Roman Emperors - Political Science Theme

Andi 0:01

That's one of my favorite things ever. If you ever think that you are a failure in life, just remember that you've never declared war against the ocean He's like, Hey,

Sups 0:11

Hey, me,

Tanner 0:11

Yeah.

Andi 0:13

Wow.

Tanner 0:14

He loved this horse,

Sups 0:16

Dang.

Andi 0:16

Yes. By some stories. He really loved it.

Tanner 0:21

lies and untruths

Andi 0:24

of layered just on top each other. And then you're here with the most recent one lying.

Tanner 0:29

Yes.

Andi 0:31

Hello and welcome to this episode of the ihad Have Known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted. Each week, our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on a topic, but one of those facts is a lie, and we are doing political science this month. And today our quizmaster is Tanner.

Tanner 0:47

Hello?

Andi 0:48

he is going to be giving us four facts on Roman emperors. But one of his facts remember is not true. So join me, Andy, and our other host's soups in trying to figure out which one of his facts is a lie.

Tanner 1:00

yes. Everyone put on your toga. We're going back

Andi 1:03

I'm not allowed to wear a toga.

Tanner 1:04

Well, I don't know what you would wear.

Andi 1:06

Why you didn't look up what women would wear. No

Tanner 1:08

this is emperors. They're all

Andi 1:10

I can't be a member of the Senate.

Tanner 1:12

we'll talk about who was allowed in the Senate

Andi 1:14

Horses. Horses, but not

Tanner 1:16

wait for that

Andi 1:17

fact.

Tanner 1:18

All right. Let's begin with uh leader. Everyone knows low hanging fruit. Who was the last Roman dictator before the emperors? So he wasn't an emperor himself, but he's probably the most famous Roman

Sups 1:32

Caesar.

Andi 1:32

Yeah Julius

Tanner 1:34

Julius Caesar, Gaas, Julius

Andi 1:36

made made his nephew. His air. Mm-hmm. And then he was the first Emperor Cesar Augustus.

Tanner 1:42

then begins the Roman Empire. So we move from a Roman Republic with senators and a console into those being mostly honorary roles and the emperor running everything.

Andi 1:54

and it was messy. It gets real messy. You think the British prime ministership is messy? Yeah. Wait till you hear about Roman

Tanner 2:03

Yeah, there's a year of the four emperors. There's a year of the five emperors, So let's start with fact number one. Okay. the month of sex DUIs was renamed August for Caesar Augustus the first Emperor,

Andi 2:20

Tell me more.

Tanner 2:21

So the Roman Senate, they voted to rename one month as July for Julius Caesar, and then in eight BC they renamed sexist after nephew, Caesar Augustus. They named it August.

Andi 2:36

Which is silly cuz that's not his name. No, that was just his like, an adjective. Yeah, that's a descriptor. Exactly. His name's like Octavian or

Tanner 2:44

Yeah. So he was born Gaius Octavius thoroughness. So

Andi 2:48

so good at this

Tanner 2:52

I'm just gonna have you guess all the emperor's names.

Andi 2:55

uh

Tanner 2:55

uh he became known as Octav. Or Gaius, Julius Caesar s and the Senate declared him a Augustus. So they didn't actually call him emperor, they called him the revered one.

Andi 3:07

Wasn't he a god

Tanner 3:08

He did Dify himself. Yeah They first, he he wasn't so bad.

Andi 3:16

also wasn't he like

Tanner 3:17

Yeah He was

Sups 3:18

he was very, very young.

Tanner 3:19

First they deified his uncle Julius Caesar, and then he called himself the son of a God, cuz he was adopted by his uncle.

Andi 3:26

He's like, Hey,

Sups 3:27

Hey, me,

Tanner 3:28

Yeah. So he reigned from 27 BCE to 14 ce, so right around the turn of the millennium.

Sups 3:36

Mm. How many years is that?

Tanner 3:38

Uh,

Andi 3:39

plus 14

Tanner 3:40

Yep. 41. 40 ish

Sups 3:44

Yeah. Okay That's a long time for an em Roman Emperor.

Andi 3:47

for a Roman emperor especially.

Tanner 3:49

Yeah. And part of that is because he brought in what he called a peaceful time Pax Roman. When, the Roman Empire wasn't really at war with.

Sups 3:58

Okay?

Andi 3:58

That's interesting cuz I feel like nowadays people consider war as like a unifying thing. It's good for a president in the US for example.

Tanner 4:05

Yeah.

Sups 4:06

So that period was really peaceful. Yeah. Oh, define peaceful.

Tanner 4:10

I mean, they had wars. They took a lot of territory. They killed a lot of

Sups 4:14

people. Right. That's why I said define

Tanner 4:16

people. But

Andi 4:18

peaceful for Romans is a very different bar than most

Tanner 4:21

This is also from his point of view, he called it peaceful. right?

Andi 4:25

Well, yeah. Cause no one was murdering him. Yeah. Okay. So back to the month

Tanner 4:29

Yeah,

Andi 4:30

this seems too obvious. I feel like most people know that July and August are named after Julia Caesar and Caesar Augustus. Right. So I guess the real question is, What number is August? Cuz August is the eighth month, but Sexist means sixth, right?

Tanner 4:48

Yes.

Sups 4:48

Mm-hmm. Mats and politics together. Ooh,

Andi 4:51

that would make sense. August comes before September. which means seven, even though it's the ninth month.

Tanner 4:59

Yep.

Andi 4:59

So I guess the real debate here is, is that the right month to replace? Because they all are like two behind, cuz it's like October means eighth month. Mm-hmm. But it's the 10th month. Yeah. And whatever. It's not a mess at

Tanner 5:12

Yeah,

Sups 5:13

No

Andi 5:13

At least it's Still easier than the Polish months. So I think maybe that's the trick,

Sups 5:18

mm. yeah, I, I, I follow, I follow your logic here. Yeah. Makes sense. because if not August, what other month? because that's the other thing. Right, because they did name a month

Andi 5:30

after Yeah. Right.

Sups 5:31

And we know July is for. Another person.

Andi 5:35

Yeah. Right. right.

Sups 5:36

So what other month could it be?

Andi 5:38

Yeah. Right, Exactly. So I think that it's what month was replaced, right? I feel good about this one. Yeah. But I mean, We'll, to come back to it. Yeah. And here are the other

Tanner 5:46

but Okay. fact number two. The third Roman Emperor Caligula inducted his horse as a senator and planned to make him

Andi 5:55

Yes, yes. ULAs One of my favorites. Was horse's

Tanner 6:00

His horse's name was Intas means swift,

Sups 6:05

Is this a white horse?

Tanner 6:07

I think it was a white horse. Yeah. That's how it's depicted. Mm-hmm.

Andi 6:10

Imagine all of the things of history that we don't know, but we know what color Colus horse

Sups 6:17

Yeah. And

Tanner 6:17

that's important.

Sups 6:18

Yeah. Right?

Andi 6:19

Yeah. Like what, Cula is the best and the worst.

Sups 6:23

How many years did he rule?

Tanner 6:24

not very long. He was Roman emperor from 37 to 41.

Sups 6:28

Okay.

Andi 6:29

he did not last very long.

Tanner 6:30

also at the time, It was not really a crime to write whatever you wanted about someone. Okay. So there was propaganda, there was slander. finding facts about polyA is very hard. Right.

Andi 6:42

probably more like verifying facts about him is hard because you could write whatever and they love to make fun of him and Yeah. I mean, also, like, how do you make up a bunch of dudes slashing at the ocean?

Tanner 6:54

Caligula declaring war on Neptune and the ocean so the story goes, he was trying to lead a campaign to Britain and he made it to the shore of ga. and then he realized it wasn't gonna go his way, but he couldn't return to Rome without a victory. So at the shore, he. I declare war on the ocean and whip the ocean and stab the ocean, and then collect the seashells as our bounty for the defeated sea.

Sups 7:20

That's actually like if you wanna do wars, I support this war. Yeah. Yeah. I support this war. Yeah, Go collect sea seashells, sheds.

Andi 7:31

sea. Caesar soldiers see seashells. That's one of my favorite things ever. If you ever think that you are a failure in life, just remember that you've never declared war against the ocean and then ordered soldiers to fight the ocean. It,

Tanner 7:45

Yeah.

Andi 7:46

That's amazing.

Sups 7:47

Yeah.

Andi 7:47

Okay. that And also it makes more sense if you're like, This guy's a God. He's just a clearing war on another God. That's what God's do.

Tanner 7:55

You know he called himself Jupiter cuz he's like, Worship me, I'm a God. He was very different from his like great grand Uncle Augustus,

Andi 8:04

Yeah, He was here for it. Yeah. He was like, I love this. Yeah. Also, he was a baby. too. young. Yeah. and, And honestly, like, they're also inbred and like you can almost take a kind of a sympathetic view of that. Like, this is a kid emperor. You know, like how else was he gonna, act?

Sups 8:20

He didn't know any better,

Tanner 8:21

Right. early in his life, he had a really bad illness. And some people say that that may have changed his way of thinking and kind of made him psychotic he probably had epilepsy. He probably had some illnesses that may have caused this way of thinking,

Andi 8:35

yeah.

Tanner 8:36

his real name was Gaius Caesar Germanics. Caesar.

Andi 8:40

Yeah. Yes.

Tanner 8:40

He much prefer Jupiter as a name.

Sups 8:43

Oh, that's a nice

Tanner 8:44

Yeah

Andi 8:44

but this has been a lot of distraction. Tanner from the horse. Yeah. What was his name Intas.

Tanner 8:51

he had a stable of marble. Okay. A man of ivory, purple blankets. And he was fed oats with gold flakes.

Sups 9:00

me.

Andi 9:00

Wow.

Tanner 9:01

He loved this horse,

Sups 9:03

Dang.

Andi 9:03

Yes. By some stories. He really loved it. So I've heard this story. mm-hmm. I guess the question here is, is it real? Did he really try to get him to be the consult? That's funny. It also would make sense too if like, this guy thought he was a God, and Ultimately he could have just been making a statement saying, You guys are useless. Right. You'd have no real power. I'm gonna make my horse your leader. Mm-hmm. So like, I think people spin it as being like a crazy person thing, but it also kind of seems like a boss move. I like imagine the horse just in like the, the senate chambers, you know, being like, you're nothing.

Sups 9:38

and to us, it might sound ridiculous now, but I think context is very important. Like think about the amount of stuff that happened during the Roman Empire, making a horse part of the Senate or the concert doesn't seem that

Andi 9:50

crazy

Sups 9:51

to me. Like, Okay. Totally normal thing to do, like, Yeah,

Andi 9:55

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. People who like literally just send people to die in front of mass audiences. And whose favorite execution was crucifixion? The horse is pretty tame. Yeah? Yeah. But no women.

Sups 10:09

no women. No women. No.

Andi 10:10

woman. Never. a woman.

Tanner 10:12

Yeah. But we move on Fact number three. Emperor Trajan expanded the Roman Empire to its largest reaches from England to Babylon.

Andi 10:23

boy. Okay, sure.

Tanner 10:25

So Trajan was the 13th emperor, second of the five. Good emperors

Andi 10:30

as the Bone probably should be called The Five Least Bad

Tanner 10:35

Yes. He was born Marcus Opus Tris, but he became known as Caesar Dwi Nawe. Phil Ne Optimus Aus,

Andi 10:47

Great.

Tanner 10:48

the longest name of any Caesar. He was also the first non Italian emper.

Andi 10:53

Oh, fun fact. Where was he from? Oh, but he was just born there. But he was ethnically Italian.

Tanner 11:01

yeah, His ancestors came from Rome

Sups 11:03

Okay.

Andi 11:04

But he wasn't born and raised in Rome, is the

Tanner 11:06

exactly. So Trajan took over after his adoptive father Neva in 98 ce. He stopped raining in 117 ce.

Andi 11:17

Okay.

Sups 11:18

Okay.

Andi 11:18

not super

Sups 11:19

No, but still decent.

Andi 11:21

Yeah, yeah,

Tanner 11:21

so he expanded the Roman Empire to its biggest, reaches 5 million square kilometers, which included between a sixth and a fourth of the world's population.

Sups 11:31

Hmm.

Andi 11:31

Hmm. Wow. That's a lot.

Tanner 11:33

from England in the Northwest, including the low countries in Europe, all the way to the Black Sea, and then down to Babylon, and then west to Egypt and North Africa. It's completely encircled the Mediterranean. And then from that point on from 117 afterwards, it always got smaller.

Sups 11:51

Right. Okay.

Andi 11:53

Okay.

Sups 11:55

Interesting.

Andi 11:55

Yeah. Right. Like I'll buy it for a second. then that means that it was not bigger. Can you think of any other holdings that maybe they had earlier or that we should know? Oh, they went. Wherever.

Sups 12:08

or it's that. It's not him, it's somebody

Andi 12:10

else. Yes. That's the other one I was thinking about. So when you talk about England, famously the Romans did not take Scotland. No. And there's a whole wall dedicated to someone else So maybe that's the rub Yeah,

Sups 12:26

what I'm thinking. I've heard of this name. I'm not a hundred percent convinced that this is the Imper, which held the largest. Territory. I think it's with someone else.

Andi 12:35

Yeah, But if it

Sups 12:37

someone else

Andi 12:38

who Exactly. He must think we would know it. So maybe it's because of Hadrian's Wall, that's like a thing. or maybe it's just literally like Julius Caesar or Caesar Augustus that's why they're so important. Not just because they're first and like what other holdings could you think of that the Romans had that would Maybe be further.

Sups 12:57

Yeah. it's tough. This one's a

Andi 13:00

It's tricky. But this one is a puzzler. I have to hear the

Tanner 13:05

Okay. So after Trajan, he adopts his cousin as his heir by the name of Hadrian, and he becomes the next emperor. So fact number four, Emperor Hadrian. Spent more time traveling outside Rome, then ruling in Rome.

Sups 13:20

becomes,

Andi 13:20

Hmm. Okay.

Tanner 13:22

So the 14th Emperor from 117 until 138

Andi 13:27

So here's the wall guy. Yeah. What did Haden lose? That made it smaller.

Tanner 13:31

he went to all the borders. Yeah,

Andi 13:33

Yeah. that

Tanner 13:34

Trajan expanded and he's like, Oh, these are a mess. We need to fix these. And he gave back a lot of land. So he gave back the kingdom of Armenia and Mesopotamia. because he's like, We can't hold this. we need to secure our borders. We need to build this 80 mile long wall sea to sea because we need to keep out the barbarians of the north. And so he went around to all the borders and spent over half of his 21 year rain traveling because he liked to travel and also he needed to secure these borders.

Andi 14:05

did that go super well in Rome, because I feel like that wouldn't go super. He was like, You're giving land back and you're not here. So who's actually in Rome doing

Tanner 14:14

Surprisingly, they didn't have like a civil war or

Sups 14:16

in

Andi 14:16

during Right. That that would've been an obvious place for somebody to be like, This guy's gone. I'm emperor

Tanner 14:22

now. Daddy

Andi 14:27

no Emperor Daddy

Tanner 14:28

Yes. You could translate it that way. Yes.

Andi 14:31

You know, I'm going to.

Tanner 14:32

Emperor daddy. he was the restless emperor and he went around, he traveled with his wife and his staff of over 5,000 people. And so a lot of these people who probably would've taken.

Sups 14:44

probably mm-hmm.

Andi 14:44

were with him hanging out. And none of them were like, I'm your daddy now.

Sups 14:49

No.

Tanner 14:49

liked what he was doing. Even though he's giving back land, it's better than going to war with them.

Andi 14:54

Weird.

Tanner 14:55

their thinking.

Sups 14:56

so he was like the first backpacker.

Tanner 14:58

Yeah.

Andi 14:59

Weird. I mean, I find that unbelievable. Yeah. That he was just chilling in Rome. I. Maybe somebody else was doing it and that he was in Rome. Because the fact is that he spent more time outside of Rome than in Rome. Yeah. Because it just doesn't seem very Roman that they were like fine with him not being home. Because it's not like nowadays where like it's your phone call away. Mm-hmm. you know, this guy's far away. You could very easily consolidate power in Rome and it would take weeks for that guy to find out.

Sups 15:26

And also they were not very good at deputizing in the sense that,

Andi 15:30

I'm gonna

Sups 15:30

away. You make sure the show's running. Yeah. You know, because everybody's busy backstabbing each other.

Andi 15:37

Yeah, Right. So, And they're, they're kind of like famously very paranoid, like most autocratic leaders become, because the only thing that's gonna get rid of your power is your death. So they know that. So like, it is kind of, Odd. and also one of the tricky things is that fact number four kind of informs

Sups 15:56

Fact

Andi 15:56

number

Sups 15:56

three. Yeah.

Andi 15:57

if fact number three is wrong. Does fact number four still work? Yeah. I guess kind of. He just gives away territory and continues the downward slide. Yeah. Oh boy.

Sups 16:07

Wow.

Andi 16:08

All right. Very interesting. Can you repeat the four facts for us and then we will guess which one is a lie.

Tanner 16:15

Sure. In fact, number one, the month of sex stills was renamed August for Caesar Augustus the first emperor. In fact number two, the third Roman Emperor Caligula inducted his horse as a senator and planned to make him console fact number. Emperor Trajan expanded the Roman Empire to its largest reaches from England to Babylon. In fact, number four, Emperor Hadrian spent more time traveling outside Rome than ruling in Rome. one of these facts about emperors is not true.

Andi 17:02

Okay. What are you thinking? Soups.

Sups 17:04

one and two. I feel okay.

Andi 17:08

Right. I mean, one, I think we figured out the trick. Mm-hmm. and two like if it's not true, it is something people say. Right? But then that's only going off of our former knowledge, which is always a bad idea,

Sups 17:19

But three and four Tre.

Andi 17:22

Three and four are Related, to each other.

Sups 17:24

Yes.

Andi 17:24

I think it's number four. I think had, Haden was hanging out in Rome, but someone else was going to all these places. And it's a famous person who's you would know. Okay. And that's why that's the lie

Sups 17:36

Yeah, I'm with you. But I still wanna think that I might be number three,

Andi 17:42

was bigger at some other point. Yeah. Yeah. I do think, But then again, eh, they feel like it'd be, It's like something you would know, like the Roman Empire stretches from England to India.

Sups 17:51

yeah, yeah, yeah,

Andi 17:52

like Yeah. Like it's a phrase you're supposed to remember or know cuz you took Latin in college.

Sups 17:59

Alright. I'm with you on number four, but I still wanna pick number three.

Andi 18:04

Okay.

Tanner 18:05

All right. fact number three is true. When Trajan made it to the Persian Gulf, he wept because he couldn't repeat Alexander the greats achievements and go to India

Andi 18:16

Why not?

Tanner 18:18

because he was too old. He watched the ships go to India and he wept So his, dominion ended

Sups 18:23

Okay. That Okay.

Tanner 18:25

Okay. And then in fact, number four is true. Hadrian was roaming around Europe,

Andi 18:31

He was Roman.

Tanner 18:32

Yes. And that is why it's his wall, because he

Andi 18:36

went there. He I'm disappointed

Sups 18:39

fact number one, I

Andi 18:40

Why aren't they Roman and Megan's things more interesting in

Tanner 18:43

Interesting. Like taking control while

Andi 18:45

like fighting each

Tanner 18:46

know. I

Andi 18:46

know. It's so disappointed. me. Yeah. But my appetite for Roman stuff is very violent.

Tanner 18:52

Come on. Yeah. the lie is the one about ULA actually horse. The horse one. It is not true. Basically, any fact you read about ULA is probably not

Sups 19:04

true. Oh no. That was

Andi 19:05

see why One more. Oh, well yeah, cuz I thought it was kind of like an unfair thing to say. Like it's a lie. Is definitively a made up story.

Tanner 19:16

It is definitely not true. So it was probably a joke. Like you said, he was poking fun at the consoles and the senators saying, You guys are so dumb,

Andi 19:26

I Oh

Tanner 19:28

and they would do a better job. And so they wrote this down and they said, Wow. He even proposed making his horse a senator. He would've made him console if he lived longer. And people took this as. And then in some second lot of, Yeah. and then modern novels and movies expanded on this. So in I Clads by Robert Graves, he. He made him a senator. Look, he put a toga on the horse and then people took this as fact. And so it's lies and untruths

Andi 20:00

of layered just on top each other. And then you're here with the most recent one lying.

Tanner 20:05

Yes.

Andi 20:06

he really love his

Tanner 20:07

He loved all that stuff about the stable of marble. All of that is true. He did love this horse. He threw parties with this horse That is all True. Okay.

Andi 20:17

Okay. So your lie is the misconception.

Tanner 20:20

It's a misconception. So Caligula was a wild emperor and he was only there for four years.

Andi 20:26

Yeah.

Sups 20:27

wow. it just spoiled my whole fun

Andi 20:30

yeah.

Tanner 20:31

you

Sups 20:31

knew about

Andi 20:32

I'm sad now. Come on man. just let me have this one thing.

Sups 20:37

Well, I should have known

Andi 20:38

I should have known. Thanks for listening to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast. We will be continuing political science all through the month of November and as always, thanks for listening. Cartago. Delinda