TikTok Conspiracy Theory: Ancient Rome Never Existed? A Classicist Reacts

There's a TikToker who is currently spreading a false conspiracy theory that the Roman Empire (and everything encompassed within it) never existed. As a new, baby Classics PhD student, I felt compelled to make a video debunking everything they say.

Thank you to my Patreons for making this video possible. https://www.patreon.com/Cinzia

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:25 Are they legitimate, or are they a troll?
3:02 The Roman Empire Never Existed
4:01 Summary of their arguments
5:14 Conspiracy theory: The New Chronology
6:32 The amazing efficiency of 1500 Europe
8:19 Dante & Chaucer disprove this theory
11:56 Why Don't We Have Any Primary Latin Texts?
13:01 The Vindolanda Tablets
17:56 Bad Latin/Greek Translation
21:06 Deductive reasoning. It is Latin, not Greek
23:10 The conspiracies against Pompeii
23:39 Vesuvius never erupted
26:01 The Latin in Pompeii is Fake
28:32 Is the graffiti in Pompeii ancient?
29:57 Weathering - Tomb of Lucius Poblicius
33:55 Why is the Latin in such good condition?
34:40 The Altar of Mercurius Gebrinius
39:34 The worst thing this TikToker lies about. Res Gestae Divi Augusti
43:47 Conclusion

References:
Where I originally read about the New Chronology:
https://nathangoldwag.wordpress.com/2021/04/03/the-glorious-stupidity-of-fomenkos-new-chronology/
Hirsh, J (1996), 'Chaucer's Roman Tales', The Chaucer Review, 1996, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 45-57. Penn State University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25095959
Vindolanda tablets: http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/tablets/
Anderson, R. D., Parsons, P. J. and Nisbet, R. G. M., (1979), 'Elegiacs by Gallus from Qaṣr Ibrîm', The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 69, pp. 125-155. http://www.jstor.org/stable/299064
La nécropole romaine de Porta Nocera à Pompéi: https://journals.openedition.org/cefr/1528
Sevink, J et al, (2020), 'A multidisciplinary study of an exceptional prehistoric waste dump in the mountainous inland of Calabria (Italy): Implications for reconstructions of prehistoric land use and vegetation in Southern Italy', The Holocene, Vol. 30 (9), pp. 1310–1331. DOI: 10.1177/0959683620919974 journals.sagepub.com/home/hol
Ancient Grafitti: http://ancientgraffiti.org/Graffiti/
Information on the Alter of Mercury:
Bd. 135 (1930): Bonner Jahrbücher: Jahrbücher des Vereins von Altertumsfreunden im Rheinlande
https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/bjb/issue/view/3397
Das LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn: https://landesmuseum-bonn.lvr.de/de/sammlung/sammlungsgeschichte/geschichte_der_sammlung.html
RÖMISCHE STEINDENKMÄLER VON DER BONNER MÜNSTERKIRCHE
Hans Lehner: file:///C:/Users/lc14095/Downloads/38458-Artikeltext-121943-1-10-20170511.pdf
Photos of the Roman Forum are from Regency Romance: https://regencyromancewithatwist.com/2019/06/19/ruins-in-the-heart-of-the-roman-empire/
Image credit: By Fæ, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14491607

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