Alt-right commentator claims Romans weren't ethnically diverse, gets owned by actual historian

If you're going to pick a fight with someone over ancient Roman facts, arguing with a historian is probably not the best course of action.

Infowars editor-at-large and right-wing YouTuber Paul Joseph Watson recently tweeted an insinuation that Roman Britain wasn’t ethnically diverse.

A bit of a bizarre claim to make out of the blue, but the reason for his outage stemmed from a five-and-a-half minute BBC educational YouTube video on what life was like in Roman Britain.

The video, aimed at supporting teachers, is suitable for seven to 11 year-olds and details what life was like for a typical family during the Roman period.

The cartoon that accompanies the video features everything from gladiator battles, the purpose of Hadrian's Wall and the religious make-up of Roman society.

It also features a series of ethnically diverse characters, which is what appeared to anger the Infowars host, who implied that the BBC didn't care about 'historical accuracy'.

It was following these claims of historical inaccuracy that historian Mike Stuchbery stepped in.

In a series of hugely informative tweets, he described how Roman Britain was ethnically diverse “almost by design”.

He explains that Roman troops were drawn from other parts of the empire, and occupied Britain.

He goes on to explain that there are also accounts of Iraqi & Syrian soldiers on Hadrian's Wall, adding:

And just to hammer the point home, Stuchbery adds:

Now that, is a Twitter thread and a half.

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