- 6 minutes ago
Τα Μυστικά του Πολιτισμού (The Secrets to Civilization)
2021 | Επ. 2/3 | HD
Κορυφαίοι ιστορικοί μοιράζονται μαζί μας καινούργια δεδομένα για την κατάσταση του πλανήτη μας και αποκαλύπτουν πώς αυτά τα δεδομένα παρέχουν νέες πληροφορίες για την επίδραση των κλιματικών αλλαγών, των πανδημιών και της ηφαιστειότητας, στην εξέλιξη της ανθρώπινης ιστορίας.
Οι περιβαλλοντικές συνθήκες συνέβαλαν στην επέκταση της Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας και οι λαοί που αξιοποίησαν νέες τεχνολογίες εκμεταλλεύτηκαν το ευνοϊκό κλίμα για να δημιουργήσουν διαχρονικό πολιτισμό.
2021 | Επ. 2/3 | HD
Κορυφαίοι ιστορικοί μοιράζονται μαζί μας καινούργια δεδομένα για την κατάσταση του πλανήτη μας και αποκαλύπτουν πώς αυτά τα δεδομένα παρέχουν νέες πληροφορίες για την επίδραση των κλιματικών αλλαγών, των πανδημιών και της ηφαιστειότητας, στην εξέλιξη της ανθρώπινης ιστορίας.
Οι περιβαλλοντικές συνθήκες συνέβαλαν στην επέκταση της Ρωμαϊκής Αυτοκρατορίας και οι λαοί που αξιοποίησαν νέες τεχνολογίες εκμεταλλεύτηκαν το ευνοϊκό κλίμα για να δημιουργήσουν διαχρονικό πολιτισμό.
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LearningTranscript
00:05Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
00:36Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
01:00The new era of thriving civilization changes the way we live.
01:05In the Iron Age we've got multiple cities that are growing in influence.
01:11But one city will outgrow and outfight all others.
01:16This is the story of how the world made history's first superpower.
01:21Αλή το 1ς Μιλ.Ε.Α.Ρ.Μ.Ε.Κ.Ι.Ο.Ε.Α.Μ.Ι.Ε.Ρ.Ι.Ρ
01:28.Γ.Σ.Μ.Ψ.Ι.Ο.Ν.Τ.Ε.Μ. ΡΙ.Ο.Ν.Ο.Ι.Ν.Μ.Ι.Μ.Μ
01:41.Α.Ι..ΝΥΤΝΕΡΝΜΙΤΗΝΩΤΝΕΑΝΗΑΝΗΝΤΟΤΗΗΝΙΝΝΟΥΙΙ ΣΤΝΙΝΑΝΑΝΝΗΝΗ
01:49Υπότιτλοι AUTHORWAVE
02:20...to explore the crucial question of how the natural environment of the Mediterranean gave birth to an extraordinary new age.
02:30To a world of cities and empires.
02:36Population growth is an important aspect of that story which creates all sorts of new problems.
02:42A lot of things that look modern to us had to happen in order to sustain that large population.
02:49How economies are working, food supply and political change, how military power is being projected, that looks a lot more
03:00like our world than does the Bronze Age.
03:06Larger populations means larger settlements, larger urban areas.
03:12And the adjustments to that change the game for the rest of ancient history in the Mediterranean.
03:26As in any game, the rise of civilisation in the Mediterranean has winners and losers.
03:34For some, these dynamic changes will bring opportunity and advantages, but for others, devastation and disaster.
03:46In Egypt, Cleopatra stands alone in a rapidly changing world.
03:52The Nile Kingdom has survived for over 30 centuries.
03:56Now, it is the last kingdom to fall to the Mediterranean's new superpower.
04:02By the time Cleopatra came to the throne, the ancient Mediterranean world is increasingly subject to the will of Rome.
04:14But Rome itself is torn apart into two warring factions.
04:19If you pick the losing side, then the chances are that the rival, when they come, will plunder your kingdom.
04:27Cleopatra aligns with Antony, having aligned with Caesar.
04:30That's, in a way, her big mistake.
04:34Cleopatra has lost everything to Octavian, Rome's future emperor.
04:38Her kingdom, and soon her freedom, too.
04:45Rome has conquered all.
04:47She must make a choice.
04:50Submit to Octavian, or be the master of her own fate.
04:57I think she's faced with a real dilemma.
05:00In terms of Roman military power, I think Rome had already won.
05:04The way Rome used its armies was pretty decisive and pretty hard to resist.
05:12I think if anyone could have done so, it would have been Cleopatra, had she had a bit of luck.
05:18But fate has long conspired against her.
05:21Egypt's downfall to Rome has been a thousand years in the making.
05:28This is the Mediterranean, at the moment Octavian, the most powerful man in Rome, unites the entire region.
05:38Perhaps as many as 50 million people, thousands of cities and other settlements,
05:4528,600 miles of coastline, all brought into a single world empire.
05:53But turn the clock back just a few centuries, and there is darkness.
06:01There are no cities, no empires.
06:05Civilisation clings to the eastern land in which it was born.
06:09But all that is about to change.
06:15The journey to Rome is perhaps the most extraordinary explosion of human activity on planet Earth before the modern age.
06:26So what is it about the shores of the Mediterranean Sea that was so special?
06:31What makes Mediterranean history in some ways unique in the world is simply the geography.
06:39Three continents come together with a single body of water that unites all three continents.
06:46But making civilisation happen here is a tougher prospect than in lands where civilisations had already thrived for over 2
06:55,000 years.
06:59Egypt could rely on the Nile for a constant supply of water and an annual flood that dumped fertile soil
07:08along its banks.
07:10Further east, the twin rivers of the Tigris and Euphrates had irrigated the fields of Mesopotamia since before the beginning
07:19of human history.
07:20So if you've got a river-fed farm, all the moisture and water that the plant needs to grow is
07:27available almost always.
07:29If you're growing along the Nile River, unless something unbelievably devastating happens, the river's always going to be there.
07:38But in the wider Mediterranean region, farmers had to rely on rainfall to grow their crops.
07:45The vast majority of people living in the Mediterranean region were farmers.
07:50If the rains failed, their crops failed, and they risked starvation.
07:56Lee Drake uses modern computer science to help today's farmers.
08:02I'm an adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
08:05I also currently run a business that uses artificial intelligence for agriculture.
08:10Lee's work sheds new light on the impact of environmental factors on ancient civilisations.
08:17I try to use computers to see what humans can't see with their own eyes,
08:23studying basically what causes the stresses that past civilisations were under,
08:28with the hope that it would kind of help guide us to understand what our own vulnerabilities are today.
08:35The Mediterranean climate has remained similar through the past three millennia.
08:40Hot and dry summers when it doesn't rain, and mild winters when it does.
08:46There's a game of chance involved. You don't know if the rains are going to come.
08:49You don't know if they're going to come on time.
08:51You don't know if there's going to be too little or too much.
08:53And so you're much more sensitive to changes than you would be if you were dependent on a river instead.
09:00This was particularly true of the eastern Mediterranean, which was drier than the west.
09:06So for civilisation to really take off here, you either need a big change in the conditions,
09:12or you need a big change in how people work with them.
09:19And despite the relative poverty of their homelands,
09:23the sea gave people access to distant resources and new technologies.
09:33Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell has looked at this from a planetary perspective.
09:38I'm Professor Lewis Dartnell at the University of Westminster,
09:42and the author of Origins, How the Earth Shaped Human History.
09:47The northern coastline of the Med is very intricate,
09:52full of hundreds of little islands and inlets and coves and bays and natural harbours,
10:00geographically ideally set up for communication and trade by ship.
10:07This comes down to the fact that with plate tectonics and continental drift,
10:13it is Africa that is ploughing underneath Europe.
10:21One of the many islands that were formed during this process is Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.
10:29On a crossroads of trade connections, the copper deposits on Cyprus put it at the centre of bronze production.
10:37But its metal-producing know-how would be applied to another ore that would change the world.
10:47Vasiliki Kassianidou is a professor of archaeological science at the University of Cyprus,
10:53and she specialises in the study of ancient metallurgy.
10:57We are here in the copper mine that was used in antiquity and then again in modern times.
11:05By 1000 BCE, Cyprus has thrived as a centre for bronze,
11:11but its prime location could be a key to opening up the Mediterranean,
11:16because it also has an abundant supply of another metal.
11:22There is always a question of whether Cyprus was producing iron.
11:28And these iron oxides, we have red ochre and yellow ochre,
11:32could be thrown in the smelting furnace and turned into iron metal.
11:41Here in Cyprus we have evidence for early production of iron,
11:45which may have been accidentally produced during the production of copper.
11:52Once they discovered how to smelt iron ores and how to produce iron,
11:58they could switch to iron, which was not a better and stronger material than bronze,
12:05but it had a much more important advantage.
12:08Iron is abundant everywhere.
12:11For the smelters of bronze-age Cyprus, iron opened whole new horizons.
12:18Iron and the technology to produce iron changes Mediterranean history fundamentally.
12:26It's called the democratic metal for good reason, I think.
12:31Once that technology spreads, it allows more places to develop that changes the politics,
12:38it changes the economics, it even changes the religious systems.
12:45One of the things that iron does, is it allows people to replace not bronze, but wooden stone.
12:52You can make all sorts of everyday tools, knives, you can sharpen,
12:56you can develop blades that are going to be useful to cut again and again and again.
13:03Bronze looks beautiful, but in the end iron has much, much greater technological potential.
13:11The arrival of this technology appears at the same time as seafaring traders and adventurers
13:17are starting to connect far distant lands.
13:20We begin to see long-distance journeys being made around the Mediterranean.
13:25They'd all been using boats to fish to travel from port to port locally,
13:30but a few groups begin to do this sort of long-distance navigation.
13:37The island of Cyprus was in a perfect place to take advantage of these established trading routes.
13:46They're sitting exactly at these intersections of north-south and east-west trading patterns,
13:53which expand considerably during this period.
13:58At the heart of this trading revolution are the ships, boats and mariners
14:04who braved long journeys across the seas.
14:21My father was diving for sponges and suddenly he saw these 50 or 60 amphora in a small mountain
14:31and he was completely astounded and this is how he discovered the ancient ship of Cairinia.
14:38Scientists use radiocarbon dating on the Rex Wood to date it to around 385 BCE.
14:46Much of its sailing technology had already been around for hundreds of years.
14:51This modern replica is allowing archaeologists to understand
14:54just how ancient seafarers travelled around the Mediterranean
14:59as trading routes expanded from 1000 BCE onwards.
15:04The Cairinia Liberty was constructed in order to verify exactly
15:09the capabilities of the ship according to the wind.
15:13How many degrees we could sail into the wind
15:16and how fast we could go with various kind of weather conditions.
15:26These boats can withstand storms of up to 35 knots.
15:36What is extremely significant for us is to have a favourable wind.
15:42We need the wind coming either from 90 degrees, 100 degrees, 135, 180 degrees.
15:51So this is our capability.
15:59We don't know exactly why the ancient Cairinia sank
16:02but it's possible that she was hit by a sudden squall.
16:10It's going to be unstable.
16:14A very shallow keel and the square sail set at 90 degrees
16:19means that the Cairinia doesn't have the same ability
16:22as modern boats to change direction.
16:27So just like in ancient times,
16:30Glafkos must haul in the sail quickly
16:32and wait for the squall to pass.
16:41The ancient mariners who crewed the Cairinia
16:45might have been unlucky
16:47but it's clear that to sail a ship like this,
16:50fully laden with cargo,
16:52they must have been expert navigators.
17:01Provided that the weather was favourable,
17:04they would never stop day and night.
17:08They used the stars,
17:10they knew very well the stars and their movement
17:13and also with the sun, prevailing wind,
17:17even the birds, the way they fly when they approach land.
17:23These people were very experienced
17:26and very open-minded
17:28so I would expect them to transfer their knowledge
17:32and culture to the various areas that they were visiting.
17:43These intrepid seafarers were opening up the West
17:47for trade with the settled and civilised East.
17:52By 750 BCE,
17:54the small volcanic island of Ischia
17:57of the Italian coast
17:58has become a frontier boomtown
18:01of adventurers, traders and prospectors.
18:04Before long,
18:05the population of this melting pot
18:07swells to the thousands.
18:11It's not a very big island,
18:13but by ancient standards,
18:14that's really extraordinary.
18:16There's nothing like it
18:17anywhere else in the Western Mediterranean at this time.
18:21Archaeologists can estimate how many lived here
18:24by the quantity of burials.
18:27We'd have lots of graves
18:28and it looks like the people there
18:30come from different places.
18:32There were Greeks, certainly, from the Aegean.
18:34There's probably Phoenicians,
18:36maybe already Phoenicians from North Africa.
18:38There are different groups of Italians
18:41featured there.
18:43Buried with the locals and traders
18:45are artefacts from across the Mediterranean
18:48and beyond.
18:52An 8th century wine cup
18:54known as the Cup of Nesta
18:56was found in a boy's grave.
18:58The inscription is one of the earliest examples
19:01of Greek alphabetic writing.
19:06Pitmecusi is on the modern island of Ischia.
19:09It's also a hub that connects up
19:11a whole set of societies in central Italy,
19:14which are at the same time
19:15beginning to emerge as urban centres.
19:19The population of Ischia
19:21eventually outgrows the island's resources
19:24and many Greeks move to the mainland
19:26to find the first Greek cities in Italy,
19:29of which there will soon be dozens.
19:32An age of settlement has begun,
19:36seeding a constellation of cities
19:38that one day will be the fabric
19:41of the Roman Empire.
19:43Population growth
19:45and the movement of people
19:47are two fundamental drivers
19:49of historical change in world history.
19:52The big prize
19:54is to find good, fertile land
19:56for agriculture.
19:59From 800 to around 600 BC,
20:02Greeks are founding new colonies,
20:05new places to live
20:06in precisely areas where there's rainfall,
20:09around the Black Sea,
20:10in Cyrenaica, North Africa,
20:13in southern Italy, for example.
20:15As new towns emerge and expand,
20:18the population in the Mediterranean doubles.
20:23But what is the driving force behind it?
20:27In a pre-modern world,
20:29there were many reasons
20:31why population growth
20:32was not a given at all.
20:38Since farming began
20:39back in the Stone Age,
20:41human populations
20:42had the potential
20:43to take off
20:44like never before.
20:46But actually,
20:47the odds against increasing numbers
20:49were still incredibly high.
20:51Until the arrival of modern medicine,
20:53up to half of children
20:55could be expected to die
20:57before they reached puberty.
20:58So every woman
21:00who reaches sexual maturity
21:01must on average
21:03give birth to four children
21:04just to keep the population stable.
21:07and because of all the hazards of life
21:09that often made this impossible,
21:11many women
21:12would have had
21:13six to eight children or more.
21:17Famine,
21:18conflict
21:19and disease
21:20can easily send populations
21:22into reverse.
21:27But during the first millennium BCE,
21:30the gods are on the side of motherhood.
21:33The climate is warming
21:35and the development of iron tools
21:37for agriculture
21:38spurs population growth.
21:41So in the lifetimes
21:43of the people
21:43of the early iron age,
21:45each succeeding year
21:47on average
21:48would have been
21:48a little better
21:49than the last one.
21:50A little more predictable,
21:51a little less cold weather,
21:52a little warmer summers,
21:54a little more rainfall
21:55in the winter.
21:57Population growth,
21:58migration
21:59and improved technology
22:00with iron tools
22:01has begun
22:02to change the Mediterranean
22:03from a region
22:05of small settlements
22:06to one
22:07of larger towns.
22:09In the arid lands
22:11of Attica,
22:12one of these towns,
22:13Athens,
22:14is beginning to transform.
22:16As the villages
22:18around the rocky outcrop
22:19we know as the Acropolis
22:20expand,
22:21their land and buildings
22:23merge
22:24into a growing city.
22:27Surrounding Athens
22:28is a large expanse
22:29of farmland
22:30and villages
22:31brought into the service
22:33of one community.
22:34This is a city-state
22:36which can support
22:37and promote
22:38its growing population.
22:40Athens is unique
22:41as it's managed
22:42to unify
22:43a significant territory,
22:45a thousand square miles,
22:47nearly 2,000 square kilometers.
22:51These city-states
22:52are linked together
22:53by ties of religion,
22:56kinship and commerce.
22:59The Greeks
23:00are really successful
23:01in city-founding
23:03and organizing
23:04themselves in cities
23:04and that is their
23:05clear political preference
23:07which is why we get
23:08the explosion
23:09of new cities
23:10once Greeks
23:11are moving around
23:12the Mediterranean.
23:16By 450 BCE,
23:18the Mediterranean coastline
23:20is dominated by cities
23:24from Marseille in France
23:26to Carthage in North Africa
23:28and Syracuse in Sicily.
23:33Athens has grown
23:35into a rich commercial center
23:37with links to cities
23:38and colonies
23:39across the Aegean
23:41and into the Black Sea.
23:43The Parthenon,
23:45built from fine local marble,
23:47looks out over a city
23:49of 40,000 people
23:51when the average city
23:52could barely muster 5,000.
23:56Perhaps another 200,000 people
23:59live in the surrounding
24:00towns and villages.
24:02Athens' territory
24:04is short on rainfall
24:05but she has many other
24:07resources to draw on.
24:09Just 26 miles
24:11or 40 kilometers
24:12from the city
24:13lies a key secret
24:15to its success.
24:16Rich, deep mines
24:17of silver
24:18here at Laverion.
24:22Athens' growth
24:23is financed
24:24by the exploitation
24:25of these mines.
24:26At its peak,
24:2830,000 slaves
24:29were working
24:30in the vast network
24:31of mine tunnels
24:32or processing ores
24:34on the surface.
24:36The Athenians
24:37used their silver
24:38to mint coins.
24:39powerful symbols
24:40of their sovereignty,
24:42control and empire.
24:44They made really good coinage.
24:47They made sure,
24:47they made very consistent,
24:49very high quality coinage
24:50with the high silver content
24:51that everyone could trust
24:53as a result of that.
24:55Athens' silver finances
24:57the longest city walls
24:58in the world,
24:59physically securing
25:01the route between the city
25:02and its port Piraeus,
25:05and funds the navy
25:07that patrols the sea lanes
25:08along which food supplies
25:10are brought from the Black Sea.
25:14The Athenians' ability
25:16to import grain from abroad
25:18allows them to break free
25:20from the limitations
25:21of poor rainfall at home.
25:24Athens becomes a super city
25:26at the centre
25:27of a maritime empire.
25:30Athens becomes
25:31this very rare society,
25:33one which redistributes
25:34a lot of its wealth
25:35to ordinary citizens.
25:38It pays people
25:39to sit on juries.
25:41It pays people
25:42to row in ships
25:44so that they can have
25:45a paid fleet.
25:48With plenty of silver
25:49and a secure food supply,
25:52Athens can support
25:53its poorer citizens
25:54and produce an innovation
25:56that still brings
25:58the city fame.
25:59It was the world's
26:01first known democracy.
26:03They create a structure
26:05in which all these different groups
26:06are brought together
26:07and in which political decision-making
26:10are centralised on Athens,
26:12and democracy comes out of that.
26:17Athens may be
26:18the earliest Greek democracy
26:19we know about,
26:20but it wasn't unique.
26:23It's possible
26:24that this was the product
26:25of the environment
26:26in which these cities grew.
26:29Rainfall is an important
26:30determiner
26:31of where you get
26:32democratic politics.
26:35If water for agriculture
26:36comes from a single source,
26:38such as the Nile,
26:40a sole ruler
26:41can control
26:42and tax irrigation.
26:44Whereas rainfall is dispersed,
26:46no one person
26:47can control rainfall.
26:49So you can sort of
26:50see the argument
26:50that rainfall kind of,
26:52in the first instance,
26:54allows politics
26:56to be more dispersed.
26:59But there are limits
27:00as to how big
27:01a city can get,
27:02and that isn't just
27:03to do with food supply.
27:05It can be about
27:06envious neighbours.
27:09In 338 BCE,
27:11Philip II of Macedon
27:13conquers southern Greece,
27:15including Athens,
27:16condemning the city
27:17to being a second tier.
27:20His son is about
27:21to change the ancient world
27:23forever.
27:25In an age of conquerors,
27:27there's none more famous
27:29than this man.
27:31Alexander the Great
27:32represents a new breed
27:34of warlord.
27:36He is revered by his men
27:38as he leads from the front,
27:40ripping through
27:41the old Persian Empire
27:43and into India.
27:46He survives this wound,
27:48but his lifestyle
27:49will eventually
27:49take its toll,
27:50and Alexander
27:51will never make it back
27:53to the Mediterranean
27:54in life.
27:55He dies aged just 32,
27:58the most powerful leader
28:00the ancient world
28:01had ever seen.
28:04Alexander's corpse
28:05is hijacked
28:06by his comrade Ptolemy
28:08who carries it off
28:09to Egypt
28:10and uses it
28:11to claim the throne.
28:12His dynasty,
28:14enduring until Cleopatra,
28:16would be Egypt's last.
28:18During this time,
28:20the Ptolemies
28:21introduced a number
28:23of changes
28:24which would transform
28:26Egypt in a number
28:27of different ways.
28:29A new capital city
28:30was built
28:31at a site founded
28:32by Alexander the Great
28:33and named after him,
28:34Alexandria.
28:35This new capital
28:36is facing the Mediterranean
28:37very much recognising
28:38that Egypt now
28:39is part of this new
28:40Mediterranean
28:41and to some extent
28:43Greek-led world.
28:47The combination
28:48of Greek
28:49and Egyptian culture
28:50is an amazing
28:51success story.
28:54Egyptians,
28:55Jews,
28:56Indians,
28:57Nubians
28:58and above all,
28:59Greeks
29:00came to this
29:01wonderfully vibrant city.
29:07It's almost analogous
29:09to a kind of
29:09modern corporate takeover.
29:11How does one company
29:12take over
29:13a pre-existing company
29:14and use it
29:16without changing it
29:17too much
29:17because you want
29:18the best of what's there
29:19but you want to also
29:20change it to your advantage.
29:25And Alexander grows
29:26to a city
29:27something like
29:28300,000
29:29during this period.
29:31and one of the
29:32mysteries of the whole
29:34system is
29:35well, how do you
29:35supply a city
29:36that large
29:37with food and water?
29:39And we don't know
29:40a lot about
29:41food distribution
29:42and food supply
29:43but we can make
29:45some calculations.
29:46Something like
29:47three to four hundred
29:48tons of grain
29:49per day
29:50to sustain a population
29:52that size.
29:52That's a lot of grain.
29:55The new pharaohs
29:56can feed Alexandria's
29:58huge population
29:59because they control
30:00an empire
30:01the Egypt of the Nile
30:03but also
30:04a wider territory
30:05in the eastern Mediterranean.
30:08And Alexandria
30:08was not alone.
30:10Alexander
30:11and those who came
30:12after him
30:12had planted
30:13Greek-style cities
30:15wherever they went.
30:16New royal dynasties
30:18founded by Alexander's
30:19former henchmen
30:20made sure they reached
30:21huge size
30:22at an astonishing speed.
30:25These are all cities
30:26that are able
30:27to become really big
30:28because they're being
30:29provisioned
30:30not by
30:30the local area
30:32not even by
30:33the naval power
30:34of a city like Athens
30:36but by an entire empire.
30:38By 250 BCE
30:40a handful of eastern cities
30:42are growing
30:42really big
30:43really fast
30:44supercharged
30:46by royal decree.
30:48To the west
30:49are rival super cities
30:51that are grown organically.
30:53Greek Syracese
30:54dominates the breadbasket
30:56of Sicily.
30:57Phoenician Carthage
30:59in North Africa
31:00has a trading empire
31:01across the western Mediterranean.
31:04But in Italy
31:05Rome now controls
31:07the whole peninsula
31:08and will come to dominate
31:10all of the Mediterranean world.
31:14Rome's position
31:15in the centre of Italy
31:16is key to its expansion.
31:19Rome is in a sweet spot
31:21on the river Tiber
31:22which provides
31:23a route up
31:24into areas
31:24where you've got
31:25the uplands
31:25that are good for pasturing
31:26you've got wood
31:28you've got clay
31:29and so Rome really is there
31:31absolutely in the middle
31:32of all of this
31:33able to draw
31:33all these resources together.
31:36It gets good rainfall
31:38there's very good soil there
31:39so there's good natural resources
31:41good productive farmland
31:43and fairly extensive
31:44amount of farmland
31:46that supports
31:46a really good sized population.
31:49In 509 BCE
31:51the Roman Republic
31:52is born.
31:53Its aggressive citizen army
31:55grabs land
31:56from its Italian neighbours
31:58and Rome
31:58expands rapidly.
32:02From the earliest stages
32:04Roman war veterans
32:05are rewarded
32:06with land
32:07taken from defeated enemies
32:08planting settlements
32:10loyal to Rome
32:11all over the map.
32:16Liz Fentress
32:17is a professional
32:18field archaeologist
32:19specialising
32:21in Roman
32:22social
32:22and economic
32:24archaeology.
32:26We're standing
32:27in the Roman city
32:27of Cosa
32:28which was founded
32:30in the 3rd century BC
32:32on the Tyrrhenian coast
32:34and they settled here
32:37a large number
32:38of colonists
32:39who were probably
32:40veterans
32:41who were both
32:42given land
32:43so that they could
32:44look after themselves
32:45and support themselves
32:46and they were also
32:48responsible
32:49for guarding the coast.
32:51So they had
32:52this double objective.
32:55The colony
32:56doesn't last however
32:57probably as a result
32:58of Hannibal's invasion
33:00of Italy
33:00in 218 BCE.
33:03It has to be
33:04resettled.
33:06The way
33:07settlement occurred
33:08in the 2nd century BC
33:11with the great
33:12Roman land survey
33:14or centuriation
33:16it's exactly
33:17what was done
33:18in the American west.
33:20A great big
33:21grid
33:23covering the whole
33:24of the territory
33:25that was then
33:26divided up
33:27into little lots
33:28and these were handed out
33:30to individual settlers.
33:33Our survey
33:34of this area
33:35showed
33:36dozens
33:37of small farms
33:38and
33:39they replaced
33:41the earlier
33:42Etruscan farmers
33:43and continued
33:44mixed agriculture
33:45in which they'd have
33:46had a few olive trees
33:47apple trees
33:48grew some grain
33:49and made
33:51wine for themselves.
33:54Rome
33:55maintains
33:55its expansion
33:56by integrating
33:58conquered people
33:59to become
34:00its future soldiers.
34:02When it defeats
34:03people
34:04it forces them
34:05to then serve
34:06as soldiers
34:07in future Roman armies
34:08until eventually
34:09Rome and its allies
34:11form a very large
34:12integrated
34:13and experienced
34:14set of troops.
34:16But unlike
34:17the professional armies
34:19employed by
34:19Alexander the Great
34:20and his successors
34:22Rome's army
34:23is still
34:24a citizen militia.
34:26The number
34:27of citizens
34:27Rome has
34:28as a result
34:29partly of conquests
34:31and resettlements
34:32partly through
34:33slavery
34:34and then freeing slaves
34:35and making them
34:36into citizens
34:37means the sheer number
34:38of citizens
34:39Rome has
34:39is much
34:41much greater
34:41than that
34:42of other powers.
34:43If a Roman army
34:44loses
34:44they just send out
34:45another one.
34:49Once Rome
34:50has subjugated
34:50the Italian peninsula
34:52she now moves
34:53on to Sicily
34:53where Rome collides
34:55with the Carthaginian Empire
34:57in the first
34:58of a series of wars
34:59that is to last
35:00over a century.
35:02Rome emerges
35:03as the eventual winner
35:05in control of Italy
35:06with all its military manpower
35:08Sicily
35:09with its food supplies
35:11and parts of Spain
35:13with its silver mines.
35:16Recent climate science
35:18suggests that
35:19as Rome turned east
35:21to take on the successors
35:22to Alexander the Great
35:23it acquired
35:25a new ally.
35:27A growing body
35:29of evidence
35:29points towards
35:30a gradually warming
35:32climate
35:32that worked
35:33to Rome's advantage.
35:35Climate magnitude
35:37is how big
35:38a climactic event is.
35:39So you know
35:40warming of two degrees
35:42is a really high
35:43magnitude event.
35:45Scientists
35:45and historians
35:46now call this time
35:48the Roman climatic optimum.
35:51What that means
35:52is warmer temperatures
35:53in general
35:53in the Mediterranean.
35:55More evaporation
35:56from the Mediterranean
35:57which means
35:58more moisture in the air
35:59which in turn
36:00means more precipitation
36:01and higher agricultural yields.
36:04Every advantage
36:05for agricultural production
36:06would have helped
36:07underpin Roman expansion
36:09because the city of Rome
36:11is now doubling
36:12in size
36:12every 50 years.
36:14They simply had
36:15more to work with.
36:16More agriculture
36:17more people.
36:18There wasn't any
36:19block to their expansion
36:21coming from
36:22the outside world.
36:23But around 100 BCE
36:26the outside world
36:27was about to push back.
36:29A chain of events
36:31triggered by climate change
36:33sets the republic
36:34on the road
36:34to one man rule.
36:40Ancient sources
36:41tell us that
36:42extreme weather
36:43forced German tribes
36:44to leave their homelands
36:46and stream south
36:47towards the Mediterranean
36:48and Rome.
36:50And now
36:51science suggests
36:52that the cause
36:53of this extreme weather
36:54was a change
36:55in air pressure
36:56over the North Atlantic.
37:00In the Roman period
37:01during the Roman
37:02climatic optimum
37:03the North Atlantic
37:04oscillation is extremely stable.
37:05It doesn't change much
37:06which means
37:07moisture inputs
37:08under Europe as a whole
37:09are pretty predictable
37:10for better or worse.
37:12At the time
37:13of the Cimbrian-Thentonians migration
37:14the North Atlantic
37:15oscillation is making
37:16some of the weirdest moves.
37:20There might be more flooding
37:21there might be drier summers
37:22but overall
37:23the more chaotic system
37:25caused by a destabilized
37:26North Atlantic oscillation
37:27would probably incentivize
37:29people to migrate
37:30with the hope
37:31of finding a more stable area.
37:34These climate changes
37:35while small in magnitude
37:37can have big impacts
37:39depending on how vulnerable
37:41a population is.
37:43What we're really looking at
37:45is probably
37:45a sequence of changes
37:47that tipped them
37:48over that 10% line
37:49where they couldn't
37:50reliably predict
37:51what agriculture
37:52would do for them.
37:53It might very well be
37:54that increased flooding
37:56over 10 or 20 years
37:57led to those Germanic tribes
37:59to say
37:59we've got to pick an area
38:01that's more climatically stable
38:02and thus inspired
38:04their movements down south.
38:06And when a Roman army
38:07sent to stop
38:08those Germanic tribes
38:09is annihilated
38:10Rome's leaders
38:12have a national emergency
38:13on their hands.
38:17Rome manages
38:18for a long time
38:20with armies
38:21that are mainly made up
38:22of citizens
38:23who can go back
38:24to their farms
38:25and go back
38:25to their occupations
38:26at the end
38:27of the campaigning season.
38:30But to face this threat
38:32Rome calls on poorer citizens
38:34who until now
38:35had been exempt
38:36from serving in the legions.
38:41Rome needs so many men
38:42that it hires people
38:44who in the end
38:45have to not exactly
38:46make the army a career
38:48but they have nothing
38:49to go back to afterwards
38:50so they become really dependent
38:51on their generals.
38:52Roman soldiers
38:54now become the armed
38:55political forces
38:56of successful generals.
38:59It's only a matter of time
39:01before the generals
39:02turn on each other.
39:04The fundamental cause
39:05of the civil wars
39:06at the end
39:07of the Roman Republic
39:07was that generals
39:09were now
39:10too big
39:11to be brought back
39:12into the political elite
39:13and their armies
39:14were too numerous
39:15to be able to find
39:17a place
39:17as peaceful citizens.
39:19And it's those clashes
39:21that drive war
39:23more perhaps
39:24than the personalities
39:25of the generals
39:25at the time.
39:26After more than
39:27a generation of conflict
39:29the undisputed winner
39:30of the Roman civil war
39:32is Julius Caesar
39:33a political
39:34and military genius
39:35who becomes dictator
39:37of Rome.
39:40His attention then
39:42alights on Egypt
39:43where Cleopatra
39:45and her brother
39:45are squabbling
39:46over who should be
39:47Pharaoh of Egypt
39:48at a time
39:49of dwindling resources
39:51in their kingdom.
39:59Egypt under Cleopatra
40:01tries both politics
40:02and war
40:03to stave off
40:04a Roman takeover
40:05but it ends
40:07in failure.
40:09I think Cleopatra
40:10was by all accounts
40:11highly intelligent
40:13very skilled politically
40:14so she had a lot
40:15of very good things
40:16going for her.
40:17She was crowned
40:18Queen of Egypt
40:19fluent in both
40:21Greek and Egyptian
40:22traditions
40:22and language
40:23but she's inherited
40:25a very troubled kingdom.
40:27Cleopatra's ancestors
40:29the Ptolemies
40:30had stayed neutral
40:31as Rome conquered
40:33its way
40:33around the Mediterranean.
40:35In fact Egypt
40:36was a major supplier
40:37of grain
40:38to Rome.
40:40Cleopatra's Egypt
40:42is one of the
40:44great powers
40:45in the Mediterranean
40:45world
40:46but by Cleopatra's
40:48time
40:49it was becoming
40:50very clear
40:51that the
40:51dominant power
40:53was Rome.
40:55Her father
40:56had been propped up
40:57on the throne
40:58with Roman help
40:59and on his death
41:00Cleopatra
41:01was to reign
41:02with her younger brother.
41:05At that moment
41:06Julius Caesar
41:07sailed past
41:08the great lighthouse
41:09and into the harbour
41:11of Alexandria.
41:12It's Cleopatra's chance
41:14to plead
41:15for her own throne
41:16by gaining
41:17Caesar's favour.
41:18She had much
41:19to offer
41:20including the one
41:21major royal treasury
41:23the Romans
41:24hadn't yet plundered.
41:26She was going
41:27to need
41:27to keep
41:28herself
41:29on the side
41:30of the most
41:31powerful people
41:31in Rome
41:32to maintain
41:33Egypt's independence
41:34but also
41:35to secure
41:35her own position
41:36and if she
41:37got that wrong
41:38then not only
41:40was her own
41:40position
41:41as pharaoh
41:42at stake
41:43but Egypt's
41:44independence
41:44within the
41:45Mediterranean world.
41:47Caesar puts
41:48Cleopatra
41:48on the throne
41:49of Egypt
41:50but four years
41:51later
41:51he's murdered
41:52and Rome
41:53descends
41:54into another
41:55civil war.
41:57If that
41:58wasn't bad
41:59enough
41:59new scientific
42:01data
42:01suggests
42:01that Cleopatra
42:02was soon
42:03dealing
42:03not only
42:04with a nightmare
42:05in foreign
42:05affairs
42:06but also
42:07with a crisis
42:08at home
42:08in Egypt
42:09and this
42:10domestic crisis
42:11had its origins
42:12on the other
42:13side of the
42:14planet.
42:15The smoking gun
42:16is found
42:17buried deep
42:17in the Arctic
42:19ice of
42:20of Greenland.
42:20When it comes
42:21to understanding
42:22Mediterranean
42:22climates
42:23historians
42:23have focused
42:24on the
42:26Mediterranean
42:26specific
42:27environment
42:28and what's
42:28driving changes
42:29in the
42:30Mediterranean
42:30system
42:31but we know
42:31that there
42:31are global
42:33drivers of
42:34climate change
42:35in the
42:35Mediterranean
42:35and one
42:36of the big
42:36ones are
42:37large volcanic
42:38eruptions
42:39somewhere in
42:39the world.
42:42Meet
42:44hydrogeologist
42:44Jay McConnell.
42:45I think
42:46we'll end up
42:46doing probably
42:47four different
42:48sections.
42:49Is it all
42:49in pretty good
42:49condition?
42:50I hope so.
42:52He began
42:53his working
42:54life in the
42:55oil industry
42:55but his
42:56love of
42:57geology
42:57and archaeology
42:58made him
42:59switch career.
43:00So this
43:01is GISP2
43:02ice.
43:03So GISP2
43:04is the
43:04Greenland
43:05Ice Sheet
43:05Project 2
43:06ice core.
43:07Today he
43:08runs the
43:09ice lab
43:09here in
43:10Reno.
43:11The lab
43:12that we
43:12have here
43:13is the
43:13only one
43:13like it
43:14in the
43:14world.
43:14Our
43:15combination
43:15of
43:15instruments
43:16and the
43:16sophistication
43:17and our
43:17approach
43:17is different.
43:18We can
43:19analyze a
43:19meter of
43:20ice in
43:21about 20
43:22minutes and
43:22we get a
43:23continuous
43:23record as it
43:24flows into
43:24different
43:24analytical
43:25systems.
43:26In the
43:26old days,
43:27to do the
43:27number of
43:27things that
43:28we do,
43:28you would
43:28have had
43:28multiple
43:29ice cores
43:29just to
43:30do it.
43:30We're going
43:31to load it
43:31up into
43:31the stand
43:33and once
43:34we're ready
43:35we're going
43:35to let
43:36this piece
43:36of ice
43:37very gently
43:37down onto
43:38the
43:38melter plate
43:39and start
43:39doing the
43:39analysis.
43:41Contained
43:41in the
43:42ice is
43:42a record
43:43of the
43:43past
43:43environment
43:44and so
43:44the idea
43:45is that
43:45if we
43:45can
43:46analyze
43:46the
43:46chemistry
43:47in it
43:47and if
43:48we can
43:48date
43:48it
43:49well
43:49then we
43:50can
43:50start
43:50to
43:51try
43:51to
43:52understand
43:52how
43:53the
43:53environment
43:53has
43:53changed
43:54from
43:54droughts
43:55from
43:55wet
43:56periods
43:56from
43:56volcanoes
43:57and so
43:57forth.
43:57Joe's
43:59high-resolution
43:59technology
44:00means his
44:01analysis
44:01can unlock
44:02the secrets
44:03of the ice
44:04cause
44:04like never
44:05before.
44:07To me
44:07the exciting
44:08part is
44:08discovering
44:09something
44:09that no one's
44:11ever discovered
44:11before.
44:12It really
44:12as a scientist
44:13it's pretty
44:14fun.
44:16Joe was
44:17interested
44:18to see
44:18if these
44:18techniques
44:19could detect
44:19evidence
44:20of a
44:21volcanic
44:21eruption
44:22that occurred
44:23around the
44:23time of
44:24Julius Caesar's
44:25assassination
44:26in
44:261944 BCE.
44:29We were
44:30quite
44:30interested
44:31to try
44:32to
44:32understand
44:33this
44:33event
44:34a little
44:34bit
44:34better
44:34and
44:35maybe
44:35because
44:36this
44:36was
44:36an
44:36important
44:37time
44:37in
44:37history
44:37whether
44:38there
44:39was
44:39a
44:39climate
44:40impact
44:40or
44:40maybe
44:40a
44:41potential
44:41climate
44:41impact.
44:43Using
44:44their
44:44analysis
44:44they were
44:45able
44:45to
44:45show
44:46a
44:46large
44:46spike
44:47of
44:47sulfur
44:48confirming
44:49evidence
44:49of a
44:50major
44:50volcanic
44:51eruption
44:51but
44:52more
44:52than
44:52that
44:53also
44:53locked
44:54in
44:54the
44:54ice
44:54cause
44:54was
44:55the
44:55tephra
44:56or volcanic
44:56ash
44:57and
44:58they
44:58could
44:58link
44:58it
44:58to
44:59a
44:59particular
45:00volcano.
45:02It turned
45:02out it was
45:03a spectacular
45:03really almost
45:05unambiguous
45:05match to the
45:06Akmok volcano
45:07in Alaska.
45:08This is in the
45:09Aleutian chain
45:0955 degrees north
45:11something like
45:11that.
45:12A huge eruption
45:13which we date
45:14to 43 BCE.
45:16January.
45:17We can tell the
45:17season because of
45:18our resolution of
45:19our records.
45:19So we know it
45:20erupted in January
45:21February of
45:2243 BCE.
45:24Because we know
45:25the location
45:26we know what
45:26season
45:27we can do
45:28much more
45:28detailed
45:29climate modeling
45:30than normally
45:30would be able
45:31to do
45:31and from that
45:32we could then
45:32investigate
45:33or evaluate
45:34speculate
45:35about the
45:36impacts
45:36on the
45:37Mediterranean.
45:39Large volcanic
45:40eruptions such
45:41as Akmok
45:41inject sulfur
45:43gases into
45:44the stratosphere
45:44which are then
45:45converted
45:46into sulfate
45:47aerosols.
45:48That's important
45:49and the reason
45:50is because
45:51sulfate aerosols
45:53are very bright
45:54they're very
45:54reflective.
45:56So incoming
45:56solar radiation
45:57hits the
45:58stratosphere
45:5930 kilometers up
46:00it hits this
46:00layer of
46:01volcanic
46:02sulfate aerosols
46:04and gets reflected
46:05back into space.
46:06And so it's like
46:07putting up an
46:07umbrella and so
46:09the earth is
46:09shielded from a lot
46:10of that solar
46:11radiation and
46:12that's why you
46:12get cooling.
46:16Essentially
46:17that
46:18that we think
46:18caused a failure
46:19of the
46:20East African
46:21monsoon.
46:23The African
46:24monsoon is one
46:25of the key
46:26sources of rain
46:27that finds its
46:28way into the
46:28Nile
46:29flooding the
46:30delta
46:30and fertilizing
46:31the land
46:32that produces
46:33Egypt's grain
46:34supply.
46:35Crucially
46:36Joe's data
46:37pinpoints
46:38Akmok's
46:38eruption
46:39to the months
46:40before the
46:41monsoon.
46:42And the fact
46:43that we can
46:44now get
46:44the season
46:45of the eruption
46:46is also
46:46important because
46:47the Nile
46:48floods in
46:49the summer
46:49months and
46:50if we have
46:50an eruption
46:51that happens
46:52in July
46:53of a particular
46:54year it's not
46:55going to affect
46:55the Nile
46:56flood because
46:56the Nile
46:57is already
46:57flooding.
46:58But if an
46:58eruption happens
46:59in January
47:00or February
47:01that's enough
47:02time to
47:03impact the
47:04monsoon,
47:05the driver of
47:06the Nile
47:06system in
47:07that following
47:07summer.
47:09It was one
47:10of the biggest
47:10climate events
47:11of the last
47:112500 years.
47:12The extreme
47:14weather conditions
47:15brought on by
47:15this event
47:16affect everyone
47:17but Rome
47:19now has a
47:20huge and
47:20diverse portfolio
47:22of land
47:23and resources.
47:24It could
47:25soften the
47:25blow and
47:26bounce back
47:27quickly.
47:29Forced to
47:30choose sides
47:31in Rome's
47:31civil wars,
47:33Cleopatra
47:33plumps for
47:34the dashing
47:35Marc Antony.
47:36Once Julius
47:36Caesar's right
47:37hand man and
47:38now in control
47:39of much of
47:40the east,
47:40her fate
47:41and fortune
47:42is now
47:43tied to
47:44his.
47:45Controlling
47:46a wealthy
47:47Egypt with
47:48good Nile
47:48flow and
47:49good agriculture
47:50I think
47:50she could
47:51have arguably
47:52changed the
47:53game in the
47:54Mediterranean
47:54because the
47:55grain sources
47:56from Egypt
47:56are so
47:57fundamentally
47:57important to
47:59the Mediterranean
48:00Rome included.
48:05But it
48:05wasn't to
48:06be.
48:06The
48:07combined
48:07resources
48:08of Antony,
48:09Cleopatra and
48:10and the east
48:10proved no
48:11match for
48:12Octavian,
48:13Italy and
48:14the west.
48:16Antony takes
48:17the Roman
48:17way out
48:18and kills
48:19himself.
48:22Cleopatra's
48:22fate and
48:23that of
48:23Egypt is
48:24sealed.
48:27Rome is
48:28now the
48:28new
48:29Mediterranean
48:29empire and
48:31Octavian will
48:32be its new
48:33emperor,
48:33Augustus.
48:43Cleopatra
48:45determines her
48:46own fate.
48:47Death by
48:49poison.
49:09The year is
49:1130 BCE and
49:13with Cleopatra
49:14dead, the
49:15entire
49:16Mediterranean
49:16world, tens
49:18of millions
49:18of people is
49:20now connected
49:21together for
49:22the first
49:22time under
49:25Rome.
49:28I think we
49:29have to treat
49:29Rome as a
49:30very special
49:31case in
49:32political history.
49:33It managed to
49:34solve the
49:35problems that
49:36all states
49:37faced in
49:38first millennium
49:39BC.
49:39Rome just
49:39solved them
49:40better and
49:41therefore in a
49:42sense won.
49:45and the
49:46answer of
49:47course is
49:47cooperation at
49:49a certain
49:49scale.
49:50Human
49:50cooperation is
49:51so important.
49:53And for
49:54Joe Manning,
49:55cooperation is
49:56also the
49:57key to
49:58understanding
49:59the lessons
50:00of the
50:00past.
50:02I hope we
50:03work differently
50:04scientists,
50:05social
50:06scientists,
50:07humanists,
50:08archaeologists,
50:09historians,
50:10everyone working
50:11together around
50:12the same issue
50:13and I think
50:13we're going
50:14to kind of
50:14relearn that
50:15lesson which
50:15is a lesson
50:16the ancients
50:16knew well that
50:17we need the
50:18natural environment
50:19in order to
50:20survive.
50:20We're dependent
50:21on it.
50:25We should take
50:26care of it.
50:31The science is
50:32too good to
50:33ignore.
50:42on it.
50:55Ευχαριστώ.
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