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00:00The Colosseum, a vast, awe-inspiring arena, built to showcase the power of Rome, a symbol of control.
00:14I don't think we really appreciate just how incredibly intelligent and complex a structure is and what it means.
00:21To celebrate its construction, 100 days of games are staged, with thousands of gladiators fighting for glory.
00:31We really get as much of the excitement pulsing through the crowd as possible.
00:35But these games feature more than just gladiators. The arena also hosts a different kind of warrior, beast hunters.
00:45Dramatic, exciting encounter with exotic beasts they've never seen before.
00:51Champions who stalk and slay ferocious animals for the crowd's amazement.
00:56And the most famous of them all, Carpophorus, a beast fighter from North Africa, whose battles with deadly predators will capture the imagination of Rome.
01:21The Colosseum is one of the greatest pieces of architecture in history.
01:28It was an achievement unlike any other.
01:32It becomes the largest amphitheater in the Roman world.
01:38It remains that for the rest of Roman history. It's enormous.
01:48The Colosseum is built by the Emperor Vespasian on the site of the Golden House, the vast and opulent palace that belonged to his disgraced predecessor, Emperor Nero.
02:03Vespasian decides to take that imperial land and give back to the people.
02:08To show that he's the anti-Nero.
02:11And how he does it is he builds the greatest cinema, theatre and stadium all rolled into one, the Colosseum.
02:19Vespasian wants his new amphitheater to be on a bigger scale than anything that's come before.
02:29The Colosseum was built during the 70s.
02:34Incredibly, the Colosseum only takes eight years to build.
02:38The Colosseum did require these amazing construction techniques.
02:45Day and night, cars are going backwards and forwards, bringing every piece of construction necessary.
02:55There are probably a number of different groups involved in the building projects in Rome.
03:01Emperors wanting to make sure that the people of Rome have wages.
03:06Local people, local tradesmen, local builders.
03:10Then you would have skilled people involved in the design, architecturally.
03:15The labour certainly came from the enslaved population.
03:18It's huge. I mean, it could seat at least 50,000 people.
03:28It also gets up to a height that no other amphitheater gets to.
03:33You're presented with this sort of towering edifice.
03:37The ability not just to build it was one thing, but the ability to build it so fast
03:43was something that would really, as an emperor, lodge your career.
03:48This is no temporary structure.
03:53Carved from marble and stone, the Colosseum was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian
04:00as a gift to the Roman people.
04:03A bold statement from a new dynasty, the Flavians.
04:08It stands as a symbol of Roman power.
04:14You have the engineering, which is unbelievable,
04:16but you also have the importance behind it.
04:19On one aspect, you've got the greatest political stage that's ever existed.
04:23A way for the emperor, the top of the food chain, to come in contact with the common people.
04:30It was a way to gain an audience.
04:33How else did you get 55,000 people to give you your attention,
04:36if not to build a structure like the Colosseum?
04:38But also on the other side, it gave the people a chance to talk with the emperor, to interact with the emperor.
04:45You were coming into contact with the most important person in the known world at that time.
04:49The Colosseum was the arena where Rome's power was made manifest, where both majesty and triumph, but also evil and brutality were on display in equal measure.
05:08It was politics, it was theatre, it was mythology, just rolled into one incredible structure.
05:16I don't think we really appreciate just how incredibly intelligent and complex a structure it is and what it means.
05:24The Colosseum is completed in 80 CE, a triumph of engineering speed and imperial ambition.
05:37But Emperor Vespasian dies before it is unveiled.
05:42It is left to his son Titus to oversee its inauguration.
05:46And as a new emperor, he has to throw a spectacle that will win the hearts of the Roman people.
05:52In order to celebrate the completion of the Colosseum, which was the grandest amphitheatre that would ever be built.
06:03The emperor Titus threw the most elaborate games that Rome had ever seen.
06:08A hundred days of games.
06:12Titus's games are unprecedented.
06:15A hundred days of games, it's really on such a large scale.
06:19Emperors have thrown big events before.
06:23This to be focused in particular on one space, on the arena.
06:28That's something that Titus really takes hold of and runs with.
06:32It's a completely different order than anything has happened before.
06:36Months of intense preparation must have unfolded before the games commence.
06:42Countless workers and performers mobilize.
06:46The scale and cost is immense.
06:51Rome has never seen a stage like this.
06:56Can Titus deliver games worthy of the greatest amphitheatre ever built?
07:01Thousands of gladiators are primed for battle.
07:11But another spectacle is about to steal the show.
07:18Part of the spectacles that Romans liked to watch, it wasn't just the gladiators that they came to see.
07:23They also enjoyed seeing the beast hunts and the beast fighters.
07:31These beast fighters are known as Venatores.
07:37It was too much of a risk to put a gladiator fighting against a wild beast because of course the beast is unpredictable.
07:44The Venatores were a perfect example of the professional hunter.
07:53Who were from parts of the provinces.
07:56Usually people who were local to where the animals were from.
07:58Who'd grown up with the animals, who knew how to approach them, but also how to bait them, how to get them into a good fight.
08:03And how to dispatch them in a way without making a risk to their lives.
08:06At the building of the Colosseum the Romans were pretty domesticated.
08:14They really didn't come in contact with nature.
08:17The beast hunts were a way to bring that savage nature in a very controlled environment.
08:27And show the Romans what they didn't see.
08:31It's a little bit like television, it's bringing the worlds to you.
08:34Would you travel three months to go to India to see a tiger in a jungle?
08:40Probably not.
08:41But do you need to?
08:42No.
08:43You sit in the amphitheatre.
08:44The emperor's going to do it for you.
08:47He's not going to show you just how ferocious tigers are.
08:50He's going to show you that the Roman Empire, that man can defeat the tiger.
08:54That's how powerful we are.
08:59It wasn't just people who would fight animals.
09:01Sometimes they would set the animals against each other.
09:05Again, they've probably been trained in some way how to do this.
09:09They're probably provoked by perhaps being kept hungry.
09:13There was always a fine line there.
09:15You couldn't sort of starve the animal because it might not look very good.
09:18It's got to look the part when it hit the arena.
09:20The Venatores are specialist fighters, risking their lives against savage beasts.
09:33Most of them are forgotten by history.
09:35But one man's name has stood the test of time.
09:42Carpophorus.
09:48Alongside the gladiators, another kind of warrior captivates the Roman crowd.
09:54The beast hunters.
09:56Lions, leopards and bears are all part of the spectacle.
10:00But who is Carpophorus, the man who faces such creatures for the amusement of Rome?
10:08Carpophorus is probably the most famed beast hunter of all of Roman history.
10:15He was somebody who was put into the arena to fight against the wild savage beasts from all parts of the Empire.
10:22You might liken it to being an animal trainer as part of a circus.
10:28They've got to be able to bring the best out of the animal in the arena setting.
10:34Carpophorus is one of the only ones that we have mentioned by name in the celebratory poems.
10:40Which makes him something very unusual and special.
10:43And it says something about his talent.
10:49In the way that he is able to deal with the animals that he fights with.
10:53The kind of show that he puts on for the crowd.
10:56That he is someone who is remembered.
11:02The Romans liked to watch these sorts of things because watching a man like Carpophorus taking down wild animals.
11:09That kind of shows the human conquering of nature.
11:14Carpophorus may be the most famous beast hunter.
11:18But the history of fighting animals in the arena stretches back centuries before the Colosseum ever stood.
11:26Beast fights emerge earlier on in the Republic in sort of the second century BCE.
11:32After a general has conquered an area, he would bring back exotic fauna like wild animals, different wild animals from different parts of the Empire.
11:42But it's not until the time of Augustus and then after into the first century CE and beyond, wild beast hunts and spectacles become part of this regular show.
11:51The Roman Empire in the time of the Flavians is very substantial.
12:02By this time the Romans have conquered essentially the Mediterranean.
12:06In the east they've gone as far as Judea and Syria.
12:12And then in the west they've gone as far as Britain.
12:16And then south they've also gone into North Africa.
12:19Introducing these wild animals and exotic species into the arena at Rome was bringing the empire to the capital.
12:31And signalled the huge reach of Roman power and the wealth and resources of the emperor who could afford to bring these animals from such vast distances.
12:42To supply animals for the arena, the Roman Empire launches extensive hunting expeditions across its territories.
12:53Exotic beasts are dragged back to the Colosseum for slaughter and spectacle.
12:59The North African province of Numidia is an especially abundant region.
13:04In the Roman imagination, Numidia was a land rich with resources, full of biodiversity.
13:12It's these big cats that are the real kind of high point that the Romans really love to see.
13:18The kind of animal that you get in North Africa and not in mainland Europe.
13:23They're the most terrifying, ferocious, exciting animals to watch in the amphitheatre.
13:29Getting the beasts to Rome is a massive operation.
13:34The more foreign these animals are, the better the spectacle is going to be for the crowd, the more you can ask for the animals.
13:44It was so important to the emperors to be able to source animals for their hunts in the capital city that they use the army to carry this out.
13:52And it's a difficult, dangerous job.
13:56And they would use traps and then baits and anything they could to try and lure the animals in.
14:03And then capture them and ship them over to Rome.
14:09You would have different groups of hunters.
14:12Some who would be looking to get cubs from leopards for example.
14:16There they would distract the mother, try and grab the cubs and then ride off.
14:22And they even describe how if you were being pursued by the mother, you would throw one cub back to distract the mother again.
14:29Then you could escape with all the other cubs that you'd stolen.
14:31In time, Rome discovers that often the most effective way to capture wild beasts is to enlist local hunters.
14:43Men like Copophorus.
14:45Men like Copophorus.
14:49Numidians were renowned for their courage and martial excellence.
14:54There was obviously a skilled knowledge base amongst the local indigenous people.
15:00Aware of the landscape, aware of where these beasts were, how to capture them.
15:05Called Copophorus, he would have been descended from a pretty long tradition of local indigenous people.
15:16With an ancient and systemic understanding of the land, how to interact with the land.
15:23And of course for an imperial power like Rome, that knowledge base is obviously vital in capturing beasts.
15:28The locals would have known how to catch them and how to deal with them in such a way that they didn't actually damage them.
15:37Because if you want to have them preserved alive for the arena, they've got to be in good shape.
15:42And then they would transport them from North Africa back to Rome to take part in these games.
15:50Like the beasts he helped capture, Copophorus is enslaved by Rome.
15:56Likely held captive alongside the animals, he endures a brutal sea journey north.
16:04Aboard the ship, he is forced to work, cleaning pans, feeding predators with the carcasses of the dead.
16:11His life now belongs to the Empire.
16:14Titus' games are unprecedented.
16:25One hundred days of games.
16:29In which we're told 9,000 animals appear.
16:33And 10,000 gladiators.
16:35It was a hot ticket.
16:3950,000 seats for a population of one million.
16:42And so demand must have been enormous.
16:45We don't hear of ticket sales.
16:49And tickets are kind of handed down through patronage.
16:53On the basis of the emperor's favor.
16:57And this was another way that the emperor could exert control over the populace of Rome.
17:03Behind the scenes, countless workers keep the games running.
17:09An operation as massive and demanding as the games themselves.
17:14The Colosseum really was a city within a city and it depended on a whole community of workers in order to make it function.
17:24The number of enslaved individuals working to make one of these days happen would have numbered in the hundreds.
17:31You'd have the whole one-stop shop.
17:35You've got to provide the gladiators and the beast hunters with their glamorous costumes.
17:40With their carefully wrought armor.
17:43If you need people to hand out the food.
17:46If it's a nice day, they would use sails as awnings to keep people in the shade.
17:52And they had a special sort of marine unit who were used to hauling up sails on ships to operate the awnings at the top of the colony.
18:01There are people to clean up the sand between fights.
18:05Clean up the spilled blood.
18:07To take away the bodies, to introduce other animals.
18:16Enslavement and animal exploitation were the engines of Roman Empire.
18:21The Romans brought people and other beings to Rome for their own uses, for exploitation.
18:27These enslavers always had a keen eye out for who was most suited for what task.
18:37When it came to individuals who were strong, who were charismatic, that those folks might especially be marked out for service.
18:44These very skills are embodied by Carpophorus as he is forced into his new role.
18:51No longer a hunter, but something more ferocious.
18:54Once he's captured and taken to Rome, Carpophorus would have been a stage name given to him by his handler.
19:05He becomes Carpophorus, the beast hunter.
19:07The man who will delight and entertain baying spectators.
19:12In Rome, beast hunters like Carpophorus are sent to a ludus bestiarium, a specialized school where fighters are trained to battle wild animals, not men.
19:28This would be where Carpophorus would have trained.
19:33Beast hunters were even lower on the social scale than gladiators were, so that their conditions were even more unpleasant.
19:42Carpophorus was not living in comfort.
19:44There obviously was a high degree of training and a real premium on having highly skilled fighters.
19:56They need to be nimble.
19:58They need to be skilled in firing arrows.
20:03They need to be very skilled in using a spear.
20:08Both to kill and to fend off an attacking animal.
20:14Beast games at an amphitheatre were not just physical exertions.
20:20They were also performances.
20:22Put on this show to entertain the masses.
20:26And so Carpophorus's training would likely have involved understanding these beasts.
20:32How best to get them to react in certain ways.
20:36So that when the day came, it would not end so quickly.
20:40Because that would have left a very unsatisfied audience paying for more, that more entertainment and more spectacle.
20:49Soon Carpophorus's training will come to an end.
20:53The sands of the Colosseum await.
20:56When he's in the arena, staring down predators like the ones he hunted in North Africa.
21:01The choice is simple. Win or die.
21:07So it's finally the day of the games.
21:10The crowds flood in.
21:12And the Colosseum stands ready.
21:15Built for a magnificent spectacle just like this.
21:18One of the contributions of the Colosseum in general is various zones.
21:24The innermost zone, of course, is the playing area. In this case, the sand.
21:28And then there is the seats themselves. It's the second zone.
21:32A third zone are the whole elaborate circulation system that led people into their seats.
21:38There are cells. There are storerooms.
21:42There are storerooms for the various animals.
21:45There are cells for the gladiators.
21:47Cells for the people being condemned to die in the arena.
21:50One thing that really did help is a system of numbering of the arches.
21:54You can still see it to this day.
21:56Each with their number at the top of the arch.
21:59And a ticketing system in which each individual, once they entered that zone, knew precisely where they were supposed to go and where they were supposed to sit.
22:10A central part of the new building is the imperial box.
22:17This is where the emperor and his entourage are going to sit.
22:21And they are not just there to see, they're there to be seen.
22:25You know, they are part of the spectacle.
22:29And for the crowd, you know, one of the big buzzes they get is that there they are sharing this hugely expensive entertainment with the emperor himself.
22:42Location was everything in the Roman amphitheater.
22:48Clearly, also, anyone who was in the box, or the closer you were to the emperor's presence, the higher your own status was.
22:59But also, there was a whole vertical aspect as well.
23:01The top most tiers of Roman society had the closest view, whereas slaves and women were put on top.
23:09The day begins with the savage thrill of the hunts, but even before the first spear is thrown, danger is already in motion.
23:21For dragging wild beasts into the arena is a deadly task in itself, chaotic and often fatal.
23:28Dealing with animals was always tricky and it didn't always go as it was planned to.
23:38There was no sort of concern with safety.
23:43Certainly not for the people who were participating.
23:46There was some concern about animals getting up into the crowd and they did actually use rollers that meant that the animals would not be able to climb up into the crowd and cause mayhem.
23:59You could imagine what a huge logistical effort it was to get all of these animals in the right place, without fighting each other, without killing each other.
24:14They would have probably been collected at one of the gates of Rome and then transported from there to the Colosseum, most likely only a few hours before their appearance.
24:25We believe that the animals were taken into the arena in cages and released through trap doors.
24:39And it must have been a horrifying, smelly, noisy, terrifying job to be one of the enslaved persons managing those winches.
24:50Just the sensory overload that you would have had.
24:53There would have been animals crying, all kind of animal muck everywhere, the stench would have been overwhelming.
25:02It must have just been terrifying.
25:06With the beasts finally in position, the audience are ready for Copophorus to make his debut in the Colosseum.
25:14The crowd have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
25:18They are in their seats and they are cheering, they are just waiting for the procession to enter the Colosseum.
25:24And their eyes are laser focused on looking for Copophorus.
25:34You can imagine what it would be like sort of waiting in darkness.
25:38Hear all the noise and the shouts of the crowd and then to appear in front of 50,000 screaming Romans.
25:47They have seen this advertised everywhere and they have come from far just to see their favourite Venator.
25:58Copophorus is seated on his adversary. He's riding in on a raging bull.
26:07And then he leaps off of the animal.
26:12And then he has to face it down and fight it.
26:23That skill set of the person who has to bring those beasts together to produce that spectacle is able to whip that animal up into a kind of frenzy.
26:33Now this is the sort of thing that would be horrifying I think from a modern perspective to observe.
26:41But it would require a really specific set of skills.
26:46Part of Copophorus's training would have likely been an attempt to try and extend the event as much as possible to try and really get as much of the excitement pulsing through the crowd as possible.
26:57Somebody in this bestiary is going to be predicated on your capacity to move quickly and to get out of danger fast and have a whole bunch of strategies to come and deal with animals that are feisty and wild and ready to bite.
27:15With skill, Copophorus slays the beast he's pitted against.
27:25A spectacle that sends the crowds into a frenzy.
27:29Yet the 100 days of games are far from over.
27:34And there is much more brutality ahead.
27:45Titus's games are unprecedented in both scope and scale.
27:50Alongside the beast hunters the arena offers a host of spectacles and novelties.
27:57Including a gladiator jewel that will echo through history as one of the most legendary ever fought.
28:04So the highlight of Titus's first day is this big fight between Priscus and Verus.
28:15Priscus means something like the sort of primeval one.
28:21Verus means the truth.
28:23These were stage names and they were both well known gladiators.
28:26And they fight and they fight and they fight and they fight and it goes on and on.
28:36So much so that they have to have rest breaks and they're even given refreshments because they're so tired.
28:44But in the end neither of them is able to win.
28:48And they both simultaneously raise their finger and ask for mercy.
28:56It's never been seen before and the crowd go mad.
29:02And of course Titus plays up for this by freeing both of them.
29:06And this is a sign of, you know, what a good, generous emperor he's going to be.
29:17One of the main themes in the development of gladiatorial combat in Rome is the perennial search for novelty.
29:23One of the ways to introduce novelty was to have women fight.
29:28It's very clear that women developed into skilled fighters in their own right.
29:34As such, they were included in the displays in the inauguration of the Colosseum.
29:41It's possible that, like other female fighters, they were dressed as mythical figures, as gods or heroes, as a way to increase the excitement of the crowd.
29:55But they fought and they often fought each other or acted as beast hunters.
30:03We do know of one pair of named female gladiators.
30:11We have a stone from southwest Turkey, which shows two females in combat stance facing each other.
30:20And their names are Amazon and Achilleo.
30:28So there we have this symbol of strength, this symbol of youth and courage.
30:34And this would have caused all sorts of reactions in the crowd.
30:36They might have expected to see a woman.
30:38And it also might have caused real admiration from both male and female fans.
30:46Gladiators, female fighters and the legendary Carpophorus.
30:53Day after day, the Colosseum delivers shock and awe.
30:58The Empire's greatest arena hosts the wildest battles ever staged.
31:05All of it enforcing the power and majesty of the man in charge of the Empire.
31:15By this point, it is now a demonstration of the Empress' power.
31:19When Hites puts on these games, when he puts these animals, these beasts, into the Colosseum.
31:30Beasts that Carpophorus will fight.
31:33This is a demonstration of his power, his reach.
31:37It's the reach of the Empire.
31:41To put your name out there.
31:42I'm the person who put on these games.
31:45I've treated you.
31:50I've given you entertainment.
31:52This was a key political strategy in climbing up the Roman political system.
32:02After 100 days of intense combat, the spectacle finally comes to an end.
32:09A dazzling display of imperial majesty.
32:12These games will be remembered as amongst the greatest in Rome's history.
32:20Yet, Titus' glory is short-lived.
32:23Within the year, he is dead.
32:26And his brother, Domitian, sits upon the throne.
32:2981 CE.
32:42A new emperor ascends to the throne.
32:46Domitian.
32:48A man determined to reshape the games in his own image.
32:52The emperor Domitian was the third in the line of the Flavian dynasty.
32:59He was the son of Vespasian, the emperor who built the Colosseum.
33:06And the brother of Titus, who had succeeded Vespasian.
33:10He is not as successful as Titus as emperor.
33:17We hear all sorts of interesting stories about Domitian and his personality type.
33:24Constantly worried about conspiracies against his life.
33:28He was said to have lined the walls of his palace with reflective stone.
33:36Stone that was shined to such an extent that he would be able to see who was behind him at any point.
33:43We hear of him spending his time pulling the wings off of flies for entertainment.
33:51He is accused of having a hand in the death of his elder brother Titus.
33:58And he pushes the boundaries of power.
34:02Which are constantly being pushed by emperors, but one step further.
34:07All emperors want to outdo the emperor before them.
34:13Especially more so if the emperor previous to you is your older brother.
34:18And you are the youngest of the family.
34:20Every emperor tried their best to make their games the ones that were unforgettable.
34:26And these are standards that have been set previously by Julius Caesar, by Augustus.
34:31In the case of Domitian, he is in a period where now the stage is set bigger than it has ever been before.
34:41Because now he has the calcium.
34:45He tries his utmost to be the emperor that is most remembered.
34:51Anything that he thinks is going to gain attention, that is going to make the game slightly different.
34:55He is willing to use.
34:56The more novel you can be with your entertainment, the more you would attract the attention and the popularity of the common people.
35:08Domitian was interested in the theatrical and that is reflected in his transformation of the games
35:14into even more lavish spectacle than his predecessors.
35:18In terms of setting them at night, in terms of increasing the types of competitors.
35:26Domitian also expanded the Colosseum, constructing a vast labyrinth called a hypogeum beneath the arena floor.
35:36Hidden from the crowd above, this underground world housed gladiators, wild animals and elaborate props.
35:43bringing new levels of drama and danger to the games.
35:49Once the basement was installed, we believed that the animals were taken down into the basement
35:55and then winched up into the arena in cages and released through trap doors.
36:00All about competing for status, outdoing your rivals.
36:10These new additions all fed into the emperor's personal passion for the games.
36:17Like many emperors, Domitian did not make a secret of his preferences when it came to sport.
36:23And he was a strong proponent of the type of fighter known as a mermillo.
36:27So fierce was Domitian's obsession that a brutal reprisal was in store for a man who voiced his love for another fighting style.
36:38This enraged Domitian to such an extent that he had the perpetrator ripped to shreds by dogs with a plaque around his neck advertising that he was a fan of the Thracian style of fighting.
36:53And this really shows Domitian's vindictive and perverse nature pretty clearly to us.
37:04Determined to build his own legacy, Domitian drives the games to new extremes.
37:09Carpophorus is called to return to the Colosseum.
37:15Beasts from the farthest reaches of the empire await.
37:19Victory is not assured.
37:22Nor is survival.
37:24It's 83 CE.
37:34Carpophorus' finest moment.
37:37This is when he will fight 20 animals in the arena.
37:40The crowd had been waiting forever and he is full of anticipation.
37:47Carpophorus enters the arena.
37:50He looks spectacular.
37:54The crowd roars.
37:58He waits in anticipation for his first opponent.
38:01On the other side of the arena emerges a wild boar.
38:07The boar let out a terrifying grunt.
38:11Looked at Carpophorus and charged.
38:16Many combatants followed.
38:21Panther, Leopard and innumerable other apex predators.
38:25But it was the final fight that mattered.
38:29A great lion of untold size.
38:33This is him at the peak of his career.
38:35It's dramatic.
38:38It's exciting.
38:40It's thrilling.
38:42And it's all done in the name of Rome's imperial majesty.
38:49With a final fatal strike, Carpophorus brings down the raging lion.
38:55In that moment, he cements his legacy.
38:59He will forever be known as Rome's most famous beast slayer.
39:06Carpophorus is described as surpassing the labors of Hercules.
39:10Hercules, a demigod who killed the Nemean lion with his own hands.
39:16This was a human who had become divine because his actions were so great.
39:20Here is Carpophorus who is going even beyond that.
39:25Carpophorus may have won eternal fame in the arena.
39:30But what became of him after is lost to time.
39:33We can only speculate about Carpophorus' subsequent life.
39:40He likely was never involved in quite a spectacular again.
39:45He was probably by this time or through this event freed.
39:49And gained a great amount of wealth for his victories.
39:55Yet the price of Carpophorus' glory was steep, paid in blood.
40:00And the destruction of a natural world torn apart by Rome's hunger for spectacle.
40:06The continual thirst for exotic animals by the Roman beast trade resulted in the extermination and the extinction of animals in whole swaths of parts of the Roman Empire.
40:19Many of the animals that were killed were apex predators.
40:23And when you remove an apex predator from an ecosystem, you cause what are called cascade effects.
40:30Which means that the populations of lower predators change and grow and then the whole ecosystem is disrupted.
40:40This would have caused all sorts of extinction events throughout the Roman Empire.
40:44The selection of predators for the stage had impacts outside of Rome and Italy itself.
40:54Rome has no concept of the environmental damage that they're doing.
41:00If they did, it doesn't seem like that they cared.
41:04They were happy to go into places and strip them bare of whatever made them wealthy in order to increase their own wealth.
41:11That is the nature of the Roman Empire and we should not forget it because they are not to be lauded.
41:18At the heart of all this bloodshed stood a single structure built to project the power and dominance of Rome.
41:27The Colosseum is still in many ways the key building of the Roman Empire.
41:32The beauty of it, the sheer scale of it, the way that it sits within the landscape.
41:41It stands for its great achievements, its great conquests, its incredible martial spirit.
41:50But of course it also symbolises the people who were at the receiving end of that.
41:57The many hundreds of thousands who were killed.
42:01The millions who were enslaved.
42:04As you go further into Rome's history, we certainly see the spectacles, whether they be gladiator displays or beast hunts or beast fights, become a lot bloodier.
42:14And the scale does increase.
42:19It probably is one of the places that we can point to in the world and say there was a huge amount of bloodshed in this particular location.
42:27And it went on for hundreds of years.
42:29The Colosseum is one of the most iconic buildings of the Roman Empire.
42:38Built for spectacle, it drove a relentless demand for animals and men condemned to die for public entertainment.
42:47Most of the names will never be known, but some became legends.
42:52Carpophorus was one of them, the famed beast hunter of ancient Rome.
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