The Gangs of Rome - Secret History DOCUMENTARY

A history documentary on the Gangs of Rome! You can claim your own turf with Established Titles! Go to https://establishedtitles.com/INVICTA10 and help support the channel. They are now running a massive sale, plus 10% off on any purchase with code INVICTA10.

While Rome was famed for establishing Law and Order across its Empire, in reality imperial authority did not extend very deeply into society. Thus in the power vacuums of antiquity, "unofficial" groups moved in to fill the void. In this history documentary we cover the gangs of Rome which occupied the political, religious, economic, sports, and military aspects of society.

The first section explores Roman Law and Order to establish a baseline for between the official and unoffical powers. We then look at the clientela and collegia which operated in the political sphere and how these gangs famously came to blows in the late Republic. We then turn to religion where various cults were seen as secret cabals working the shadows. Next we look at the publicani of the economic sphere, the chariot factions of the sports sphere, and finally the various groups in the military sphere.

00:00 Intro
01:39 Law and Order
05:40 Political Gangs
11:45 Religious Gangs
16:38 Economic Gangs
20:29 Sports Gangs
22:37 Military Gangs

Credits:
Research = Dr. Christina Hotalen
Script = Dr. Christina Hotalen
Narration = Invicta
Art = Penta Limited

Primary Sources
Suetonius, Life of Augustus
Livy, History of Rome
Apuleius, the Golden Ass
Cicero: De Domo Sua, De Officiis, De Haruspicum Responsis, De Provinciis Consularibus, Epistulae ad Atticum, Epistulae ad Familiares, Epistulae ad Familiares, In Pisonem, Pro Caelio, Pro Milone, Pro Sestio.
Josephus, Jewish War, Book 7, 8.2
Pliny, Ep. 10.33-34

Secondary Sources:
Garrett G. Fagan, “Urban Violence: Street, Forum, Bath, Circus, and Theater,” in The Topography of Violence in the Greco-Roman World, edited by Werner Riess and Garrett G. Fagan, 231-248. University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 2016.
Thomas Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire: Myth and Reality, translated by John Drinkwater. Routledge: London, 1999.
Jill Harries, Law and Crime in the Roman World. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2007.
A.W. Lintott, Violence in Republican Rome, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1968.
Jeffrey Tatum, “Gang Violence in the Late Roman Republic,” in The Cambridge World History of Violence, Vol. 1, edited by Garrett G. Fagan, Linda Fibiger, Mark Hudson and Matthew Trundle, 400-418. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2020.
Werner Riess, “The Roman Bandit (Latro) as Criminal and Outsider,” in Social Relations in Roman World, 693–714. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2012.
W. Nippel, (1984) “Policing Rome,” in JRS 74: 20–9
Garrett G. Fagan, “Roman Violence: Attitudes and Practice,” in The Cambridge World History of Violence, edited by Garrett G. Fagan, Linda Fibiger, Mark Hudson and Matthew Trundle, 550-571. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2020.
Richard Billows, Julius Caesar: the Colossus of Rome. Routledge Press: New York, 2009.
Franz Steiner and Verlag Stuttgart, Elections and Electioneering in Rome: A Study in the Political System of the Late Republic, 1999.

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