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00:03I'm on another train and another adventure into the past but this is my most ambitious
00:10journey to date. I'm going in search of the Roman Empire. Taking the train I'll be travelling
00:221300 miles through Italy France and Spain to discover its origins and the secrets of its
00:30success. I'll be exploring some well-known Roman sites this is where you can hear Pompeii and some
00:38unfamiliar ones there is nobody here from the massive it's curved yeah to the miniature it's
00:47like a fourth century Barbie doll I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast
00:53territory experts from around the world will help me bring to life Roman culture the sands of Capua
01:01become the jungles of India and provide insights into why this Empire was so successful who said
01:08the time machine does not exist we got it in this episode I'm invited to descend into an
01:16ancient tomb so even though the tomb looks empty there might be some information here yeah there
01:21could be I swapped the train for a less comfortable ride okay some bumps coming up you ready for this
01:32and discover that the Roman Empire looted more than material wealth it's all feeling as though the
01:38Romans have kind of stolen Etruscan culture
01:49this time I'm in the very beating heart of the Empire
01:56Italy's mesmerizing capital city of Rome
02:02just setting foot on these streets is both exhilarating and slightly overwhelming
02:10it's a bustling and vibrant modern city home to the Catholic Church and Europe's biggest
02:16university but it's also a dazzling living monument to the power once wielded by the Roman Empire and home
02:25to some of the world's most celebrated ancient sites at its peak early in the second century CE
02:32Rome was the jewel in the crown of an Empire stretching 1.9 million square miles
02:39the ancient city had a population of over a million people larger than any other in Europe until the 19th
02:47century
02:49it was the global center for architecture science medicine and engineering
03:09it's my first time back in Rome since around 25 years ago when I spent all of two hours here
03:16but I'm planning to make up for
03:18that now we're in my 24 hours that is I think what I need
03:26hello this is my ticket to me to Rome
03:33the Rome Metro is Italy's first rapid transit system dating back to 1955 with 73 stations and 37 miles of
03:45track
03:45it carries over 800,000 commuters and a significant number of tourists every day
03:55I want to get a flavor of what life is like for a local in one of Europe's most visited
04:00cities
04:00so I'm heading towards one of Rome's premier tourist destinations to meet tour guide and resident Edwin Salnitro
04:11Edwin
04:12hello
04:13buongiorno
04:14buongiorno
04:15buongiorno oh we're Italian
04:16how are you
04:17very good
04:18great
04:19so we're just on the edge of the forum here
04:21that's amazing
04:23you're living in this 21st century city
04:26which has got all this very obvious history
04:29amazing
04:31upstanding archaeology
04:32what does that mean to you as a Roman today
04:35um okay I think you are like a tourist so you just walk you enjoy the city and you say
04:42wow I'm here
04:44yeah but when you are working in Rome you must park your car in Rome it's a little bit different
04:51so sometimes as a Roman you must do like you must live like a tourist just to enjoy enjoy it
04:57yeah because you have the okay all the Romans so the foundation the seven kings the republic age the emperors
05:04after you have the pope's kingdom the church yeah so 900 churches a lot of fountains after 900 churches
05:12900 churches and also 1500 fountains so yeah that's why i was called back in time but also still now
05:23regina aquarum the queen of the water
05:26the queen of water
05:29ancient rome's crowning glory was a system of elevated aqueducts that fueled only by gravity delivered water to over a
05:38thousand drinking fountains
05:40these fountains came to symbolize Roman prosperity and engineering prowess
05:47two millennia later water is piped directly into the homes of the city's three million residents
05:53but there are still public fountains
05:56so you've got a fountain throughout the city which is still fresh drinking water today
06:00yes you can drink from each one that's why we have that small fountain called nazone
06:07nazone means big nose
06:09big nose
06:10because of the shape
06:11because of the spout
06:12yeah
06:13yeah
06:14we love nickname
06:16oh
06:18this nazone you can find all over the city
06:22okay
06:22two thousand and five hundred
06:25oh really
06:25and you must know how to drink from this fountain so can you show me let me see
06:30i would have to get down here i think
06:32okay
06:32and maybe
06:33wrong way
06:35sorry
06:36wrong way
06:36can i show you
06:37yes please
06:38okay
06:38ah
06:39okay
06:41get ready
06:42ready
06:44ole
06:44oh brilliant
06:46oh i didn't spot that hole
06:48yeah
06:49and this for two reasons
06:51the first one
06:52here
06:53dogs
06:55yes
06:56second one
06:57we are lazy
06:58so
06:58we can't do
06:59ah no
07:00yeah yeah
07:01we are lazy so just like this
07:02ah
07:03hmm
07:05that's so much easier
07:06well
07:07you made it look easy
07:09i don't know if it is that easy
07:10let's try
07:10yeah
07:10oh hang on
07:11perfect
07:14great
07:15lovely
07:16yeah
07:16that's refreshing
07:17yeah
07:17and now you know how to drink
07:19fantastic
07:20from the big noses
07:22oh it's so picturesque isn't it every time you turn a corner and you just get this beautiful view
07:32everywhere
07:33yeah
07:33every everywhere
07:38i've only been to rome once before
07:41a long time ago
07:43yeah
07:43and i was only here for two hours
07:45and i came into the center
07:47i looked at trade in the column
07:49i looked at the coliseum
07:50and then i left
07:52oh
07:52knowing that i'd have to come back
07:54yeah
07:56edwin thinks that a return to one of these sites might help me better understand what fired this city's hunger
08:02for power
08:04the most beautiful thing here and interesting is the first instagram story in the world the column of trajan
08:16by a spiral way they record the wars the battles that you won
08:21yeah
08:22so that's why we can say an old instagram story
08:25yeah it is isn't it it's it's public display look what i've done
08:30the emperor trajan commissioned this column to mark his triumph over the mighty dacian empire of eastern europe a war
08:39that lasted six years building this column took seven
08:44it is huge how tall is it
08:46yeah it's like 30 meters
08:48yeah
08:49like an ancient comic strip the column features 155 scenes carved in a spiral frieze on 20 drums of finest
08:59carrara marble ensuring romans far and wide could revel in their latest conquest
09:06what
09:07trajan was not born in rome but outside the city
09:10where did he come from
09:11actual spain was spanish we can say
09:14okay
09:14and was also the first emperor not elected by family like the dynasty flavius
09:20yeah
09:21but was elected because he was a great man
09:24so that's why he had this column
09:27how did trajan become emperor then he's not in the dynasty he's not born into it
09:32is he is he coming from a military background
09:34yes perfect because it just step by step we can say in italy in italy we say gaveta when you
09:40start from down and step by step you become powerful powerful powerful powerful was
09:47like a star
09:49yeah
09:50trajan knew that he could ensure his popularity by plundering fresh riches for the glory of rome making sure of
09:58course that everyone knew about it
10:00during his rule the empire reached its largest extent and he marked that by building the fifth and grandest of
10:08all rome's forums
10:09a huge town square in front of a massive new basilica rome's biggest ever city hall of which only the
10:17columns remain today
10:18so we brought down here then round the edge of the forum
10:22having out shone the previous grandiose efforts of julius caesar and augustus this was also the last imperial forum the
10:32density of rome's buildings made clearing space for such lavish projects impossible
10:37as this current construction site illustrates rome remains a city literally buried in its own history
10:46before over there there was like a little square yeah now work in progress a metro stop a metro station
10:54so they went underneath and they discover some everything like a big laundry coming from the second century after christ
11:03everywhere you dig you're going to find archaeology here everywhere yeah
11:06in fact to understand a little bit the city you must think lasagna
11:12yeah
11:12because different layers because underneath we have the ancient room
11:17we discover less than the 20 percent of the ancient city
11:22yeah of course
11:23so nothing just nothing
11:24yeah yeah because it's some of its well most of it is underneath existing buildings
11:28underneath yeah the first layer of our lasagna
11:31yeah yeah
11:31yeah so looking around here you've got
11:34rome through the ages
11:36yeah
11:36you've got 20th century rome
11:38yeah
11:39all the way back to nearly 2 000 years ago
11:41yeah
11:42it's everything isn't it
11:43here you can find something that you will never find in another place
11:48only here
11:48yeah
11:49thank you so much edmund it's been brilliant
11:51it's lovely to look at rome with a roman
11:55and to think about that lasagna like layering of all that history
12:01absolutely brilliant
12:02it was a pleasure it was a real pleasure
12:03thank you
12:04thank you
12:08rome's unique lasagna of historical treasures is well documented
12:13but i'm heading to roman roads less traveled
12:17to see for myself the single biggest driver of roman expansion
12:30i've traveled south of the historical center of rome
12:33to see a monumental feat of engineering that many consider the driving force behind the spread of the roman empire
12:44jason
12:44hello alice welcome to the appian way
12:48thank you so much
12:50and an american historian called jason spieler knows all about this most celebrated of roman roads
12:59so this is actually the appian way is it
13:02this is the appian way you have these modern paving stones that we call the sampietrini
13:09underneath that is that is the original roman road down there
13:12it is indeed if we tore these up we would find the stratum right the layers of the ancient road
13:18still supporting the modern road
13:20they went roughly five feet down
13:23they did different layers the layers of chunky stone finer stone finer stone a layer of concrete
13:29then the paving stones and they built this thing to last
13:35and it really has lasted still carrying traffic today
13:39look out you're going to get run over on the appian way come here come here
13:45construction began in 312 bce and the road eventually stretched 350 miles to the port city of brindisi
13:54on italy's southeast coast
13:57and the purpose of this road then is this about room expanding its power base
14:03indeed primary purpose was militarily
14:07they were trying to conquer and subjugate the samnite people down in the south of italy
14:12yeah and they were sort of a difficult group to subjugate
14:15but by building this road you're able to resupply the army
14:21yeah from the city of Rome
14:23and Appian relates to the man who ordered it to be built
14:26Claudius Appius
14:28yeah so
14:28and who is he?
14:29he was a censor so he's the one who orders the construction of this road
14:33yeah and he is also the one who orders the construction of the first aqueduct
14:37ah
14:38so very forward-looking gentleman
14:40realizing if the romans had infrastructural advantages
14:44yeah yeah
14:45they would have well you know they would have an advantage over their rivals
14:49and then once the romans get this taste for building roads they don't stop
14:53they end up building hundreds of highways that crisscrossed and interconnected the entire empire
14:59at its peak 373 great roads formed a network stretching 250,000 miles
15:07connecting every corner of the vast empire
15:12and I think the logistics of this are what is really mind-blowing
15:15to think that in the 4th century BCE you've got somebody who is basically in charge of logistics for the
15:22Roman Republic
15:23and he has this vision of a road which is going to underpin the latest success of the Republic and
15:31then the Empire
15:32indeed
15:32spurring military advantages, trade advantages, commercial advantages for all of Rome
15:38and it really starts right here on this road here
15:44with little room left for construction in central Rome
15:47one emperor identified the outskirts along the Appian Way as the happening new place to immortalize himself
15:54so remember it would have been incredibly expensive to have even just a small plot of land on the Appian
16:01Way
16:01and here the emperor takes this massive space
16:04so this is a statement
16:06that he has arrived
16:09on becoming emperor in 306 CE
16:12Maxentius snapped up this 80 acre plot of land
16:16two miles along the original road
16:20there are so few tourists here
16:22very few tourists here
16:24yeah
16:24this is one of these you know kind of off the beaten track sites in the city
16:29this is a wonderful place
16:33Maxentius' tilt at immortality saw him commission a grand residence
16:38a mausoleum and his own personal sporting arena
16:44so is this the circus?
16:47this is it
16:47oh wow
16:50so the precedent for this is the Circus Maximus
16:53the Circus Maximus also had two towers at the entrance
16:56yeah
16:57they don't survive any longer
16:59this circus is much better preserved than the Circus Maximus
17:04the Circus Maximus, the great circus
17:07was the home of chariot racing in Rome
17:10regularly attracting 250,000 spectators
17:15Maxentius wanted something almost as large for himself
17:18it's not quite as big as the Circus Maximus
17:21but it's not considerably smaller either
17:24the length of this is a little over 500 metres
17:27Circus Maximus was just a little bit over 600 metres
17:30yeah so it's not much smaller
17:31not much smaller
17:32yeah
17:33so you can imagine chariots tearing around here
17:37now I've heard in Capua looking at the amphitheatre there
17:41about the fame and fortune that the gladiators could achieve
17:45was it the same for charioteers?
17:47absolutely
17:47these were the rock star athletes of the ancient world
17:50remember as well that chariot racing is more popular
17:53even than the games of the amphitheatre
17:55is it really?
17:56they were the games were cheaper to put on
17:58yeah
17:58they were more frequent
17:59okay
18:00and the capacity of these circuses
18:03alright are much bigger than the capacities of the amphitheatres
18:06yeah
18:06so the number one spectator sport
18:08for the ancient Romans was the chariot racing
18:12but not much racing was seen here
18:16just six years into his reign
18:18Maxentius was killed in battle by his successor Constantine
18:22who later left Rome to establish a new imperial capital
18:26in modern day Turkey
18:28leaving this estate to fall into ruin
18:33well I'm going to leave the circus of Maxentius
18:35imagining the thunder of the chariots
18:38and I'm going to go and thunder my way down the Appian Way
18:41and check out some of these other archaeological sites
18:43that's a good idea
18:45thank you
18:58okay some bumps coming up
19:00you ready for this?
19:02ohhhhhh
19:04ohhhhhh
19:04ohhhhhh
19:09yeah I wouldn't recommend doing the Via Apia Antica on a bicycle
19:15that doesn't have front shocks
19:18I've got front shocks
19:19I quite like to have back shocks as well actually
19:24gonna have a sore bum
19:29but how amazing
19:31to be making my way along
19:33the first Roman road
19:41everywhere you go along this road of course
19:44there are Roman monuments
19:46there's a bit over there
19:48headless statue
19:50er
19:50there's another bit over there
19:54and this runs through this
19:57fantastic archaeological park
19:59and then somewhere along here
20:01there's a
20:03really beautifully
20:06preserved villa
20:08the
20:10villa of the Quintilli
20:13and when this was discovered
20:16it was called Roma Vecchia
20:18Old Rome
20:19because it was so enormous
20:21they thought they had literally found
20:23the original city of Rome
20:24but
20:25it is just
20:27an enormous villa
20:29here we go
20:38the villa complex sprawls over 60 acres
20:42almost 40 football pitches
20:49it was built around the year 150 CE
20:52by high-ranking public officials
20:55the Quintilli brothers
20:56and we know this
20:57because of a piece of lead
21:00having internal plumbing
21:02was so prestigious in Roman times
21:04that those who could afford it
21:06often stamped their pipes
21:11the palace
21:12oh look at this
21:12it's absolutely
21:14palatial
21:16I mean it's a ruin
21:17but what
21:18what a palace
21:19what a pile
21:21they were
21:22obviously
21:23incredibly wealthy
21:24but
21:24it was a bit dangerous
21:26to be that wealthy
21:26and to own something
21:28as beautiful
21:29as this palace
21:33Despite
21:34the lofty status
21:35of the Quintillis
21:36in the year 182
21:38the Emperor Commodus
21:39had the brothers
21:40arrested
21:41on trumped-up charges
21:42and executed
21:46leaving Commodus
21:47free to commandeer
21:48this sumptuous villa
21:49for himself
21:50and all its
21:51ground-breaking gizmos
21:54There's another classic bit
21:55of Roman engineering here
21:58I mean we've seen
21:59the wonders of the road
22:01the Appian Way
22:02here
22:03are the wonders
22:04of underfloor heating
22:05and what we've got
22:07are these towers
22:08of thick tiles
22:10these peely
22:11and the floor
22:12which is this
22:13is supported on these
22:15and it would have stretched
22:15right the way across
22:17this rather
22:17enormous
22:19banqueting hall
22:20and this is the winter
22:22dining room
22:23so in wintertime
22:24you'd have slaves
22:25stoking a furnace
22:26and the hot air
22:28circulating
22:28under the floor
22:30so underfloor heating
22:32the Romans
22:33worked that out first
22:47oh my goodness me
22:49this is enormous
22:50this is such a huge palace
22:52and you're getting an impression
22:54of the incredible wealth
22:58that Rome was amassing
23:00you know as this project
23:02grew
23:03to encompass
23:05the whole of Italy
23:07and then of course
23:09most of Southern Europe
23:11and the Eastern Mediterranean
23:13and North Africa
23:16and the money was pouring in
23:18and it all comes back to Rome
23:43so believe it or not I'm still following the Via Appia Antica
23:48the old Appian way
23:50it's down here
23:52it's down here
23:52it's down here
23:52running right underneath the floor
23:54of McDonald's
23:55oh it's just fantastic
23:58while constructing the restaurant in 2014
24:01builders uncovered this offshoot of the Appian Way
24:05which McDonald's decided to integrate into their design
24:09bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase
24:12when in Rome
24:18next an old friend has managed to get access to an active archaeological dig
24:23that's shedding new light on where the Romans got some of their best ideas
24:35my old friend archaeologist Emma Bentley just happens to be in Italy
24:39Emma!
24:40I can't believe you're in Rome
24:42I cannot believe this
24:43this is amazing
24:44yay
24:45amazing amazing
24:46Emma has secured exclusive access to a dig going on right now
24:51which is uncovering staggering new details about the Etruscans
24:56who ruled much of Italy before Rome's rise
24:59the sites up in the hills of Barbarano Romano
25:03about 40 miles north of Rome
25:07it's really exciting to go to a dig that's actually happening
25:11and I do want to know more about how
25:15the Etruscans relate to the ancient Romans
25:20this must be first millennium BCE or even earlier
25:25yeah much earlier 9th century BCE
25:27wow so this goes back to the kind of the foundation myths of Rome doesn't it
25:32yes and before
25:33I think it was meant to be founded in the 8th century BCE
25:37and then you've got seven kind of legendary kings
25:41but they've got Etruscan names
25:48Etruscan culture flourished around central Italy from the 8th to the 4th centuries BCE
25:55with a federation of 12 cities becoming the first superpower of the western Mediterranean
26:03I'm hoping this site might shed some light on what Italy was like before Rome began its meteoric rise to
26:10power
26:13so this is a lovely picnic spot
26:15yeah
26:16where's the archaeological site?
26:17it's just down here
26:22we're greeted by Professor David Zori, the site director
26:26Hi David, lovely to meet you
26:28this is Professor Alice Roberts
26:30Alice, nice to meet you
26:31Hi, nice to meet you too
26:35so you've got a team of students digging here over the summer
26:38yes, two teams of about 15 people at each site
26:45around half of the students are busy on the hill exploring the high town or Acropolis
26:52while the rest are down here working under the watchful eye of archaeologist Dr. Jamie Aprile
26:58on the cemetery or Necropolis
27:01this is the Necropolis area is it?
27:03this is the Necropolis area
27:04and if we go around to the other side you can see a little bit better
27:07the giant bedrock feature that we're digging
27:10it's a huge burial tumulus
27:15recently excavated Etruscan tombs here
27:17resemble lavishly decorated homes
27:20filled with pottery, ornaments, weapons and jewellery
27:24a reflection of the Etruscan belief that the afterlife is merely an extension of life
27:30and when does this date to?
27:32about the 7th century BC, the end of the 7th century BC
27:35wow
27:38this tomb dates from around the same time as the legendary foundation of Rome
27:43by the brothers Romulus and Remus
27:48is this a tomb for one individual or several?
27:51what was the funerary ritual at the time?
27:53it was most likely several individuals
27:55but unfortunately the soil in this area is a very dense acidic clay
28:00and it dissolves the bones
28:03and over the centuries they've just dissolved
28:06we found a couple of dog teeth and we sent those with some soil samples to our ancient DNA specialist
28:12who's working on a process to extract DNA from soil deposits
28:16and so we're going to see if she can come up with any human DNA from that soil as well
28:20since we didn't find any obviously human bones that were testable
28:24it's always worth trying isn't it?
28:26because you've got these really important questions about who the Etruscans were and you know where they came from
28:31and what their connections were that are interesting culturally but also biologically as well
28:36are you going to try to climb in?
28:38yeah go on then
28:42i'm wishing i'd worn trousers today rather than my dress but
28:45what about touching the rock over on the side?
28:47there we go
28:54all right come on in
28:58oh
28:58it's quite big
29:00do you know what this reminds me of?
29:01the ancient Greek beehive teams in a way
29:06Etruscan culture is linked with Greece
29:08but recent genetic studies have shown that it was homegrown in Italy
29:14and the mud here might hold further clues to Etruscan identity
29:18so this is sedimentary ancient DNA
29:20you're looking at trying to extract DNA from mud
29:23from mud
29:24yes i was shocked when she told me about it
29:27i was like here are some samples
29:28see what you can do
29:29yeah that would be amazing
29:30yeah
29:30yeah so even though the tomb looks empty
29:32there might be some information here
29:34yeah there could be
29:35did you find anything else in here?
29:37yeah there was a lance point in that
29:40little niche right there
29:41oh
29:42there would have been stone platforms over these
29:45we have them fragmentary outside
29:46we took them out
29:47so these rocks had slabs on top did they?
29:51yes
29:51forming a sort of bench
29:53and this is probably about the level
29:55where the bench would have been
29:57yeah
29:57and so this is more like a platform
29:59where they would have placed offerings
30:01or an ossuary for past burials
30:03and then they would have interred the dead
30:05in an inhumation style on these platforms
30:08and then when the tomb would be reopened and reused
30:10they could gather up the remains if they wanted to
30:13place them in a secondary container
30:15and place a new person in there
30:17yeah
30:17and this is a period of time when
30:20legendarily
30:20Rome is starting
30:22yes
30:22when we've got the kind of
30:23the kingdom of Rome
30:24yes
30:25the history of Rome is the same as the history of the Etruscan cities
30:29it's just that Rome through its interest in martial activities
30:32ended up creating this sequence of alliances that brought them into greater dominion
30:38right
30:38through the sort of foreign policy of all these communities
30:41so do you think if Rome hadn't developed in the way that it did
30:44and been built on over the centuries
30:47we would have seen a city of the living and an acropolis of the dead
30:51if we go back this far
30:52probably
30:53yes probably
30:53and the difference is that this place became abandoned
30:56exactly
30:56in Rome
30:57it grew bigger and bigger
30:59and bigger
30:59it did
31:00do you think there are more Etruscan settlements that have been
31:02oh certainly
31:03that are lying out there
31:04yet to be discovered
31:05yeah
31:06the local people know where they are
31:07do they?
31:08we just have to make friends enough for them to tell us
31:10yeah
31:10local knowledge
31:11yeah
31:11you have to use the local knowledge when it's there
31:15yeah
31:16so should we move out to the
31:17the city of the living?
31:23oh that's just incredible
31:24I wasn't expecting that
31:28thanks Emma
31:29oh pleasure
31:30I just wanted to be a second
31:32yes
31:38Professor Zori now leads me and Emma to the land of the Etruscan living
31:43a town mysteriously abandoned in the 3rd century
31:47and just as mysteriously reoccupied in medieval times
31:54we're on top of the Acropolis now
31:56and
31:57we've got a team excavating here
32:00inside a medieval castle
32:01but we're reaching Etruscan levels
32:03hello
32:04hello everybody
32:05hi
32:06we're landing on you to
32:08film your dig
32:09oh
32:10Colleen do you want to come say hello?
32:13hi there
32:13hello hello
32:14I'm Alice
32:15I'm Colleen
32:16hello
32:17this is a family affair
32:19David is the husband of archaeologist
32:22Dr. Colleen Zori
32:23who's also leading this project
32:26it's amazing to come somewhere that's still being investigated
32:29sure very active
32:30exactly
32:31yeah
32:32you know the Etruscans were incredible managers of the landscape
32:36and one of the biggest things you have to contend with in this area is water
32:40yeah yeah
32:41too much water in the winter too little water in the summer
32:44and so in order to drain these plateau tops and reduce erosion they put in these cuniculi
32:51they have a tube that goes down and then horizontal shaft and then horizontal tubes
32:57yeah
32:58a drain pipe
32:58a drain pipe exactly
33:00sewage system
33:01sewage system
33:02this is something that actually was expanded and then maintained by the medieval people
33:07yeah yeah
33:08and we think about the Romans being masters of water management also of roads and moving things around the landscape
33:17I mean how were the Etruscans doing back in the first millennium BCE?
33:21they were sort of pathfinders in some ways for the Romans and harbingers of things the Romans would do
33:27so both for roads and water management I think the Etruscans had a lot to teach the Romans
33:32so we think about the Romans being innovators inventing raids inventing water management and aqueducts
33:39the Etruscans got there first
33:40they did
33:41they did
33:42arches supposedly too and togas
33:44okay
33:45yeah
33:45so it's all feeling
33:46it's all feeling as though the Romans have kind of stolen Etruscan culture
33:51I think if you were in the 7 or 600s and looking at the central Italian landscape and the civilization
33:58here
33:59the Etruscans would be the civilized peoples
34:01yeah
34:02and the Romans would be the kind of upstart group of villages
34:06so this culture is permeating southwards towards what becomes Rome
34:11and then eventually the Romans turn around and go actually we're in charge now
34:15we're in charge now
34:17yeah
34:17yeah
34:18yeah things changed
34:19oh it's really interesting isn't it
34:21the best thing to do as an empire is to take advantage of the wisdom of the areas that you
34:26conquer
34:27so sometimes you conquer people that are actually more sophisticated politically than you are
34:33but who just couldn't field a big enough army
34:35yeah
34:35to turn you back
34:36and in that way then you come and you say oh here are the things
34:40we'll take your water management specialists
34:42and we'll use them to do what we need to have done
34:46yeah
34:46now in our lands and you know what you get to do as an empire
34:54what an incredible sight nestled away tucked away like a secret in the landscape here and
35:01barely investigated until now
35:05and what's really astonishing to think about is that if we go back to the 7th 8th century BCE
35:12this would have been exactly what Rome would have been like
35:16a hilltop settlement
35:19but instead of here on the Palatine Hill
35:22probably surrounded by a necropolis in exactly the same way
35:27but whereas this site was abandoned
35:31Rome would grow and grow and grow
35:43I'm leaving one Etruscan settlement that didn't develop into a Roman town
35:48and travelling north to see one that did
35:54At this stage I feel as though I've got a really rich understanding of what Roman culture and civilization was
36:02about
36:03the militaristic nature of the society
36:05the importance of engineering
36:07of road building
36:10and aqueducts
36:11all of that is crucial I think
36:15to Rome's success
36:18but what I really want to understand now
36:21is what happens as we get towards the end of the first millennium BCE
36:25and what had been a very successful republic
36:30transforms itself into an empire
36:33how does that happen?
36:35as I continue my journey
36:37that's the crucial question
36:39that I want to find the answer to
37:05I'm passing through the beautiful Tuscan countryside
37:11I might actually get to see some of it now
37:14oh and it is gorgeous
37:18it's a very different landscape here
37:20you know I started my journey
37:22down on the flanks of Vesuvius
37:26around Naples
37:28and that landscape had its own character
37:30and then moving up to Rome and the plain of Latium
37:33and now I'm well into the hills of Tuscany
37:39and it's beautiful
37:40look at that
37:45I'm travelling to a town close to the city of Florence
37:48to further explore the role Etruscan ideas played
37:52in the rise of the Roman Empire
37:56the small town of Fiesole was Etruscan
38:00until taken over by the Romans in the first century BCE
38:05archaeologist Francesco Tanganelli
38:07is my guide
38:08and keen to show me physical evidence
38:11of how Roman culture evolved
38:13out of local Etruscan traditions
38:16Francesco
38:17hi Alice
38:19hi
38:20buongiorno
38:21buongiorno
38:21I'm very happy to meet you here
38:24oh my goodness
38:26in the archaeological area of Fiesole
38:28isn't this beautiful
38:29yes
38:30it's a very beautiful and wide archaeological park
38:34can we get down into the site and have a look around?
38:37we can go to see first the Etruscan Roman temple
38:39yeah
38:40okay
38:40that would be lovely
38:45this is the stair of the staircase of the Roman temple
38:49but if you come with me and you give a look beyond
38:56you can see another staircase to the central room of the ancient Etruscan temple
39:02where the archaeologists started to dig under the Etruscan cella
39:08there was a small howl
39:11a howl
39:12and do you know the howl was the symbol of Minerva
39:15yes
39:15the ancient Greek Athena
39:17so the goddess of wisdom
39:19and so probably in this temple
39:21the ancient inhabitants of Fiesole worshipped the goddess Minerva
39:27or in Etruscan if you want Menerva
39:30so you know that there was an Etruscan goddess called Menerva
39:33yes yes
39:35Menerva
39:36Menerva
39:36Menerva
39:37in Roman Minerva
39:40Minerva
39:42Minerva was the Roman goddess of wisdom
39:45whose symbol was the owl
39:47but like so many things Roman
39:50they inherited her from the Etruscans
39:52who while trading with the Greeks in the 8th century
39:56had helped themselves to their goddess of wisdom Athena
40:01I love all these cultural connections between the Etruscans and the Greeks and the Romans
40:06yes yes
40:09that's a bit more than just a plunge pool there
40:12yes this was one swimming pool in open air one and there is also a second one swimming pool
40:21it had its own Lido
40:23it had its own Lido
40:23it had its own Lido
40:23oh my goodness
40:25but as well as this open air pool there's a whole bath house here including a version of something I
40:31saw at the Villa of the Quintilly
40:33and presumably this would have been slaves here
40:36yes
40:37this was work for slaves
40:40yeah
40:41but the slaves here weren't heating a dining room floor
40:45inspired by the Etruscan fondness for bathing in natural thermal springs
40:50the Romans of Fiesole decided to create their own
40:56where there was no thermal springs so they heated the water and the air
41:01to create an artificial thermal bath
41:05yeah it's interesting isn't it
41:06so you think the idea came from natural
41:08yes thermal waters to begin with
41:10and then other people thought hang on a minute we can do this
41:14we can actually heat the water ourselves
41:15we can engineer this
41:16yes they were great engineers
41:18yeah yeah
41:21but there's one piece of Roman political engineering I'm still trying to fathom
41:29I want to know how in 27 BCE Augustus managed to elect himself the Emperor of Rome
41:37bringing down the curtain on 500 years of democracy
41:43I wanted to talk to you about the Roman Republic
41:48and how it turns into an Empire
41:49suddenly
41:50it switches from being a Republic to being an Empire with one man in charge
41:56how on earth does that happen?
41:59consider that in the age of Augustus the inhabitants of Rome saw at least three civil wars
42:07he presented himself as a savior
42:11so he's basically saying you know we've had this dreadful period of civil war and I'm the person who can
42:18stop this
42:19yes
42:20but I can only do it if I'm your Emperor and I stay put and I have all the power
42:25myself
42:25yes
42:26the image of a savior and the image of a man who can bring the peace in the whole of
42:33the Empire
42:34so people admired him and wanted to be ruled by him
42:40but Augustus was so clever that he was able to gain more and more power giving them the impression that
42:49nothing has changed
42:51and then and then after Augustus that's it I mean it is an Empire after that it doesn't go back
42:56to being a Republic at all
42:58no no no no it remained an Empire for until the end of that world
43:04yeah
43:05it's almost by stealth isn't it?
43:07yeah
43:08without people noticing
43:09you wake up the next morning and go
43:11ah, we seem to have an Emperor
43:17it's a very persistent bell
43:18yes
43:19I wonder why?
43:21what's happening?
43:22I don't know
43:23but it's nice to hear the campanile in action
43:27as the bell tolls on my trip to Fiesole
43:30I head to nearby Florence
43:32the cradle of the Renaissance
43:36to take in the splendor of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore and its renowned dome
43:43just as the Romans built on the legacies of the Etruscans
43:47so the Medici borrowed heavily from two certain empires
43:53what an absolutely amazing building
43:56it is mind-blowing
43:58it is mind-blowing
43:58I mean what a feat of architecture and engineering
44:03and the man whose job it was to engineer that dome up there
44:09the Duomo
44:11was Brunelleschi
44:13and it's thought that he'd travelled to Rome and looked at Roman domes
44:18and basically that's how he came up with his engineering solution
44:23to spanning the enormous width of the octagonal end of this cathedral
44:29with a dome
44:31a dome that's actually made of two shells
44:34and this was of course the Renaissance
44:36the rebirth
44:37what's it the rebirth of?
44:40the classical world
44:41all things Greek and Roman
44:51after a long day I enjoy a little Renaissance of my own
44:57all in the name of historical research of course
45:02whoa that's strong
45:04I'm in Florence so I have to have a Negroni
45:07it was invented here apparently in 1919 by Cain Camillo Negroni
45:11he was drinking something called an Americano
45:13which had Campari and Vermouth
45:15and soda water
45:17but he wanted it a bit stronger
45:18so he asked the bartender to switch the soda water
45:21for gin
45:23cheers
45:28it's nice though
45:34next time
45:36right where are we now?
45:38this is Parma
45:39yeah
45:40I get a taste of Northern Italy
45:43but dear
45:43Italy is a bastion of bread culture that has been unchanged for millennia
45:49and I travel across the Alps to the city they call the Rome of France
45:54it's not what you expect to find going on in a Roman temple
46:03sun, sea and seriously smart savings with bargain holiday secrets
46:08stream now ahead of your next lot of holiday hacks this Tuesday at 8
46:12next Steven Spielberg casts Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in The Fablemans
46:19in the apropos
46:27in the
46:27evening
46:292005
46:30August
46:302003
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