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Roman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts S01E06 New Carthage H 264
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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 1,300
00:23miles through Italy, France and Spain to discover its origins and the secrets of its success. I'll be
00:33exploring some well-known Roman sites. This is where you can hear Pompeii. And some unfamiliar ones.
00:40There is nobody here. From the massive, it's curved, to the miniature. It's like a fourth century Barbie
00:48doll. I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast territory. Experts from around
00:56the world will help me bring to life Roman culture. The sands of Capua become the jungles of India.
01:02And provide insights into why this empire was so successful. Who said the time machine does not
01:09exist? We got it. In this final leg of my journey, I'll be exploring how the Romans secured new
01:17Mediterranean conquests. So this is 30,000 troops arriving? According to Polybius, yes. How they
01:25amassed incredible wealth. We've got massive, monumental ingots. And how their legacy lives on. Which part of us
01:34is, it's not, at least, a little bit Roman.
01:46On my travels through Roman settlements around the western Mediterranean, I'm currently at Figueroa's
01:53Vilefant on the border of France and Spain. But it's time to hit the road or rails again.
02:08My previous trip to Emporios gave me an insight into Rome's initial incursions into Spain.
02:17I'm eager to learn more about how the Iberian Peninsula became part of the Roman Empire.
02:26On this journey, I'll be travelling to Tarragona via Barcelona, a distance of 118 miles.
02:36Once again, train travel allows me to just kick back and enjoy the unfolding countryside.
02:45And the child in me is full of anticipation. Not just of the destination, but about how quickly
02:52we'll get there. Here we go. We're just getting faster and faster and faster. 120, 128 kilometers
03:00an hour. 136 kilometers an hour. 136 kilometers an hour. How fast will it go?
03:13There we go. We've reached cruising speed, I think. Speeding through the Spanish countryside.
03:26Unfortunately, I can't get too comfortable on this intercity train.
03:33But it's a quick change of Barcelona. And I'm soon aboard a suburban train to Tarragona.
03:42Tarragona is hugely significant. It was the first Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula and
03:51will become the capital of the largest Roman province in Spain. The Romans are in evidence
03:57as we near Tarragona. This is the magnificent Ferreri's Aqueduct or Devil's Bridge. But an
04:05impressive collection of Roman monuments awaits me in the city itself, which in the year 2000,
04:12were together declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
04:18I think we must be nearing Tarragona now. And that there is surely a bit of Roman Tarragona.
04:28When the Romans arrived here in 218 BCE, it wasn't by train, but by
04:35time, it was the first time that the Romans arrived at the United States to halt the advance of Hannibal.
04:40Hannibal was a general from Carthage in North Africa, the centre of a huge trading empire in the
04:47western Mediterranean. In the 3rd century BCE, the tension between the Roman and Carthaginian
04:53superpowers came to a head as Hannibal amassed an army in Cartagena and marched north past the Pyrenees
05:00into Gaul and over the Alps towards Rome. In response, the Roman army sailed to Tarragona
05:06to cut his supply lines.
05:14With the help of Spanish historian Paco Tova, I want to understand how crucial Tarragona would
05:21become, not just in this war, but to the future of the Roman Empire.
05:29So when the Romans came here in this beach...
05:33In this beach?
05:34This beach and where the harbor is...
05:36So there would have been Roman ships?
05:38Yeah. Imagine the Normandy landings, the troops landing from the ships. So we're talking about
05:43the navy and the army coming down.
05:45Yeah.
05:45Okay. So then they came here and then they built a military camp at the very top of that
05:50hill. So this is 30,000 troops arriving?
05:54According to Polybius, yes. And from here, Romanisation will spread. But they knew that through
06:00the Ebro you could control Spain.
06:02You could penetrate the interior.
06:03Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's why I say that we are ground zero of civilisation, Roman
06:09civilisation, in Spain.
06:13Sending tens of thousands of troops to Tarragona worked well for the Romans. Hannibal ran out
06:19of supplies and he was eventually forced to retreat back to North Africa. And the Romans
06:26took over all the territory in Iberia that had been under the control of the Carthaginians.
06:32With the Romans here to stay, the settlement of Taraco would grow into a formidable fortified
06:40city.
06:41This looks old.
06:42Yeah. That's the Roman wall.
06:44Yeah.
06:44Over there.
06:45Okay. Down in the back to the third century BC.
06:48Right.
06:49Okay.
06:49So you're going right back to the first Romans here.
06:52Yes.
06:52Yes.
06:53Because, well, as it's the first settlement, you need to do the first things, which is a
06:57wall, to defend that settlement. And then the Tocono Tower and the wall is medieval, 14th
07:04century. Built out of Roman material, but they're medieval walls.
07:08We love, we the Catalans in Spain, we are really famous as the Scottish in Britain. So we got
07:13deep pockets and short arms. So, and then we love saving. And then obviously you can save
07:18a lot of money if you can just recycle. Recycling. We see it all the time.
07:22Yeah.
07:22The Roman remains.
07:23But the wall, it's obviously medieval.
07:26Behind the medieval wall lies a Roman ruin. A mural gives a clue to what it was once part
07:35of, a Roman circus. So imagine 56 front arches. Okay. So that will be the entrance of the circus.
07:44A very grand entrance to the circus for horse racing. Of course. Yeah. So it's really famous
07:50in Roman times. So it's a place that people love to come. Yeah. 30,000 spectators out of
07:5540,000 inhabitants. So we are best preserved than the Roman circus in Rome. And we can see
08:02more if we could up here. Yes, of course. Imagine. So that's half of it. So the other half is
08:06behind
08:06the houses. So this could just carry on. Yeah. More seeds there, more seeds there. So it's not
08:12just, this is just the end of it here. Yeah, that's the end. Till the corner. So from the
08:17town hall till this, from the trees, well, behind the trees, you will see more seeds. And
08:22there. So the red brick building down there, that's the town hall. Yeah. That's the other
08:25end of the circus. If we pull down all this, we could find the circus again. Yeah. Because
08:30obviously not all, but most of it is still there. But we can imagine it with this end, I
08:34think. And as well, this is the place in which the chariots were having the races.
08:43As we wander the streets of the old town, we find more evidence of the recycling of Roman
08:49buildings in the medieval period. Yeah. But instead of putting down or just finding an
08:54empty space, so what the medieval city is to recycle the building. So it's those houses
08:59are not built attached to or above. They are built literally in the Roman. Within. Yes.
09:06So you've got 20th century brick here. Yeah. And here we've got Roman. Yeah. First century,
09:12with the sandstone blocks. Roman blocks of stone. Yeah. So who said the time machine does not exist?
09:18We got it. So we can see 2,000 years, well, 1,900 years. Yeah. On the same spot. You
09:25can see even a
09:26small rose window. Yeah, yeah. Done in the 13th century. Because there was a convent here. Yeah. Not
09:31now, of course. And then filled in. Yes. Now this. Yes. Looks medieval, but it looks like it
09:37probably has Roman origins. Yes. So you can see a medieval tower inside of a Roman building. You
09:44can see the columns carved into the wall. Oh my goodness. Yes, I can. That would be
09:48the inside part of a portico. That portico was just really huge. For two centuries after
09:57they first arrived, the Romans fought the Carthaginians and local tribes across the Iberian
10:03peninsula. While on campaign here in 27 BCE, the Emperor Augustus fell ill and stayed in Tarrico for
10:14two years to recover. His misfortune was great for the city though, elevating the status of
10:23Tarrico even further. So we are now in the Roman Forum as the capital city of the province. So
10:33we deserve the right to have a larger space in order to rule the province. I've seen this
10:38classic Roman format again and again on my journey with the Forum as the beating heart of the city.
10:44Have we reached the end of the Forum? Well, the end of this corner of the Forum because
10:48the Forum continued that way. This is a huge Forum.
10:55This is 60,000 square metres. And I say east, not walls, because the square is still there,
11:01occupied by houses. Yeah, there are houses in it but it's still there. So this is the largest square,
11:05the largest forum in the Roman Empire ever built. Yeah. The strength of Roman power can be seen.
11:12We know even that Augustus received Indian ambassadors here. Really? Okay. Because he was living here.
11:19Yeah. So obviously the capital was Rome. Did he like it? Do we know what he thought about it?
11:23Well, probably he liked it because we'll turn right. Probably he liked it mainly because for almost 400
11:29years we were the capital city of the largest province in the Roman world.
11:35The province was named Hispania Taraconensis, after Taraco, and covered most of the Iberian Peninsula,
11:43stretching from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. But the value of this province lay not just in its strategic location,
11:50but its natural resources, gold, tin and silver. And then the cathedral. And when does this date to?
12:00The cathedral was started in 1171, 12th century. Yeah. So it's more or less in the same period of time
12:06in which you did Westminster. So it's equivalent to Norman architecture? Yeah.
12:11Late Norman, early Gothic. And then the Roman temple dedicated to the Emperor, to Augustus, stood right there.
12:17Is there anything of it, or is it being completely... Yes.
12:20..leveled? We found the basement under the cathedral that can't be seen
12:23because they did the archaeological excavation, it was opened and was covered.
12:28There's one last vestige of Roman life I want to see,
12:31and it's the monument I spotted alongside the railway line as my train pulled into the station.
12:37The amphitheatre. That is beautiful. Yeah.
12:40So that's the last monumental building Romans did here.
12:43And when does it date to? Around 2nd century AD.
12:46But the amazing thing is that the only amphitheatre, half of it was carved into the rock.
12:51Yeah, yeah. Recycling the hill. That's really unusual.
12:54I've seen quite a few amphitheatres on my travels,
12:57and they've always been built up from the ground up. Yeah.
13:01Not built into a cliff. Yeah.
13:03This is much more familiar to me from the semi-secular theatres.
13:06Exactly, exactly. Yeah.
13:07This amphitheatre obviously is not the largest one, so if we compare that with the Colosseum in Rome,
13:13it's like really, really small. Yeah, tiny in comparison.
13:15But between 12,000 and 14,000 spectators. Okay.
13:18Out of 40,000 inhabitants. So proportionally, this is large enough to be amazing.
13:25That's cross-shaped building, obviously in ruins. In the middle.
13:27We got in the middle. Yeah. Can you see that?
13:29The church. We got in the middle of the amphitheatre.
13:32There's a church. Yeah, that's a church.
13:34That makes this amphitheatre exceptional.
13:36It's the only one in the whole Roman Empire with the remains of no one, not one, but two churches.
13:41Why we got two churches is obviously were built much later when the Roman Empire collapsed
13:47and Christianity was the only religion. Yeah.
13:50And that's why we got the church, Our Lady of the Miracle.
13:52And when was that church created?
13:54The first that can be seen, so the basement of the first, was only in the 6th century,
13:59so 100 years after the empire collapsed, the Western Empire.
14:02And the church we can see now, we don't know exactly the date, but we know that in 1154,
14:07the church was done. Yeah.
14:08It's a 12th century, Norman style.
14:12I've learned how Tarragona played a key role as the Romans expanded their empire
14:18to take in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.
14:21What started as a military manoeuvre to pull the rug from under the feet of Hannibal
14:26culminated with the development of this city into a flourishing regional capital.
14:32From the glory days of the Western Roman Empire through to its demise,
14:37Tarragona remained a focus of wealth and power.
14:41And the elites of the city were keen to display their prosperity and status.
14:47It's a tow. Yeah. Yeah.
14:48Yeah, and it's not even the big one.
14:50So imagine if the tow was like this, the food would be something like this.
14:55It's enormous.
15:03I'm in Tarragona on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, the first Roman settlement on the Iberian Peninsula.
15:12Paco's street tour showed me just how much of that Roman past is still visible in the city today.
15:19After the Emperor Augustus made Tarragona his home, the city became even more prestigious.
15:25And there were fortunes to be made here in trade and gold mining.
15:31The Roman rich didn't shrink from displaying their status.
15:38I've come to the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona, close to the harbour, where wealth is still very much on
15:46show.
15:48I'm meeting curator, Georgia Acosta.
15:52Georgia.
15:52Hi.
15:54Buenas dias.
15:55Nice to meet you.
15:56Nice to meet you too.
15:57How are you?
15:58Very good.
15:59Are you enjoying the city?
16:00It's an absolutely beautiful city and I love the fact that so much of its Roman past is there to
16:05see as you walk around it.
16:07But we've got some of the artefacts here, haven't we, in the museum.
16:10Let me show you around, okay?
16:12Yeah, yeah.
16:12Because for example, you know here in Tarragona we have not only the city.
16:16There was powerful people living around in, for example, ten minutes driving.
16:20The Roman villa called the Villa of Sencellas, which has some of the most amazing early Christian mosaics in the
16:27world.
16:28Oh, really?
16:28And this villa is a mystery.
16:30Maybe the mansion of a great military leader.
16:33Most of the materials, most of the decorations come from Italy, from the imperial factories in Rome.
16:41Yeah.
16:41But later here the city begins to be more and more apart from Rome.
16:46And so they start to build things for themselves.
16:49And this is a beautiful example.
16:50Using local materials.
16:51Yeah.
16:51Yeah.
16:53It's a great example of wealth and power that the cities had.
16:58And really interesting to kind of be able to trace that transition out of the Roman Empire as well.
17:02Yeah.
17:02Yeah.
17:04From that we have some lovely mosaics from the villa who was the governor of Tarragona.
17:10Oh, these look a bit like the ones I saw in Puriers.
17:13The colours in them are gorgeous, aren't they?
17:16Yeah.
17:17Those were made by specialised artists.
17:20Of course.
17:20I mean, normally they would make the first mosaic, the big one, and then right in the middle they would
17:26insert these small pieces that were more difficult to make.
17:29Follow me, I have something else to show you.
17:31Oh!
17:33Wow!
17:35This is probably one of the most iconic, most beloved archaeological pieces we have here in Tarragona.
17:42It's this ivory doll.
17:44Yeah.
17:44I always say it's like a fourth century Barbie doll.
17:48Because...
17:49Where is it found?
17:50The Paleo-Christian necropolis of Tarragona.
17:53Yeah.
17:53One of the biggest Roman burial sites.
17:56It was found in the tomb of a child, a little girl.
18:00She was like four years old and she was buried with her favourite doll.
18:04We have to assume that she was from a rich family.
18:08It's been demonstrated that it had little dresses made with golden thread.
18:13Oh, really?
18:14Yes.
18:15And the hair.
18:16The hairstyle.
18:17Yeah.
18:17It is the kind of hairstyle an aristocrat or a princess would have.
18:23Yeah.
18:23Seeing something like that, you're just taken back to that moment of a family losing a child.
18:28And I think things like this really kind of transport you back and you see that human connection.
18:34That's such a beautiful object, isn't it?
18:36Yeah.
18:36And even the fingers are carved.
18:38It's beautiful.
18:39When we think about the Romans, you have to remember how much childhood mortality there was.
18:45You know, with half the children not reaching adulthood.
18:49Here we have the lampadarius to put the lamps.
18:52We don't have that many bronze statues around because, you know...
18:56It's expensive.
18:57It gets melted down, doesn't it?
18:59Amazing new things.
19:00To make coins, to make anything but here.
19:02Yeah.
19:02It's so delicate, so beautiful.
19:05And he's African.
19:06Yeah.
19:07The big thing, probably a young slave.
19:12It's estimated that between 10 and 25% of the Roman Empire's population were enslaved.
19:20Men, women and children could be bought, sold and mistreated in sometimes harrowing conditions.
19:28Ultimately, the wealth of the Roman Empire depended on slavery, with slaves working on farms, in mines and in households.
19:38I think maybe it was made after a real child was a slave in a house.
19:44Yeah.
19:45We don't know.
19:45We have so many mysteries.
19:47Yeah, yeah.
19:48I mean, it reminds us that people are moving around the empire for all sorts of reasons.
19:52There are merchants moving around, there's the army moving around, and then there's an enormous amount of movement in terms
19:58of slaves being moved from different parts of the empire as well.
20:02Yeah.
20:05Oh, these heads are great.
20:08It comes from the forum, next to the theatre.
20:10OK.
20:11So this is from an urn.
20:13A huge urn.
20:14Yeah, a huge one.
20:15Just simply for decoration.
20:17That's lovely marble, isn't it?
20:19So this is just a fragment of something that was enormous.
20:23I mean, that curve there.
20:24Yeah.
20:24Can you imagine how big this whole urn was?
20:27Yeah.
20:28Enormous.
20:28And just for decoration.
20:30Yeah.
20:30I mean, I suppose it fits in that enormous forum.
20:33Yeah.
20:33Yeah.
20:34The way to demonstrate the power of the empire was with these, like, kind of things.
20:39So we have to imagine a visitor coming to Tarraco, I mean, from the provinces, right, entering the city and
20:46realising that they were visiting a city that had the imperial favour.
20:50Yeah, it's built to impress, isn't it?
20:52Yeah.
20:53Yeah.
20:54OK.
20:54This, for me, it's great because it tells us a little bit about Roman religiosity.
21:00This is a representation of Jupiter, Amon.
21:04So a mix between Jupiter and Egyptian gods.
21:08Yeah.
21:08It was part of the decoration of the provincial forum.
21:11Was it?
21:12In Tarraco.
21:13Yeah.
21:13The Romans loved, loved Egyptian religion.
21:17And here we have another example in this centre of the government in Tarraco.
21:23It speaks to these kind of connections right across the empire, doesn't it?
21:28Yeah.
21:28We were talking about the temple.
21:30Well, we have that gigantic...
21:32Toe.
21:32It's a toe.
21:33Yeah.
21:33Yeah.
21:33Yeah, and it's not even the big one.
21:35It's one of the other toes.
21:37So imagine if the toe was like this.
21:39The foot would be something like this.
21:42It's enormous.
21:43It's the statue that was in the temple.
21:44And imagine how big that statue was.
21:47Yeah.
21:47And we think this was a statue of Augustus.
21:49Yeah.
21:50Yeah.
21:54The museum's collection demonstrates the city's affluence
21:58and the skill of the artists and craftspeople.
22:02With such a rich heritage, I'm dying to know how Georgia feels
22:06about living in such a place today.
22:09What do you call yourself, a Tarragonian?
22:12In Catalan, Tarragonina.
22:14Tarragonina?
22:15Yes.
22:16A woman from Tarragon.
22:17Yes.
22:17And do you think of yourself as a Roman as well?
22:20Ah, that's such a difficult question.
22:23I think that we cannot negate Roman Empire, our part of the world.
22:29It was so important that it shaped not only the Roman period,
22:35it shaped everything.
22:36You can see it in architecture, in the laws, in our calendars.
22:41In our religion, which part of us is not at least a little bit Roman,
22:48right?
22:48Yeah.
22:49But, I mean, they were pretty cool, the Romans.
22:53Not very nice people, but very cool.
22:56So, I don't actually mind.
22:59Right, that was amazing.
23:01Thank you so much.
23:02No, thank you.
23:04It seems that Rome is still crucial to modern identity,
23:08not only of Tarragona as a city, but its 21st century inhabitants.
23:14Before I leave, I'm going to the top of the Praetorium Tower at the edge of the Forum,
23:20for a last look at this city the Romans prized so highly.
23:25What a view!
23:28Ah, this is fantastic.
23:29I can look out over the sea.
23:32Italy is somewhere right over the other side.
23:35And then here are these Roman walls, which were added to during the medieval period.
23:41We've got the end of the circus as well.
23:43And then if we walked to this end, I would have been looking out on that massive,
23:49massive square of the Roman Forum.
23:53And what would have been the Temple of Augustus,
23:57right up in the highest part of this promontory,
24:01now occupied by the Cathedral of St Tecla.
24:07What a view!
24:08You can see for miles out over the plains as well.
24:12So this is an incredible strategic location
24:17for the Romans defeating the Carthaginians,
24:23but also then for their further expansion into Hispania.
24:31Before I head to the train station,
24:33that child in me sees an opportunity for some fun.
24:41Right, there's no time for larking about.
24:43I've got a train to catch.
24:49Tomorrow I'll be finding out how trade routes determined who ruled the Mediterranean.
24:55Hispania pay taxes to run through oil.
25:00We call the oil the green gold.
25:10I'm back at Tarragona Station to pick up a ticket to my next destination.
25:20The last ticket on my journey.
25:27And my last train!
25:32The railway network really has been the backbone of my trip.
25:37The rail services of Italy, France and Spain have been impeccable.
25:43The final leg of my journey will take me to Cartagena,
25:48nearly 300 miles away and once a very important Carthaginian port.
25:57Cartagena contains this memory of the Carthaginians in its name.
26:04It was founded as Cat Hadasht, the new Carthage.
26:08And that's essentially what we're still calling it today.
26:12It was such an important power base for the Carthaginians.
26:17And there were silver mines nearby.
26:19That silver was really important for them to be able to pay their armies.
26:23So this is taking me into the heart of the clash between the Carthaginians and the Romans.
26:30The Carthaginian Empire centered in North Africa had long been a thorn in the side of the Romans,
26:37with both powers vying for dominance in the western Mediterranean.
26:41The Romans needed to take Cartagena if they were to control the Iberian Peninsula.
26:54Arriving into the city, I can see why Hannibal's brother Hadribal chose to build a stronghold here in the 3rd
27:01century BCE.
27:03It's surrounded by hills, making it easy to defend.
27:10But the main attraction is its natural harbour with deep water.
27:17Carthaginian ships would have docked here to offload men and supplies for the battles with the Romans.
27:24But the port was also an important node in their vast network of trade routes criss-crossing the Mediterranean.
27:33This was a well-established trading empire started by the forerunners of the Carthaginians, the Phoenicians,
27:41who came from the area we know today as Lebanon.
27:50I've come to the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology to learn how trade across the Mediterranean was the lifeblood of
27:59these three ancient empires.
28:03Everything on display here was recovered from exploration and excavations carried out underwater.
28:17Rocio Castillo will be my guide.
28:20Tell me about this shipwreck. How old is it?
28:22This is the remains of a boat from Phoenician time between the 7th century and the beginning of the 6th
28:30century BCE.
28:32I mean, that is incredible that this timber has survived.
28:35Yes. Because it was covered with sand.
28:38That's amazing, isn't it? Is this the most ancient shipwreck in the museum?
28:42In the museum, yes.
28:44And one of the oldest in the Mediterranean.
28:46Yeah, that's incredible.
28:49This boat, the Mazaron One, was excavated in 1988 off the coast of Cartagena.
28:56How is it constructed?
28:57Without any metal nails.
29:00Only wooden fishing.
29:02Do we know what kind of wood that is?
29:04Olive.
29:05So strong.
29:06Yes, very strong to fish, all the wood.
29:08And what about the planks?
29:10The planks are pine.
29:12Thrown at the same time flexible to make the fur of the boat.
29:17Yeah.
29:17What cargo is in this boat?
29:20We don't know in this case because we found only these small remains.
29:24OK.
29:25And what about a boat of this size?
29:27Because it's a boat rather than a ship.
29:29I mean, do you think this is travelling large distances in the Mediterranean or do you think it's plying coastal
29:35trade?
29:35The bottom is very flat.
29:37Right.
29:38And for this reason, most people think that this boat was for local sailing.
29:44Yeah.
29:46When Rome was a mere settlement on the Italian peninsula centuries before it rose to dominance,
29:53the Phoenicians were a maritime superpower.
29:58Their trade networks reached from the eastern to the western Mediterranean
30:02and then into the Atlantic as far as Britain.
30:06And they were the traders who founded Carthage.
30:13This is a very, very important Phoenician cigarette because of his cargo.
30:19Is it African elephant ivory, do you hear?
30:21Yes.
30:22Here you can see only 13, but in the last excavation, 2007 and 2011, the people found another 54 elephantas.
30:33All from the same ship?
30:34Yes, yes, yes.
30:35Wow.
30:36How old are these tasks?
30:382,700 years.
30:41It's really ancient writing.
30:44Yes.
30:44What does it say?
30:46Most of them are in relation with the people who made the trade.
30:51So it's almost just like a commercial aphorism.
30:55So this one is your humble servant.
30:57Yes.
30:58Yeah.
30:58It's almost like a letter on an elephant task.
31:00Yes.
31:02And what have we got here?
31:03Is this from the same shipwreck?
31:05Yes.
31:05Looks like an altar.
31:07An altar.
31:07Yes.
31:09Here we have this kind of stone anchor.
31:12That's an anchor?
31:13Yes.
31:14We are very common.
31:15Yeah.
31:16So is this typical Carthaginian pottery here?
31:20This pottery is...
31:21Where's this pottery from?
31:21Greece pottery.
31:23Oh, okay.
31:23Right.
31:24The Phoenician people are right here.
31:27Yeah.
31:27Bring us the pottery.
31:29Yes, yeah.
31:30The coins.
31:32And trading in fluids as well?
31:34What would have been carried in these jars?
31:36It could be wine or fish.
31:39Something about a pottery style, how they knew it was definitely Phoenician pottery.
31:43So it's something to do with the style of the handles?
31:47The handle.
31:48Look at this handle.
31:49Yeah.
31:49Long handle.
31:50Yeah.
31:50And the other one are smaller, round.
31:54Oh, like ears.
31:55Yes.
31:55Yeah.
31:56So that's typically Phoenician.
31:58Yes, that definitely looks like little ears.
32:01In 209 BCE, the 27-year-old Roman general Scipio was spearheading the offensive against the Carthaginians in Iberia.
32:12And he attacked and captured the important port and stronghold of Cartagena.
32:17Within three years, the Carthaginians would be routed from the whole peninsula.
32:23So is this from a Roman cargo?
32:27It's just outside of the Cartagena harbour.
32:31And there we found a suret.
32:33It came from the south of Italy.
32:36This kind of pottery, tableware pottery.
32:40Yes, yeah.
32:41Do we know from the cargo whether it was leaving Cartagena or coming in?
32:45Coming in.
32:46Coming in.
32:47And nearly made it.
32:48Yeah.
32:48It was within sight of Cartagena.
32:51Yes.
32:51It's a tragedy from 2,200 years ago.
32:56But it just gives you this incredible time capsule and knowledge about the trade that was happening.
33:04Yes, the trade.
33:04Because we have the written documentation which gives us some ideas.
33:09But here you've got the actual physical objects.
33:13Yes.
33:13And then you can do all this scientific analysis.
33:16Yes.
33:16And find out exactly where everything's coming from.
33:19Yes.
33:19And understand this so much better.
33:21It's incredible.
33:22It is brilliant.
33:23So the Romans are really inheriting that trading network of the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians.
33:30They're the inheritors of that.
33:32Yes.
33:32They keep going to the same places.
33:34When you sail with the wine, it's always the same.
33:39Yes.
33:39It's the same route.
33:41The same routes.
33:42Yes.
33:43This is lovely.
33:44I think it's really nice to see that construction.
33:46And this is proper with the lead protection.
33:49Oh, really?
33:49Yes.
33:50Yeah.
33:51To avoid the...
33:53Gribbles.
33:54Yes.
33:55Yes.
33:56Very important.
33:57You don't want them boring into your boat.
33:59The area around Cartagena was rich in resources, with lead and silver mined here.
34:07And this kind of shows why the Romans were so interested in this area.
34:11We've got massive, big, monumental ingots.
34:15Different families, Italian families, came to this area to make the exploitation of the
34:20mines.
34:21Yeah, yeah.
34:21And each family has different names and different symbols.
34:26Yeah.
34:27In this case, the Aquini was the anchor and the dolphin.
34:31Oh, yeah.
34:31I can see that.
34:32Aquini.
34:32So that's the name of a Roman family that's involved in this mercantile trade.
34:37Yes.
34:38And then this is later Roman.
34:40Yes.
34:41So we're well into the empire here.
34:43We chained the pottery.
34:44At the beginning was the black style.
34:47Yeah.
34:47And now is the red one.
34:48So they've, so the black glazed pottery has gone out of fashion now.
34:53Yes, it's all fashion.
34:54In the empire.
34:54It's old fashioned.
34:55Everybody likes this red stuff.
34:57And the red one is the new fashion.
34:59So what was in there?
35:00For oil.
35:01For oil.
35:01For olive oil.
35:02Yeah.
35:02In this period, Hispania pay taxes to run through oil.
35:09They pay taxes through oil.
35:11We call the oil like the green gold.
35:15So this Roman cargo was headed out.
35:18Yes.
35:18Yeah.
35:19So there must have been people here who were becoming very rich through this trade,
35:24especially through the mining industry.
35:26From the mining.
35:26But then also, actually, a lot of this wealth is headed to the centre of the empire.
35:32Yeah.
35:32So the taxes are being collected, the wealth is being extracted,
35:36and it's all being funneled back to Rome.
35:39Yeah.
35:39Yes.
35:40Thank you so much for showing me round.
35:45Rossio has shown me how maritime trade was fundamental to the wealth and power of both the Carthaginians and the
35:52Romans.
35:54But only one of these civilisations would triumph in the end.
36:00In 146 BCE, another Scipio, the adoptive grandson of the one who took Cartagena, defeated the Carthaginians at Carthage in
36:10North Africa.
36:13Now the entire Carthaginian trading empire and the wealth it generated was Rome's.
36:25I've won more excursion on my itinerary, and I've definitely saved the best until last.
36:31Ah, Cartagena.
36:32Ah!
36:33Look at this!
36:33Yeah!
36:34Ah, I've seen a time.
36:47Ah!
36:49Ah, there's not to be a place there.
36:52See, I've seen a place!
37:00Oh!
37:01archaeological corridor to walk down. I'm in the Roman Theatre Museum, but this
37:09theatre's existence was actually unknown until about 35 years ago. Since then
37:16excavations have turned up a wealth of stunning and informative artefacts and
37:21they're all here on display.
37:26Those three cylindrical altars represent the Capitoline triad, the most
37:32important gods of Rome. You've got the owl for Minerva, the eagle for Jupiter and
37:38the peacock for Juno. There are just so many layers of history here. This is a
37:46floor from the second century BCE, before the theatre was even built, and they're
37:52much, much later, two millennia later, it becomes part of a 19th century chapel.
38:01And then here we've got medieval archaeology, these enormous blocks date to the
38:05Islamic period, and here's Elena. Elena Ruiz Valeros is here to meet me.
38:17And that large exhibit, Cartagena's spectacular Roman theatre itself.
38:32The 6,000 capacity theatre is situated on one of the highest parts of the city, but it was
38:41only found when archaeologists were exploring the ruins of the Cathedral of Santa Maria la Vieja,
38:47which had been built over it in the 13th century.
38:54Elena, you dug here, then, in the 1990s.
39:08And when was the theatre originally built?
39:24And when was the theatre originally built?
39:45After Scipio's capture of Cartagena, the city would be thoroughly Romanised.
39:53Called Cartagena by the Carthaginians, the Romans knew it as Carthago Nova, New Carthage.
40:00The Emperor Augustus invested heavily in the city. As well as a theatre, other civic buildings
40:06were built to match those in Tarragona.
40:09Did Tarragona remain the most important city in Iberia, or is Cartagena rising to that status?
40:18Yo personalmente pienso que en época romano-republica, incluido Augusto, esta ciudad tiene más valor
40:29para Roma, porque es la ciudad que conquistó Scipión.
40:33Scipio is so young, I mean, a brilliant general, but rising to power very, very quickly.
40:43Para Roma, conquistar Cartagenova era quitarle a los cartagineses las minas de plata, el puerto y todo.
40:54Una vez que Roma consigue conquistar Cartagenova, se abre todo un proceso de conquista de la penÃnsula Iberica.
41:03Lo dice Scipión en su discurso, su harén a los soldados. Necesitamos conquistar esta ciudad
41:09porque con esto le quitamos al enemigo todo. Y Scipión vuelve gloriosa a Roma, y por eso
41:17es Scipión el africano. Pero yo creo que tenÃa que haber sido el hispano.
41:23The story here in Cartagena really encapsulates this story of Roman expansionism and creating
41:33this vast empire which, in the end, takes in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula, also North
41:40Africa, and then all around the Eastern Mediterranean as well. Do you think it just got too big?
41:46Yes, yes.
41:47Yes, after such a conquest, it is what happened, that a veces is incovernable.
41:52So many provinces, such an empire. And they, in all ways, were quite permissive.
41:59I want to say, in this city, we have a beautiful epigraphic collection. We know the people
42:07who lived here, many. And many were libertarians, many were of oriental origin. There was a
42:15handful of indigenous indigenous, fenicians, and some Greeks who had been there. So there
42:21were some Greeks. So there are, for one side, that's how much is studied more, how is
42:27Rome integrated, and how the indigenous society integrated in this new society. And again,
42:33of course, that it was disembodered with corruption. The populations were more
42:40addicted. And those that lived there had been born there and now they had been born there.
42:48And then by the 5th century, it's starting to fall apart here in the West.
42:53How does the Roman period end here in Cartagena?
43:15We see another time how the city is connected commercially with the Mediterranean Sea from the north of Africa.
43:24And here again begins another decline with the conflict between Byzantines and Visigoths.
43:31It is not so organized.
43:34In the Roman period, the city is the eje vertebrate of the entire territory.
43:39And this is where you see a transition and a change.
43:48The legacy of the Carthaginians and Romans is still here.
43:53Cartagena is an important maritime city.
43:57The Mediterranean fleet of the Spanish Navy use it as their main base.
44:02It also handles a huge volume of freight and its regular destination for cruise ships.
44:11Before I leave, there's one more connection.
44:14A ride up the panoramic lift, which will take me to the city's highest point.
44:21I'm flying above Cartagena.
44:24I can see the port over there.
44:28Woo!
44:31That is high!
44:35The railway networks of Italy, France and Spain have carried me in a matter of weeks across a thousand years
44:43of Roman history.
44:45Finally coming to an end here in Spain, where the Roman Empire faced its biggest rival in the West.
44:55This is a suitably epic place to finish my epic journey.
45:02Following the expansion of Rome, building its territorial empire through fear and favour.
45:11It's an incredible story.
45:13It resonates down through the ages.
45:15I think it tells us so much about who we are today.
45:19Not just in Europe, but around Western Asia and of course North Africa as well.
45:26This idea of Roman-ness, this idea of Romanitas, lives on because it became completely enmeshed with the state religion
45:39of Rome in the 4th century.
45:43So when we look at this city and we see the Roman theatre, we also see churches and then those
45:52churches really are what the Roman Empire turned into.
45:58Romanitas becomes Christianitas.
46:29Romanitas –
46:35Transcription by CastingWords