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00:00Marcus Atilius, a distinguished citizen of Pompeii.
00:09The Atilius family are known back into Roman history.
00:13He would have borne all the weight of responsibility of that name.
00:17A man who could watch gladiator games from the safety of the stands.
00:23Marcus may have been attracted to this life.
00:26The crowd screaming your name in the arena.
00:29Everything changes when he throws away his comfortable life to step into the arena.
00:37Choosing to risk his life to fight as a gladiator.
00:42Why would a free man sign up to be a gladiator and face death?
00:47This is no different than the army.
00:49You are bound by the terms of your contract.
00:53You were a piece of property.
00:56You were there to be used.
00:58He is about to enter the arena in Pompeii for the first time.
01:08He can already hear the roar.
01:10There's a lot riding on this combat.
01:14His name.
01:15But also his economic freedom.
01:18The odds are stacked against him as he faces some of Rome's fiercest fighters.
01:26For generations his family may have been spectators of the games and now here is one of their own descendants fighting in the arena.
01:34But on the horizon, something more deadly threatens all of Pompeii.
01:41Pompeii is quite a different place to Rome.
01:53Rome is a gigantic city.
02:09Pompeii is a prosperous and a nice little town.
02:13They're in Campania near a river which makes trade relatively easy.
02:19While being very influenced by Rome, Pompeii was part of a different range of cultures to Rome itself.
02:25It had all sorts of different peoples that lived in it over centuries.
02:29It was a place of complex and diverse cultures and languages.
02:35A pretty nice place to be, but certainly nothing compared to the scale or the grandeur of Rome.
02:43Rome used to be a small city-state.
02:47But over the centuries, it has expanded its reach across Italy, asserting control over its neighbors.
02:55In 89 BC, Pompeii was conquered and it became a Roman colony.
03:03There are more Romans within the city and the Romans are now in serious power within that city.
03:09The Romans had established themselves in Pompeii.
03:13They set about building Italy's first stone amphitheater for gladiatorial combat.
03:23Up to this point, the gladiatorial combat was held in temporary wooden structures that were put up for the occasion and taken down again.
03:30The Romans want to show that they are in control and that they're kind of stamping a Roman identity on the place.
03:37And an amphitheater was a really powerful way of doing that.
03:42It shows the level of resources, of central control.
03:47But the most important thing is it was a first.
03:50Here was a large building that could accommodate every citizen in the city that really said this is a Roman town.
03:58Following the declaration of Pompeii as a Roman colony, retired of Rome, veterans and their families are moved into Pompeii.
04:20And thereby, they displaced the previous elites and produced a new hierarchy.
04:27It was probably at this time that the Gensatilia clan came to Pompeii.
04:32And Marcus Atilius is part of this family.
04:37Marcus Atilius is a free man and we can tell that by his name.
04:52Marcus Atilius had a very old name.
04:55The Gensatilia was ancient.
04:57The Romans thought names had a religious, sacred quality to them.
05:02He would have borne all the history, all the weight of responsibility of that name.
05:06For generations, his family may have been spectators of the games.
05:10As a free man of the Roman Empire, Marcus Atilius likely enjoys the privileges of status, comfort and wealth.
05:19And seats to Pompeii's gladiator games, where society's lowest fight for the entertainment of the people.
05:28Most gladiators are enslaved. They have no choice.
05:31They are legally treated as objects, commodities.
05:35Their only value is related to worth they would have as an enslaved individual.
05:41Status was everything for the Romans.
05:44Gladiators, like sex workers and actors, were deemed to be of low status in Roman society.
05:50Marcus Atilius comes from privilege far removed from the lower classes.
05:55But the arena captivates him.
05:58And he makes a decision that will change his life forever.
06:03Marcus Atilius signed up to be a gladiator.
06:09Marcus was an auctorati, which means that he was someone who volunteered to be a gladiator.
06:16It means that he would have been handing away a lot of the protections that he would have had as a free Roman citizen.
06:24Citizenship means the right to vote, the right to trade with other Roman citizens, the right to be tried under Roman law, to appeal.
06:34To be a free man in Rome is to enjoy all the perks of being Roman.
06:38To sign it away to become a gladiator had a great impact on your life.
06:43A free person was to register that he was signing over and becoming a gladiator.
06:49So there's an official level of bureaucracy that has to be satisfied for him to become a gladiator.
06:54And you are making a contract.
06:56You're going to be trained, fed and clothed, so there's an investment in that.
06:59And you have to pay back the investment by, of course, fighting.
07:02Generally speaking, you were a piece of property.
07:05You were there to be used.
07:08Technically, they become a slave when they become a gladiator, but they can win their freedom in the arena.
07:14They can buy their freedom if they earn enough.
07:16They can serve out their contract.
07:18Gladiator schools were always on the lookout for talent.
07:22They wanted powerful physiques with strong spirits who might thrive in the tense atmosphere of the arena.
07:28And so there were people who were probably in pretty desperate situations
07:33who would become gladiators because of the financial rewards that were possible.
07:40This was a way of buying out your debtors.
07:45It's unexpected, perhaps, that you would think about enslaved people making their own money.
07:50But in the ancient Roman world, they could.
07:53For each fight, we know that gladiators would have received not just a palm branch for victory,
08:00but also a financial reward as well.
08:02So a free gladiator receives a third of the money, and an enslaved gladiator received a quarter of the money.
08:09We can imagine that Marcus Atilius, a free man, might have had debts to pay off.
08:23There were also some who probably did it for the thrill, for the chance of fame and glory.
08:28We live in a time where celebrity is everything, and I don't think the Romans are that different.
08:32The opportunity to be loved by people, to be adored by people, but also financially to change your status made a big difference.
08:39Marcus may have been attracted to this life because it seemed like it was a glamorous existence, perhaps.
08:47The crowd screaming your name in the arena and being able to become famous on a level that I think would have been difficult for a lot of other people in ancient Rome.
08:58Gladiators were sex symbols. They're attractive, muscular young men.
09:02To get involved in the technicalities of how you engage physically with your body with other men.
09:08That's so masculine from a Roman perspective.
09:11Ultimately, they were people who faced death.
09:14So there becomes a great mythology of the Sauron's gladiators.
09:17The fact that their blood could heal, their sweat was a potent aphrodisiac.
09:23Not just the prowess in the arena seems to have set hearts aflutter, but also the scars of gladiators and their wounds seems to have been a turn on, as it were.
09:33There is an elite Roman woman that we hear of who's willing to throw away everything that she had and sail off into the sunset with her gladiator.
09:43He's been wounded too many times. Having to work as a gladiator has really taken its toll on him physically.
09:49And so she can't see it because he's a gladiator and just so sexually appealing.
09:55A second or third born son might see this as a way to make themselves prominent, to show their virility, if you will.
10:06Romans like to think of themselves as martial, military, disciplined men.
10:11And so being a gladiator, he would train in those values. He would personify those values.
10:17There is some respect for that, even when the idea is that socially it's unacceptable to hang out with these people.
10:25Marcus Atilius must have been pretty young to be a recruit, probably in his early twenties.
10:38He may even have a family of his own to support, but now he's actually putting himself out there in considerable danger.
10:46For somebody like Marcus Atilius, stepping up to the front door of the gladiatorial school willingly and saying,
10:55I would like to fight as a gladiator, you'd have to be nervous.
10:59A free born person who was entering a gladiatorial troop was making a real commitment, a real decision.
11:08Marcus entered an environment which some have described like a prison.
11:12There are all sorts of codes of behavior, where there are all sorts of explicit and implicit hierarchies.
11:17Marcus would have had to work his way up that gladiatorial hierarchy.
11:22We may never know for certain why a free man like Marcus Atilius has surrendered himself to become a gladiator.
11:31Perhaps deaths have driven his choice, but now one thing is clear.
11:36His option is either to fight and survive or to die.
11:50Born a free man, Marcus Atilius has signed his life away to become a gladiator.
11:57You can imagine that if you're going to have a lot of shows on, you need a steady supply of gladiators.
12:03Pompeii was a big enough amphitheater that it needed its own ludus, its own training school.
12:10A wealthy and powerful figure called Alanista runs the ludus and owns the gladiators.
12:18Alanista could be anyone from former fighters to ambitious businessmen.
12:24Outside Rome we hear of many people all over the place, including at least one woman who owned her own gladiatorial troop.
12:31Enslaved gladiators were kept inside the ludus, they were courted there.
12:38But for a free person like Marcus Atilius serving as a gladiator, it's not at all clear whether they would have been barracked with the enslaved gladiators or whether they would have lived at home.
12:48In Pompeii, the ludus had a very large training field called a palaistra and many, many posts, these palli, singular pallis, where gladiators are trained at.
13:02And your place in the gladiatorial hierarchy depended upon which post you were at.
13:08The most senior, the highest status gladiator was referred to as the primus palus.
13:12You have to look at the ludus and the linista like club and a club manager.
13:17You've got your premier players, you've got your champions, the guys who you know not only have a good draw and a good following but put on a good performance.
13:24You've got your middle of the way guys and then you've got the people who really aren't very good.
13:28Your standard players kind of really just make up the numbers more than anything else.
13:32He would initially be a tiro, a recruit or a rookie.
13:35And then as his number of victories in the arena climbed, his status would climb as well.
13:41And the amount of money that he would receive for victories or even for fights would climb.
13:46Marcus will have been trained in general strength, sometimes called hordiari, barley men, because they ate so much food.
13:59And that was all about building up muscle.
14:05He will also have acquired technical skill, you know, how to use the weapons that he was going to be an expert in.
14:11You're using wooden weapons because you want to make sure as a linista that your gladiators aren't damaging themselves before the fight and thus need to be replaced.
14:20And then after that you would have had steel dulled weapons so that you got the correct techniques but also you got used to the actual weapon you're going to be using in the arena.
14:31He would become a specific type of gladiator, probably physique as much as anything that determined what type of gladiator you became.
14:39You underwent a medical, and this comes from a Greek tradition of choosing athletes by their physiques.
14:46So according to the physique that you had, were you tall and slender, athletic, you'd make a good retiarius.
14:51Were you bulky and mean and physically imposing, you'd make a good murmillo or maybe a secutor.
14:58So Marcus is a murmillo. They're named after this type of fish that went on the helmet that they wore.
15:04We have to remember that Marcus was born a free man and had a different upbringing and different nutrition, I should guess, than someone who had long spent their life in slavery.
15:16This meant that he had to learn to fight in a very particular style.
15:25Each style of fighter had their own trainer.
15:28Mermillo are fighting with a shield and a sword.
15:33They're quite heavily protected.
15:35Marcus Attilius would have had an arm protector on his right arm, his sword arm.
15:41And on the left leg, he would have had a leg protector with a grieve.
15:45And so as he stepped forward under his shield, that leg would have been protected.
15:54And all of the elements of his costume, as it were, would set him up visually to be seen specifically by the crowd in a particular way.
16:04Marcus Attilius would have been trained in the arts of performance as well.
16:12The gladiatorial combat was a show.
16:15It was designed to entertain and impress.
16:18You would want to draw it out to make it as thrilling as possible.
16:22The custom-built barracks that were erected suggest that they had a training arena with seating.
16:32So it's possible that the public were invited in and could attend some of these practice sessions.
16:39That must be part of the training.
16:41You have to know how to manage if the spectators are heckling or being rude.
16:46The concentration has to be sustained.
16:47After months of grueling training, Marcus Attilius is ready for his first professional fight in front of a crowd.
16:59Marcus had embarked on his gladiatorial journey.
17:03And as it happened, there were going to be major games held in the year 59 at Pompeii.
17:08And inviting also the neighboring town of Lucaria to witness.
17:11Ordinarily, the safest type of spectacle to attend in the Roman world was gladiatorial combat.
17:20There were a lot of safeguards to prevent spectators from being hurt.
17:27People were emotionally invested in the games.
17:30They were very passionate about them in antiquity.
17:32Unfortunately, as we know, even through modern times, those passions can transcribe themselves sadly into violence.
17:37Marcus Attilius continues his training.
17:40But an ominous energy grips the city.
17:43Pompeii is about to experience chaos on an overwhelming scale.
17:49We can imagine it was a hot day in Pompeii.
17:59The sails were out.
18:00This was a big awning that spread out over the amphitheater, which would only be used for the hottest days and also the most expensive and most lavish games.
18:11This, no doubt, also helped heat up the atmosphere within the amphitheater.
18:15At the games held in Pompeii in 59 CE, there's a big crowd.
18:27But they're not only Pompeians, they also come from the nearby town of Lucaria.
18:34And that has been a long time rival of Pompeii.
18:37really going right back to the start of the first century BCE.
18:47They start sort of insulting each other, just throwing taunts.
18:52The insults turn to stone throwing.
18:55And then, knives are drawn.
19:00Pretty soon, it degenerated into open violence.
19:03For a Pompeian like Marcus, even someone who had trained as a gladiator, the amount of bloodshed that day would have been remarkable.
19:22And the reason, because it was not just in the arena and indiscriminate slaughter, but it was outside the walls of the amphitheater itself.
19:32Far beyond the sand of the central stage.
19:37It's spread out into the city, even into the gladiatorial barracks next door.
19:45It's clearly based on loyalty to your local town, you know, it's Pompeii versus new Syria.
19:56It's comparable to modern football hooliganism in a way.
20:00Fanaticism taken to extremes that go way beyond the kind of sporting level.
20:06Many new Syrians die, the Pompeians win.
20:10The games are abandoned, and the gladiators are sent back to their barracks.
20:30The New Syrians were on the losing side, and they are the ones that take it to the Roman Senate.
20:34This is not normal business for Pompeii. They would usually have been taking care of their own business as much as possible.
20:43The authorities in Rome don't like disorder. They don't like this riot that's happened.
20:49It ended up getting the Emperor Nero involved.
20:53It was viewed as absolutely extraordinary.
20:56It was breaking the fourth wall, so to speak, in a way that shocked the entire Roman world.
21:01And in response, they banned the games in Pompeii for ten years.
21:11This is the big thing. I mean, this is the highlight of the entertainment calendar.
21:16It would be like banning a football team for a city.
21:19The reason why the gladiatorial games were banned as a punishment for this is because they were sort of implicated in making this happen.
21:26That if things are going to get out of control, it will be in this sort of environment.
21:30The Romans took this incredibly seriously.
21:33That is not something that they would impose, likely taking away people's games.
21:38With the games banned, the future of the gladiators in the looters is uncertain.
21:46They can neither fight nor earn their share of the coveted price money.
21:51Yet the insatiable thirst for gladiatorial combat remains.
21:58Banning the games is a big thing, but the ban is not enforced.
22:03The appetite for gladiatorial combat was just too great to suppress.
22:10Finally, the novice is called upon to fight, and he is facing a legendary gladiator.
22:18The veteran, Hilaris.
22:20Not only was Hilaris a great victor, but he was a member of a very well-established gladiatorial troop.
22:27The troop for Nero. He was a Neronianus.
22:32Pitted against such a famous gladiator, Marcus Atilius' first fight may also be his last.
22:39The games were a high point in the rhythm of a city, and so there must have been a lot of excitement generated on days when they were going to occur.
22:58The size of the amphitheatre is approximately 20,000 people. This was a very big event.
23:12This is probably bigger than the population of Pompeii itself, so it shows how people are coming in from the countryside and from nearby towns.
23:20The crowd is at capacity. One of the most famous gladiators of the period, Hilaris, is on board to fight.
23:31And if you've got a headline act, like somebody who is the favourite of the Emperor, that's a spectacle you definitely want to see.
23:40There's a lot riding on this particular combat for Marcus. His name, but also his economic freedom.
23:50So he's waiting in anticipation backstage for the very first combat of his career.
24:05So the games open with a procession where the giver of the games would lead on to the stage all of the performers that the crowd were going to enjoy seeing.
24:20At some place like Pompeii, a display of 30 pairs of gladiators would have been viewed as large.
24:29The gladiators would warm up dancing or shaking their weapons. Perhaps they offer challenges to their coming opponents.
24:36And you'd also have little displays where they would test the sharpness of the weapons that the gladiators were going to fight with.
24:45And just accentuate the danger that the gladiator was facing. How brave are these men? They're going to use something that can cut a cantaloupe in half and fight each other with it.
24:52Having demonstrated the deadly edges of their weapons, the fighters head backstage so the day's spectacle can truly begin.
25:01There was a rhythm to the day, obviously, to manipulate the emotions of the crowd. And it usually started off with beast fights.
25:10Countless beasts are killed for the crowd's amusement. The arena is a place of brutality and bloodshed. And later, when the gladiators enter the arena, survival will not be guaranteed.
25:25The best estimate is that there was about a 1 in 10 chance that a gladiator would actually die as a result of a gladiatorial fight.
25:35Gladiators were too expensive to squander. There was too much that went into their training and there was also too much potential revenue that could be generated from their prowess.
25:44It could never get too out of control because the entire economy of the activity would collapse.
25:50There would have been referees. The referee is called a sumo rudis. So there are rules that govern these combats as well.
26:01There are standards of behavior between gladiators. They can submit at digitum as soon as they're wounded or if they think that they need to surrender.
26:09They hold up a finger, they show that to the referee and the referee then stops the fight.
26:14But we often see depictions where they're actually turning their back on their opponent to hold up the finger to signal to the referee.
26:23That means they trust their opponent enough that their opponent's not going to take that opportunity to actually kill them.
26:31On the other hand, none of this would have the appeal unless it was the actual chance of death.
26:37Marcus would certainly have been aware that the combat could be fatal.
26:40The climax, as it were, came after lunch when the professional gladiators entered.
26:57And this would have been really the culmination of the entire day's activities, what everyone was looking forward to.
27:02Marcus is still waiting in the wings for his time to appear in the arena.
27:09Marcus Atilius has likely spent the day in suspense, counting down the hours till his own brutal debut against experienced opponent, Ilarus.
27:20You can imagine that he's putting on his armour, he's trying to warm himself up, really trying to get in focus.
27:28Probably praying to the gods.
27:32Marcus Atilius is probably not far away from his opponent, there's not that much room backstage.
27:37Marcus Atilius is part of the Emperor's own team.
27:44This is a very prestigious school, it's a prestigious team, they will have travelled throughout the Empire, they will have done fights.
27:50He's obviously got a great career, he's a veteranist, he's already won 12 out of his 13 fights.
27:54They're probably trying to out-psych each other a bit, out-stare each other, and they're trying to sort of really cut that out and focus on the job in hand.
28:07It has been a long journey, but Marcus Atilius, the free man turned gladiator, is finally ready for his first battle in the arena.
28:26His opponent, one of the mightiest ever seen in Pompeii.
28:37In the tunnels it's quite dark, and then you walk into the sun and it's almost blinding for a minute.
29:07Marcus is a tyro, he's a newcomer. Even though he's strong and able, this is his first fight, and he's facing a well-known veteran, Hilaris.
29:17He is full of anticipation and full of anxiety that this might be the day of his death.
29:22One thing that the Romans delighted in was matching differently armed gladiators against each other.
29:39Marcus is a Mermelo, and Hilaris is a Thrikes.
29:44A Mermelo is very heavily armed, slower moving, but if he hit you, then you stayed hit.
29:50The Thrikes has a smaller shield.
29:53And also a curved or bent sword, which would enable him to get over the shoulder of his opponent.
30:00Hilaris would have been a bit nimbler than Marcus.
30:06But equally probably less likely to knock you out with one killer blow.
30:09...
30:34With each strike at Marcus will the crowd roars.
30:41Marcus Atilius as a Mammillo with his big, big shield was far more rooted to the spot.
30:46If it's hot outside, you have all of this heavy armor on,
30:49you would wear down very quickly in the heat of the sun in this stress of combat.
30:56Marcus Atilius must have been much more still and try and turn to track where his opponent was going around the arena.
31:04The fight itself was certainly not some sort of brawl.
31:12It's very skillful and it's often described as being quite elegant.
31:16The orchestration of a fight must have been partly choreographed,
31:19but partly depend very much on responses in the moment.
31:26The fighters would be using a series of strokes to try and gain an advantage over the competitor.
31:32Really wear the opponent down, find a way through their defenses.
31:37It's not all about delivering one killer blow.
31:42Marcus's helmet was really big and heavy and it's really hard to see through the visor of those helmets.
31:48He had to maintain presumably laser focus on his opponent.
31:52To even stand a chance against a veteran like Hilaris, Marcus would have had to have been exceptionally strong and able.
32:06Varkas delivers a crushing blow to Hilaris.
32:24Varkas raises an index finger and requests a reprieve.
32:39Varkas is victorious.
32:42Varkas is victorious.
32:48The fight is a huge upset.
32:50The champion Hilaris has lost his title to the tier of the novice.
32:54The upcoming of the new start, Marcus Atilius.
32:57The crowd must have been thrilled to see a first time fighter like Marcus bring down Hilaris and vanquish him.
33:10This is a stunning upset.
33:13Newcomers almost never defeat veterans of this caliber.
33:17Marcus has had a very crucial point in his career.
33:21He's just come off a big win.
33:23If he's in the arena to pay off his debts, we can say that a win such as this one would have put a huge dent in those debts.
33:29Marcus will have had a signing on fee for becoming a gladiator and he will have had a share of the profits for having won.
33:37He has to capitalize on that fever that he's created, that excitement.
33:42The problem is where does he go afterwards?
33:44Because having beat the champion, the question is, who's he going to fight next?
33:49Marcus Atilius must rest and heal.
33:53His victory over Hilaris has won in considerable money.
33:58But he is still contracted to the Ludus' owner.
34:02His life as a gladiator continues.
34:05And soon he will return to the arena to face another formidable foe.
34:10Marcus goes on to fight Lucius Rhesius Felix.
34:15A gladiator with a very distinguished record.
34:19He has 12 fights, to his credit, 12 victories.
34:24He's a serious fighter. He's from one of the big stables.
34:33When Marcus Atilius faces Lucius Rhesius Felix, his challenge is to win the fight.
34:39Winning an incontrovertible victory is what gladiatorial combat was about.
34:49To the crowd's astonishment, Marcus wins again.
34:50The fight ends with Lucius kneeling on the sand floor.
34:52Of the amphitheater.
34:53To the crowd's astonishment, Marcus wins again.
34:58The fight ends with Lucius kneeling on the sand floor of the amphitheater.
35:02Taking his helmet off, laying it next to him, and begging Marcus for Missio.
35:08The fight ends with Lucius kneeling on the sand floor of the amphitheater.
35:19Taking his helmet off, laying it next to him, and begging Marcus for Missio.
35:23laying it next to him, and begging Marcus for Missio.
35:36Marcus Atilius, he has made it big time as a gladiator.
35:42After just two fights, Marcus has secured his fame.
35:45Not only has he pulled off some remarkable victories against some remarkable foes,
35:51but this has meant that he has won his freedom and has been able to pay off his debts.
35:58He is now free from the personal enslavement that he took upon himself
36:04in rocking up to the Ludus and saying, I want to fight as a gladiator.
36:10In this case, his career choice did indeed pay off.
36:13One can imagine, after retiring from the gladiatorial arena,
36:22the type of life he would have held in Pompeii.
36:24He could have rejoined the Ludus as a veteran gladiator,
36:29fought for even more money, almost like a free agent.
36:33He could join the Ludus not as a gladiator, but maybe as a trainer.
36:38He might even turn into a gladiatorial lenista, a businessman involved in the show,
36:44or he could leave the profession entirely and do something else.
36:49Marcus has attained fame and celebrity,
36:53yet there is something dark on the horizon in Pompeii.
36:59Change is afoot.
37:00Pompeii had suffered quite a serious earthquake 17 years previously in 62 AD,
37:25so they're not completely unused to the idea
37:29that there can be natural problems of living in that area.
37:33But the city had built up quite a lot again since then.
37:44Pompeii exists in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius,
37:47which is an active volcano.
37:49Whether they knew it was active or not is another question,
37:57because it hadn't erupted for quite some time.
38:08The eruption begins on the 24th of August, 79 CE.
38:12People probably would have just been going around their day-to-day business
38:19and then they would have seen the initial cloud building up
38:24coming out of Vesuvius.
38:26That cloud became bigger and bigger and more threatening.
38:36Nobody knew what an eruption would actually look like.
38:40I think to begin with, they wouldn't have known how to react.
38:44I mean, they'd probably have thought that this is some sign from the gods.
38:48I think many of them would have seen it as a bad omen
38:51about what was going to happen.
38:56And then the mountain erupted.
39:02It goes kilometres up into the sky.
39:05Hummus and other sorts of volcanic debris
39:07would have started to rain down on the people.
39:09The Pompeians look at the sky.
39:13The god Vulcan is angry.
39:15Ash and fire rain down.
39:18It is apocalyptic.
39:20For someone like Marcus,
39:21who had braved the terrors of the gladiatorial amphitheatre,
39:26well, this was an exponentially more terrifying sight.
39:30People were trying to escape, charging through the city,
39:37carrying what little they could with them.
39:41They tried to flee.
39:42It was a disaster such as the ancient world had not seen in millennia.
40:02Marcus Atilius could have died in the eruption if he was still in Pompeii and didn't manage to escape.
40:10Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii.
40:11Vesuvius destroyed Pompeii.
40:13A thick layer of volcanic rock and ash buried the city,
40:18preserving a world frozen in time and offering rare insight into Roman life and the world of the gladiators.
40:28Because of the way that Pompeii was preserved,
40:31we have access to so much more about this society than we do have for many locations in the Roman world.
40:39It is because of the eruption that we know about Marcus Atilius.
40:43The record of him is two graffiti on the walls of Pompeii.
40:47And those graffiti would have long, long, long since disappeared if the city had not been destroyed in that frozen moment of the eruption.
40:57Pompeii gives us a really unique insight into Roman life.
41:01We have big buildings like the Colosseum that survive in Rome,
41:04but we don't have a snapshot into the more intimate details of daily life that you get from Pompeii.
41:11We get a completely different view of ordinary people with all their graffiti, for example, that survive.
41:17We have numbers of graffiti that are about gladiatorial fights, about fights that are going to happen.
41:23They record the results of what happened.
41:25We have some graffiti that give little pictures of gladiators
41:29that are, like, held up as heartthrobs or seen as particularly successful.
41:35We know about the rise in Pompeii because we have an incredible artwork that exists still today,
41:40which is an afresco of the rise.
41:42To have evidence that comes from people inscribing on the walls
41:46is quite something.
41:48What is striking is that some bones of a woman have been found in the Ludus of Pompeii.
41:55It is possible that she was the owner of the Ludus.
41:59She was found with quite expensive jewellery,
42:01which suggests a higher status or at least higher wealth in the community.
42:04We can see where the gladiators would have been living in Pompeii
42:10and where they would have been training.
42:12We've also found gladiatorial armour in the ruins at Pompeii.
42:18And we do have Marcus appearing in this graffiti.
42:22That's how we know about the fight that he took part in,
42:25because of the drawing of him and also the annotations that people made to the graffiti
42:30about what happened exactly in his fight.
42:34Marcus Atilius achieved greatness fighting in the amphitheatre.
42:40The eruption of Vesuvius may have killed him,
42:44but it also preserved his legacy.
42:47It is how we know of the free man who became a gladiator
42:52and a hero to the people of Pompeii.
42:56The King of nÆ°á»›c of Pompeii
43:01The King of Pompeii
43:04The King of Pompeii
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