**Worst Jobs In Ancient Rome — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/worst-jobs-ancient-rome/

Explore the deadliest and grossest jobs in ancient Rome, from chariot racers and gladiators to food tasters, toilet cleaners, and urine collectors.

## Key Takeaways

- Many dangerous Roman jobs were filled by slaves and lower-class workers with little social protection.
- Popular spectator sports like chariot racing carried extreme risks for the athletes who performed them.
- Poisoning was a common political weapon in ancient Rome, creating dangerous jobs like the food taster.
- Hygiene-related and labor-intensive jobs were socially stigmatized despite being essential to Roman society.

## What the video covers

- Opens with a comedic hook comparing modern bad bosses to the dangerous and degrading jobs of ancient Rome.
- Gladiators had a lower fatality rate than popular belief suggests, with only about one in ten fights ending in death in the 1st century CE.
- Chariot racing at the Circus Maximus was far deadlier than gladiatorial combat, with frequent crashes called naufragia (shipwrecks) and drivers often tied to their reins.
- Charioteers (aurigae) were often lowborn or enslaved, and some were as young as 22 when they died; they were valued less than the horses.
- The Nika riots of 532 AD, sparked by angry chariot fans, show how violently fans could turn on drivers after a loss.
- Food tasters, typically household slaves, sampled meals to detect poison, a real threat given the prevalence of poisoning in Roman politics.
- Public toilet attendants (latrinarii) cleaned latrines in a society with no privacy, and held a marginalized social status.
- Urine collectors and fullers used urine for its ammonia content, and Emperor Nero introduced a short-lived urine tax.
- Galley rowers, tanners, and miners faced brutal conditions, including exposure to pollutants, stagnant water, and dangerous mining tools.
- Praetorian guards and other roles of power carried their own dangers, with many emperors assassinated during the empire's history.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Intro: Bad Bosses and Roman Jobs
2. 00:29 Gladiators vs. Chariot Racers
3. 02:29 Charioteers and the Deadly Races
4. 04:45 Food Tasters and the Poison Trade
5. 07:15 Public Toilet Attendants and Urine Collectors
6. 10:55 Galley Rowers, Tanners, and Miners
7. 19:10 Praetorian Guards and Final Thoughts

Answers

## Questions about this video

Were gladiators as deadly as people often think?

According to the video, no. In the first century CE, only about one in ten gladiator fights resulted in a fatality. The video argues chariot racing was actually far more dangerous and bloodier in practice.

Why were food tasters needed in ancient Rome?

Poisoning was a common and effective political weapon in Rome, and wealthy people feared it. Food tasters, usually household slaves, ate small portions of meals and waited to see if they became ill before the patron ate.

Why did Romans collect urine?

Fullers bought human and animal urine in bulk because of its high ammonia content, which is effective at breaking down grease and dirt during cloth cleaning. Emperor Nero even introduced a short-lived urine tax on this trade.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:01

Speaker A

That's what she said. Nobody loves their boss. But no matter how crummy yours is, be glad they've never made you eat poisoned flamingo tongues, pluck their armpit hair, or splash around in pee all day.

00:15

Speaker A

Ready your barf bag, because today we're checking out the worst jobs in ancient Rome. From deathdeying chariot racers to the most statistically dangerous Roman job emperor.

00:29

Speaker A

Ready your barf bag, because today we're checking out the worst jobs in ancient Rome. From death-defying chariot racers to the most statistically dangerous Roman job: emperor.

00:44

Speaker A

century CE, just 1 in 10 gladiator fights actually resulted in a fatality. And when the Romans really wanted blood, they watched chariot races instead. The Circus Maximus was a chariot racing stadium in Rome that could seat upwards of 150,000 people, three times the

01:03

Speaker A

In the movies, the most famous and dangerous job in ancient Rome always belongs to the gladiators. However, while they did fight vicious battles against other men and wild animals in the Colosseum, their mortality rate was lower than you might think. In the first century CE, just one in ten gladiator fights actually resulted in a fatality. And when the Romans really wanted blood, they watched chariot races instead.

01:20

Speaker A

consisted of seven laps around the arena in small personal chariots that were pulled by up to four horses. The Origo would reach speeds of 40 mph. And unfortunately, seat belt technology hadn't been mastered yet, so the riders had to tie themselves to the rains to

01:38

Speaker A

The Circus Maximus was a chariot racing stadium in Rome that could seat upwards of 150,000 people, three times the capacity of the Colosseum. At this giant stadium, chariot racers, or auriga, would compete in four teams: the Greens, the Blues, the Whites, and the Reds. And these men had one of the deadliest jobs in the entire empire.

01:53

Speaker A

The crashes were so common they had their own name, now fragia, or shipwrecks. And in some games, there were cleanup crews on site to clear the gruesome wreckages. Still, the Romans weren't squeamish, and chariot racing was actually the most popular form of

02:10

Speaker A

The races consisted of seven laps around the arena in small personal chariots that were pulled by up to four horses. The auriga would reach speeds of 40 mph. And unfortunately, seat belt technology hadn't been mastered yet, so the riders had to tie themselves to the reins to keep from falling off.

02:29

Speaker A

common laborers. In fact, like most of the undesirable Roman jobs we're looking at today, some of the chariot racers were also slaves. And that tells us that as popular as chariot racing was, the athletes themselves were just seen as

02:43

Speaker A

But the high speeds meant that crashes were frequent, and as the aurigae were tied to the flimsy wooden vehicles, they were often caught up in the chaos and trampled, strangled, and mangled in front of the audience. The crashes were so common they had their own name, naufragia, or shipwrecks. And in some games, there were cleanup crews on site to clear the gruesome wreckages.

03:02

Speaker A

chariot fans who were upset their team lost. They were some of the most violent riots in history. And the rioters had such little respect for the Oraga that they happily targeted them, too. So, if you were a lowborn or slave who was

03:15

Speaker A

Still, the Romans weren't squeamish, and chariot racing was actually the most popular form of entertainment at the time. So, the aurigae must have been highly respected and well compensated for putting their lives at risk. Right? Wrong.

03:30

Speaker A

they were obliterated by horses. And here, I thought my first job at Walmart was tough. Working in retail is a nightmare, but I'd rather take a double shift on Black Friday than have to eat poison, which is what these next Romans

03:45

Speaker A

While the horses were greatly admired and treated well, the aurigae were often lowborn, and those who didn't excel were just seen as common laborers. In fact, like most of the undesirable Roman jobs we're looking at today, some of the chariot racers were also slaves. And that tells us that as popular as chariot racing was, the athletes themselves were just seen as the cogs that made it happen rather than the main event.

03:58

Speaker A

331 B.CE. and thousands of people were sentenced to capital punishment for poisoning others throughout the empire's history. Many Roman empires even had their own personal poison makers, such as the infamous Locusta, who was employed by Emperor Nero to eliminate

04:16

Speaker A

And to make matters worse, Roman chariot fans were about as well-mannered and cool-headed as modern sports fans. In 532 AD, half of Constantinople was destroyed during the Nika riots that were started by angry chariot fans who were upset their team lost. They were some of the most violent riots in history. And the rioters had such little respect for the aurigae that they happily targeted them, too.

04:31

Speaker A

food taster. [music] A taster was typically a household slave whose role was to eat a little bit of their patrons meal and wait a few minutes to see if they got ill or passed away. This was obviously a very dangerous job, but on

04:45

Speaker A

So, if you were a lowborn or slave who was pushed into chariot racing, your job was extremely dangerous. And if you lost a race, your so-called fans could react very violently. That's a lot of pressure. And monuments have revealed that some aurigae were as young as 22 when they were obliterated by horses. And here I thought my first job at Walmart was tough.

05:02

Speaker A

under suspicious circumstances, their food taster would immediately be the number one suspect as they'd be the only person who could poison them. For example, after Emperor Claudius suddenly [music] died of an unknown reason at just 63, his taster

05:18

Speaker A

Working in retail is a nightmare, but I'd rather take a double shift on Black Friday than have to eat poison, which is what these next Romans did for a living. Poisoning in ancient Rome was actually more common than you might think, and it was the weapon of choice for most politically motivated attacks. The first reports of it being used in Rome were recorded as early as 331 BCE, and thousands of people were sentenced to capital punishment for poisoning others throughout the empire's history.

05:38

Speaker A

his enemies. You know what? That actually does smell pretty fishy. And maybe in this instance, the food taster really [music] did team up with Nero and Lusta to get revenge against his terrible boss. Personally, I don't blame him. And speaking of things that smell

05:52

Speaker A

Many Roman emperors even had their own personal poison makers, such as the infamous Locusta, who was employed by Emperor Nero to eliminate his enemies. It was easy to obtain, easy to sneak into a meal, and incredibly difficult to trace. So, as you can imagine, wealthy Romans were pretty scared of being poisoned, which led to the creation of a new terrible job: the food taster.

06:09

Speaker A

B.CE. public bathous and lavatories became increasingly large, complex, and socially important. Now, that last part might sound a little weird, but in ancient Rome, public toilets or forica were nothing like the kind we have today. They offered no privacy

06:27

Speaker A

A taster was typically a household slave whose role was to eat a little bit of their patron's meal and wait a few minutes to see if they got ill or passed away. This was obviously a very dangerous job, but on the plus side, at least they got to sample gourmet Roman delicacies like fermented fish intestines and boiled flamingo tongue. Actually, on second thought, that wouldn't be my choice for a last meal.

06:44

Speaker A

y'all pooped out your flamingo tongues. The partial nudity and constant odor [music] was something Romans just accepted about the place. But one person who couldn't ignore the stench was the poor unfortunate Latinarius who was tasked with cleaning and maintaining the

06:59

Speaker A

To make matters worse, if a wealthy Roman did die unexpectedly or under suspicious circumstances, their food taster would immediately be the number one suspect, as they'd be the only person who could poison them. For example, after Emperor Claudius suddenly died of an unknown reason at just 63, his taster was initially blamed, and public outcries for his execution ensued. Seems pretty unfair.

07:15

Speaker A

bouncer that had to deal with the Forica's drunk, angry, and rowdy patrons. It was an important job, but as they had to deal with bodily fluids on a daily basis, they were highly marginalized people in Roman society.

07:27

Speaker A

But interestingly, when Claudius was succeeded by Emperor Nero, he spared Halotus immediately. And yep, that's the same Nero from earlier who loved using his poison maker, Locusta, to take out his enemies. You know what? That actually does smell pretty fishy. And maybe in this instance, the food taster really did team up with Nero and Locusta to get revenge against his terrible boss. Personally, I don't blame him.

07:41

Speaker A

essentially a stick with rags or a sponge on the end. Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is an ancient Roman toilet brush, but the uh tersorium was actually a communal tool that was used to wipe your butt. So,

07:58

Speaker A

And speaking of things that smell fishy, this next job is a real stinker. Oh no. But to fully grasp how awful it was, we first need to talk a little about ye olde bathrooms. As Rome began to experience urban sprawl around the first century BCE, public baths and lavatories became increasingly large, complex, and socially important.

08:10

Speaker A

Latinarius to collect and handle these poop sticks. And they'd have to clean them by hand so they could be reused by their patrons. So they had to literally rinse out rags and sponges covered in poop whilst also scrubbing latrines and

08:25

Speaker A

Now, that last part might sound a little weird, but in ancient Rome, public toilets, or foricae, were nothing like the kind we have today. They offered no privacy whatsoever. And instead of cubicles, toilets were essentially long benches with multiple seats, where up to 50 people could take a dump together along a single column. So, foricae became places where you could sit down and chat with fellow citizens about local gossip while y'all pooped out your flamingo tongues.

08:37

Speaker A

Yep. It was some poor soul's job to hang around the forica and scoop up urine before it entered the sewage system. But why on earth would they do that?

08:48

Speaker A

The partial nudity and constant odor was something Romans just accepted about the place. But one person who couldn't ignore the stench was the poor, unfortunate latrinarius, who was tasked with cleaning and maintaining the foricae. First off, it was their job to scrub each individual latrine, which was a disgusting task with a never-ending workflow, pun intended. The second part of their job was acting as an enforcer of social etiquette, like a toilet bouncer that had to deal with the forica's drunk, angry, and rowdy patrons.

09:01

Speaker A

It was also used as a cleaning agent on city streets and people gargled it to whiten their teeth. In fact, if you time travel back to ancient Rome, I think the biggest culture shock would be how much pee was in everything and how bad

09:16

Speaker A

It was an important job, but as they had to deal with bodily fluids on a daily basis, they were highly marginalized people in Roman society. So, the role was typically given to lower-class workers or slaves, and they were often mistreated and abused by the people they were cleaning up after. But wait, it gets worse.

09:30

Speaker A

In fact, lots of cleaning products we use today still contain ammonia hydroxide. But these modern chemicals are typically no more than 5 to 10% ammonia, and the manufacturers obtain it from soil instead of raw untreated urine. So, while pee can make teeth

09:48

Speaker A

Now, take a look at this old hygiene instrument, which is essentially a stick with rags or a sponge on the end. Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this is an ancient Roman toilet brush, but the tersorium was actually a communal tool that was used to wipe your butt. So, ancient Romans at the forica would sit themselves down, grab one of these babies, and swirl it all around their junk, then pass it down to their buddy next door to use.

09:57

Speaker A

Still, the Romans didn't know that. And the product was so sought after, there were entire urine markets where people were selling the stuff by the barrel.

10:07

Speaker A

On top of their other duties, it was the job of the poor latrinarius to collect and handle these poop sticks. And they'd have to clean them by hand so they could be reused by their patrons. So they had to literally rinse out rags and sponges covered in poop, whilst also scrubbing latrines and dealing with clientele that treated them no better than the waste they were cleaning.

10:17

Speaker A

But as you can imagine, collecting buckets of pee all day before heading down to the pea market was not a glamorous job. It was gross, dirty, and transporting large quantities of urine was actually very physically taxing. So, as you might imagine, the urine trader

10:34

Speaker A

But somehow their job was even less demeaning than their colleagues working beside them: the pee collector.

10:38

Speaker A

They were the ones gargling their pee to keep their teeth nice and white and buying the stuff by the gallon. Why not save some money and get by on your own supply? If there was one person that even the urine mongers looked upon with

10:51

Speaker A

Yep. It was some poor soul's job to hang around the forica and s

11:05

Speaker A

Show me the money. Emperor Nero introduced the short-lived vectal urine or urine tax. Sometime in the 1st century CE, which meant that whenever a urine trader sold some precious pee, the government also got a taste [music] of the money. Now, as you

11:22

Speaker A

can imagine, this tax was hugely unpopular as it was easy to spin as a corrupt Roman government charging people to pee. And that wasn't actually happening. But the narrative spread quickly and as the urine tax collectors [music] became representative of the tax

11:37

Speaker A

itself, they faced widespread disdain from the public. The tax was actually abolished after Nero's rule. But when Vespian became emperor in 69 CE, Rome was low on funds, so he revived the unpopular law. When his son Titus said

11:54

Speaker A

he thought it was disgusting, the emperor famously sniffed a gold coin and noted that it had no smell despite coming from urine. He then followed up with the now famous phrase, "Money does not stink." Yeah, fair enough, buddy.

12:08

Speaker A

The implementations of the urine tax are largely what paid for the expansion of Rome's cloica maxima, the great sewers, which led to a dramatic increase in overall hygiene and efficient waste management. Funnily enough, the sudden development of Rome's sewage led to

12:26

Speaker A

Vespassian's name becoming associated with public latrines across Europe. Even today, terms like Vespasen or Vespaciano are used in France and Italy for street urinals. Hey, you know what? There are worse legacies. But regardless of how wellused the money was, it didn't

12:46

Speaker A

bolster the reputation [music] of the poor pax collector. Still, I'd rather face public disdain [music] by collecting the pa tax than having to scoop up the pee itself. As we know, lots of that collected urine went off to

12:59

Speaker A

Romans for personal use. But some of the biggest buyers of pee in Rome were fullers. It was their job to wash, dry, and treat the clothing of their clients like an ancient one-man laundromat. But I know what you're thinking. Why would a

13:15

Speaker A

cleaner need to buy pee? Well, the reason is exactly what you're dreading. They washed people's clothes in it.

13:22

Speaker A

Fullers would purchase human and animal urine in bulk due to the high ammonia content of the waste products. And like I said earlier, the ammonia in urine is pretty effective at breaking down grease and dirt. But the Fuller would empty all

13:35

Speaker A

their precious pea straight into a large vat or tub, creating the world's most disgusting cocktail. And then they dump all their fabrics into the pea vat, put on a skirt, and stomp on the clothes until they were soaked through. If only

13:49

Speaker A

the internet were around back then. A certain type of person would have paid a monthly subscription to watch that. If the job doesn't sound gross enough for you yet, hey, don't worry. It gets worse. You see, white garments were

14:00

Speaker A

often also treated with sulfur to prevent staining. You know, that chemical that famously smells like eggs.

14:07

Speaker A

This meant that on top of the pools of urine, a fuller's place of business would have been recognizably farty smelling. Man, imagine coming home after a long day at the fart and pee warehouse, then unimagin it. Because the

14:21

Speaker A

recent archaeological evidence suggests that Fuller's places of business were also their homes. Yeah, that's right.

14:28

Speaker A

Some Fullers would eat, sleep, and live in the pee and fart building. On the plus side, you'd probably get used to the smell. But how do you think these living conditions were seen by other members of Roman society? Well, you

14:41

Speaker A

guessed it. Despite providing an essential service that everyone used, Fullers were widely looked down upon.

14:49

Speaker A

[laughter] Yeah, that's sadly predictable at this point. But on the other hand, would you invite someone soaked in pee to your cookout? Speaking of getting soaked, it's time for us to finally leave pee behind and move on to

15:02

Speaker A

another Roman worker that was tasked with splashing around. Galley rovers worked on different ships throughout Rome's history, including the triam bere and giant quincquim, but their job remained the same using thick, heavy reams or or oes to move the giant

15:21

Speaker A

galleys through the water. As you can imagine, this work was enormously demanding and performed in hot, cramped spaces. The Quinn pareimmes were laid out with five rowers for a single ore.

15:33

Speaker A

And as they used over 20 pairs of ores to cut through the water, they contained over 300 rowers squished together during a voyage. These oresmen were placed on multiple levels, and the most experienced rowers were sometimes allowed the luxury of rowing on the top

15:50

Speaker A

deck. But while they got a bit of fresh air, the work was still incredibly demanding. And in storms, it was more of a curse than a blessing. Oh, and let's not forget these rowers worked [music] on warships, so they often had to

16:03

Speaker A

operate in naval combat where they were at constant risk of sinking and drowning in case the job wasn't already stressful enough. Breaks were few and far between, and it appears rowers survived mainly on a diet of bread and rarely salted meat.

16:19

Speaker A

Now, contrary to popular belief, most Roman galley rowers weren't actually slaves, as the Romans needed their oresmen to [music] be well-trained, strong, and loyal during naval battles.

16:31

Speaker A

But still, most rowers were only a few rungs above slaves on the Roman social ladder, and many of them weren't actually legal Roman citizens. Instead, they were often taken from other territories that Rome had conquered and were promised full citizenship when they

16:47

Speaker A

retired. It isn't clear exactly how long an orsman career would last, but earning Roman citizenship through military service typically took anywhere between 16 and 20 years, which is a long time to work in these conditions. Furthermore, like Roman legionnaires, the rowers

17:03

Speaker A

weren't allowed to marry during their service. So during their tenure, these oresmen were exhausted, loveless, and weren't protected by Roman laws, which meant their superiors could treat them however they wanted. Man, can you imagine a powerful empire knowingly

17:19

Speaker A

relying upon the labor of people who aren't protected by its laws? I'm glad that doesn't happen anymore. Crashing across the ocean in a cramped, boiling hot galley sounds terrible, but I'd rather be covered in my own sweat than

17:33

Speaker A

somebody else's. Judging from this tool called a stridigil, what do you think an ancient Roman strillus did for a living? Perhaps some kind of [music] farming or a crude form of surgery. Nope. And no. But if you said they used to scrape disgusting

17:51

Speaker A

sweat and oil off their customers backs, then congratulations. And also, how did you guess that, weirdo? The strgillis would scrape their stridel along the back and limbs of eager stinkers to clean them. Kind of like a ancient squeegee. Scrubbing a

18:07

Speaker A

person like a window is pretty gross. But in the Romans defense, this was a common way to clean before the introduction of fat-based soaps. [music] And other ancient societies used stridels, too. Just look at this ancient Greek statue of an athlete scraping his

18:22

Speaker A

back. Where's your strillus, loser? Well, stridils were typically designed to be used by yourself, but the rich and elite in Rome were far too lazy to scrub their own bodies, which is where the strillus would come in. Before the

18:38

Speaker A

scraping began, they would massage oils onto their clients that would essentially catch any grit or dirt off the skin, which made the scraping more effective. They'd be tasked with cleaning all sorts of wealthy people, but they're most famous for being the

18:51

Speaker A

primary cleaners of gladiators. In ancient Rome, cleanliness was a symbol of refinement and civility, and even rough and tumble warriors didn't want to be seen as dirty. As a result, the most popular stars would sometimes have their own specially decorated stridel that

19:08

Speaker A

their personal stregillis would use to wipe them down after their battles. And as you can guess, after fighting it out in the arena, gladiators were pretty dirty. So, the Stragillus would have to scrape sweat, grime, blood, and viscera

19:22

Speaker A

off their employer. Evidence suggests that this practice was seen as somewhat ritualistic, as a kind of bodily cleansing after a violent battle.

19:31

Speaker A

However, it's important to remember that even if you were the personal strugg, the job was in no way glamorous. The role was often given to slaves and working with bodily fluids made people consider you a dirty individual who was

19:47

Speaker A

automatically placed on the lower rungs [music] of society. That seems unfair. What happened to you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours? But at least the Stragillus didn't have to suffer alone because they weren't the only people tasked with maintaining the elites

20:03

Speaker A

hygiene in horrible ways. See, the Romans didn't just want to be clean. They wanted to be smooth. And there was an entire profession dedicated to plucking their body hair. The Alipilis worked at the bath house and they used

20:18

Speaker A

tweezers and creams to remove unwanted hair from the armpits and lower bodies of men and women. Ouch. Getting up close and personal to all that ancient bo is gross. And you may be wondering why the Romans cared so much about body hair.

20:33

Speaker A

Well, the answer again comes down to hygiene standards and forgotten cultural norms. In ancient Rome, hairlessness was seen as a sign of refinement and civility. As before [music] the age of electric shavers, removing your body hair required time and money, which

20:48

Speaker A

distinguished you from a hairy pleb or barbarian. Big words for a bunch of pea garlers. Regardless, having hairless pits was very much in style, and it was also a means to combat body odor, as sweat clings to your hair and causes

21:04

Speaker A

your funky smell to follow you around. This means that the typical clientele of the Alipillas weren't just stinky, but were also wealthy and very particular, which made the job pretty stressful.

21:18

Speaker A

Removing hairs quickly and painlessly was the name of the game. And you were staking your reputation on every hair you plucked. Oh, and keep in mind they were using crude Roman tweezers like these. So plucking them painlessly wasn't easy. On the plus side, [music]

21:34

Speaker A

if you were skilled and had a steady stream of clients, you could earn a decent living as an alopilus unless you were a slave who was forced into your job by your owner, which sadly was pretty common.

21:46

Speaker A

I hate the Romans as much as anybody. Still, if you thought working with foul smelling people was bad, imagine working in close quarters with the stench of animal remains. Leather was highly prized in ancient Rome, as it was used

21:59

Speaker A

in everything like clothing, horse reigns, and tents. If you aren't aware, the process of creating leather involves treating animal hides with tannins, a chemical compound that can be found in a ton of plants, including the bark of oak

22:12

Speaker A

trees. The tannins bind to the skin's collagen fibers. And when a hide is tanned in this way, then dried, it makes the skin more resilient to bacterial decay, less water soluble and much tougher. This creates the leather that

22:29

Speaker A

we all know and love. But another fun fact about tannins is that they stink and [music] would fill the Roman tanneries with a strong musty odor. Now, can you guess the other secret ingredient that Roman tanners used to

22:43

Speaker A

treat their letter? Hey, that's right. It was urine. Ah, here we go again. Man, what was with the Romans and pee?

22:51

Speaker A

Well, the whiz was used on the hides before the tannins, as the ammonia would break down the animals fat and grease and make the skin softer and easier to work with. So to recap, the tanneries were filled with rotting animal

23:04

Speaker A

carcasses, barrels of urine, and pungent tannins, which basically meant that they absolutely beefed. Tanners had to dirty their hands with all these stinky substances, and no doubt had one of the smelliest jobs in ancient Rome. And for this reason, tanneries in Rome legally

23:21

Speaker A

had to be situated towards the eastern end of town, right on the outskirts. So the city's more common western winds would push the smells away from the center. Now, funnily enough, like the modern calendar and concrete, this is a

23:36

Speaker A

Roman idea that we still use today. [music] And it's been observed that throughout history, the east end of cities tend to be poorer and where stinkier businesses can be found. Now, as we've already discussed, personal hygiene and odor were hugely important

23:51

Speaker A

in Roman society. And that meant that while everyone needed leather, the tanners were pushed to the edge of the empire's cities and marginalized for being stinky and dirty. Aside from the social stigma, tanners also often worked with pollutants and stagnant water,

24:07

Speaker A

which led to lung and skin problems later in life. Furthermore, archaeological evidence retrieved from a necropolis near a Roman tannery also shows that the workers exhibited signs of trauma indicative of heavy and strenuous labor. So, the job ruined your

24:23

Speaker A

posture, lungs, and social standing. But hey, at least you got an unlimited supply of leather. Now, that might seem like a terrible consolation prize, but other Roman roles had no upside, [music] and one of the most miserable, abusive

24:39

Speaker A

jobs in all of human existence belonged to Rome's operari or miners. The Romans had a big appetite for various metals, uh, from gold in their jewelry to the lead in their coins, pipes, [music] and cups. So they established mines all over

24:57

Speaker A

their territories from Tunisia to Britain. They were incredibly important to the empire, but the conditions for miners were famously terrible. Firstly, nobody volunteered to work in the mines, so all the miners were either slaves or criminals who were condemned to them as

25:14

Speaker A

a punishment. This meant that the miners didn't have any rights, which allowed the Romans to subject them to awful work conditions. They mined in near [music] pitch black tunnels surrounded by jagged rocks and unmarked drops into deep caverns. And while they did have lamps,

25:32

Speaker A

they were crude, fragile, and fueled with oil, making them constant fire risks. The miners lack of rights also let the Romans experiment with some incredibly dangerous mining methods [music] like fire setting, which involved rapidly heating rocks with fire

25:48

Speaker A

before allowing them to cool down. This caused fractures to appear in the rock, which made them easier to dig through.

25:55

Speaker A

But the miners had to set the fires in enclosed tunnels with no protective equipment, so they'd often end up with terrible burns, and the resulting smoke would regularly suffocate all the miners in the vicinity. However, methods like this were necessary, [music]

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Speaker A

and the tools that the miners were given were often crude and prone to breaking, which would make their work near impossible if the rock wasn't [music] weakened first. But the fire wasn't the only danger, and the miners often had to

26:25

Speaker A

battle floods, too. The mines were illequipped to deal with sudden bursts of heavy rain. And tragically, [music] drowning in the brackish mixture of water and mud deep in a minehaft was a nauseatingly common fate. Estimates suggest that around 12% of all Rome's

26:42

Speaker A

Operari died annually. [music] And with that in mind, I think it's prudent to mention that yes, Rome did employ child miners. That's so dark. I'm not even going to make a joke about them being minor miners. As I mentioned

26:56

Speaker A

earlier, the miners were also tasked with mining dangerous substances like the neurotoxic metal lead and the natural heatresistant mineral asbestous.

27:07

Speaker A

We now know that exposure to lead can cause comas, convulsions, and death, and asbestous fibers gather in your lungs and lead to cancer. But the Romans had no idea they were so deadly. So the adult and child miners alike tore

27:20

Speaker A

through them with their pickaxes, and exposure could cause them to become fatally ill. But despite fighting fire, floods, and toxins, the miners couldn't take a minute to rest. They would be beaten if they slowed down. And anyone who was considered too weak or

27:35

Speaker A

unproductive could be reassigned to fight in the gladatorial arena or they'd almost certainly be treated as fodder for the gladiators. All this made condemnation to the minds one of the worst fates in ancient Rome. And the Roman scholar Diodoris Cicholus famously

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Speaker A

wrote that for miners the future will always be more terrible than the present and they therefore look to death as more to be desired than life. Dang, Diodoris.

28:03

Speaker A

How am I meant to top that? Well, while mining might have been the worst job for a Roman, there was one role in the Empire that was even more dangerous. The emperor. Okay, I know what you're thinking. How could that be a bad job?

28:16

Speaker A

Didn't they just eat grapes and boss people around all day? Well, while the immense power of the position would have been amazing, it also came with immense danger. Between 31 and 476 B.CE, CE the Roman Empire had around 70 to 77

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Speaker A

legitimate emperors depending on the historian you ask and incredibly 33 of them were violently relieved of their position if you catch my drift. Now to put this in perspective according to the US Bureau of Labor the most dangerous

28:47

Speaker A

profession in America is logging which has an on the [music] job mortality rate of 97.6 6 per 100,000 workers, meaning you have a 0.097% chance of dying on the job. In contrast, [music] if you were a Roman emperor, you'd have

29:04

Speaker A

a 47% chance of being eliminated by your political rivals. These attacks often happened in quick succession. In the year 193 B.CE, Rome saw three emperors after two of them, Herinax and Dius Giulianis, were both violently ousted less than 100 days after assuming the

29:25

Speaker A

throne. As you could have guessed, lots of these emperors were poisoned. But incredibly, 13 of these attacks were carried out by emperor's personal security, the Ptorian Guard. You see, while the Ptorian Guard were technically established to protect the emperor, they

29:42

Speaker A

actually operated more like a gang that the emperor paid protection [music] money to. They were highly trained, heavily militarized, and famously greedy. It became tradition that when a new emperor assumed the throne, their first act would be to shower the Ptorian

29:58

Speaker A

guard with gifts. But many of the emperors that the guards attacked reportedly gave notably poor gifts upon coronation, which likely [music] led to the betrayal. Talk about spoiled babies.

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Speaker A

Additionally, if you were an upand cominging politician, it was exceptionally easy to tell the Ptorian Guard, you know, if I were in charge, you guys would be treated a lot better.

30:23

Speaker A

And then just wait and see what happened. This worked [music] because for a long time Rome had no codified laws of succession. If you could get the Senate to confirm you, you'd automatically become emperor. And if the Ptorian Guard were on your side,

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Speaker A

everyone would just be too scared to say no. Just don't forget to pay your guards their protection money. Uh, I mean salary.

30:46

Speaker A

Which one of these ancient jobs did you think was the worst? Let me know down in the comments below. And thanks for watching. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Topics: ancient Rome Roman history chariot racing gladiators food taster Circus Maximus Roman jobs Nero ancient history worst jobs

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