December 31, 2024 • 64 mins
Picture it: Sicily, 1922 BCE. You're traveling on an errand for your local city-state. Where will you find lodging for the night? Or will you have to camp and fall prey to bandits on the road? We explore ancient hospitality covering Ancient Greece, Persia, and the Roman Empire, including a notorious inn that had no room for a Jewish family traveling to Bethlehem.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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Hotel history is created for adult audiences. Content may not be suitable for all listeners.
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Discretion is advised.
You're listening to Hotel History. We take you with us through the sordid history and scandals
of some of the world's most famous and infamous hotels. I'm D'Etta. And I'm Yael. Let's get
started. So this episode is an interesting one. It's about ancient inns. And what's the reason
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we're covering this? Well, we had a lot of fun with our medieval inns episode for Christmas.
And we were thinking, okay, well, Hanukkah and Christmas happen at the same time this year. So
what can we do that kind of maybe has a little bit of a Hanukkah feel to it as well as Christmas?
And so we were thinking, you know, biblical style, like what's going on? What's going on with the
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with the ends of the year? Where did it all start? Yeah, exactly. And really, it definitely shows that
hospitality has been a necessary part of life and travel for the entirety of human existence,
just about at least since. Okay, so when you read the Bible, both the OG and the new G,
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just the Bible, but it's just all about people traveling. Yeah, and staying for the night.
They're like, and they traveled for miles, and then they stayed and ate some bread.
And then they traveled again, and they had some wine. Exactly. They traveled with their donkeys
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and all the riches that the king gave them. And then God said, don't travel here, travel there.
And they did. And angels said, good job. Now travel. Do you think God was just like one big
Yelp? He's a travel agent. He's like, I work on commission. And then like Moses would write a
(02:12):
review, like not worth the trip. Stay home. Moses prefers a Nile front. Yeah. Property.
So we're going to go back to, well, I have a question. This is a stupid question, and don't
add this in if it's too stupid, but ancient Greece was before the Bible was written.
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Like I want to know. It all kind of happens together. So like ancient Greece is happening
at the same time as some of the things are happening in the Bible. And it depends on which
time period in Greece, because if you're thinking like ancient Greece or like the classical period,
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which was in like 400 BCE. I don't know. I think the problem with all this ancient stuff is
it gets confusing after, no, let me be honest before the year 1600, it all was ancient.
Like someone, it just like, I'm like, I don't know. It sounds old, like sure. You know,
(03:23):
my brain could only comprehend certain centuries. Right. You know what I mean? Yes. Like it's a big
clump F before that. Also fun fact in fashion, because I went to fashion school, but we learned
about like the history of fashion and costume. And there was like a good 300 years, literally
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nothing changed aesthetically, like a bare minimum because everyone was poor and dying.
This was the fashion dark ages. It was the fact it was the dark ages,
with the fashion dark ages. And so I think it just kind of confuses people because you know,
you can visualize certain parts of the world at a certain times. Like ancient Greece is a very
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specific vibe. Yeah. And then you go like to, I don't know. I mean, like you can imagine in
the revolutionary war times, what they were wearing and like blah, blah, blah.
But then there's just like a bunch of times where it's just rags, just potato sacks, you know?
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So yeah. So when we're talking ancient Greece, think about anytime from like
1500 years before the common era up to like, you know, 300, 400 before the common era. So it's a
pretty big stretch of time. It's like a thousand years. Yeah. So the ancient Greeks, you know,
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they took their hospitality very seriously. That's what you're saying.
Yes, incredibly. The Greeks took their hospitality very seriously.
That's what you're saying.
The Greeks took their hospitality so seriously that it is a part of their mythology even.
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So have you ever heard of the Greek myth of Tantalus?
No, maybe.
I had actually, I had not heard of this. I love Greek mythology. And this was the first time I
had read this one. There's a few different versions, but the one that really rang true
for this one is that he was punished for all eternity in Hades by Zeus. He was made to stand
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in a pool of water, never quite able to reach the water to drink. And then there was a tree nearby
that he couldn't quite reach the fruit to eat it. So for all eternity, he can't drink or eat,
but it's right out of his reach. It's the origin of the word tantalizing.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. I figured it out.
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So you have to be wondering like, oh my God, what could somebody do to be punished in this
horrible way forever? It was, it was shoddy hospitality, man. He didn't,
uh, yeah, he treated his guests poorly. So specifically he was giving a dinner for the gods.
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He wanted to test them to see if they really did know everything. So he was like, maybe,
maybe they can't actually tell what they're eating. So he killed his son and cooked him in a stew
and served it to the gods at dinner. So of course, immediately all of the gods are like,
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something, right? Something, right? Except for one Demeter. Demeter was still upset because her
daughter Persephone had disappeared and she still hadn't found her. So she's not paying attention
and she takes a bite of the food. And they say that it was a chunk of his son's shoulder. Oh my
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God. So the gods figure out what happened. They put the son, Pelops, his name is Pelops,
Pelops. I'm gonna say Pelops sounds better. Yeah. They put him back together and make him live again.
But he, but he never got his shoulder back because Demeter had eaten it. So he had to have a
(07:34):
prosthetic shoulder made out of ivory. This is so specific. Yeah. So there was a, so there's a
version of Zeus that's like the hospitality Zeus and his name was Xenios Zeus. And this version of
Zeus was enraged that he had done this thing to his guests. And so he punished him. That's well,
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you know, okay. When you say shoddy hospitality, it sounds like, you know, they left some dirty
towels in the bathroom. Not like he served his son because he wanted to see, they really knew
everything. That is some fucked up shit. And he deserves to be in that puddle of water, whatever.
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There's, there's shoddy hospitality. And then there's turning your guests into cannibals.
Yeah. I think he deserves the punishment. Yeah, I would say so. I bet Pelops agrees.
Yeah. Well, he's missing a shoulder. So according to the epic poems by Homer,
offering hospitality to foreign visitors, which is the word Xenos in Greek, in one's residence was
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considered the greatest honor of all in ancient Greece. So hospitality is such a big deal that
it's even enshrined in these, you know, Homeric poems that everybody to this day still reads and
learns about. So every foreigner visiting Greece at those times was believed to be sacred. And so
they were granted the protection of the hospitality versions of Zeus, Xenios Zeus, and also Athena
(09:18):
of Xenia. So don't mess with travelers because they're protected. Do you think that modern day
Greece upholds these rules? Probably not. Probably not. I haven't been to Greece though, so I couldn't
say. Yeah, I don't know. Couldn't say. I mean, that's a good like scared tactic for people,
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you know, like you better be nice to the foreigners. Otherwise you're going to turn into stone.
Yeah. Try to keep bandits, you know, from bothering people on the roads or people from
or people from taking advantage of their guests in some way. Yeah. Because I think you can tell
a lot about a society by how they treat the foreigner in their midst. Yeah, there's a lot of
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like, people have a weird relationship with tourists. And I, as a New Yorker, I find it to be
strange because we New Yorkers were very annoying. Like we're very, what's the word?
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We have things to do, places to go. We're just very anxious people. So we get annoyed at
foreigners, like not foreigners, but tourists because, you know, they want to come and see.
We get annoyed, whatever. But like, I would never purposely be mean to tourists or to,
like, you know, like to people because people are like really, there's something going on where
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they're like, yeah, they deserve to die. I'm like, no, I get annoyed. Like I want them to move out
of my way, but they're not like bad people for coming and wanting to see the city, you know.
Yeah. It's just, there has to be a line. You can be like, okay, stop being like super excited
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and like, oh, welcome. Right. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, we said in our last one on Medieval Ends
that the ale houses were like the old school Airbnb, but actually the ancient Greeks kind of
invented Airbnb because they actually had space in their homes for foreigners to stay there.
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So because it was such an honor to take care of travelers. So the landlord was called a word that
means hotelier basically, zinadojos, which is the same word that Greeks use today to call somebody
who runs a hotel. Really? Yeah. And they also had steginamos or estiopamon or nakleros. Okay.
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Titles that stated a citizen's responsibility to offer his hospitality to a foreigner.
So the fact that they have that many words for it, it tells you how important it was. So the owner
of the house had the sacred duty to offer the zinia to the visiting foreigner. That is the best
possible hospitality. That's crazy. I think that more people should take pride in their hospitality.
(12:33):
Yeah. I think that's so great. I mean, I don't know that I want to necessarily have to have
a standing space in my house because I'm going to put books there, but so they can sleep with the
books. They probably are it. That's true. We had a whole episode about that. Yeah. I mean, honestly,
it's to have a guest bedroom. Like it is a sign of luxury. Yeah. So people should be kind of proud.
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And I think it's a shame. I think it's a shame if you have the space and you don't offer it.
I think it's a very nice thing to do to be a good host and to have someone stay and make sure that
they feel comfortable. And I'm with the Greeks on this one. Yeah. It's a very selfless thing to do
and says, I don't mind inconveniencing or myself putting myself out a little bit to help my fellow
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man. So there was an exception to this etiquette in ancient Greece and the exception to this etiquette
was an ancient Sparta. They had a different mentality about it. It does not surprise me.
They were like always wanting to be the opposite of the rest of the Greeks. Yeah. They're also like
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really intense. It was the so-called, I'm going to say this wrong, Xenolasia. Yeah, that looks
right. Xenolasia. So it's the intention to refuse hospitality to Zenos. Wow. Wow. But
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the Spartans only offered hospitality to famous and honorable foreigners in their state because
they want the money. And they were just like, again, they're name droppers.
They were like the elitist hotels that we know of that are just like, oh, you're not rich and famous.
They got to have a care. We're not. But a big thing was that they didn't, they were against
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offering hospitality because they didn't want to be influenced by other cultures. So their
xenophobia plays a bit of a, they're xenophobic to the Zenos. Oh my God. They're xenophobic.
To the Zenos. Oh my God. It's all crap. Wait a minute. So we're just learning English. That must
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be where that, that the root of that is, which I never knew, but that totally makes sense.
Cause you're yeah, because you are afraid of whatever is different other than you like of
people who are from other cultures. So they didn't want to be influenced by other cultures, but they
seem like such a strong, like, like, uh, like nothing would really influence that them that
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easily. They were so prideful. Right. Yeah. But I guess that's, that shows you the fragility.
You know what they were? They were toxic. They were, they were so scared if they weren't like,
you know, they, they would, it's just, it's, it's exactly what you think it is. Yeah.
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I'm here. I'm loud and annoying and proud, but I'm also really insecure. And so no one has,
no one's allowed to come next to me. My armor is so thin that one little chip from someone else is
going to bring the whole thing crashing down. You know, this makes me think of a little bit. It
makes me think of, you know, that Island that's somewhere near India where nobody can go because
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the people who live on the Island just immediately start shooting arrows at you. If you try to land
your boat. That's kind of what that makes me think of. Yeah. Yeah. Because they probably know
they'll be easily influenced by technology. Okay. Imagine you live on this Island. You're thinking
like, this is the world. Someone comes and is like, here's an iPad. Forget about it. Forget it.
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It's like, you'd be blown away. You're just like, I'm done. Peace. I'm going to go.
So, so Xenia, this offering of hospitality also kind of worked in a diplomatic sense
because it's made sure that foreign dignitaries, traders and guests were going to be treated
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really well while they're visiting different city states throughout
Greece. And so this is offered by kind of like, almost like a diplomat, but not quite. It's
it was called the office of the Proxenose and a Proxenose was a city appointed official.
He could be like a native of that city or he would be an immigrant from a different city who
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is now living there. So like a resident alien, and he would look after the citizens of a specific
foreign city when they visited. So like, if a native citizen of Athens or a native citizen of
if a native citizen of Athens or a resident, Corinthian living in Athens would be appointed
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Proxenose for visitors of Corinth. So he's responsible for diplomacy between the cities.
He's responsible for the interests of these citizens that are visiting. And that could be
from something like just getting them tickets to a show that they want to see, or actually like
helping them get an audience with a city official. So are they like a concierge? They are kind of
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like concierge. Yeah, that sounds exactly what they are. Yeah, like a government concierge.
Yeah. In addition to cities, actually trade groups and other organizations could also appoint their
own Proxenose to make sure that their clients are treated well when they're traveling.
One thing that I thought was really interesting is that some scholarship
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suggests that the Proxenose might also have been a bit of a spy at times, that they might actually
be gathering intelligence for their native city. So that if there's a conflict happens,
they've got some intelligence to help their homeland. With all of that, there is actually
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little evidence that there was like a system of inns in these ancient Greek cities. Although it
does seem like they would set up some kind of temporary shelter during festivals and things
like that for tourists that are coming in, which would have been organized like they would like
have a central courtyard and then have beds and places for animals and storage and stuff like that.
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But it's not going to be like a formal system like we're going to see later that Rome had,
because of course Rome had something formalized and intricate.
Yeah, they got their shit together. Yeah. But even though they don't necessarily have evidence of
these systems of inns, travel was still very popular in ancient Greece. People, tourists are
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traveling all over the Mediterranean to go on religious pilgrimages, to go sightseeing.
There were festivals, tons of reasons that people would have been traveling back then.
So probably another reason why it was so important to have people willing to offer you lodging in
their homes if there is not this system of inns for you to rely on when you're traveling.
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It's also safer, right? Because if you stay at someone's home that you trust, you don't have to
risk bandits or people stealing your stuff or a corrupt innkeeper. It feels safer, in my opinion,
especially at that time. Yeah. These places had a place for your horse and all your animals.
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And today they don't even give you freaking free parking. Oh my God, right? Like, dude,
they had stables for horses baked into the place. Yeah. And now it's like... And it's way more work
to take care of someone's horse than it is to let someone park their car and not charge $60 a night
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or whatever. Or make you pay for a valet. Oh, yes. Good tangent. So another reason that a lot of
people traveled was to watch sports because of course the Olympics was a pretty big deal back
then as it is now. And so that event would draw travelers from all across Greece. And they actually
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think that more than 50,000 people would make the journey to witness the games that they would be
able to watch. And so they would be able to make the journey to witness the games during the second
century AD. So this is a little bit more modern, not ancient Greece, but... Still, that was like
all the people in the world. Like there weren't that many people, were there? I don't think so.
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I think there probably were. Are you sure? Yeah. Because I feel like there were not that many
people. There were more than 50,000, but like how many more? More. Because they were big cities.
Yeah. But you know what? Okay. I looked something up. This is totally not related, but kind of.
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I looked up the population of the U.S. like in the beginning of the 20th century, and it was only like
75 million people or something like that. Like the amount that we have grown in the past
150 years. Oh, sure. Google says that the global population around 1000 BCE was approximately
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50 million people. Okay. It wasn't everyone, but that means 50,000 people were a lot of people.
That was a lot of people. Yeah. That was a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. The world, the population,
of course, was nowhere near what it is now, but there was still millions of people. Okay.
I thought there were like next a million.
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That brings us to the Persian Empire next. The Persian Empire did have a very
formal and well laid out system of inns. So they were called caravan sarai, which originates from
the Persian words caravan or caravan, caravan and sarai house. So they were roadside inns that
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provided shelter, food, water, everything that you needed. If you were a caravan, a pilgrim,
and a pilgrim traveling along these trade routes, which in the Persian Empire, massive amounts of
trade routes happening, including the spice road and the silk road. Yeah. So there had to be a lot
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of places to stay because that was like the center of the universe. Yes. So to put us in
the timeline, the earliest caravan sarai traced back to the Acha-Meenid Empire's royal road,
which was around 559 BC. And since it is Hanukkah, while we're recording this for the
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Jews listening, this was during Cyrus the Great's reign of Persia. And Cyrus the Great, of course,
was the Persian Emperor who let us go back to Israel after the Babylonian captivity.
Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So you're going to say it's Ahashverosh. No.
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I'm confused with my Persian thing. Different one, different story, different story.
Oh, that's true. That is it. I'm thinking we're in Perum. Oh, God. Sorry about that.
So the royal road was a major ancient highway that stretched 2,500 kilometers from Sardis to Sousa,
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historical records such as Herodotus's writings indicate the existence of these structures
as incredibly important elements on the road. They provided safe havens on a journey that could be
incredibly dangerous. So they were all strategically placed, ensuring that no two were more than 25
miles apart, which is the maximum distance that a caravan could travel in a day. So it was like to
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always have someone nearby, like a group of people. Yeah. So that way your caravan didn't have to
camp on the road, which would make you very vulnerable. And so instead you knew that every
single night you were going to be able to hit another inn. Yeah. Okay. See smart. They,
they figured it out. And so in addition to offering your normal amenities of an inn,
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they were also of course important for society because there are places where people from
different ethnicities, languages, religions could all gather. You think you might not be there for
a very long time. You're just there for a night, but all of these people night after night are
exchanging ideas with each other. Yeah. I feel like this is a, well, the silk road was like,
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that like changed the world, right? Yeah. That basically globalized the world.
I could imagine why it's so important. And also, yeah, humanized people, you know, you meet people
from different backgrounds, different religions, different cultures. Yeah. A great way to not
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fall prey to xenophobia. But they're designed for these caravans to come and accommodate a lot of
travelers and their animals and provide security because, you know, you can't just sit in camp.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it gives them, you know, a measure of safety. So the layout of them was
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very similar to a lot of things that we still see because they actually influenced a lot of things,
but they had a central courtyard, one entrance, and then rooms would surround the courtyard where
there were private rooms for sleeping. There were storage areas and places to keep the animals as
well. Kind of gives motel vibes. Yeah, a little bit. It's like roadside in, roadside motor lodge.
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So this layout did evolve over the centuries with each era kind of adding its own little
spin to it because these caravanserais were being built for basically 1,400 years. Like they were a
very long lasting type of architecture in Iran. Some of them still exist. I mean, they're not
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functioning, but they're, they, some of them exist and are functioning. Yeah. Wow. Because they turned
them into hotels. Genius. Yeah. I didn't know that they kept them functioning. I just saw
on the UNESCO page, like they have them that are preserved, but I didn't know that you can use them.
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I thought that would be illegal. Yeah. Well, obviously the ones that are just archaeological
digs or non-functioning are, you know, they're just heritage sites to visit, but they did manage
to restore some and turn them into hotels. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. So that courtyard
that was in the center is what served as the communal area. And that's where everybody's
(28:32):
going to rest, exchange stories. And they would also trade goods with each other inside
the caravanserai because I mean, that's a perfect little marketplace ready, ready set up to go. So
it's a pop-up. Yeah. So a lot of the trading is actually happening inside of these caravanserai,
which kind of makes me think of the medieval inn as well, because people would do the same thing
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there as the merchants are traveling from end to end, they trade what they need to in the end.
So yeah, it doesn't seem like it changed that much for quite like a few hundred years.
I feel like only, not today, but maybe in the past like a hundred years. Do you think that
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that's what's missing in modern hotels is this kind of communal area where people could
do business and talk? Because I don't feel like that's the vibe.
The only place where I think that that does still happen is the hotel bar. I think people
are more likely to talk to people outside of their own party at the hotel bar. But yeah,
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but otherwise, even in the lobby, even though it's a communal area, people are keeping to
themselves. They're not really talking to the other people staying at the hotel.
Yeah. That's sad. We got to bring back the pop-up shops and hotels.
So the construction of these actually continued up until the early 20th century.
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So this is like this unbroken tradition of architecture for Iran. And they were actually
often built with donations, which sort of reflects the Islamic ethos of caring for travelers.
So there's this also kind of this ongoing theme of hospitality, caring for the traveler,
(30:26):
for the stranger. That's really important in these different cultures.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like a lot of these cultures have, they take it very seriously.
Yeah. Don't mess with the traveler.
And which if the traveler is bringing you, you know, all of this economic bounty, I can
see why they would definitely want to protect them for sure. But also it seems like even just
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the regular tourist, the regular pilgrim also really wants to protect the traveler.
Pilgrim also received this. So it wasn't just like a monetary based transactional system,
but like they genuinely cared. It also says here, well, let's finish,
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I guess, talking about the architecture and how they were very intricate decorations.
And if anyone is familiar with like Persian art and Persian architecture and interior design,
you know that it is not Scandinavian style. Minimalism is not a thing.
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It's really beautiful. And like there's like Farsi even inscribed and written on certain parts
of the walls you can see in some of the pictures. Or it looks, I don't know if it is Farsi or it
looks like Farsi because it has that like same intricate design. But some of it is, I think,
(31:55):
might be Farsi actually. It probably is because yeah, because in Iran they use the Arabic script,
but they never stopped speaking Farsi. So Farsi is written in Arabic. So that's probably,
it is probably Farsi that you're seeing just its Arabic script.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it just looks like it blends in so well.
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And of course, there's going to be lots of influence from Islamic architecture as Islam
sweeps across the area in the 700s, I believe, and from then on. So it's going to have that
like geometric mosaic vibe in some of them as well. And then the caravanserai actually influenced
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other architectural forms in Persia, like their mosques and palaces would, you know,
start to take on this same layout. So the caravanserai even have a place in Farsi
literature, especially in poetry. They say they are used as metaphors for life's journey and
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the transient nature of existence. That is like deep. The literature describes them as places
where diverse cultures converge and mingle. Naturally. Yeah, it makes sense. Pretty on the
nose. They also say that the caravanserai are often used as the setting of like for tales about love
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and adventure and philosophical contemplation. So that makes sense because you can meet the love
of your life, I guess, there, just like other people and someone, you know, giving you a job
that's an adventure or having a political or philosophical debate. But I feel like it can be
(33:56):
a really good setting for a love story. They romanticize a lot of the caravanserai stories,
is what I understand. So yeah, I can see how that would you would kind of like how we romanticize
the medieval tavern, which is why we did an episode on it. I can see how this their culture
(34:19):
would romanticize this idea of this caravanserai from the past and all of these travelers and
merchants and people coming and going and all of the stories that could happen there.
This website, surf Iran.com. It actually has an article about them. And they say,
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in Farsi literature, caravanserai often represent a microcosm of the world, a place where human
interactions with all their complexities and nuances unfold. I thought that was so great.
For the people who are able to go there are caravanserai that have been converted into hotels,
like the Abasi caravanserai in Isfahan. It was originally built during the Safavid era,
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which was like a 200 year era from like the 1500s to the 1700s. It's been restored and transformed
into the Abasi hotel. It retains much of its original architecture, including the central
courtyard and is renowned for its intricate Persian artwork. So that sounds great.
Too bad we can't go. Another example is the Zainodin caravanserai. Does that sound right?
(35:36):
The Zainodin? Yeah. Sure. It sounds good to me. It sounds good. It's in Yazd, also in Iran.
And it's an example of a caravanserai on the Silk Road, as opposed to like the Spice Road or the
Royal Road. It also dates back to the Safavid era and has a distinctive circular design, which was
really rare among the caravanserai, which were usually rectangular or square, because obviously
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that's much easier to build. I mean, these extended across like a huge geographical region. So some of
them were different in their architecture, because some of them are in areas where it's going to snow
a lot and others are in deserts and others are, you know, mountainous areas. So their architecture
does differ a little bit to kind of put up with their climate. And then I think 54 of this existing
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caravanserais have been made into like one giant UNESCO World Heritage Site. Oh, wow.
Yeah, if they're still intact, then why not? Those are old.
Yeah, and it sounds like it's a very intrinsic part of Persian history.
(36:49):
If you're a part of the Silk Road, you got history.
Yeah.
Finally, we have come to the Roman Empire.
So this was really confusing to try to like tease out all these different types of establishments,
(37:10):
because of course, it's Rome. The Roman Empire was huge. You know, it developed over time,
but still they were very methodical. They, you know, they always had a system in place
for something, you know. So of course, they had a very formal system of lodging.
So that we're going to start with the man's manzio or manzio.
(37:33):
Before we start, is manzio short for manchun?
No, but the word manchun does come from manzio.
I know it.
So it's an official, this is an official stopping place on a Roman road. So it is maintained by the
central government for the use of officials and those on official business while traveling.
So they're normally in the form of a villa, and they were usually pretty big. Guests had to provide
(37:58):
a passport to identify themselves. And they also were in like a very strict distance from each other,
because carts could travel about 30 kilometers a day, and pedestrians a little bit further. So each
one was roughly 30 kilometers from the next. In Britain, the manzio was a little bit more
(38:19):
than 30 kilometers from the next. In Britain, the Roman town of Vininai and Lycester,
I hate the names of British places, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester,
Listerine Shire. Anyway, anyway, Lister, sure. It probably accommodated at least one manzio
(38:43):
as it featured in the Antonine Itinerary, which is a third century imperial travelogue.
Woo. Yeah, I also love this is one thing I learned is that like, people wrote travel books
and stuff back then. What was it? It was like, dear diary, today, men's sister came to town.
(39:05):
It was like, I came to this town and I stayed at this manzio, which was excellent, but I ate
this restaurant, which was shit. And the service here is terrible. Don't go here.
OK, so Yelp did exist. Yelp did exist years and years ago. And everyone's getting all mad
that they're like, oh, my God, Yelp is ruining everything. Is it though? Yeah, no. Bad reviews
(39:29):
have existed because humans don't change. This is what we see. We don't. We are the same basic
creature from era to era. And we love to complain. So next up is the Capone. And this is for your
non official travelers. So if you're not on government business, you're probably going to
(39:51):
maybe stay at a capo. So sometimes these were at the same location as the manzio and they were
just like off from it a little bit. So they perform the same functions. They could be a little more
disreputable because they were frequented by thieves and prostitutes at times. So some of them
were some of them weren't graffiti on the walls of a few whose ruins have been found. I'll tell a
(40:18):
lot about the prostitutes there. But you could also get food and drink at a capo and so that that
was something that was really good for travelers because not every establishment, you know, always
offers the same things. Some of the Capone, it was going to be like basic accommodations that if
(40:38):
there were, you know, some rooms above the shop or something, it was kind of like a hostel, no?
Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not quite as cheap. I would say there's there were probably some other
ones that were. But yeah, it kind of sounds like it. The Taberna, which is where we get our word
tavern, as we talked about in our last episode, was the name for a shop. It could be selling wine,
(41:04):
cheese, books, whatever. Yeah, they were all to Berna. I'm sorry, they were all Tabernay.
That's the plural form. I thought it was tabernay. I don't know. But the plural form of the word was
used to describe roadside ends that were found between towns. And these are where genteel travelers
were going to stay because they wanted something better than the Kappa. And I was in between the
(41:30):
man, CEO better than the Cabernet. It was. Yeah. Yeah. Because the man, CEO was for official
business, you know, government workers or something like that. So if you can't get into the man, CEO,
but you are well-heeled, you're going to maybe stay at the Tabernay.
Yeah, that makes sense. There always got to be. We love our class. In the early days of the Roman
(41:56):
roads, when most travel was official travel, not a lot of people were just out and about houses
placed near the road were required by law to offer hospitality on demand. I don't know if I would buy
a house on the road. I know. I bet those were cheaper than houses far from the road, kind of like now.
(42:21):
Yeah. Frequented houses, no doubt became the first Tabernay. So, you know, eventually if your house
is near the road and you keep having to let these people stay, you might as well just turn it into a
business. But so as Rome grew, the Tabernay did as well. They became more luxurious. They could acquire
good reputations, bad reputations, depending on who's coming there. But one of the best was the
(42:48):
Tabernay Cytusci? Yeah, what is that? Cytusci? I don't know. So this Tabernay that was in Senuessa
had a large storage room with barrels of wine, cheese, ham. So, you know, it's the kind that was
probably more for the upper classes. They had the food and the drink. People were there.
(43:16):
Yeah, but if there was, you know, a Tabernay complex, a city might grow up around it. So
Rhinzaburn in the Rhineland and Saverny in Alsace, which is in France, are places that started out
as a Tabernay complex and then the city actually grew up around it. Oh, that's really cool. I think
(43:40):
that happens a lot, but usually it happens with like ports and stuff. Yeah. Not just the Tabernay.
So both Kalponae and Tabernay could have mixed reputations. Like we said, some people are
saying these are great and some people say these are places where bad things happen.
(44:03):
Are you getting diseases? Yeah. So ancient writers like Ammianus Marcellus, he regarded them as
places for the poorest and lowest classes. The poet Horace regarded them as greasy. So there's a
little bit, definitely a little bit of class disparity happening there. That sounds like
(44:27):
the elites being like, ew, that's where the poor people stay. Well, the next thing is when you find
out this little fact, it makes sense because some of the Tabernays had a reputation that the
waitstaff wouldn't just offer services like food and drink, but sexual services as well. Yep.
(44:55):
Yeah. So it's hard. I can see why they would have mixed reputations. You got to know which
one you're going to, to know what the amenities will be. It was an all-inclusive resort.
This was two for one. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, some of these places were indistinguishable
from brothels, basically. Cicero actually owned seven establishments like that, where you could
(45:19):
get room, board, and a girl for the night. But he claimed it was impossible to stay more than 24
hours in one. So his probably were not best accommodations. Yeah. That sounds pretty, I mean,
I've been in a hotel that I wouldn't have stayed. I didn't want to stay one, I didn't want to stay
(45:40):
eight hours of sleeping in it. So yeah, I can imagine how bad that was. Can you imagine staying
in any of these places at any time? Like, oh my God, the smell. Yeah. The smells. I want to stay
where the rich people get to stay. Yeah. I want to stay where the rich people stay because you know
(46:04):
that their bathrooms or buckets of feces were in a different room than you. Yeah. And regularly
dumped. Yeah. So the Hospitium is the actual Roman hotel. Originally they were rented rooms
in private homes, which is how their name derives from. Airbnb. Yeah, exactly. Their name is
(46:26):
from the principle of hospitia or hospitality, which a Roman host owed to his guests. As time
progressed, hospitia became solely commercial. And so many were former private homes that had
been converted so that they could offer food, drink, and lodging. Many offered private dining rooms,
(46:48):
gardens, and formal atriums. So these are really getting to be your fancy schmancy establishments.
Other smaller hospitia were more basic and styled like the Capone with a central bar area for eating
and rooms for sleeping elsewhere. But these were often regarded as seedy because travelers often
(47:09):
rented little more than a bug infested mattress and blanket on the floor of a shared room.
One famous hospitia in Pompeii, which was the higher class, was the House of Salist, which was
a house that was converted into a hotel from a private residence during the Augustan period.
(47:30):
Wait, so Pompeii was all wealthy people? I think it was a lot of wealthy people because it was
like where they would go to vacation and live and stuff. But I think there were there was lots of
people there that that weren't wealthy. So, oh, okay. I think it's like a resort town where
there's the townies and the... Okay, that makes sense. But I feel like Pompeii would have the most
(47:55):
well-preserved hospitia. Yes, they do. So we really know what went down there. So our next one is,
it's a stabula. It's like a Roman motel found in the entrances of towns and cities.
Their main difference from hospitia was that they offered facilities for stabling animals as well as
(48:18):
rooms for guests. See, again, when you offer places for your horses, people are going to like it.
That's true. So I guess that's where we get our word stable from. Oh, stabling the animals? Yeah,
because at a stabula, they're keeping your animals. Oh my God, we're learning the origins of English.
(48:39):
So much etymology in this episode. Yeah. It was easy to recognize a stabulum,
I say stabulum, as it always had a ramped entrance sloping onto the street to allow access to carts
and pack animals. I think this place was good if you had a lot of animals who were traveling with
(49:01):
because animals were accommodated in stables at the back of the premises, generally in the
courtyard area faced by kitchens and latrines. Is latrines bathrooms? Yeah. That's such a nice
word for it. Yeah, it's way better. At least we say bathroom. A lot of people say toilet.
They're like, where's the toilet? I'm like, listen, you don't need to get specific.
(49:25):
If you just say bathroom, then maybe you just need to wash your hands. Like we don't know what
you're doing in there. It's vague. Guests would typically stay at the front of the complex. So
the animals would be in the back. Guests would stay in the front, although they could also be
accommodated in rooms above the stables. You know what those rooms were for? The poor people?
(49:46):
The poor people who wanted the wait staff to also give them extra service.
Because I bet the rooms above the stables don't cost as much as the rooms at the front.
So what if you're rich? Then you are probably going to be staying with friends.
So the elite would stay. Usually they had country villas. So when they wanted to go on vacation,
(50:08):
they would just go to their country villa that either they or their friends owns.
Many famous Roman figures owned villas in Tusculum, which was just 20 kilometers from Rome.
So it was just a quick little jaunt out into the country from the big city. Campania, which is
300 kilometers south of Rome along the Amalfi Coast, was another popular tourist spot. No
(50:31):
surprise there. I'm pretty sure the Amalfi Coast is still a very popular tourist spot. So that
included well-known resort towns like Pompeii and Naples. And writings from the time even include
scenes of children making sandcastles on the beach, though their sandcastles obviously are
going to be in the shape of Roman villas because castles don't exist.
(50:52):
Oh my God, you make a very good point.
Castles don't exist then. Yeah. So it's so cool. Kids are doing exactly what they do now,
but just in whatever their cultural familiarity is.
(51:13):
That's crazy. So maybe somewhere on the Silk Road, if there's a coastal area,
a kid was making a sand caravan, Sarai. Oh, that's actually really cute.
I feel like it's better than a sandcastle. Probably easier too.
(51:39):
Yeah. So there, I mean, there was quite a bit of travel during the Roman Empire,
especially since they did have much better roads than existed before. Another reason for travel is
that teachers would take their students on summer trips to escape the heat. So here they would be
hosted in villas along the way. So once again, because if you're a student that has your own
(52:04):
private tutor, your parents are pretty well off. So you're going to be able to... When you say
student and teacher, I'm like, the whole class is coming... Yeah. So it's going to be like a private
tutor who has like three or four students with him or something. Soldiers are also going to be part of
the tourists that are going to and from, because they could take leave from their army service to
(52:29):
explore whatever region they're in. If they can go a certain distance away to make sure that they're
back in time from their leave. And then many vacation towns were family friendly. So families
are going to take these vacations just like we do now. And then of course, some like
(52:50):
Bayi were not family friendly. So Bayi was like the Roman Las Vegas. And yeah, it was known for
hedonism. There were beach parties, revelry, lewd women. It was called the... I love how the women
are always the lewd ones. Yeah, there were no lewd men, only lewd women. Of course, those didn't
(53:13):
exist. But it was known as the Vortex of Luxury and the Harbor of Vice. Oh, those are good names for
a city. They are. I just like the name like Bayi. I feel like you'd have to sing it. You can't just
say, where are you going? Bayi. So yeah, so Rome had lots of places too that you could travel to.
(53:42):
Rome, you're going to party. I expected nothing less from the Romans.
So technically a part of the Roman Empire. Yeah. So maybe the most famous or infamous, notorious
(54:05):
inn of the Roman Empire was one that was supposed to be found in a tiny little village called
Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea. This is the inn that Mary and Joseph were allegedly
not able to take refuge in. So here's the thing. I don't know the story that well,
(54:33):
because I grew up very Jewish. I'm always learning. I really thought that Jesus was born
in his garage, basically, like his little hut outside his house where they kept like the animals.
But apparently this is not true. And where did I get this information? Nowhere. My brain.
(54:57):
You had a few details and you just tried to fill in the rest the best you could.
Yeah, I just filled them in. Yeah. So the story goes that at the time that Mary was pregnant
with Jesus, that there was supposedly a empire wide census going on and everybody had to report
(55:20):
back to their ancestral town to be counted for the census. And so that is why even though
Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, they were on their way to Bethlehem because that was
where Joseph was ancestrally from because he's of the line of David. So they get to Bethlehem and
(55:41):
Mary is always seen as like she's about to pop. We don't actually know at what point in her pregnancy
they would have gotten there. But Luke 2, 7 says Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped
him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.
(56:03):
So this always gives this idea of, you know, they get to town, they try to find an inn, try to get a
room. And they're like, sorry, there's so many people here for this census that we just don't
have any room for you. Like go post up in our stable. And that's why the Nativity scene is
always in this kind of cave or stable looking area with all of the animals and the manger filled with
(56:26):
hay. But there are problems with this whole story. There's inconsistencies in the Bible.
There's inconsistencies in the dogma. Oh no, you're the first one to bring it up.
So looking at all of these things, these different types of hotels that are in that we have just
talked about in the Roman Empire, which one of these, which one of these would they have found
(56:52):
in Bethlehem? Well, probably none of them.
Bethlehem was different. It wasn't like, you know, Rome, Rome. I feel like if anything, it would be
more similar to the Persian Empire. No, no, it's not so fancy. They weren't fancy, the Bethlehemians.
(57:16):
Yeah. Well, yeah, Bethlehem was a small village, so it probably didn't have an inn at all. Like it
was probably too small to even require such a thing. Not a lot of people travel into Bethlehem
on a regular basis. Yeah. So maybe they had like, not an inn, but like, I guess like a stable,
(57:42):
well, so if you needed a place to stay when you're arriving in Bethlehem, you're probably
going to, if you don't know anybody, you're probably just going to rent a guest room in
someone's house. So back to that, you know, more common idea of take care, you know, hospitality,
take care of the traveler, let them stay in your home. If you have family, of course, you're going
(58:04):
to just stay with your family in the area. So since Joseph is traveling back to his ancestral
home of Bethlehem, it's very, very, very likely that they had family in the village and that that's
where they were going to be staying is with a family member. Yeah, that's true. Why would they
(58:25):
stay at an inn if that's where they're from? So another problem linguistically is that the English
word in, in that verse is actually a Greek word, but the Greek word that means in is pandoxion.
If I'm saying that right, which is not used here, Luke uses the word catalima and based on the verb
(58:52):
catalio, which means to put down one's things. Catalima is simply any sheltered space used as a
resting place, but it also is used to just mean room. So there was no room in the room.
So the custom of this region was to have a guest room upstairs for people to stay in. So Mary and
(59:13):
Joseph aren't looking for an inn to rent a room in. They are hoping to be able to stay in the
upstairs guest room of one of their relatives houses. But because all of these visitors, all
these other family members are in town for this census, they get there too late, it's full. There's
no room for them in the guest house. What does that mean? Does that mean, oh no, they do have to
(59:38):
go sleep in the stable outside? It does not. The usual design for a home in ancient Israel was known
as a pillared house or a four-room house. And this pattern is pretty consistent. So among periods,
so the main floor typically had four rooms, which are divided around the house's pillars.
(01:00:01):
So picture like a capital letter E as the shape of the house if you're viewing it from above.
And each of the four lines of the E are a room. Since Joseph and Mary can't sleep in the cataluma
in the upper room, it doesn't mean that they have to go outside and sleep in the stable. They're
(01:00:22):
actually just going to sleep on the main floor of the house because most households did not have
a special structure for the animals. That would have been a major luxury. So even though professional
stuff with the goats and the sheep. So professional shepherds might have used like community sheep pens
outside the city, but in the city, people just need a few sheep or goats for their household milk and
(01:00:49):
stuff. So they're going to keep these penned up in the downstairs room at night. So they go outside
into the yard basically during the day, and then they bring them in at night and pin them in one
of the downstairs areas. And then they have like a feeding trough or something set up for them.
(01:01:09):
So yeah, so Joseph and Mary would have had to go be in the area where the animals are kept at night,
but they probably wouldn't have been alone. There may have been others that also showed up and there
wasn't room for them. And so they also chilled out on the main floor of the house. With the goats and
the sheep. Yeah. Well, remember there's different rooms because it's an E shape. So there's...
(01:01:32):
Whenever they do the nativity scene, it's always there's a little goat or sheep in there. Yeah,
but the nativity scene is a stable where there wouldn't really have been a separation between
things. But the nativity scene is false. Yeah, the nativity scene is wrong. Yes, for me. Yeah. So later
(01:01:53):
readers misunderstood Luke's narrative because they weren't familiar with the practice of lodging
animals inside the family house on the lower floor. So, and then also, you know, the mention of a
manger of her laying Jesus in a manger makes people just assume that, oh, this is out in the
(01:02:15):
stable where the animals in the manger for them to eat are kept. They just didn't know that in Israel
at this time on the main floor is where the animals would stay. And so there would need to be a trough
of some sort for them to eat. And that would have been a convenient place for Mary to lay the baby.
I'm telling you, we're misinterpreting. We're misinterpreting a lot. You know, I feel like
(01:02:38):
there's a lot of things that we could. Yeah. So they're not like out in the cold, all alone,
giving birth as a tired, poor little family. They're in their cousin's house with like people
running up and down the ladder and being like, and you know, I mean... Probably offering them some snacks.
Yeah. Mary, you need to eat. But yeah, so the most infamous inn in the world probably didn't exist.
(01:03:12):
Do you think that there are like inns in Bethlehem today or hotels that are like actually...
This is where... Oh, I'm sure there are. I'm sure there are, but no, they just stayed with Uncle
Mordecai. I mean... Very fascinating. So basically the last story is that there wasn't an inn at all.
Exactly. I mean, that is so ingrained in the Christmas story that there's no way that's ever
(01:03:40):
going away. Like it's with us forever. But... I feel like a lot of things are ingrained. I mean,
you're talking about this last time is that a lot of Christmas traditions are pagan.
Like no one's going to ever take that away. No, no. Yeah. Yeah. Just it's part of it now.
It's just part of the Christmas lore.
Hotel history is created for adult audiences. Content may not be suitable for all listeners.
(00:06):
Discretion is advised.
You're listening to Hotel History. We take you with us through the sordid history and scandals
of some of the world's most famous and infamous hotels. I'm D'Etta. And I'm Yael. Let's get
started. So this episode is an interesting one. It's about ancient inns. And what's the reason
(00:33):
we're covering this? Well, we had a lot of fun with our medieval inns episode for Christmas.
And we were thinking, okay, well, Hanukkah and Christmas happen at the same time this year. So
what can we do that kind of maybe has a little bit of a Hanukkah feel to it as well as Christmas?
And so we were thinking, you know, biblical style, like what's going on? What's going on with the
(01:00):
with the ends of the year? Where did it all start? Yeah, exactly. And really, it definitely shows that
hospitality has been a necessary part of life and travel for the entirety of human existence,
just about at least since. Okay, so when you read the Bible, both the OG and the new G,
(01:27):
just the Bible, but it's just all about people traveling. Yeah, and staying for the night.
They're like, and they traveled for miles, and then they stayed and ate some bread.
And then they traveled again, and they had some wine. Exactly. They traveled with their donkeys
(01:47):
and all the riches that the king gave them. And then God said, don't travel here, travel there.
And they did. And angels said, good job. Now travel. Do you think God was just like one big
Yelp? He's a travel agent. He's like, I work on commission. And then like Moses would write a
(02:12):
review, like not worth the trip. Stay home. Moses prefers a Nile front. Yeah. Property.
So we're going to go back to, well, I have a question. This is a stupid question, and don't
add this in if it's too stupid, but ancient Greece was before the Bible was written.
(02:37):
Like I want to know. It all kind of happens together. So like ancient Greece is happening
at the same time as some of the things are happening in the Bible. And it depends on which
time period in Greece, because if you're thinking like ancient Greece or like the classical period,
(03:00):
which was in like 400 BCE. I don't know. I think the problem with all this ancient stuff is
it gets confusing after, no, let me be honest before the year 1600, it all was ancient.
Like someone, it just like, I'm like, I don't know. It sounds old, like sure. You know,
(03:23):
my brain could only comprehend certain centuries. Right. You know what I mean? Yes. Like it's a big
clump F before that. Also fun fact in fashion, because I went to fashion school, but we learned
about like the history of fashion and costume. And there was like a good 300 years, literally
(03:49):
nothing changed aesthetically, like a bare minimum because everyone was poor and dying.
This was the fashion dark ages. It was the fact it was the dark ages,
with the fashion dark ages. And so I think it just kind of confuses people because you know,
you can visualize certain parts of the world at a certain times. Like ancient Greece is a very
(04:11):
specific vibe. Yeah. And then you go like to, I don't know. I mean, like you can imagine in
the revolutionary war times, what they were wearing and like blah, blah, blah.
But then there's just like a bunch of times where it's just rags, just potato sacks, you know?
(04:33):
So yeah. So when we're talking ancient Greece, think about anytime from like
1500 years before the common era up to like, you know, 300, 400 before the common era. So it's a
pretty big stretch of time. It's like a thousand years. Yeah. So the ancient Greeks, you know,
(04:59):
they took their hospitality very seriously. That's what you're saying.
Yes, incredibly. The Greeks took their hospitality very seriously.
That's what you're saying.
The Greeks took their hospitality so seriously that it is a part of their mythology even.
(05:20):
So have you ever heard of the Greek myth of Tantalus?
No, maybe.
I had actually, I had not heard of this. I love Greek mythology. And this was the first time I
had read this one. There's a few different versions, but the one that really rang true
for this one is that he was punished for all eternity in Hades by Zeus. He was made to stand
(05:43):
in a pool of water, never quite able to reach the water to drink. And then there was a tree nearby
that he couldn't quite reach the fruit to eat it. So for all eternity, he can't drink or eat,
but it's right out of his reach. It's the origin of the word tantalizing.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. I figured it out.
(06:07):
So you have to be wondering like, oh my God, what could somebody do to be punished in this
horrible way forever? It was, it was shoddy hospitality, man. He didn't,
uh, yeah, he treated his guests poorly. So specifically he was giving a dinner for the gods.
(06:29):
He wanted to test them to see if they really did know everything. So he was like, maybe,
maybe they can't actually tell what they're eating. So he killed his son and cooked him in a stew
and served it to the gods at dinner. So of course, immediately all of the gods are like,
(06:51):
something, right? Something, right? Except for one Demeter. Demeter was still upset because her
daughter Persephone had disappeared and she still hadn't found her. So she's not paying attention
and she takes a bite of the food. And they say that it was a chunk of his son's shoulder. Oh my
(07:14):
God. So the gods figure out what happened. They put the son, Pelops, his name is Pelops,
Pelops. I'm gonna say Pelops sounds better. Yeah. They put him back together and make him live again.
But he, but he never got his shoulder back because Demeter had eaten it. So he had to have a
(07:34):
prosthetic shoulder made out of ivory. This is so specific. Yeah. So there was a, so there's a
version of Zeus that's like the hospitality Zeus and his name was Xenios Zeus. And this version of
Zeus was enraged that he had done this thing to his guests. And so he punished him. That's well,
(08:03):
you know, okay. When you say shoddy hospitality, it sounds like, you know, they left some dirty
towels in the bathroom. Not like he served his son because he wanted to see, they really knew
everything. That is some fucked up shit. And he deserves to be in that puddle of water, whatever.
(08:25):
There's, there's shoddy hospitality. And then there's turning your guests into cannibals.
Yeah. I think he deserves the punishment. Yeah, I would say so. I bet Pelops agrees.
Yeah. Well, he's missing a shoulder. So according to the epic poems by Homer,
offering hospitality to foreign visitors, which is the word Xenos in Greek, in one's residence was
(08:50):
considered the greatest honor of all in ancient Greece. So hospitality is such a big deal that
it's even enshrined in these, you know, Homeric poems that everybody to this day still reads and
learns about. So every foreigner visiting Greece at those times was believed to be sacred. And so
they were granted the protection of the hospitality versions of Zeus, Xenios Zeus, and also Athena
(09:18):
of Xenia. So don't mess with travelers because they're protected. Do you think that modern day
Greece upholds these rules? Probably not. Probably not. I haven't been to Greece though, so I couldn't
say. Yeah, I don't know. Couldn't say. I mean, that's a good like scared tactic for people,
(09:47):
you know, like you better be nice to the foreigners. Otherwise you're going to turn into stone.
Yeah. Try to keep bandits, you know, from bothering people on the roads or people from
or people from taking advantage of their guests in some way. Yeah. Because I think you can tell
a lot about a society by how they treat the foreigner in their midst. Yeah, there's a lot of
(10:14):
like, people have a weird relationship with tourists. And I, as a New Yorker, I find it to be
strange because we New Yorkers were very annoying. Like we're very, what's the word?
(10:35):
We have things to do, places to go. We're just very anxious people. So we get annoyed at
foreigners, like not foreigners, but tourists because, you know, they want to come and see.
We get annoyed, whatever. But like, I would never purposely be mean to tourists or to,
like, you know, like to people because people are like really, there's something going on where
(10:59):
they're like, yeah, they deserve to die. I'm like, no, I get annoyed. Like I want them to move out
of my way, but they're not like bad people for coming and wanting to see the city, you know.
Yeah. It's just, there has to be a line. You can be like, okay, stop being like super excited
(11:19):
and like, oh, welcome. Right. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, we said in our last one on Medieval Ends
that the ale houses were like the old school Airbnb, but actually the ancient Greeks kind of
invented Airbnb because they actually had space in their homes for foreigners to stay there.
(11:40):
So because it was such an honor to take care of travelers. So the landlord was called a word that
means hotelier basically, zinadojos, which is the same word that Greeks use today to call somebody
who runs a hotel. Really? Yeah. And they also had steginamos or estiopamon or nakleros. Okay.
(12:08):
Titles that stated a citizen's responsibility to offer his hospitality to a foreigner.
So the fact that they have that many words for it, it tells you how important it was. So the owner
of the house had the sacred duty to offer the zinia to the visiting foreigner. That is the best
possible hospitality. That's crazy. I think that more people should take pride in their hospitality.
(12:33):
Yeah. I think that's so great. I mean, I don't know that I want to necessarily have to have
a standing space in my house because I'm going to put books there, but so they can sleep with the
books. They probably are it. That's true. We had a whole episode about that. Yeah. I mean, honestly,
it's to have a guest bedroom. Like it is a sign of luxury. Yeah. So people should be kind of proud.
(12:59):
And I think it's a shame. I think it's a shame if you have the space and you don't offer it.
I think it's a very nice thing to do to be a good host and to have someone stay and make sure that
they feel comfortable. And I'm with the Greeks on this one. Yeah. It's a very selfless thing to do
and says, I don't mind inconveniencing or myself putting myself out a little bit to help my fellow
(13:24):
man. So there was an exception to this etiquette in ancient Greece and the exception to this etiquette
was an ancient Sparta. They had a different mentality about it. It does not surprise me.
They were like always wanting to be the opposite of the rest of the Greeks. Yeah. They're also like
(13:45):
really intense. It was the so-called, I'm going to say this wrong, Xenolasia. Yeah, that looks
right. Xenolasia. So it's the intention to refuse hospitality to Zenos. Wow. Wow. But
(14:06):
the Spartans only offered hospitality to famous and honorable foreigners in their state because
they want the money. And they were just like, again, they're name droppers.
They were like the elitist hotels that we know of that are just like, oh, you're not rich and famous.
They got to have a care. We're not. But a big thing was that they didn't, they were against
(14:30):
offering hospitality because they didn't want to be influenced by other cultures. So their
xenophobia plays a bit of a, they're xenophobic to the Zenos. Oh my God. They're xenophobic.
To the Zenos. Oh my God. It's all crap. Wait a minute. So we're just learning English. That must
(14:54):
be where that, that the root of that is, which I never knew, but that totally makes sense.
Cause you're yeah, because you are afraid of whatever is different other than you like of
people who are from other cultures. So they didn't want to be influenced by other cultures, but they
seem like such a strong, like, like, uh, like nothing would really influence that them that
(15:16):
easily. They were so prideful. Right. Yeah. But I guess that's, that shows you the fragility.
You know what they were? They were toxic. They were, they were so scared if they weren't like,
you know, they, they would, it's just, it's, it's exactly what you think it is. Yeah.
(15:38):
I'm here. I'm loud and annoying and proud, but I'm also really insecure. And so no one has,
no one's allowed to come next to me. My armor is so thin that one little chip from someone else is
going to bring the whole thing crashing down. You know, this makes me think of a little bit. It
makes me think of, you know, that Island that's somewhere near India where nobody can go because
(16:00):
the people who live on the Island just immediately start shooting arrows at you. If you try to land
your boat. That's kind of what that makes me think of. Yeah. Yeah. Because they probably know
they'll be easily influenced by technology. Okay. Imagine you live on this Island. You're thinking
like, this is the world. Someone comes and is like, here's an iPad. Forget about it. Forget it.
(16:24):
It's like, you'd be blown away. You're just like, I'm done. Peace. I'm going to go.
So, so Xenia, this offering of hospitality also kind of worked in a diplomatic sense
because it's made sure that foreign dignitaries, traders and guests were going to be treated
(16:46):
really well while they're visiting different city states throughout
Greece. And so this is offered by kind of like, almost like a diplomat, but not quite. It's
it was called the office of the Proxenose and a Proxenose was a city appointed official.
He could be like a native of that city or he would be an immigrant from a different city who
(17:09):
is now living there. So like a resident alien, and he would look after the citizens of a specific
foreign city when they visited. So like, if a native citizen of Athens or a native citizen of
if a native citizen of Athens or a resident, Corinthian living in Athens would be appointed
(17:30):
Proxenose for visitors of Corinth. So he's responsible for diplomacy between the cities.
He's responsible for the interests of these citizens that are visiting. And that could be
from something like just getting them tickets to a show that they want to see, or actually like
helping them get an audience with a city official. So are they like a concierge? They are kind of
(17:56):
like concierge. Yeah, that sounds exactly what they are. Yeah, like a government concierge.
Yeah. In addition to cities, actually trade groups and other organizations could also appoint their
own Proxenose to make sure that their clients are treated well when they're traveling.
One thing that I thought was really interesting is that some scholarship
(18:16):
suggests that the Proxenose might also have been a bit of a spy at times, that they might actually
be gathering intelligence for their native city. So that if there's a conflict happens,
they've got some intelligence to help their homeland. With all of that, there is actually
(18:40):
little evidence that there was like a system of inns in these ancient Greek cities. Although it
does seem like they would set up some kind of temporary shelter during festivals and things
like that for tourists that are coming in, which would have been organized like they would like
have a central courtyard and then have beds and places for animals and storage and stuff like that.
(19:05):
But it's not going to be like a formal system like we're going to see later that Rome had,
because of course Rome had something formalized and intricate.
Yeah, they got their shit together. Yeah. But even though they don't necessarily have evidence of
these systems of inns, travel was still very popular in ancient Greece. People, tourists are
(19:31):
traveling all over the Mediterranean to go on religious pilgrimages, to go sightseeing.
There were festivals, tons of reasons that people would have been traveling back then.
So probably another reason why it was so important to have people willing to offer you lodging in
their homes if there is not this system of inns for you to rely on when you're traveling.
(19:56):
It's also safer, right? Because if you stay at someone's home that you trust, you don't have to
risk bandits or people stealing your stuff or a corrupt innkeeper. It feels safer, in my opinion,
especially at that time. Yeah. These places had a place for your horse and all your animals.
(20:20):
And today they don't even give you freaking free parking. Oh my God, right? Like, dude,
they had stables for horses baked into the place. Yeah. And now it's like... And it's way more work
to take care of someone's horse than it is to let someone park their car and not charge $60 a night
(20:44):
or whatever. Or make you pay for a valet. Oh, yes. Good tangent. So another reason that a lot of
people traveled was to watch sports because of course the Olympics was a pretty big deal back
then as it is now. And so that event would draw travelers from all across Greece. And they actually
(21:06):
think that more than 50,000 people would make the journey to witness the games that they would be
able to watch. And so they would be able to make the journey to witness the games during the second
century AD. So this is a little bit more modern, not ancient Greece, but... Still, that was like
all the people in the world. Like there weren't that many people, were there? I don't think so.
(21:31):
I think there probably were. Are you sure? Yeah. Because I feel like there were not that many
people. There were more than 50,000, but like how many more? More. Because they were big cities.
Yeah. But you know what? Okay. I looked something up. This is totally not related, but kind of.
(21:57):
I looked up the population of the U.S. like in the beginning of the 20th century, and it was only like
75 million people or something like that. Like the amount that we have grown in the past
150 years. Oh, sure. Google says that the global population around 1000 BCE was approximately
(22:19):
50 million people. Okay. It wasn't everyone, but that means 50,000 people were a lot of people.
That was a lot of people. Yeah. That was a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. The world, the population,
of course, was nowhere near what it is now, but there was still millions of people. Okay.
I thought there were like next a million.
(22:46):
That brings us to the Persian Empire next. The Persian Empire did have a very
formal and well laid out system of inns. So they were called caravan sarai, which originates from
the Persian words caravan or caravan, caravan and sarai house. So they were roadside inns that
(23:13):
provided shelter, food, water, everything that you needed. If you were a caravan, a pilgrim,
and a pilgrim traveling along these trade routes, which in the Persian Empire, massive amounts of
trade routes happening, including the spice road and the silk road. Yeah. So there had to be a lot
(23:35):
of places to stay because that was like the center of the universe. Yes. So to put us in
the timeline, the earliest caravan sarai traced back to the Acha-Meenid Empire's royal road,
which was around 559 BC. And since it is Hanukkah, while we're recording this for the
(24:00):
Jews listening, this was during Cyrus the Great's reign of Persia. And Cyrus the Great, of course,
was the Persian Emperor who let us go back to Israel after the Babylonian captivity.
Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So you're going to say it's Ahashverosh. No.
(24:23):
I'm confused with my Persian thing. Different one, different story, different story.
Oh, that's true. That is it. I'm thinking we're in Perum. Oh, God. Sorry about that.
So the royal road was a major ancient highway that stretched 2,500 kilometers from Sardis to Sousa,
(24:43):
historical records such as Herodotus's writings indicate the existence of these structures
as incredibly important elements on the road. They provided safe havens on a journey that could be
incredibly dangerous. So they were all strategically placed, ensuring that no two were more than 25
miles apart, which is the maximum distance that a caravan could travel in a day. So it was like to
(25:08):
always have someone nearby, like a group of people. Yeah. So that way your caravan didn't have to
camp on the road, which would make you very vulnerable. And so instead you knew that every
single night you were going to be able to hit another inn. Yeah. Okay. See smart. They,
they figured it out. And so in addition to offering your normal amenities of an inn,
(25:34):
they were also of course important for society because there are places where people from
different ethnicities, languages, religions could all gather. You think you might not be there for
a very long time. You're just there for a night, but all of these people night after night are
exchanging ideas with each other. Yeah. I feel like this is a, well, the silk road was like,
(26:00):
that like changed the world, right? Yeah. That basically globalized the world.
I could imagine why it's so important. And also, yeah, humanized people, you know, you meet people
from different backgrounds, different religions, different cultures. Yeah. A great way to not
(26:21):
fall prey to xenophobia. But they're designed for these caravans to come and accommodate a lot of
travelers and their animals and provide security because, you know, you can't just sit in camp.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it gives them, you know, a measure of safety. So the layout of them was
(26:50):
very similar to a lot of things that we still see because they actually influenced a lot of things,
but they had a central courtyard, one entrance, and then rooms would surround the courtyard where
there were private rooms for sleeping. There were storage areas and places to keep the animals as
well. Kind of gives motel vibes. Yeah, a little bit. It's like roadside in, roadside motor lodge.
(27:19):
So this layout did evolve over the centuries with each era kind of adding its own little
spin to it because these caravanserais were being built for basically 1,400 years. Like they were a
very long lasting type of architecture in Iran. Some of them still exist. I mean, they're not
(27:42):
functioning, but they're, they, some of them exist and are functioning. Yeah. Wow. Because they turned
them into hotels. Genius. Yeah. I didn't know that they kept them functioning. I just saw
on the UNESCO page, like they have them that are preserved, but I didn't know that you can use them.
(28:07):
I thought that would be illegal. Yeah. Well, obviously the ones that are just archaeological
digs or non-functioning are, you know, they're just heritage sites to visit, but they did manage
to restore some and turn them into hotels. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. So that courtyard
that was in the center is what served as the communal area. And that's where everybody's
(28:32):
going to rest, exchange stories. And they would also trade goods with each other inside
the caravanserai because I mean, that's a perfect little marketplace ready, ready set up to go. So
it's a pop-up. Yeah. So a lot of the trading is actually happening inside of these caravanserai,
which kind of makes me think of the medieval inn as well, because people would do the same thing
(28:58):
there as the merchants are traveling from end to end, they trade what they need to in the end.
So yeah, it doesn't seem like it changed that much for quite like a few hundred years.
I feel like only, not today, but maybe in the past like a hundred years. Do you think that
(29:21):
that's what's missing in modern hotels is this kind of communal area where people could
do business and talk? Because I don't feel like that's the vibe.
The only place where I think that that does still happen is the hotel bar. I think people
are more likely to talk to people outside of their own party at the hotel bar. But yeah,
(29:43):
but otherwise, even in the lobby, even though it's a communal area, people are keeping to
themselves. They're not really talking to the other people staying at the hotel.
Yeah. That's sad. We got to bring back the pop-up shops and hotels.
So the construction of these actually continued up until the early 20th century.
(30:05):
So this is like this unbroken tradition of architecture for Iran. And they were actually
often built with donations, which sort of reflects the Islamic ethos of caring for travelers.
So there's this also kind of this ongoing theme of hospitality, caring for the traveler,
(30:26):
for the stranger. That's really important in these different cultures.
Yeah. I mean, it sounds like a lot of these cultures have, they take it very seriously.
Yeah. Don't mess with the traveler.
And which if the traveler is bringing you, you know, all of this economic bounty, I can
see why they would definitely want to protect them for sure. But also it seems like even just
(30:52):
the regular tourist, the regular pilgrim also really wants to protect the traveler.
Pilgrim also received this. So it wasn't just like a monetary based transactional system,
but like they genuinely cared. It also says here, well, let's finish,
(31:14):
I guess, talking about the architecture and how they were very intricate decorations.
And if anyone is familiar with like Persian art and Persian architecture and interior design,
you know that it is not Scandinavian style. Minimalism is not a thing.
(31:35):
It's really beautiful. And like there's like Farsi even inscribed and written on certain parts
of the walls you can see in some of the pictures. Or it looks, I don't know if it is Farsi or it
looks like Farsi because it has that like same intricate design. But some of it is, I think,
(31:55):
might be Farsi actually. It probably is because yeah, because in Iran they use the Arabic script,
but they never stopped speaking Farsi. So Farsi is written in Arabic. So that's probably,
it is probably Farsi that you're seeing just its Arabic script.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it just looks like it blends in so well.
(32:16):
And of course, there's going to be lots of influence from Islamic architecture as Islam
sweeps across the area in the 700s, I believe, and from then on. So it's going to have that
like geometric mosaic vibe in some of them as well. And then the caravanserai actually influenced
(32:40):
other architectural forms in Persia, like their mosques and palaces would, you know,
start to take on this same layout. So the caravanserai even have a place in Farsi
literature, especially in poetry. They say they are used as metaphors for life's journey and
(33:06):
the transient nature of existence. That is like deep. The literature describes them as places
where diverse cultures converge and mingle. Naturally. Yeah, it makes sense. Pretty on the
nose. They also say that the caravanserai are often used as the setting of like for tales about love
(33:36):
and adventure and philosophical contemplation. So that makes sense because you can meet the love
of your life, I guess, there, just like other people and someone, you know, giving you a job
that's an adventure or having a political or philosophical debate. But I feel like it can be
(33:56):
a really good setting for a love story. They romanticize a lot of the caravanserai stories,
is what I understand. So yeah, I can see how that would you would kind of like how we romanticize
the medieval tavern, which is why we did an episode on it. I can see how this their culture
(34:19):
would romanticize this idea of this caravanserai from the past and all of these travelers and
merchants and people coming and going and all of the stories that could happen there.
This website, surf Iran.com. It actually has an article about them. And they say,
(34:40):
in Farsi literature, caravanserai often represent a microcosm of the world, a place where human
interactions with all their complexities and nuances unfold. I thought that was so great.
For the people who are able to go there are caravanserai that have been converted into hotels,
like the Abasi caravanserai in Isfahan. It was originally built during the Safavid era,
(35:07):
which was like a 200 year era from like the 1500s to the 1700s. It's been restored and transformed
into the Abasi hotel. It retains much of its original architecture, including the central
courtyard and is renowned for its intricate Persian artwork. So that sounds great.
Too bad we can't go. Another example is the Zainodin caravanserai. Does that sound right?
(35:36):
The Zainodin? Yeah. Sure. It sounds good to me. It sounds good. It's in Yazd, also in Iran.
And it's an example of a caravanserai on the Silk Road, as opposed to like the Spice Road or the
Royal Road. It also dates back to the Safavid era and has a distinctive circular design, which was
really rare among the caravanserai, which were usually rectangular or square, because obviously
(36:02):
that's much easier to build. I mean, these extended across like a huge geographical region. So some of
them were different in their architecture, because some of them are in areas where it's going to snow
a lot and others are in deserts and others are, you know, mountainous areas. So their architecture
does differ a little bit to kind of put up with their climate. And then I think 54 of this existing
(36:29):
caravanserais have been made into like one giant UNESCO World Heritage Site. Oh, wow.
Yeah, if they're still intact, then why not? Those are old.
Yeah, and it sounds like it's a very intrinsic part of Persian history.
(36:49):
If you're a part of the Silk Road, you got history.
Yeah.
Finally, we have come to the Roman Empire.
So this was really confusing to try to like tease out all these different types of establishments,
(37:10):
because of course, it's Rome. The Roman Empire was huge. You know, it developed over time,
but still they were very methodical. They, you know, they always had a system in place
for something, you know. So of course, they had a very formal system of lodging.
So that we're going to start with the man's manzio or manzio.
(37:33):
Before we start, is manzio short for manchun?
No, but the word manchun does come from manzio.
I know it.
So it's an official, this is an official stopping place on a Roman road. So it is maintained by the
central government for the use of officials and those on official business while traveling.
So they're normally in the form of a villa, and they were usually pretty big. Guests had to provide
(37:58):
a passport to identify themselves. And they also were in like a very strict distance from each other,
because carts could travel about 30 kilometers a day, and pedestrians a little bit further. So each
one was roughly 30 kilometers from the next. In Britain, the manzio was a little bit more
(38:19):
than 30 kilometers from the next. In Britain, the Roman town of Vininai and Lycester,
I hate the names of British places, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester, Lycester,
Listerine Shire. Anyway, anyway, Lister, sure. It probably accommodated at least one manzio
(38:43):
as it featured in the Antonine Itinerary, which is a third century imperial travelogue.
Woo. Yeah, I also love this is one thing I learned is that like, people wrote travel books
and stuff back then. What was it? It was like, dear diary, today, men's sister came to town.
(39:05):
It was like, I came to this town and I stayed at this manzio, which was excellent, but I ate
this restaurant, which was shit. And the service here is terrible. Don't go here.
OK, so Yelp did exist. Yelp did exist years and years ago. And everyone's getting all mad
that they're like, oh, my God, Yelp is ruining everything. Is it though? Yeah, no. Bad reviews
(39:29):
have existed because humans don't change. This is what we see. We don't. We are the same basic
creature from era to era. And we love to complain. So next up is the Capone. And this is for your
non official travelers. So if you're not on government business, you're probably going to
(39:51):
maybe stay at a capo. So sometimes these were at the same location as the manzio and they were
just like off from it a little bit. So they perform the same functions. They could be a little more
disreputable because they were frequented by thieves and prostitutes at times. So some of them
were some of them weren't graffiti on the walls of a few whose ruins have been found. I'll tell a
(40:18):
lot about the prostitutes there. But you could also get food and drink at a capo and so that that
was something that was really good for travelers because not every establishment, you know, always
offers the same things. Some of the Capone, it was going to be like basic accommodations that if
(40:38):
there were, you know, some rooms above the shop or something, it was kind of like a hostel, no?
Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe not quite as cheap. I would say there's there were probably some other
ones that were. But yeah, it kind of sounds like it. The Taberna, which is where we get our word
tavern, as we talked about in our last episode, was the name for a shop. It could be selling wine,
(41:04):
cheese, books, whatever. Yeah, they were all to Berna. I'm sorry, they were all Tabernay.
That's the plural form. I thought it was tabernay. I don't know. But the plural form of the word was
used to describe roadside ends that were found between towns. And these are where genteel travelers
were going to stay because they wanted something better than the Kappa. And I was in between the
(41:30):
man, CEO better than the Cabernet. It was. Yeah. Yeah. Because the man, CEO was for official
business, you know, government workers or something like that. So if you can't get into the man, CEO,
but you are well-heeled, you're going to maybe stay at the Tabernay.
Yeah, that makes sense. There always got to be. We love our class. In the early days of the Roman
(41:56):
roads, when most travel was official travel, not a lot of people were just out and about houses
placed near the road were required by law to offer hospitality on demand. I don't know if I would buy
a house on the road. I know. I bet those were cheaper than houses far from the road, kind of like now.
(42:21):
Yeah. Frequented houses, no doubt became the first Tabernay. So, you know, eventually if your house
is near the road and you keep having to let these people stay, you might as well just turn it into a
business. But so as Rome grew, the Tabernay did as well. They became more luxurious. They could acquire
good reputations, bad reputations, depending on who's coming there. But one of the best was the
(42:48):
Tabernay Cytusci? Yeah, what is that? Cytusci? I don't know. So this Tabernay that was in Senuessa
had a large storage room with barrels of wine, cheese, ham. So, you know, it's the kind that was
probably more for the upper classes. They had the food and the drink. People were there.
(43:16):
Yeah, but if there was, you know, a Tabernay complex, a city might grow up around it. So
Rhinzaburn in the Rhineland and Saverny in Alsace, which is in France, are places that started out
as a Tabernay complex and then the city actually grew up around it. Oh, that's really cool. I think
(43:40):
that happens a lot, but usually it happens with like ports and stuff. Yeah. Not just the Tabernay.
So both Kalponae and Tabernay could have mixed reputations. Like we said, some people are
saying these are great and some people say these are places where bad things happen.
(44:03):
Are you getting diseases? Yeah. So ancient writers like Ammianus Marcellus, he regarded them as
places for the poorest and lowest classes. The poet Horace regarded them as greasy. So there's a
little bit, definitely a little bit of class disparity happening there. That sounds like
(44:27):
the elites being like, ew, that's where the poor people stay. Well, the next thing is when you find
out this little fact, it makes sense because some of the Tabernays had a reputation that the
waitstaff wouldn't just offer services like food and drink, but sexual services as well. Yep.
(44:55):
Yeah. So it's hard. I can see why they would have mixed reputations. You got to know which
one you're going to, to know what the amenities will be. It was an all-inclusive resort.
This was two for one. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, some of these places were indistinguishable
from brothels, basically. Cicero actually owned seven establishments like that, where you could
(45:19):
get room, board, and a girl for the night. But he claimed it was impossible to stay more than 24
hours in one. So his probably were not best accommodations. Yeah. That sounds pretty, I mean,
I've been in a hotel that I wouldn't have stayed. I didn't want to stay one, I didn't want to stay
(45:40):
eight hours of sleeping in it. So yeah, I can imagine how bad that was. Can you imagine staying
in any of these places at any time? Like, oh my God, the smell. Yeah. The smells. I want to stay
where the rich people get to stay. Yeah. I want to stay where the rich people stay because you know
(46:04):
that their bathrooms or buckets of feces were in a different room than you. Yeah. And regularly
dumped. Yeah. So the Hospitium is the actual Roman hotel. Originally they were rented rooms
in private homes, which is how their name derives from. Airbnb. Yeah, exactly. Their name is
(46:26):
from the principle of hospitia or hospitality, which a Roman host owed to his guests. As time
progressed, hospitia became solely commercial. And so many were former private homes that had
been converted so that they could offer food, drink, and lodging. Many offered private dining rooms,
(46:48):
gardens, and formal atriums. So these are really getting to be your fancy schmancy establishments.
Other smaller hospitia were more basic and styled like the Capone with a central bar area for eating
and rooms for sleeping elsewhere. But these were often regarded as seedy because travelers often
(47:09):
rented little more than a bug infested mattress and blanket on the floor of a shared room.
One famous hospitia in Pompeii, which was the higher class, was the House of Salist, which was
a house that was converted into a hotel from a private residence during the Augustan period.
(47:30):
Wait, so Pompeii was all wealthy people? I think it was a lot of wealthy people because it was
like where they would go to vacation and live and stuff. But I think there were there was lots of
people there that that weren't wealthy. So, oh, okay. I think it's like a resort town where
there's the townies and the... Okay, that makes sense. But I feel like Pompeii would have the most
(47:55):
well-preserved hospitia. Yes, they do. So we really know what went down there. So our next one is,
it's a stabula. It's like a Roman motel found in the entrances of towns and cities.
Their main difference from hospitia was that they offered facilities for stabling animals as well as
(48:18):
rooms for guests. See, again, when you offer places for your horses, people are going to like it.
That's true. So I guess that's where we get our word stable from. Oh, stabling the animals? Yeah,
because at a stabula, they're keeping your animals. Oh my God, we're learning the origins of English.
(48:39):
So much etymology in this episode. Yeah. It was easy to recognize a stabulum,
I say stabulum, as it always had a ramped entrance sloping onto the street to allow access to carts
and pack animals. I think this place was good if you had a lot of animals who were traveling with
(49:01):
because animals were accommodated in stables at the back of the premises, generally in the
courtyard area faced by kitchens and latrines. Is latrines bathrooms? Yeah. That's such a nice
word for it. Yeah, it's way better. At least we say bathroom. A lot of people say toilet.
They're like, where's the toilet? I'm like, listen, you don't need to get specific.
(49:25):
If you just say bathroom, then maybe you just need to wash your hands. Like we don't know what
you're doing in there. It's vague. Guests would typically stay at the front of the complex. So
the animals would be in the back. Guests would stay in the front, although they could also be
accommodated in rooms above the stables. You know what those rooms were for? The poor people?
(49:46):
The poor people who wanted the wait staff to also give them extra service.
Because I bet the rooms above the stables don't cost as much as the rooms at the front.
So what if you're rich? Then you are probably going to be staying with friends.
So the elite would stay. Usually they had country villas. So when they wanted to go on vacation,
(50:08):
they would just go to their country villa that either they or their friends owns.
Many famous Roman figures owned villas in Tusculum, which was just 20 kilometers from Rome.
So it was just a quick little jaunt out into the country from the big city. Campania, which is
300 kilometers south of Rome along the Amalfi Coast, was another popular tourist spot. No
(50:31):
surprise there. I'm pretty sure the Amalfi Coast is still a very popular tourist spot. So that
included well-known resort towns like Pompeii and Naples. And writings from the time even include
scenes of children making sandcastles on the beach, though their sandcastles obviously are
going to be in the shape of Roman villas because castles don't exist.
(50:52):
Oh my God, you make a very good point.
Castles don't exist then. Yeah. So it's so cool. Kids are doing exactly what they do now,
but just in whatever their cultural familiarity is.
(51:13):
That's crazy. So maybe somewhere on the Silk Road, if there's a coastal area,
a kid was making a sand caravan, Sarai. Oh, that's actually really cute.
I feel like it's better than a sandcastle. Probably easier too.
(51:39):
Yeah. So there, I mean, there was quite a bit of travel during the Roman Empire,
especially since they did have much better roads than existed before. Another reason for travel is
that teachers would take their students on summer trips to escape the heat. So here they would be
hosted in villas along the way. So once again, because if you're a student that has your own
(52:04):
private tutor, your parents are pretty well off. So you're going to be able to... When you say
student and teacher, I'm like, the whole class is coming... Yeah. So it's going to be like a private
tutor who has like three or four students with him or something. Soldiers are also going to be part of
the tourists that are going to and from, because they could take leave from their army service to
(52:29):
explore whatever region they're in. If they can go a certain distance away to make sure that they're
back in time from their leave. And then many vacation towns were family friendly. So families
are going to take these vacations just like we do now. And then of course, some like
(52:50):
Bayi were not family friendly. So Bayi was like the Roman Las Vegas. And yeah, it was known for
hedonism. There were beach parties, revelry, lewd women. It was called the... I love how the women
are always the lewd ones. Yeah, there were no lewd men, only lewd women. Of course, those didn't
(53:13):
exist. But it was known as the Vortex of Luxury and the Harbor of Vice. Oh, those are good names for
a city. They are. I just like the name like Bayi. I feel like you'd have to sing it. You can't just
say, where are you going? Bayi. So yeah, so Rome had lots of places too that you could travel to.
(53:42):
Rome, you're going to party. I expected nothing less from the Romans.
So technically a part of the Roman Empire. Yeah. So maybe the most famous or infamous, notorious
(54:05):
inn of the Roman Empire was one that was supposed to be found in a tiny little village called
Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea. This is the inn that Mary and Joseph were allegedly
not able to take refuge in. So here's the thing. I don't know the story that well,
(54:33):
because I grew up very Jewish. I'm always learning. I really thought that Jesus was born
in his garage, basically, like his little hut outside his house where they kept like the animals.
But apparently this is not true. And where did I get this information? Nowhere. My brain.
(54:57):
You had a few details and you just tried to fill in the rest the best you could.
Yeah, I just filled them in. Yeah. So the story goes that at the time that Mary was pregnant
with Jesus, that there was supposedly a empire wide census going on and everybody had to report
(55:20):
back to their ancestral town to be counted for the census. And so that is why even though
Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth, they were on their way to Bethlehem because that was
where Joseph was ancestrally from because he's of the line of David. So they get to Bethlehem and
(55:41):
Mary is always seen as like she's about to pop. We don't actually know at what point in her pregnancy
they would have gotten there. But Luke 2, 7 says Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped
him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn.
(56:03):
So this always gives this idea of, you know, they get to town, they try to find an inn, try to get a
room. And they're like, sorry, there's so many people here for this census that we just don't
have any room for you. Like go post up in our stable. And that's why the Nativity scene is
always in this kind of cave or stable looking area with all of the animals and the manger filled with
(56:26):
hay. But there are problems with this whole story. There's inconsistencies in the Bible.
There's inconsistencies in the dogma. Oh no, you're the first one to bring it up.
So looking at all of these things, these different types of hotels that are in that we have just
talked about in the Roman Empire, which one of these, which one of these would they have found
(56:52):
in Bethlehem? Well, probably none of them.
Bethlehem was different. It wasn't like, you know, Rome, Rome. I feel like if anything, it would be
more similar to the Persian Empire. No, no, it's not so fancy. They weren't fancy, the Bethlehemians.
(57:16):
Yeah. Well, yeah, Bethlehem was a small village, so it probably didn't have an inn at all. Like it
was probably too small to even require such a thing. Not a lot of people travel into Bethlehem
on a regular basis. Yeah. So maybe they had like, not an inn, but like, I guess like a stable,
(57:42):
well, so if you needed a place to stay when you're arriving in Bethlehem, you're probably
going to, if you don't know anybody, you're probably just going to rent a guest room in
someone's house. So back to that, you know, more common idea of take care, you know, hospitality,
take care of the traveler, let them stay in your home. If you have family, of course, you're going
(58:04):
to just stay with your family in the area. So since Joseph is traveling back to his ancestral
home of Bethlehem, it's very, very, very likely that they had family in the village and that that's
where they were going to be staying is with a family member. Yeah, that's true. Why would they
(58:25):
stay at an inn if that's where they're from? So another problem linguistically is that the English
word in, in that verse is actually a Greek word, but the Greek word that means in is pandoxion.
If I'm saying that right, which is not used here, Luke uses the word catalima and based on the verb
(58:52):
catalio, which means to put down one's things. Catalima is simply any sheltered space used as a
resting place, but it also is used to just mean room. So there was no room in the room.
So the custom of this region was to have a guest room upstairs for people to stay in. So Mary and
(59:13):
Joseph aren't looking for an inn to rent a room in. They are hoping to be able to stay in the
upstairs guest room of one of their relatives houses. But because all of these visitors, all
these other family members are in town for this census, they get there too late, it's full. There's
no room for them in the guest house. What does that mean? Does that mean, oh no, they do have to
(59:38):
go sleep in the stable outside? It does not. The usual design for a home in ancient Israel was known
as a pillared house or a four-room house. And this pattern is pretty consistent. So among periods,
so the main floor typically had four rooms, which are divided around the house's pillars.
(01:00:01):
So picture like a capital letter E as the shape of the house if you're viewing it from above.
And each of the four lines of the E are a room. Since Joseph and Mary can't sleep in the cataluma
in the upper room, it doesn't mean that they have to go outside and sleep in the stable. They're
(01:00:22):
actually just going to sleep on the main floor of the house because most households did not have
a special structure for the animals. That would have been a major luxury. So even though professional
stuff with the goats and the sheep. So professional shepherds might have used like community sheep pens
outside the city, but in the city, people just need a few sheep or goats for their household milk and
(01:00:49):
stuff. So they're going to keep these penned up in the downstairs room at night. So they go outside
into the yard basically during the day, and then they bring them in at night and pin them in one
of the downstairs areas. And then they have like a feeding trough or something set up for them.
(01:01:09):
So yeah, so Joseph and Mary would have had to go be in the area where the animals are kept at night,
but they probably wouldn't have been alone. There may have been others that also showed up and there
wasn't room for them. And so they also chilled out on the main floor of the house. With the goats and
the sheep. Yeah. Well, remember there's different rooms because it's an E shape. So there's...
(01:01:32):
Whenever they do the nativity scene, it's always there's a little goat or sheep in there. Yeah,
but the nativity scene is a stable where there wouldn't really have been a separation between
things. But the nativity scene is false. Yeah, the nativity scene is wrong. Yes, for me. Yeah. So later
(01:01:53):
readers misunderstood Luke's narrative because they weren't familiar with the practice of lodging
animals inside the family house on the lower floor. So, and then also, you know, the mention of a
manger of her laying Jesus in a manger makes people just assume that, oh, this is out in the
(01:02:15):
stable where the animals in the manger for them to eat are kept. They just didn't know that in Israel
at this time on the main floor is where the animals would stay. And so there would need to be a trough
of some sort for them to eat. And that would have been a convenient place for Mary to lay the baby.
I'm telling you, we're misinterpreting. We're misinterpreting a lot. You know, I feel like
(01:02:38):
there's a lot of things that we could. Yeah. So they're not like out in the cold, all alone,
giving birth as a tired, poor little family. They're in their cousin's house with like people
running up and down the ladder and being like, and you know, I mean... Probably offering them some snacks.
Yeah. Mary, you need to eat. But yeah, so the most infamous inn in the world probably didn't exist.
(01:03:12):
Do you think that there are like inns in Bethlehem today or hotels that are like actually...
This is where... Oh, I'm sure there are. I'm sure there are, but no, they just stayed with Uncle
Mordecai. I mean... Very fascinating. So basically the last story is that there wasn't an inn at all.
Exactly. I mean, that is so ingrained in the Christmas story that there's no way that's ever
(01:03:40):
going away. Like it's with us forever. But... I feel like a lot of things are ingrained. I mean,
you're talking about this last time is that a lot of Christmas traditions are pagan.
Like no one's going to ever take that away. No, no. Yeah. Yeah. Just it's part of it now.
It's just part of the Christmas lore.
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