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