- 23 minutes ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:03I'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
00:221300 miles through Italy France and Spain to discover its origins and the secrets of its
00:30success I'll be exploring some well-known Roman sites this is where you can hear Pompeii and some
00:38unfamiliar ones there is nobody here from the massive it's curved yeah to the miniature it's
00:47like a fourth century Barbie doll I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast
00:53territory experts from around the world will help me bring to life Roman culture the sands of Capua
01:01become the jungles of India and provide insights into why this Empire was so successful who said
01:08the time machine does not exist we got it in this episode I follow the original Roman
01:17road north to Palma and Turin hello so this is absolutely beautiful this Roman gateway and then
01:32I cross the Alps to the city they call the Rome of France
01:50I want to go to Palma
01:59you
02:32i'm traveling north on this train journey firstly going across the apennines with lots of tunnels
02:38and then now we've reached the northern italian plain it's suddenly very very flat now the romans
02:44really wanted to get hold of this land this was a large area of very fertile very agriculturally
02:53productive land they really wanted it so they build roads this is how they conquer italy we've
03:01seen that with the via appia pushing to the south now they're going to build roads to the north so
03:06in
03:06the third century bce they start by building this road the via flaminia north through the apennines
03:13reaching a colony which will be a riminum rimini and then this road which just tracks along
03:22the northern border of the apennines is the via emilia and along this road they will be seeding
03:30colonies and these colonies have still got names which go back to the romans so there's a colony
03:37called bononia that becomes bologna mutina moderna regium regia amelia palma still palma placentia
03:47becomes piacenza and they're pushing pushing pushing further and further northwards
03:55like all conquerors the romans were after territory resources to plunder and strategic
04:02towns to fortify as bases for the further expansion of their empire palma's an interesting name in itself
04:10it seems to have been an etruscan name which was then adopted by the romans which obviously suggests
04:14there was an etruscan settlement there before the roman colony and it's thought to mean or relate
04:21to around shields the kind of shields that the etruscans had in this area or perhaps to the fact that
04:29palma was a metaphorical shield against the gauls to the north right where are we now
04:36palma this is palma yes we've been through reggio emilia we're at palma
04:5810 minutes from the station is piazza garibaldi
05:04below this modern town square lies the ancient roman forum
05:11the forum was a constant feature of roman cities forming the legal administrative and religious
05:18center surrounded by impressive buildings it was symbolic of the power and sophistication
05:24of roman civilization local archaeologist marco padini has arranged special access to guide me
05:33through palma's hidden ancient past marco hi nice to meet you buongiorno yes nice to meet you buongiorno
05:44so the square today respects the square in roman times then great part of it corresponds to the ancient
05:50form yes so yeah we have to get some elements now we have to be very careful here this underground
05:59area
05:59has been closed off to the public for the last 20 years so i'll pass and be careful here okay
06:11so what is this place this was a hotel that was built in around 1928 underground underground hotel yeah
06:23okay oh look at that when they uh built the hotel the underground hotel they found a mosaic
06:39and there was this beautiful centaur with a vase of cantars for the wine and since it was so beautiful
06:46uh they decided to cut it and put in the museum in 1928 so that's where this piece of mosaic
06:54was lifted from
06:54in 1928 when was palma founded as as a roman settlement it was founded in 183 bc uh only piacinza
07:05which is
07:06the end point of the via media was uh founded earlier in 218 but then hannibal came and yeah it
07:15was a great
07:16battle near piacinza and so there was a very uh difficult moment for the roman empire because
07:24hannibal stayed here all more than 10 years so when he was finally defeated he was finally defeated
07:30in at the end of the third century bc so 201 yeah if you want now we can go to
07:37uh the roman bridge
07:38another very very important excavation which was uh yeah done in 2010 oh lovely yes i'd love to see that
07:46just five minutes walk from the old forum is the river palma that divides the city
07:55and once proved a fearsome obstacle to roman ambitions
08:01our walk takes us along a familiar route
08:07so this road that is the original route of the via emilia that is the via emilia yeah this is
08:13uh
08:13it's still called the via media is it yeah yeah actually all the lines the train line
08:21follow the via emilia i thought i must have been tracking along with it because
08:25i'm passing through all the towns which were originally roman colonies we came through bologna
08:31yeah regia emilia and if i was to carry on i'd end up in in fidenza and then piacenza which
08:37is the end of
08:37the via media in 2010 work began here to build a multi-story car park and what they found may
08:46have been
08:47the single most significant section of the via emilia here where the road crosses the river oh
08:57amazing yeah actually uh we see the medieval phase uh probably in the 12th century and this moment and
09:07this has been excavated out right down to the the footings down there i mean could it be that
09:12these fittings are roman exactly this bridge dates to the reign of emperor augustus in the first century
09:19ce the romans perfected arch bridges built in stone and concrete crucial for moving goods and troops
09:27around the empire the bridge was built at a place where travelers would have previously waded across
09:34the river over a ford near this ford uh there was probably some a sacred area a cultural area right
09:43because um in there many pits were found many metal elements okay like three thousand coins were found
09:52and you can see uh all these uh pieces that uh these items that are exposed in the showcases where
09:59are
09:59the showcases here we're gonna see them here it seems that locals crossing the ford may have been
10:06hoping for divine protection oh wow oh this is lovely yeah you can still see the coins stuck in the
10:15in the
10:15mortar yeah the main hypothesis that there was a probably a sacred area yeah or a temple in some way
10:26or a shrine connected to this passing to this crossing point yeah and you see there are many metal
10:35elements it's a gift probably to uh the gods isn't that interesting i mean we see this right across europe
10:41don't we we see we see these kind of offerings and watery places yeah in the iron age yeah exactly
10:48uh the last coin found was around the third century and that they come from all the mediterranean area
10:56really yeah yeah there are some coins that come from the ibiza island in spain yeah that's a little
11:06lion's claw uh probably for yeah a table yeah yeah yeah i love this i love this museum in an
11:15unexpected
11:15place under the bridge oh amphoree i didn't even see those down there yeah
11:26the cities and towns along the ancient roman road network are rich in archaeology
11:33every modern building project reveals more ancient history
11:38i've just over an hour before my next train journey and francesque suggested i make a quick visit to
11:45palmer's archaeology museum to see what else has been unearthed here
11:52pilota park is the city's historic center home to a grand palace and several other museums
12:00in the courtyard here there seems to be a philosophical message written on the wall
12:05what does it say it's in english time present and time past are both perhaps present in time
12:18future i like that and it's very apt for my journey because i am here in the present
12:26learning about the past and you're watching this in my future
12:34the museum has a vast collection of artifacts dating from the bronze age right through to the 19th century
12:43a whole floor dedicated to the roman era features an array of exhibits from palmer's forum
12:50i'm hoping to find the mosaic that was removed from the floor of the underground hotel
12:58there it is
13:06so this is the missing mosaic
13:11from the underground hotel
13:17so i've seen the edge where it was cut
13:21and now i'm seeing the whole thing
13:26he's great what a fantastic image for a dining room floor a centaur balancing a jug of wine on his
13:34head
13:39this mosaic provides a glimpse of the wealth and sophistication of roman society in palmer
13:45but the museum here holds a further extraordinary artifact
13:52it's a rare written record found in the ancient town of valleja
13:5840 miles southwest of palmer and it offers a far more detailed picture of roman life
14:06it is a massive inscription look at it it's completely covered in letters
14:12on bronze in fact it's the biggest inscription from the roman world
14:18there's some 40 000 letters engraved on this piece of bronze
14:24and what it is is a record of a loan
14:28a loan from the emperor trajan
14:31to the people of the town of valleja and the surrounding region
14:37which was hard hit they were really struggling
14:40and so he gave them a loan and they are going to have to pay back interest but a small
14:45amount of
14:46interest and actually that interest is going to be used
14:49also to support the people in this region particularly orphans
14:53and what we've got here is just an incredible record of
15:00everything in this region all the all the towns and villages that were given pots of money in this big
15:08loan so it's almost like a census as well it contains a lot of information
15:15and this was discovered by a farmer who knew it was bronze folded it up and presumably was going to
15:25sell it to be melted down but the local priest got to have a look at it and of course
15:30he's a priest
15:31so he can speak latin and he realizes that this is a really really really important inscription
15:38and in fact this kicks off then the excavation of the lost town of valleja
15:45which had been destroyed in a mudslide in the middle of the first millennium
15:51and there were many many more treasures to be found
16:04what a beautiful bronze of a young woman and it's possible that we even know her name because we
16:12know that somebody called barbia bacilla gave money to the forum in valleja to build a new portico
16:20along the side and this could be her looking at her hairstyle with this hair band that gives us
16:29a rough date as well because this was the fashion in the first century bce it's amazing to read the
16:37inscriptions to be able to read words from 2000 years ago but i think it's even better to come face
16:44to
16:44face with a roman
16:51a new book
17:13I've left Palma and I'm now heading west towards Augusta Torrenorum, more commonly known today
17:21as Turin. There I'm hoping to find out how the Roman population was kept satisfied as the satirical
17:30poet Juvenal said in a rather deprecating fashion that the Roman population could be kept happy
17:36with bread and circuses. I've seen the circus at Capua and now I'm going to explore the meaning of
17:44bread in the Roman world as I head towards Turin.
18:02Turin was an important military base for the Romans in the time of Julius Caesar when he had
18:08his sights set on the conquest of Gaul. The town sits on the mighty Po River, just ten miles
18:15from the Alps with Gaul on the other side of the mountains. During the reign of the first
18:21emperor Augustus, Turin was re-founded as a Roman colony. And yet, apart from the classic
18:29grid layout of its streets, Rome's barely visible here. That's because much later, in the 16th
18:37century, the ruling Duke Emanuele Filibert rebuilt Turin in the Baroque style.
18:54So many sweets and chocolates. And all so beautifully packaged. The Duke was also like a real life
19:04Willy Wonka, introducing his subjects to the cocoa bean from the Americas. And I've got five minutes
19:10before the museum opens.
19:12Nocciolotto al latte. So, nuts and milk. Cute little hearts. More nuts. That might be nougat, I think.
19:24Some kind of fondant. Pistachio. That, that, that, that, that. What's that one? That's got nuts in it. I knew
19:35you got what's that one. They're all so beautiful. They're like little jewels. That's a very nice
19:42little bag of chocolates.
19:47That's 21 euros and 70 cents. Lovely. Thank you. Fantastic.
19:55Grazie mille. Arrivederci.
20:07Travel gifts sorted are now heading to the museum, which is housed here in the Palazzo Madama,
20:14currently listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
20:22Part of this structure dates back to the first century BCE.
20:30Today, it houses a wonderful collection of ancient artefacts.
20:44This is a really fascinating museum and not just because of what it contains, but because of what it is.
20:49Because this building is actually the original Roman Decumanus Gate into Turin, or I should say Augusta Turinorum, as it
20:59was originally founded.
21:01And this series of illustrations are brilliant because you can see how the two towers, the two octagonal towers are
21:07part of that original Roman Gate.
21:09And then the building evolves so much over the centuries.
21:14But all the way through, those towers are part of it until today.
21:19You've just got the tops of them poking out of the roof.
21:23And then over here, the excavations inside this courtyard area have been laid bare and then preserved under a glass
21:31floor,
21:32so I can actually walk over the ancient Roman cobbles.
21:51So you can walk up inside this tower, I'm walking on an 18th century staircase, but then I can step
21:57into this space.
21:59And here we've got the original wall of the Roman tower of Augusta Turinorum.
22:07Isn't that incredible? So this is part of that gateway, the gatehouse into the old Roman city.
22:14And I just can't believe it's still standing and it's still part of this building.
22:22Over the centuries, the building was extended and took on many forms.
22:28After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was still a defensive stronghold.
22:34It was enlarged into a castle before becoming a palace.
22:42The current building has got four towers. The original Roman one only had two.
22:46And now I'm looking across at one of those two Roman towers of the original gate.
22:53And it's just pushing up through the roof.
22:56This is a great building and it has really just accumulated over time.
23:02There's been so many different phases from the Roman through the medieval,
23:06right through to the 19th and 20th centuries when it became the Civic Museum.
23:11But sometimes it's great just to pause and look for archaeological clues
23:15and try to work out how old something is.
23:19Sometimes it's just about feel.
23:21And I think if I feel these bricks, I can work out that actually they were laid in 1884.
23:29It requires a lot of experience and expertise to do something like that.
23:43As their territory expanded, the Romans had to feed their ever-increasing population.
23:51I'm meeting up with archaeologist Farrell Monaco.
23:57She's been sifting through the evidence with her investigation into the staple ingredient of the Roman diet.
24:04Hey, lovely to meet you.
24:05Lovely to meet you too.
24:08So, I've been learning a lot about Roman life, but I want to kind of immerse myself in it a
24:14bit more.
24:15As a Roman, how important was bread?
24:17I think it was incredibly important.
24:19If we look at archaeological evidence such as bakery counts, for example.
24:24In Rome, we have upward of 250 Roman bakeries were in place according to the regional catalogues.
24:32In Pompeii, we have 35 and there's still a quarter of that site that remains unexcavated.
24:36So, this shows us clearly that bread was the backbone of the Roman diet.
24:41But part of my mission is to show that it isn't just about carbohydrates and calories.
24:46It's so much more complex and beautiful than that.
24:49Bread is very symbolic in the Roman world.
24:52It plays a substantial role in the religious sphere as well.
24:56Yeah.
24:56I mean, it's interesting, isn't it?
24:57Walking around Pompeii and seeing the bakeries and then it's almost as though there's one on every insula.
25:03I mean, there are loads of them.
25:04It's like Rome and Starbucks.
25:06Yes.
25:07They're on every corner.
25:07Or Pret-a-Manger.
25:08You just turn a corner and there it is again.
25:10Yeah.
25:10And were people making bread at home or was everybody going out and buying it from these
25:16bakeries on the street?
25:17They were making bread at home, but they were also buying bread in these commercial bakeries.
25:21And this is because approximately 50% of households wouldn't have cooking facilities.
25:27Okay.
25:27So, they would eat out at the de Berne or they would buy their bread at bakeries.
25:33Isn't that interesting?
25:34Because I think, you know, today when we see a bit of a shift towards less home cooking
25:39and more going out to eat or getting other people to cook your food for you, we think
25:43this is something that hasn't happened before, but actually the Romans were doing it in their
25:46cities.
25:47Yeah.
25:47It's like living in a studio in Manhattan.
25:49Yeah.
25:49You go out and you go out for dinner and you come back home and you go to bed.
25:52To see Turin's Roman agricultural past, you don't have to line up at a museum.
25:57You don't have to pay to get into an archeological site.
26:00All you have to do is hit a bakery because the bread forms that are on these shelves haven't
26:04changed in millennia or in hundreds of years.
26:07Yeah.
26:08So, I brought one for you to try, well, for us to try together.
26:13I mean, this is extraordinary because, I mean, you think with globalization that bread's
26:17going to become standard everywhere, but it's not.
26:19No.
26:20That's the beauty of Italy is regional breads have stayed relatively unchanged.
26:24Yeah.
26:27Over a hundred years, it's gotten, you know, since the war and since the railway was put
26:33in, things have changed a little bit because people move back and forth.
26:36Yeah.
26:36But Italy is a bastion of bread culture that has been unchanged for centuries and millennia.
26:43So, this particular loaf here, this is called paninero or black bread.
26:49Black bread, yeah.
26:49Yeah.
26:50It's very dark.
26:50It is mixed with rye and wheat.
26:55Can we taste it?
26:55Yeah, of course we can.
26:56So, we are, we're going to go, we're going to do this old school.
26:59We're not going to use a knife.
27:00We are going to break bread.
27:01Yeah.
27:02Francho panis.
27:02So, go ahead and break it.
27:03And then we are going to have it with a little bit of olive oil.
27:06You could also have this with a robust red wine, like a Yanico.
27:11I'm going to break off a chunk as well.
27:13Bread is my carbohydrate of choice.
27:15Hmm.
27:17You know, along with porridge, it's been what we have been eating since the dawn of agriculture.
27:24This is delicious bread.
27:25Isn't it great?
27:26It's lovely.
27:27This has been absolutely fascinating.
27:28The fact that you can go to a bakery down the road here in Turin and buy bread which is
27:35basically the same as the bread that the Romans would have been eating.
27:39I think that's really interesting.
27:40Yeah.
27:41Where are you going next on your travels?
27:43I'm headed to Rome next to do some research into the Eucharist.
27:49So, now I'm going to start looking at the representation of these forms in early Christian context.
27:57Yeah.
27:57The feeding of the 5,000, for example, and how they're being used to portray something sacred, much in the
28:04same way as they did in a pagan atmosphere.
28:07But this time, they're, you know, Christian in nature.
28:09That is fascinating.
28:10Because, of course, Christianity is nothing if not a Roman religion.
28:14Yes.
28:14Yeah, exactly.
28:17What an enthralling first day in Turin, discovering more about its history and ancient cuisine.
28:24Tomorrow, I'm going to find out about the newest method of dating Roman cities.
28:30And I'm hoping to find a famous movie landmark.
28:45The ancient Romans, like the Greeks before them, were stargazers.
28:49They named the stars and planets after their deities.
28:56And their understanding of astronomy helped them in navigation, farming, predicting the seasons, and marking time.
29:06Their astronomical observations fed into the development of the calendar.
29:11They used the stars and the sun to determine directions and to lay out their towns.
29:19Two millennia on, this ancient knowledge of the heavens helped to solve one of archaeology's great riddles, right here in
29:28Turin.
29:30There's no record of the actual date of the foundation of Turin.
29:36But astrophysicist Mireia Teresa Crosta and archaeologist Sandro Caranzano wondered if the answer lay in the stars.
29:46This is absolutely beautiful, this Roman gateway.
29:49Shall we walk down to it?
29:50Yeah, sure.
29:51And are we walking on one of the principal Roman roads of the city here?
29:55Yes.
29:55The archaeologists can tell better than me.
29:58Let's talk about this road.
30:00Originally it was the Cardo, which was the main city road running south and north.
30:06Okay.
30:07So they rebuilt the pavement because, you know, it's not exactly the original one, but it was very similar.
30:13Yeah.
30:13With stones and, you know, this is the north gate of the city.
30:17And the whole city is laid out on a grid like most Roman cities.
30:22Yes, yes, yes.
30:22The Roman love very much, geometry love very much.
30:25Yeah, yeah.
30:26The Romans used the sun and stars to align their street grids north, south and east, west.
30:32But the exact positions of sunrise and sunset on the horizon have changed over time.
30:39Combining Sandro's archaeological research and her knowledge of astronomy,
30:44Maria Theresa believed she could precisely calculate Turin's foundation.
30:49So what did you do?
30:51How did you try to establish the date of the foundation of Turin?
30:56Okay.
30:57So just by combining archaeological findings with astronomical data,
31:05Yeah.
31:05And the Anissian text written by surveyors.
31:09Yeah.
31:10They were in charge to dividing the land, take measurements in order to construct the ideal town,
31:19which has to integrate with the cosmos.
31:21Yeah.
31:22This was fundamental because astronomy was essential in those days, in the past, to measure the time.
31:31So when we look at Roman towns, do they all have this attention to detail when it comes to making
31:37sure that they are facing cardinal points,
31:40that they have a north-south road, that they have an east-west road, or does it vary?
31:44Yes.
31:44This was fundamental for them.
31:46The main axis of the town should align perfectly with east toward west.
31:54That perfect alignment worked for them at a particular time.
32:00But if the grid were to be laid out in the same way today, using astronomical markers, the alignment would
32:06be slightly different.
32:08With archaeology providing a rough timeframe, Maria Theresa's challenge was to work out when the astronomical conditions would have perfectly
32:18matched up with the Roman grid.
32:22And that should yield a date for the origin of the city.
32:29This is fascinating because I think that it's an approach to archaeology where it reminds me of the difference between
32:36relative dating and absolute dating,
32:38where you might say, I'm dating this on the basis of a style of pottery, and I think it's this
32:43particular date.
32:44Then you have something like radiocarbon dating, and you can absolutely pin the date down.
32:48And what you're doing, where you're trying to reconstruct the solar year in the past, seems similar to me.
32:55Because the sun is the timekeeping.
33:01So what was the date you finally arrived at?
33:05The 30th of January, no?
33:07The 30th of January.
33:07The 30th of January.
33:09In which year?
33:10The 30th of January.
33:11Before Christ.
33:12That's absolutely wonderful.
33:13Yes.
33:14And what a fantastic example of interdisciplinary research.
33:17Exactly, yes.
33:18You know, a physicist and an archaeologist, who'd have thought?
33:20Yes, yes, exactly.
33:22Thank you so much.
33:24Thank you to you.
33:25It's really clever.
33:26And it also just tells us how clever the Romans were.
33:30That when the Romans are trying to find north, they haven't got magnetic compasses.
33:34Yes, sure.
33:35They're using the stars.
33:36Of course, they use the stars.
33:37The stars as the perfect guidance.
33:42Thank you to you.
33:44Maria Theresa and Sandro's conclusion is that Turin was founded on the 30th of January in the year 9 BCE.
33:54They put their mathematical model to the test on the city of Aosta.
33:59That has a foundation date written in stone.
34:03And their method proved to be correct.
34:07They plan to take their expertise to other Roman cities with unknown foundation dates.
34:16Now, I'm off to find out where they blew the bloody doors off.
34:21I've been exploring Turin looking for evidence of the Romans here.
34:27And I've seen some fantastic, upstanding Roman archaeology.
34:32This isn't Roman.
34:33It's 19th century, this church of Gran Madre de Dio.
34:37But it's nonetheless incredibly historical because these were the very steps that the minis drove down in the Italian job.
35:06It's 7am and my next train journey is the first on this adventure that will take me across an international
35:13border.
35:14And a spectacular physical border.
35:17And a spectacular physical border.
35:44It was a century and a half ago in 1868.
35:47But it was modernised in 2006 to take in extra regional services as the railways here expanded.
35:55It's an early start this morning, so I need this.
35:58I'm going to be leaving Italy, travelling into France, catching the train to Paris.
36:03I'm not going as far as Paris.
36:05I'm getting off at Lyon and then changing trains.
36:07And then by about lunchtime I should arrive into Nîmes.
36:18This is my first time ever doing this journey and it's one I've been looking forward to for weeks.
36:25After all, what a way to see the mighty Alpine mountain range.
36:53So we're generally just travelling up river valleys through the Alps.
36:59I can see some snowy peaks up there.
37:04But occasionally, of course, we do have to go through mountains as well.
37:08So I've just been through one tunnel.
37:10I think there's going to be another one because there are some very, very high mountains ahead of us here.
37:16And these are going to be time-honoured routes through the mountains, of course, because people will have always been
37:22utilising the valleys and then trying to find the lowest paths, the lowest easiest paths to get from one side
37:33to the other.
37:39And the architecture is changing as well.
37:42It's very different from Parma and Turin.
37:52This part of northern Italy is known for its world-class wines and intense truffles.
38:00The white Alba truffle was prized by the Romans, who considered it a delicacy with aphrodisiac qualities.
38:11About two hours into the journey and I'm around halfway through the Alps.
38:16This small Alpine village is quite a significant station.
38:21They've just stopped en route at the border town of Modan.
38:25I'm now in France.
38:26And this railway line was built in the 19th century, right on the border between France and Italy.
38:35And that fort was also built.
38:40The fort at Modan sits at 1,210 metres above sea level, and it was built 140 years ago to
38:48defend the entrance to the railway tunnel.
38:51Around 2,000 years before that, one of the greatest human feats took place somewhere in these mountains.
39:01From the third into the second century BCE, there were two superpowers fighting it out for supremacy in the western
39:10Mediterranean.
39:11You had the Roman Republic to the north and the Carthaginian Empire in North Africa to the south.
39:19And eventually, of course, the Roman Republic would win.
39:23But in the Second Punic War, the Carthaginian general Hannibal invaded Italy, coming through the Alps, bringing all his forces
39:35and just fighting elephants with him.
39:38And historians have tried to work out the route that he took through the Alps, and we just don't know.
39:45We don't have enough evidence from the literature of the time, and the geography means that there are too many
39:53possibilities to know.
39:55French historians have come up with this incredible term, Hannibalism, for trying to answer an impossible question.
40:11I've now travelled 100 miles from the Italian border, and I'm arriving into the French city of Lyon.
40:22Where I'm changing platforms to find the connecting train to Nîmes.
40:28Now, Lyon was an incredibly important Roman city. It was important before the Romans were here.
40:34Back in the Iron Age, it was a regional capital for the Gauls, and it was called Lugdunum.
40:41That becomes Luon, and then eventually Lyon. So we're basically using the same name 2,000 years later.
40:47And under the Romans, it was a big city. A couple of emperors were born here, Claudius and Caracola.
40:55And it was a hub for Roman roads in Gaul. It's got an absolutely beautiful Roman theatre.
41:00But I can't stop, because I'm on my way to Nîmes.
41:29Nîmes is 600 miles from Rome.
41:33And is known as the Rome of France.
41:47Once again, a key military base for Julius Caesar in his conquest of Gaul in the 1st century BCE.
41:54The Emperor Augustus would invest in it, turning it into a beautiful, thriving Roman city.
42:04It lay on the Via Domitia, a vital route for Roman troops and trade, travelling between Italy and Spain.
42:19Today, it has the best preserved amphitheatre in France.
42:24The French have named it Les Arrennes, and it's still in use for a range of musical and sporting events.
42:30And this, the Maison Carré, is the best preserved Roman temple anywhere in the world.
42:38Not quite as well preserved as the Temple of Diana, which will be my first stop.
42:46And I'm pleased to see that it's still in use.
43:11It's not what you expect to find going on in a Roman temple.
43:21What an amazing backdrop for a music video!
43:32Do you speak English?
43:35A little.
43:36A little.
43:36Are you a band?
43:38Yes.
43:38Yeah?
43:39We're a dance crew.
43:41Are you...so you're filming a music video?
43:44Yes.
43:44Where can I see it?
43:45On YouTube.
43:46On YouTube?
43:47Yes.
43:47It's amazing.
43:48Why did you choose here to film?
43:52I think that out of Nîmes, that's the best place to film that music video, because that
43:57fits the best vibe of the thing we want to give.
44:01Yeah, yeah.
44:02I don't know if you're honest.
44:03The best vibe in Nîmes.
44:05I'm sorry.
44:05Yeah.
44:05And this Roman temple.
44:07Yes.
44:07Yeah.
44:08Are you Nîmoise?
44:09Yes.
44:10Yeah?
44:10Born and bred in Nîmes?
44:12Not born here.
44:13Yeah.
44:14But I'm living here.
44:15I know.
44:15Yeah.
44:16And there's Romans everywhere in Nîmes.
44:19There's Roman pastors everywhere and you're bringing it alive.
44:21It's absolutely brilliant.
44:23Thank you very much.
44:25See you on YouTube.
44:30The Temple of Diana may in fact not originally have been built as a temple.
44:36It was probably a library.
44:41During medieval times, it was transformed into part of a monastery, ensuring its survival.
44:49Today, it sits proudly in the Jardin du Fontaine.
44:57These gardens are beautiful.
44:59They were engineered in the 18th century by Jacques-Philippe Maréchal working for Louis XV.
45:07And there'd been some excavation here, trying to get at the source of the spring water.
45:13Actually, in order to provide water to the city's textile industry, the dyeing industry.
45:20But then when they started to find more and more Roman remains, these assumed an importance
45:26in their own right.
45:27And Maréchal laid out these fantastic gardens, really putting all of this Roman archaeology on show.
45:36And it became famous.
45:38They're the first public gardens in Europe, apparently.
45:42And at their heart is this astonishing archaeology.
45:52Next time, I take a closer look at this most exquisitely preserved Roman temple.
45:59What a wonderful treasure to have in the city.
46:01It's fantastic.
46:03And experience one of the most awe-inspiring monuments of the empire.
46:07And we're out into the sunshine.
46:11And I follow the Romans into Spain.
46:15This is consummate artistry.
46:20This is consummate artistry.
46:50And the worship of the Japanese world.
46:50This is consummate artistry.
46:50This is something to be touched on by the ¿sabist ф-ort?
46:50This has been a consummate artistry.
46:50This has been a transfer of 12 years and more of a century of passion.
46:51It's been a很 fortunate.