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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 1300
00:23miles through italy france and spain to discover its origins and the secrets of its success
00:32i'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 final leg of my journey i'll be exploring how
01:15the
01:15romans secured new mediterranean conquests so this is 30 000 troops surviving according to polybius yes
01:24how they amassed incredible wealth we've got massive monumental ingots and how their legacy
01:31lives on which part of us it's not at least a little bit roman
01:46on my travels through roman settlements around the western mediterranean
01:51i'm currently at figueras velafonte on the border of france and spain but it's time to hit the road
01:59or rails again buenos dias un billete para targona for favor my previous trip to emporios gave me an
02:11insight into rome's initial incursions into spain gracias
02:17i'm eager to learn more about how the iberian peninsula became part of the roman empire
02:25on this journey i'll be traveling 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 we'll get
02:52there here we go we're just getting faster and faster and faster 120 128 kilometers an hour
03:04136 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
03:50and will become the capital of the largest roman province in spain
03:55the romans are in evidence as we near tarragona this is the magnificent ferreri's aqueduct or
04:02devil's bridge but an impressive collection of roman monuments awaits me in the city itself
04:10which in the year 2000 were 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 sea to halt the advance of
04:37hannibal
04:40hannibal 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
05:11paco hi buenos dias with the help of spanish historian paco tova i want to understand how
05:20crucial tarragona would become not just in this war but to the future of the roman empire
05:29so when the romans came here in this beach in this beach this beach and where the harbor is
05:36so there would have been roman ships yeah imagine the normandy landings the troops landing from the
05:42ships so we're talking about the navy and the army coming down yeah okay so then they came here and
05:48then they built a military camp at the very top of that hill so this is 30 000 troops arriving
05:54according to polybius yes and from here roman romanization will spread but they knew that
06:00through the evro you could control spain you could penetrate the interior absolutely absolutely so that's
06:05why i say that we are ground zero of uh civilization roman civilization in uh in spain sending tens of
06:14thousands of troops to tarragona worked well for the romans hannibal ran out of supplies and he was
06:21eventually forced to retreat back to north africa and the romans took over all the territory in iberia
06:28that had been under the control of the carthaginians with the romans here to stay
06:34the settlement of taraco would grow into a formidable fortified city
06:41this looks old yeah that's the roman wall yeah over there okay down in the back to the third
06:47century bc right okay so going right back to the first romans here yes yes because well as is the
06:54first settlement you need to do the first things which is a wall to defend that uh that settlement
07:01and then the trogonal tower and the wall is medieval 14th century built out of roman material
07:06but they're medieval we we love we we the catalans in spain we are really famous as the scottish in
07:12britain so we got deep pockets and short arms so and then we we love saving and then obviously you
07:17can save a lot of money if you can just recycle yeah the roman remains but the wall it's obviously
07:25medieval behind the medieval wall lies a roman ruin a mural gives a clue to what it was once part
07:35of
07:36a roman circus so imagine 56 front arches okay so that will be the entrance of the circus
07:44very grand entrance of course so circus for horse racing yeah so it's uh really famous in roman times
07:51so it's a place that people love to come yeah 30 000 spectators out of 40 000 inhabitants so we
07:57are
07:58best preserved than the roman circus in rome so we can see more yes of course here imagine so that's
08:04half of it so the other half is behind the houses so this could just carries on yeah more seeds
08:09there
08:10more seeds there so it's not just this is just the end of it here yeah that's the end fill
08:15the corner
08:16so from the town hall till this from the trees right behind the trees you will see more seats
08:21and there so the red brick building down there that's the town hall that's the other end of the
08:25if we pull down all this we could find the circus again yeah because obviously not all but most of
08:31it
08:31is still there we can imagine it with this end i think and as well this is the place in
08:35which the
08:36the chariots were having races as we wander the streets of the old town we find more evidence of
08:47the recycling of roman buildings in the medieval period yeah but instead of putting down or just
08:53finding an empty space so what medievals did is to recycle the building so it's those houses are not
08:59built attached to or above they are built literally in the room yes you've got 20th century brick here
09:09and here we've got roman first century with the sandstone blocks of stone yeah so who said the time
09:16machine does not exist we got it so we can see 2 000 years well 1 900 years yeah on
09:23the same spot
09:25you 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 it fills in yes now this yes looks medieval but it looks like it
09:37probably
09:37has roman 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 the inside part of a portico that portico was
09:52just
09:52really huge for two centuries after they first arrived the romans fought the carthaginians and local
10:01tribes across the iberian peninsula while on campaign here in 27 bce the emperor augustus fell ill and
10:13stayed in tarico for two years to recover his misfortune was great for the city though
10:21elevating the status of tarico even further
10:28so we are now in the roman forum as the capital city of the province so we deserve the right
10:34to
10:34have a larger space in order to rule the province i've seen this classic roman format again and again
10:40on my journey with the forum as the beating heart of the city have we reached the end of the
10:45forum well
10:46the end of this corner of the floor because the forum continued that way this is a huge forum
10:54this is 60 000 square meters and i say east not walls because the square is still there
11:01occupied by houses yeah yeah there are houses in it so this is the largest square the largest forum in
11:06roman in the roman empire ever built yeah the strength of roman power can be seen
11:11we know even that augustus received indian ambassadors here really okay because he was
11:17he was living here so obviously the capital was it was rome did he like it do we know what
11:23he
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
11:33yeah the province was named hispania taraconensis after taraco and covered most of the iberian peninsula
11:42stretching from the mediterranean to the atlantic but the value of this province lay not just in
11:49its strategic location but its natural resources gold tin and silver and then the cathedral and when
11:58does this date to the cathedral was started in 1171 12th century yeah so it's more or less in the
12:05same period of time in which you did westminster so it's equivalent to norman architecture and
12:10late norman early gothic and then the roman temple dedicated to the emperor to augustus stood right
12:17there is there anything of it or is it completely we found the basement under the cathedral that can't
12:23be seen because they did the archaeological excavation it was open then was covered there's one last
12:29vestige of roman life i want to see and it's the monument i spotted alongside the railway line as my
12:35train pulled into the station the amphitheater that is beautiful yeah so that's the last monumental
12:42building roman state here and when does it date to around second century ad but the amazing thing is
12:47that's the only amphitheater half of it was carved into the rock yeah recycling the hill that's really
12:53unusual i've seen quite a few amphitheaters on my travels and i've they've always been built up from
12:59the you know from the ground up yeah not built into a into a cliff this is much more familiar
13:04to
13:04me from the semi-secular theaters exactly exactly this amphitheater obviously it's not the largest one
13:09so if we compare that with with the close here in rome it's like yeah really really small but
13:15between 12 000 and 14 000 spectators okay out of 40 000 inhabitants so proportionally this is large
13:23enough to be amazing that's cross-shaped building obviously in rings we got in the middle can you see
13:29that the church we got in the middle of the amphitheater there's a church yeah that's a church that makes
13:34these amphitheater exceptional it's the only one in the whole roman empire with the remains of no one not
13:40one but two churches why we got two churches as obviously were built much later when the roman
13:46empire collapsed and christianity was the only religion yeah and that's why we got the church
13:51our lady of the miracle and when was that church created the first that can be seen so the basement
13:56of the first was only in the sixth century so 100 years after the empire collapsed the western empire
14:01and the church we can see now we don't know exactly the date but we know that in 1154 yeah
14:07the church was
14:07it's done okay yeah it's a 12th century norman style i've learned how tarragona played a key role as
14:16the romans expanded their empire to take in the whole of the iberian peninsula what started as a
14:23military maneuver to pull the rug from under the feet of hannibal culminated with the development of
14:28this city into a flourishing regional capital from the glory days of the western roman empire
14:35through to its demise tarragona remained a focus of wealth and power and the elites of the city were
14:43keen to display their prosperity and status it's a toe yeah yeah and it's not even the big one so
14:50imagine if the toe was like this the food would be something like this it's enormous
15:03i'm in tarragona on the mediterranean coast of spain the first roman settlement on the iberian peninsula
15:12pacco'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 taraco his home the city became even more prestigious and there were
15:26fortunes to 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
15:42close to the harbor where wealth is still very much on the show
15:48i'm meeting curator georgia acosta georgia hi
15:54nice to meet you nice to meet you how are you very good are you enjoying the city it's it's
16:01absolutely beautiful city and i love the fact that so much of its roman past is there to see as
16:05you walk
16:06around it but we've got some of the artifacts here haven't we in the museum let me show you around
16:11okay yeah yeah because for example you know here in tarragona we have not only the city there was
16:16powerful people living around in for example 10 minutes driving the roman villa called the bill of
16:22saint celias which has some of the most amazing early christian mosaics in the world and this bill is
16:29a mystery maybe the mansion of a great military leader most of the materials most of the decorations
16:36come from italy from the imperial factories in rome yeah and but later here the city begins to be more
16:45more apart from rome and so they start to build things for themselves and this is a beautiful local
16:50materials yeah yeah it's a great example of wealth and power that the cities had and really interesting to
16:59kind of be able to trace that transition out of the roman empire as well yeah from that we have
17:05some
17:05lovely mosaics from the villa who was the the governor of tarrako oh these look a bit like the
17:11ones i saw at empire's the colors in them are gorgeous aren't they yeah those were made by specialised
17:19artists i mean normally they would make the first mosaic the the big one and then right in the middle
17:25they would insert these small pieces that were more difficult to make follow me i have something
17:30else to show you wow this it's probably one of the most iconic most beloved archaeological pieces we have
17:41here in tarragona it's this ivory doll i always said it's like a fourth century barbie doll because
17:49where is it found the paleo christian necropolis of tarrako one of the biggest burial roman burial sites
17:56was found in the tomb of a child a little girl she was like four years old and she was
18:02buried with her
18:03favorite doll we have to assume that she was from a rich family it's been demonstrated that it had
18:10little dresses made with golden thread oh really yes and the hair style the hairstyle yeah it is the
18:18kind of hairstyle an aristocrat or a princess yeah would have yeah seeing something like that you're
18:25just taken back to that moment of a family losing a child and i think things like this it really
18:30kind
18:31of transport you back and you see that human connection that's such a beautiful object isn't it
18:36and even the fingers are carved it's beautiful when we think about the romans you have to remember
18:42how much childhood mortality there was you know with half the children not reaching adulthood
18:48here we have the lampadarius to put the lamps we don't have that many bronze statues around because
18:56you know it's expensive it gets melted down yes to make things to make anything but here it's so
19:02delicate so beautiful and he's african yeah depicting probably a young slave
19:12it's estimated that between 10 and 25 percent of the roman empire's population were enslaved
19:20men women and children could be bought sold and mistreated in sometimes harrowing conditions
19:27ultimately the wealth of the roman empire depended on slavery with slaves working on farms in mines and
19:36in households i think maybe it was made after a real child was a slave in a house we don't
19:45know we have so
19:46many mysteries yeah yeah i mean it reminds us that people are moving around yeah uh the empire for all
19:51sorts of reasons there are merchants moving around there's the army moving around and then there's an
19:56enormous amount of movement in terms of slaves being moved from different parts of the empire as well
20:01yeah
20:05oh these heads are great it comes from the from the forum next to the theater okay
20:11so this is from an urn a huge huge one just simply for decoration that's lovely marble isn't it
20:19so this is just a fragrance of something that was enormous i mean that curve there
20:24yeah can you imagine how big this whole urn was enormous and just for decoration yeah i mean i suppose
20:31it fits in that enormous forum yeah yeah the way to demonstrate the power of the empire was with this
20:37like kind of things so we have to imagine a visitor coming to tarraq i mean from the provinces
20:44right entering the city and realizing that they were visiting a city that had the imperial favor yeah it's
20:50built to impress isn't it yeah okay this for me it's great because it tells us a little bit about
20:58roman
20:59religiosity this is a representation of jupiter amon so a mix between jupiter and egyptian gods it was
21:09part of the decoration of the provincial forum was it in tarraqo yeah the romans loved loved egyptian
21:16religion and here we have another example in this center of the government in tarraqo it speaks to
21:24these kind of connections right across the empire doesn't it we were talking about the temple well we
21:30have that gigantic toe it's yeah yeah yeah and it's not even the big one it's one of the other
21:37toes so
21:37imagine if the toe was like this the food would be something like this it's enormous it's the statue that
21:43was in the temple and imagine how big that statue was and we think this was a statue of augustus
21:49yeah
21:54the museum's collection demonstrates the city's affluence and the skill of the artists and crafts
22:00people with such a rich heritage i'm dying to know how georgia feels about living in such a place today
22:08what do you call yourself a tarragonian uh in catalan tarragonina tarragonina yes a woman from tarragon
22:16yes and do you think of yourself as a roman as well ah that's such a difficult question i think
22:24that
22:24we cannot negate roman empire our part of the world it was so important that it shaped not only the
22:34roman
22:34period it shaped everything you can see it in architecture in the laws in yeah our calendars in
22:42our religion which part of us it's not at least a little bit roman right yeah but i mean they
22:51pro they
22:51were pretty cool the romans not very nice people but very cool so i don't actually mind
22:59right that was amazing thank you so much thank you it seems that rome is still crucial to modern
23:07identity not only of tarragonina as a city but its 21st century inhabitants before i leave i'm going to
23:15the top of the praetorium tower at the edge of the forum for a last look at this city the
23:22romans prized
23:23so highly what a view ah this is fantastic i can look out over the sea italy is somewhere right
23:34over
23:34the other side and then here are these roman walls which were added to during the medieval period we've
23:41got the end of the circus as well and then if we walked to this end i would have been
23:46looking out on
23:48that massive massive square of the roman forum and what would have been the temple of augustus right
23:57up in the the highest part of this promontory now occupied by the cathedral of saint tecla
24:07what a view you can see for miles out over the plains as well so this is an incredible strategic
24:16location
24:18for the romans defeating the carthaginians but also then for their further expansion into hispania
24:30before i head to the train station that child in me sees an opportunity for some fun
24:40right there's no time for larking about i've got a train to catch
24:49so tomorrow i'll be finding out how trade routes determined who ruled the mediterranean hispania
24:56pay taxes to run through oil we call the oil the green gold
25:10i'm back at tarragon a 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
25:36the rail services of italy france and spain have been impeccable the final leg of my journey will
25:46take me to carthagena nearly 300 miles away and once a very important carthaginian port
25:57carthagena contains this memory of the carthaginians in its name it was founded as
26:05kat hadasht the new carthage and that's essentially what we're still calling it today
26:13it was such an important power base for the carthaginians and there were silver mines nearby
26:19that silver was really important for them to be able to pay their armies
26:24so 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 the romans needed to take carthagena
26:44if they were to control the iberian peninsula
26:53arriving into the city i can see why hannibal's brother hadribal chose to build a stronghold here
27:00in the third century bce it's surrounded by hills making it easy to defend
27:11but the main attraction is its natural harbor with deep water carthaginian ships would have docked here
27:19to 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 crisscrossing the
27:31mediterranean this was a well-established trading empire started by the forerunners of the carthaginians
27:39the 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
27:57mediterranean was the lifeblood of these three ancient empires
28:03everything on display here was recovered from exploration and excavations carried out underwater
28:17rocio castillo will be my guide um tell me about this shepherd how old is it this is they are
28:23the
28:24remain of both from phoenician time between the 7th century and the beginning on the 6th century
28:31that is incredible that this timber has survived
28:34yeah because it was covered with sand that's amazing isn't it is this the most ancient shipwreck
28:41in the museum in the museum yeah yeah one of the oldest in the mediterranean yeah that's incredible
28:49this boat the mazarin one was excavated in 1988 off the coast of cartagena how is it constructed without
28:58any metal nails all the wooden fishing do we know what kind of wood that is olive so strong yes
29:06very
29:06strong to fish all the wood and what about the planks the plants are pine thrown at the same time
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 peninsula
29:50centuries before it rose to dominance the phoenicians were a maritime superpower
29:58their trade networks reached from the eastern to the western mediterranean
30:03and then into the atlantic as far as britain and they were the traders who founded carthage
30:12this is a very very important phoenician because of his cargo is it african elephant ivory do you know yeah
30:21here you can see only 13 but in the last excavation between 2007 and 2011 the people found another 54
30:32four elefants all from the same ship yes yes wow how old are these tasks 2700 years it's really ancient
30:42writing yeah what does it say most of them are in relation with the people who made the trade so
30:51it's
30:51um always just like a commercial aphorism yeah so this one is your humble servant yeah yeah it's
30:58almost like a letter on an elephant yeah yeah and what have we got here is this from the same
31:04shipwreck
31:04yeah it's like an altar an altar yeah uh here we have this kind of a stone anchor where that's
31:13an
31:13anchor yes oh we are very common yeah so is this typical carthaginian pottery yeah where's this pottery
31:21from greece pottery oh okay right yeah phoenician people are right here yeah bring us the the pottery
31:29yes yeah the coins um and trading in fluids as well what would have been carried in these jars it
31:36could
31:37be wine or fish something 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 the hundred look this hundred yeah long
31:49hundred yeah and the other one are smaller round oh like ears yeah so that's typically phoenician
31:57yes that definitely looks like little ears in 209 bce the 27 year old roman general scipio
32:07was spearheading the offensive against the carthaginians in iberia and he attacked and captured the
32:14important port and stronghold of cartagena within three years the carthaginians would be routed
32:22from the whole peninsula so is this from a roman cargo yes outside of the cartagena harbors and
32:31there we found a sure it came from the south of italy this kind of pottery tableware pottery yes yeah
32:40do we know from the cargo whether it was leaving cartagena or coming in coming in coming in and nearly
32:47made it yeah yeah it was within sight of cartagena yes it's a tragedy from 2200 years ago but it
32:57just
32:57gives you this incredible time capsule and knowledge about the the trade that was happening because we
33:05have the the written documentation which gives us some ideas but here you've got the actual physical
33:12objects and then you can do all this scientific analysis and find out exactly where everything's
33:18coming from and understand this so much better it's incredible it is brilliant so the romans are
33:24really inheriting that trading network also the phoenicians and the carthaginians they they're the
33:30inheritors of that they keep going to the same places they with the wine you know it's always the same
33:38the same roots yes this is lovely i think it's really nice to see that construction
33:48oh really yes yeah to avoid the
33:53gribbles yes yes very important you don't want them boring into your boat
34:00the 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 we've got massive big
34:12yes monumental ingots the empire families italian families came to this area to make the exploitation
34:20of the mines yeah yeah and each family has different names and different symbols yeah in this case the
34:28aquini was the anchor and the dolphin oh yeah i can see that aquini so that's the name of a
34:33roman
34:34family that's involved in this mercantile trade yeah and then this is and this is later roman yeah
34:41so we're well into the empire here we can change the pottery at the beginning was the black style
34:46yeah and now is the red one so they've so the so the black glazed pottery has gone out of
34:52fashion now
34:52yes it's all in the empire it's old-fashioned everybody likes this red stuff the new fashion
34:58so what was in there for oil for olive oil yeah in this period hispania pay taxes to run through
35:07oil
35:09they pay taxes through oil we call the oil like the the green gold so this roman cargo was headed
35:17out
35:17yes yeah so there must have been people here who were becoming very rich through this trade especially
35:24through the mining industry lane but then also actually a lot of this wealth is headed to the
35:30center of the empire yeah so the the taxes are being collected the the wealth is being extracted
35:36and it's all being funneled back to rome yeah yes thank you so much for showing me around
35:44rocio has shown me how maritime trade was fundamental to the wealth and power
35:50of both the carthaginians and the romans but only one of these civilizations would triumph in the end
36:00in 146 bce another scipio the adoptive grandson of the one who took cartahena defeated the carthaginians
36:09at carthage in north africa now the entire carthaginian trading empire and the wealth it generated was rome's
36:24i've one more excursion on my itinerary and i definitely saved the best until last
36:31i got to see that still 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 well this is getting very exciting looking
37:01archaeological corridor to walk down i'm in the roman theater museum but this theater's existence was
37:11actually unknown until about 35 years ago since then excavations have turned up a wealth of stunning
37:19and informative artifacts and they're all here on display
37:26those three cylindrical altars represent the capitoline triad the most important gods of rome
37:34you'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
37:50theater was even built and then much 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 islamic period
38:07and here's elena elena ruiz valeros is here to meet me and that large exhibit cartagena's spectacular roman
38:22theater itself look at that this is a moment of wow amazing
38:32the 6 000 capacity theater 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
38:46maria la vieja which had been built over it in the 13th century elena you dug here then in the
38:561990s
38:58and when was the theater originally built
39:24the theater was built the theater was built between the 5th and 1th and 1th and 1th and we know
39:31that it was already inaugurated
39:33because there were the altars dedicated to cao cesar and this is the biggest monument in the city
39:45after scipio's capture of carthagena the city would be thoroughly romanized
39:52called cart hadashed 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 theater other civic buildings were built
40:07to match those in tarragona did tarragona remain the most important city in iberia or is cartagena
40:16rising to that status yo personalmente pienso que en época romano republica
40:23incluido augusto esta ciudad tiene más valor para roma porque es la ciudad que conquistó escipión
40:33scipio is so young i mean a brilliant general but rising to power very very quickly
40:43para roma conquistar cartagonova era quitarle a los cartagineses las minas de plata el puerto y todo
40:54una vez que roma consigue conquistar cartagonova se abre todo un proceso de conquista de la península
41:02ibérica lo dice estipión en su discurso su arena a los soldados necesitamos conquistar esta ciudad
41:09porque con esto le quitamos al enemigo todo y estipión vuelve gloriosa roma y por eso es estipión el
41:18africano yes pero yo creo que tenía que haber sido el hispano the story here in catagena
41:25uh really encapsulates this story of roman uh expansionism and creating this vast empire which
41:36in the end takes in the whole of the iberian peninsula also north africa and then all around
41:42the eastern mediterranean as well do you think it just got too big see después de bueno de tanta
41:48conquista es lo que pasó que a veces es ingobernable tantas provincias tanto imperio y ellos de todas
41:57maneras eran bastante permisivo quiero decir en esta ciudad tenemos una colección epigráfica
42:05maravillosa sabemos las gentes que vivieron aquí muchos no y muchos eran libertos muchos eran de
42:13las gentes oriental había una mezcla de indígenas de fenicios oirios o lo que sea que habían estado
42:20por aquí algún griego entonces sí que hay por un lado que eso cada vez estudia más no como es
42:26como
42:27se roma se integre como la sociedad de indígenas integran en esta nueva sociedad y desde luego claro
42:34aquello se desbordó eso junto a la corrupción pues las poblaciones cada vez estaban más a disgusto y los
42:41que vivían allí ya habían nacido allí ya no no no sentían a roma tan en el tan profundamente no
42:49and then by the fifth century it's starting to fall apart here in the west how does the roman period
42:55end here in katahena aquí en concreto entre el siglo segundo y tercero ya empieza cierta crisis y hay un
43:05declive en que de pronto lo que tenemos es la llegada de los bizantinos que hay ungüentarios de
43:11siria vino de gaza vemos otra vez como la ciudad conectada comercialmente con todo el mediterráneo
43:21aceite del norte de áfrica y sí que aquí empieza otra vez otro declive con el conflicto entre bizantinos
43:30y visigodos ya no está tan organizado en época romana la ciudad es el el eje vertebrador de todo el
43:38territorio
43:39no y esto pues se diluye ahí es donde es una transición un cambio no importante
43:48the legacy of the carthaginians and romans is still here cartagena is an important maritime city
43:57the mediterranean fleet of the spanish navy use it as their main base it also handles a huge volume
44:05of freight and its regular destination for cruise ships
44:11before i leave there's one more connection a ride up the panoramic lift which will take me to the city's
44:18highest point the railway networks of italy france and spain have carried me in a matter of weeks
44:41across a thousand years of roman history finally coming to an end here in spain where the roman empire
44:49faced its biggest rival in the west
44:55this is a suitably epic place to finish my epic journey following the expansion of rome building
45:06its territorial empire through fear and favor it's an incredible story it resonates down through the
45:15ages i think it tells us so much about who we are today not just in europe but around western
45:23asia
45:23and of course north africa as well this idea of of roman this this idea of romanitas lives on
45:35because it became completely enmeshed with the state religion of rome in the fourth century
45:43so when we look at this city and we see the roman theater we also see churches and then those
45:52churches really are what the roman empire turned into romanitas becomes christianitas
46:17so
46:24so
46:24so
46:24so
46:25so
46:26so
46:27so
46:36Transcription by CastingWords
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