How Ancient Romans Made Perfectly Straight & Durable Roads, Concrete Better Than Ours, & Much More

The BrainFood Show

Cloud10

Education, History

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2026

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the video today we're looking at how the Ancient Romans made incredibly long, perfectly straight and incredibly durable roads, what it was like being a slave in ancient rome, how they made concrete better than ours, were they really as wild as we sometimes think today or more prudes, did gladiators really live or die based on thumbs up or thumbs down by the audience, that time a farmer was given ultimate power twice and changed the world by walking away both times after he'd done what Rome asked of him, what really happened on the ides of march, and the chickens that shaped world history. Host: Simon Whistler Producer: Pacience Hiskey 0:00 How Did the Ancient Romans Manage to Build Perfectly Straight, Ultra Durable Roads? 17:35 What was It Really Like to Be a Slave in Ancient Rome? 31:14 How Did the Ancient Romans Make Concrete So Much Better Than Ours? 41:42 Were the Ancient Romans Really Wildly Debauched or Actually Prudes 53:45 Did Gladiators Really Live or Die Based on Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down by the Audience? 1:04:24 That Time a Farmer was Given Ultimate Power Twice and Changed the World By Walking Away Both 1:14:55 Fact From Fiction: What Really Happened on the Ides of March? 1:37:03 The Chickens That Decided Ancient Rome’s Major Events and Shaped World History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:34.0	So in the video today we're answering a few of your question because Marbleasy asks us, how did the ancient Romans manage to build perfectly straight roads hundreds
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