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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
01:52there it is
02:32I'm travelling north on this train journey, firstly going across the Apennines with
02:37lots of tunnels and then now we've reached the northern Italian plain it's suddenly very very
02:42flat now the Romans really wanted to get hold of this land this was a large area of very fertile
02:51very agriculturally productive land they really wanted it so they build roads this is how they
02:59conquer Italy we've seen that with the Via Appia pushing to the south now they're going to build
03:04roads to the north so in the third century BCE they start by building this road the Via Flaminia
03:11north through the Apennines reaching a colony which will be a Riminum, Rimini and then this road
03:20which just tracks along the northern border of the Apennines is the Via Emilia and along this road
03:28they will be seeding colonies and these colonies have still got names which go back to the Romans so
03:36there's a colony called Bononia that becomes Bologna, Mutina, Modena, Regium, Regia Emilia,
03:44Parma, still Parma, Placentia becomes Piacenza and they're pushing pushing pushing further and further
03:53northwards like 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 Parma is an interesting name in
04:10itself it seems to have been an Etruscan name which was then adopted by the Romans which obviously
04:14suggests there was an Etruscan settlement there before the Roman colony and it's thought to mean or
04:21relate to around shields the kind of shields that the Etruscans had in this area or perhaps to the fact
04:28that Parma was a metaphorical shield against the Gauls to the north right where are we now this is
04:38Parma yes we've been through Reggio Emilia we're at Parma
04:5810 minutes from the station is Piazza Garibaldi
05:03below 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 of Roman
05:25civilization local archaeologist Marco Padini has arranged special access to guide me through
05:33Parma's hidden ancient past Marco hi nice to meet you yes nice to meet you on Jono so the square
05:45today
05:45respects the square in Roman today great part of it corresponds to the ancient forum yes yes to get
05:53some illness now you have to be very careful here this underground area has been closed off to the public
06:01for the last 20 years so I'll pass and be careful here okay so what is this place this was
06:15a hotel that was built in around 1928
06:191928 underground underground
06:23underground hotel yeah okay
06:25mosaic
06:26mosaic floor
06:29oh look at that
06:31when they
06:33built the hotel the underground hotel they found a mosaic and there was this beautiful centaur with a vase of
06:43cantars for the wine and since it was so beautiful
06:46uh they decided to cut it and put in the museum in 1928
06:52that's where this piece of mosaic was lifted from in 1928
06:55yeah
06:56when was Parma founded as as a Roman settlement
06:59it was founded in 183 BC
07:03uh only Piacenza which is the end point of the Via Emilia was uh founded earlier in 218 but then
07:13Hannibal came
07:14and yeah it was a great battle near Piacenza and so there was a very uh difficult moment for the
07:23Roman Empire because Hannibal stayed here for more than 10 years
07:26so when he was finally defeated
07:28he was finally defeated in at the end of the third century BC so 201
07:33yeah
07:35yeah
07:35if you want now we can go to uh the Roman Bridge another very very important excavation which was uh
07:42yeah
07:43done in 2010
07:44oh lovely yes i'd love to see that
07:46yeah
07:46yeah
07:50just five minutes walk from the old forum is the river Parma that divides the city and once proved a
07:57fearsome 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
08:12yeah this is uh it's still called the Via Emilia
08:15is it?
08:15yeah
08:16actually all the lines the train line follow the Via Emilia
08:22I thought I must have been tracking along with it because I'm passing through all the towns which were originally
08:28Roman colonies
08:29we came through Bologna
08:31yeah
08:31Reggio Emilia
08:32and if I was to carry on I'd end up in
08:34in Fidenza and then Piacenza
08:37yeah
08:37which is the end of the Via Emilia
08:38yeah
08:39in 2010 work began here to build a multi-storey car park
08:44and what they found may have been the single most significant section of the Via Emilia here
08:52where the road crosses the river
08:55oh
08:56exactly
08:57amazing
08:58yeah
08:59actually we see the medieval phase probably in the 12th century
09:05yeah
09:06yeah
09:06yeah
09:06moment
09:07and this has been excavated out right down to the the footings down there
09:11I mean could it be that those footings are Roman?
09:13exactly
09:14this bridge dates to the reign of Emperor Augustus in the 1st century CE
09:20the Romans perfected arch bridges built in stone and concrete crucial for moving goods and troops around the Empire
09:30the bridge was built at a place where travelers would have previously waded across the river
09:35over a ford
09:36near this ford
09:38near this ford there was probably some sacred area a cultural area
09:42right
09:43because in there many pits were found many metal elements
09:49okay
09:49like 3,000 coins were found and you can see all these pieces that these items that are exposed in
09:58the showcases
09:59where are the showcases?
10:00here
10:01here
10:01we're gonna see them here
10:02it seems that locals crossing the ford may have been hoping for divine protection
10:08oh wow
10:09oh this is lovely
10:10yeah
10:11you can still see the coins stuck in the
10:15yeah
10:15in the mortar
10:16yeah
10:17the main hypothesis that there was probably a sacred area
10:23yeah
10:23or a temple in some way or a shrine connected to this passing to this crossing point
10:31yeah
10:31and you see there are many metal elements it's a gift probably to the gods
10:39isn't that interesting I mean we see this right across Europe don't we?
10:42we see we see these kind of offerings in watery places
10:44yeah
10:45in the iron age
10:46yeah
10:47exactly
10:48the last coin found was around the third century
10:52and that they come from all the Mediterranean area
10:56really?
10:57yeah
10:57yeah
10:57there are some coins that come from the Ibiza Island in Spain
11:03yeah
11:04yeah
11:05that's a little lion's claw
11:08probably for
11:09probably for
11:09yeah
11:10a table
11:10yeah
11:11yeah
11:11I love this
11:13I love this museum in an unexpected place
11:16under the bridge
11:19oh and foury
11:20I didn't even see those down there
11:22yeah
11:26the cities and towns along the ancient Roman road network are rich in archeology
11:33every modern building project reveals more ancient history
11:38I've just over an hour before my next train journey
11:42and Francesca suggested I make a quick visit to Palmers Archeology Museum
11:47to see what else has been unearthed here
11:52Pilota Park is the city's historic centre
11:55home to a grand palace and several other museums
12:00in the courtyard here
12:02there seems to be a philosophical message written on the wall
12:05what does it say it's in English
12:07time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future
12:19I like that and it's very apt for my journey
12:22because I am here in the present
12:26learning about the past
12:28and you're watching this
12:30in my future
12:34the museum has a vast collection of artifacts dating from the Bronze Age
12:39right through to the 19th century
12:42a whole floor dedicated to the Roman era
12:46features an array of exhibits from Palmer's Forum
12:49I'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
13:10from 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
13:27what a fantastic image for a dining room floor
13:30a centaur balancing a jug of wine on his head
13:39this mosaic provides a glimpse of the wealth and sophistication of Roman society in Palmer
13:46but the museum here holds a further extraordinary artifact
13:52it's a rare written record
13:55found in the ancient town of Vallea
13:5840 miles southwest of Palmer
13:59and it offers a far more detailed picture of Roman life
14:06it is a massive inscription
14:09look at it, it's completely covered in letters
14:11on bronze
14:13in fact it's the biggest inscription
14:15from the Roman world
14:17there's some 40,000 letters
14:21engraved on this piece of bronze
14:23and what it is
14:25is a record of a loan
14:27a loan from the Emperor Trajan
14:30to the people of the town of Vallea
14:34and the surrounding region
14:36which was hard hit
14:39they were really struggling
14:40and so he gave them a loan
14:42and they are going to have to pay back interest
14:44but a small amount of interest
14:46and actually that interest is going to be used
14:49also to support the people in this region
14:51particularly orphans
14:53and what we've got here
14:55is just an incredible record
14:58of everything in this region
15:01all the towns and villages
15:04that were given pots of money
15:07in this big loan
15:08so it's almost like a census as well
15:11it contains a lot of information
15:15and this was discovered
15:17by a farmer
15:20who knew it was bronze
15:22folded it up
15:24and presumably was going to sell it
15:25to be melted down
15:28but the local priest got to have a look at it
15:30and of course he's a priest
15:31so he can speak Latin
15:33and he realises that this is a really, really, really
15:37important inscription
15:38and in fact this kicks off then
15:41the excavation of the lost town of Vallea
15:45which had been destroyed in a mudslide
15:48in the middle of the first millennium
15:51and there were many, many more treasures
15:53to be found
16:04what a beautiful bronze of a young woman
16:08and it's possible that we even know her name
16:11because we know that somebody called Barbia Basila
16:15gave money to the Forum in Vallea
16:18to build a new portico along the side
16:21and this could be her
16:24looking at her hairstyle with this hairband
16:28that gives us a rough date as well
16:31because this was the fashion in the first century BCE
16:35it's amazing to read the inscriptions
16:38to be able to read words from 2,000 years ago
16:41but I think it's even better
16:43to come face to face
16:45with a Roman
17:13I've left Palma and I'm now heading west towards Augusta Torinorum
17:19more commonly known today as Turin
17:22there I'm hoping to find out how the Roman population was kept satisfied
17:28as the satirical poet Juvenal said
17:31in a rather deprecating fashion
17:33that the Roman population could be kept happy with bread and circuses
17:38I've seen the circus at Capua
17:41and now I'm going to explore the meaning of bread in the Roman world
17:46as I head towards Turin
18:02Turin was an important military base for the Romans in the time of Julius Caesar
18:07when he had his sights set on the conquest of Gaul
18:10the town sits on the mighty Po River
18:13just 10 miles from the Alps
18:16with Gaul on the other side of the mountains
18:19during the reign of the first emperor Augustus
18:22Turin was re-founded as a Roman colony
18:26and yet apart from the classic grid layout of its streets
18:31Rome's barely visible here
18:34that's because much later in the 16th century
18:37the ruling Duke Emanuele Philibert
18:40rebuilt Turin in the Baroque style
18:48Buongiorno
18:51Buongiorno
18:52Oh
18:55so many sweets and chocolates
18:58and all so beautifully packaged
19:00the Duke was also like a real-life Willy Wonka
19:04introducing his subjects to the cocoa bean from the Americas
19:08and I've got five minutes before the museum opens
19:11Nocciolotto al latte
19:14so nuts and milk
19:18cute little hearts
19:20more nuts
19:21that might be nougal I think
19:24some kind of fondant
19:27pistachio
19:28that
19:29that
19:30what's that one?
19:33that's got nuts in it
19:35what's that one?
19:37they're all so beautiful
19:38they're like little jewels
19:41that's a very nice little bag of
19:43chocolates
19:47that's 21 euros and 70 cents
19:49lovely thank you
19:52thank you
19:53thank you
19:56grazie mille
19:58arrivederci
20:07travel gifts sorted
20:09are now heading to the museum
20:10which is housed here
20:12in the Palazzo Madama
20:15currently 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 artifacts
20:44this is a really fascinating museum and not just because of what it contains but because of what it is
20:49because this buildings actually the original Roman Decumanus gate into Turin or I should say Augusta Turinorum as it was
20:59originally founded
21:00and 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 and then the building evolves so much over the centuries but all the way
21:15through those towers are part of it until today you've just got the tops of them poking out of the
21:22roof and then over here the excavations inside this courtyard area have been laid bare and then the
21:30preserved under a glass floor so 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 and here we've got the original wall of the Roman tower of Augusta Turin
22:06Torinorum isn't that incredible so this is part of that gateway the gatehouse
22:11into the old Roman city and I just can't believe it's still standing and it's
22:16still part of this building over the centuries the building was extended and
22:25took on many forms after the fall of the Western Roman Empire it was still a
22:32defensive stronghold it was enlarged into a castle before becoming a palace the
22:42current building has got four towers the original Roman one only had two and now
22:47I'm looking across at one of those two Roman towers of the original gate and
22:53it's just pushing up through the roof this is a great building and it has
22:59really just accumulated over time there's been so many different phases from the
23:04Roman through the medieval right through to the 19th and 20th centuries when it
23:09became the Civic Museum but sometimes it's great just to pause and look for
23:14archaeological clues and try to work out how old something is sometimes it's just
23:20about feel and I think if I feel these bricks I can work out that actually they
23:27were laid in 1884 it requires a loss of experience and expertise to do something
23:32like 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
24:07so 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 I think it was incredibly important if we look at
24:20archaeological evidence such as bakery counts for example in Rome we have
24:25upward of 250 Roman bakeries were in place according to the regional catalogues in
24:32Pompeii we have 35 and there's still a quarter of that site that remains
24:35unexcavated so this shows us clearly that bread was the backbone of the Roman diet
24:40hmm but 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 bread is very symbolic in the Roman world it plays a
24:52substantial role in the religious sphere as well yeah I mean it's 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 it's like Roman Starbucks yeah they're on every corner or
25:07you just turn a corner and there is again yeah and were people making bread at home or were they
25:13or was everybody going out and buying it from these bakeries on the street they were making bread at home
25:18but they were also buying bread in these commercial bakeries and this is because approximately 50% of
25:24households wouldn't have cooking facilities okay so they would eat out at the tabernet or they would buy
25:31their bread at bakeries isn't that interesting because I think you know today when we see a bit of a
25:36shift
25:36towards less home cooking and more going out to eat or getting other people to cook your food for
25:42you we think this is something that hasn't happened before but actually the Romans were doing it in
25:46their cities yeah it's like living in a studio in Manhattan yeah you go out and you go out for
25:50dinner
25:51and you come back home and you go to bed to see Turin's Roman agricultural past you don't have to
25:56line
25:57up at a museum you don't have to pay to get into an archaeological site all you have to do
26:01is hit a
26:01bakery because the bread forms that are on these shelves haven't changed in millennia in hundreds
26:07of years yeah so I brought one for you to try well for us to try together I mean this
26:14is extraordinary
26:14because you I mean you think with globalization that bread's going to become standard everywhere
26:19but it's not no that's the beauty of Italy is regional breads have stayed relatively unchanged
26:25yeah over 100 years it's gotten you know since the war and since the the railway was put in things
26:33have changed a little bit because people move back and forth yeah but Italy is a bastion of bread
26:39culture that has been unchanged for for centuries and millennia so this particular loaf here this is
26:46called paninero or black bread yeah yeah it's very dark it is um mixed with rye and wheat can we
26:55taste
26:55it yeah of course we can so we are we're going to go we're going to do this old school
26:59we're not going
26:59to use a knife we are going to break bread yeah so go ahead and break it and then we
27:04are going to have
27:04it with a little bit of olive oil you could also have this with a robust red wine like aliannico
27:11they're going to break off a chunk as well bread is my carbohydrate of choice hmm um you know along
27:18with porridge it's been what we have been eating uh since the dawn of agriculture this is delicious
27:25bread isn't it great it's lovely this has been absolutely fascinating the fact that you can go
27:29to a bakery down the road here in turin and buy bread which is basically the same as the bread
27:38that
27:38romans would have been eating i think i think that's really interesting yeah where are you going
27:42next on your travels i'm headed to rome next to do some research into the eucharist so now i'm going
27:50to start looking at the representation of these forms in early christian context the feeding of the 5000
27:58for example and how they're being used to portray something sacred much in the same way as they did
28:05in a pagan atmosphere but this time they're you know christian in nature that is fascinating because
28:11of course christianity is nothing if not a roman religion yes yeah exactly what an enthralling first
28:19day in turin discovering more about its history and ancient cuisine tomorrow i'm going to find out
28:26about the newest method of dating roman cities and i'm hoping to find a famous movie landmark
28:44the ancient romans like the greeks before them were star gazers
28:49they named the stars and planets after their deities
28:56and their understanding of astronomy helped them in navigation farming predicting the seasons
29:03and marking time their 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 two millennia
29:20on this ancient knowledge of the heavens helped to solve one of archaeology's great riddles right here in
29:28turin there's no record of the actual date of the foundation of turin but astrophysicist
29:37maria theresa crosta and archaeologist sandro caranzano wondered if the answer lay in the stars
29:45this is absolutely beautiful this this roman gateway should we walk down to it yeah sure and we're are
29:52we walking on one of the principal roman roads of the city here yes the archaeologists can tell
29:57better than me about this road originally it was the card which was the main uh city road running south
30:06north okay so they rebuilt the department because you know it's not exactly the original one but it
30:12was very similar yeah it's stones and no this is the north gate of the city and the whole city
30:18is laid
30:18out on on a grid like most roman cities yes roman love very much geometry love very much yeah yeah
30:26the
30:27romans used the sun and stars to align their street grids north south and east west but the exact
30:34positions of sunrise and sunset on the horizon have changed over time combining sandra's archaeological
30:41research and her knowledge of astronomy maria theresa believed she could precisely calculate turin's
30:48foundation so what did you do how did you how did you try to establish the date of the foundation
30:55of turin
30:56okay so it just by combining uh archaeological findings uh with astronomical data yeah and the anisian text
31:07written by surveyors yeah they were in charge to dividing the land to take measurements in order to
31:15construct the ideal town which has to integrate with the cosmos yeah this this was fundamental because
31:24astronomy astronomy astronomy was essential in those days in the past to measure the time so when we
31:32look at roman towns do they do they all have this attention to detail when it comes to making sure
31:37that
31:37they are facing cardinal points that they have a north south road that they have an east west road or
31:42does it
31:43vary yes this was fundamental for them the main uh axis of the town should align with perfectly with east
31:53toward west that perfect alignment worked for them at a particular time but if the grid were to be laid
32:01out in the same way today using astronomical markers the alignment would be slightly different
32:08with archaeology providing a rough time frame maria theresa's challenge was to work out when the
32:15astronomical conditions would have perfectly matched up with the roman grid
32:22and that should yield a date for the origin of the city
32:29this is fascinating because it's um i think that it's an approach to archaeology where
32:34it reminds me of the difference between relative dating and absolute dating where you might say i'm
32:40dating this on the basis of a style of pottery and i think it's this particular date then you have
32:44something like radiocarbon dating and you can absolutely pin the date down and what you're doing
32:49where you're trying to reconstruct the solar year in the past um seems similar to me because the sun is
32:57um is was is there yeah i'm keeping so what what was the date you finally arrived at the 30th
33:06of january
33:06no 30th of january 30th of january yes in which year nine uh before christ that's absolutely wonderful
33:13yes and what a fantastic example of um interdisciplinary research exactly yeah you know a physicist and an
33:19archaeologist who'd have thought yeah yes yes exactly yeah thank you so much thank you to you really
33:25and it's really clever and it also it also just tells us how clever the romans were that when the
33:30romans are trying to find north they haven't got magnetic compasses yes they're using the stars of
33:36course they use the stars the star says the guy the perfect guidance yeah thank you thank you to you
33:44maria theresa and sandra's conclusion is that turin was founded on the 30th of january in the year 9 bce
33:55they put their mathematical model to the test on the city of aeosta that has a foundation date written
34:01in stone and their method proved to be correct they plan to take their expertise to other roman cities
34:11with 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 and i've seen some fantastic
34:29upstanding roman archaeology this isn't roman it'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
34:44in the italian job
35:06it's 7am and my next train journey is the first on this adventure that will take me across an
35:12international border and a spectacular physical border
35:32great
35:38believe it or not turin's porter susa station opened a century and a half ago in 1868
35:47but it was modernized 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 so i'm going to be leaving italy traveling into france
36:01catching the train to paris i'm not going as far as paris i'm getting off at leon and then changing
36:07trains and then by about lunch time i should arrive into nines
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
36:35so
36:53we're generally just traveling up river valleys through the alps
37:00i can see some snowy peaks up there but occasionally of course we do have to go
37:07through mountains as well so just being 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-honored routes through the mountains of course because people
37:21will have always been utilizing the valleys and then trying to find the lowest
37:29paths the lowest easiest paths to get from one side to the other
37:39and the architecture is changing as well it's very different from palma 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 on route at the uh the border turn of modern i'm now in france
38:26and this railway line was built in the 19th century right on the border between france and italy and
38:36that fort was also built the fort at modan sits at 1210 meters above sea level and it was built
38:46140
38:47years ago to defend the entrance to the railway tunnel around 2 000 years before that one of the greatest
38:55human 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
39:09in the western mediterranean you had the roman republic to the north and the carthaginian empire
39:17in north africa to the south and eventually of course the roman republic would win
39:24but in the second punic war the carthaginian general hannibal invaded italy coming through the alps
39:33bringing all his forces and just fighting elephants with him and historians have tried to work out the
39:41route that he took through the alps and we just don't know we don't have enough evidence from the
39:48literature of the time and the geography means that there are too many possibilities to know french
39:55historians have come up with this incredible term cannibalism for trying to answer an impossible question
40:11i've now traveled a hundred 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 neem now leon was an incredibly
40:30important roman city it was important before the romans were here back in the iron age it was a regional
40:37capital for the gauls and it was called lugdunum that becomes luon and then eventually leon so we're basically
40:45using the same name two thousand years later and under the romans it was a big city a couple of
40:52emperors
40:52were born here claudius and caracula and it was a hub for roman roads in gaul it's got an absolutely
40:59beautiful roman theater but i can't stop because i'm on my way to neem
41:29name is 600 miles from rome and is known as the rome of france
41:47once again a key military base for julius caesar in his conquest of gaul in the first century bce
41:55the 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 traveling between italy and spain
42:19today it has the best preserved amphitheater in france the french have named it les arennes and it's
42:27still in use for a range of musical and sporting events and this the maison carré is the best preserved
42:35roman temple anywhere in the world not quite as well preserved as the temple of diana
42:43which will be my first stop and 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
43:34do you speak english a little a little are you a band yes yeah well we're a dance crew
43:41are you so you're filming a music video yes where where can i see it where will you put it
43:46on youtube
43:47yes it's amazing why did you choose here to film uh i think that out of neem that's the best
43:53place to
43:55film that music video because that that fit the best vibe of the the the thing we want to give
44:01yeah
44:02yeah yeah i don't know if you want to be honest yeah and this roman temple yes yeah yeah are
44:08you nemoise
44:09yes yeah yeah born and bred in neem uh not born here yeah but i'm living here they're living here
44:15now
44:15yeah and there's romans everywhere in name there's that roman pastors everywhere and you're bringing it
44:21alive it's absolutely brilliant thank you very much thank you see you on youtube
44:30the temple of diana may in fact not originally have been built as a temple it was probably a library
44:41during medieval times it was transformed into part of a monastery ensuring its survival
44:49beautiful today it sits proudly in the jardin du fontaine these gardens are beautiful they were
45:00engineered in the 18th century by jacques philippe maréchal working for louis the 15th and there'd been
45:08some excavation here trying to get at the source of the spring water actually in order to provide water to
45:16the city's textile industry the dying industry but then when they started to find more and more roman
45:23remains these assumed an importance in their own right and marachal laid out these fantastic gardens
45:31really putting all of this roman archaeology on show and it became famous they're the first public gardens
45:40in europe apparently and 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 yeah it's fantastic and experience one of the most
46:05awe-inspiring monuments of the empire and we're out into the sunshine and i follow the romans into spain
46:15this is consummate artistry
46:18so
46:24so
46:31so
46:49Transcription by CastingWords
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