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Roman Empire By Train With Alice Roberts - Season 1 Episode 3 - What Have The Etruscans Ever Done For Us
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00:04I'm on another train and another adventure into the past, but this is my most ambitious
00:11journey to date. I'm going in search of the Roman Empire. Taking the train, I'll be traveling
00:221,300 miles through Italy, France and Spain to discover its origins and the secrets of
00:30its success. I'll be exploring some well-known Roman sites and some unfamiliar ones. From
00:43the massive to the miniature. I want to know how a single city comes to control
00:52such a vast territory. Experts from around the world will help me bring to life Roman culture.
01:00The sands of Capua become the jungles of India. And provide insights into why this empire was
01:06so successful. Who said the time machine does not exist? We got it. In this episode, I'm
01:14invited to descend into an ancient tomb. So even though the tomb looks empty, there might
01:20be some information here. Yeah, there could be. I swapped the train for a less comfortable
01:24ride. Okay, some bumps coming up. You ready for this?
01:28Whoa! Whoa!
01:32And discover that the Roman Empire looted more than material wealth. It's all feeling as though
01:38the Romans are kind of stolen Etruscan culture. This time, I'm in the very beating heart of
01:53the Empire. Italy's mesmerizing capital city of Rome. Just setting foot on these streets is
02:05both exhilarating and slightly overwhelming. It's a bustling and vibrant modern city, home
02:14to the Catholic Church and Europe's biggest university. But it's also a dazzling living
02:20monument to the power once wielded by the Roman Empire and home to some of the world's most celebrated
02:27ancient sites. At its peak early in the second century CE, Rome was the jewel in the crown
02:35of an empire stretching 1.9 million square miles. The ancient city had a population of over
02:43a million people, larger than any other in Europe until the 19th century. It was the global
02:51centre 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 that now. Rome are 24 hours. That is, I think, what I need.
03:25Hello. This is my ticket to be able to Rome.
03:34The 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 flavour of what life is like for a local in one of Europe's most visited
04:00cities,
04:01so I'm heading towards one of Rome's premier tourist destinations to meet tour guide and resident, Edwin Salnitro.
04:11Edwin. Hello.
04:14Buongiorno. Buongior. Oh, we're Italian.
04:16How are you? Very good.
04:18Great. So we're just on the edge of the forum here.
04:22That's amazing. You're living in this 21st century city, which has got all this very obvious history.
04:30Amazing, upstanding archaeology. What does that mean to you as a Roman today?
04:36OK, I think you are like a tourist. So you just walk, you enjoy the city and you say, wow,
04:43I'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 it.
04:57Enjoy it. Yeah.
04:58Because you have the, OK, 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.
05:08So 900 churches, a lot of fontaines.
05:12900 churches in Rome. 900 churches and also 1,500 fontaines.
05:19So that's why it was called back in time, but also still now, Regina Aquarum, the queen of the water.
05:26The queen of water.
05:29Ancient Rome's crowning glory was a system of elevated aqueducts that, fuelled only by gravity, delivered water to over a
05:38thousand drinking fountains.
05:41These fountains came to symbolise Roman prosperity and engineering prowess.
05:47Two millennia later, water is piped directly into the homes of the city's three million residents, but there are still
05:54public fountains.
05:57So you've got fountains throughout the city which are still fresh drinking water today.
06:00Yes, you can drink from each one.
06:02That's why we have that small fountains. And that's a little fountain just there.
06:05Called Nazone. Nazone means big nose.
06:10Big nose. Because of the shape. Because of the spout.
06:13Yeah. Yeah.
06:15We love nickname. Oh.
06:18This Nazone you can find all over the city.
06:22OK. 2,500. Oh, really?
06:26And 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, and maybe do that.
06:34Wrong way. Sorry. Wrong way.
06:37No.
06:37Can I show you?
06:37Yes, please.
06:38OK.
06:40OK.
06:41Get ready.
06:42Ready.
06:44Ole!
06:45Oh, brilliant!
06:47Oh, I didn't spot that hole.
06:48Yeah.
06:49And this for two reasons. The first one. Here, dogs.
06:55Yes!
06:56Second one, we are lazy. So, we can't do, ah, no.
07:00Yeah, yeah.
07:01We are lazy, so just like this. Ah.
07:03Mmm.
07:05That's so much easier.
07:07Well, you made it look easy. I don't know if it is that easy. Let's try.
07:11Oh, hang on.
07:12Perfect.
07:15Great.
07:15Lovely.
07:16Yeah.
07:16That's refreshing.
07:17Yeah. And now you know how to drink, so you can enjoy.
07:20From the big noses.
07:22LAUGHTER
07:28Oh, it's so picturesque, isn't it? Every time you turn a corner and you just get this beautiful view.
07:32Yeah. Everywhere.
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.
07:46And I came into the centre.
07:48I looked at Trajan's Column.
07:49I looked at the Colosseum.
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.
08:05The 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 he won.
08:22Yeah, yeah.
08:22So that's why we can say an old Instagram story.
08:25Yeah, it is, isn't it? It's public display.
08:28Yeah.
08:29Look 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.
08:41Building this column took seven.
08:44It is huge. How tall is it?
08:46Yes, like 30 metres.
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.
09:07Trajan was not born in Rome, but outside the city.
09:11Where did he come from?
09:12Actual Spain.
09:13Was Spanish, we can say.
09:15And was also the first emperor not elected by family, like the dynasty Flavius.
09:21Yeah.
09:21But was elected because he was a great man. So 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. Is he coming from
09:33a military background?
09:35Yes, perfect. Because it just, step by step, we can say in Italy, we say gavetta, when you start from
09:41down and step by step you become powerful, powerful, powerful.
09:45Trajan was like a star.
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.
10:01During 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.
10:19Should we walk down here then, round the edge of the forum?
10:22Having outshone the previous grandiose efforts of Julius Caesar and Augustus, this was also the last imperial forum.
10:32The density of Rome's buildings made clearing space for such lavish projects impossible.
10:38As 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.
10:49Yeah. Now, work in progress, a metro stop, a metro station.
10:54So, they went underneath and they discovered something, everything.
10:58Yeah. Like a big laundry coming from the second century after Christ.
11:03Everywhere you dig, you're going to find archaeology here. Everywhere.
11:06Yeah.
11:07In fact, to understand a little bit the city, you must think lasagna.
11:12Yeah.
11:13Because different layers. Because underneath, we have the ancient Rome.
11:17We discover less than the 20% of the ancient city.
11:22Yeah, of course.
11:23So, nothing. Just nothing.
11:25Yeah, yeah. Because some of it's, well, most of it is underneath existing buildings.
11:29Underneath, yeah. The first layer of our lasagna.
11:31Yeah.
11:31Yeah.
11:32So, looking around here, you've got Rome through the ages.
11:36Yeah.
11:37You've got 20th century Rome.
11:39Yeah.
11:39All the way back to nearly 2,000 years ago.
11:42Yeah.
11:42It's everything, isn't it?
11:43Here, you can find something that you will never find in another place. Only here.
11:49Thank you so much, Edmund. It's been brilliant.
11:52Oh.
11:52It's lovely to look at Rome with a Roman and to think about that lasagna-like layering of all that
12:00history.
12:01Absolutely brilliant.
12:02It was a pleasure. It was a real pleasure.
12:09Rome's unique lasagna of historical treasures is well documented.
12:14But I'm heading to Roman roads less travelled, to see for myself the single biggest driver of Roman expansion.
12:30I've travelled south of the historical centre of Rome, to see a monumental feat of engineering that many consider the
12:39driving force behind the spread of the Roman Empire.
12:44Jason.
12:45Hello, Alice. Welcome to the Appian Way.
12:49Thank you so much.
12:50Yes.
12:51And an American historian called Jason Spieler knows all about this most celebrated of Roman roads.
13:00So this is actually the Appian Way, is it?
13:02This is the Appian Way.
13:04You have these modern paving stones that we call the Sampietrini.
13:09Underneath that, is the original Roman road down there?
13:12It is indeed.
13:13If we tore these up, we would find the stratum, right, the layers of the ancient road, still supporting the
13:20modern road.
13:20Yeah, yeah.
13:21They went roughly five feet down.
13:23They did different layers, the layers of chunky stone, finer stone, finer stone, a layer of concrete, then the paving
13:30stones.
13:31And they built this thing to last.
13:35And it really has lasted, still carrying traffic today.
13:40Look out, you're going to get run over on the Appian Way. Come here, come here.
13:45In-
13:46Construction began in 312 BCE, and the road eventually stretched 350 miles to the port city of Brindisi on Italy's
13:55southeast coast.
13:57and the purpose of this road then is this about rome expanding its power base indeed primary
14:05purpose was militarily uh they were trying to conquer and subjugate the samnite people down in
14:12the south of italy yeah and they were sort of a difficult group to to subjugate but by building
14:17this road you're able to resupply the army yeah from the city of rome and appian relates to the
14:25man who ordered it claudius appius yeah so and who is he he was a censor so he's the one
14:32who orders
14:32the construction of this road yeah and he is also the one who orders the construction of the first
14:36aqueduct ah so very forward-looking gentlemen realizing if the romans had infrastructural
14:44advantages yeah yeah they would have well you know they would have an advantage over their rivals and
14:49then once the romans get this taste for building roads they don't stop they end up building hundreds
14:55of highways that crisscrossed and interconnected the entire empire at its peak 373 great roads formed
15:04a network stretching 250 000 miles connecting every corner of the vast empire and i think the logistics
15:13of this are what is really mind-blowing to think that in the fourth century bce you've got somebody who
15:19is basically in charge of logistics for the roman republic and he has this vision of a road which
15:28is going to underpin the latest success of the the republic and then the empire indeed spurring
15:33military advantages trade advantages commercial advantages for all of rome and it really starts
15:39right here on this road here with little room left for construction in central rome one emperor
15:49identified the outskirts along the appian way as the happening new place to immortalize himself
15:55so 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 so this is a statement yeah that he has arrived
16:09on becoming emperor in 306 ce maxentius snapped up this 80 acre plot of land two miles along the original
16:18road
16:21there are so few tourists here very few tourists here yeah this is uh one of these you know kind
16:27of
16:27off the beaten track sites in the city this is a wonderful place maxentius's tilted immortality
16:35saw him commission a grand residence a mausoleum and his own personal sporting arena
16:45so is this the circus this is it oh wow
16:50so the the precedent for this is the circus maximus the circus maximus also had two two towers at the
16:56entrance yeah they don't survive any longer this circus is much better preserved than the circus maximus
17:04the circus maximus the great circus was the home of chariot racing in rome regularly attracting 250 000
17:13spectators maxentius wanted something almost as large for himself it's not quite as big as the circus
17:20maximus but it's not considerably smaller either the length of this is a little over 500 meters circus
17:27maximus was just a little bit over 600 meters yeah so it's not much smaller not much smaller so you
17:34can
17:34imagine chariots tearing around here now i've heard in in capua looking at the amphitheater there about the
17:42the fame and fortune that the gladiators could achieve was it the same for charioteers absolutely these
17:48were the rock star athletes of the ancient world remember as well that chariot racing is more
17:53popular even than the games of the amphitheater is it really they were the games were cheaper to put
17:58on yeah they were more frequent okay and uh the capacity of these circuses all right are much bigger
18:04than the capacities of the amphitheaters yeah so the number one spectator sport for the ancient romans was
18:10the chariot racing but not much racing was seen here just six years into his reign maxentius was killed in
18:20battle by his successor constantine who later left rome to establish a new imperial capital in modern day
18:28turkey leaving this estate to fall into ruin well i'm going to leave the circus of maxentius imagining the
18:36thunder of the chariots and i'm going to go and thunder my way down the appian way and check
18:42out some of these other archaeological sites that's a good idea thank you
18:59okay some bumps coming up you ready for this
19:09yeah i wouldn't recommend doing uh the via apia antica on a bicycle that doesn't have front shocks
19:18i've got front shocks i quite like to have back shocks as well actually
19:23gonna have a sore bum
19:29but how amazing to be making my way along the first roman road
19:41everywhere you go along this road of course there are roman monuments a bit over there
19:48headless statue uh there's another bit over there and this runs through this fantastic archaeological park
20:00and then somewhere along here there's a really beautifully preserved villa
20:07uh the villa of the quintili
20:13and when this was discovered it was called roma vecchia old rome
20:20because it was so enormous they thought they had literally found the original city of rome but
20:25it is just an enormous villa here we go
20:38the villa complex sprawls over 60 acres almost 40 football pitches
20:49it was built around the year 150 ce by high-ranking public officials the quintili brothers and we know this
20:58because of a piece of lead having internal plumbing was so prestigious in roman times
21:04that those who could afford it often stamped their pipes
21:11oh look at this it's absolutely palatial i mean it's a ruin but what what a palace what a pile
21:21they were obviously incredibly wealthy but it was a bit dangerous to be that wealthy
21:26and to own something as beautiful as this palace
21:33despite the lofty status of the quintili's in the year 182 the emperor commodus had the brothers
21:40arrested on trumped up charges and executed
21:46leaving commodus free to commandeer this sumptuous villa for himself and all its groundbreaking gizmos
21:54there's another classic bit of roman engineering here i mean we've seen the the wonders of the road
22:01the appian way here are the wonders of underfloor heating and what we've got are these these towers
22:08of thick tiles these pili and the floor which is this is supported on these and it would have stretched
22:15right the way across this rather enormous banqueting hall and this is the winter dining room
22:23so in winter time you'd have slaves stoking a furnace and the hot air circulating under the floor
22:30so underfloor heating the romans worked that out first
22:48oh my goodness me this is enormous this is such a huge palace and you're getting an impression of
22:55the incredible wealth that rome was amassing you know as this project grew to encompass
23:05the whole of italy and then of course most of southern europe and the eastern mediterranean and north
23:14africa and the money was pouring in and it all comes back to rome
23:43so believe it or not i'm still following the via appia antica the old appian way
23:49it's down here running right underneath the floor of mcdonald's oh it's just fantastic
23:58while constructing the restaurant in 2014 builders uncovered this offshoot of the appian way
24:06which mcdonald's decided to integrate into their design bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase
24:12when in rome next 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 emma i can't believe you're in
24:42rome i cannot believe this this is amazing yay amazing amazing emma has secured exclusive access to
24:49a dig going on right now which is uncovering staggering new details about the etruscans
24:56who ruled much of italy before rome's rise the sites up in the hills of barberano romano
25:03about 40 miles north of rome it's really exciting to go to a dig that's actually happening and i do
25:12want
25:12to know more about how the etruscans relate to the ancient romans this must be first millennium bce
25:23or even earlier uh yeah much earlier 9th century bce wow so this goes back to the kind of the
25:30foundation myths of rome doesn't it yeah i think it was meant to be founded in the 8th century bce
25:36and then you've got seven kind of legendary kings but 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
26:10to power so this is a lovely picnic spot yeah where's the archaeological site it's just down here
26:22we're greeted by professor david zori the site director
26:26hi david lovely to meet you this is professor alice roberts alice nice to meet you hello nice to meet
26:32you
26:32so you've got a team of students digging here over the summer yes two teams of about 15 people at
26:42each 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 april
26:58on the cemetery or necropolis this is the necropolis here is this is the necropolis area
27:04and if we go around to the other side you can see a little bit better the the giant bedrock
27:09feature
27:10that we're digging it's a huge burial tumulus
27:12we're going to see you recently excavated etruscan tombs here resemble lavishly decorated homes filled
27:21with pottery ornaments weapons and jewelry a reflection of the etruscan belief that the afterlife
27:28is merely an extension of life and when does this date to about the 7th century bc the end of
27:34the 7th
27:35century bc wow this tomb dates from around the same time as the legendary foundation of rome
27:43by the brothers romulus and remus
27:48is this a team for one individual or several what was the what was the funerary ritual at the time
27:53it
27:53was most likely several individuals but unfortunately the soil in this area is a very dense acidic clay
28:00right and it dissolves the bones and over the centuries they've just dissolved we found a couple
28:07of dog teeth and we uh we sent those um with some soil samples to our ancient dna specialist who's
28:12working on a process to extract dna from soil deposits yeah and so we're going to see if she
28:17can come up with any human dna from that soil as well since we didn't find any any human obviously
28:22human
28:23bones that were testable it's always worth trying isn't it because you've got these really important
28:27questions about who the etruscans were and you know where they came from and what their connections
28:32were that are interesting culturally but also biologically as well yeah are you going to try to
28:37climb then yeah go on then i'm wishing i'd worn trousers today rather than my dress but touching the
28:45rock over on the side there you go all right come on in oh it's quite big do you know
29:00what this reminds
29:01me of the the ancient greek beehive teams in a way etruscan culture is linked with greece but recent
29:10genetic studies have shown that it was homegrown in italy and the mud here might hold further clues
29:16to etruscan identity so this is sedimentary ancient dna you're you're looking at trying to extract dna from
29:23mud from mud yes i was i was shocked when she told me about it i was like here are
29:27some samples yeah i can
29:29do yeah that would be amazing yeah yeah so even though the team looks empty there might be some
29:33information here yeah there could be did you find anything else in here during x there was a lance point
29:38in that uh little niche right there oh um there would have been stone platforms over these we have
29:45them fragmentary outside we took them out so these rocks had um slabs on top did they yes yes forming
29:52a
29:52sort of bench and this is probably about the level where the bench would have been yeah yeah so this
29:58is
29:58more like a platform where they would have placed offerings or an ossuary for past burials and then they
30:04would have interred the dead in an inhumation style on these platforms and then when the tomb would be
30:09reopened and reused they could gather up the remains if they wanted to place them in a secondary container
30:15and place a new person in there yeah and this is a period of time when legendarily rome is starting
30:22when we got the kind of the king of rome yes the history of rome is the same as the
30:27history of the
30:28etruscan cities it's just that rome through its interest in martial activities ended up creating
30:33this sequence of alliances that brought them into greater dominion right through the sort of foreign
30:39policy of all these communities so do you think if rome hadn't developed in the way that it did and
30:44and
30:45been built on over the the centuries we would have seen a city of the living and an acropolis of
30:51the dead if we
30:51go back this far yes probably and the difference is that this place became abandoned exactly in rome
30:57it grew bigger and bigger and bigger yeah do you think there are more etruscan settlements that have
31:02been absurd that are lying out there yet to be discovered yeah the local people know where they
31:07are do they we just have to make friends enough for them to tell us yeah local knowledge yeah you
31:13have to use the local knowledge when it's there yeah so should we move out to the city of the
31:19living
31:22oh that's just incredible i wasn't expecting that
31:28thanks emma oh pleasure i just wanted to go second yes
31:38professor zori now leads me and emma to the land of the etruscan living a town mysteriously abandoned in the
31:46third century and just as mysteriously reoccupied in medieval times
31:54we're on top of the acropolis now and we've got a team excavating here inside a medieval castle but
32:01we're reaching etruscan levels hello hello everybody we've been landing on you to film your dig oh
32:10howling do you want to come say hello hi there hello hello i'm alice i'm colleen hello this is a
32:18family
32:18affair david is the husband of archaeologist dr colleen zori who's also leading this project
32:26it's amazing to come somewhere that's still very active exactly yeah you know the etruscans were
32:33incredible managers of the landscape and one of the biggest things you have to contend with in this
32:39area is water yeah yeah too much water in the winter too little water in the summer and so um
32:45in order to to
32:46drain the these plateau tops and reduce erosion they put in these cuniculi the they have a a tube that
32:54goes
32:54down and then horizontal shot or a shaft and then horizontal tubes yeah so that drain pipe a drain
32:59pipe exactly sewage system this is something that actually was expanded and then maintained by the
33:07medieval people yeah yeah and we think about the romans being masters of of water management um also of
33:14roads and and moving things around the landscape i mean how were the etruscans doing back in the first
33:20millennium bce they were sort of pathfinders in some ways for the romans and harbingers of things
33:27the romans would do so both for roads and water management i think the etruscans had a lot to
33:32teach the romans so we i we think about the romans being innovators inventing raids inventing water
33:38management and aqueducts the etruscans got there first they did they did arches supposedly too and togas
33:44okay so it's all feeling it's all feeling as though the romans have kind of stolen etruscan culture
33:52if you were in the seven or 600s and looking at the central italian landscape and the civilization
33:58here the etruscans would be the civilized peoples and yeah this would be the kind of upstart
34:04group of villages so this culture's permeating southwards towards what becomes rome
34:11and then eventually the romans turn around and go actually we're in charge yeah things changed
34:19oh it's really interesting isn't it the best thing to do as an empire is to take advantage of the
34:24wisdom
34:25of the areas that you conquer so sometimes you conquer people that are actually more sophisticated
34:31politically than you are but who just couldn't field a big enough army yeah to turn you back and
34:36in that way then you come and you say oh here are the things we'll take your water management
34:42specialists and we'll use them to do what we need to have done yeah now in our lands and you
34:48know
34:48what 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 and what's really astonishing to think about is that if we go back
35:10to the 7th 8th century bce this would have been exactly what rome would have been like uh a hilltop
35:18settlement but instead of here on the palatine hill probably surrounded by a necropolis in exactly the
35:26same way but whereas this site was abandoned rome would grow and grow and grow
35:43i'm leaving one etruscan settlement that didn't develop into a roman town
35:48and traveling north to see one that did
35:53at this stage i feel as though i've got a really rich understanding of what roman culture and
36:01civilization was about the militaristic nature of the society the importance of engineering of road
36:08building and aqueducts all of that is crucial i think to rome's success but what i really want to
36:19understand now is what happens as we get towards the end of the first millennium bce and what had
36:26been a very successful republic transforms itself into an empire how does that happen as i continue my
36:37journey that's the crucial question that 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 oh and it is gorgeous
37:18it's a very different landscape here you know i started my journey down on the flanks of vesuvius
37:27around naples and and that landscape had its own character and then moving up to rome and the plain of
37:33latium and now i'm well into the hills of tuscany and it's beautiful look at that
37:45i'm traveling to a town close to the city of florence to further explore the role etruscan
37:51ideas played in the rise of the roman empire
37:56the small town of fiesole was etruscan until taken over by the romans in the first century bce
38:05archaeologist francesco tanganelli is my guide and keen to show me physical evidence of how roman
38:12culture evolved out of local etruscan traditions francesco hi elis
38:19yes buongiorno i'm very happy to meet you here oh my goodness in the archaeological area of fiesole
38:28isn't this beautiful yes it's a very beautiful and wide archaeological park can we get down into
38:36the site yes yes we can go to see first the etruscan roman temple yeah okay that would be lovely
38:45this is the stair of the staircase of the roman temple but if you come with me and you give
38:55a
38:55look beyond you can see another staircase to the central room of the ancient etruscan temple where the
39:03archaeologists started to dig under the etruscan cella there was a small howl and do you know the
39:13howl was the symbol of minerva the ancient greek atina so the goddess of wisdom and so probably in
39:20this temple the ancient inhabitants of fiesole worshipped the the goddess minerva or in etruscan if
39:28you want minerva so you know that there was an etruscan goddess yes yes minerva minerva minerva in roman
39:41minerva minerva was the roman goddess of wisdom whose symbol was the owl but like so many things roman
39:50they inherited her from the etruscans who while trading with the greeks in the eighth century
39:56had helped themselves to their goddess of wisdom athena i love all these cultural connections
40:04between the etruscans and the greeks and the roman yes yes that's a bit more than just a plunge pool
40:11there
40:12yes this was one uh swimming pool in open air one and there is also a second one
40:19swimming pool it had its own lido oh my goodness but as well as this open air pool there's a
40:28whole
40:28bath house here including a version of something i saw at the villa of the quintili
40:34and presumably this would have been slaves here yes yes yes this is water this was a work for slaves
40:40yeah but the slaves here weren't heating a dining room floor inspired by the etruscan fondness for
40:48bathing in natural thermal springs the romans of fiesole decided to create their own where there was
40:57no thermal drinks so the heated the water and the air to create an artificial uh thermal bath yeah it's
41:06interesting isn't it so you think the idea came from natural yes thermal waters to begin with and then
41:11and then other people thought hang on a minute we can do this we can actually keep the water ourselves
41:15we can engineer this yes they were great engineers yeah yeah but there's one piece of roman political
41:24engineering i'm still trying to fathom
41:29i want to know how in 27 bce augustus managed to elect himself the emperor of rome bringing down the
41:39curtain on 500 years of democracy i wanted to talk to you about the roman republic and how it turns
41:48into an
41:49empire suddenly it switches from being a republic to being an empire with one man in charge
41:56how on earth does that happen consider that uh in the age of augustus the inhabitants of rome saw at
42:05least three civil wars he presented himself as the savior so he's basically saying you know we've had
42:15this dreadful period of civil war and i'm the person who can stop this yes but i can only do
42:21it if
42:21i'm your emperor and i stay put and i have all the power myself yes the image of a savior
42:27and the image
42:29of a man who can bring the peace in the whole or the empire so people admired him and wanted
42:37to be
42:38ruled by him but augustus was so clever that he was able to gain more and more power giving them
42:48the
42:49impression that nothing has changed and then and then after augustus that's it i mean it is an empire
42:55after that it doesn't go back to being a republic at all no no no it remained uh an empire
43:01for uh until
43:02the the end of that world yeah it's almost by stealth isn't it yeah without people noticing you
43:10wake up the next morning and go oh we seem to have an emperor it's a very persistent bell yes
43:19i wonder
43:20why what's happening i don't know but it's nice to hear the campanile in action
43:27as the bell tolls on my trip to fiesole i head to nearby florence the cradle of the renaissance
43:36to take in the splendor of the cathedral of santa maria del fiore and its renowned dome
43:44just as the romans built on the legacies of the etruscans so the medici borrowed heavily from two
43:50certain empires what an absolutely amazing building it is mind-blowing i mean what a feat of
44:00architecture and engineering and the man whose job it was to engineer that dome up there the duomo
44:11was brunelleschi and it's thought that he'd traveled to rome and looked at roman domes
44:19and basically that's how he came up with his engineering solution to spanning the enormous
44:25width of the octagonal end of this cathedral with a dome a dome that's actually made of
44:32of two shells and this was of course the renaissance the rebirth what's it the rebirth of the classical
44:41world all things greek and roman
44:51after a long day i enjoy a little renaissance of my own all in the name of historical research of
45:00course
45:04the negroni it was invented here apparently in 1919 by king camillo negroni he was drinking
45:12something called an americano which had campari and vermice and soda water but he wanted it a bit
45:18stronger so he asked the bartender to switch the soda water for gin cheers
45:28it's nice though
45:34next time right where are we now this is barma i get a taste of northern italy
45:43italy is a bastion of bread culture that has been unchanged for millennia and i travel across the alps
45:52to the city they call the rome of france it's not what you expect to find going on in a
45:57roman temple
46:07italy is
46:10so
46:26italy is
46:28You
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