0:00:08 > 0:00:11Beneath the streets of modern-day Rome lies a network
0:00:11 > 0:00:15of interconnected tunnels that stretch for hundreds of kilometres.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19These are Rome's catacombs.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22They are over 1,500 years old
0:00:22 > 0:00:25and they contain many of Rome's ancient dead.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32In 2003, deep within this subterranean labyrinth,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37a bricked-up tomb was discovered, unlike anything seen before in Rome.
0:00:37 > 0:00:38IN FRENCH:
0:00:58 > 0:01:00This was an ancient mass grave,
0:01:00 > 0:01:03piled high with thousands of skeletons.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07As a classical historian,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10I've studied burials across the Roman world
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and I've never seen anything like this.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17Who were these people, what did they die of
0:01:17 > 0:01:20and why are they buried here in this extraordinary manner?
0:01:22 > 0:01:24For the last ten years,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27an international team have been trying to find out.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32Combining archaeology with cutting-edge science,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36they're looking for clues in the layout of the tomb...
0:01:38 > 0:01:40..in personal possessions,
0:01:40 > 0:01:42and in the bones themselves.
0:01:51 > 0:01:55Joining the archaeologists is one of the world's leading specialists
0:01:55 > 0:01:57in decoding ancient DNA.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01He's trying to find out how these people died.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04This might be related to a catastrophe,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08to some kind of pandemic, to some kind of disease spreading.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14A chance find, a tomb that confounds all expectations,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and multiple mass deaths.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21This is the mystery of Rome's X Tombs.
0:02:35 > 0:02:37Rome's catacombs have been explored
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and excavated for centuries,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42and by and large, their use, their layout, their architecture
0:02:42 > 0:02:44are fairly well understood,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48but then a chance discovery in one of these catacombs
0:02:48 > 0:02:50opened up a whole new mystery.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03This is the Catacomb of St Marcellinus and St Peter.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09It was here, in the summer of 2003...
0:03:10 > 0:03:14..a burst water main caused the roof in one of the tunnels to collapse.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20The Vatican's Inspector of Catacombs in Rome,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24Raffaella Giuliani, was called in to investigate.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04The first thing they found was the remains of a mediaeval fresco.
0:04:08 > 0:04:10The painting is believed to show
0:04:10 > 0:04:13the two fourth-century patron saints of the catacombs,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15Marcellinus, a priest...
0:04:17 > 0:04:19..and Peter, an exorcist.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25They appear to be standing guard over a burial chamber.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39But nothing could have prepared Raffaella
0:04:39 > 0:04:42for what lay hidden behind the fresco.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57They had uncovered a mass grave.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18The burial site was located in
0:05:18 > 0:05:22an area of the Vatican's underground mapping system labelled "X".
0:05:24 > 0:05:27They came to be known as the X Tombs.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33To find out if this was the last resting place
0:05:33 > 0:05:38of hundreds of Christian martyrs, the Vatican sought specialist help.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46A team of French archaeologists
0:05:46 > 0:05:49were called in, led by Dominique Castex...
0:05:51 > 0:05:52..and Philippe Blanchard.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Both are highly experienced
0:05:56 > 0:05:59in excavating ancient mass graves.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19Wow.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43As excavations began,
0:06:43 > 0:06:46six more chambers were uncovered,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48each piled high with bodies.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57The tombs were arranged on three separate levels,
0:06:57 > 0:06:59all located around a central hub.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06We need to completely forget these modern walls,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09which are working as foundations to stop the six metres or so of rock
0:07:09 > 0:07:12above our heads from collapsing on us. This is the crucial bit.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14This is the largest of the burial chambers,
0:07:14 > 0:07:17and the archaeologists estimate there's just under a metre,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22about 80 centimetres left of compressed bodies still to excavate.
0:07:22 > 0:07:23There's another tomb there
0:07:23 > 0:07:26that was full of bodies the archaeologists have now removed,
0:07:26 > 0:07:31and there's another one, two, three burial chambers behind us,
0:07:31 > 0:07:33so when we stand here,
0:07:33 > 0:07:37we are surrounded by chambers of mass death.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45Picking their way through the bones,
0:07:45 > 0:07:48a few personal possessions came to light.
0:07:50 > 0:07:51A pair of earrings...
0:07:52 > 0:07:54..a hairpin...
0:07:55 > 0:07:57..and a small black ring.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00They also unearthed a few coins.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06Just incredible.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10The bones themselves revealed more clues.
0:08:10 > 0:08:11OK...
0:08:42 > 0:08:45The fact the skeletons were still intact,
0:08:45 > 0:08:49with very little soil between the layers of bodies,
0:08:49 > 0:08:53suggests that large numbers were buried here at the same time.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22This has to have been something of a mass death moment,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25what archaeologists call a crisis event,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29multiple people dying within a very short space of time.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36But was this one single event or a sequence of events?
0:09:38 > 0:09:40To investigate further,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43the team made a detailed study of one of the tombs
0:09:43 > 0:09:47where all the bodies had been excavated and accounted for.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53By digitally restoring the flesh to the bones,
0:09:53 > 0:09:55a computer programme was used
0:09:55 > 0:09:58to work out the original volume of the bodies.
0:10:36 > 0:10:37This study suggests
0:10:37 > 0:10:41these are the victims of a series of mass death events.
0:10:44 > 0:10:47Currently, the archaeologists estimate the tombs contain
0:10:47 > 0:10:50the bodies of around 2,500 people.
0:10:52 > 0:10:55This is an incredibly unusual discovery -
0:10:55 > 0:10:59tombs packed full of bodies layered on top of one another.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02You just don't expect to find this type of burial
0:11:02 > 0:11:04in a Roman catacomb.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17I've studied the way the Romans buried their dead,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20and it's clear that they had great respect for their deceased.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Burial in Rome was governed by two guiding principles.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27The first was, you couldn't be buried in the city,
0:11:27 > 0:11:31but the second was, you didn't want to be buried too far from the city
0:11:31 > 0:11:33because you wanted your family to visit your tomb,
0:11:33 > 0:11:36but perhaps more importantly, you wanted to show off.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43This is the ancient Via Appia, one of the main roads out of Rome.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47But every road outside the city walls
0:11:47 > 0:11:50would have been crammed with tombs like these.
0:11:52 > 0:11:55It was of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the first century BC
0:11:55 > 0:11:59that said the endlessness of tombs on the roads leading out of Rome
0:11:59 > 0:12:03mirrored the endlessness of the Roman world itself.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09But as the population of Rome expanded
0:12:09 > 0:12:12during the second and third centuries AD,
0:12:12 > 0:12:16the space available became increasingly limited.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Now, given the persistent desire amongst Romans
0:12:21 > 0:12:25to be buried in suburban soil, you can see how very quickly
0:12:25 > 0:12:28it became a pressing problem what to do with the dead,
0:12:28 > 0:12:32and the solution, as far as the Romans were concerned,
0:12:32 > 0:12:33was to go underground.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Rome was built on a soft, volcanic rock called tufa,
0:12:41 > 0:12:43which could be carved out by hand.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50These sprawling subterranean cemeteries grew rapidly under the city,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53but they look quite different to the X Tombs.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Despite the fact that the corridors in a typical catacomb
0:13:00 > 0:13:02meander every which way,
0:13:02 > 0:13:05the layout of the dead was actually fairly regularised.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07You had your individual tombs called loculi,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10but I always refer to them as bunk beds.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13There's still the bones of one poor individual left there.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15And if you wanted something a bit more special
0:13:15 > 0:13:17then you could have a cabicula,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19a bedroom for the entire family to be put to rest on.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27What was so good and so new about catacombs
0:13:27 > 0:13:30was their limitless potential for expansion,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32and as a result, inclusion,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36which made them really popular with communities, be it pagan, Jewish,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38or indeed, most importantly,
0:13:38 > 0:13:42with the increasing number of Christian communities in Rome
0:13:42 > 0:13:45during the third and fourth centuries AD.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48And over time, as a result, they became a burial place,
0:13:48 > 0:13:51not just for ordinary Christians,
0:13:51 > 0:13:55but for their saints, their popes and their martyrs.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05As excavations continue, the bones from the X Tombs
0:14:05 > 0:14:09are removed and kept in a makeshift storeroom for further analysis.
0:14:10 > 0:14:16So far, the French team have made a detailed study of around 500 bodies.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20They're starting to build up a picture of who these people were.
0:14:20 > 0:14:22SHE SPEAKS IN FRENCH
0:14:22 > 0:14:25From the pelvis bones, they can tell
0:14:25 > 0:14:27there is a mixture of men and women.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32The size and stage of development of the femur bones
0:14:32 > 0:14:35also gives an idea of their age when they died.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00These people certainly didn't die of old age.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05But are there any signs of trauma?
0:15:07 > 0:15:09If they were Christian martyrs
0:15:09 > 0:15:10or died a violent death,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13you'd expect to see evidence on the bones.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33None of the bones show any signs of trauma
0:15:33 > 0:15:36that one would expect if someone had been crucified
0:15:36 > 0:15:40or, indeed, if they died in battle in some sort of massacre.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44So who were they?
0:15:44 > 0:15:49Why were they buried down here like this? And when did they die?
0:15:52 > 0:15:57One way to establish a possible date for the tombs and their occupants
0:15:57 > 0:16:00is to study the few personal belongings uncovered with them.
0:16:02 > 0:16:06The earrings were made from fine gold.
0:16:06 > 0:16:10They have a design that became popular in the first century AD.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16The ring was found to be made of jet,
0:16:16 > 0:16:20a material Romans thought had magical powers.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23Studying its chemical composition,
0:16:23 > 0:16:25the archaeologists have concluded
0:16:25 > 0:16:28it came all the way from Whitby, North Yorkshire,
0:16:28 > 0:16:30in the third century AD.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Then there were the coins,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37possibly left as payment to enter the afterlife.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Their age is much easier to establish.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46The oldest coin is of the tenth emperor, Titus,
0:16:46 > 0:16:49dating from AD 79 to 81.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57The wife of the Emperor Antoninus Pius features on another,
0:16:57 > 0:16:59as does the Emperor Marcus Aurelius,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01both dating from the second century AD.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07The last coin was of Emperor Gordian.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10It's a rarer find than the others.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13He only reigned for three weeks in AD 238.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20Coins are fantastic.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23They really help us narrow down the range, but there are caveats.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25You carry coins around in your pocket for a long time.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29They exist in circulation for ages, and the archaeological contexts here
0:17:29 > 0:17:31in which these coins were found are not secure.
0:17:36 > 0:17:39To try and get a more accurate date for the bodies,
0:17:39 > 0:17:43the archaeologists wanted to test the bones using carbon dating.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46But this proved quite difficult.
0:18:03 > 0:18:09Carbon dating works by comparing the ratio of two forms of carbon,
0:18:09 > 0:18:12carbon-12 and carbon-14.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17When you die, any carbon-14 decays over time to become nitrogen
0:18:17 > 0:18:22but the level of carbon-12 in your cells stays the same.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26Over time, the ratio between the two forms of carbon changes
0:18:26 > 0:18:29and it's this that gives you the date.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36The breakthrough here is that the different chambers of the X Tombs
0:18:36 > 0:18:38came back with different results.
0:18:42 > 0:18:45The bodies from the two larger chambers
0:18:45 > 0:18:49date from the second and third centuries AD.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54But some of the bodies from the smaller tombs appear to have died
0:18:54 > 0:18:56in the first century AD.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02These dates suggest the first burials took place here
0:19:02 > 0:19:06possibly up to 200 years before work began
0:19:06 > 0:19:09on the surrounding Catacomb of St Marcellinus and St Peter.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16The fact that these tombs pre-date the catacombs that surround them
0:19:16 > 0:19:20raises the intriguing possibility that this could be the original core
0:19:20 > 0:19:23from which the catacombs later expanded outwards.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51This is an exciting revelation.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56The X Tombs could be among the oldest underground tombs
0:19:56 > 0:19:57found anywhere in Rome.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03The dating provided by the coins and the bones and the other finds
0:20:03 > 0:20:06indicate that these people died between the end first century AD
0:20:06 > 0:20:10and the early part of the third century AD.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Now, that period of time in Roman history
0:20:12 > 0:20:14was, by all accounts, a golden age.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Some of Rome's finest imperial buildings
0:20:24 > 0:20:26were completed at this time.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29The Colosseum...
0:20:30 > 0:20:32..great bath complexes...
0:20:34 > 0:20:36..and ever larger public forums.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43The 18th-century British historian Edward Gibbon described it as,
0:20:43 > 0:20:47"The period in the history of the world during which
0:20:47 > 0:20:51"the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous."
0:20:53 > 0:20:57The people of the X Tombs were living at the centre
0:20:57 > 0:20:59of a vast and powerful empire.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04At its height, the Roman Empire spanned three continents,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06five million square kilometres,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09and its territories stretched from North Africa, Egypt,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11the Middle East, Asia Minor,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14across Europe and, of course, up to the border with Scotland.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16And at the very heart of it was Rome,
0:21:16 > 0:21:19Caput Mundi as they called it, the capital of the world.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26The city was a mixture of cultures and traditions
0:21:26 > 0:21:29with trade links that spanned the known world.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35In the markets of Rome, you could find anything - copper, gold,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39olive oil from Spain, cotton, wheat from Egypt,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41tin from Britain, iron from Germany,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45and more luxury products from further afield, like silks from China
0:21:45 > 0:21:48or gems, pearls, spices from India.
0:21:48 > 0:21:51Rome was a multicultural city
0:21:51 > 0:21:55full of people and products from around the Empire and beyond.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02This was the world's first metropolis,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05with a population of over a million souls.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11And the people of the X Tombs lived, and died,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14in this cosmopolitan melting pot.
0:22:27 > 0:22:32At their lab in Bordeaux, the French team are searching for more clues
0:22:32 > 0:22:35to the possible identity of these people.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Kevin Salesse is analysing the chemical make-up
0:22:45 > 0:22:49of the bones and teeth in a process called isotopic analysis.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55This looks at the various atomic forms, or isotopes,
0:22:55 > 0:23:01of chemical elements like oxygen and carbon found in organic remains.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05The minerals in your teeth are set when you are a young child
0:23:05 > 0:23:07and they don't change throughout your life,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09whereas your bones keep remodelling themselves,
0:23:09 > 0:23:12so they tell us about where you spent the last part of your life,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14and by comparing the two,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17we can find out whether these people were originally from Rome
0:23:17 > 0:23:21or whether they came from elsewhere and migrated to the city.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09In a second study, Kevin is able to explore
0:24:09 > 0:24:12what sort of foods they might have eaten.
0:24:14 > 0:24:18Their bones reveal a diet rich in meat and fish,
0:24:18 > 0:24:23more than found in other communities in Rome at that time.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28These people must have been fairly wealthy.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31What's coming through very strongly in the archaeological analysis
0:24:31 > 0:24:34is that the people of the X Tombs were not from Rome.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36They came to Rome, but where they were from initially,
0:24:36 > 0:24:39that's a question the archaeology is still struggling with.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42There are some indications it may have been central Europe,
0:24:42 > 0:24:43but also from elsewhere.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47This doesn't seem to have been a homogenous population,
0:24:47 > 0:24:49all from the same place, but they came to Rome,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52they lived in Rome, and they died all together in Rome.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00The French team are starting to build a picture
0:25:00 > 0:25:02of who these people were
0:25:02 > 0:25:07and how they lived, but they also want to find out how they died.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11We know they weren't martyred.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15We know from the dating that bodies were deposited here
0:25:15 > 0:25:17possibly over a 200-year period.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22We also know they were carefully packed in,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24several layers deep at a time...
0:25:28 > 0:25:32'..and that there was a series of separate mass burials.'
0:25:40 > 0:25:44What the archaeology is showing us is fascinating,
0:25:44 > 0:25:47that piles of bodies were put in these tombs
0:25:47 > 0:25:50on top of already partly decomposed bodies,
0:25:50 > 0:25:55so what we've got is waves of mass death.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57We know it wasn't massacres,
0:25:57 > 0:26:01so the best hypothesis for what could have caused this
0:26:01 > 0:26:03has to be disease.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Disease was rife in the capital,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16from tuberculosis to typhoid,
0:26:16 > 0:26:18leprosy to malaria.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22During the time of the X Tombs, diseases like these
0:26:22 > 0:26:26are thought to have killed over 30,000 residents each year.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Much of this was down to living conditions.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34Most of Rome's citizens
0:26:34 > 0:26:38lived in the world's first high-rise apartment blocks.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45They were called insuli, or islands,
0:26:45 > 0:26:49and there were thousands of them, densely packed into the city.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54This is the Insula dell'Ara Coeli. It dates from the second century
0:26:54 > 0:26:58and would have stood at at least five storeys tall.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Down there is the Ancient Roman ground level.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04That's where the floor was and the first levels, the shops and inns,
0:27:04 > 0:27:07and then as you go up, you get the private apartments,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11but you know what? You wouldn't want to be in the penthouse here.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18The lower floors were rented to wealthy tenants.
0:27:18 > 0:27:21The upper levels were for the less well-off.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24The apartments were smaller,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27the number of people in each room increased,
0:27:27 > 0:27:29and living conditions were just awful.
0:27:31 > 0:27:35The Roman writer Martial talks about a chap who had to run up 200 steps
0:27:35 > 0:27:39to get up to his apartment. What could he expect when he got there?
0:27:39 > 0:27:43Well, not much. Cramped living conditions, dirty,
0:27:43 > 0:27:45probably a leaky roof, vermin,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49families, groups of labourers, all squeezed into these spaces.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53I mean, to call these places homes is overkill.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56They were a place to put your head down at night.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58Not a very pleasant one, even then.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06Aqueducts brought in fresh water
0:28:06 > 0:28:09and the city had an impressive drainage system,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12but the people of Rome still lived in filth.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16All rubbish basically just got shoved in the street
0:28:16 > 0:28:20and then the public system of fountains washed it into the drains.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23But then, well, frankly, there's the poo.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26At its height, the population of Rome, it's estimated,
0:28:26 > 0:28:31was producing 50,000 kilograms of excrement a day.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35And none of these apartments were connected directly to the drains.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38You had to take your chamberpot and get rid of it.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Likely as not, straight out the window.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50The people of the X Tombs may have lived during Rome's golden age,
0:28:50 > 0:28:54but the streets of the capital were more like an open sewer.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58Disease raged through the city.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06And there was no escape,
0:29:06 > 0:29:07even at the famous baths.
0:29:12 > 0:29:14The Romans loved their baths.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21It was a great place to relax, soak, have a massage,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24scrub down, chat with friends, or catch up on the gossip.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32It was an incredibly important part of what it meant to be Roman,
0:29:32 > 0:29:34and it was a practice enjoyed by everyone,
0:29:34 > 0:29:37from the emperor all the way down.
0:29:39 > 0:29:44The people of the X Tombs would have certainly gone to the baths.
0:29:44 > 0:29:48They were part of the social glue that bound all Romans together.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58The baths were attended by rich and poor, young and old,
0:29:58 > 0:30:00healthy and diseased. In fact,
0:30:00 > 0:30:04we know that Roman doctors actually prescribed a good soak in the baths
0:30:04 > 0:30:10for all sorts of ailments, so if you had everything from boils to rabies,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13from diarrhoea to tuberculosis, you came to the baths.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20Poor people who didn't have a slave to rub them down
0:30:20 > 0:30:23were encouraged to rub themselves against the walls.
0:30:27 > 0:30:29The Roman writer Pliny the Elder
0:30:29 > 0:30:34noted that scrapings taken from walls had warming properties.
0:30:36 > 0:30:40Long before antibiotics, these scrapings were prescribed
0:30:40 > 0:30:44in ointments to soothe sores and cure abscesses.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50The sick and the healthy bathed together
0:30:50 > 0:30:53because the Romans simply had no real idea of how disease spread.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56The only thing that seems really to have bothered them
0:30:56 > 0:30:59is seeing the physical signs of disease,
0:30:59 > 0:31:03so if you had pus-filled boils or weeping sores
0:31:03 > 0:31:06then they asked you to keep your clothes on while in the bath,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08or sometimes they just put all the lamps out.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12The baths really were the perfect place to catch a disease.
0:31:16 > 0:31:21New strains of disease were constantly being brought into the city
0:31:21 > 0:31:23by traders, migrants and soldiers.
0:31:24 > 0:31:29You can easily see how the people of the X Tombs might have succumbed
0:31:29 > 0:31:30to waves of infection.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45To try to find out what disease might have killed them,
0:31:45 > 0:31:47the French team have drafted in
0:31:47 > 0:31:50a world expert in reconstructing ancient DNA.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57Johannes Krause is a professor of paleogenetics.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01His previous work was on the Black Death
0:32:01 > 0:32:05which struck Europe in the 14th century, killing millions.
0:32:07 > 0:32:13By extracting DNA from bones from a mass grave site in central London,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17he proved that the Black Death was caused by the bubonic plague.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26Here in the X Tombs, he faces a greater challenge.
0:32:26 > 0:32:32The bones are much older. There may be very little DNA left behind
0:32:32 > 0:32:36from any disease-causing microbes, or pathogens.
0:32:38 > 0:32:41So what we want is the genetic material of the pathogen itself,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44so we are trying to find places in the skeleton
0:32:44 > 0:32:47that still might have the pathogen DNA preserved,
0:32:47 > 0:32:48and what we have found is,
0:32:48 > 0:32:53the best container for the genetic information are actually teeth.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56How do you pick the particular teeth that you're going to work with?
0:32:56 > 0:33:01We try to identify teeth that are still intact,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04that don't have a crack or some hole in the surface.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08And inside those teeth, we might have a little bit of dried blood
0:33:08 > 0:33:12where the pathogen DNA might still be present.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15So we can actually see that the jaw's just sticking out here,
0:33:15 > 0:33:18you can actually see the teeth here being exposed,
0:33:18 > 0:33:20which is perfect to actually get in here.
0:33:24 > 0:33:27- Yes, yes, that comes out.- Perfect.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31- Look at that.- Wow. You can see how wet that is as well.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35- That's a molar from the left lower jaw.- OK.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46The teeth are photographed, catalogued and bagged up,
0:33:46 > 0:33:49ready for transportation back to his lab in Germany.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55Hopefully, we have a little bit of the pathogen DNA
0:33:55 > 0:33:57that we can also get out of those teeth
0:33:57 > 0:34:00and then reconstruct the DNA, reconstruct the entire gene.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07Johannes believes that some of the people here in the X Tombs
0:34:07 > 0:34:11might have been killed by one of the most virulent epidemics
0:34:11 > 0:34:13ever to strike the Roman Empire.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27This devastating disease was first recorded around AD 165,
0:34:27 > 0:34:30when the Empire was ruled by two brothers.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34It was called the Antonine Plague
0:34:34 > 0:34:37because of the family name of the two ruling emperor brothers,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44Now, the origins of this plague are shrouded in mystery,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47but there are reports that it emerged in the East,
0:34:47 > 0:34:49where in the early 160s AD,
0:34:49 > 0:34:52Lucius Verus was campaigning against the Parthians
0:34:52 > 0:34:55on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire
0:34:55 > 0:34:57in what is today's Iran and Iraq.
0:35:05 > 0:35:10A contemporary account from the pages of the Historia Augusta
0:35:10 > 0:35:15tells us, "A pestilent breeze arose in a temple of Apollo
0:35:15 > 0:35:19"from a golden casket which a soldier had cut open
0:35:19 > 0:35:24"and it spread thence over Parthia, and the whole world."
0:35:26 > 0:35:30The disease swept through the Roman Army, just at the time
0:35:30 > 0:35:34when the Empire was challenged by invasions from the North.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39In 168 AD, the emperor brothers came here,
0:35:39 > 0:35:44to Aquileia in northern Italy, and Aquileia was a major trading centre,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47but it was also a major military centre, and it was to here
0:35:47 > 0:35:50that many of the Roman troops had been pulled back from the East,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54and it was from Aquileia that the emperors wanted to mount a campaign
0:35:54 > 0:35:56to push back invading tribes from the North
0:35:56 > 0:35:59that were threatening the Italian frontier.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03But when they got here, the emperors realised that the real problem
0:36:03 > 0:36:06wasn't the invading tribes. It was the plague.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17Army regiments would camp near towns and villages,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20and soldiers often returned home on leave.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24It wasn't long before the Antonine Plague
0:36:24 > 0:36:26passed into the civilian population.
0:36:38 > 0:36:43The Roman Empire was a vast, integrated, connecting trading network
0:36:43 > 0:36:45which also contributed to the plague
0:36:45 > 0:36:48being able to spread so far so quickly.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51It was in Italy, it was in parts of central Europe, it was in the East,
0:36:51 > 0:36:55it was in Egypt, there's even one report it made it as far as China.
0:36:55 > 0:37:00And of course, as the saying goes, all roads lead to Rome.
0:37:14 > 0:37:20When the plague struck the capital, there was panic and public hysteria.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24Priests were summoned and religious rites performed to purify the city.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29The people of the X Tombs would have been vulnerable,
0:37:29 > 0:37:30just like everyone else.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36According to Roman consul and writer Dio Cassius,
0:37:36 > 0:37:412,000 people often died in Rome in a single day.
0:37:42 > 0:37:45In his books, the emperors' physician Galen described
0:37:45 > 0:37:50some of the symptoms of the Antonine Plague - a fever, a rash,
0:37:50 > 0:37:53diarrhoea, foul-smelling faeces,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58an ulceration of the windpipe and dry, pustular eruptions on the skin.
0:38:01 > 0:38:03No-one knows for sure
0:38:03 > 0:38:07what actual disease was responsible for the Antonine Plague.
0:38:07 > 0:38:12We know it claimed more lives than any previously recorded epidemic.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Across the Empire, something like five million people were killed,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19up to a tenth of the entire Roman population.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25The plague struck in waves that lasted from AD 165 to 180,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27then again in 189.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35It's entirely possible that some of the people in the X Tombs
0:38:35 > 0:38:36living in Rome at that time
0:38:36 > 0:38:40were killed by this disease that shook the Empire.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05In his lab in Germany, Johannes and his colleague Kirsten Bos
0:39:05 > 0:39:10are trying to extract DNA from the teeth samples taken from the tombs.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21I drilled out the pulp from inside the tooth, which is now powder.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25The powder now goes into a solution
0:39:25 > 0:39:27where the DNA gets released from the bone.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32So, our answer could be in that tube?
0:39:32 > 0:39:33I hope so very much.
0:39:35 > 0:39:40This process creates a mixture of billions of DNA molecules.
0:39:41 > 0:39:45It's a cocktail containing all manner of genetic material,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48but mostly soil microbes, plants and fungi
0:39:48 > 0:39:50that were present in the tombs.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54It's kind of like looking for the needle in the haystack,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57so you have billions of molecules that we get out of those teeth
0:39:57 > 0:40:00and maybe just a few hundred come from the pathogen,
0:40:00 > 0:40:03so there's a lot of sorting and then there's a lot of puzzling.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09To isolate any fragments of DNA
0:40:09 > 0:40:12left over from bacteria or viral pathogens,
0:40:12 > 0:40:19Johannes has adapted a technique known as DNA hybridisation capture.
0:40:19 > 0:40:20He calls it fishing.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24On this glass slide
0:40:24 > 0:40:29are 100 short, single strands of synthetic pathogen DNA.
0:40:31 > 0:40:35They include the genetic codes of everything from smallpox to measles,
0:40:35 > 0:40:37typhus to bubonic plague.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44The cocktail of DNA from each tooth is then added to the slide.
0:40:47 > 0:40:50The synthetic strands now act as bait
0:40:50 > 0:40:54to hook out any actual pathogen DNA from the solution.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04DNA has this double strand, where you have the bases facing each other
0:41:04 > 0:41:08and there's always this A facing with the T,
0:41:08 > 0:41:10and you have the G facing with a C.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13- And this creates that famous double helix...- Exactly.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15..that everyone knows, the kind of picture of DNA.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And just if the right sequence kind of matches the opposite sequence,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22those DNA fragments will actually bind and form the double bind.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24If they don't match, they will not come together.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26It's like a magnet, basically.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29It only kind of pulls the DNA together if the strands match.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33- So only pathogens will bond? - Only pathogen DNA would bind here.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38But Johannes is pushing this technique to its limits.
0:41:39 > 0:41:45It's never been used to fish for so many possible causes of ancient disease.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48We have not just to look for a single pathogen,
0:41:48 > 0:41:50but we have to look for hundreds of them in parallel,
0:41:50 > 0:41:53because we don't know what has killed those people,
0:41:53 > 0:41:55we don't know if it was one or several pathogens
0:41:55 > 0:41:59that were spreading in their population during the time.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05And this is just the start of the process.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09Even if Johannes manages to isolate DNA
0:42:09 > 0:42:13from a disease-causing bacteria or virus,
0:42:13 > 0:42:17it could then take months or even years of computer analysis,
0:42:17 > 0:42:21comparing millions of genetic sequences,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25to identify which specific pathogen was the cause of death.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32He's got an incredibly difficult task ahead of him.
0:42:33 > 0:42:39But this technology, this science, represents the best chance we have
0:42:39 > 0:42:44of finding out what killed the people of the X Tombs.
0:42:54 > 0:42:57Back underground, the French team think they're getting closer
0:42:57 > 0:43:00to the possible identity of the people.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07They've been doing tests on a white powder that was found in the tombs.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44It's unusual to find plaster in traditional Roman burials.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49'And this plaster contained further clues about how they were buried.'
0:44:04 > 0:44:06The presence of plaster and fabric
0:44:06 > 0:44:10suggest these bodies may have been bound in an intricate shroud.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17This would explain why the shoulders were compressed,
0:44:17 > 0:44:19hands resting on their pelvis,
0:44:19 > 0:44:22legs stretched out with ankles touching.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28And in among the skeletons and plaster,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31a second curious substance was discovered.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56Amber was a very expensive material.
0:44:56 > 0:44:58It was used in burial sites
0:44:58 > 0:45:01to ensure safe passage to the afterlife.
0:45:03 > 0:45:07But it's rarely been found in this ground-up form,
0:45:07 > 0:45:09and never in this quantity.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13In all, several kilos were recovered from the tombs.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21One final piece in the puzzle was nearly overlooked altogether.
0:46:00 > 0:46:05Could the people have been buried dressed in gold-embroidered clothes?
0:46:09 > 0:46:11What began as just a mass of bones
0:46:11 > 0:46:13is beginning to come into focus a little.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16We've got a large number of individuals
0:46:16 > 0:46:17who were all carefully laid out,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20one by the other.
0:46:20 > 0:46:22Mostly adults.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24And then there are all these strange finds,
0:46:24 > 0:46:27the white powders, the red powders.
0:46:27 > 0:46:29And then there's the fine gold thread,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32what they thought to be Dominique's hair.
0:46:33 > 0:46:35We're getting a clear picture now
0:46:35 > 0:46:38of an elaborate and expensive burial ritual
0:46:38 > 0:46:42for what seem to be some very wealthy and distinctive people.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51In Bordeaux, more clues are coming to light.
0:46:52 > 0:46:54One of the French team,
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Delphine Henri, has been studying remnants of the fabrics
0:46:57 > 0:47:00that were recovered from the tombs.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Delphine believes she can even work out
0:47:35 > 0:47:38where the person who made the fabrics came from.
0:48:03 > 0:48:04C'est incroyable.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Philippe believes this cultural connection
0:49:01 > 0:49:05with the southern Mediterranean can be narrowed further.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52While the scientific analyses continue,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56there's one remaining historical avenue I want to explore.
0:49:59 > 0:50:04The ground directly above the X Tombs was actually a site marked out
0:50:04 > 0:50:07for the burials of a very important group of people.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13That's the entrance to our tombs over there
0:50:13 > 0:50:17and the big structure behind me, that's the Mausoleum of St Helena,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21Emperor Constantine's mum. But ignore it entirely for the moment,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24because it was built in the early fourth century AD,
0:50:24 > 0:50:26way after the time we're interested in.
0:50:26 > 0:50:30During that time, end first century to mid-third century AD,
0:50:30 > 0:50:33despite what it now looks like, car park, football pitch,
0:50:33 > 0:50:37this place was actually a really important cemetery
0:50:37 > 0:50:40for the emperor's personal cavalry. Their name changes over time,
0:50:40 > 0:50:44but they're perhaps best known as the Equites Singulares Augusti.
0:50:50 > 0:50:52"Equites Singulares Augusti"
0:50:52 > 0:50:56is Latin for "The Emperor's Chosen Horsemen",
0:50:56 > 0:50:58a regiment founded in the first century AD.
0:51:01 > 0:51:06They are immortalised in reliefs on one of Rome's greatest landmarks,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10Trajan's Column, erected in AD 113.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19At the Museum of Roman Civilisation,
0:51:19 > 0:51:23copies of the scenes are laid out so we can get a closer look.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33The reliefs celebrate Emperor Trajan's epic battles
0:51:33 > 0:51:38and ultimate victory over the Dacians, now modern-day Romania,
0:51:38 > 0:51:40in the early second century AD.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44Our Equites Singulares Augusti
0:51:44 > 0:51:47are shown no less than seven times on this column,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51and that's more than any other individual battle unit.
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Here they are heading off with the Emperor Trajan into battle.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59These guys really were the chosen ones
0:51:59 > 0:52:02to share in the emperor's most successful military campaign.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06This is one of my favourite scenes,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09the Equites Singulares Augusti in full battle gear,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12the helmets, the shields, the chain-mail jackets,
0:52:12 > 0:52:15on their horses, charging in behind their Emperor Trajan,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19who offers the horseman's salute, the open right hand.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24And they're coming to the rescue of the Roman troops
0:52:24 > 0:52:26that are being besieged over here by the Dacians.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31It really is the emperor, his crack cavalry, coming to the rescue.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39The Equites were the finest imperial horsemen.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44Most were foreigners, hand-picked as teenagers from across the Empire.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49They were strong and, by many accounts, very handsome warriors.
0:52:49 > 0:52:54To be selected was a ticket to great wealth and high status.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01They protected successive emperors, both in Rome and abroad,
0:53:01 > 0:53:06for over 200 years, from the first to the third century AD.
0:53:07 > 0:53:12But in AD 312, the cosy relationship between the Equites and the emperor
0:53:12 > 0:53:14came to an end.
0:53:17 > 0:53:22The Western Empire was divided by civil war between two emperors,
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Maxentius and Constantine.
0:53:30 > 0:53:33Maxentius held Rome.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38But Constantine marched from the North to oust his rival.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45In a final showdown, the two sides faced each other
0:53:45 > 0:53:49at the Milvian Bridge, the entry point to Rome
0:53:49 > 0:53:51across the River Tiber.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58The Equites horsemen sided with Maxentius.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08But Constantine was victorious.
0:54:33 > 0:54:37Constantine even destroyed the Equites' cemetery.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41All that remains are fragments of tombstones.
0:54:41 > 0:54:42Many now adorn the walls
0:54:42 > 0:54:46of the entrance to the Catacomb of St Marcellinus and St Peter.
0:55:09 > 0:55:14The X Tombs were in use around the same time and in the same location
0:55:14 > 0:55:18as the former site of the Equites' cemetery,
0:55:18 > 0:55:20which raises an intriguing possibility.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28The dates of our X Tomb bodies overlap with those of the Equites.
0:55:28 > 0:55:34It's unlikely that a space reserved for elites, as the Equites were,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36would have been used for burials
0:55:36 > 0:55:38of anyone completely unconnected with them.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56The people in the X Tombs were mostly young adults,
0:55:56 > 0:55:58a mixture of men and women.
0:55:59 > 0:56:02Now, we know from surviving tombstones
0:56:02 > 0:56:06that the Equites were often buried with their wives and slaves.
0:56:23 > 0:56:26The Equites numbered 5,000 strong.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30They were foreigners, selected from various occupied territories
0:56:30 > 0:56:35across central Europe and also from southern Spain and North Africa.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40We've got connections in the funerary ritual
0:56:40 > 0:56:42to the southern Mediterranean, to North Africa,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45particularly to Tunisia and Algeria.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48The complex, elaborate and expensive funerary rituals
0:56:48 > 0:56:53with which they were buried not only mark them out also as rich,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56particularly that amber, but also fairly distinctive.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Written accounts also tell us they were dressed in jackets
0:57:01 > 0:57:04embroidered with silver and gold thread.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12The Equites were wealthy, well-fed and well connected.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18But when overwhelmed by waves of mass death,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22it's conceivable that the Equites' community may have converted
0:57:22 > 0:57:27pre-existing underground chambers, possibly disused water systems,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29into a mass burial site.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36It's only a theory, and we may never know for sure,
0:57:36 > 0:57:39but from all the evidence we have at the moment,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41it certainly seems plausible
0:57:41 > 0:57:44that the X Tombs could be the last resting place
0:57:44 > 0:57:48for over 2,000 of these great horsemen and their families.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Soldiers chosen to protect the Roman emperor.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58What I love about this investigation
0:57:58 > 0:58:02is the way it's been able to put not just the flesh back on the bones
0:58:02 > 0:58:05but to have turned these skeletons back into real people.
0:58:07 > 0:58:09They came here to the Caput Mundi,
0:58:09 > 0:58:11the capital of the world,
0:58:11 > 0:58:15the kind of Ancient Roman version of the American Dream,
0:58:15 > 0:58:19and the irony is that it was also here in Rome
0:58:19 > 0:58:24that disease found its perfect breeding ground
0:58:24 > 0:58:27and, ultimately, killed them.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd