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Roman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts - Season 1 - Episode 01: Pompeii: A City Alive
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00:03I'm on another train and another adventure into the past, but this is my most ambitious
00:10journey to date. I'm going in search of the Roman Empire.
00:20Taking the train, I'll be travelling 1,300 miles through Italy, France and Spain to discover
00:28the origins and secrets of its success. I'll be exploring some well-known Roman sites and
00:38some unfamiliar ones. From the massive to the miniature.
00:49I want to know how a single city comes to control such a vast territory. Experts from
00:56around the world will help bring Roman culture to life.
00:59The sands of Capua become the jungles of India.
01:03Revealing clues to the Empire's success that lie all around us.
01:07Who said the time machine does not exist? We got it.
01:12In this episode, I'm time travelling, going back 2,000 years.
01:18It is absolutely mind-blowing to walk through a Roman city.
01:22Taking on tourists to see Rome's most infamous art collection.
01:27I'm losing my place in the queue. Are you in line or not?
01:30Yes, I am in line.
01:32And getting a sneak peek of a game-changing artefact.
01:36It was totally unexpected and it's something you'll never forget.
01:59I'm heading to the southernmost Italian point on my crest. And the perfect place to start
02:06my exploration of the Roman Empire.
02:12I can't believe I'm going back to Pompeii. It's been a while. The last time I was here I was
02:1815.
02:22I'm waiting for a glimpse of Vesuvius. I know it's there.
02:28OK, so there it is. We have Vesuvius to my left. On my right, the Mediterranean.
02:47The port of Pompeii was seized by Rome in 80 BCE, becoming part of its trading network
02:53around the Mediterranean and beyond, and later helping to drive the empire's expansion from
02:59North Africa to Britain. Then, in 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted.
03:10Spearing a cubic mile of volcanic ash that swiftly entombed Pompeii and everything inside it.
03:25This platform will soon be teeming with tourists. But late last night, we got the thumbs up from
03:33Pompeii's modern rulers. They're letting us in a little before the official opening time
03:38to explore this unique record of life in a Roman city.
03:44Sophie! Hi! Nice to meet you!
03:46How are you? Nice to meet you too!
03:48Shall we go straight in? Yeah, you live here, don't you?
03:50I do, yes. This is my home. I know. This is, well, home and office.
03:56Archaeologist Dr Sophie Hay lives and breathes Pompeii. She studied the site for her PhD
04:02before fulfilling a lifetime ambition to work here.
04:08This is the hard way into Pompeii. The uphill route, but it takes us straight into the forum,
04:15so it's quite a sort of dramatic entrance into the city.
04:34All roads in Pompeii led to the Stately Forum, home to the city's rulers, regulators and religions.
04:44Overseeing a prosperous city of some 1,200 buildings that's now a time capsule of the era.
04:52Making it the perfect place for me to kick off my exploration of the lives of ordinary people in this
04:59vast empire.
05:02So what are we walking past here? What are these little buildings?
05:06These big wide entrances, whenever you see a big wide entrance, it's usually a shop or a workshop, something commercial.
05:11Yeah.
05:12They're right on the main street that crosses east-west across the whole city.
05:17Yeah.
05:17So you've got huge wide entrances, there's sometimes a counter in there, so sometimes it's a bar,
05:24but there's perfume makers, there's metal workers, all sorts of industries going on.
05:31And then if you get a narrow entrance, it's usually to a private home.
05:34Yeah.
05:35Or a big wide entrance.
05:36Oh, wow, what's that?
05:37Into a temple.
05:39Can we step in there?
05:40A temple, of course.
05:42So this is the Temple of Apollo.
05:44It's really lovely because this has been a sacred site ever since the 6th century,
05:49sort of right at the beginning of Pompeii.
05:51So 6th century BCE?
05:53Yes.
05:53That's the beginning of the town, is it?
05:56Yes, it's the earliest evidence from excavations.
05:58It's just incredible, isn't it?
06:00It's just all here.
06:01Yeah.
06:02Here we get this kind of unfiltered view of life in Pompeii.
06:07Of everybody.
06:08Exactly.
06:08Yeah.
06:09We have a big volcano to thank.
06:12Let's carry on this exploration because there's quite a lot more, isn't there?
06:17This city is huge.
06:18I think a lot of people don't realise it is a real, real city.
06:24OK, where are we going next?
06:25So, I think we'll keep heading on Vanderme, right?
06:29It is absolutely mind-blowing to walk through a Roman city.
06:33No, really.
06:33And just feel it, visually feel it.
06:36Exactly.
06:37It's really immersive.
06:38Yeah.
06:39And you can start thinking, goodness, yeah, I can hear the carts rattling up and down,
06:45the bustle of people on the pavements.
06:48It's the streets that hold everybody.
06:51This is the great sort of mixing place.
06:53This is where the elite are mixing with the slaves.
06:56Yeah.
06:56Or even the homeless.
06:57And what's it?
06:58Why have you got these?
06:59What's this?
06:59Ah, good question.
07:00So, Pompeii doesn't have a, um, drainage system.
07:05So, or sewer system, rather, so water would just flow.
07:08It doesn't have sewers?
07:10It does not have sewers.
07:11Oh, my goodness.
07:12It decided...
07:12Open sewers, then.
07:14Exactly.
07:14So, when it rains, uh, or the fountains are overflowing, you get water rushing down.
07:19And these are basically a crossing point.
07:21Yeah, yeah.
07:22To keep the heat kind of out of the dirt and muck.
07:25Yeah, good.
07:25You wouldn't want to be stepping in and out, would you?
07:27I know, it's still working today, I can tell you.
07:28Huh?
07:32Meanwhile, outside the entrance gates, the tourists are getting restless.
07:37In recent years, Pompeii has recorded annual visitor figures of almost 4 million people.
07:44With some already trickling in, there's no time to waste.
07:49What's this?
07:50Is this original?
07:51Yes, this is.
07:52This is one of their many fountains that are put in place in the first century.
07:57Because, essentially, an aqueduct gets built then, and suddenly you get piped water.
08:01So, this is free.
08:02This is really lovely.
08:03So, water's being piped into this?
08:04Yeah.
08:04So, you've got a whole load of lead water pipes that come from the aqueduct.
08:08So, the pipe's coming through here?
08:10Yeah.
08:10Yeah.
08:10And then, exactly, a little piped water spout coming through, filling this basin.
08:15And who's this with a horn of plenty, a cornucopia?
08:18So, this is the goddess Abundance.
08:20Yes.
08:21But each one has a different sort of relief on it.
08:24Yeah.
08:24So, there's one with a bull's head, one with mercury.
08:27And I swear, I mean, I have no evidence at all, but it would be lovely to think, I guess,
08:31that they use these as markers and say, I'll meet you by...
08:33I was going to say, it's the obvious thing to do, isn't it?
08:35To go, I'll meet you at the Abundance Fountain.
08:38Exactly.
08:39Exactly.
08:40So, in the private buildings here, would there have been piped water, or are they coming out here to get
08:46their water?
08:46A lot would be coming here, because it's free.
08:49Yeah.
08:49If you've got money, you get piped water, because you have to pay for it to go into your home.
08:54So, it's a sort of a display of wealth if you've got piped water.
08:57And when you do, you'd suddenly get fountains in the garden, and, you know, they leave the pipes out.
09:03It's not that they're ashamed of them.
09:04Oh, really?
09:05They don't mind, because it's, you know, encouraging people to see that they've got the money to have pipes.
09:11Yeah.
09:11So, you know, there are gardens where you suddenly, yes, you get these horrible sort of kitsch, well, horrible to
09:16my mind, kitsch thatchery,
09:18with sort of little jets of water of sort of babies carrying ducks and, you know, for some reason the
09:23taste in the garden goes a little beyond mine.
09:27I think we know that from modern garden centres.
09:29Yes, exactly.
09:30Very much, very much the same.
09:32But in the houses that didn't have running water then, this is going to be part of their daily routine?
09:36Yes.
09:37Coming to the fountains, fetching water.
09:39They'd have met their neighbours and friends at the fountain.
09:42Exactly.
09:43Caught up on what's going on in the next household along.
09:46Yeah.
09:46You start to really piece life together, don't you?
09:48Yeah.
09:52We're walking Roman streets from the era of Emperor Vespasian, almost 2,000 years ago.
09:59I love these wheel ruts.
10:01I know.
10:01This is where you can hear Pompeii with the sort of clattering of cartwheels going through.
10:07Records show there were over 1,000 bustling trading settlements like this across the empire.
10:14Lovely house.
10:15I know.
10:16The beautiful thing right now in Pompeii is that you get to do what the Romans did.
10:19Peer in through the door.
10:21Because people would be doing that.
10:24But I'm beginning to wonder, how much busier can it get?
10:29I mean, it feels like everyone's come to Pompeii today, but you say this is a quiet day?
10:33This is lovely and quiet, yes.
10:35Thankfully, yes, we have now capped the number of tourists, which I know can be frustrating
10:40for the tourists, but in the end, it's good for the archaeology.
10:44It is better for the tourists too.
10:46And it's definitely better for the tourists.
10:48The experience is better.
10:53Pompeii has capped daily admissions at 20,000 people, which was roughly the population of
10:59the city.
11:01And it's a real privilege to be one of that number.
11:05But I'm about to learn more about the heartbreaking tragedy behind Pompeii's immortality.
11:24I'm in the time warp that is the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
11:31Accidentally discovered under three metres of volcanic ash in 1594 by workmen digging a canal.
11:40It wasn't until the 18th century that proper excavations began here.
11:45And as resident archaeologist Sophie Hay explains, they continue to this day.
11:54At the moment, we've dug two thirds of Pompeii and we've found a thousand skeletons
12:01and we have about a hundred human casts.
12:03Okay.
12:04So, unless everybody ran to the one third of Pompeii that hasn't been excavated
12:10and we're yet to find them, it means that most people escaped.
12:14They did escape.
12:15Yeah.
12:15Having lost everything.
12:17Yes.
12:17All gone.
12:18That's it.
12:19Yeah.
12:19When we do find them, some only have a key in their hand, which to me breaks my heart
12:24because they've locked up and they think they're going to come back and unlock it.
12:28Yeah.
12:29And that, you know, to me is just, you know, they have no idea what was sort of heading their
12:34way.
12:35Yeah.
12:35It's pumice, isn't it?
12:36Is it?
12:37Yeah.
12:37So it's three metres of this sort of little dried lava.
12:40Yeah.
12:41Which comes coming out and then rains down.
12:44Would that have been hot when it fell?
12:45It would have been warm.
12:47Yeah.
12:47It wouldn't have been burning, burning.
12:49Yeah.
12:49But it would have been warm enough.
12:51Yeah.
12:52Because you get these kind of impressions of lava.
12:54Yes.
12:54Fiery lava pouring over.
12:56Well, that's the Hollywood.
12:58And it's not right.
12:58It's not true.
12:58No.
12:59That is the Hollywood version because apparently an eruption isn't sort of dramatic enough.
13:03Yeah.
13:03You have to add to it.
13:05So no, no lava that day at all.
13:08If it had been covered in lava, it would have remained because it would have been a solid
13:11rock and we would never have excavated.
13:14Yeah.
13:14Yeah.
13:15Yeah.
13:17The fact that victims were interred in ash allowed archaeologists in the late 19th century
13:23to create the Pompeii castes.
13:27These aren't petrified bodies, the archaeologists poured wet plaster into voids in the ash left
13:35by bodies that had long since decomposed, immortalising their agonising final moments.
13:42There are over a hundred casts.
13:45Seeing men, women and children entwined in a final embrace, or worse still, dying alone,
13:52really brings home the tragedy of what happened here.
13:57What have we got here?
13:58So, we have a laundrette, which is rather lovely.
14:02Sort of another idea of sort of some of the industry that would have been happening along
14:06this main road.
14:07Yeah, yeah.
14:07And obviously they wear tunics and things.
14:11Look at the painting.
14:11Look at the painting.
14:13Oh my goodness.
14:14Precisely.
14:14No, here it is stunning.
14:16And this has been sort of recently conserved, so it's looking really fantastic at the moment.
14:23When they excavated, they found very sort of domestic goods here.
14:26So we think they're living in this bit.
14:28Yeah, yeah.
14:29But the engine room of this property is at the back.
14:33So they're living in the middle of their shop.
14:34Yeah, yeah.
14:35We do know that they used urine as a detergent.
14:39Right.
14:40And so there's this sort of idea that, oh, it must have been horribly smelly and how disgusting to live
14:45so close.
14:45I mean, it probably wouldn't be pleasant.
14:47No.
14:48But I don't think it's just...
14:49How do you know they were using urine?
14:50Is that from test here or is it from documentary evidence elsewhere?
14:53So we've got sources that tell us all about this.
14:55And in fact, it comes to a point where they leave little amphory outside.
14:59Yeah.
14:59They've locked the top off and they get passers-by to pee in it.
15:02And then Vespasian gets wind of this.
15:05So the emperor thinks, hang on a minute, there's an exchange of goods going on here and I'm not making
15:10money out of it.
15:11They didn't tax urine.
15:13And so he taxed urine.
15:14And his son Titus says, but dad, that is disgusting.
15:19Yeah.
15:19And the sort of the urban myth is that Vespasian pulls out a gold coin and waves it under the
15:25nose of Titus and says, does that smell to you?
15:28And so he says, okay, fair point.
15:30Good, good.
15:31Yeah.
15:31Good point.
15:32Well made.
15:33I mean, it has to be business.
15:34It's a name and empire.
15:35And so, yes.
15:36But it's a very clever idea to kind of have done this free exchange in the past.
15:41Yeah, yeah.
15:42That urine has ammonia in it and that's what kind of bleaches and sort of sterilizes your clothes.
15:48Yeah.
15:50So where's the actual laundrette then?
15:52At the back seat?
15:53So it's out at the back.
15:55The sort of engine room, if you like, of the laundrette is up here.
16:01Where we can see...
16:03Oh, yeah.
16:04It's a big tank.
16:05These sort of big tanks.
16:06So you've got a series of basins and this is where your slave is kind of leaning on the edges.
16:11Yeah.
16:11And just treading up and down.
16:13It's all done by hand.
16:14And it's all done by hand.
16:15And foot.
16:16Yes.
16:17By slaves.
16:18Mm.
16:18And yeah, you're going to be busy.
16:20So all these slaves working hard here generating income for the people that live in the rather nice bit of
16:25the house in the middle.
16:26Exactly.
16:26Yeah.
16:27Exactly.
16:27Yes.
16:29Hoping one day they will be freed.
16:31Yeah.
16:31Yeah.
16:33We look at the beauty of Roman culture and then you've got to remember that this is a slave society.
16:41Yes.
16:41That the workforce is largely slaves.
16:43Exactly.
16:44You know, you've seen some beautiful frescoes and you're, oh, that's the dazzling bit.
16:50And then you've got to remember, yeah, there's this undercurrent.
16:53Yeah.
16:54Of, you know, pretty much, let's say a quarter of the population of Pompeii is going to be slaves.
16:59Yeah.
16:59You don't get a town like this without that.
17:02Yeah.
17:03You feel this familiarity, connection, and then you have to remember, wait a minute, you know, pull focus moment.
17:10Like, we are not the same. Our culture is not the same.
17:20Social hierarchy defined life in Pompeii.
17:24While slaves toiled in businesses across the city, wealthy Roman citizens flocked to Pompeii for its fine views and even
17:33finer wine, building extravagant villas to underline their status.
17:43And I'm off to see the grandest of them all.
17:46This is the most popular place in the whole of Pompeii, it looks, the House of the Vetti.
17:54I'm losing my place in the queue.
17:56Are you in line or not?
17:57Yes, I am in line.
18:00The House of the Vetti is the most ornate in the city.
18:04Thought to have been owned by the Vetti brothers, wine merchants who made vast fortunes and wanted everyone to know
18:12it.
18:20Oh, what's going on in here?
18:24Hidden away in this little room.
18:27Various exciting positions.
18:31Wow.
18:35These racy artworks might make us blush, but for the Romans, mythology and erotic imagery were part of everyday life.
18:47Well, I'll say this about the Vetti, they love their sexy wall paintings.
18:54The Vetti brothers had a lot to show off about.
18:57Before finding their fortunes, they'd somehow managed to find their way out of child slavery.
19:15What a day.
19:17I was going to say, I hope you've seen everything.
19:19I haven't seen...
19:20No.
19:21You can't.
19:22It's two beats.
19:23I must have seen 10% of what's been uncovered here.
19:26But you've seen it well.
19:27I think what I'm left with is the impression I had actually when I came when I was 15,
19:32which is just how overwhelmingly huge this site is.
19:36But I'm kind of leaving knowing that I have to come back.
19:39Of course.
19:40No-one does a city in a day.
19:41No-one nowadays visits a city and thinks,
19:44Tick, I've done the whole city in one day.
19:46It's just an old, older city.
19:48Yeah, of course.
19:49But it's still a cityscape.
19:50Yeah.
19:50And so it's good to leave things.
19:52I haven't even seen it all and I've worked here for many years.
19:54Really?
19:55Yeah.
19:55There's always something behind the door that's...
19:57There's still new routes through it.
19:57Yeah, no, absolutely.
19:59Yeah.
20:00Always a reason to come back.
20:15I've scratched the surface of Pompeii's secrets.
20:21But I can't wait to find out more about life under Roman rule.
20:43I've taken a train to travel just 15 miles from Pompeii
20:47to this bustling modern metropolis of three million people.
20:55The city of Naples also lies in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.
21:01Which is perhaps why everyone here seems in such a hurry.
21:07Just like Pompeii, the Romans weren't the first to recognise Naples' strategic location
21:13on the Mediterranean coast.
21:16As we'll see around a mile from the main train station at the church of St. Agnello.
21:23Buongiorno.
21:24Oh, buongiorno.
21:25Benvenuta.
21:26Buongiorno.
21:26Can I look around?
21:28Certo, certo.
21:29Prego, prego.
21:30Grazie.
21:31Buongiorno.
21:36Buongiorno.
21:39Buongiorno.
21:40Look at this.
21:41If there was ever a better illustration of the way that history grows up and cities grow
21:48up over time, I can't think of many.
21:54Largely, most of what we can see here dates back to the 16th century.
21:57This is already quite impressive.
22:02In the 1970s, the church was being restored and they started to dig down where you'd expect
22:09to find things like a crypt under a church.
22:11But this isn't a crypt.
22:13This is much earlier archaeology.
22:15These massive walls with these huge stone blocks there go back even before the Roman period
22:23in Naples, back to when it was a Greek colony.
22:28So we're looking at part of the original city walls of the Acropolis here in Naples going back as early
22:36as the 4th century BCE.
22:40How brilliant is that?
22:47This takeover of what had been Greek strongholds is mirrored across the Roman Empire.
22:54And I suspect I'll be seeing a lot more of it on my travels.
22:58But when I look at Naples today, I can see the city Pompeii could have become.
23:05Take the street that dissects the historic centre, just like the one Sophie and I explored in Pompeii,
23:12and known as the Spacanapola, which literally translates as Naples Splitter.
23:26Then at the very heart of modern Naples, a latter-day forum.
23:33Elegant Plebiscito Square is home to a basilica, the royal palace and government buildings.
23:40All built with volcanic stone from Vesuvius.
23:45There have been countless other eruptions of varying magnitude since the 79 event that buried Pompeii.
23:54Over a coffee, I want to investigate the most recent major eruption that was recorded on film less than 100
24:01years ago.
24:03Ah, that's it.
24:07That's the main thing.
24:10That's the main thing.
24:13Dateline Southern Italy, March 19, 1944.
24:18Temperamental Vesuvius let loose with a torrent of steam and cinder blocks on that day,
24:22and an unexpected thrill that certainly was not on the tour list provided by the US government.
24:27The huge volcano spewed white-hot lava and sent it charging down its sides toward the billow.
24:33It's interesting to see this footage from 1944.
24:36You can see how destructive that eruption was, but that was a slow-moving river of lava,
24:43very different to the superheated cloud of ash that poured out of Vesuvius back in the Roman period,
24:51swamping Pompeii.
24:52That was so much more destructive.
24:58Yet that 79 CE eruption barely touched Naples, where a museum today houses the largest collection of Pompeii artefacts in
25:09the world.
25:15Valentina.
25:16Hi, Alex. Nice to meet you.
25:18Hi.
25:19Nice to meet you, too.
25:20Thank you very much.
25:22I'm really excited about exploring this museum.
25:24You're really welcome in our museum in Naples.
25:26Yeah.
25:26Should we head this way?
25:27Yeah.
25:29Yeah.
25:30It makes more sense.
25:31Valentina Cosentino is one of the archaeologists here.
25:36Which way now?
25:38Now.
25:38Yeah.
25:39She knows I'm seeking a glimpse into the everyday lives of ordinary citizens of the Roman Empire at the time
25:46of the eruption.
25:48And is this furniture from Pompeii?
25:50Yes, furniture from Pompeii.
25:52Wow.
25:53What's that?
25:54It's like a tiny castle.
25:57It's a boiler.
25:58In the shape of a castle?
25:59Yes.
26:00Yes.
26:01So you'd light a fire in the middle, presumably?
26:03Yes.
26:03The fire in the middle.
26:04Yes.
26:05Oh, my goodness.
26:06That's incredibly elaborate, isn't it?
26:08So you have a little source of hot water.
26:10It's a little city.
26:10Yeah.
26:12It's very ornate.
26:15It's sobering to imagine these everyday objects sitting in Pompeian family homes as Vesuvius erupted.
26:24A tragedy that caught out even the city's most fearless inhabitants.
26:29Look at that.
26:30That's so light.
26:31This is the helmet of Mirmillo.
26:32This is the helmet of Etrax.
26:34Where are these found?
26:36In the house of gladiator in Pompeii.
26:38Okay.
26:45They're incredible, aren't they?
26:48Alongside the traditional armour, an artefact suggesting that sometimes, even for a gladiator,
26:55laughter may prove the best defence.
26:57We don't know exactly what is that.
27:00It was found in the gladiator's arms.
27:03Yeah.
27:05It's almost a joke hat that you can hit somebody with a sword.
27:09We don't know.
27:09And they look like they're wearing a straw hat.
27:11Really?
27:12We don't know.
27:13Oh, I love that there are these mysteries.
27:15Archaeologists, yes.
27:16Yeah.
27:16Yeah.
27:22Pompeii yielded up yet more tantalising clues to its culture in frescoes, an ancient mural painting
27:29technique that involved applying pigment to freshly laid lime plaster before it dried.
27:37So this is back in the 18th century where actually what they're doing is then taking the frescoes off the
27:43walls.
27:44Yes, yes, yes.
27:45These frescoes and the walls upon which they were painted were ripped out of Pompeii in the 18th century
27:51and added to the private art collection of the King of Naples.
27:56While they captivated intellectuals and the public across Europe, sparking a revival of interest in Roman culture,
28:04their crude removal caused untold damage to Pompeii.
28:09Thankfully, when new frescoes are discovered in the city today, they're preserved right where they were painted 2,000 years
28:16ago.
28:17Back when Vesuvius erupted, this was the most modern decoration that you could have in your house.
28:23This was made not so many years before the eruption.
28:26Yeah, yeah.
28:27With kind of fantastical architecture.
28:29Yes.
28:33That's amazing.
28:38So if we go into this other room, did you say we're looking at earlier styles?
28:42Yes.
28:46Alongside the imaginary landscapes, Pompeii's frescoes capture contemporary life from the era, including people who lived there.
28:55Oh, she's wonderful. They're both wonderful.
28:58Do we know who these people are?
29:00Terentius Neo with his wife.
29:03Records found at Pompeii show that Terentius Neo and his wife ran a bakery from their home.
29:10See, that's amazing.
29:12Yes.
29:12To know somebody's name and have a picture of them from the first century.
29:17Yes.
29:18Somebody who's not an emperor.
29:19Yes.
29:20You know, we have pictures of the emperor.
29:22Yes, yes.
29:23Now this is a common person.
29:24Yeah.
29:27Pompeii's frescoes also give an insight into scandals that rocked the city.
29:32One captures locals clashing with people from the next town, New Syria.
29:38They started to fight in the amphitheatre.
29:40Yeah.
29:41And then outside too.
29:42A lot of people died.
29:44So this kind of ritualised violence that goes on inside the amphitheatre can occasionally spill
29:48out into the city.
29:49Yes, because for different supporters.
29:52And then it starts like now in the stadium.
29:57Yeah, yeah.
29:58Like a football riot.
29:59Yes, yes.
29:59Like a football match.
30:02So it seems like the Romans even invented football hooliganism.
30:07The riot in 59 CE, just 20 years before the eruption of Vesuvius, led to the emperor, Nero, banning
30:15gladiator games in Pompeii for 10 years, giving locals more time to express themselves through
30:21frescoes, the Roman tick-tock of the day.
30:25I love the range of the frescoes, that some of it is entirely imaginary landscapes and myths.
30:31Yes, yes.
30:31Some of it is current affairs.
30:33Yes.
30:34This is like having a photograph from a newspaper on your wall.
30:39I think it helps bring the city alive.
30:41Yes.
30:42It's giving you a window on the past.
30:44Yes.
30:44Yeah.
30:46Oh, that's wonderful.
30:58I did say I'd return to Pompeii again someday.
31:02I just didn't think it would be tomorrow.
31:06But the director of the entire site has offered to show us something they've just excavated
31:12and we'll be the first documentary crew allowed in to see it.
31:19How could I say no?
31:39I'm on my way back to the Roman city of Pompeii to see what archaeologists there are hailing
31:45as a once in a century find.
31:48And we're the first documentary crew invited in to film it.
32:09While the priority for Pompeii's custodians these days is conserving the two thirds of the site that is exposed, they're
32:18still conducting careful excavations of the remaining seals.
32:22It's called 22 hectares, resulting in some amazing new finds.
32:29Recently unearthed, the bodies of a rich man and his enslaved server, a thoroughbred horse and a ceremonial chariot featuring
32:41this brass medallion.
32:47The man in charge of these new excavations is Gabriel Zuchtriegel.
32:52Gabriel.
32:53Hi.
32:55Hi.
32:56Hi.
32:56Lovely to meet you.
32:58Like Indiana Jones.
32:59It gets so hot here, doesn't it?
33:01And we're not even at the height of summer yet.
33:03Yeah.
33:07This buried building measures over 3,000 square metres.
33:14Yet Gabriel believes it was owned by just one wealthy individual yet to be identified.
33:20And that's just one of this fresh site's intriguing mysteries.
33:25When we excavated here, someone had been here already.
33:31In the 18th century, they make a hole in the board.
33:37Oh, yeah.
33:38And then they have these stepping holes to...
33:42It's like a ladder, OK?
33:44So they've tipped these in in order to crawl down, and they would have been bucketing out the pumice.
33:50They left everything, but...
33:53They'd taken the floor.
33:55You can just see the marble tiles still there at the edges.
33:59That was a time when the King of Naples built several chateaus and castles, and so he needed marble.
34:11So they're reusing this.
34:12They actually used Pompeii as a kind of, um, quarry or stall for marble.
34:19So it's builders finding basically a very cheap source of prepared, beautiful, you know, dressed marble ready.
34:27Yeah, absolutely.
34:32But there's been another discovery here.
34:36But the real, really important part of the house is...
34:40Over there.
34:41...on the other side of this wall.
34:43It's like a labyrinth.
34:45It's something that may shed light on a secretive element of Roman history.
34:53We're still in the same house, Gabriel.
34:56Yeah.
34:56This is all part of the same house?
34:58It's all part of the same.
34:59And as I said, we narrow only a small portion of it.
35:06This would be a great banquet hall with columns on three sides.
35:11And here you could see the garden.
35:13Of course, it was not dark in antiquity.
35:15And again, this has been looted, this floor.
35:18Yeah.
35:18Yeah.
35:20It's hard to see because the archaeologists have covered this banqueting hall to protect it from the elements.
35:26This was excavated actually only a few months ago.
35:31Yeah.
35:31So it was very aperturally unexpected.
35:35Yeah.
35:37And it's something you'll never forget.
35:42The room has three walls of frescoes featuring Maenads, who were the wild playgirls of the older Greek mythology.
35:51So this is a Maenad, Gansen.
35:55Yeah.
35:55Almost lewd.
35:58So she's a follower of Dionysus.
36:03The Roman Empire was alive with diverse cults and religions, the cult of Dionysus being just one.
36:10Dionysus was the Greek god of wine and revelry.
36:14And the Maenads were his followers, mythologized women who worshipped him in an ecstatic frenzy, wearing very little and partying
36:23hard, sometimes even turning violent.
36:28And here we see another one of these women.
36:32She's a Maenad.
36:34And she has her hair loose opened.
36:38Yeah.
36:38Which is also something a good Roman lady would never do.
36:43No, she must have her hair covered with a veil.
36:45But then in this ritual, it changes.
36:49It's all different.
36:50It's women with a wild, dangerous side to them.
36:52Yeah, exactly.
36:56The mythical Maenads appealed to Romans, who adopted Dionysus as a god, renaming him Bacchus.
37:05Roman Bacchanalian parties were notorious for wild behaviour by men and women alike.
37:14And we found this here.
37:16She's really a well-dressed hair maid.
37:22So she's not a Maenad?
37:24She's not really a Maenad.
37:26She's a woman you could meet here in the streets or maybe in this banquet hall.
37:30Yeah.
37:32These women, I think they were just normal women.
37:37But another detail suggests that this normal, respectable Roman woman is about to be initiated into the wild parties.
37:45And who's this?
37:46And then you see this old lad with grey hair.
37:51Yeah.
37:51He's kind of looking toward her.
37:52Naked Bacchus.
37:54Yeah.
37:54And what's he...
37:55What does he have in his head?
37:57That's a torch.
37:59And so that's a typical initiation scene.
38:04And he's leading her toward the night time rituals where she's going to be initiated.
38:13Which involves what, Gabrielle?
38:15That she becomes like the others.
38:17Okay.
38:18For a certain period of time.
38:21That she is going wild.
38:24They'll drink wine and dance.
38:26They call it ecstasy.
38:27Yeah, yeah.
38:28So it's outside your normal social roles.
38:32Yeah.
38:32And they had rituals to do that.
38:36Do you think this is depicting something that was really happening?
38:39Potentially, yes.
38:41Because you're slipping between myths and reality here.
38:43Yeah.
38:43It's so weird.
38:45I mean, it's so bizarre to our eyes, isn't it?
38:47I mean, if you just look at this painting at face value, you've got an old man and this much
38:53younger woman.
38:54And what's he... What's his role?
38:56What's her role?
38:57He's the guide.
38:58So he's...
38:59It's not, you know, a sexual thing between them.
39:02He's clearly a mythological figure.
39:05Yeah.
39:07It's impossible to know if this is depicting reality or fantasy, but it's the first time a middle-class Roman
39:14woman has been seen in such a fresco.
39:18Yeah.
39:18And this is really something special because we have so little evidence of the Roman mystery cults and initiation because
39:26it was secret.
39:28Yeah.
39:28And so this gives us some hints, some ideas.
39:33This is 2,000 years ago. I mean, that's the most amazing thing, isn't it?
39:36But we're looking at paintings from 2,000 years ago, especially because so few people have seen it in these
39:42last 2,000 years.
39:43Oh, thank you.
39:50I'm off to see someone else exploring the dramatic new finds from these current excavations.
39:58Ludovica.
39:59Hi.
40:01I've been exploring.
40:03How are you?
40:03Lovely to see you.
40:05Did you like this?
40:06It's amazing.
40:07I mean, this is your job then to conserve all this newly uncovered archaeology.
40:11This is my job here.
40:14Yeah.
40:14This is my job in Aldo Park.
40:16One of Dr Ludovica Alessa's conservation priorities is preserving rooms as they were at the moment Vesuvius struck.
40:26So this is one of the areas that you're working in now?
40:30Yeah.
40:30Yeah.
40:31We have to clean it up to have again the pleasure to see it.
40:36It's a beautiful miniature painting.
40:39And I love the way there's all this space.
40:40Yeah.
40:41And then you've just got this little painting in the middle of it.
40:44Because this was a really elegant place.
40:47Yeah.
40:48You have to imagine this huge black room with white mosaics on the floor.
40:55Right.
40:55With small figures, with lamps during the night, creating an atmosphere really, really elegant.
41:02And what did they find in this room?
41:04In this place, we didn't find a lot.
41:07But in this house, we didn't find a lot of objects.
41:09Okay.
41:10Because, you know, it was a place that we're in a rebuilding.
41:13So, as you can do nowadays, you empty the room and you work inside.
41:18So this house was in the process of being renovated?
41:21When Vesuvius erupted.
41:23Yeah.
41:25When Vesuvius erupted.
41:26When Vesuvius erupted.
41:27They didn't finish.
41:27Yeah.
41:28Well.
41:30We're time-traveling again.
41:31To the moment decorators had to down tools here in 79 CE and flee for their lives.
41:40But as this wall reveals, fresco painters were used to not hanging about.
41:46You can see also in this, this is better.
41:50This is the quality of painting they were able to do in a day.
41:55Because fresco technique is day by day.
41:59Yeah.
41:59Because you have to be really fast in painting before the reaction.
42:03Yeah, yeah.
42:05Yeah.
42:06So they'll do all that in a day.
42:08They'll skim an area and they'll paint it and that all happens on the same day.
42:13So then they'd move on and they never did.
42:15Yeah.
42:16I think it's amazing to have that record of process.
42:19You know, the fact that you have caught a room in the process of being re-plastered and re-frescoed.
42:26Yeah.
42:27It's the part of the story.
42:28Yeah.
42:28If you take a part of this and put it into a museum, you lose the story.
42:35Yeah.
42:35And also coming here, having a tour inside this place, this wonderful place, where ANSI and ROMA were working.
42:44And you can see this here.
42:45Yeah, yeah.
42:46You are in the story.
42:48It's gorgeous.
42:54Another room reveals something new about Roman frescoes.
42:58A surprising secret ingredient.
43:01It almost looks like it was a little shine, perhaps.
43:04But at this point in time, they're using it to store things.
43:08Yeah.
43:09Yeah.
43:09And oyster shells.
43:11Oyster shells.
43:12Is this lunch or is this actually material for making something?
43:16Maybe they're both.
43:16Maybe they have it for lunch, but they preserve it to use it for working on the walls with new
43:24paintings.
43:24So they crash it as a powder.
43:29Yeah.
43:29They mix it with water.
43:31They apply on the wall.
43:33They paint really fast.
43:35The day of work.
43:36So this goes into the plaster?
43:37Yeah.
43:37Yeah.
43:38Yeah.
43:38As you know, oysters, they sparkle a bit.
43:41Yeah.
43:43So you could have a perfect surface when you want to do a perfect fresco.
43:48Yeah.
43:50So powdered oyster shells gave these frescoes an iridescent shimmer that has long since faded.
43:58I have to keep reminding myself that we are standing in rooms in a city which is 2,000 years
44:07old.
44:07Yeah.
44:07I mean, it's incredible.
44:09Yeah.
44:09It's incredible.
44:10It's a still life picture.
44:11Yeah.
44:11Yeah.
44:13And I think I'm really lucky to have the possibility to come here every day.
44:18Hmm.
44:19The important thing is to share this.
44:21You're doing an amazing job of giving it to future generations.
44:32I started my exploration here in Pompeii because it feels like the closest thing we can
44:38get to a living, breathing city from the Roman Empire.
44:43Thanks to archaeologists whose work here puts us within touching distance of ordinary lives
44:49in this incredible civilization.
44:52From how they acquired their water and discharged their waste, to how they cleaned their dirty linen
44:59and treated slaves, we're granted a window into the ancient Roman world without the precious
45:07site itself ever being compromised.
45:09And that's a really delicate, high-stakes juggling act.
45:15What a start to my exploration of the Roman Empire.
45:20But I'm heading back to Naples and more Vesuvius-inspired discoveries.
45:29I'm leaving Pompeii behind and staying in Naples for tomorrow.
45:35I'm going to head to another site that was also in two rooms by the same eruption in 79 CE.
45:45It was a site that was affected very differently.
45:48There's a different story there to, I mean, cover.
45:51And so I'm looking forward to Moray, to heading to Hercules.
46:02Next time, I go in search of ancient Roman scrolls.
46:06This is ash inside the building.
46:09Yes.
46:10They're just mining into it. This is crazy.
46:13I discover the meeting place for a secret religion.
46:16This was a very popular mystery cult with violence at its core.
46:23And find the home of a rebellion.
46:26I'm Spartacus!
46:31And you can see all that next Saturday at 9 when we get back on the train with Alice.
46:36Unearthing the hidden potential in ordinary people.
46:39Secret Genius with Alan Carr and Susie Dent continues.
46:43Stream or watch tomorrow at 9.
46:44Up next, a history-inspired epic about fierce women warriors
46:48fighting for their people and their freedom.
46:51Starring Viola Davis, it's the network premiere of The Woman King.
46:56The Man on the train with us.
46:57with aggravated General Motors.
46:57And we will be ruling out the train with us.
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