Comment by noduerme

Comment by noduerme 2 days ago

5 replies

It's amazing what people built 2000 years ago, and sort of depressing too. I went over to a friend's house recently who had gotten a new outdoor hot tub. That thing isn't going to last 3 winters let alone a volcanic eruption.

marginalia_nu 2 days ago

Wealthy Romans had a bit of a culture-boner for leaving a lasting legacy, maintaining the dynasty, and that sort of thing, and conversely often relied on ancestral clout to borrow credibility from. I don't think anyone today would try to base their credibility on being the distant relative of Ben Franklin in the way an upstart roman might invoke their familiar relationship with Scipio Africanus.

Makes sense they built stuff to last in such an environment.

  • ElevenLathe 2 days ago

    It was also impossible to make things out of fiberglass, but hand-carved stone was actually available.

    • marginalia_nu a day ago

      So was non-permanent building materials such as wood, to be fair.

  • beardyw 2 days ago

    I think also they were very much more in touch with their own mortality than is common today.

YouWhy a day ago

> That thing isn't going to last 3 winters let alone a volcanic eruption.

Could it have been a case of survivorship bias? I.e., perhaps jankier facilities have been built at Pompeii but simply did not make it at all or were not prioritized for excavation?