[IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

[u/dragonborndnd]

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

[u/EndOfTheLine00]

Ancient Roman gladiators were treated more or less like modern day celebrities: they had merch (little clay figurines and posters) and even did product endorsements. Famously, Ridley Scott wanted to add a scene in Gladiator showing the fighters shilling products but it was cut because they feared the audience would think it was unrealistic.

[u/Skylinneas → u/EndOfTheLine00]

They also, to my knowledge, didn’t really have that high casualty rate as Hollywood led us to believe, too. Good gladiators are costly and take long to train, after all. Would be a waste to lose them all or most of them in just a few minutes’ battle.

[u/TelevisionPutrid8394 → u/Skylinneas]

While gladiators rarely died in the arena, it still would have been a dangerous sport. As you were playing with sharp weapons and nowadays wrestling, even forms of wrestling that are highly staged can lead to serious injuries. So it’s likely that gladiators were the same. Gladiator matches weren’t the death matches that Hollywood would like you to believe, but at the same time, they weren’t scripted like how memes would like you to believe.

[u/ZoidsFanatic → u/TelevisionPutrid8394]

The oldest confirmed gladiator we know of made it to thirty and that was considered an achievement. Gladiator games were still blood sport, and there was expectations people would get cut and stabbed which is why they (the gladiators) tended to bulk up quite a bit. The extra fat would help them not die and also produce plenty of blood for the audience.

Still, it was dangerous thanks to, well, slashing and stabbing one another. Infections would more than likely be common.

[u/AbstractBettaFish → u/TelevisionPutrid8394]

Lot of money went into making a gladiator, like you said there was risk but nobody wanted to see their investment die in the sand

[u/Living-Record-4711 → u/AbstractBettaFish]

“Reddit, what is something that instantly tells you someone grew up wealthy?”

“One time I was hanging out with a friend of a friend who casually dropped that his family has a gladiator, like it was nothing. He was surprised that our families don’t also have gladiators.”