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00:02The Roman Empire, the last superpower of the ancient world.
00:07Founded on military might and ruled by emperors, it was controlled from one city, Rome.
00:16With a population of one million, Rome was confident, cosmopolitan and futuristic.
00:24It contained wonders of architecture and engineering.
00:28There were aqueducts and roads and the Pantheon with the largest dome of its type ever built.
00:40The Forum was a public square with the world's first shopping centre.
00:47But Rome was also decadent.
00:51The thermal baths of the Emperor Caracalla were a glamorous pleasure palace.
01:01The Circus Maximus was twice the size of the largest stadium today.
01:10And then there was the Colosseum, an arena of entertainment, built as the Cathedral of Death.
01:20The Seven Wonders of Rome pushed back the boundaries of what was possible.
01:26How were the Romans able to make such breakthroughs, over a thousand years in advance of the rest of the
01:32world?
01:42The Emperors of ancient Rome lived in cruel and ruthless times.
01:48Powerful beyond belief.
01:50And with the stake so high, danger was never far away.
02:00Some stayed alive by giving the people what they wanted.
02:04Others protected their reputations by building awe-inspiring wonders, far beyond anything ever seen before.
02:12No building could entertain more people than the Circus Maximus.
02:17It was the largest arena ever constructed.
02:20It held twice the number of spectators than today's biggest stadium.
02:24It offered the Romans the spectacle of speed, danger and death.
02:32Here they came to watch feats of skill and daring and excitement and adventure.
02:37There was really nothing else like it.
02:40Half a kilometer long and 137 meters wide, the Circus Maximus was the arena for great spectacle, wild beasts, gladiators
02:51and most famously chariot racing.
02:55It could hold up to 350,000.
02:58Admission was free, paid for by the state.
03:00But for the Emperor Trajan who'd built it, it was well worth the expense.
03:05This was premium advertising space.
03:08Trajan, like most emperors, wanted to build a lasting monument to his own glory and the Circus Maximus was the
03:13obvious place.
03:14There he could meet the crowds and he could meet them famously on the same level.
03:18Trajan fancied himself a man of the people.
03:22The arena allowed Trajan to entertain one third of Rome's population in one sitting.
03:28In the middle of the track he built a centerpiece 300 meters long.
03:32It was called the Spina and represented the broken back of Rome's enemies.
03:38The centerpiece was an obelisk towering 25 meters high.
03:42It had once displayed the power of Ramesses II, the greatest pharaoh.
03:47Now it had a new master, Rome.
03:52Earlier attempts at building stadiums had all ended in disaster.
03:56The very first Circus Maximus was built 500 years earlier.
04:00Made of wood, the structure was prone to fire and had to be replaced many times.
04:06But by 100 AD, Trajan set about rebuilding it once and for all.
04:12The emperor Trajan refurbished it and replaced what had been a largely wooden structure with a magnificent building of marble
04:18and stone.
04:19Really the first permanent circus which the Romans had ever had.
04:23The secret of Trajan Circus Maximus was down to the newly discovered miracle building material, concrete.
04:34This magical mixture was to liberate architecture and the Romans were the first to develop it.
04:40Concrete certainly had its benefits from the Roman emperor's point of view
04:44and that it made it possible to build at a much more rapid pace than had been the case before.
04:49But also the Roman emperors were building complexes that were larger and larger to accommodate more and more people.
04:57When the Circus Maximus was built, only the top section was constructed from wood.
05:02The first three floors nearest to the shops and stores were built from concrete and decorated with brick and marble.
05:09This fireproof structure allowed shops to be developed right along the length of the stadium.
05:14And despite the risk of fire from the many arcades, the building survived for 500 years.
05:24The Roman people had never experienced a stadium like it.
05:28Today, only the faint outline of its foundations remain.
05:32But once, the Circus Maximus was the busiest building on earth.
05:37When you arrived at the Circus Maximus, you would enter the structure through an arched gate
05:45and arrive in a system of corridors looking almost underground.
05:52So that when you got out towards your seat, you would be blinded
05:57and you would need a second to adjust your eyes to the spectacle in front of you.
06:04Trajan's construction, over 30 metres high, contained four banks of tiered seating.
06:10It looped around the track to a length of nearly 1400 metres.
06:14The writer Pliny described it as beautiful as a temple.
06:18A sight to be seen for its own sake, quite apart from the spectacles contained therein.
06:25The arena had to be strong enough to contain some chaotic spectacles.
06:30At one event, 63 leopards, 40 bears and elephants were released.
06:38To increase crowd safety, a ditch was dug, running three metres wide and ten deep all around the edge.
06:46The Emperor Nero introduced a barrier covered in smooth ivory which revolved when touched
06:52and allowed animals no grip to climb it.
06:54It meant the action could take place right in front of the spectators.
06:58The Circus Maximus was so large, it needed spectacles on a grand scale to match its size.
07:04And claiming 50 deaths a year, nothing gripped the Roman crowds more than chariot racing.
07:15Over half a kilometre in length, the Circus Maximus was the largest arena ever constructed.
07:21Built by the Emperor Trajan as a symbol of his power, it cemented his reputation.
07:26The arena hosted wild beasts, gladiators and most famously of all, chariot racing.
07:33The race begins when a handkerchief is dropped, signalling its start.
07:38The gates open, all 12 chariots emerge at once.
07:43They have to stay in straight lines for a few moments
07:45and then at a certain point they're all allowed to go as they like.
07:49They then race hell for leather for seven times around the Circus
07:53and finally cross the finishing line which is opposite the Imperial Box with the Empress.
07:59Just like motor racing today, the course was being continually updated.
08:04The most dangerous parts of the track were the corners
08:07where the teams cut the shortest course around the turning post.
08:12Chariots would collide and charioteers would be trampled underfoot.
08:1650 died every year.
08:18If they managed to survive, charioteers became glamorous superstars.
08:23I suppose we might think of the charioteers as being somewhat like modern pop stars
08:27or movie stars or even racing drivers.
08:31They attracted a huge cult following and enjoyed all the glamour
08:34and all the money and all the prestige that came from that.
08:37We do know the name of one charioteer, Scorpus,
08:40and from him we get just a glimpse of the excitement and the glamour
08:44and sometimes the pathos that was associated with being a charioteer.
08:47He won 2,000 races, but he died in the Circus Maximus only aged 27.
08:55Spectators placed bets on the different coloured teams.
09:03The Circus Maximus made the Emperor Trajan popular, but he didn't stop there.
09:08He became one of Rome's greatest builders
09:10and went on to construct another wonder of architecture called Trajan's Forum.
09:18The Forum is a cultural symbol of a Roman city.
09:21It's the central place of a Roman town where people come to meet.
09:26It usually has a temple on one side and a basilica, a judgment hall on another side.
09:30So this is the central place, the Times Square or the Piccadilly Circus of Rome.
09:37There were already five forums in Rome, but none of them could compete with the scale of Trajan's.
09:44Trajan's Forum was the largest of the imperial fora that was built in central Rome.
09:49It's the size of all of the other imperial fora put together.
09:54Trajan built it to ensure his popularity, but also to make himself truly Roman.
10:00Trajan was the first of the non-Italian emperors, so he was from Spain.
10:04Quite a good soldier. He was the second of the so-called five good emperors.
10:09So he was chosen for his abilities rather than because of who his father was.
10:14Trajan was a self-made man and an empire builder.
10:17Not surprisingly, he chose as his architect a man who also came from outside Italy,
10:22a Greek called Apollodorus.
10:24He'd helped Trajan on his military operations abroad.
10:29We don't know as much about Apollodorus' career as we would like,
10:32and this is true for most Roman architects.
10:34He was Trajan's chief architect, who was responsible for the construction of bridges
10:38during the campaign in Dacia, as well as Trajan's Forum.
10:43The money from the Dacian campaigns allowed Apollodorus to pull out every stop
10:47to make his emperor's forum a showcase.
10:50The piazza alone was almost 200 metres long,
10:53and surrounded by elaborate arcades, and adorned with statues of Trajan.
10:58There was a marketplace, a library, as well as law courts.
11:03For the average Roman, to enter Trajan's Forum was to enter another world.
11:10The poor Roman, escaping from his stuffed, crowded, cramped living conditions,
11:16goes into this glorious mass of gleaming marble,
11:20and sees the gilded bronze roofs above him of the palace.
11:25He's moved into a completely different world.
11:27It's like going onto a film set.
11:31But Trajan's Forum would be far more than a public square.
11:35To seal the public's approval, Trajan now began developing the world's first shopping centre.
11:41It became known as Trajan's Markets.
11:45He cleared away a hillside 40 metres high,
11:48and built the complex in terraces adjoining his Forum.
11:51The layout of the markets is very interesting, because in a certain way,
11:56it is a forerunner of our modern shopping malls.
12:00Led out on different levels, and from one level you could look down on another level.
12:07This was a futuristic design.
12:10An entire centre of different spaces on different levels,
12:13with raised walkways and streets containing 150 shops on five floors.
12:19And here, for the moment, we're walking along a corridor,
12:23on which open up some of the shops of this complex.
12:27As you can see, a shop had its entire facade opening up on a street or on a corridor.
12:37The construction methods were new, fast and economical.
12:41The walls were only faced in brick.
12:43To save money, the bricks were cut in half,
12:46and the new-found mixture of concrete and rubble on the inside of the wall
12:50made it possible to build five stories high.
12:54The markets of Trajan are a great example of the skill that the Romans have in using the brick.
13:02Not only as a purely functional building material,
13:08but also as an aesthetical material.
13:11Thus the brick becomes in itself a part of the decoration of the building.
13:21On the fifth floor was the corn dole, where free rations were handed out.
13:27Beneath, arcades of shops offered every commodity from across the empire.
13:32The finest silks, rare spices and precious gems, as well as everyday goods,
13:38were all for sale in a variety of covered markets.
13:43A place for Romans to mix and relax, to eat and drink, to browse and buy anything they wanted.
13:50There were bars and takeaway food stores.
13:59Trajan helped to make Rome the most sophisticated place on earth.
14:02The city had every technology available to man,
14:05and one of its greatest wonders was the aqueduct.
14:12Aqueducts were an engineering breakthrough.
14:14They brought the purest water directly to the homes of Rome's one million citizens.
14:20Graceful arches spanning the countryside,
14:23and amazing tunnels below the ground,
14:25brought a staggering 900 million litres of fresh water into the city every day.
14:35This incredible system became the life force of Rome,
14:38and the engineering blueprint for every modern city ever since.
14:44Rome was an extraordinarily hot city then as it is now,
14:47and one of the things the emperors and those in charge of building were most concerned about
14:51was a ready supply of water.
14:53So there are fountains then as well as now on almost every corner,
14:56and this would have been true also for the courtyards of the elite houses.
15:02Roman scientists, like Vitruvius, had made detailed studies of water.
15:07They tested it by boiling it away and studying the residue it left.
15:11They considered the effects of contamination from different soils,
15:15and looked at the plants attracted to water,
15:18bulrushes, wild oziers, alders, withy, and reeds.
15:24Later, under the emperor Trajan,
15:26an entire government department was set up,
15:29headed by a famous engineer called Frontinus.
15:34Frontinus was Trajan's water engineer and an extraordinarily meticulous man.
15:38He wrote a book about his activities, which we still have on the water supply of Rome,
15:43which gives us details that otherwise we wouldn't possess about the aqueducts and how they functioned.
15:50It had long been established that the freshest water came not from the river Tiber,
15:55but from the foothills and natural springs outside Rome.
16:01Provided they flowed from high ground, the springs could be channeled through aqueducts down to the city below.
16:09As Roman engineers became more experienced, they were able to defy any obstacle.
16:14In time, they would construct a 416-kilometre-long network of tunnels and aqueducts.
16:22But before building could start, the degree of slope had to be determined.
16:27This angle would become the incline of the aqueduct across hills and valleys all the way to Rome.
16:35Before any water entered the aqueduct, it passed through several purification tanks.
16:40Here, flow rate was restricted to allow impurities to fall as sediment.
16:46Along most of their route from the hills of Rome into the city,
16:50stretches of up to seven miles, the aqueducts would have been in tunnels like this one,
16:56dug often straight through hillsides or under towns and villages.
16:59They were dug by hand and beautifully built,
17:03so much so that they're the only ancient Roman public service still in regular use today.
17:10To tunnel, the engineers used the Roman mining technique of drilling a vertical shaft every 32 metres
17:16as the tunnel progressed through the hill.
17:19This meant they could check their alignment accurately by dropping down plumb lines.
17:25But when the aqueduct appeared on the other side, the land often sloped away towards the city,
17:30so to maintain the flow gradient, the channel had to be raised and supported by a wall of brick or
17:36stone.
17:37As the ground sloped away further, so the wall was built up.
17:41But when it exceeded two metres, it became too costly to build.
17:45The solution was an architectural innovation the Romans perfected.
17:50The arch.
17:51This is an absolutely standard, semi-circular Roman arch,
17:57built with cut stones.
17:59It's about 18-foot span, and there may be 27 stones in the whole arch.
18:07The Roman engineers used formwork, a wooden supporting frame, over which the arch was assembled.
18:13When the stones were in place, cement was applied and then rubble to build the structure up to the top.
18:22Once the keystone is in, they can strike the wooden frame and let the arch take the weight,
18:28and all that force coming down the stones, finally through the piers to the ground.
18:34Then they can finish the aqueduct on top.
18:38With arches, aqueducts could cross valleys.
18:41But arches could become unsteady, so Roman engineers had to explore every technique to make them stable.
18:49When an aqueduct crossed a river, greater stability was given to the base,
18:53by specially shaping it to deflect the current.
18:57But when arches grew too tall, they could twist and become unstable.
19:02So the Roman solution was to limit their height to just 21 meters.
19:08Sometimes, to maintain the correct gradient, the aqueducts needed to be even higher,
19:13so a second tier of arches was placed above the first.
19:16One aqueduct was even built with three tiers, 55 meters high.
19:24For Roman aqueducts, cement would bring about a breakthrough,
19:28when engineers discovered a waterproof cement to line the bottom of the channel.
19:32It was made from pozzolama, a volcanic ash,
19:36which when mixed with lime became a mortar which could even sit hard under water.
19:42This is the channel in the aqueduct that brought the water down to ancient Rome.
19:46It's quite wide and it would have brought about 40 million gallons a day down into the city.
19:52Lined as it was with a lime and terracotta mix, it was waterproof along its length.
19:59But why go to all this architectural expense when a pipeline would have done the same job?
20:06The Romans could have brought the water to Rome by pipeline running along the ground surface,
20:11but of course that would have had problems to do with the pressure in the pipe.
20:15So by putting the water up here on an aqueduct in a channel instead of in a pipe,
20:20they could supply it easily and quickly with a simple form of construction.
20:25It's covered, of course, to protect it from evaporating and from getting dirty with things blowing into it.
20:32Aqueducts could easily cross plains, but very deep valleys and ravines were a problem.
20:37So the Roman engineers built a cistern each side.
20:41When they funneled the water down a pipe, its own weight would push it up the other side.
20:46The first gravity-driven siphon.
20:50This would be a pipeline which went from the aqueduct down into the valley
20:55and up to another tank on the other side where the water could go back into the aqueduct.
21:01When the water finally entered Rome, it filled three reservoirs.
21:06The first served the essential public supply.
21:10The second, the public baths.
21:12And the third went to private households who paid a water tax.
21:17The money levied from the private sector helped to pay for the public water system, which took priority.
21:26Controlling the public was the number one concern of every emperor.
21:30Their lives depended on it.
21:35Trajan had given Rome the first permanent stadium, a forum, a shopping centre and regulated the water supply.
21:44One hundred years later, Rome was under the control of the emperor Caracalla.
21:48And he was to build the Roman people the most lavish public building ever conceived.
21:54It was in effect a public palace, the most luxurious and sophisticated health spa of all time.
22:00And everyone could go there.
22:03Why was the ruthless Caracalla so generous?
22:07What they were concerned with is with their reputation, with their eternal reputation,
22:14with building something that people would remember them for, the baths of Caracalla.
22:21But behind the beauty of Caracalla's baths lay a harsh reality.
22:27Caracalla's full name was Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Antonius Pius Felix Augustus,
22:34remembered chillingly as Caracalla.
22:37Like Caligula and Nero before him, Caracalla was one of Rome's most terrifying rulers.
22:45Caracalla's certainly known as one of the major tyrants of the Roman Empire.
22:50He allegedly murdered his brother in the presence of his mother,
22:53had his name, his brother's name, erased from all monuments in the city of Rome,
22:57as well as the image of his wife and father-in-law.
23:00And even outside Rome, he was renowned as a tyrant.
23:04In Alexandria, for instance, where there were people who criticized him,
23:07he allegedly initiated a bloodbath.
23:11Caracalla was so hated,
23:12he decided to build for the people of Rome a wonder to reverse his failing image.
23:17But why build a bath complex?
23:20One of the most evil emperors, Caracalla, a genuine psychopath if ever there was one,
23:27oddly enough, chose to build baths as his monument.
23:30Now, what does this mean to us?
23:32Well, one way of thinking about this would be an obsessional streak,
23:36wanting to wash and clean and cleanse and purify,
23:40a kind of way of expressing perhaps even some guilt about what he had done.
23:46Rome already had nearly a thousand public baths,
23:50but Caracalla's overshadowed them all.
23:53They covered over 9,000 square meters.
23:56The central space alone was larger than the Basilica of St. Peter's,
24:00and a branch line was built from the Aqua Marcia to supply them with their own water.
24:07Caracalla's cruelty never ceased.
24:10His builders were forced to work around the clock in all weathers.
24:14Started in 212 AD, his baths were completed in record time.
24:20Caracalla employed a workforce of up to 16,000 men.
24:25100,000 scaffolding poles allowed 4,500 bricklayers
24:29and 1,800 decorators to get to work.
24:33Caracalla wanted those baths finished as fast as possible,
24:36and so he applied enormous pressure to his architects and his engineers.
24:40Consequently, it was finished in only four years.
24:42The baths catered for every need.
24:46But below the surface, the cost of such luxury did not come cheap.
24:53The psychotic Roman emperor, Caracalla, was in need of some good press
24:58and bestowed upon the people of Rome a sophisticated health spa on a massive scale.
25:07Bathers could swim in Olympic-sized swimming pools,
25:11rest in enormous sauna rooms,
25:14lays in a warm bath 60 meters long,
25:16and cool in a plunge pool.
25:18There was a gymnasium and exercise rooms,
25:21as well as libraries, meeting rooms, and gardens.
25:26As one entered the Baths of Caracalla,
25:28one would have been struck by light,
25:30and the light glittering off the surfaces of the imported marbles
25:33or the mosaics that lined the walls and other parts of the building.
25:38Underneath, however, would have been a world of darkness in the service corridors,
25:42heating the water for the baths.
25:44A vast system supplied the baths with over 9 million liters of water.
25:50It was piped beneath the main building,
25:52where it either fed the cold pools or the boilers.
25:55An underground network of terracotta pipes distributed hot and cold water
26:00while removing all waste water.
26:02There were also enormous corridors, storing 2,000 tons of wood.
26:11There were 50 fireplaces for the heating of the different rooms above.
26:15This efficient system of underfloor heating was known as hypercourced.
26:21Terracotta tubes ran inside the walls to provide insulation and channel hot air.
26:26The underworld is sweaty, hot, fearsomly hot, oppressed, cruel,
26:36and above the leisure class, enjoying the luxury and cleanliness.
26:45There could be as many as 2,000 people in the baths.
26:49You could spend the whole day at the baths. There was plenty to do there.
26:53It would take you quite a long time to get through all the different rooms.
26:55There was a sort of Turkish bath kind of room.
26:58There was a cold room. There was a warm room.
27:00There was a swimming pool.
27:01You could get a massage. You could get your hair done.
27:04You could get your pedicure and your manicure.
27:06But you also could have some very important chats.
27:08You were very interested in who you might bump into.
27:11And there was certainly food and drink available.
27:14The main pool, the caliderium, was the hottest room.
27:18It was domed to allow in the sun's heat and light.
27:21The baths were more popular and longer lasting than their creator, Caracalla.
27:28On the 8th of April, in the year 217 AD, scarcely a year after the baths completion,
27:35Caracalla was murdered, assassinated by his own bodyguard.
27:41The Roman people enjoyed the baths for centuries, but were quick to forget Caracalla,
27:47one of the most flawed emperors of all time.
27:53Despite poor rulers, turmoil and revolution, Rome would become the nerve center of a vast empire.
28:00And all this was made possible by the wonder of Roman roads.
28:05The Romans realized that the maintenance of the empire was directly dependent upon the construction of a successful road system
28:12for the easy transport of troops and commodities.
28:15And so they used the roads in a way to create a kind of global village.
28:21The first Roman road was the Appian Way, begun in 312 BC by the consul Claudius.
28:29Within 200 years, a 288,000 kilometer network would spread out from the city to reach the furthest extremities of
28:39the empire.
28:39Along them marched great armies.
28:43Soon the whole of Europe to the west, Judea to the east, and Egypt to the south, fell under Rome's
28:49control.
28:50At their height, Roman roads were expanding at a rate of half a kilometer every day.
28:57And they still survive.
29:00What was the secret of their construction?
29:03The answer lay in surveying.
29:06For this, Roman engineers invented a device called a groma.
29:10The principles of Roman surveying are the same principles that we use today, setting things out on right angles, using
29:16level to work out elevation and so on.
29:18You'd first of all sight down one axis of it, like this, and then you'd move around and lay out
29:25the other line at right angles.
29:27And that was pretty effective over short distances.
29:31For long distances, the Romans had to use the highest hills they could see in the distance, and they set
29:37out poles between where they were now, where they wanted to go, and aligned them in a very, very long
29:43line, as straight as they could.
29:44They couldn't survey round corners. That's why all Roman roads are straight.
29:50If the obstacle was impassable, the road would take a dog leg around it.
29:55But often the roads were cut straight through entire hillsides.
30:01The Emperor Trajan engineered a cutting 40 meters deep to extend the Appian Way along the coast.
30:09The idea of building a straight road from scratch was a new one.
30:13Up until now, roads had evolved from ancient tracks.
30:16They sidestepped rivers and avoided hills.
30:20But to the Roman mind, this was inefficient.
30:25The Roman roads were built very carefully because they were the core of the Roman communication system.
30:33Making roads was a serious business because the roads served many purposes.
30:39Transportation of troops, of goods.
30:42And they were built by slaves, by soldiers, and lower-class citizens who would work in private construction companies.
30:53One of the astounding features of Roman roads is how durable they proved to be.
30:58They were all built to the same formula.
31:01A broad trench was dug and filled with sand and boulders to form a solid foundation.
31:07Next went a layer of gravel and coarse stone.
31:10This was mixed with clay or mortar before being compacted.
31:15Finally, a layer of cambered paving stones, sometimes of basalt, formed the top surface, allowing any water to drain off
31:24to the sides.
31:24Every thousand paces, a Roman mile, was marked by a cylindrical milestone, engraved with details of the current emperor and
31:33the distance to the next town.
31:36While roads held the empire together, it was architecture that displayed Roman mastery of the world.
31:42The most visionary Roman building remains the Pantheon.
31:48It's a temple dedicated to all the gods and was built by the Emperor Hadrian in 125 AD.
31:55Like a time capsule, the Pantheon remains the best-preserved Roman building, marking one of the greatest achievements in world
32:03architecture.
32:04Its central feature, an oculus, a circular hole 10 meters wide, open to the heavens.
32:10Its dome, 43 meters across, meant its designers were taking a risk.
32:16It was the largest ever made without reinforced concrete.
32:19We wish we knew more about the purpose of the Pantheon than we do.
32:23It's simply Greek for temple to all of the gods.
32:26We know that Hadrian held court there.
32:28Presumably the statues of all of the Olympian gods were set up there.
32:32But as to its exact function, we're still largely in the dark.
32:38The Pantheon was an obsession for the Emperor Hadrian.
32:41He was fascinated by architecture.
32:44Hadrian could draw his own architectural plans and blueprints.
32:49He had his own villa built as an Egyptian temple.
32:55All of the Emperors were passionate about building, but the difference between them and Hadrian is that Hadrian was a
33:01kind of amateur architect in his own right,
33:03and allegedly responsible for some of the designs in his villa at Tivoli.
33:09It's not known which architect designed the Pantheon.
33:12Some believe it was Apollodorus, but there are no surviving records.
33:19The facade of the Pantheon was designed to express Roman mastery of the world.
33:24The Greek portico was supported by 16 of the finest columns.
33:29Made from Egyptian granite, they were quarried thousands of kilometres away in Aswan, Upper Egypt, and brought all the way
33:36to Rome.
33:37The crossbeams running above them were once sheathed in bronze.
33:42From here, two gigantic bronze doors, seven metres high, open onto a vast circular area, half the size of a
33:51football pitch.
33:53The interior of the Pantheon is a fantastic space, thanks to its enormous dome, twice as big as any dome
34:02that had ever been built before, 44 metres of span.
34:08Inside, the only thing you can think of is space.
34:14The Pantheon is one of the most famous buildings of the world, and one of the best preserved, and yet
34:21still enigmatic.
34:23We don't know what its original name was.
34:26We don't know what it was exactly used for.
34:30The Pantheon was a fusion of both classical and modern styles.
34:35It had no architectural precedent.
34:38The whole space inside was unsupported, unique in temple design.
34:43The Pantheon's dome was an engineering masterpiece.
34:47Other domes had been constructed in Roman architecture before the Pantheon, in Bath buildings in particular.
34:53But the Pantheon covered a span greater than that of any other ancient structure, and it wouldn't be superseded until
34:59the Renaissance.
35:02Building the dome of the Pantheon was the biggest engineering challenge that the Romans ever set themselves.
35:08It had twice the span of any dome that they had built previously.
35:12The key problem with building any dome is how to stop it collapsing under its own weight.
35:19All the time, it's trying to push out at the bottom and to fall through the middle.
35:25The Romans solved this in two ways.
35:29Firstly, they made it very, very thick.
35:32And then, to stop the dome spreading outwards at the bottom, they built it inside massive buttress-like walls,
35:40and with a ring of collars around the base of the dome itself.
35:46This was a brilliant solution.
35:50The architect had planned for the weight of the giant semi-sphere to be supported by just eight piers.
35:57These needed to be strong and were built six metres thick.
36:01But to help reduce their overall weight, they had hollow inspection shafts running up inside them.
36:07The dome itself is a highly advanced piece of engineering.
36:11Its construction had been worked out to reduce its weight and pressure.
36:16It contains many sophisticated features, and its builders used five different types of cement.
36:24The secret of Roman concrete was something called Pozzolana, the local volcanic sand,
36:30which made it almost as hard as stone.
36:32And the significance for Roman architecture is that architects could now consider the function of a building
36:37and then mould the form of the building to suit the function rather than what had been the case previously,
36:43which is that the function had to be fit, really squeezed into a square box.
36:49The shape of the dome was exquisitely proportioned,
36:52being exactly half the dimension of the whole building.
36:57Climbing from the ground to the first cornice, the builders used heavy concrete and tufa, or limestone blocks.
37:05The next level was built from lighter tufa bricks.
37:09The first ring of the dome was made of concrete, but as it grew upwards the concrete became thinner and
37:15was lightened with tufa.
37:17At the top, it was lightened further with pumice.
37:21Had the architect not reduced weight in this way, the stresses would have been increased by as much as 80%.
37:30The architect hid inside the walls a complicated series of arches.
37:35These were designed to reduce weight and to direct the pressure down onto the supporting piers.
37:43The architect further reduced the weight of the dome by cutting out large square panels, called coffers.
37:49These gave added rhythm and decoration, as well as lightening the overall load.
37:55The coffers of the dome were gilded, and so it would have resembled a kind of golden canopy above your
38:02head.
38:03History doesn't record who was responsible for the Pantheon's revolutionary design.
38:07Whether Apollodorus, or the emperor himself, remains unknown.
38:13The historian Cassius Dio tells a story about Apollodorus and Hadrian,
38:18wherein Hadrian showed some of his architectural designs to Apollodorus,
38:22who criticized them severely.
38:24And according to Dio, ultimately, Hadrian had Apollodorus executed.
38:33If the story is true, Apollodorus never saw the Pantheon in its true glory.
38:39But millions have since its completion, and the Pantheon continues to astound the world today.
38:48The last of Rome's seven wonders is the most infamous building on earth, the Colosseum.
38:58Behind its beautiful walls were once terrifying scenes of combat, blood and death.
39:04The building was the largest and most notorious of all Roman amphitheatres.
39:11Standing taller than 16 stories, the Colosseum could hold a crowd of over 80,000.
39:16It was an arena of entertainment and a cathedral of death.
39:23Plans to build the Colosseum began after the death of the Emperor Nero.
39:28His rule of terror had left public morale so low that Vespasian, who followed him,
39:34had to build something exceptional to win back public support.
39:39Vespasian was something of an anomaly amongst the Roman emperors.
39:42He was hard-working, sober, a plain dealer, honest, frugal.
39:46The Romans liked him.
39:50In AD 70, Vespasian's engineers drained Nero's private lake
39:55and laid the foundations for Rome's largest amphitheatre.
40:00The oval design encompassed a central arena.
40:04High-banked terraces were designed to give every spectator a clear view of the ring.
40:10Inside, there was a labyrinth of vaulted tunnels.
40:13There were 76 entrances, allowing crowds of spectators to swarm along the passages to the seats above.
40:23Inside, the whole structure rested upon load-bearing piers, braced with arches and vaults.
40:30Vaulting gives us this domed roof, like the one above me, made out of a Roman concrete,
40:36placed on a wooden frame or formwork.
40:38And arches like this one, made out of cut stone blocks.
40:43Together, the arches and the vaults give us a wide open public space for people to mingle and circulate.
40:48And the arches give the Colosseum its distinctive architectural appearance all around the outside.
40:56Moving up the façade, the first three floors were arched.
40:59The fourth and fifth were solid walls of concrete, faced with brick.
41:05Modern building techniques enabled the 50-metre-high façade to be constructed quickly.
41:11300 tonnes of iron cramps helped to bond all the masonry together.
41:16Standard sizes of brick and easily mixable concrete allowed production line efficiency on site.
41:24Vespasian had no time to lose.
41:26He was in a hurry to win back the people before his years overtook him.
41:31The Colosseum was the answer.
41:33And as emperor, he would have the best seat.
41:36Beside him would sit senators.
41:38On the tier above, noblemen.
41:41Above, soldiers and citizens.
41:43Above them, slaves.
41:46The worst seats of all, on the very top story, were for women.
41:52What this meant was that the place was a microcosm of Roman society.
41:57And when you looked out at it graphically, you saw it affect the whole Roman world displayed before you.
42:04An awning protected the spectators from the sun.
42:08A thousand sailors were stationed in Rome to erect its sails.
42:15One of the astonishing things is that this great massive edifice, probably the greatest building project, certainly the most complex
42:22one of antiquity, was put together in a period of perhaps five years.
42:29Yet despite the speed of its construction, Vespasian would never live to see the Colosseum's completion.
42:35He died before his great gift was realized.
42:39It would be his son, Titus, who would officially open the most terrifying arena on earth.
42:48The last of Rome's seven wonders is the most infamous building on earth, the Colosseum.
42:54Holding a crowd of over 80,000, it was originally conceived by the emperor Vespasian and was completed by his
43:01son, Titus.
43:03For 100 days, Titus treated the people of Rome to the killing of wild beasts, the executions of men, women
43:11and children, as well as gladiatorial contests.
43:14This industrial scale slaughter was all made possible by engineering.
43:20Hidden beneath the arena, a labyrinth of tunnels allowed stage sets and dead bodies to be moved in and out.
43:28There were 32 animal pens, holding caged lions, tigers, elephants and crocodiles.
43:34As many as 5,000 a day were slaughtered. Some species were reduced to the point of extinction.
43:44There's a story about one emperor, Claudius, who actually threw some of his scenic designers and stage technicians to the
43:51lions
43:51because the machinery had broken down and the show didn't go on well.
43:57Executions provided popular midday entertainment.
44:00Christians, Jews, criminals and slaves were tortured to death in the most novel ways to provide the greatest spectacle.
44:09It's certain that they had a different level of tolerance for watching humans and animals suffer terrible pain without feeling
44:17they needed to get up and stop it.
44:20We know, for example, that they would actually make women have sex with bulls or with donkeys before they finally
44:27died.
44:29The highlights of any day were the gladiators.
44:33Many were enslaved prisoners of war from conquered tribes, the Samnites, the Thracians and the Gauls.
44:43After the opening of the Colosseum, new gladiator schools opened beside it.
44:48Soon there were 2,000 trained gladiators ready to fight for their lives.
44:56One of the Romans' favourite ways of fearing the diet of gladiatorial combat was to make the gladiators take on
45:03identities of mythical characters in a big fight.
45:06So you could have Achilles fighting Hector or you could have Hercules fighting one of his great enemies.
45:12And they would fight to the death, but in a form of disguise and impersonation that's actually got more to
45:17do with theatre.
45:19If they lived long enough to see out their contracts, they could become free men.
45:24The Colosseum made some gladiators into heroes and superstars.
45:29Some would be given a second chance. Others would die within its walls.
45:34Their bodies dragged away at the end of a contest.
45:39Forty-two emperors would benefit from Vespasian's vision.
45:43The Colosseum was a building designed to keep the people happy.
45:47It succeeded, but the price was high.
45:49700,000 souls would die within its walls.
45:55The Colosseum remains today as a masterpiece of design,
45:58shrouding the darkest memories of the most ruthless civilization.
46:04The Seven Wonders of Rome were all outstanding creations,
46:09pushing architecture and engineering to a level unsurpassed for well over a thousand years.
46:14The audacity of their construction still challenges architects to better them,
46:20to develop new materials, to solve new problems,
46:24to do as the Romans did and build into the future.
46:28The End.
46:30The End.
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