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00:0029th of August 30 BC the Egyptian city of Alexandria a 17 year old boy is running
00:16through the streets pursued by assassins he was born to rule an empire but his
00:26people will not help him his army has deserted him and his mother has taken her
00:37own life he does not know it yet but this teenager will be the last Pharaoh of
00:46ancient Egypt a 19-day reign that will bring to an end 3,000 years of history
00:55ancient Egypt the Roman Empire
01:14the Aztecs of Mexico
01:19and the samurai of Japan
01:24for great civilizations each a pinnacle of human ingenuity and achievement each
01:35lasted for centuries their people thought they would endure forever until suddenly
01:46everything changed
01:50these civilizations faced challenges that are all too familiar today
01:59climate catastrophe
02:05pandemic
02:10challenges for which ancient societies had few solutions
02:22but what if there was a place that had the answers to what went wrong a place full of secrets and stories
02:37the British Museum home to more than eight million artifacts is a record of how and why the greatest civilizations rose to power and then spectacularly fell
02:44its treasures are the human traces of how and why the greatest civilizations rose to power and the greatest civilizations rose to power and then spectacularly fell
02:51its treasures are the human traces that survived disaster
03:06but might they also hold lessons for our own future
03:12every civilization throughout history has had an expiry date
03:19every civilization throughout history has had an expiry date
03:21with great societies the seeds of their destruction are sown within the society
03:27they're already there
03:29they're already there
03:30no civilization ever thinks it's going to fall
03:36but the question is what can we learn from the past
03:42by the first century BC ancient Egypt has thrived for three millennia
04:01ancient Egypt is the jewel in the crown of ancient
04:12ancient history it's wealthy it's got 3,000 years of the most spectacular history
04:19it's monumental buildings it's phenomenal culture and it was the country all others aspired to be
04:29it had it all
04:35Egypt is advanced architecturally they've built amazing temples and of course the pyramids
04:42and on top of that there are huge advances in writing and in medicine as well
04:50the natural resources of this land have allowed the Egyptians to build a vast and powerful kingdom stretching from the Mediterranean deep into Africa
05:02the secret to Egypt's success is its unique river the Nile
05:15the great bounty of the river Nile allows Egypt to become the bread basket of the ancient world
05:21because each year when the rains fall in the summer up in the Ethiopian highlands it causes a great rush of water
05:29down the Nile and that causes the river to flood its banks and it brings water and nutrients to the fields
05:36it enables the super abundance of grain
05:41this is the currency that the world economy depends upon and Egypt has this in huge quantities
05:48grain provides Egypt with vast wealth and power making it the first nation state in history
05:55it is led by a single all-powerful ruler the Pharaoh
06:03one jewel of the British Museum's Egypt collection is a grand monument to the most famous Pharaoh of them all
06:24the first American Pharaoh of them all
06:44Ramses ruled Egypt during its prime
06:48when his empire spread far and wide, unifying his diverse subjects with a singular vision.
06:56This is a surviving fragment of a 23-foot statue that struck awe and wonder into all who saw it,
07:08and played a vital role in uniting his people behind him.
07:13The eyes are slightly tilted downwards, so when you're looking up,
07:20you've got this powerful feeling that Ramses is looking down on you.
07:25This really gives you a real sense of majesty and dominance.
07:32On Ramses' crown is his royal symbol, a deadly snake, the cobra.
07:38It reveals the secret behind the pharaoh's absolute power.
07:45For the Egyptians, you have a leader who is the king,
07:49but the Egyptian king is someone who is not just a human.
07:54When you see the cobra on the forehead of anyone, it means that they are divine.
07:59The king, or the pharaoh, was a sort of god on earth.
08:05He was supposed to enter into a contract with the gods and make sure the gods were appeased,
08:11and therefore he was both the ruler as well as a deity, and this gave him special privileges and powers.
08:18Egypt thrives when its people unite behind their god-king.
08:30But this is a challenge for the latest pharaohs.
08:42A thousand years after Ramses II, a new dynasty rules.
08:58The Ptolemies.
08:59The Ptolemies are, without doubt, the most violent royal dynasty that there's ever been.
09:10The Ptolemies are not Egyptian, but Greek.
09:14Successors of Alexander the Great, who conquered Egypt and built one of the grandest cities of the ancient world.
09:24Alexandria.
09:24To begin with, the Ptolemies build a strong economy and a thriving society.
09:34But after 200 years, there are signs that their riches and successes have gone to their heads.
09:43This is a family that over several generations has been tearing itself apart, vying for ultimate control of Egypt.
09:52Like any situation where great wealth or great power is at stake, it is fertile breeding ground for rivalry.
10:01In the days of Ramses, pharaohs represented permanence and invincibility.
10:07But under the Ptolemies, chaos now reigns.
10:12This is a sandstone stela, a monument.
10:37A monument.
10:38A monument.
10:39Traditionally, the name of the ruling pharaoh would be inscribed into the stone in an oval symbol called a cartouche.
10:49But this stela is different.
10:51We get in this period examples of blank cartouches.
10:58The cartouches usually contain the pharaoh's name.
11:02But in the records, we find many hundreds of examples of blank cartouches.
11:08They've never been filled in.
11:09The artist hasn't even tried to fill it in.
11:12The turnover of pharaoh has become so rapid that the stonemasons are reluctant to carve the name of a specific Ptolemaic pharaoh.
11:26Because who knows, you know, in five minutes' time, this name might be no more and we'd have to carve it out and rewrite it.
11:34Brothers have been at war with brothers. Husbands have been at war with their wives.
11:43One had his own son killed and the body part sent to the boy's mother on the eve of her birthday celebration.
11:50So this gives you a bit of a sense of the kind of blood-spattered nature of the Ptolemaic royal family.
11:56Dynasties are a pressure cooker.
12:03And the people who are the top of the dynasty tend to become corrupted by power.
12:07We now have ample evidence from neuroscience and psychology that people's brains seem to change once they get a hold of power.
12:16This is a recipe for disaster.
12:18It's 51 BC and Pharaoh Ptolemy XII lies dying.
12:30His reign has been dominated by infighting.
12:34He has squandered Egypt's wealth and territory to preserve his power.
12:40He is about to hand this poisoned chalice to his successor.
12:44Ptolemy has five kids and is looking to them to pave the way for the survival of the dynasty.
12:58But that shows a chronic lack of self-awareness about dynastic politics and the family that he has bred.
13:07Of his five children, his formidable 18-year-old daughter seems the obvious choice to succeed him.
13:17Her name is Cleopatra.
13:21I think it's fair to say that Cleopatra is very much her father's favourite child.
13:28She has a brilliant mind, a great intellect.
13:31She was a superb politician, but she's also very, very ruthless.
13:38She could manipulate those around her quite brilliantly.
13:42And that quality of ruthless ambition is something Ptolemy has deliberately encouraged.
13:48Great family dynasties, whether you're talking about Murdoch, the Hearst family, Rockefeller,
14:05the means by which the head of the dynasty keeps control is by making sure they all understand that,
14:13as you know, they can be up, but they can come down again.
14:15In a sense, he's encouraged division.
14:22He's encouraged ambition.
14:27He has created a ready-made battlefield that's going to explode.
14:34Ptolemy does have a male heir, also called Ptolemy, but he is only 11 and too young to rule.
14:46Their father insists that brother and sister join forces and become joint pharaohs by marrying each other.
14:56Of course she does not want to marry her brother.
15:01Cleopatra is a headstrong young woman who was well-versed in statecraft, so why would she want to share the throne?
15:09She was astute enough to know that this was a power struggle waiting to happen and she wanted to nip it in the bud.
15:15When her father dies, Cleopatra makes her move.
15:29But she inherits a deeply divided society.
15:32The Ptolemies have promoted a Greek elite and they expect a male ruler.
15:41Egypt is a difficult country to rule.
15:43There are tensions between the indigenous population and the Greek settlers.
15:51By this time, the Egyptians feel that they are towards the lower end of the hierarchy,
15:58that the best jobs are actually reserved for the Greek population.
16:07We could see Egypt as a kind of tinderbox.
16:11She tries to appease the Egyptian people.
16:19Cleopatra knows that the people's support
16:21can be the tipping point in her infighting with her brother.
16:33Cleopatra believes if she can get the Egyptians on side, the Greeks will have to follow.
16:44So she embarks on an audacious campaign.
16:50Pharaohs have always claimed to be divine, but Cleopatra takes it one step further.
16:57Cleopatra refers to herself as a goddess, the new Isis or Isis personified, the great mother goddess,
17:09the bringer of fertility, the bringer of wealth.
17:27By Cleopatra's time, Isis has absorbed all the powers of all the collective goddesses of Egypt.
17:39So she is the ultimate deity.
17:45She is pretty much everywhere. She's on the walls of temples.
17:50And with some of these statuettes and figurines,
17:53these are often put in domestic shrines so people could worship Isis at home.
17:59Everybody literally loved Isis.
18:05This is a stunning sculpture representing the nurturing aspect of the mother goddess Isis.
18:12She is gently raising her hand towards her breast,
18:15which means that she was about to breastfeed her son.
18:18Now, if we look closer to her hair, that's probably my favourite bit.
18:27She's wearing a vulture headdress, and every single feather is detailed in dark blue.
18:35In ancient Egypt, Isis is the ultimate symbol of motherhood, protection,
18:40magic, but also of divine rulership.
18:57By identifying herself with Isis, Cleopatra is really saying to the Egyptians,
19:02I am your living goddess, I will protect you as Isis protects you.
19:07The tears of Isis give you the Nile.
19:10I am Isis, I give you the Nile, I give you life.
19:13I give you protection, I give you fertility.
19:17It was a very sensible political ploy.
19:21So when Cleopatra puts it out there that she actually is a goddess,
19:26part of you might think, well, that's absurd and it's just a piece of spin, dare I say.
19:33But actually, we quite like the idea of thinking there's somebody out there
19:38that we can trust to lead us in a certain direction.
19:41She may be winning over the Egyptian people, but Cleopatra also needs allies with real power.
19:59She looks to her forefathers for inspiration.
20:03Who did they turn to to secure their crown?
20:11The Rosetta Stone is so important to us as Egyptologists,
20:37because on this hunk of granite you have hieroglyphs, Egyptian, Domotic and Greek written.
20:48The Rosetta Stone, a magical key that allowed 19th century historians
20:53to decode hieroglyphs for the very first time.
21:00But the Rosetta Stone is more than just a translation device.
21:03The words written on it explain one of Cleopatra's most important decisions.
21:13When the Rosetta Stone was written, there was an uprising and the Ptolemies
21:17were struggling to maintain control.
21:20And so the Rosetta Stone really is a document that tells us what the Ptolemies did to solve this problem.
21:26The Ptolemies really have to get the Egyptian priests on side.
21:33The priests are very influential figures amongst the native Egyptian population.
21:38On the face of it, it's a simple contract between the priests of Egypt and the royal family.
21:44The early Ptolemies made a deal.
21:49They gave priests tax breaks and land.
21:53In return, the priests decreed that the Ptolemies were god kings who must be faithfully followed.
22:00Cleopatra strikes the same deal, lavishly funding temples and enriching the priests.
22:16In return, they proclaim her sole pharaoh.
22:19And she rules unopposed for 18 months.
22:26But not everyone accepts the new status quo.
22:32While Cleopatra was winning the hearts and minds of the Egyptians and of the priests,
22:37she left one thing out of the equation.
22:40Because her brother went off and got the Greek elites and the military on his side.
22:45But Cleopatra and her brother, Ptolemy XIII, are playing with fire.
22:55The population, rather than being unified by a single belief in the pharaoh,
23:00is instead divided upon multiple ethnic lines.
23:04Different ethnic and ideological groups can become fault lines across society.
23:10This makes society by nature far more fragile.
23:16Do not agree with the
23:28Cleopatra has the loyalty of the people, but Ptolemy has control of Egypt's mighty army.
23:35as his forces approach alexandria cleopatra flees the country
23:42but she will not accept defeat
23:47we're talking about cleopatra here
23:52she was born to rule she was trained to rule she was a goddess and a queen
23:57so she was not going to let that little sniveling brat take over and so she was
24:03going to come back and fight for what was hers
24:17desperate to reclaim her throne she takes a monumental gamble
24:23and turns to a superpower even mightier than her own the unstoppable rising force of rome
24:34the romans are probably the most warlike society on earth
24:43its great deity is mars the god of war
24:51rome was stampeding its way across the mediterranean
24:55their tactics are swift and bloody and brutal
25:04that's what it was all about for them was to expand the idea of romanitas
25:09being roman and creating a civilized world out of that
25:18it would be a very dangerous thing for cleopatra to get rome on her side because of course
25:23she has to be able to a convince the romans that she is the right ruler and b hold rome in check so
25:30that they don't swallow her up
25:35there's a potential here for rome as dangerous as it is to actually be the savior of cleopatra
25:42but getting into bed with the devil is a dangerous thing
25:45if fortune favors the bold this is cleopatra's moment to be fearless
26:00the legendary roman general julius caesar is passing through egypt on a military campaign
26:13so she smuggles herself back into the country risking her own life in order to meet the man
26:24she hopes will save her
26:26it is always challenging for a woman to be a ruler or it has been in the past few thousand years
26:34and this was obviously something that cleopatra had to struggle with
26:40i think the biggest problem was getting military might immediately behind her
26:47cleopatra was very astute politically and she knew that she could use other gifts in her arsenal
26:53her charm her wit her humor her wealth and even her body
27:05i think that this is where all of that charisma of the woman comes out
27:11this kind of magic that she works in terms of conversation and intellect
27:19julius caesar he's smitten he is absolutely smitten with her
27:23i think it's a great meeting of minds
27:27but also there's a lot of sexual energy in the room too
27:34cleopatra had few options as to what she could do and this was indeed a gamble
27:41but nothing ventured nothing gained and the die is cast
27:45with caesar's support she now has the might of rome on her side
27:50but cleopatra and her brother have unleashed the dark forces of division in egypt
27:58within a matter of weeks outright civil war breaks out
28:03this is very serious this is politics turning against the people and against the things they
28:13hold most dear this infighting that happens among the ptolemies does affect people's daily life
28:21people who had been living in relative tolerance with one another suddenly they have to pick sides
28:30the violence boils over into alexandria as cleopatra's forces set light to her brother
28:36the ptolemy's ships a devastating fire sweeps across the city destroying its treasures
28:45what's going through cleopatra's head as the library of alexandria that her ancestors built and
28:52that was the pride of her city is in flames they had set the task for the first librarian to collect
29:01every book in the world now thousands of books are burnt and lots of homes are destroyed
29:11the irony to a large extent is that what's at stake isn't as great as that
29:16it's a sibling rivalry it's not worth the damage that's taking place
29:23alexandria never recovers this is a huge tragedy for egypt and indeed for humanity
29:34i think leaders often find it difficult to separate out
29:40their own interests and the national interest and they can persuade themselves that the two are one
29:45one and the same thing and it leads to levels of brutality and ruthlessness and i think once that
29:51happens it is dangerous the romans prove too powerful for ptolemy the 13th he is hopelessly outnumbered
30:01and outflanked at the age of just 15 he drowns fleeing caesar's troops cleopatra's brother is gone
30:15this is lieutenant of civil war
30:34he thought us pharaoh cleopatra must now heal the divisions of civil war
30:39but family feuds and infighting have ravaged Egypt's economy more than ever she must rely
30:50on the bounty of the Nile but seismic events 6,000 miles away are about to plunge Egypt deeper into
31:00chaos there is a large eruption in Alaska of all places in fact the largest volcanic eruption in
31:14the last two and a half thousand years in the northern hemisphere so this is a very big eruption
31:21what we've learned in the last couple of years is that very large volcanic eruptions
31:29can impact the East African monsoon which drives the Nile flood that hits Egypt every year
31:36Egypt is dependent on the annual flood of the river and when that goes wrong when it's weak
31:43or there's no flood then things are really bad this climate disaster leads to food shortages and
31:54and Egypt's grain exports come to a halt Cleopatra has to resort to desperate measures to keep her
32:03country afloat
32:33the Egyptian economy is in real sharp decline at this point Cleopatra has to respond economically as best she can
32:47her extreme measures are revealed in these coins of father and daughter minted only 20 years apart
32:58the economic crises are coming thick and fast and what the rulers throughout history do when they're
33:09faced with economic crisis well they devalue the currency they debase the coinage there are two coins
33:16one of Ptolemy the 12th the other of Cleopatra you can see significant changes already in the silver content the coin of Ptolemy the 12th has about 90% silver content it's larger
33:35but it tells a really important story of the drop-off of the Ptolemaic economy between Ptolemy the 12th and
33:50Cleopatra within just 20 years the value of Egypt's currency plummets by nearly 70% she is faced with a
34:02whole array of issues which no ruler on earth could have solved to make matters worse the floods failed to return for almost 10 years
34:13food reserves are gone and mass famine breaks out
34:18Cleopatra has to use all the emergency stocks of grain that the Egyptian government hold and she depletes the Treasury in order to feed her people
34:29and it really a combination of those things essentially bankrupt Egypt
34:33broken and starving the people lose trust in their Pharaoh
34:42and there is evidence that Cleopatra's subjects place their faith elsewhere
34:51they turn in increasing numbers to worshipping animal gods
35:10this is so back Egypt's God of fertility this crocodile mummy is fantastic even though I've seen hundreds of them I still get a free song because each one is different
35:38to see so back we are actually in the presence of the divine
35:45it's extraordinary for us to be able to see a living God from Egypt 2000 plus years later
35:53it's about four meters plus long and it's very much blackened because it's got this resinous black goo on it
36:02and what's really cool is on the back they're babies that are stuck to the back
36:07there were temples dedicated to the crocodile God so the young crocodiles were brought in put in the sacred pools
36:17they were given a very luxurious lifestyle and they were literally treated like the gods that they were assumed to be
36:25during the Ptolemaic era the number of animal mummies is mind-boggling
36:32at one site we have eight million dogs two million ibises you have hundreds and thousands of baboons
36:40this upsurge is an indication that things are not okay things are awry
36:54like everyone else in this world when it is a time of crisis and the rulers are not doing their job you turn to the gods
37:01the pharaoh who once promoted herself as the all-powerful goddess Isis is losing her grip
37:18it's a very difficult moment when a pharaoh fails because the pharaoh is the incarnation of the gods
37:26something has gone wrong in the cosmic setup of the world
37:35there are calls in the south of Egypt to break off from the rest of Egypt
37:41certainly the Ptolemaic dynasty is hanging by a thread
37:51time is running out for the Ptolemies
37:53but unlike her male predecessors
37:58Cleopatra has an ace that only she can play
38:02but unlike her male predecessors
38:07Cleopatra has an ace that only she can play
38:12and in which she can play
38:13but she leads to some problems
38:14in her lifetime
38:15she can see it
38:17she can play
38:18in her own
38:19her
38:21her
38:22she can play
38:24and she will have the channel
38:25and she will have the chained
38:26and it will have the lastとか
38:28she will have the turn
38:29and she will try
38:30and help me
38:31in her
38:32she will have the party
38:33and she will have the party
38:34so she will have the party
38:35Nine months after Cleopatra and Julius Caesar were first holed up together in the royal palace,
38:49she gives birth to a son.
38:54He has the blood of Rome and the blood of Egypt flowing in his veins,
38:59and she thinks, if I can unite the military might of Rome with Egypt,
39:05this is an unstoppable force.
39:08So she really thinks that this is, you know, not the end of a dynasty,
39:13but the beginning of a great new chapter in the Egyptian story.
39:20On this sandstone monument, Cleopatra proclaims that her son will forge a new empire,
39:27one that can feed its people and restore its fortune.
39:35A winged sun and a scarab beetle represent the dawn of a new golden age.
39:45Gifts are offered to Egypt's fertility gods, including Sobek and Isis.
39:51And Cleopatra's son is shown as the new pharaoh.
40:01He will be known by his Roman nickname, Caesarian, or Little Caesar.
40:07This would be a startling new world, unparalleled, unmapped, unchartered, unstoppable.
40:19If the plan works, not only do the problems of Egypt get solved,
40:25but Egypt regains a position as a superpower.
40:31For her strategy to work, Cleopatra must get the Romans to also embrace Caesarian as their future leader.
40:44But events outpace her.
40:47In Rome, Julius Caesar is brutally murdered, before he declares his heir.
40:55The assassination of Julius Caesar comes as a hammer blow to Cleopatra.
41:10Not only on the most personal level, I think she genuinely loved him.
41:15But of course, it brought a swift end to her political ambitions as well.
41:21All that came crashing down in one foul day.
41:38A lesser ruler might now accept defeat, but not Cleopatra.
41:45After one of her sisters plots against her,
41:49Cleopatra uses the opportunity to wipe out any possible opposition.
41:56Power can be like a drug.
41:59And once you're hooked on it, very, very, very hard to give up.
42:04Because you can't really see life beyond it.
42:07Over the next three years, she murders all her remaining siblings.
42:17There's a sort of moral corruption that power can do to people.
42:23You certainly see it having sometimes a very corrosive psychological impact on people.
42:28You're prepared to do anything, anything, to stay in power and to meet your objectives,
42:36up to and including killing people.
42:41The Ptolemy line will continue, but only on Cleopatra's terms.
42:47She now needs to form a new alliance with Rome.
43:08So she looks to the men who take Caesar's place.
43:11Two candidates emerge.
43:17Caesar's nephew, Octavian, takes control of the Western Roman world.
43:23He sees himself as Caesar's rightful heir, so will never accept Cleopatra's son.
43:30But there's also the general who takes control of Rome's vast eastern territories.
43:37Mark Antony.
43:41And so she casts her eye on Mark Antony to do the kind of work that she needed to be done.
43:58Mark Antony was, to his core, a squaddie.
44:03You know, he was a rough Roman soldier, heavy drinking, heavy womanising, living for pleasure and living to fight.
44:13She clearly recognised that Antony was not a deep thinker, that he was impulsive, that he was easily persuaded.
44:22He was open to flattery, that's for sure.
44:24And so she plays this brilliant political game.
44:43She knows what she wants and she's able to attract those to her side to support her vision of almost like the takeover of the ancient world.
44:53She was so magnetic in her charm, her ability to understand what makes the male ego tick, to flatter them.
45:10And that is a heady mix that no one could ever resist.
45:14Mark Antony is besotted.
45:38He abandons his Roman wife and sets up home with Cleopatra, throwing his weight behind her plan for an Egypto-Roman empire, ruled by the now 13-year-old Caesarian.
45:53This culminates in a spectacular ceremony, called the Donations of Alexandria.
46:04This was not merely a coronation, but a politically provocative event to strengthen their rule in the East.
46:11And there, in front of all of the Alexandrians, and ambassadors from different states around the Mediterranean,
46:23Mark Antony doles out the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire to Cleopatra and her heirs.
46:32And he says that all of these lands belonging to the East of Rome will be, in perpetuity, inherited by Cleopatra and Caesarian.
46:47So there is a real possibility at this moment that Cleopatra and Caesarian could become the rulers of a vast empire.
47:03But when news of the ceremony reaches Octavian, Mark Antony's rival back in Rome, he is outraged.
47:17He refuses to allow Roman lands to be broken up and given away.
47:22Antony and Cleopatra had so much power at their disposal, the only weapons Octavian had to throw at them was to ridicule them.
47:36Octavian starts a smear campaign to destroy Cleopatra and Antony's credibility and turn all Romans against them.
47:52Now this fragmentary marble relief is fascinating.
48:04It shows Mark Antony and Cleopatra engaged in what's euphemistically called a sexual act on a boat.
48:14It's a sort of a symbol of how some in the Roman world, certainly Mark Antony's enemies,
48:19saw how he was being manipulated by this harlot queen of Egypt.
48:25Octavian creates multiple pieces of propaganda like this,
48:29to destroy Cleopatra's reputation
48:32and play on fears that Egypt might one day overshadow Rome.
48:41Where her allure and beauty were once part of Cleopatra's armoury as a leader,
48:47now they are used to attack her.
48:53And so they're using this as a sort of crowbar to sort of prize apart the two worlds.
49:01And this relief really brings that idea to the fore,
49:04to use ridicule and misogyny to undermine one's enemies.
49:08Octavian's plan works.
49:24And the Romans turn against Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
49:30But things have gone too far for her to back down now.
49:34There are times when it looks like she has Egypt's best interest at heart.
49:42There are other times when her decisions appear to suggest
49:44that she's only really interested in holding on to power.
49:51This is absolutely an all or nothing gamble for Cleopatra.
49:56If she wins, she re-establishes the Ptolemaic dynasty in all its former glory.
50:05If she loses, well, all bets are off.
50:11Octavian declares war and his fleet sets sail.
50:15On the 2nd of September, 31 BC,
50:33Cleopatra and Mark Antony face Octavian
50:36in a legendary naval battle off the coast of Greece at Actium.
50:45One extraordinary witness to what happened that day still survives.
50:56This fitting belongs to a boat
50:59which participated to the famous Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
51:03It is made of leaded copper.
51:21You can see it's highly corroded and encrusted with sea creatures.
51:29Emerging from the medallion at the front of this prog
51:32is this beautiful figure of Athena,
51:35the goddess of strategy, war and wisdom.
51:39Now this is the goddess you want leading your fleet into battle.
51:45Believing the gods are on her side,
51:48Cleopatra has every reason to be confident.
51:51She has the numbers too.
51:53Antony and Cleopatra's fleet of ships,
51:58there were about 230 of them.
52:01There were about 150 Roman ships in this.
52:05So, on the face of it,
52:07the Egyptians really outnumbered the Romans.
52:11But Cleopatra makes an epic miscalculation.
52:16She lets her fleet be pushed back towards the coast.
52:19The Egyptian fleet was essentially being hemmed in
52:23and the Romans moved their fleet closer and closer
52:26and essentially the Egyptians were trapped.
52:29They couldn't get out of it at all.
52:33Octavian then unleashes burning oil and tar.
52:38An inferno breaks out across the Egyptian navy.
52:42Cleopatra and Mark Antony know the game is up.
52:48They make their escape,
52:50abandoning their fleet,
52:53including the ship this prowl once served.
52:57It becomes a burnt, battered witness
53:00to a monumental defeat.
53:02Her navy decimated,
53:23her treasury depleted,
53:25and her political legitimacy shattered.
53:28Cleopatra barricades herself with Mark Antony
53:33inside their royal quarters
53:35while Octavian's triumphant army
53:38marches into Egypt.
53:43It all ends badly.
53:46Antony knew the way in which Roman traitors
53:52were treated
53:53and he knew that a spectacle of death awaited him.
53:59So he took his life
54:01to avoid the dishonor
54:04of a traitor's death in Rome.
54:07He is taken to Cleopatra
54:09who weeps over his body
54:10and then gives him a proper decent burial.
54:13But then she then realizes, of course,
54:16the only option would be for Octavian
54:17to march her into Rome
54:20in chains, humiliated,
54:22and she was not having any of it.
54:26Cleopatra takes a venomous asp
54:28and lets it bite her.
54:31This cobra,
54:32once the symbol of unassailable
54:34Egyptian royal power,
54:37in her hands
54:38becomes an instrument of death.
54:41Even to the end,
54:45Cleopatra is mistress
54:46of her own destiny.
54:55Octavian instructs his forces
54:58to hunt down Cleopatra's heir,
55:00Caesarian.
55:01The fate of Egypt
55:08now rests in the hands
55:10of its 17-year-old pharaoh.
55:13But who will come to his aid?
55:21Decades
55:21of the most
55:23dysfunctional family
55:25in world history
55:26had caused a complete disconnect
55:28with much of Egypt.
55:31The Egyptians
55:33have been through a lot
55:34in terms of civil wars
55:36and famines.
55:38The people probably knew
55:39it was the beginning
55:40of the end
55:42for the Egypt they knew.
55:47Lacking both military
55:48and popular support,
55:51Caesarian is abandoned
55:52to his fate.
55:59He is murdered
56:00by Octavian's troops.
56:01It is the last moment
56:04of a 3,000-year-old empire
56:07and the end
56:10of the Egyptian pharaohs.
56:12For three millennia,
56:19Egypt thrived,
56:20united behind its mighty pharaoh.
56:23But the dysfunctional dynasty
56:25of the Ptolemies,
56:26with their vicious infighting,
56:29tore this once great civilization apart.
56:34Had the Ptolemies been less inclined
56:37than to just pursue short-term power gains.
56:41Ancient Egyptian pharaonic values
56:43would still be alive and well today.
56:47But I think the number of Ptolemies
56:50who sought to just benefit themselves,
56:53I think that's what destabilized things ultimately.
56:56In their desperation to cling on to power
57:01at all costs,
57:03the Ptolemies forgot what it was to rule
57:05and left Egypt vulnerable
57:07and fatally exposed.
57:09Cleopatra, in the end,
57:13was undermined by a perfect storm.
57:16Warfare,
57:18now flood failure,
57:19political instability,
57:21Rome threatening her,
57:23on top of which,
57:24a shock of a volcanic eruption.
57:27And there are many people today
57:28who rightly suggest
57:30that we should be on the lookout
57:32for a perfect storm event.
57:34I think it's a lesson
57:37to learn from Cleopatra's time
57:40and what happened to her.
57:43Countries can rise.
57:45They can have a standing
57:47and a reputation in the world
57:49that is huge.
57:50And it can go.
57:52And it can fall.
57:55And I don't think we should ever think
57:57that we're immune.
58:04The Aztecs,
58:05one of the most remarkable
58:07civilizations in history,
58:10faces an unimaginable threat
58:12as old world meets new
58:15and a ruthless leader
58:18struggles to save his empire
58:21from powerful new enemies.
58:25And I'll get to the stars
58:30of the release.
58:33The 감
58:45of the
58:49of the
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