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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
00:39ones there is nobody here from the massive it's curved yeah to the miniature it's like a fourth
00:47century Barbie doll I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast territory experts
00:55from around the world will help me bring to life Roman culture the sands of Capua become the jungles
01:02of India and provide insights into why this Empire was so successful who said the time machine does
01:09not exist 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 believe us yes how they
01:25amassed incredible wealth we've got massive monumental ingots and how their legacy lives on which part of
01:34us it's not at least a little bit Roman on my travels through Roman settlements around the Western
01:50Mediterranean I'm currently at figueras velafonte on the border of France in Spain but it's time to hit the
01:58road or rails again my previous trip to Emporias gave me an insight into rooms initial incursions into
02:14Spain I'm eager to learn more about how the Iberian Peninsula became part of the Roman Empire on this
02:26journey I'll be traveling to Tarragona via Barcelona a distance of 118 miles once again train travel allows
02:39me to just kick back and enjoy the unfolding countryside and the child in me is full of
02:47anticipation not just of the destination but about how quickly we'll get there here we go we're just
02:55getting faster and faster and faster 120 128 kilometers an hour 136 kilometers an hour how fast will it go
03:13there we go there 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
03:50and will become the capital of the largest Roman province in Spain the Romans are in evidence as we
03:57near Tarragona this is the magnificent Ferreri's aqueduct or devil's bridge but an impressive
04:05collection of Roman monuments awaits me in the city itself which in the year 2000 were together
04:13declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site I think we must be nearing Tarragona now and that there is surely a
04:25bit of Roman Tarragona when the Romans arrived here in 218 BCE it wasn't by train but by sea to
04:36halt the
04:37advance of Hannibal Hannibal was a general from Carthage in North Africa the center of a huge trading empire in
04:47the Western Mediterranean in the third 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 to cut his supply
05:08lines
05:14with the help of Spanish historian Paco Tova I want to understand how crucial Tarragona would become not just in
05:23this war but to the future of the Roman Empire
05:29yeah
05:30so when the Romans came here in this beach in this beach this beach and where the harbor is so
05:37there would have been Roman ships yeah imagine the Normandy landings the troops landing from the ships so we're talking
05:43about the navy and the army coming down yeah okay so then they came here and then they built a
05:49military camp at the very top of that hill so this is 30 000 troops arriving
05:53according according to Polybius yes and from here Roman Romanization will spread but they knew that through the everywhere you
06:00could control Spain you could penetrate the interior absolutely absolutely so that's why I say that we are ground zero
06:06for civilization Roman civilization in Spain
06:12sending tens of thousands of troops to Tarragona worked well for the Romans Hannibal ran out of supplies and he
06:21was eventually forced to retreat back to North Africa and the Romans took over all the territory in Iberia that
06:29had been under the control of the Carthaginians with the Romans here to stay the settlement of Taraco would grow
06:36into a formidable fortified city
06:41this exile yeah that's the Roman wall yeah over there okay down in the back to the third century BC
06:48right okay yeah because right back to the first Romans here yes yes because well as is the first settlement
06:55you need to do the first things which is a wall to defend that that settlement and then the
07:02you have to be a token of tower and the wall is medieval 14th century built out of Roman material
07:06that
07:06they're medieval we love we we the Catalan's in Spain we are really famous as the Scottish in Britain so
07:12we got deep pockets and short arms
07:14no so and then we we love saving and then obviously you can save a lot of money if you
07:19can just really recycle yeah the Roman remains but 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 of
07:35a Roman circus
07:39so imagine 56 front arches okay so that will be the entrance of the circus very grand entrance of course
07:46so
07:47circus for horse racing yeah so it's really famous in Roman times so it's a place that people love to
07:53come yeah 30,000 spectators out of 40,000 inhabitants so we are best preserved than the Roman circus in
08:00Rome so
08:01we can see more yes of course imagine so that's half of it so the other half is behind the
08:06houses so this
08:07could just carries on yeah more seeds there more seeds there so it's not just this is just the end
08:13of it
08:13here yeah that's the end feel the corner so from the town hall till this from the trees right behind
08:20the trees you will see more seats and there so the red brick building down there that's the yeah that's
08:24the other end of the pull down all this we could find the circus again yeah because obviously not all
08:30but most of it is still there we can imagine it with this end I think and as well this
08:35is a place
08:35in which the the chariots were having races as we wander the streets of the old town we find more
08:46evidence of the recycling of Roman buildings in the medieval period yeah but instead of putting down
08:52or just finding an empty space so what medieval cities to recycle the building so it's those houses
08:59are not built attached to or above they are built literally in the room yeah you've got 20th century
09:07brick here and here we've got Roman first century with the sandstone blocks of stone yeah so who said
09:16the time machine does not exist we got it so we can see 2,000 years well 1,900 years
09:23yeah on the same
09:24spot you can see even a small rose window yeah done in the 13th century because there was a convent
09:31here yeah not now and then fills in yes now this yes looks medieval but it looks like it probably
09:37has
09:38Roman origins yes so you can see medieval tower inside of a Roman building you can see the columns
09:45carved into the wall oh my goodness yes that would be part of a portico that portico was just really
09:53huge for two centuries after they first arrived the Romans fought the Carthaginians and local tribes
10:01across the Iberian Peninsula while on campaign here in 27 BCE the Emperor Augustus fell ill and stayed in
10:13Tarako for two years to recover his misfortune was great for the city day elevating the status of
10:22Tarako even further so we are now in the Roman Forum as the capital city of the province so we
10:33deserve
10:33the right to have a larger space in order to rule the province I've seen this classic Roman format again
10:40and again on my journey with the forum as the beating heart of the city have we reached the
10:45end of the forum well the end of this corner of the floor yeah because the forum continued that way
10:51this is a huge forum this is 60,000 square meters and I say east not wars because the square
11:00is still
11:01there occupied by houses yeah yeah there are houses in it okay so this is the largest square the largest
11:05forum in Roman in the Roman Empire ever built yeah the strength of Roman power can be seen we know
11:12even that Augustus received Indian ambassadors here really okay because he was he was living here so
11:19obviously the capital was it was Rome did he like it do we know well probably he liked it because
11:25we'll turn
11:25right probably if you like it mainly because for almost 400 years we were the capital city of the
11:31the largest province in the Roman world the province was named Hispania Taraconensis after
11:39Taraco and covered most of the Iberian Peninsula stretching from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic but
11:47the value of this province lay not just in its strategic location but its natural resources gold tin and
11:55silver and then the cathedral and when does this date to the cathedral was started in 1171 12th century
12:04yeah so it's more or less than the same period of time in which you did Westminster hmm so it's
12:08equivalent to Norman architecture and late Norman early Gothic and then the Roman temple dedicated to the
12:16the emperor to Augustus stood right there is there anything of it or is it completely we found the
12:21basement under the cathedral that can't be seen because they did the archaeological excavation it was open
12:25then was covered there's one last vestige of Roman life I want to see and it's the monument I
12:33spotted alongside the railway line as my train pulled into the station the amphitheater that is beautiful
12:39yeah so that's the last monumental building Romans did here and when does it date to around second
12:45century AD but the amazing thing is that's the only amphitheater half of it was carved into the rock
12:51yeah recycling the hill that's really unusual I've seen quite a few amphitheaters on my travels and I've
12:57they've always been built up from the you know from the ground up yeah not built into it into a
13:02cliff
13:02this is much more familiar to me from the semi-secular theaters exactly exactly these amphitheater
13:08obviously it's not it's not the largest one so if we compare that with with a close here in Rome
13:13it's like yeah really really small but between 12,000 and 14,000 spectators okay out of 40,000
13:20inhabitants so proportionally this is large enough to be amazing that's cross-shaped building obviously
13:27in ruins we got in the middle can you see that the church we got in the middle of the
13:31amphitheater there's
13:32a church yeah that's a church that makes these amphitheater exceptional it's the only one in the
13:37whole Roman Empire with the remains of no one not one but two churches why we got two churches as
13:43obviously were built much later when the Roman Empire collapsed and just anything was the only
13:48religion yeah and that's why we got the church our lady of the miracle and when was that church
13:53created the first that can be seen so the basement of the first was only in the sixth century so
13:59100
13:59years after the Empire collapsed the Western Empire and the church we can see now we don't know exactly the
14:04date but we know that in 1154 yeah the church was done okay so 12th century normal style I've learned
14:13how Tarragona played a key role as the Romans expanded their Empire to take in the whole of
14:20the Iberian Peninsula what started as a military maneuver to pull the rug from under the feet of
14:26Hannibal culminated with the development of this city into a flourishing regional capital from the
14:33glory days of the Western Roman Empire through to its demise Tarragona remained a focus of wealth and
14:40power and the elites of the city were keen to display their prosperity and status it's a town yeah yeah
14:48and
14:49it's not even the big one so imagine if the tour was like this the food would be something like
14:54this
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 after
15:20the Emperor Augustus made Tarragona his home the city became even more prestigious and there were fortunes
15:27to be made here in trade and gold mining the 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
15:45very much on a show I'm meeting curator Georgia Acosta Georgia hi nice to meet you nice to meet you
15:57how are you very good are you enjoying the city it's it's absolutely beautiful city and I love the fact
16:02that so much of its Roman past is there to see as you walk around it but we've got some
16:08of the
16:08artifacts here yeah in the museum let me show you around okay yeah yes for example you know here in
16:13Tarragona we have not only the city there was powerful people living around in for example 10 minutes
16:19driving the Roman villa called the Bill of Saint Celia's which has some of the most amazing early
16:25Christian mosaics in the world and this bill it's a mystery maybe the mansion of a great military
16:33leader most of the materials most of the decorations come from Italy from the Imperial factories in Rome
16:40yeah and but later here the city begins to be more more apart from Rome and so they start to
16:47build
16:48things for themselves and this is a beautiful local material yeah yeah it's a great example of wealth
16:55and power that the cities had and really interesting to kind of be able to trace that transition and
17:01to the Roman Empire as well yeah from that we have some lovely mosaics from the villa who was the
17:08the
17:08governor of Tarragona all these look a bit like the ones I saw in Paris the colors in them are
17:14gorgeous
17:15on my yeah those were made by specialized artists I mean normally they make the first mosaic the the big
17:23one yeah and then right in the middle they would insert these small pieces that were more difficult
17:28to make follow me I have something else to show you oh wow this it's probably one of the most
17:37iconic
17:38most beloved archaeological pieces we have here in Tarragona it's this ivory doll I always said it's like
17:46a second fourth century Barbie doll because where is it found the palo-christian necropolis of Tarragona
17:53one of the biggest burial Roman burial sites was found in the tomb of a child a little girl she
18:00was
18:00like four years old and she was buried with her favorite doll we have to assume that she was from
18:06a rich
18:07family it's been demonstrated that it had little dresses made with golden thread oh really yes and
18:15the hair style the hairstyle yeah it is the kind of hairstyle an aristocrat or a princess yeah would
18:22have yeah seeing something like that you you're just taking back to that moment of a family losing
18:27a child and I think things like this it really kind of transport you back and you see that human
18:33connection that's such a beautiful object isn't it and even the fingers are carved it's beautiful when
18:40we think about the Romans if you remember how much childhood mortality there was you know with
18:45harmful children not reaching adulthood here we have to the lampadarius to put the lamps we don't have
18:53that many bronze statues around because you know it's expensive it gets yeah it's down yes may make
18:59things to make anything but here it's so delicate so beautiful and he's African yeah the big thing
19:08probably a young slave hmm it's estimated that between 10 and 25 percent of the Roman Empire's
19:17population were enslaved men women and children could be bought sold and mistreated in sometimes harrowing
19:27conditions ultimately the wealth of the Roman Empire depended on slavery with slaves working on farms in
19:35mines and in households he maybe it was made after a real child was a slave in a house we
19:45don't know we
19:45have so many mysteries yeah yeah I mean it reminds us that people are moving around yeah the Empire for
19:51all sorts of reasons there are merchants moving around there's the army moving around and then
19:56there's an enormous amount of movement in terms of slaves being moved from different parts of the Empire as
20:01well yeah well these heads are great it comes from the from the forum next to the theater okay so
20:12this is
20:12from an urn a huge huge one just simply for decoration that's lovely marble isn't it so this is just
20:20a
20:20fragment of something that was enormous I mean that curve there can you imagine how big this whole urn was
20:27enormous and just for the creation yeah I mean I suppose it fits in that enormous forum yeah yeah the
20:34way to
20:34demonstrate the power of the empire was with this like kind of things so we have to imagine a visitor
20:41coming to Tarraco I mean from the provinces right entering the city and realizing that they are well
20:47visiting a city that had the imperial favor yeah it's built to impress the house yeah okay this for me
20:56it's
20:56great because it tells us a little bit about Roman religiosity this is a representation of Jupiter Amon so
21:04a mix between the two pieces and it just Egyptian god it was part of the decoration of the provincial
21:11forum was it in tobacco yeah the Romans loved loved Egyptian religion and here we have another example in
21:19this center of the government in Tarraco it speaks to these kind of connections right across the Empire
21:26doesn't it we were talking about the temple well we have that gigantic toe it's yeah yeah yeah and it's
21:34not even the big one it's one of the other toes so imagine if the toe was like this the
21:40food would be
21:40something like this enormous it's the statue that was in the temple and you imagine how big that statue
21:46she was and we think this was a statue of Augustus yeah yeah the museum's collection demonstrates the
21:57city's affluence and the skill of the artists and crafts people with such a rich heritage I'm dying to
22:05know how Georgia feels about living in such a place today what do you call yourself a Tarragonian
22:11uh in Catalan Tarragonina Tarragonina yes a woman from Tarragon yes and do you think of yourself as a
22:18Roman as well ah that's such a difficult question I think that we cannot negate Roman Empire our part of
22:28the world it was so important that it shaped not only the Roman period it shaped everything you can see
22:37it in architecture in the laws in yeah our calendars in our religion which part of us it's not at
22:45least
22:46a little bit Roman right yeah but I mean they probably they were pretty cool the Romans not very nice
22:53people but very cool so I don't actually mind right that was amazing thank you so thank you it seems
23:05that
23:05Rome is still crucial to modern identity not only of Tarragona as a city but its 21st century
23:12inhabitants before I leave I'm going to the top of the Praetorium Tower at the edge of the Forum for
23:20a
23:20last look at this city the Romans prized so highly what a view ah this is fantastic I can look
23:30out over the
23:31see Italy is somewhere right over the other side and then here are these Roman walls which were added
23:39to during the medieval period we've got the end of the circus as well and then if we walked to
23:44this
23:45end I would have been looking out on that massive massive square of the Roman Forum and what would have
23:55been the Temple of Augustus right up in the the highest part of this promontory now occupied by the
24:04Cathedral of St Tecla what a view you can see for miles out over the plains as well so this
24:13is an
24:13incredible strategic location for the Romans defeating the Carthaginians but also then for
24:25their further expansion into Hispania before I head to the train station that child in me sees an
24:35opportunity for some fun right there's no time for larking about I've got a train to catch tomorrow I'll
24:50be finding out how trade routes determined who rules the Mediterranean Hispania pay taxes to run through oil we
25:00call the oil the green goal I'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
25:31the railway network really has been the backbone of my trip the rail services of Italy France and Spain
25:40have been impeccable the final leg of my journey will take me to Cartagena nearly 300 miles away and
25:50once a very important Carthaginian port
25:57Cartagena contains this memory of the Carthaginians in its name it was founded as
26:06the new Carthaginians the new Carthage and that's essentially what we're still calling it today it
26:13was such an important power base for the Carthaginians and there were silver mines nearby that silver was
26:20really important for them to be able to pay their armies so this is taking me into the heart of
26:26the
26:26clash between the Carthaginians and the Romans the Carthaginian Empire centered in North Africa had long
26:35been a thorn in the side of the Romans with both powers vying for dominance in the Western
26:40Mediterranean the 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
27:01third century BCE it's surrounded by hills making it easy to defend but the main attraction is its
27:13natural harbour with deep water Carthaginian ships would have docked here to offload men and supplies
27:21for the battles with the Romans but the port was also an important node in their vast network of trade
27:30routes crisscrossing the Mediterranean this was a well-established trading Empire started by the
27:37forerunners of the Carthaginians the Phoenicians who 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
27:58the lifeblood of these three ancient empires everything on display here was recovered from
28:06exploration and excavations carried out under water yeah for Nostia yes nice to meet you Rocio Castillo
28:18will be my guide um tell me about this ship brick how old is that she say are the remain
28:24of both from
28:25Phoenician time between the seventh century and the beginning on the sixth century I mean that is
28:32incredible that this timber has survived yes because was covered with sand amazing isn't it is this the
28:40most ancient shipwreck in the museum in the museum yeah yeah one of the oldest in the Mediterranean yeah
28:47that's incredible this bait the Mazaron one was excavated in 1988 off the coast of Cartagena how is it
28:56constructed without any metal nails yeah do we know what kind of wood that is olive so strong yes
29:06very strong to fish all the wood and what about the planks the plants are pine thrown at the same
29:13time
29:14flexible to make the fall of the boat yeah what cargo is in this boat we don't know in this
29:21case
29:22because we found only these small remains okay and what about a boat of this size because it's a boat
29:28rather than a ship I mean do you think this is traveling large distances in the Mediterranean or do
29:33you think it's plying coastal trade the bottom is very flat right and for this reason most people
29:40think that this boat was for local sailing yeah when Rome was a near settlement on the Italian
29:49peninsula centuries before it rose to dominance the Phoenicians were a maritime superpower their trade
29:59networks reached from the eastern to the western Mediterranean and then into the Atlantic as far as
30:05Britain and they were the traders who founded Carthage this is a very very important Phoenician
30:16sir right because of his cargo is it African elephant ivory doing yeah yeah yeah you can see only 13
30:23but in
30:24the last excavation the two thousand two thousand seven and two thousand eleven the people have found another fifty four
30:32elephantas all from the same ship yes yes yes wow how old are these tasks two thousand seven hundred years
30:41it's really ancient writing yeah what does it say most of them are in relation with the people who made
30:50the trade so it's almost just like a commercial aphorism yeah so this one is your humble servant yeah yeah
30:58it's almost like a letter on an elephant yeah yeah and what have we got here is this from the
31:04same shipwreck yeah
31:05yeah it's like an altar here we have this kind of stone anchor yes
31:12that's an anchor yes we are very common yeah so is this typical Carthaginian pottery yeah
31:20where's this pottery from Greece pottery oh okay right yeah Phoenician people are right here yeah bring us the pottery
31:29yes yeah the coins and trading in fluids as well what would have been carried out of the
31:35in these jars it could be wine or fish something about a pottery style how they knew it was definitely
31:42Phoenician pottery so it's something to do with the style of the handles
31:46ah yes the handle look this handle yeah long handle yeah and the other one are smaller round oh like
31:54ears yeah so that's typically Phoenician yes 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 and
32:12he attacked and captured the important port and stronghold of Cartagena
32:18within three years the Carthaginians would be routed from the whole peninsula so is this from a Roman cargo
32:27it's just outside of the Cartagena and there we found a sure it came from the south of Italy this
32:36kind of pottery tableware pottery
32:39yes yeah do we know from the cargo whether it was leaving Cartagena or coming in
32:45coming in coming in and nearly made it yeah yes it was within sight of Cartagena
32:51yes it's a tragedy from 2,200 years ago but it just gives you this incredible time capsule and knowledge
33:02about the trade that was happening
33:04yes the trade because we have the written documentation which gives us some ideas but here you've got the actual
33:11physical objects
33:13yes and then you can do all this scientific analysis and find out exactly where everything's coming from
33:18and understand this so much better it's incredible it is brilliant so the Romans are really inheriting
33:26that trading network also the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians they they're the inheritors of that
33:31they keep going to the same places they with the wine you know it's always the same yes it's the
33:39same route
33:41the same routes yes this is lovely I think it's really nice to see that construction
33:46they're the lead protection oh really yes yeah to avoid the gribbles yes yes very important you don't want them
33:57boring into your boat
33:59the area around Cartagena was rich in resources with lead and silver mind here
34:07and this kind of shows why the Romans were so interested in this area we've got massive big yes monumental
34:14ingots
34:15the empire families Italian families came to this area to make the exploitation of the mines yeah yeah
34:21and each family has different names and different symbols yeah in this case the aquini was the anchor and the
34:30dolphin
34:31oh yeah I can see that aquini so that's the name of a Roman family that's involved in this mercantile
34:36trade yeah
34:38and then this is and this is later Roman yeah so we're well into the empire here
34:42we can change the pottery at the beginning was the black style yeah and now is the red one so
34:49they've
34:49so they've so the black glazed pottery has gone out of fashion now yes it's all in the empire
34:54it's old-fashioned everybody likes this red stuff in your fashion so what was in there for oil for olive
35:01oil
35:01yeah in this period hispania pay taxes to run through oil they pay taxes through oil
35:11we call the oil like the green gold so this Roman cargo was headed out yes yeah so there must
35:19have been
35:20people here who were becoming very rich through this trade especially through the mining industry
35:25but then also actually a lot of this wealth is headed to the center of the empire yeah so the
35:33the taxes
35:33are being collected the the wealth is being extracted and it's all being funneled back to Rome
35:38yeah yes thank you so much for showing me around Rossio has shown me how maritime trade was
35:47fundamental to the wealth and power of both the Carthaginians and the Romans
35:53but only one of these civilizations would triumph in the end in 146 BCE another Scipio the adoptive
36:04grandson of the one who took Cartagena defeated the Carthaginians at Carthage in North Africa now the
36:14entire Carthaginian trading empire and the wealth that generated was rose
36:25I've won more excursion on my itinerary and I definitely saved the best until last
36:31Cartagena
36:41still in Cartagena I'm off to visit a museum with a very large exhibit
36:48although looking at the entrance you wouldn't think there was much here
36:55as soon as I enter there's something right up my street this is getting very exciting looking
37:01archaeological corridor to walk down I'm in the Roman theatre museum but this theatre's existence
37:11was actually unknown until about 35 years ago since then excavations have turned up a wealth of stunning
37:19and informative artefacts and they're all here on display
37:26those three cylindrical altars represent the Capitoline triad the most important gods of Rome
37:33you've got the owl for Minerva the eagle for Jupiter and the peacock for Juno
37:41there are just so many layers of history here this is a floor from the second century BCE before the
37:50theatre was even built
37:51and then much much later two millennia later it becomes part of a 19th century chapel
38:00and then here we've got medieval archaeology these enormous blocks date to the Islamic period
38:07and here's Elena
38:12Elena Ruiz Valeros is here to meet me
38:18and that large exhibit Cartagena's spectacular Roman theatre itself
38:24look at that this is a moment of wow
38:29amazing
38:32the 6000 capacity theatre is situated on one of the highest parts of the city
38:40but it was only found when archaeologists were exploring the ruins of the Cathedral of Santa Maria La Vieja
38:48which had been built over it in the 13th century
38:54Elena you dug here then in the 1990s
38:57yes, everything started because it was going to be a regional artisanat
39:02and there were some remains on February 6th of 1990
39:07that it was already pointed out that it was a theatre
39:08and in 1991 we did a small excavation
39:12and we saw that the gallery was located
39:14and that the whole neighborhood that was very depressed
39:17that was coming down
39:19was above the theatre
39:21and when was the theatre originally built?
39:24the theatre was built between the 5th and 1st a.C.
39:31we know that it was already inaugurated
39:33because there were the altars
39:34dedicated, for example, to Caio César
39:37and, well, this is the biggest monument in the city
39:45after Scipio's capture of Cartagena
39:48the city would be thoroughly romanised
39:53called Carthardasht by the Carthaginians
39:55the Romans knew it as Carthago Nova, New Carthage
40:00the Emperor Augustus invested heavily in the city
40:03as well as a theatre
40:05other civic buildings were built
40:07to match those in Tarragona
40:08did Tarragona remain the most important city in Iberia
40:13or is Cartagena rising to that status?
40:33Scipio is so young
40:36I mean, a brilliant general
40:38but rising to power very, very quickly
40:43for Rome, conquisting Cartagena
40:47was to take away from the cartagineses
40:50the miners of silver, the port
40:52and everything
40:54once that Rome
40:55can conquer Cartagena
40:57there is a whole process of conquest
41:01of the Iberia
41:15yes
41:22the story here in Cartagena
41:25really encapsulates this story of Roman expansionism
41:31and creating this vast empire
41:35which in the end
41:36takes in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula
41:39also North Africa
41:40and then all around the Eastern Mediterranean as well
41:43do you think it just got too big?
41:46yes
41:46yes, after such a conquest
41:49it is what happened
41:50sometimes it is indisible
41:52many provinces
41:53and such an empire
41:54and they were, in all ways
41:57they were quite permisive
41:59I mean
42:01in this city
42:03we have a wonderful epigraphic
42:05we have the people
42:07who lived here
42:08many, many
42:10many were libertarians
42:11many were orientated
42:13many were orientated
42:13there was a mix
42:15of indigenous
42:17indigenous
42:18indigenous
42:19or whatever
42:19that had been here
42:21some Greek
42:21then there is
42:23one of the things
42:24that is still more
42:25how Rome
42:27is integrated
42:28and how the indigenous society
42:29is integrated
42:30in this new society
42:32and of course
42:33of course
42:34of course
42:35of course
42:35with the corruption
42:37well
42:38the populations
42:39were more upset
42:40and the people
42:41who lived there
42:42had been born there
42:43they didn't feel
42:45so deeply
42:46and then
42:49by the 5th century
42:51it's starting to fall apart
42:53here in the west
42:53how does the Roman period
42:55end here
42:56in Cartagena?
42:57here
42:58here
42:59in concreto
43:00between the siglo II
43:01and III
43:01begins a crisis
43:03and there
43:05there is a decline
43:05in which
43:06what we have
43:07is the arrival of the Byzantines
43:09that there are
43:10of Syria
43:12wine
43:13of Gaza
43:15we have
43:16again
43:17the city
43:18connected
43:19commercially
43:20with the Mediterranean
43:21from the north
43:22of Africa
43:23and here
43:25again
43:25again
43:26another decline
43:27with the conflict
43:29between Byzantines
43:30and Visigoths
43:31it's not so organized
43:33in the Roman period
43:34the city
43:35is the
43:36vertebrate
43:36of all
43:38the territory
43:39and this
43:39is where
43:41you see
43:42a transition
43:43and a change
43:45important
43:48the legacy of the Carthaginians
43:51and Romans
43:51is still here
43:53Cartagena is an important maritime city
43:57the Mediterranean fleet of the Spanish Navy
44:00use it as their main base
44:01it also handles a huge volume of freight
44:05and its regular destination for cruise ships
44:11before I leave there's one more connection
44:14a ride up the panoramic lift
44:17which will take me to the city's highest point
44:21I'm flying above Cartagena
44:25I can see the port over there
44:29whoo
44:31that is high
44:35the railway networks of Italy, France and Spain
44:38have carried me in a matter of weeks
44:41across a thousand years of Roman history
44:44finally coming to an end here in Spain
44:47where the Roman Empire
44:49faced its biggest rival
44:50in the West
44:55This is a suitably epic place
44:58to finish my epic journey
45:01following the expansion of Rome
45:04building its territorial empire
45:08through 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
45:17who we are today
45:19not just in Europe
45:21but around
45:22Western Asia
45:23and of course North Africa as well
45:26this
45:28idea
45:28of
45:30Roman-ness
45:30this idea of Romanitas
45:33lives on
45:34Roman
45:35because it became completely enmeshed
45:38with the state religion
45:39of Rome
45:40in
45:41the 4th century
45:43so when we look at this city
45:44and we see
45:46the Roman theatre
45:47we also see
45:50churches
45:50and then those churches
45:52really are
45:53what the Roman Empire
45:55turned into
45:57Romanitas
45:58becomes Christianitas
46:29leading us
46:32Do
46:32not
46:32as
46:32follow us
46:33please
46:35to
46:35to
46:35us
46:36to
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