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00:02Ancient Rome, home to a breathtaking lost palace, the Domus Aurea.
00:11This is a masterpiece of Roman architecture.
00:14This magnificent building is the vision of a cruel emperor, Nero.
00:21Does he start the great fire of Rome to build it?
00:25No one had known a fire on this scale before.
00:28Today, investigators must solve the riddle of the fire to discover the truth behind the palace and Rome's notorious ruler.
00:39Nero was a tyrant, capable of terrible things.
00:44To unearth this mystery, we'll deconstruct Nero's golden palace stone by stone,
00:52dive beneath spectacular ancient remains, and reveal what really burns down the greatest city of the ancient world.
01:09Rome, 64 AD.
01:12A devastating inferno breaks out in the heart of this ancient city.
01:16It burns for nine days, destroying most of the capital.
01:22A new imperial palace rises from the ashes.
01:27Nero's Domus Aurea, or golden house.
01:31Archaeologists believe it once covers a quarter of the city.
01:35With the building of the Domus Aurea, Nero wanted to impress the people.
01:42Today, little remains of Nero's spectacular home.
01:46But its reputation lives on in infamy.
01:50New discoveries suggest that this is a residence of unimaginable luxury.
01:58Hidden beneath modern Rome, lie the traces of this ancient mega palace.
02:04Roman writers describe a building with hundreds of rooms, surrounded by lush gardens,
02:10and covered with gold, jewels, and mother of pearl.
02:15Alongside, a private boating lake, bigger than ten Olympic swimming pools.
02:22And at the entrance, the crowning glory.
02:25A giant bronze statue of the Emperor Nero himself, towering 120 feet tall.
02:33The Domus Aurea is one of the largest palace complexes in the world.
02:38But does it hide a dark secret?
02:44Nero is Rome's fifth emperor.
02:47His reign begins well, but ancient writers say it descends into cruelty and tyranny.
02:54People had a lot of hope in Nero, but they started to change their opinion of him.
03:00He murdered his mother.
03:02Nero sends soldiers to stab his mother to death, convinced she is plotting against him.
03:09She is the first of many victims.
03:12And then he also started these very self-indulgent building projects.
03:19Ancient writers accuse the emperor of burning down Rome to build a gleaming new city.
03:25Are the stories true?
03:29Archaeologist Valerie Higgins investigates how the great fire starts.
03:33She thinks a clue lies inside this vast structure.
03:38The Circus Maximus.
03:41Ancient Rome's famous chariot racing track.
03:47Down at the far end, there were the starting gates.
03:51And so the horses would charge at race up this side of the track.
03:59This mighty stadium is one of Nero's favorite haunts.
04:03It also plays a key role in the fire that gives birth to his palace.
04:08According to the ancient historian Tacitus, the fire started in this corner of the racetrack.
04:17The Circus Maximus is a magnificent stone structure.
04:2225-foot-tall arches tower three stories high.
04:27But inside lies a timber frame that stretches over a mile around the stadium, supporting thousands of wooden benches.
04:37And at the base, dozens of shops encircle the entire stadium.
04:42In the early hours of July 19th, 64 AD, one spark starts a chain reaction.
04:51Flames spread rapidly, consuming the entire stadium.
04:56Is that initial spark simply an accident or a deliberate act of arson?
05:04Valerie assesses the conditions leading up to the fire.
05:09On the night of the fire, conditions here were perfect really for a fire taking hold.
05:16It was summertime. It was a big race meeting.
05:20All of the vendors would have had open fires to cook food on.
05:26Ancient writers report that the fire spreads quickly to neighboring apartment blocks.
05:33The tenement blocks, which were outside the Circus Maximus, were areas of dense housing, where everybody was crammed together.
05:43Valerie thinks these long-lost apartment blocks could help explain the fire's rapid spread across Rome.
05:50So she heads out into the city to search for more clues.
05:57Just as at the Circus Maximus, there were shops on the ground floor.
06:02And then above that, there's residential accommodation.
06:06Built deep into the capital line hillside, this second-century apartment block rises five stories high.
06:14Valerie has special permission to examine these rare remains that are off-limits to the public.
06:29This is one of the upper stories.
06:34And these are the walls demarcating one room.
06:41This space is so small, it's really hard to imagine more than one person in it.
06:46But it is quite probable that a family would have lived in here.
06:54The design of this building is almost identical to one from Nero's reign.
06:58But there's one important difference.
07:01In Nero's day, the buildings are made from wood.
07:06The apartment blocks at the time of Nero were all destroyed in the fire.
07:12This is a second-century apartment.
07:14It's built of concrete and brick and fire-resistant stone.
07:20And it's very much more robust.
07:25In 64 AD, many of the apartment blocks are shoddily built from flimsy timber frames, filled with mud and bricks,
07:34reaching up to six stories.
07:37Multiple apartment blocks crammed together to form residential islands.
07:42Narrow streets, sometimes only six feet wide, criss-cross around them.
07:48Tens of thousands of these tenements are interspersed across the entire city.
07:56These ramshackle residential buildings easily catch fire.
08:01The blaze rapidly spreads from block to block, quickly engulfing most of the city.
08:102,000 years ago, ancient Rome is a giant tinderbox waiting to go up in flames.
08:20No one had known a fire on this scale before.
08:24The sense of panic must have been absolutely indescribable.
08:29But there's a mystery.
08:31Ancient writers say this inferno doesn't behave like a normal fire.
08:38After six days of chaos, the blaze dies down, only to suddenly flare up again.
08:46The fact that this fire started again on the property of an official of Nero fueled the suspicion that perhaps
08:55it was Nero who was behind this fire.
08:59Is the emperor to blame for Rome's great inferno?
09:05Do the clues lie hidden in his golden palace?
09:25Nearly 2,000 years ago, a terrible fire destroys the heart of ancient Rome.
09:31Contemporary writers blame the emperor Nero.
09:35They say he starts the inferno to build a new city, one with an extravagant new palace, the Domus Aurea.
09:48Archaeologist Antonio Ferrandez hunts for evidence of the fire.
09:53We are in the very heart of ancient Rome, and every time we excavate here, we make extraordinary discoveries.
10:03Today, central Rome is a maze of ancient ruins.
10:07We have thousands of years of history here, and it's not simple to untangle.
10:16This is where Nero builds the heart of his new palace.
10:21Beneath these later ruins, Antonio's team makes an extraordinary discovery.
10:30Sixteen feet down, they discover the foundations of a first century aristocratic house that appears to be burnt to the
10:38ground.
10:40Surrounding the stones, a layer of ash and debris.
10:44Buried inside it, scorched pottery and mangled copper pots.
10:53Bronze coins, melted like chocolate.
10:58And a twisted piece of iron, the remains of a grate, melted from extreme heat.
11:06Could this incinerated building be rare evidence of the great fire?
11:15Antonio analyzes the fire-damaged remains in his laboratory at Rome's Sapienza University.
11:25He wants to find out if this really is proof of the great fire.
11:31His first step is to measure the intensity of the damage.
11:36Here you can see a plate that was used to eat.
11:41This little stamp you can see at the center, which buried the name of the potter.
11:48It should appear red, but as you can see, it's black because it was damaged by the fire.
11:56The fire burns some metallic objects from the house beyond recognition.
12:02It's so hot, it fuses them together.
12:08You can see that because of the heat of the fire, other objects were absorbed by the iron, like this
12:16fragment of pottery.
12:17This tells us how hot, how incredibly hot was the temperature during the fire.
12:26The mangled remains reveal that the fire inside the house tops 1100 degrees Fahrenheit.
12:35But are these remarkable objects from the time of the great fire?
12:41Antonio believes the answer may lie with a fragile oil lamp.
12:46This is a very special object.
12:50He dates the lamp to Nero's reign.
12:54It was very exciting to find this kind of lamp because it allowed to understand that the crisis of destruction
13:02and all the objects within this layer belong to the same era, the Neronian era.
13:09Antonio's discovery proves a raging inferno sweeps through Rome 2,000 years ago at the end of Nero's rule.
13:18It's not just the intensity of the fire which is remarkable.
13:24The extent of the devastation is huge and curious.
13:29Here's a nice spot.
13:32Antonio heads up Rome's ancient Palatine Hill.
13:36He uses modern satellite imagery to reconstruct Rome just before the fire.
13:42Here we have a map of modern Rome.
13:45Here you can see the Colosseum that is over there.
13:50Obviously what you'd see in the age of Nero before the fire was completely different.
13:56In these areas where a lot of houses belong to senators and rich people.
14:04Ancient writers claim that Nero wants all of this prime real estate.
14:10Nero was planning something absolutely massive.
14:15Intriguingly, the footprint of the palace matches vast swaths of the destroyed areas.
14:24In 64 AD, the fire starts at the Circus Maximus.
14:29It rages for nine days and destroys over 60% of the city.
14:33It leaves a blank canvas for Nero's audacious rebuild.
14:37On the charred hill where the Roman elite once lived, Nero builds the Domus Aurea with hundreds of rooms for
14:45entertaining.
14:47And in the valley where once lay houses for the lower classes, he erects a network of opulent palaces and
14:55fills the gardens with wild animals.
14:59Nero turns a bustling city centre into a 200-acre luxury country retreat right in the heart of Rome.
15:10This is where a building for an astonishing new palace built for one person, Nero.
15:20The evidence is circumstantial, but highly suspicious.
15:24So could the ancient authors be right?
15:27Is the emperor capable of committing such a deadly act?
15:31The ancient authors say Nero was a tyrant capable of terrible things.
15:39Nero's grand vision is magnificent.
15:41But is it worth sacrificing an entire city for?
15:48The answer could lie with an astonishing discovery buried deep in this Roman hillside.
16:09In 64 AD, a catastrophic fire devastates the ancient city of Rome.
16:16Contemporary writers claim that Nero sings while watching the metropolis burn.
16:23But does Nero really torch his capital to build a new city with an extravagant residence, the Domus Aurea?
16:31Is all this worth destroying old Rome?
16:36500 feet from the Colosseum lies the only surviving section of palace.
16:47Archaeologist Alessandro D'Alessio investigates this astonishing structure.
16:57This is a masterpiece of Roman architecture.
17:01Alessandro believes this section of palace, built on top of incinerated Roman homes, is used to entertain guests.
17:12There are more than 150 rooms inside.
17:16Faded mosaics and frescoes cover almost every surface.
17:22It's possible that Nero and friends come here to observe this amazing, beautiful decoration.
17:32Legend says the heart of the palace hides an astonishing wonder.
17:38A banquet room that supposedly rotates day and night.
17:47As you can see, one of the characteristics is amazing use of the light that this architecture can do here.
17:57For years, archaeologists think that this octagonal chamber is the rotating room of legend.
18:04Hidden windows give the impression of the sun moving around it.
18:11When Nero and his friends entered here, they could see a natural light that in the passing of the hours
18:20could change.
18:25At first, historians believe an actual revolving room is just a myth.
18:32But a new discovery in this section of Nero's palace on the Palatine Hill reveals that truth is stranger than
18:40fiction.
18:42Buried beneath this canopy are the ruins of an incredible mechanism.
18:48Two crumbling arches are all that remain of a grand branching structure over 65 feet tall.
18:56On the top, archaeologists discover strange holes arranged in a ring.
19:03Inside them is a soft clay, possibly a lubricant.
19:07A clue that they could have once held bronze ball bearings.
19:12Twenty of them spinning in unison, revolving the floor of the legendary dining hall.
19:22The ambition behind Nero's palace is clear.
19:26But what does it take to build such a magnificent structure?
19:35Today, the remains are buried deep behind these walls.
19:51Archaeologist Françoise Villedu tries to work out what the dining room itself looks like.
19:58She heads down to the base of the walls to investigate.
20:01La construction néonienne se trouve maintenant derrière ce mur, à 1,52 mètres derrière.
20:10On sevelit dans la terre.
20:12The upper floor of the revolving room is missing.
20:16Françoise thinks that a coin minted during Nero's reign could reveal what it looks like.
20:22Cette partie-ci de la représentation monétaire pourrait correspondre exactement au sous-bassement que nous avons trouvé.
20:30Tandis que celle qui est au-dessus, dans ce cas, correspondrait à la salle à manger.
20:37Around the edge of the image, the letters Mac-Aug.
20:40They could also mean Machina Augusti, or machine of the emperor.
20:46Ce que j'apprécie moi, c'est sa passion pour les sciences, pour les techniques,
20:52qui se traduit par la réalisation de ce bâtiment.
20:57Nero is a ruler who will stop at nothing to get whatever he desires.
21:02This room is one of the most sophisticated machines in the ancient world.
21:07But how do his engineers power it?
21:12This nearby aqueduct could be a clue.
21:19The remains of the aqueduct lie close to Nero's palace.
21:24Nero can divert its water to the base of his rotating dining room.
21:30The water feeds a huge water wheel two stories high.
21:34It turns night and day with the constant flow.
21:38Connected to the wheel are a series of cogs and gears.
21:43These transmit the force of the water up towards the rotating floor.
21:50The dining room perpetually rotates, allowing banqueters panoramic views of the city, both day and night.
22:15This revolving masterpiece is every bit as lavish as the contemporary writers describe.
22:22So are they also telling the truth when they blame the emperor for the great fire?
22:32Nero is one of Rome's cruelest emperors.
22:36He murders his two wives and numerous friends and advisors.
22:41Does his desire for beautiful architecture push him over the edge into arson and mass murder?
23:02The great fire of 64 AD spells disaster for the ancient city of Rome.
23:09Ancient writers describe how shadowy figures throw burning torches into undamaged buildings.
23:17Are these Nero's men?
23:20Or is this ancient propaganda designed to discredit the emperor?
23:28Archaeologist Antonio Ferrandez is on a mission to investigate.
23:33Here on the top of the Palatine Hill, you could find the most preach houses of the Romans.
23:41The sort of people who lived here were senators.
23:46These luxurious hilltop houses are built from much stronger materials than the flammable timber homes of the poor.
23:54But we found a few places of them, so they have been destroyed somehow.
24:01After the fire, it's here that Nero builds one section of his palace.
24:05It contains the incredible rotating dining room with views overlooking his private lake.
24:12Is the destruction here a coincidence?
24:15Or a deliberate act of arson?
24:19According to ancient Romans, there was no doubt it was the Emperor Nero.
24:27On this site in 64 AD stand upper-class homes built to last.
24:33Travertine stone blocks form the doorway.
24:36And the concrete walls are reinforced with bricks.
24:41Marble slabs and mosaic tiles make up the floor.
24:47And tucked at the back, stone pillars surround a cloistered garden.
24:55Above them, heavy tiles form a solid roof.
24:59But these solid houses also burn down in the Great Fire.
25:05Is this evidence of arson?
25:12In Scotland's Edinburgh University, Luke Bisbee is a structural engineer and fire investigation specialist.
25:21He's going to examine if arson is to blame for the destruction of these homes.
25:26In an urban fire, different materials are going to respond in different ways.
25:29Mostly depending on whether or not they're combustible.
25:32And this depends fundamentally on their chemistry.
25:37Luke will use this high-tech heat machine to test the materials found in ancient Roman buildings.
25:43He wants to find out how intense heat affects them.
25:48He starts with a piece of timber used in the construction of the homes in the poorer districts.
25:53So what we're doing here is we're simulating the conditions that we would expect as a fire approaches a building.
26:02Okay, Nikolai, fire it up.
26:06This custom-built rig acts like a giant heat lamp.
26:09It uses special heating panels to warm up the surface of the timber sample.
26:14We're not going to see flames shooting from the machine.
26:17We're just going to see radiation impacting on the sample to heat its surface.
26:22It's estimated that a large nearby building fire could radiate temperatures of over 1500 degrees Fahrenheit.
26:31Let's go to 20 kilowatts per meter square.
26:35Luke inches the machine forward to increase the level of heat radiation affecting the sample.
26:45We're starting to see some surface charring of the timber. It's starting to smoke.
26:50At this distance, the surface of the timber is around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
26:58Okay, Nikolai, let's go to 40.
27:05Suddenly, the timber bursts into flames.
27:11So what this test has shown is that you don't actually need a naked flame in order for the timber
27:16to ignite, provided that the severity of heating is high enough.
27:20The test proves that Rome's wooden buildings can ignite when subjected to around 1200 degrees of heat.
27:28So how much hotter does a fire have to be to destroy the stone villas in the wealthier districts?
27:34So in these more affluent buildings, many elements will have been made from Roman concrete or other types of stone.
27:40The stronger structural elements, things like columns and lintel elements, will have been made from travertine.
27:47Travertine rock is extremely strong.
27:50Roman builders use it as a load-bearing material.
27:54But it's also very expensive.
27:56So Luke uses a block of ordinary limestone, which has similar properties.
28:02Alright, so let's start the test, Nikolai.
28:05First, he raises the temperature to around 1200 degrees.
28:09The same temperature range that sets light to the timber.
28:13This test is a first for Luke.
28:15He wants to examine what effect the heat will have on the limestone.
28:19And we can see that the limestone block is just sitting there blinking at us.
28:23The stone easily resists the heat.
28:26So Luke moves the panels closer.
28:30He increases the temperature to over 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.
28:37This is more representative of the conditions that you would have next to really a very large raging inferno.
28:44As the machine edges closer, a crack on the surface begins to appear.
28:51Just having a look and I start to see maybe a bit of surface disintegration and there's definitely a large
28:56crack that's growing on the surface of this block.
29:00Here we are now testing out 1500 to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.
29:04And this is certainly representative of the extreme temperatures that we would expect in the Great Fire of Rome.
29:11It just popped way out.
29:13With the crack expanding and fears the stone could shatter, they stopped the test.
29:23Once cool, Luke examines the damage.
29:44Luke's test proves that it doesn't require arson to destroy these buildings.
29:51The intense heat from the giant inferno raging all around is enough to bring them down.
29:59We would see this process repeated one building after another as the fire progresses eventually to destroy the entire city.
30:07In 64 AD, Rome is unprepared for a fire of this magnitude.
30:15The city has an army of 7,000 firefighters called vigiles.
30:20But they're only used to tackling small fires.
30:25At first, they create fire breaks.
30:30They use ropes to pull down burning apartment blocks to save public buildings.
30:37They carry water from the city's public fountains and feed it to a hydraulic pump that shoots the water in
30:44the air to douse the flames.
30:47But in the hot summer of 64 AD, the cisterns run dry.
30:52With no water to fight the fire, the vigiles can only watch while Rome burns.
31:00I would think that an ancient team of firefighters would have had a very difficult time fighting one of these
31:05fires.
31:05It would be almost impossible to have any hope of even slowing a fire of this magnitude.
31:13Confusion and fear could explain the stories of shadowy figures setting fire to undamaged houses.
31:20There are still many unanswered questions.
31:24Why do new fires spring up in different places across the city in an unnatural pattern?
31:31Could the answer finally exonerate Nero or prove his guilt?
31:52The End
31:53Investigators hunt for the truth behind the great fire of Rome.
31:58Roman writers claim the Emperor Nero orders the Inferno to clear space for a new, more beautiful capital.
32:07Nero is certainly capable of unspeakable cruelty.
32:11But archaeologist Antonio Ferrandez believes he also wants to improve his city.
32:17Nero was a big fan of beautiful buildings and monumentals, creed.
32:23But before the fire, Rome was very different.
32:27In the years before the fire, Nero longs to rebuild and beautify Rome.
32:33He even has a new name for his new city, Neropolis.
32:38I think that Nero was a dreamer, was very ambitious.
32:46During the Inferno, other fires ignite at random in different parts of the city,
32:52away from the main blaze.
32:54Is this unnatural spread finally proof that arson, not accident, is behind the destruction?
33:03In Scotland, fire investigator Rory Haddon is going to examine if arson is the only explanation for this seemingly unnatural
33:13spread of fire.
33:14Just so that when we slide it under here, to put the fire out.
33:19Rory believes flaming embers play a key role in the fire's pattern of behavior.
33:25I just want to examine the effect that wind has on ember dispersal.
33:30So we have a fan here that's going to generate some wind for us.
33:33Then in front, we've positioned some materials that will generate some firebrands.
33:38And down here, the straw is a combustible base.
33:43Do you want to go ahead and light the fire?
33:51As the wood ignites and begins to char, it will produce a small number of fiery embers.
34:00I'm going to turn on the wind now and see what happens with these embers.
34:08The fan blows on the burning wood.
34:11Small embers peel off and float through the air.
34:17As soon as the embers hit the straw, it begins to smolder.
34:21Small fires spring up wherever one lands.
34:25The firebrands generated from the pieces of wood were randomly dispersed on the combustible material.
34:33And now we have a flaming fire.
34:39This random dispersal of embers reveals how new fires can sporadically start, seemingly out of nowhere.
34:48What we saw here was the result of two small pieces of wood.
34:51If you imagine scaling that up to a city-wide fire, we'd be generating millions of embers and they'd be
34:57being transported by the wind and landing all over the place.
35:01To the everyday ancient Roman, this would very much have the appearance of random fires starting all across the city.
35:10Rory's experiment reveals how wind plays a key role in the strange spread of the fire.
35:19At the height of the inferno, a strong wind sweeps through the city.
35:24It pushes the blaze up the Palatine Hill, like wildfire.
35:30But the fire also moves south, against the wind.
35:35Some believe that the inferno becomes so big, it takes on a life of its own.
35:41With our current understanding of large fires, we know that big fires will generate their own wind.
35:48So the wind generated by the fire is potentially large enough to overcome the natural wind, and therefore distribute embers
35:55throughout the city.
35:58The fire's behavior is disturbing, but perfectly natural to an investigator like Rory.
36:04But it can easily look like arson to an ancient Roman.
36:09So whilst we can't definitively rule out arson, what we've seen today is a much more plausible explanation for why
36:14the fire would have appeared to spread randomly and widely across the city.
36:19These modern tests are powerful new evidence for Nero's innocence.
36:25After the fire, the emperor even rushes to the aid of his people.
36:29He throws open his private grounds for shelter, and lowers the price of corn.
36:35But despite this, why do his own citizens insist he is to blame for the fire?
36:42Could the answer lie with the destruction of his golden palace?
37:03After the great fire of Rome burns out, Nero quickly begins building the Domus Urea.
37:10He seizes vast swaths of the gutted city to build his dream project, Neropolis.
37:17With the construction of the Domus Aura, Nero took for his property a public space.
37:26The Emperor embarks on a colossal building spree.
37:30Nero sources white marble from the north, and volcanic sand for concrete from the south,
37:38and gold and rare gems from every corner of his realm.
37:43Slaves and free workers construct the palace over four years, building cutting-edge concrete
37:49domes and miles of marble pillars.
37:54The Emperor also begins an ambitious plan to transform the rest of the city.
38:01Archaeologist Valerie Higgins believes that the scale of the fire genuinely shocks Nero.
38:07Afterwards, the Emperor introduces some of the world's first building regulations.
38:12Perhaps, ironically, the fire of Nero actually improved the safety features of future buildings
38:22in Rome.
38:25He orders that new buildings across the city are built to withstand fires.
38:30Most significantly, the roads were made wider, so that the fire could not jump so easily
38:37from building to building.
38:40It also was required to have balconies, which made it easier to fight fires on upper stories,
38:48so that people who lived in tenement blocks such as this would have a better chance of escape.
38:54These actions are not the mark of a cold-blooded arsonist.
38:59But if Nero cares so much about his city, why do generations of Romans insist he is to blame
39:05for the fire?
39:07A clue could lie in the eventual fate of the Domus Aurea.
39:14Nero's palace is a mighty statement of wealth and excess.
39:18The buildings shine with gold and mother-of-pearl, and his statue towers over the city.
39:31But after four years of construction, Romans ransack the palace.
39:37Stripping off the precious jewels and gold leaf, they drain the lake and bury the palace.
39:45On top, they build an enormous structure, the Colosseum, a symbol of a city to be shared by all Romans.
39:59Archaeologist Alessandro D'Alessio believes the sheer scale of the palace is the reason for Nero's unpopularity.
40:06With the building of the Domus Aurea, Nero wanted to give to the people a message.
40:15But instead, the people send him a message.
40:18After four years of construction, Nero is overthrown, and Rome's hated emperor commits suicide.
40:26His ultimate successor, Vespasian, knocks down the Domus Aurea.
40:32And builds the Colosseum as a huge theater of gladiatorial spectacle and entertainment.
40:38Open to the people, not just for one emperor.
40:42When Nero died, the dynasty after him started to give back to the people the public space.
40:53Nero commits many unspeakable atrocities.
40:57But new investigations reveal he is likely innocent of his greatest crime.
41:02I didn't know the proof, but I can touch the masterpiece he left to us.
41:08And this is the masterpiece of a dreamer.
41:13Nero's obsession with the Domus Aurea seals his reputation.
41:17I don't think Nero started the fire of Rome.
41:22But what is significant is that the people of Rome actually thought he might be capable of it.
41:30Archeologists continue to unearth fragments of Nero's selfish palace.
41:35They're uncovering the true scale of this astonishing building.
41:40And new insights into the tyrannical Nero.
41:44The great fire of 64 AD remains one of the most devastating catastrophes of the ancient world.
41:52A disaster forever connected to Rome's notorious ruler.
42:26Many humans are in their own especially,
42:26You
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