Hey there! Welcome to Life Noggin. After we got back from Ancient Egypt, a lot
you asked if we could travel to the ancient Roman Empire next. Well, you’ve asked, and we’ve delivered! So just how hard would it have been for you
to survive during the Roman Empire? Well that depends a lot on exactly when you
were talking about, and where you found yourself in society, but in general, the Roman Empire
marked a period of a great highs and lows. For instance, the Romans were able to build
great systems of roads and highways that were critical to their advanced, interconnected
society. Life was able to flourish as both people and
information could more easily travel amongst the empire... but then again, so could plagues
and diseases. As they built around swamps, malaria became
a bigger problem. Other things like tuberculosis and leprosy
were also an issue with how easy it was to not only move about the land, but the sea
as well. The Roman Empire was also hit with multiple
pandemics. One of the first that really rocked the empire
was the Antonine Plague, which was estimated to have a death toll in the millions and thought
to have something to do with smallpox. Rome was able to somewhat recover, but they
lacked the dominance they had before, especially since the Plague of Cyprian came relatively
soon after. While its origins are unknown, the pandemic
ravaged the population and pushed the empire beyond its breaking point. It changed the way it operated until a severe
bout of bubonic plague hit, essentially dealing the final blow to the empire. However, if you were able to avoid the dangers
and stay alive, there was quite a good bit of advancements during the reign of the Roman
Empire. All of their architectural innovation allowed
the Romans to become early adopters of sewers and plumbing systems that would actually carry
human waste away from their homes, so they had some degree of sanitation. Not as good as when you do your business today,
but hey, it’s better than nothing! They still didn’t have toilet paper, though. Wait… What am I suppose… I’m supposed to do what with this? They also had rather advanced medical practices
and knowledge for the times, and a lot of this started on the battlefield. To help keep their soldiers as fighting-ready
as possible, the Romans created dedicated field surgical teams. These battlefield medics used a variety of
instruments, like hemostatic tourniquets and arterial surgical clamps to curb blood loss,
all while making sure to try and disinfect their tools in hot water before use. With all of this, it’s been speculated that
even though they had to face the hazards of combat, Roman soldiers tended to live longer
than the average citizen because of how good Roman military medicine was. It doesn’t look like the same could be said
for gladiators, though. Even though historians speculate that gladiator
matches weren’t always the “to the death” bloodbaths that movies usually depict them
as, they were still very dangerous and it’s thought that most gladiators only lived to
around their mid-20s. So yeah, a lot of ups and downs. Do you think you could survive back in the
Roman Empire? Let me know if the comment section below,
or tell me where should we travel to next? Your suggestion could become a future episode
of Deblocked! Curious to know if you could survive in Ancient
Egypt? Check out this video! There were a bunch of diseases and other dangers
that people had to deal with. Oddly enough, many of those dangers came from
something that, in a lot of ways, allowed life to flourish. As always my name is Blocko! This has been Life Noggin! Don’t forget to keep on thinking.
