Our knowledge of the ancient civilizations of Rome and Greece is usually limited to half-forgotten school curriculum or popular TV shows. But it happens that their creators do not bother to check the facts or simply distort them for the sake of entertainment - it is as if future generations would judge our era from comics and superhero films. Before you - 5 ridiculous myths about ancient civilizations, in which many believe …
The Romans were white-faced Europeans
If you are asked to imagine a typical Roman, the result would be something like this: a white broad-shouldered European-style man wearing a helmet with a bun of red hair and wearing a toga - this is how they are portrayed in modern fiction (sometimes documentary) films.
If you pay attention to the territory occupied by the Roman Empire on the map of the Ancient World, it turns out that the appearance of most of the ancient inhabitants, most likely, was quite far from the "average European". The peoples of North Africa and Western Asia, Jews, Greeks, the Romans themselves and other, smaller tribes and cultures, "cooked" in a giant ethnic cauldron.
At the same time, the invaders-Romans almost never insisted on the renunciation of the defeated peoples from their customs, religions and languages. The tolerance of the inhabitants of the empire is also indicated by the fact that at least two of their rulers were from North Africa - Lucius Septimius Sever (born in Leptis Magna on the territory of modern Libya, emperor from 193 to 211 A. D..) and Mark Oppelius Macrinus (originally from Caesarea of Mauritania, now the city of Cherchel, Algeria; reigned from 217 to 218 AD).
The empire pursued a flexible policy towards all these numerous Celts, Jews, Moors and Gauls - the main thing is that they regularly pay taxes, comply with Roman laws and serve in the Roman army: the capital had neither volunteers nor financial means to develop and settle the annexed lands …
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Now there is no data on the exact ethnographic composition of the Roman Empire, but given the developed contacts with Africa and the Middle East, it can be assumed that it was very colorful.
Crazy orgies and debauchery
It seems to many that in ancient Rome the inhabitants constantly whiled away the time between military campaigns and unbridled festivities, during which mad orgies took place. However, the insatiable love of the Romans for such "outdoor activities" is greatly exaggerated.
We learn about what happened at the celebrations, as a rule, from rumors that we went among ordinary townspeople who were not admitted to the "sacrament", and later retellings heard from the alleged "participants".
Most of the poor inhabitants of Rome were extremely chaste in their intimate life, having sex exclusively at night or in complete darkness, almost without undressing. Of course, the nobility sometimes indulged in passion right in front of the servants, but only because they considered the plebeians to be something like furniture.
Who needed to stir up rumors of widespread sexual promiscuity? It's simple - for the early Christians: the adherents of the new faith needed to create an image of a totally depraved and thoroughly rotten Roman society, and the first writers in the recordings zealously fantasized about the topic "Look what they are doing!"
Christianity started talking about highly spiritual virtues and morality: the preachers called for renouncing depraved pagan rituals and taking care, first of all, of the immortal soul, and therefore they branded all Romans indiscriminately with shame.
Early Christians at the Colosseum were fed wild animals
There is a widespread belief that the upper class of Roman society regularly staged bloody performances, driving members of objectionable religious cults into the arena of the main amphitheater, where hungry tigers and lions dealt with them.
No matter how terrible such information is, there is not a single documented confirmation of it: for example, during the persecution of the ancient Christians by Nero, the Colosseum was not yet built, and after the completion of work on its construction (80 AD, the reign of the emperor Titus), the policy of religious oppression ceased, giving way to the tolerance of the authorities in this regard.
But what about the images of martyrs tormented by predators for the amusement of a raging crowd? These convincing "horror stories" were invented again by many authors of Christian chronicles and canonical texts.
In the second century, stories of heroic martyrs of the faith gained wide popularity, whom the heartless Caesars threw to be devoured by lions and tortured in every possible way to force them to renounce Jesus Christ - the growing new religion needed role models, saints and righteous. Due to the lack of such spiritual guidelines, the preachers began to "invent" them: since the 18th century, the popes regularly spoke about the Colosseum's timelessness, since it was sprinkled with the blood of the great martyrs. Well, be that as it may, this monument of architectural heritage still stands today.
Ancient Olympics were fair
As you know, now the Olympic Games are a gigantic, complexly organized event, where there is enough space for advertising, bureaucracy, corruption and other phenomena that do not fit well with the competitive spirit of the ancient Olympians, but two thousand years ago everything was fair and fair.
If! Deception, bribery and numerous scandals have accompanied the Olympics from the very beginning. In addition, the athletes fought by no means, not for an idea - Olympic glory almost always turned out to be a hard coin for them: large monetary incentives, free lifelong meals and paid demonstration performances were commonplace. The "stars" of ancient sports could receive amounts in a day comparable to the annual salary of an ordinary soldier.
The idea of using various doping is also not new: since ancient times, competitors have tried to get at least a slight advantage using all kinds of spells, oils, herbs, potions and even alcoholic beverages. Since the punishments for disclosing unfair play were very cruel (from flogging to execution - this is not a modern life-long disqualification for you), the participants did their best to cover their tracks: neither judges nor rivals disdained bribery.
The cities did not fight to host the games - their center has always been Olympia, which during sports events was dominated by tens of thousands of spectators, athletes, merchants, speculators and adventurers, which, in general, resembles the current state of affairs.
Ancient Greece was the focus of all world science
Ancient Rome is almost always portrayed as one big evil institution, where debauchery and satiety reigned. Ancient Greece is another matter, many people think that at any moment, going out into the street, one could meet Aristotle, Plato, Diogenes or some other great thinker - indeed, that era now seems to be the Golden Age.
But let's not forget that Ancient Greece was not even a country in the full sense of the word: it was many (more than 1,000) city-states gnawing among themselves, each of which imagined itself to be independent. Each region had its own laws, government, beliefs and customs, no one considered himself Greek - all were patriots of their cities, and some of the best scientists fell victim to these endless small feuds.
In addition, with all the correct ideas about freedom and democracy, the Greeks were slave owners, which did not bother any of them at all: there were many cases of enslavement by the Spartans, for example, residents of other, less protected regions of Greece, and philosophers preferred to remain silent.
Most of the slaves were in "democratic" Athens, where the "rule of the people" lasted, by the way, for a total of less than 200 years: each new city ruler strove to gain sole power as soon as possible and to remove society from control at any cost.
Progressive scientific views were not popular with the Greeks - less than 5% of the total population knew literacy, and constant conflicts did not contribute to the spread of knowledge. Most of the Hellenes were shepherds and farmers who did not leave their cities, they were not interested in theater, literature and high matters - there were too many other pressing problems.