0:00:03 > 0:00:06This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21In 79AD, this volcano exploded.
0:00:21 > 0:00:27Down below, around the bay of Naples, there were farms, houses,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30luxurious villas, Roman towns.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33The best known is Pompeii.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39The eruption which wiped this ancient town off the Roman map
0:00:39 > 0:00:42is one of the world's most famous disasters,
0:00:42 > 0:00:47but the tragedy has given historians a priceless legacy.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55The inhabitants were overwhelmed by gas, lethal gas, volcanic debris
0:00:55 > 0:00:59and we found their bodies exactly where they died.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05Many have been cast in plaster, frozen in time.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10They've tantalised the world with their last horrific moments of death.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12But they tell us little about their lives.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Now, in a cellar just two miles outside Pompeii,
0:01:20 > 0:01:26are 54 well-preserved skeletons lying exactly where they died.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29They were hiding from the full force of the volcano.
0:01:29 > 0:01:332,000 years later, they're about to give up their secrets.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I'm wondering whether they can tell us something
0:01:38 > 0:01:41about the most interesting question in Pompeii,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44which is not how the people died, we know how they died,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49it's about how the people in Pompeii actually lived.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54For the 25 years I've taught classics at Cambridge
0:01:54 > 0:02:00I've been fascinated by what life was really like day to day in ancient Pompeii.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I am hoping these skeletons will help take this understanding
0:02:04 > 0:02:09one step further and put my theories to the test.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13I'll explore the opulent and the ordinary.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15Don't have to be rich to wear jewellery.
0:02:15 > 0:02:19In a city of the refined and the rude.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23It looks to me as if the woman is on top of him but sucking his toes.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27I'll see the hardship endured, and the pleasures savoured.
0:02:27 > 0:02:30These guys don't look too pissed yet.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34I can't find where I left my glass.
0:02:34 > 0:02:40I want to see if we can probe a bit deeper and get beneath the skin of this ancient town.
0:02:40 > 0:02:46- You don't get closer to real Rome than being in a cesspit, do you?- No.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50I am hoping that the people in the cellar will help me discover
0:02:50 > 0:02:54what life was like before Vesuvius forced them to flee.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11Pompeii is the most important archaeological site in the Roman world.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Nowhere else do we come face to face with antiquity
0:03:15 > 0:03:18up close in quite this personal way.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21These perfectly preserved ruins
0:03:21 > 0:03:26bring millions of us here each year to see a snapshot of Roman life.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31But that's all we see, a snapshot.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35Of a society where it appears the rich enjoyed a life of luxury
0:03:35 > 0:03:39and everyone else, the poor and the slaves, lived lives of drudgery.
0:03:39 > 0:03:41That's always seemed too simple to me.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44It's much more interesting than that.
0:03:44 > 0:03:51I want to bust a few myths about the rich and the poor in Pompeii.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55This was the stretch of coastline where rich Romans,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59I mean really, really rich Romans from the capital,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01used to come for their holidays.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05It was supposed to be particularly popular with the fast set,
0:04:05 > 0:04:10they came here to gamble, to have fun, to have sex.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Sort of a cross between Las Vegas and Brighton.
0:04:18 > 0:04:23And that's what makes Pompeii so remarkable.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27It was a town where ordinary people lived cheek by jowl
0:04:27 > 0:04:29with the hedonistic rich.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36It had all the essentials of a Roman town, with a forum at one end,
0:04:36 > 0:04:41and at the other an amphitheatre and training ground for gladiators.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45A market, temples, baths, even a brothel.
0:04:45 > 0:04:50Perhaps 12,000 people packed into less than a square mile.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58Pompeii lies between the Mediterranean and Vesuvius.
0:04:58 > 0:05:04It's 17 miles along the coast from Naples, not far from Herculaneum,
0:05:04 > 0:05:06and it's in a suburb of Pompeii,
0:05:06 > 0:05:11Oplontis, where the cellar of skeletons was unearthed.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20It must have seemed a sensible place to come.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24It's partly underground and that would have seemed safe,
0:05:24 > 0:05:26but it's got good access from the road outside.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33It's very hard not to be...
0:05:33 > 0:05:37moved by this site.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39They might be 2,000 years old
0:05:39 > 0:05:42but they're still victims of a terrible human tragedy.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46On the other hand, I can't help wondering
0:05:46 > 0:05:51what these bones might tell us about the life of these people.
0:05:51 > 0:05:55The first thing we can tell from the cellar
0:05:55 > 0:05:59is that these people appear to be divided into two groups.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02On one side they were carrying money and jewels.
0:06:02 > 0:06:07These bodies have been catalogued and tidied away into boxes.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11The others, left where they fell, were found with nothing.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14So how can we explain this divide?
0:06:14 > 0:06:19You could come up with all kinds of theories as to why it might be.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25But for my money the most likely thing is that we're dealing with a distinction in wealth.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32These skeletons are important
0:06:32 > 0:06:36because many of the bones found at Pompeii have simply been jumbled up.
0:06:36 > 0:06:40And the plaster casts, they're very poignant, but are much less useful
0:06:40 > 0:06:46for forensic science because the bones inside get contaminated.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Remains preserved like those in the cellar
0:06:50 > 0:06:53exactly where the people died are rare.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55For the first time,
0:06:55 > 0:07:00these are going to be analysed by a forensic team, led by Fabian Kanz.
0:07:02 > 0:07:06So far we have found at least 54 individuals here, at least,
0:07:06 > 0:07:12and this gives us a broad cross section of the society
0:07:12 > 0:07:14of the Romans at that time.
0:07:14 > 0:07:20The point is we have a great opportunity here because we have a snapshot of the society.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23We might have slaves, we might have upper class people,
0:07:23 > 0:07:27and we can find out if there have been big differences.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32One of the most complete skeletons is that of a man of about 55.
0:07:32 > 0:07:37Apart from some dental cavities he seems in pretty good nick.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41If you look at the other bones, I noticed this.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44I don't know much about skeletons but that looks to me like
0:07:44 > 0:07:47something that's got a real big muscle attachment.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50Yes, it's the right upper arm,
0:07:50 > 0:07:53and it's the muscle attachment for the brachialis,
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and as you can see on the left side, it's nearly the same.
0:07:56 > 0:07:59And he must be a really strong man.
0:07:59 > 0:08:05He's my age, he's got about as good teeth as me, but he's much stronger.
0:08:05 > 0:08:11These are the rest of his bones, but why are his bones green?
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Yes, you're right. On the whole left side he's green.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20And green comes from metal objects, which means he was wealthy.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24There was some bronze or copper
0:08:24 > 0:08:28or brass objects buried with him.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32He had a considerable amount of metal wealth with him.
0:08:32 > 0:08:37Yes, the acid in the soil is reacting with the metal object
0:08:37 > 0:08:39and that makes him green.
0:08:39 > 0:08:46Nearly all of the so-called rich sample, have been at least one or two bones green.
0:08:46 > 0:08:52So they all have been buried close to something metal.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56Whereas what we call the poor, do any of them have this green?
0:08:56 > 0:08:58No, not at all.
0:08:58 > 0:09:04Carrying no possessions at all, the bones of the people on one side are unmarked.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08But, on the other side of the cellar, the people with green bones
0:09:08 > 0:09:11were discovered with a dazzling array of objects.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17These are now kept in a guarded vault
0:09:17 > 0:09:20at the archaeological museum in Naples.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24For the very first time I've been allowed to get really
0:09:24 > 0:09:30close to this amazing stuff, and actually get my hands on it.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Look, this is really exciting for me.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37This is the first time I have even touched any jewellery from Pompeii.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41I am going got be very naughty, and put the bracelet on.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45However cynical you are, however much a boring old academic you are,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49it's still exciting to wear the bracelet worn 2,000 years ago.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Nothing will ever stop me thinking that's exciting.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I think this is very attractive, actually.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03You pick it up, you can feel instantly it's heavy. This is a solid bangle.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08But what strikes you about it, instantly, is that it's so big.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11It's not only women that wear bracelets,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14this could be man's jewellery, a big hunky man.
0:10:14 > 0:10:20This is really is a very, very delicate piece of jewellery.
0:10:20 > 0:10:25They told specifically that I'm not allowed to try this one on.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27The links are really tiny.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30It's very high-quality workmanship, very nicely done.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33It must've been, it would be very pricey now,
0:10:33 > 0:10:35it must have been pricey then, too.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39There was a vast treasure horde in the cellar.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Close to the skeleton of the man with green bones,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46was a woman in her early twenties.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49She had with her
0:10:49 > 0:10:54one of the very, very biggest amounts of money found with anybody,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56anywhere in Pompeii.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01In Roman currency, it was 10,000 sesterces.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06What that means is it's about the equivalent
0:11:06 > 0:11:10of 10 year's pay for a legionary Roman soldier.
0:11:10 > 0:11:12These are some of the coins.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Some were in silver, but a lot were in gold.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20And she had them with her in two separate containers.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23Instantly you can see
0:11:23 > 0:11:26the silver ones are very worn.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29These actually have been
0:11:29 > 0:11:35money in circulation. These are for actually buying things in the Pompeian market place.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40But the gold ones are in absolutely beautiful condition.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44I think what this tells us is these really have been somebody's savings.
0:11:44 > 0:11:51You can imagine very easily what must have happened, that the people were fleeing,
0:11:51 > 0:11:55they wanted to take their valuables with them, they get the purse,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59they stuff what's most important to them, these things.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03They stuff it inside the purse, put it in their pocket and off they go.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08This is what the people in the cellar chose to take with them
0:12:08 > 0:12:09as they tried to escape.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15They sought refuge from the eruption in what was probably an underground storeroom.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18They never made it further than this cellar in Oplontis.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22The building above the cellar appears, at first,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25like a two-storey, residential home.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30But, if you explore a little further,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32you see that much more was going on.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43There's a large building with two floors of storerooms,
0:12:43 > 0:12:49piles of big containers and wheel ruts made by hundreds of carts.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52This was clearly more than somebody's house.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57This is an agricultural depot.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59It's ghostly now.
0:12:59 > 0:13:05In Roman times, it must have been an absolute hub of activity with people
0:13:05 > 0:13:09packing things up, carting things, wheeling them off,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12getting them ready for despatch.
0:13:12 > 0:13:19Whoever owned this place must have been pretty wealthy.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23But he wasn't anything like as wealthy as one of his neighbours,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27because just over there, few yards form this place,
0:13:27 > 0:13:30is one of the most luxurious villas
0:13:30 > 0:13:33ever found in all of the Roman world.
0:13:37 > 0:13:43The cellar is only a stone's throw from this stunning Roman mansion.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48100 rooms, decorated with sumptuous frescos, painted with pigments from
0:13:48 > 0:13:51the farthest corners of the Roman empire.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59And to top it all, an Olympic-size 200-foot-long swimming pool,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01where the guests could let their hair down.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06So, while the rich frolicked at their pool parties,
0:14:06 > 0:14:09what was life like on the streets of Pompeii?
0:14:11 > 0:14:14What I used to...
0:14:14 > 0:14:18Mattia Buondonno's family has lived in Pompeii for generations
0:14:18 > 0:14:21and he's one of the site's most experienced guides.
0:14:21 > 0:14:27He's got a local sense of how this place might once have been.
0:14:27 > 0:14:33What's your sense of what the ancient town was like, the basics, what was life like here?
0:14:33 > 0:14:35Smell!
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Smell of the people, smell of the activities of
0:14:40 > 0:14:44commerciality that was here, smell on everywhere,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46smelling on money.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48And the smell of the animals too, presumably.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52- Yes!- And just think of the smell of the shit.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54- Yes!- Awful!
0:14:54 > 0:14:57For them was normal life.
0:15:02 > 0:15:03To get an idea of Pompeii
0:15:03 > 0:15:07as the people in the cellar would have seen it, I've come to Naples.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Though it's a modern city,
0:15:09 > 0:15:13there are some striking similarities with the ancient town nearby.
0:15:13 > 0:15:20- So, you could feel yourself in Pompeii.- Here?- Yes.- Why?
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Because more or less, the atmosphere, the first floor,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27and the busy town...
0:15:27 > 0:15:31It's easy to forget that Pompeii was a two-storey town.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35People lived above their shops and bars and stairs opened
0:15:35 > 0:15:39right onto the streets, just as they do in Naples today.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48I think people often wonder where all the stuff was in a Pompeian shop or a bar.
0:15:48 > 0:15:54What this tells you is that you can actually hang it from the ceiling...
0:15:54 > 0:16:00Like they did 2,000 years ago, as this painting shows us.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07All around modern Naples are echoes of Pompeii's past.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12From the doors, just like the ones you see in Pompeian frescos.
0:16:14 > 0:16:18- There are things like this in Pompeii, are they? - Oh yes, they had! They had!
0:16:18 > 0:16:21- Careful, because we don't want the owner to come.- OK, we can get out.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25To the images they left on their walls.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29I think the graffiti is pretty Pompeian.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32The Pompeian graffiti were better than this.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Yes, they were wittier. Wittier, I think.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Ah! That's very Pompeian, is it?
0:16:38 > 0:16:41No, Pompeii was cleaner.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43- Pompeii was cleaner than that?- Yeah.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45You really think so?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Mattia, you don't, do you?
0:16:49 > 0:16:51So we can find all kinds of clues
0:16:51 > 0:16:56as to how ancient Pompeians lived in modern Naples.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59But what can the bones from the cellar
0:16:59 > 0:17:01add to the picture of their lives?
0:17:05 > 0:17:07This looks quite ordinary to me. This is the leg bone?
0:17:07 > 0:17:11This is the lower part of the leg bone and if you compare it to
0:17:11 > 0:17:16this bone, it's swollen and you can see all these little holes.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19- And what is that?- This is an infection of the skin and the bone.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25A possible reason for this might be a cut, is one explanation for it.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28So, you get a cut, you haven't got any antiseptic...
0:17:30 > 0:17:33..you maybe you don't even know exactly what the relationship
0:17:33 > 0:17:36is between dirt and infection,
0:17:36 > 0:17:41so the cut never properly heals and is a kind of
0:17:41 > 0:17:43lifetime infection really.
0:17:43 > 0:17:45Painful or not painful?
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Very painful, very painful.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52So where could this infection have come from?
0:17:52 > 0:17:56After all, we tend to think of Romans as a rather clean lot,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58regularly visiting the baths.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02It's true that bathing was an important part of life,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05as we can see at the baths near the forum in Pompeii.
0:18:05 > 0:18:12They give us a better picture than anywhere else in the world of how Roman bathing actually worked.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17This is where you took your clothes off.
0:18:17 > 0:18:23I think it must have been quite stunning to come in from the hot
0:18:23 > 0:18:26sweaty outside, through the narrow corridor
0:18:26 > 0:18:28into this beautifully decorated room.
0:18:28 > 0:18:33You have to imagine the baths as being a place where someone,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37who's life could be a little bit drab, could come to bright colours,
0:18:37 > 0:18:42twinkling lights, water splashing, everybody with their clothes off.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45The baths were the people's palace.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49Bathing was a great leveller.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Almost everyone in ancient Rome, rich and poor, men and women
0:18:52 > 0:18:55would have gone to the baths,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57including the people from our cellar.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00These feats of engineering had under-floor heating,
0:19:00 > 0:19:06a series of hot and cold rooms and in Rome itself, they could even have a library attached.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09You get all sorts of things when you come into Roman Baths.
0:19:09 > 0:19:15You get hot and cool, you get rest, but it's also crucial to remember,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18you get wonderful things to look at, too,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22and the ceiling still has some traces of the kinds of
0:19:22 > 0:19:28over-the-top decoration that you expect in a really good Roman bath
0:19:28 > 0:19:31and everybody shares those things.
0:19:31 > 0:19:37We tend to think of these luxurious baths as pristine marble palaces,
0:19:37 > 0:19:39where people came to get clean.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41But is that really the case?
0:19:42 > 0:19:46Here is where I guess you'd have spend your time,
0:19:46 > 0:19:48in this lovely marble pool.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54It's a bit like a Jacuzzi, think California
0:19:54 > 0:19:56or perhaps think rugby club.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02You sit down, the warm water is around your feet,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04this is a great time to relax,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08to talk to your friends, in this lovely setting.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12There is however a nasty surprise in store.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17We can see ever so clearly where the water comes into this pool,
0:20:17 > 0:20:22there is a nice little spout here to bring the water in
0:20:22 > 0:20:27but you can look all around and there isn't a single place where it can go out.
0:20:27 > 0:20:33All this means is there's absolutely no circulation of water
0:20:33 > 0:20:35at all in this pool.
0:20:35 > 0:20:39All people who piss in here, their sweat,
0:20:39 > 0:20:44it all comes into a steaming hot, watery mess.
0:20:44 > 0:20:46Just how healthy is that?
0:20:46 > 0:20:47It's not at all healthy,
0:20:47 > 0:20:50even some Roman doctors realised it wasn't healthy.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54The great Roman doctor called Celsus, who says,
0:20:54 > 0:20:58"Make sure you don't go to the baths if you've got an open wound,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01"because you're likely to die of gangrene if you do."
0:21:03 > 0:21:07Whether the people in the cellar made that connection we don't know.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14But the bones offer an extraordinary revelation about another area
0:21:14 > 0:21:16of the population's health.
0:21:16 > 0:21:21- So these are two different people, are they?- Yes, two different people.
0:21:21 > 0:21:2410 to 12-year-old children.
0:21:24 > 0:21:30They're both the same age and they both have the same abnormalities on their teeth.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34We think, most probably, they have been twins.
0:21:34 > 0:21:35Same age, same teeth.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37Yes and they had a problem.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40On closer examination of the twin's teeth,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Fabian's colleague, Maciej Henneberg,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48discovered evidence of a horrible and unexpected disease.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51They must have had a massive illness.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57One possible explanation for it is
0:21:57 > 0:22:01congenital syphilis.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06I am not joking, but...
0:22:06 > 0:22:11I thought syphilis didn't come to Europe until much later than this.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13If this were the case,
0:22:13 > 0:22:18this would be our first Roman case of congenital syphilis.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22- Yes, of course. - Well, that would be something to find in this cellar, wouldn't it?
0:22:24 > 0:22:27If this is true, it would overturn the idea
0:22:27 > 0:22:31that the disease first arrived in Europe with Columbus' sailors.
0:22:31 > 0:22:38This would be the first recorded case of syphilis by more than 1,400 years.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40But the twins in the cellar
0:22:40 > 0:22:44also tells us about another aspect of ancient Roman life.
0:22:46 > 0:22:50This must have been a really bad and serious illness.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Somebody had to take care of them,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58very, a lot of care, a lot of healthcare,
0:22:58 > 0:23:01a lot of effort that they made it.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06What strikes me is that they were found in the so-called poor sample,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10but still must have received years of medical care.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14It is interesting because it's going from
0:23:14 > 0:23:18a really nice scientific observation, just to a glimpse of
0:23:18 > 0:23:23a family support network, parents looking after them,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26the very base of their survival is about human care.
0:23:30 > 0:23:34The possibility of a sexually transmitted disease
0:23:34 > 0:23:39might at first sight reinforce a view many people have
0:23:39 > 0:23:43of ancient Rome as a society of debauchery and sexual excess.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46There's willies, big willies everywhere.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50When one object was first first found in a Pompeian bar,
0:23:50 > 0:23:54it was deemed too shocking to be put on public display.
0:23:56 > 0:24:01It's a bronze lamp and all kinds of things dangle off it,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04bells and stuff, a kind of wind chimes for us,
0:24:04 > 0:24:08the Romans would've called it a "Tintinnabulum".
0:24:08 > 0:24:12But the centre of attention was to be this chap here,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17a bronze hunchback pygmy
0:24:17 > 0:24:23with a huge willy, which he is in the process of cutting off.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27I like to think that this shows greater anxiety
0:24:27 > 0:24:31on the part of the Romans about their masculinity, but who knows?
0:24:31 > 0:24:34Maybe it's a strange form of erotica,
0:24:34 > 0:24:39maybe it's a joke on the guys who came to drink in the bar,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42or is it in the end, just a lamp?
0:24:42 > 0:24:45Whatever its function, you only need to stroll around town
0:24:45 > 0:24:49to see the same phallic theme again and again.
0:24:49 > 0:24:50What do they mean?
0:24:50 > 0:24:52What were they for?
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Everybody's had a theory and there have been some pretty mad ones.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Do they, for example, point to the nearest brothel?
0:25:00 > 0:25:01I'm afraid, not a hope!
0:25:01 > 0:25:07If this were the case, Pompeii would be littered with brothels.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12Some people think it is, but I'm not so sure, if you look carefully
0:25:12 > 0:25:15at this upmarket bath house,
0:25:15 > 0:25:19you see that displays of sex can be interpreted differently.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22The painting on the room you come into,
0:25:22 > 0:25:27features all kinds of sexual positions,
0:25:27 > 0:25:32from back, from the front, with the tongue, you name it, it's here.
0:25:32 > 0:25:37Not just that, each one is given a number.
0:25:37 > 0:25:42This has launched the theory that this bath establishment
0:25:42 > 0:25:48is not just a bath establishment but has, perhaps on the upper floor,
0:25:48 > 0:25:50a brothel attached.
0:25:50 > 0:25:55It's a kind of massage parlour with fringe activities.
0:25:56 > 0:26:02I am afraid the truth about these paintings is a bit more mundane.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06What we have really come into is the changing room.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10You can see along the walls,
0:26:10 > 0:26:15the place where the shelf to hold your clothes would have been put.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19What this paintings are, they are not
0:26:19 > 0:26:24adverts for the sex that might have been going on upstairs, "Please can I have three hours of number four,"
0:26:24 > 0:26:27I think they are a clever way
0:26:27 > 0:26:33of helping you remember where you left your tunic or your toga.
0:26:33 > 0:26:35In fact, if you look rather carefully,
0:26:35 > 0:26:43at what the numbers are written on, they're written on wicker baskets, which I think is what we imagine,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47would be on the shelf below where you left your belongings.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50So the idea would be,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53"I left my toga near the fellatio."
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It's a kind of joke!
0:26:56 > 0:26:59But if you head across town there is one building
0:26:59 > 0:27:03where there is no debate about its intended function.
0:27:03 > 0:27:09As far as I'm concerned this is the town's one and only known brothel.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18This is where you can see that the whole wall
0:27:18 > 0:27:22is covered with the graffiti of the customers.
0:27:22 > 0:27:26They're an interesting multicultural bunch, there's a couple in Greek.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32They're very hard to read, Latin handwriting is absolutely dreadful,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37but this one here is clear and pretty typical.
0:27:37 > 0:27:40"I came along here and I had a good fuck"
0:27:40 > 0:27:42which is about as clear as you can get.
0:27:42 > 0:27:48It's a pretty gloomy place and my heart goes to the prostitutes
0:27:48 > 0:27:51who had to work here.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54The sex here still sells 2,000 years later
0:27:54 > 0:28:00because this is the most popular visitor attraction on the entire site.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06This place is always packed with people because we still have
0:28:06 > 0:28:10a glamorous view of Roman sex and Roman brothels.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13We are also get told a lot of rubbish about it.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16If you listen to what the tour guides are saying here,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21they look at these paintings up above the cubicles and they say
0:28:21 > 0:28:24these are the menu at the brothel,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27you might not be able to speak Latin very well
0:28:27 > 0:28:30but you could always ask like in a bar,
0:28:30 > 0:28:33"Can I have some of that one above that door."
0:28:33 > 0:28:36It's rubbish! It doesn't add up to me.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41I think they are fantasy images about sex.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43This place is bad enough.
0:28:43 > 0:28:50It's dark, it's dingy, the girls are working in prison cells effectively,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54and you don't have to make it worse by pretending you chose sex
0:28:54 > 0:28:56like the way you choose a hamburger.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00Between the frescoes, the phalluses and the brothel,
0:29:00 > 0:29:05you can see how we ended up with the image of Pompeii as a society obsessed with sex.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09But we need to think again about this ancient myth.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13My idea is pretty simple, honestly.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18I don't think that the Romans were more interested in sex than we are.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21I think it's much more to do with male power.
0:29:21 > 0:29:27It's to say, "This is a very masculine culture."
0:29:27 > 0:29:29Roman power is about male power,
0:29:29 > 0:29:36the phallus tells you that Roman power is built on its masculinity.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42We've been too keen to see sex in every corner of Pompeii
0:29:42 > 0:29:45and that may go for another image of Roman life too.
0:29:45 > 0:29:50We picture the rich gorging themselves in gluttonous feasts,
0:29:50 > 0:29:54whilst the poor and the slaves, who serve them, go hungry.
0:29:54 > 0:30:01I wonder if the skeletons in the cellar can give us a different view on that, too.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Fabian, is there anything that you've been able to discover so far
0:30:04 > 0:30:08which might tell us about the diet of these people?
0:30:08 > 0:30:15From what we can see with the naked eye, we didn't find any signs of malnutrition or lack of minerals.
0:30:15 > 0:30:19There is no significant difference between the two groups.
0:30:19 > 0:30:26- So everybody here was getting enough of what they needed to keep alive and pretty healthy?- Yes.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29This is remarkable.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33We might expect to see big differences between rich and poor,
0:30:33 > 0:30:39the poor perhaps smaller and showing signs of nutritional deficiency, but not here.
0:30:39 > 0:30:45So can we find out more about what these people had actually been eating?
0:30:45 > 0:30:51Fabian, I noticed when I was looking at some of the teeth, that they seem very worn,
0:30:51 > 0:30:53much more worn down than modern teeth.
0:30:53 > 0:31:00Because mainly the process of milling the grain is completely different
0:31:00 > 0:31:06and in this time there was a lot of stones in the flour.
0:31:06 > 0:31:14So when our Pompeians eat their nice Pompeian bread, they're also eating bits of the millstone and
0:31:14 > 0:31:15- it abrades the teeth.- Yes.
0:31:19 > 0:31:24Bread was such a staple food that in Pompeii alone there are 30 bakeries.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28One of the biggest is on the town's high street and it gives us
0:31:28 > 0:31:31a vivid picture of how Pompeians baked their daily bread.
0:31:35 > 0:31:42One thing that we can be certain about all the people who ended up in our cellar, rich and poor alike,
0:31:42 > 0:31:48is that they would have eaten bread from the same sort of bakery, maybe even the same bakery.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53Now this is a really typical baking establishment of Pompeii.
0:31:53 > 0:32:01I'm standing now in the area where the corn was ground, mules would have driven these rotating mills,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05the main entrance to the bakery from the street was there
0:32:05 > 0:32:10and this is where the dough was prepared, probably by slaves.
0:32:10 > 0:32:18Flour was brought from this area, round to here, they formed it into loaves as yet unbaked,
0:32:18 > 0:32:25they put those loaves on the shelf here and they whooshed through
0:32:25 > 0:32:29to be picked up and put in the oven here.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34And we know exactly what it looked like.
0:32:34 > 0:32:41A painting from Pompeii shows us round loaves of bread, divided into eight portions.
0:32:41 > 0:32:46In fact, 81 carbonised loaves cooked and ready to be sold
0:32:46 > 0:32:52have been found perfectly preserved in one of the town's many ovens.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54That's not all.
0:32:54 > 0:33:00Archaeologists have found pomegranates, walnuts,
0:33:00 > 0:33:03even eggs preserved for 2,000 years.
0:33:08 > 0:33:12And now, an extraordinary piece of new research
0:33:12 > 0:33:17means we can prove that it wasn't just rich Romans who ate well.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20In Herculaneum, nine miles from Oplontis,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24historian Andrew Wallace-Hadrill is leading the excavation project.
0:33:24 > 0:33:32Herculaneum was buried under more than 50 feet of ash and volcanic debris during the eruption of 79.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Above this street was an apartment block inhabited,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39not by Rome's super-rich, but by the ordinary people of the town.
0:33:39 > 0:33:44What went into their mouths came out, 15 feet below.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Let's come down here, Mary, it's not so scary as it looks.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53Down here, the evidence of Roman diet has been perfectly preserved for two millennia.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55I am not great on ladders actually.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00You appear to be disappearing into the bowels of the Earth.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04You can see some very good down pipes here.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08This whole sewer is fed from above, the stuff coming down,
0:34:08 > 0:34:12smears down the wall, generations of stuff, leaves a trail
0:34:12 > 0:34:17and it's still brown - you can see very clearly how brown it is -
0:34:17 > 0:34:19it just leaves this trail of shit.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23It feels real! You don't get closer to real Rome than being in a cesspit, do you?
0:34:23 > 0:34:30- No!- So, you've got a layer of shit on the floor and then volcanic material covering it.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Exactly! Beautifully sealing the stuff on the floor.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36- So you take out the volcanic material and get to the shit.- Yes.
0:34:36 > 0:34:38It's all gone now!
0:34:38 > 0:34:40It's all been removed.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42It was up to our knees roughly.
0:34:42 > 0:34:44It was really, really precious material.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47In archaeological terms, this is gold.
0:34:47 > 0:34:53It's precious because it literally was what had gone through these Roman lavatories.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58Down here was the story of Roman diet, just waiting to be found.
0:34:59 > 0:35:06This is the world's largest archaeological excavation of sewers.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Over 700 bags of human waste were collected from the sewer floor
0:35:11 > 0:35:16and are being systematically analysed to tell us more about what Romans were eating.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18What have you learnt?
0:35:18 > 0:35:24In terms of diet, the amazing thing about the contents is the variety.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27You've got bones of all sorts, a lot of fish bones.
0:35:27 > 0:35:34We're right by the sea, they had a high fish diet but also chicken and eggs, we've got walnuts,
0:35:34 > 0:35:39a good variety of nuts, so you have a complete mixture between local stuff
0:35:39 > 0:35:42and imported stuff which is so typical of the Roman empire.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47They certainly lived healthy on this.
0:35:47 > 0:35:53What's important is to try and fix who the people were that were living
0:35:53 > 0:35:57above this cesspit and sending their cess into the sewer.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01Yes. There is a series of shops immediately above us,
0:36:01 > 0:36:06so some of them are shopkeepers. definitely and, then above them,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10are two more floors of flats.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16It's terribly tempting to think because they're flats, these must be absolutely dirt poor.
0:36:16 > 0:36:21They're neither dirt poor nor stinking rich, and this is the really hard thing.
0:36:21 > 0:36:26People often think of the Roman world as being these really posh people
0:36:26 > 0:36:31at the top and everyone else is ground down and miserable. No, sorry!
0:36:31 > 0:36:35It's much more complicated than that, these are not really posh people,
0:36:35 > 0:36:41they aren't rich enough to live a life of luxury, they're ordinary people.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44The excavation in the sewers
0:36:44 > 0:36:50supports what we found in the cellar, that rich and poor shared the same basic, healthy diet.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53But let's not kid ourselves, the rich took every chance
0:36:53 > 0:36:59to show off their wealth and where you ate was one way to do that.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05This is a top of the range Roman dining room.
0:37:05 > 0:37:11We might imagine that some of the richest of the skeletons in our cellar,
0:37:11 > 0:37:18even if they didn't own something like this, might once or twice have eaten somewhere like this.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24It's built around the idea of running, trickling, trinkling water.
0:37:24 > 0:37:29Water would rush down from that little niche at the back.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33It would then feed in to this pool here.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36It would feed out over the marble
0:37:36 > 0:37:43and it would end up in another pool with a fountain overlooking a garden beyond.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48The other thing that is quite interesting
0:37:48 > 0:37:52is that it reveals very sharply
0:37:52 > 0:37:58how dependent the rich would be for their display eating on slaves.
0:37:58 > 0:38:04You've got to get up there, to recline. How do you do it? And how would you do it in a toga?
0:38:04 > 0:38:09The answer must be that you were helped by your slaves.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12It's a very nice day-to-day indication
0:38:12 > 0:38:17of how the Roman elite relied on the servant class.
0:38:17 > 0:38:20Let me try and get up.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22It's not easy.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25Whoops!
0:38:26 > 0:38:32Now I suppose that what I do is recline like this
0:38:32 > 0:38:35but I hope to goodness they had some cushions
0:38:35 > 0:38:39because it really isn't very comfortable
0:38:39 > 0:38:43and I'm a bit far from where my wine might be in here.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47Certainly, it seems to me that this is ostentatious dining
0:38:47 > 0:38:50coming at the price of comfort.
0:38:51 > 0:38:56So unlike today when having money means you can eat out,
0:38:56 > 0:39:02if you were rich in Pompeii, you were dining at home, surrounded by opulence.
0:39:02 > 0:39:08But what about ordinary Pompeians who weren't living in luxury, where were they eating?
0:39:08 > 0:39:14Fast food joints are one of the commonest features of the Pompeian street scene.
0:39:14 > 0:39:21There's over 150 of them in the city, there's 20 of them in this section of street alone.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26There's so many of them that they can't possibly have been
0:39:26 > 0:39:28for the rich alone, they probably weren't for the rich at all!
0:39:28 > 0:39:34They were for people who didn't have places to eat at home, for people coming in from the countryside,
0:39:34 > 0:39:38or people coming in from the port who wanted to get a bite to eat.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47You've got two choices if you're a customer at this bar.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Either you come to the street or to the counter,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53see what they've got on offer on the dishes here,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57choose what you want and take it away.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Fast food. If you've got more time, and I guess more money,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04it was probably like modern Naples -
0:40:04 > 0:40:07you got charged more if you want to sit down.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12You go into the back room and spend time eating and drinking at a table.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15I imagine it was pretty crowded,
0:40:15 > 0:40:21perhaps six or eight tables with people sitting around and when you got down, at the table,
0:40:21 > 0:40:28sitting on the chairs, at your eye level, are these lovely little scenes of life in the bar.
0:40:32 > 0:40:40From the storerooms of the Naples museum, a fresco found in Pompeii has been brought out for me to see.
0:40:42 > 0:40:48It once decorated the walls of another bar and gives us an idea of a typical Pompeian night out.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51They're very clever, actually,
0:40:51 > 0:40:57because the paintings have got the ancient equivalent of speech bubbles attached to them,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01so a little dialogue, a little story develops.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05And the story is not entirely unfamiliar.
0:41:05 > 0:41:11After a good few drinks, two men get into an argument about a game of dice.
0:41:12 > 0:41:20The upshot of this we see in the sadly bashed-up last scene, but happily the writing still survives.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24One's saying, "You scumbag, I won!"
0:41:24 > 0:41:30And the other is saying, quite literally, "No, you didn't, you cock sucker."
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Just at the right-hand corner,
0:41:32 > 0:41:37it must be the landlord because his speech bubble is saying,
0:41:37 > 0:41:40"Look chaps, if you want to fight, get outside."
0:41:40 > 0:41:46I think it's nice ending this little series of scenes with the landlord
0:41:46 > 0:41:53because it reminds us that bars are not just places where people go and get drunk, gamble and flirt,
0:41:53 > 0:41:56they're actually somebody's business.
0:41:57 > 0:42:03So where rich and poor were eating and drinking was worlds apart,
0:42:03 > 0:42:07but what they ate was for the most part very similar.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11Everybody shared the benefit of food grown in this marvellously fertile region
0:42:11 > 0:42:19and sourced from the plentiful Mediterranean, which in those days was right on their doorstep.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28It's easy to forget that in Roman times, Pompeii was absolutely on the seashore.
0:42:28 > 0:42:32It's only the seismic activity that means it's now inland.
0:42:32 > 0:42:39Pompeii itself had a port and there are other little harbours up and down this coastline.
0:42:39 > 0:42:45Goods came in from abroad, and goods went out from this rich agricultural land.
0:42:48 > 0:42:55It might have looked like a small provincial Italian town by the sea but there is plenty of evidence,
0:42:55 > 0:43:01some of it from the skeletons in the cellar, of just how far Pompeii's international connections stretched.
0:43:03 > 0:43:09What we've got here is a gorgeous, gorgeous necklace.
0:43:09 > 0:43:16It was found near one of the skeletons, the likely candidate is a middle-aged woman.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23It is stunningly modern in its feel.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26It's quite a narrow neck it's going to go round,
0:43:26 > 0:43:31I think it might just go around me, but it's too big to be a bracelet.
0:43:31 > 0:43:37It must have been a choker, going tight around somebody's neck.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40One of the puzzles about these things always
0:43:40 > 0:43:46is where the raw material for them comes from.
0:43:46 > 0:43:51Emeralds aren't found naturally near Pompeii. The likelihood is that they come from Egypt.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56These roughly shaped emeralds belonging to one of the skeletons
0:43:56 > 0:44:01aren't the only evidence we have of Rome's two-way global traffic.
0:44:01 > 0:44:08This is one of the most extraordinary objects ever found in Pompeii.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11What it is...
0:44:11 > 0:44:16is an ivory statuette, and you only have to look at it
0:44:16 > 0:44:19to see this looks Indian and it is Indian,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22that's where it comes from.
0:44:22 > 0:44:28It brings it home to you in an instant that Pompeii and Pompeian inhabitants
0:44:28 > 0:44:32know about what happens in the outside world,
0:44:32 > 0:44:37or they have an awareness of Egypt and Africa and Asia
0:44:37 > 0:44:43and all the other places around the Mediterranean in a way that is quite different
0:44:43 > 0:44:49from what one imagines the global view of an English village might be in the 18th or 19th century.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56So Pompeii was a small town with a world view.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00But how far do our skeletons in the cellar reflect that?
0:45:02 > 0:45:06We know Pompeii is in some ways
0:45:06 > 0:45:10a surprisingly multicultural little place.
0:45:10 > 0:45:17There are foreign objects, foreign imports, it's got a port, it's looking towards the outside world.
0:45:17 > 0:45:24What's always been trickier to pin down is just how far the population was multicultural.
0:45:24 > 0:45:31Have we got any evidence from these skeletons about the make-up of Pompeian society?
0:45:31 > 0:45:34I mean the ethnic or racial make-up?
0:45:34 > 0:45:40We found two skeletons where we are quite sure they are of African ancestry.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42This is from the so-called rich group
0:45:42 > 0:45:48and there is another one, it's a female lying on her belly there, she is of African origin.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51Tell me how you know it's of African origin.
0:45:51 > 0:45:54It's just the shape of the face.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58Are you talking about sub-Saharan African, not North African.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00- Yes, black.- Black African.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05What you're seeming to suggest, and I think it's a really important point,
0:46:05 > 0:46:09is that there are people living here
0:46:09 > 0:46:14who have an origin really on the other side of the Roman empire.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19That's not the only thing interesting about the African skeleton.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24His skull is green, stained by metal objects
0:46:24 > 0:46:26and he's in the group found with treasure.
0:46:26 > 0:46:34It's possible he was the slave of someone rich, but he might also have been rich himself.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38We can't assume all Africans were slaves.
0:46:38 > 0:46:43Brutal and degrading as Roman slavery could be, it wasn't as straightforward as that.
0:46:46 > 0:46:52In one ancient cemetery outside Pompeii is a tomb that paints a much more complex picture of slavery.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56What you've got here
0:46:56 > 0:47:00is a tomb that holds the ashes of three people.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02And they tell you who they are.
0:47:02 > 0:47:10There is man called Publius Vesonius who is an ex-slave, he tells you he's an ex-slave.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13There is a woman called Vesonia who had actually owned him
0:47:13 > 0:47:20and then freed him, and my guess is they probably then got married.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25And he's also putting it up for the guy on the right, a friend of his.
0:47:25 > 0:47:32The first text says Vesonius put this up for this trio.
0:47:32 > 0:47:34But the text underneath...
0:47:34 > 0:47:38tells the sequel, which isn't so happy.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40"Stop and read this," he says,
0:47:40 > 0:47:44"because that guy on the right who I thought was my friend
0:47:44 > 0:47:51"turned out to be false. In fact," says Vesonius, "he took me to court. We quarrelled
0:47:51 > 0:47:57"and he took me to court, but luckily my innocence and the gods above saved me.
0:47:57 > 0:47:59"But he was a complete bastard."
0:47:59 > 0:48:04We don't know why this man didn't just remove his ex-friend's statue.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10It's what I would have done. But luckily he didn't as this monument tells a fascinating story.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15Here was an ex-slave rich enough to put up this big tomb for three
0:48:15 > 0:48:19and then to go to court to settle a dispute with his former friend.
0:48:19 > 0:48:26The point about Roman slavery is that it isn't always a lifetime sentence.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30Slaves get freed by the people who owned them
0:48:30 > 0:48:34and they sometimes go on to do very well.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39In fact, my guess is the majority of the Pompeian population,
0:48:39 > 0:48:45certainly some of the people in our cellar, would have had slaves somewhere in their ancestry.
0:48:45 > 0:48:52It's been calculated that more than half the population of Herculaneum were descended from slaves.
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Slaves certainly sometimes did what we think of as high status jobs.
0:48:56 > 0:49:00There's evidence for that in a very surpising place.
0:49:00 > 0:49:06Here you have the bog, probably one seat here and then ...
0:49:06 > 0:49:08Yes, you can come and sit by me.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14What's brilliant about this is that the last person to use this loo
0:49:14 > 0:49:19before the eruption happened has left his name.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21It starts with an A.
0:49:21 > 0:49:28- That's right.- And what he's saying is it's his name... "Apollinaris...
0:49:28 > 0:49:33"Medicus T...T.imp..."
0:49:33 > 0:49:38So "Apollinaris, the doctor of the emperor Titus..."
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Then you can't read this any longer because it's got too faded.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47Hic bene cacavit. He had a good shit here!
0:49:47 > 0:49:53This name Apollinaris - we can't be certain, but is very likely a slave name.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56So the emperor's doctor is a slave.
0:49:56 > 0:50:02We tend to think the slave jobs as being very drudge manual labour,
0:50:02 > 0:50:08some certainly were, but slaves also did, in our terms,
0:50:08 > 0:50:13high-status professional jobs like being doctors.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16That's another reason why slavery is more complicated.
0:50:16 > 0:50:21Also, to be a slave of the Emperor is to be someone quite important.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25In some ways it's better to be the slave of an emperor
0:50:25 > 0:50:29than an ordinary freeborn person with a tiny little shop in Herculaneum.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32I'd much rather be the Emperor Titus's slave doctor
0:50:32 > 0:50:35- than a flower seller in the streets of Pompeii.- He was on the way up.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40So slavery was a fact of life in Pompeii.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47Almost certainly some of the people in our cellar were slaves,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51they died right next to their masters, as they would have lived.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55At the house of a baker on the main street of Pompeii,
0:50:55 > 0:51:00we find a nice illustration of that closeness in a painting on the dining room wall.
0:51:00 > 0:51:07These guys don't look too pissed yet, although we can imagine what might have happened next,
0:51:07 > 0:51:13but the give-away scene is in the background where that lady is clearly about to keel over
0:51:13 > 0:51:17and she is being propped up by the slave behind her.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20I guess the slaves came pretty handy for this kind of job.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26But it wasn't just slaves and masters living on top of each other.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Here in the baker's house, right next to the smart dining room,
0:51:29 > 0:51:34there's a stable, and in it, the bones of the animals,
0:51:34 > 0:51:42the ones he used to turn the mills which ground the grain, and no doubt delivered the bread around town too.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46Here we've got the finest room in the baker's residential quarters
0:51:46 > 0:51:51right up next to where the mules lived.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56Just a few yards away is the back end of a really rich house in Pompeii
0:51:56 > 0:52:02that was being given a complete make over at the time of the eruption.
0:52:02 > 0:52:09So the rich are living right next door, right up against the working bakery.
0:52:09 > 0:52:15The baker has his poshest room right next door to his animals.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18That's how Pompeians lived - cheek by jowl.
0:52:18 > 0:52:22And that's how we find the people in the cellar -
0:52:22 > 0:52:26rich and poor, male and female, old and young,
0:52:26 > 0:52:30lying close to each other in death as they would have been in life.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38But in 79AD, that life came to an end.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44Neither they, nor the others in this town, had any idea they lived in the shadow of a volcano.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49The last major eruption had been 1,500 years before.
0:52:58 > 0:53:04Nothing could prepare the population for what happened when Vesuvius exploded.
0:53:14 > 0:53:20The people in the cellar had one choice - to try and escape, or stay and find shelter.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28From out at sea, you get a very good impression
0:53:28 > 0:53:33of how Vesuvius really lours over the whole area.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37But also, you get this slightly uncomfortable sense
0:53:37 > 0:53:44of how very close the volcano is. It makes you realise how difficult it would have been to escape from it.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48Especially if you left it a little bit too late.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55While friends and neighbours fled, our 54 people looked for cover,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58and many took their most precious belongings with them.
0:54:03 > 0:54:11Why most of them stayed put, we can only guess, but in one case, there's a strong clue.
0:54:12 > 0:54:17Fabian, tell me about the remains of this person laid out here.
0:54:17 > 0:54:23This is maybe one of the most dramatic and tragic persons
0:54:23 > 0:54:27we found in this whole sample,
0:54:27 > 0:54:34because these are the bones of a young female and we found with the skeleton this small bone.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37The pelvic bone of a foetus.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41She must have been pregnant.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45If you measure it, you can determine
0:54:45 > 0:54:51it was in the last month of pregnancy and it's quite traumatic.
0:54:51 > 0:54:58The thought of being 8.5 months pregnant and trying to flee for your life from the erupting volcano,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01it's just dreadful.
0:55:10 > 0:55:15Amazingly, an eyewitness account of the eruption survives.
0:55:15 > 0:55:21It describes how on that fateful day you could hear the shrieks of women, the squalling of infants
0:55:21 > 0:55:26and the shouting of men, some calling out for their parents,
0:55:26 > 0:55:28others for their children or wives.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32It was so dark, they could only recognise them by their voices.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35Many pleaded for the help of the gods,
0:55:35 > 0:55:42but more thought that the gods had disappeared, and that the world had been plunged into eternal darkness.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55It must have been pitch black when the volcanic debris started to fall and our people tried to escape.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Several of them certainly had brought lamps with them.
0:55:59 > 0:56:04This one is quite nice because the centre, just where the oil goes in,
0:56:04 > 0:56:09has got a lovely picture here of the goddess of Rome herself.
0:56:09 > 0:56:15She is sadly broken in half but she is quite recognisable with her helmet on.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20The people in the cellar were sheltering there
0:56:20 > 0:56:25as the eruption intensified outside, plunging them further into darkness.
0:56:28 > 0:56:35Heaven knows how you could have found your way through the streets at night using just one of these.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41It makes me realise how vulnerable the people in this cellar must have felt.
0:56:41 > 0:56:48They fled through the darkness, all trace of the sun has been obliterated by the volcanic debris,
0:56:48 > 0:56:54they've come in here, they're huddled together for shelter and support
0:56:54 > 0:56:58and the only protection against the dark they've got is half a dozen little lamps like this.
0:57:01 > 0:57:08Of course, in the end these people couldn't protect themselves from the same fate as the others in Pompeii.
0:57:08 > 0:57:14But the Romans in the cellar didn't just leave us with evidence of their tragic death
0:57:14 > 0:57:16but of the lives they lived too.
0:57:16 > 0:57:22It may have been a male-dominated world where the rich dined in luxury and exploited the poor,
0:57:22 > 0:57:28but Pompeii was also a place where slaves could earn their freedom, where women could own wealth,
0:57:28 > 0:57:32and the ordinary Roman could eat and drink well.
0:57:32 > 0:57:38It was a place where even the poorest knew something of the world outside.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50The people who died in this cellar helped us to understand that Roman society
0:57:50 > 0:57:55wasn't quite as black and white as we often imagine it to be.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00Sure, these people would had vastly different lifestyles,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04but they lived cheek by jowl and they shared a lot too.
0:58:04 > 0:58:07The smells, the dark, and the dirt.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12Not to mention the wine, the sex, the food and the fun.
0:58:12 > 0:58:19And in the end, of course, they shared the same fate, in the same cellar 2,000 years ago.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:33 > 0:58:36E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk