny picture to the in Pompeiii is crossing the roads like the Beatles. Every road. Then we have a Mt. Vesuvius in front of us. The volcano, before the eruption, was much higher and big than now. Can you see the right peak and the left one? Yes. With your imagination, put together high in the sky, it was one big cone. After the eruption 79, one part blew up. [D] Do we have any idea how tall it was? [C] More or less 2,000 meters high. Today is 1,281 meters high. [D] Wow. [C] It's still active. [D] It's ominous, isn't it? It feels like it's overbearing. [C] It looks very close from here. And still active, one of the most dangerous volcano in the world. That's why in a bit of time, when you go back home, in a bit of time staying home, you hear about another eruption Vesuvius. Please, thinking about me, you pray for me. [D] Absolutely. [C] Your guide for Cira. Now, we say 79 AD, the eruption Vesuvius. Pompeiii was destroyed by Pommie Stones and ash. Above the ash grew the vegetation. Everybody forgot about Pompeiii for 18 centuries because Pompeiii became a green hill. Now, who and how Pompeiii was founded? Now, Pompeiii was founded by the Spanish with an accident because during the 1748, during the first excavation, we were under the Spanish domination, and the Spanish were building in this area an aqueduct. Just in cutting the hill of Pompeiii, they found the remains of an ancient Roman town. So Pompeiii was founded by the Spanish with an accident after 18th century that it was frozen in a time. [D] So this is a mixture of terracotta brick and volcanic stone. [C] Yeah. Now, I tell you more about bricks. Obviously, you're very interesting. Now, the bricks are originals, but the bricks got a cost because they need to produce. In a way to save money during the constructions, they use bricks only in the corners. Look, all the corners made by bricks, the rest of the wall with the pua stones, local stones, having no cost, but then always carved by plaster, decorated by colors. It was once never possible to see how the buildings were made out of. Everything was under, covered by plaster, and they created- [T] To make it

very straight and just the- [C] Yes. [D] And then they just had volumetric fill in the middle, right? [C] All the corners made by bricks. Inside the wall, the rest of the wall, Puwa Stones, local stones, having no cost. East-west was the longest side of Pompeiii because having no electricity, the sunlight was important. Here, from the sunrise till to the sunset, they always got sunlight all along this side, east, west. Everything, once again, was like in a modern town. Look, sidewalks left and right, crosswalk in the middle, house and shops left and right, second store with balcony, terrace, colors everywhere, a large number of wagons. Look how deep are the tracks left by the wheels of the wagons. wagons were made by wooden all around an iron circle, no shock absorbers, very noisy, produce the tracks, the groups on a floor. Originals. [D] Wow. [C] They were very systematic people. Look, shop, house, shop, house, shop. The building is over. It's a block. Then start another block, shop, house, shop. Very systematic people. Okay, you're smart. Anydesk is free. That's the sponsor for this video. And so my first question is, if something's free, does that mean I'm the product? And the answer is not in this case, because AnyDesk knows they're so good at what they do that if you use it, you're going to love it and you're going to want to get a business account and use it at your employer, and your employer will then pay money to use AnyDesk, which means you get to use it for free, which is a big deal. I'm going to show you how I use AnyDesk to do remote control of my computer from a different location. That's what AnyDesk does, and let me show you how I do it. I am on the homestretch of writing an academic paper, which I've learned a lot about myself and that I'm not great at academic writing. But let me show you something I've used AnyDesk to do. So all of these represent different simulations that I've done as a part of something called smooth particle hydrodynamics. And this, for example, this one thing right here, this took, I'd say, two days to do. I had to set up the simulation, run the simulation, and I was running it all on my computer, and I didn't want to be chained to the computer while it was running. So what I can do is I can use any desk on my phone, and I can log in, and I can just see what is happening on the simulation on my phone, just like that. And that's how I did it. Here is a video of me on a train in England for an upcoming video that we're working on. And I just logged into my computer that was in Alabama. And I was like, Man, this is crazy. I'm on a train in England, but I'm logged into the computer in Alabama. Nuts. But another thing you can use it for is to move files around. They've got a built-in FTP system, so you can move files from one system to the other. It's all integrated, and it works seamlessly. Anydesk is awesome. You can try it. It's free. Anydesk. com/smarter. If you want to check it out, I think you will really enjoy it. Literally free. You get to use it. The business model here is they're like, well, if people want to use this for their job, the idea is you're going to use it, you're going to like it, and you're going to take it to your business and get an account there. Anydesk. Com/smarter. Big thanks to Anydesk, specifically Matt, for hooking me up with sponsorships here on Smarter Every Day. Let me do really cool stuff, giving me some of my life back, enabled me to go out and about while still getting the stuff done that I want to do. Yeah, that's it. [C] Now, over here, I'm able to show you one example of a water fountain. Now, the water fountains were made by four blocks of lava, like this one, two, three, and four, or four blocks of white marble like the next I'll show you later. Anyway, the four blocks used to be tied together by iron, solded in stones by lead. When the fountain was full-So this is lead? Yes. And this is iron? Was the iron poured in position or laid in? No, it was the iron, and then they put the lead to fix. I see. When the fountain was full, also animals were able to drink a clean water from the pool, like horses, cows, donkeys. But through the central opening that every fountains got, the water flowed out, slant the road, cleaning and washing the roads every time. [D] So it flow out right here? [C] Yes. [D] Does this represent this is for your animals? [C] Yeah, this one is a face of a bull. Now, because after the time, the roads got no name. Only the most important road, like in Rome, the Appia Way, by the roads in the middle of the province, the town, they got no name. That's why every water fountain got a different decoration. Here, for example, we had a fountain with a face of a bull, and probably you were able to find the fountain with a face of a horse, of a and so on, just to recognize into the city.

When they got some problem with the water, they start to close the water first in a spa, then in the houses at the end of the water fountains, where the fountains always left open. Then we have back to the road, like you can see over here, three or four central stepping stones to wait towards the main road. If you see on your left... [D] Which left? Sorry. [C] Over there. One or two is It's one way. [D] Yeah. [C] But unfortunately, we don't know which way. I don't know. [D] One way, straight. [C] But we have to go up there, please. [D] If I've learned anything about Italian roads, it's like you just make your own rules. [C] On the way up to this house, I'm able to show you original lead water pipes. They got lead water pipes everywhere under Side roads, sorry, under the sidewalks, under the roads, not visible. But the lead is poisoning. Yes, it is. But the water flow always along the pipes, leaves a layer of calcium all around, now protected the rest of the water. Let's say that they got drinkable water in all of the city. But in any case, we are talking about 2000s ago, at the time they used to die very young, 40, 45 years. And this is one of the reasons. The lead water pipes. Lead was poisoning. But the most impressive thing to me, in Italy, we never had lead. Romans went to conquer UK just for lead. [D] Really? Wow. [C] What I would love to understand, we are visiting the final result of all the knowledge that the Romans went to conquer all the other lands. Otherwise, it looks like the Italians were genial, the other folks were stupid. No. That's why I did the comparison with the Americans and the States of nowadays. Today in US, Italians, Jewish, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, working side by side and improving everything for the state. And here we are, 2000s ago, exactly the same. [D] See, what is this? Is this iron? What is this ring? [C] This one is iron, this one is lead, and this one is the calcium of water. Over there, I'm able to show you how two pipes used to be joined together. [D] Oh, gosh, I'm so excited. We still do the same after 2000 years. [D] They would wrap the lead around it? What happened? I don't understand. [C] Yeah. So how two pipes used to be joined together, sold it with lead. The Latin word for lead is plumbum, which is where we get plumbing, which is awesome. So I could make an entire video about the lead pipes used in ancient Rome because I've always been fascinated by it. In fact, I went to Bath, England, to the Roman Baths there. If you ever get a chance to do that, it's fascinating. They have a fantastic display there that explains how they make lead pipes. You can see they've got a big inget or a pig of lead here, like Ciro was saying. There's a lot more lead in the UK than there is down in Italy. And this display here teaches you how the pipes are made. They wrap it around a piece of wood, they crease it on one side, and they use some clay to stop up one side, and then they pour multon lead to seal that seam, which is fascinating. I could make an entire video about how the lead pipes work in ancient Rome, but let's just get back to Pompeii. That's beyond the scope of this video. solder it, yeah. [C] Iron. This one is the calciumal wood. [D] It looks like they held the pipe down. [C] Yeah, because the lead water pipes were always still. One with the T-connection is to bring water directly to the shops and the houses, and the other lead water pipe bring the water directly from one to the next water tanks, wasting no pressure. The lead water pipes were always still. [D] You know there's been a ton of scientific papers written on this. [C] Look, Destin, so we have other lead water pipes. Oh, yeah. But they go everywhere. The only thing that we can see today, only in a few parts of the city, not everywhere. [D] So would this have been... So this is the side of the road here. Would there have wood here? Or this is just dirt? [C] No, just a sidewalk, terracotta. I mean, maybe later I show you. But they go like sidewalks. [D] It's amazing. [C] You can see also here. Look. [D] Oh, wow. The junctions. [C] It's closed here. [D] Yeah, so nobody can damage it. [C] Yeah. Other.

You know what? [D] It's a really big pipe junction. [C] Yeah. They go up. You know why? [D] Why? Because-they go over the road. [C] Oh, no. On top of this pillar, this one, it was a pillar. On top of this pillar, they got an additional water tanks. [D] Wow. [C] Yes. [D] So local storage. [C] Because the water... I'll now explain you about the water system. The water was a spring water coming from the mountain, Avellino, Mount Serino, 40 miles far from here. They did an aqueduct made by arches, a bit slant, to let the water running from on top of the mountain till it reach the highest part of Pompeiii over there, where they built a huge water tank. You see the building full of bricks? It's the main huge water tank. The water for gravity, all along the lead water pipes used to flow in all of the shops and the houses. But there was a problem because the water lost the pressure. No pumps at the time, no engine. How to give water till to last shop, the last house in the city? They invented What we used to say the system of communicated the vases. They did the pillars all over the city like this one, on top of which an additional water tanks, which was smaller than the main one, but at the same height. And the lead water pipes were always still, like I told you before. So one with the thick connection used to bring water in all of the houses and the shops. The second lead water pipe used to bring water directly from one to the next water tanks, wasting no pressure. Try to do this experiment at home. If you go home, you put glasses of the same size. If you connect them, put water in the first glass, the water automatically goes in all of the others. That's what they invented 2000s ago without pumps, without engine. Impressive. And I'm able to show you so you can touch actually the original calcium of water on the pillar. This one is the original calcium of water of 2000s ago. [D] That's the Yeah. [C] Original calcium of water of 2000 years ago. [D] It's amazing. It's incredible. You like chemistry? Taking a picture? [C] Look, this is all the calcium. You see, these are all the pipes. [D] Yes. [C] Go to the next water tank. That's why you see the lead water pipes up. [D] Yeah, it's amazing. We're about to enter a famous house in Pompeiii known as the vetti house. It's the house of two brothers. They seem to be rich. Ciro is trying to explain to me what I'm going to see when I walk in the house, and I'm just not picking up what he's putting down. So he just comes out and says it, and I think you'll get an idea for what these people are like as soon as we walk in the door. At the very main entrance of the vetti house, V-E-T-T-I. It was the house of two Roman brothers. They were two very rich way merchants. I show this house, and all the houses are the same, what I mean the same layout, the sides and the decoration used to change between one house and the others. Now, at the very main entrance of this house, we have a God, the Priapus. Many times we found God, the Priapus in Pompeji. [D] Priapus? [C] Yes. [D] What is that word? [C] Priapo. And I show you. [D] Okay. [C] God, the Priapus, always showing his big penis, his big phallic symbol. [D] Oh, I see. [C] No, many, many times we found a phallic symbol. So many, many times, sorry, we found God, the priapus in Pompeiii, here is a very well preserved. Why got the priapus many times? Because the phallic symbol, it got different meanings, but one of the most important meaning, it was good luck, abundance, prosperity. Now, the owners of this house, they want to show the others that they were rich. So at the very main entrance, we have god the priapus with his big Feli symbol. He's, Okay, you are rich but not elegant at the very main entrance of the house. Please. [D] I see. So was he a Roman God? [C] Yes, it was the Roman God. There was the phallic symbol, symbol of abundance, prosperity, good luck, fertility. Now, the owners of this house were just rich but not elegant. They were new, were rich, a show off, new money. Now, they want to show the others that they were rich. Imagine that at the very main entrance of the house, we have found the two Bronze Money chest, two Bronze Money box, one to the left, one to the right.

Literally to show their money. Yeah. What? We have found the two name on it, Aulus Vettius Restitutus, Aulus Vettius Conviva, the name of the two Roman brothers. That's why Vetti house. Please, I'll show you. Let's go this way. The house of Vetti takes his name from the owners. Aulus Vettius Conviva, Aulus Vettius Restitutus. The two Roman brothers. [D] Brothers own the house together. [C] Yes. Two original Bronze Money chest. Bronze Money box. [D] They just had treasure chest just sitting out so everybody can see it. [C] In a way to show the house, the very main entrance of the house. [D] People don't change, do they? [C] No, no, no. Nothing changed. With the Romans, we are at the very beginning of our modern days. Nothing changed. Ciro showed us more of the Vedi house. We had a dining room and what's called the triclinium, where there would be three couches where people could lay down. We also saw the kitchen, and the bathroom seemed to be co-located. Ciro showed us the original water pipe that brought water into the kitchen. Then, of course, there was this. We have another room for sex with one, two, three frescoes on a wall showing this from position of sex. The one to the left, right, very well preserved. I suggest to have a picture First of all because this house reopened after 20 years, only a few months ago, but also because you can see the details. You can see how the bed were made at the time, the women already got their bra. [D] Is it possible that it was just the bedroom? [C] I think this one not. This one was a room for sex because I told you before, so they used to point in. I want this, I want this. Like a manual. [T] So it had holes for a second story in that. A little second story. [C] Probably where you used to stay other prostitutes or other slaves. Well, probably this The owners of this house were two very rich wine merchants, but they also owned prostitutes. Over there is to work slave prostitutes. Now, slave prostitutes used to work together with other girls in a small rooms, stone They got the pimp. They were interested to work hard in a good way because probably, tips by tips made by the Travis, they were able to buy the freedom. They're going to do the same job on their own. That is the difference. [D] I don't like the guys that own this house. [C] Come along. Now, this room, it was a bedroom. Here you have to imagine a bed. What is important to see, to understand is that 2000 years ago, they already knew the perspective and the optical illusion of depth, something which is a very modern fashion. The French people call it the Trompe l’oeil, the trick of the eyes. Giotto, Michelangelo, Donatello. They need to re-scarbed. It's something the Romans already knew at the time. But at the time, Pompeo was still carved, was still buried. In this room, not second stories, but they want to give you the illusion of the second stories. How? They There is this big cram molding running all around, sharing the lower part to the upper part. On the upper part, the prospective. So it looks like that we can walk on top of the stairs or we can enter in a wall. Oh, Yeah, you can see the perspective of the stairs really good, right? Yes, very good. There's this big crown molding running all around, sharing the lower part to the upper part. It looks like that we can walk on top of the stairs or we can enter in a wall. [D] Oh, yeah. You can see the perspective of the stairs really good, right? [C] Yes, very good. There is this big crown molding running all around, sharing the lower part to the upper part. Now, with the perspective, the rooms, the houses looks bigger than normal. [D] Oh, yeah. Look at this. We have those stairs going in from the right, and we have these left. [C] Now, the first part of every house or home is the eight room. We are in the eight room. The eight room, they got the bedrooms and cabinets to the right and to the left. They got the opening in the middle of the roof for the skylight. Since it used to rain through the opening, the square pull on the floor, collect the raining water through the hole, the raining water flow down to the road, cleaning and washing the roads every time. It's exactly the same for the slaves, just smaller. Here we have a beautiful picture that you can have for yourself. So this a CUPID on a cancer. When you go home, you can print, you can put on your house. It's one of the best, maybe the best souvenir that you can have from Pompeiii, from this house too. And I show you also a picture to send to your friends.

This one is for yourself. This one is a picture to send to your friends. They will love it. Oh, goodness. [D] What did you think about the statue of Priapas? [T] I don't remember it. [D] It was the big wiener guy. [T] I obviously didn't think much of it. I don't remember it. [D] That's funny. [C] Here we have Urania. Urania was the goddess of the universe showing the world. This one is the second time that we can see the world. So 2000s ago, they knew that the world was a globe. Now is the time to show you a bakery. [D] Okay. [C] Not a simple one. What I mean the best preserved in all of the city. We have founded the 37 bakeries all around. Yeah, please. [T] I wonder how many brothels. [D] Who knows? [C] We are in what I consider the best preserved. Look at the mills. The mills were made by two lava stones. We have a conical block of lava, this one fixed on the floor, on top of which a bical block of lava. They put the grain from the top and they got a wooden pole in one hole, another one to the other side, and the upper stone used to be turned around by slaves or animals, usually donkeys. From And on the bottom came the flour. All around, a wooden collect where the flour was collected. All along this side, you have to imagine a table with the four or five slaves used to work and produce loaves of bread. And then, hard to believe, the oven, which is just the same we still use today in a typical Italian pizzeria. Nothing has really changed. The same arch, the same quality of bricks, the small wooden storage, and the dome inside. [D] The dome inside? [C] Yeah. My dear, if after 2000 years, not 200, but 2000, we did not invent it anything better than this, is because the taste of the food cooked in an oven like this always got a special taste, a smoked taste. We invented other kinds of ovens, like the electric one. But the same pizza, cooked in an oven like this is the original pizza. Cooked in electric ovens is no more a pizza. We call the focaccia, not pizza anymore. But joking apart, in this oven, they found the three pieces of bread inside, so black carbon inside. It means at the moment of the eruption, they were working over here. When suddenly the eruption was there, they ran away, they left the job undone. But we understand that the eruption was during the day and not during the night because they were working. [D] Wow. I've never seen a mill like this. Yeah. This iron. [C] Yeah, they're Italian. [D] It's got the lead on there like the others. [C] Yeah, look at that. In here, there's also a picture of the mill. That's good. The wooden poles. [D] I have never seen. Is it a concrete mill? [C] Pardon? [D] Is it made of concrete or lava stone? [C] Lava stone. Concrete block of lava. They got lava stone from a previous eruption. [D] Yeah, it's amazing. I have never seen a mill design, like a double cone mill. We've seen the rolling stone mill, right? We've seen the mill stone that's a horizontal disk, but a double cone. I wonder if that's more efficient. [T] Well, it would have to because it's funneling down, only a small amount can enter at the same time instead of a large amount. Then it would spread it bottom to be able to drive it. Does that make sense? [D] It does. [C] All right. Now, with yours, would What do you think is this room? [D] Is this what I think it is? [T] I would have thought bathroom. [D] Well, I think I've read about this. Is this a fast-food joint? [C] Yes. This is the best example of what I call the wine bar and fast-food. Yeah? Wine bar and fast food because in these terracotta jars closing in a wall was possible to keep either cool wine or warm food. They used to work like the thermos of today, inside which if you put something cold, stays cold, something warm, stays warm. I call wine bar and fast food, but the Latin word is a thermapoleum, a thermos, because it has to work like the thermos of today. Imagine one side, a buffet, vegetable soup, fish, meat, chicken, wherever. They got the leads on top made by wooden, one side of buffet to the other side of wine bar. That's because I told you this terracotta jar was possible to keep either cool wine or warm food. [D] Something about seeing how normal people probably ate lunch on the streets

of the Roman Empire was fascinating to me, and it made me want to connect more with the everyday things that they did. Now, a lot of the artifacts they found at Pompeiii were not locally on site. Somewhere, I'll show you later, but many of the artifacts found in Pompeiii and Hercuelenium were taken to the National Archeological Museum in Naples. Tara and I had a few minutes to speedrun that museum, and we saw all kinds of fascinating things. We saw ancient Roman glass. We saw lamps that they would use to light their houses. We saw art, paintings that looked like menus. We saw mosaics. One thing I thought was really interesting are these little idles, these little statues, some of which were terracotta, some were bronze. I find these statues to be fascinating because I've read about them. In Acts 19, it's talking about the disturbance that's come up into the Roman Empire because this new thing called Christianity, or it's referred to here as the Way, it's disturbing the sexual ethics and the market forces of the day. Here you can see, Acts 19: 23, About that time, there rose no little disturbance concerning the Way. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artem, brought no little business to the craftsmen. So Demetrius made stuff like this: Spoons, saucers, plates, silver, right? But Demetrius also made things like this: little bitty idles to certain gods, but he made them out of silver. And it's fascinating because Demetrius recognized if these gods are no longer assigned the deity that the culture assigned them, then their value goes to zero, except for the weight of the silver, right? So he riled people up and got them really angry at these new group of people, these Christians or the way. And I just think it's fascinating. We're reading context about people that made things like this, like this Silver Paper Shaker. This person cared about the affairs of the finances of the Roman Empire. Christianity was subversive and dangerous to the political and financial forces of the day. It just made things really real to me in a way that I hadn't thought about before. Also, I thought their keys were really cool. It's just really cool to look at the keys. I don't know why. Oh, my goodness. Look at these keys, Tara. That is amazing. So let's go back to the streets of Pompeiii. And fair warning, the next thing we're about to see is pretty somber. We're not going to see the actual bodies of the people that were buried in ash. We're going to see plaster cast of the voids where the bodies were. So this is pretty heavy stuff. [C] Hello, my dears. Now, how they did the plaster cast? Imagine, during the excavations, the archeologist felt under the volcanic ash empty spaces left by the decompositions of the bodies. What to do? They simply did injections of the liquid plaster in these empty spaces. Liquid plaster took the shape of the previous bodies. When it dried up, the archeologist cleaned all the ash away and appeared the bodies in same positions the people were when they died. It means the original bonds, scelodons, is still in there. The plaster cast are so important for three reason. We can You see the original shape of the bodies, the original bones, skeleton, is still in there, and last moment of life, people died in these positions, like you can see. The first reason people died was a Asphyxiation, suffocated by gas. They were not able to breathe, and then buried. This guy in the middle is not praying, but he's got part of his clothes near the mouth and the nose. So first that is specific and then buried. Looking at the cars, they were not very tall. They were short, tiny people. All right? Take your time for pictures. [D] That's pretty solemn, isn't it? [T] How many people died? Do they know? [C] No, it's difficult to say how many people died, how many people escape. At the same time, it's made difficult to see how many people used to live in a house, how many slaves they got. But I would love to show you also other bodies. Maybe more beautiful than this because other bodies are without a glass on it. [T] Okay. [C] Yes. You can see very close. Of course, we are not able to touch. [D] There's also a museum on site, and we went in and saw what was possibly a family of four discovered together.

[C] Look, Destin. Here, we are able to see the original skull of the baby. [D] Oh, that's awful. It's very interesting, though. [C] The original skull. Also some clothes. [D] It's a violent moment. What did you think about seeing the bodies of the people, the plaster cast the bodies. [T] I mean it made it real, right? It made it very real to see. [D] Families. [T] Families. [D] Yeah, it was heavy. [T] And the protection, the way that they... The way that they lived out the very end, right? [D] Yeah. It's bizarre to think that those plaster cast were actual people. And there's something very odd about being right next to a person's final moments. It doesn't feel sacrilegious, or I don't... What's the word? It's heavy. It's just a very... It's a very heavy thing. It made the Roman Empire come alive to me in a way that nothing else ever has. I had this image in my head of what Rome was, and I walked away from Pompeii thinking something very, very different about Rome. I thought slavery was a really big part of this. They were out in the open with a lot of the sexual stuff. It was just a vile time. [T] That's so funny because I didn't walk away feel... That's not how I left it. I left it seeing how storefronts were set up and the logistics of running a house worked and how things were built in a way for function without what we have today. So I think I took a little bit different. [D] I guess being in the physical space, you felt like you were on the streets and you got to experience it in a different way. Tara and I really enjoyed our time with Ciro. He was super professional, very patient with us, taught us so much through stories. And when we saw this model at the National Museum in Naples, it made us realize that we had only scratched the surface because the site is huge. There's an amphitheater, another brothel, the Temple of Issus. There was so much more that Ciro wanted to show us, but because we had to catch a train, we had to cut it short. Ciro, thank you. So let's just end it here. If people want to get a private tour with you, you have other things you didn't show us, of course. [C] Yeah, definitely. The area is very big. How do they get in touch with you? You can go on website and contact Pompeiiitourguide. com this is our website, me and my dad. [D] Sounds great. You're fourth generation, right? [C] Yes. [D] Thank you so much. [C] Thank you so much to you. It was a pleasure to meet you. [D] Okay, I hope you enjoyed this episode of Smarter Every Day. And I hope that when you think of the ancient Roman Empire, this video has made you look at it a little bit differently. It certainly did me. And I'm grateful that I was able to do this with my wife. It was a fascinating experience. I think we grew as a couple and as people experiencing this together. And so I'm grateful that you let me do this. So big thanks to everybody that supports Smarter Every Day at Patreon. com/smartereveryday. I'm grateful for your support. It's changed my life, and I hope that I continue to earn your support by doing this stuff. So that's it. I'm Destin. You're getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one. Bye.