00:10when you think of the Romans what comes to mind gladiators engineering wonders
00:15conquest slavery and of course math wait no math unless of course you've heard
00:21how bad they were at it but the Goths Vikings Inuit they were all rather bad
00:26at it as well as our goats so why single out the Romans and were they actually
00:32that bad at math in the first place well for a start they didn't have a symbol
00:36for zero and why would they after all it means nothing to further complicate
00:41things they used letters to represent numbers and had to combine multiple
00:45letters for pretty much anything larger than 10 so even for doing basic
00:50arithmetic like adding or subtracting it was about as efficient as asking a goat
00:54to do algebra but the Greeks had a similar arguably worse system yet they
01:00were famous for their mathematical prowess so were the Romans just
01:05particularly thick well they did create one of the biggest empires in history
01:10ruling over many different nations and peoples even those pesky Greek
01:14intellectuals so they can't have been all that dim arguably the Romans were just
01:19not that interested in math and why would they be it's difficult and complicated
01:24and surely that's what those wonderful Greek slaves were for the Romans were a
01:28practical bunch so they only dealt with math when they had to in other words
01:33while the Greeks were mathematicians the Romans were engineers unfortunately
01:38while history remembers the great Greek mathematicians it doesn't have a place
01:43for the engineers or architects who built the Roman Empire similarly the
01:48intricate temples of India the Great Wall of China the castles and
01:51cathedrals of medieval Europe all were built by professionals who were probably
01:55quite good at math so while the names of the great mathematical minds of the
01:59Greek civilization echoed down the ages Rome despite its achievements seems to
02:04fall short in this regard but this doesn't mean the Romans were bad at math
02:08rather they were good at the practical application of it and just had no
02:12interest in theoretical developments so why did Greek culture focus on works of
02:17theory while Rome focused on works of engineering well the Greeks lived in
02:21small city states where reputation was valuable and literacy was high thus
02:26intellectual achievement was their go-to expression of their greatness in larger
02:31empires and civilizations with lower literacy the most effective way to
02:35demonstrate one's power was not through intellectual superiority but through
02:40something more material vaster and more impressive like an aqueduct or public
02:46baths or indoor heating or especially a Colosseum those things were a little bit
02:51more noticeable to the average man rather than a new theory or formula indeed what
02:57marauding Mongol Welsh warrior or Teutonic tribesmen would not be impressed and
03:02intimidated by the appearance of a huge wall castle or aqueduct in the lands his
03:07father had once called his own so engineering was a way of physically
03:11demonstrating a culture superiority and instilling fear and control in the
03:16populace and for an empire that relied on its reputation of invincibility this was
03:22of the utmost importance in short Rome left the thinking to the Greeks indeed
03:27Greek was the language of science in the Roman Empire and while the Romans had a few
03:31original mathematicians they were all culturally Greek in origin and thought
03:36Diophantus the father of algebra Pappus hero Ptolemy all worked in the library
03:41of Alexandria when it was under Roman rule but crucially the library kept its own
03:47Greek tradition of research and development so while there was a lot of
03:51excellent mathematics physics and astronomy being done in the Roman Empire it
03:55was done by people who wrote in Greek had Greek names and probably identified as
04:00Greeks some were slaves others may have had Roman citizenship but all were
04:05culturally Greek furthermore the Graeco-Roman education system venerated the
04:09past it was a backward-looking system with memorization and rhetoric valued
04:14above all else not an environment where original thought was encouraged Roman
04:19youths might be sent to Athens or Alexandria to study but afterwards they were
04:23expected to pursue the traditional Roman careers like conquering and enslaving
04:28entire peoples so culturally the Romans just weren't that into theoretical math indeed
04:33Roman numerals are believed to have originated from tally sticks accounting
04:37system used by shepherds as a memory aid a good way to record the number of
04:42goats one has but not something that lends itself to solving the mysteries of the
04:47universe perhaps why were the Romans bad at math is the wrong question because
04:52they weren't per se bad at math they were bad at original thinking so why then did
04:58some civilizations thrive and innovate while others didn't what made the Greeks
05:03Babylonians and Egyptians brilliant at math what are the ingredients for a
05:07transformative mindset of inquiry and intellectual curiosity and why do goats
05:13keep popping up in this video these are just some of the questions we may look at in
05:17the future so if you liked this video I hope you'll consider hitting that
05:21subscribe button or supporting me on patreon so I can continue exploring the
05:26fascinating side quests of world history thank you very much for watching and see
05:30you next time for the next side quest
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