These Roman mysteries have finally been put to rest. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most tantalizing mysteries surrounding ancient Rome that were left unsolved for centuries.
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00:00History will be denied sight of this, the Empire's darkest hour.
00:06For two thousand years, the forest kept its secret.
00:11Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most tantalizing mysteries surrounding ancient Rome that were left unsolved for centuries.
00:20It's possible science offers clues as to how big an effect the Antonine Plague had on the Roman Empire.
00:2910. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE NINTH SPANISH LEGION
00:32Every legion had its own extraordinary story, and the Ninth Legion was no exception.
00:39Officially known as Legio 9 Hispana, the Ninth Spanish Legion was a military unit of the Roman army that consisted of over 5,000 soldiers.
00:47However, it has since been nicknamed the Lost Legion, as it disappeared from all written records around the year 120.
00:54It's the last time the Ninth Legion is ever mentioned in history. Ever. That's it. It's never again mentioned in history.
01:02So what the heck happened? Well, no one really knows, but we have a good idea.
01:07German historian Theodor Mommsen theorized that the Legion was eradicated in northern Britain, but evidence found in the Netherlands has since disproved it in the eyes of many scholars.
01:17It's more likely that the Legion was destroyed during the Bar Kochba Revolt of 132, in which the Jewish population of Judea rebelled against the controlling Roman Empire.
01:26So the Romans lost a lot of troops, including a legion, in the Jewish revolt.
01:309. TEUTOBURG FOREST
01:33The Battle of Teutoburg Forest is one of the most consequential in Roman history, and not in a good way.
01:38Also known as the Varian Disaster, various Roman legions were handily defeated by an alliance of Germanic tribes,
01:45thereby stopping the Empire's expansion into Germania.
01:48The attacks began almost immediately.
01:51Despite being one of the most important battles in European history, the site of the ambush remained unknown for almost 2,000 years.
01:58That is, until an amateur archaeologist found Roman coins in the German village of Kalkriese.
02:04Specifically, the ambush seems to have occurred on Kalkrieser Berg, a huge hill measuring just over 500 feet.
02:12It also put Varus and his army at Kalkrieser, a long, long way from the relative safety of either the Rhine or the Lippa.
02:20Ancient battle debris and human remains have been found in the area, which seems to confirm Kalkrieser as the legendary Teutoburg Forest.
02:29Besides weapons, there were civilian implements, tools, scraps of armor, and a spectacular cavalry officer's mass.
02:38Number 8. The Hair of a Vestal Virgin
02:41When it comes to ancient Rome, it may seem like all the power lay with the Emperor.
02:45Nah, more like the Vestal Virgins.
02:48Free from any male guardianship, they became the Brides of Rome itself.
02:53Serving as priestesses of the goddess Vesta, these women guarded her sacred flame in the Temple of Vesta and enjoyed substantial public privileges as a result.
03:02A Vestal's hair was extremely elaborate, consisting of many intertwined braids, and most Roman scholars assumed that they were wigs.
03:11But, hairstyle archaeologist, yes that is a thing, Janet Stephens, proved otherwise in 2013.
03:17She defied academic assumption and recreated the Vestal hairstyle for the first time in modern history.
03:23It finally put the wig theory to bed and verified that it was done using the Vestal's real hair.
03:29The Senecrinus is now complete.
03:32Number 7. Palmyra
03:34Found smack in the middle of Syria is the ancient site of Palmyra, which was a very prosperous trade city in the Roman Empire.
03:42There was just one large mystery hanging over the city.
03:45How did it prosper in the middle of the Syrian desert, especially without modern amenities?
03:50Norwegian and Syrian researchers finally answered that question in 2012.
03:54They found that Palmyra is not situated on a desert, but on arid steppe and grass roots lying underneath the soil that prevented rainwater from soaking into the ground.
04:04This surface rainwater was then collected using dams and cisterns, providing the city with water and allowing crops to grow.
04:11In the words of Dr. Ian Malcolm, life, uh, finds a way.
04:15Number 6. Hannibal Crosses the Alps
04:18In a campaign that has become a legend, Hannibal marched his forces over the Alps and turned Italy into a battlefield.
04:25In the year 218 BCE, the Carthaginian general Hannibal conducted one of the most startling feats in military history.
04:33Carthage and Rome were at war, and Hannibal's forces were prevented from moving east owing to substantial Roman garrisons.
04:40So he and his army went around them, through the Alps.
04:44Hannibal headed north through Spain and Gaul before crossing the Alps into Italy.
04:48I think it's amazing even now to think how an army could have crossed the Alps.
04:53His exact route was a mystery for over 2,000 years, but a likely answer was finally provided in 2016.
05:00By studying, of all things, ancient deposits of animal poop, it was theorized that Hannibal moved through the bridal pass of Col de la Traversette.
05:09While this is not definitive, it's widely regarded as the most likely explanation.
05:13That's the way that Hannibal would have come in.
05:16Number 5. The Skull of Otranto
05:19A coastal town in southern Italy, Otranto was besieged by the Ottomans in 1480.
05:24The male citizens were given a choice, convert to Islam or die.
05:28Refusing to abandon Christianity, they were summarily executed.
05:32They are now known as the Martyrs of Otranto, and one of their skulls is adorned with 16 holes.
05:39These mystery perforations went unexplained for centuries, until a team from the University of Pisa cracked the case in 2015.
05:47They deduced that the holes were made by a trepan, as someone had cut into the skull to remove the bone powder.
05:54You see, back then it was believed that drinking a mixture of water and human bone would create a tonic that could heal various afflictions.
06:02Number 4. An Ancient Plague
06:05The Black Death is well documented, occurring between 1346 and 1353 and killing up to 60% of the European population.
06:14The Antonine Plague takes a heavy toll.
06:17But that was hardly the first plague to decimate Rome.
06:21Back in the late 2nd century, the Roman Empire was besieged by the Antonine Plague, named after Emperor Antoninus Pius.
06:29This will be called the Antonine Plague, after the dynasty of emperors currently in charge.
06:34The plague claimed up to 10 million lives, or about 10% of the Roman population.
06:39Nothing was known about the disease in its time, but a Greek physician named Galen transcribed the symptoms in his writings.
06:47It's through these writings that scholars have been able to identify the disease as smallpox.
06:52Some disagree, arguing that it could be measles, but most scholars agree on the smallpox thesis.
06:58Smallpox is one of the greatest killers in human history, and was only finally eradicated in the 1970s.
07:06Number 3. The spot of Caesar's assassination
07:09Serving as one of the most famous events in Roman history, dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated on March 15th, 44 BC.
07:17But then, someone else stabbed him in the side. This was to prove the killer blow.
07:23Caesar was stabbed to death inside the Curia of Pompey, and part of the larger Theatre of Pompey that was used for political meetings.
07:30Shortly after his death, the Curia was walled up and set on fire, and the exact location of Caesar's murder became lost to history.
07:38It wasn't rediscovered until the early 20th century, when workers uncovered what is now known as Largo di Torre Argentina, or Argentina Tower Square.
07:48This square houses the remains of Pompey's theatre, and with its discovery, we finally unearthed, quite literally, the location of the infamous stabbing.
07:57Number 2. Roman Concrete
07:59The Romans were amazing architects. Not only did they create some of the most iconic buildings in human history, but these buildings were made with a remarkably durable form of concrete.
08:10At the origin of their success, innovation, with the creation of a revolutionary new material, concrete.
08:17For centuries, the strength, durability, and pristine condition of this concrete baffled scientists.
08:23But in 2023, academics from MIT and Harvard discovered that the hardiness of Roman concrete stems from lime clasts placed in the mixture.
08:33These visible white flecks were once regarded as mere imperfections in the concrete, but they were actually part of the engineering.
08:40Roman concrete is a mixture of lime, sand, water, of course aggregates. Basically, it's modern concrete.
08:47When a crack appears in the material, these lime clasts break and release calcium. This calcium then travels through the crack and reacts with seeping water to seal the fracture.
08:58Yep, the Romans made self-healing concrete.
09:02Concrete definitely represents a revolution in Roman constructions.
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09:22Number 1. The location of Pompeii
09:25Arguably the most famous ancient Roman city outside of Rome itself, Pompeii was famously destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
09:34An entire living city wiped out, thousands of its people buried alive.
09:40The location of Pompeii was soon forgotten, a mythical lost city in the vein of Atlantis, only, you know, real.
09:47It remained lost for over 1,500 years until an architect named Domenico Fontana rediscovered it while building an aqueduct.
09:54But for whatever reason, Fontana kept this finding to himself.
09:58Some of the city's walls were excavated in 1693, bringing public attention to the area for the first time.
10:05It wasn't until 1763 that workers found a sign reading Repubblice Pompeianorum, officially identifying the buried city as the long-lost Pompeii.
10:16Seventeen centuries later, archaeologists rediscovered a city frozen in time.
10:22What do you make of these answers? Let us know in the comments below.
10:26Wow, this is so beautiful.
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