0:00:08 > 0:00:12Every morning, these soldiers raise the Greek flag
0:00:12 > 0:00:16above their ancient citadel, the Acropolis of Athens.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24It harks back 2,500 years, to a time
0:00:24 > 0:00:30when Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44Athens is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48And in many ways, it's Athens that gave us our ideal of a city,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51our ideal of a citizen.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55We live in a modern world full of great cities.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Modern Athens is a far larger than Athens was in antiquity.
0:00:59 > 0:01:04And yet, the Athens of antiquity is an extraordinary achievement.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10It wasn't a place where inhabitants were clustered around
0:01:10 > 0:01:15the palace of a king, but a seat of open government.
0:01:15 > 0:01:20Every aspect of daily life from defence to waste disposal
0:01:20 > 0:01:22was run by its citizens.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Ultimately, this system would define a way of life.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Athenian citizens would give it a name.
0:01:39 > 0:01:44They called it people power - "Democratia".
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Democracy.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52This is the story of how the Greeks transformed
0:01:52 > 0:01:56the idea of the city into a model which lives on to this day.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02The colonists arrived here and said, "This is it!
0:02:02 > 0:02:04"And then we'll build everything around it."
0:02:06 > 0:02:10The grid is coming into view.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13How they created an urban way of life.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19I love the fact that you know the names of the stonemasons,
0:02:19 > 0:02:21like the guys who carved the fluting!
0:02:23 > 0:02:28The first constitution that laid down the rights of its citizens
0:02:28 > 0:02:30and built a city that was the envy of the world.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41The Athenians were fighting for an ideal.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43And that's the ideal that we articulate today.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47'I'll then travel to Rome where, 500 years later,
0:02:47 > 0:02:51'they created what we could call the first ancient mega-city,
0:02:51 > 0:02:54'complete with high-rise housing...'
0:02:54 > 0:02:56What I love is that this isn't just a bit of archaeology,
0:02:56 > 0:02:59it is a bit of a living history!
0:02:59 > 0:03:01'..Underground complexes...
0:03:08 > 0:03:11'..And incredible infrastructure.'
0:03:26 > 0:03:30There's a famous passage in a guidebook
0:03:30 > 0:03:34written in the second century AD by a Greek called Pausanias
0:03:34 > 0:03:36and it's guidebook to all of Greece.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42And he comes across a little place in Boeotia called Penapis
0:03:42 > 0:03:46and he says, "The city, the polis of Penapis!"
0:03:46 > 0:03:52And then he pauses and says, "If you can really call this place a polis".
0:03:52 > 0:03:55And what worries him about Penapis is,
0:03:55 > 0:03:57and I give the quote,
0:03:57 > 0:04:01"It has no magistrates' buildings, no gymnasium,
0:04:01 > 0:04:07"no theatre, no agora, not even a water supply leading to a fountain."
0:04:10 > 0:04:13'Public space, public buildings, theatres,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16'eventually, even public libraries like this one.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20'These were the elements which Athenians understood,
0:04:20 > 0:04:24'transformed a place of mass habitation into a true city.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30'They were taken as given in Athens, which set a benchmark for all
0:04:30 > 0:04:34'ancient Mediterranean cities and for the cities of today.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38'These high expectations were the products of a system
0:04:38 > 0:04:42'of government which Athens gave the world,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46'a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49'And this is how it happened.'
0:04:53 > 0:04:56'Many people think of England's Magna Carter of 1215
0:04:56 > 0:04:59'as the earliest constitution.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02'But the document I'm going to show you records one
0:05:02 > 0:05:06'from the sixth century BC, nearly 2,000 years earlier.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11'The Athenaion Politeia was written by
0:05:11 > 0:05:13'the great Greek thinker, Aristotle.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17'Yet unlike the Magna Carta, it has never been filmed before.'
0:05:19 > 0:05:22- Just through here.- Is this it? - Yes.- Oh, wow.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24Isn't this fantastic!
0:05:24 > 0:05:26I've so often seen pictures of this,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30but this is the first time I've seen this in the flesh.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34It's a papyrus that is, well, it's 2,000 years old.
0:05:34 > 0:05:40But it's the only surviving copy of Aristotle's Constitution Of Athens.
0:05:40 > 0:05:45It was discovered back in 1890, it came to the British Museum
0:05:45 > 0:05:50and the very, very young Frederic Kenyon, 27 years old,
0:05:50 > 0:05:53he set about reading it.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56The Greek is incredibly hard to read.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59This is just a bit of it. This is half the papyrus.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03The full thing would go down to here, it's seven foot in all.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06And there were four of those scrolls!
0:06:06 > 0:06:11And this initial bit is where he tells the first chapter,
0:06:11 > 0:06:14which is about the reform of Solon.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Here, for instance, there's Solon himself. Solon.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Athenians regarded Solon as the founder of their democracy.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31They appointed him their lawgiver and he was invited to draw up
0:06:31 > 0:06:36a new legal code to rescue Athens from bitter internal conflict
0:06:36 > 0:06:37between rich and poor.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43This document was at least as important to the
0:06:43 > 0:06:47ancient Athenians as the Magna Carta is for us.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Yet his constitution was far more advanced.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00He wasn't just a lawgiver, he was also a poet,
0:07:00 > 0:07:06defending his reforms and here he is saying that,
0:07:06 > 0:07:12"I freed the land. The black earth, the greatest of the gods!" he calls it.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Extraordinary expression.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17"The greatest of gods used to be enslaved.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20"He gives freedom to the people who work the earth.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23"And I freed the land of Attica."
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Attica, the land of Athens.
0:07:26 > 0:07:33It is the longest papyrus text we have of Greek literature.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37And that is what changed our understanding
0:07:37 > 0:07:39of the birth of Greek democracy.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46Democratic freedom and the new world of the Greek city went hand-in-hand.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51To understand how radical a departure this was,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53you need to see what had gone before.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00In the centuries leading up to the Athens of Solon,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04that had been large urban settlements in ancient Greece,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07just as in China and Ancient Egypt.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Though none of them were cities as we would understand them.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The most famous flourished in what was once
0:08:16 > 0:08:18thought to be a world of myth.
0:08:18 > 0:08:23This is Mycenae, 75 miles from Athens.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26The land of Agamemnon, Helen of Troy and the Trojan War.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34The Greeks of the classical period were brought up on the Homeric epics
0:08:34 > 0:08:38and their stories of kings of fabulous wealth and power.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42It was always assumed that those Homeric epics were mere legend,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45fantasies about a heroic age.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47That was the assumption.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Until archaeology demonstrated that there is a historical
0:08:52 > 0:08:55basis in Mycenaean civilisation.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04This, for the world of 3,500 years ago, was a major urban centre.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08There were enough homes here to house
0:09:08 > 0:09:10a significant number of people.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15But this was the walled stronghold of a single ruler,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19rather than a community of citizens.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25That's not to say it wasn't advanced.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28The huge walls, built high over the landscape,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31were so big that later Greeks thought they were put up
0:09:31 > 0:09:35by the one-eyed monsters made famous by Odysseus - the Cyclops!
0:09:38 > 0:09:42In fact, they were a real feat of engineering.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46The highlight was the oldest domed roof in the ancient world.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55Yet some of the key ingredients
0:09:55 > 0:09:58associated later with cities like Athens -
0:09:58 > 0:10:02shared public amenities, public space and public buildings -
0:10:02 > 0:10:03were missing.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Ultimately, this was a large settlement,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12with streets and homes crammed around the great hall,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14or "megaron", of a king.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25By 1,000 BC, Mycenae and the other palace centres had collapsed.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29Slowly, a new type of Greek settlement was beginning to develop.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35In the course of the ninth and eighth centuries BC,
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Greeks began to experiment with communities
0:10:37 > 0:10:40run by the citizens themselves.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43This model became known as the Polis.
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Greek settlers took the Polis
0:10:48 > 0:10:51way beyond the borders of their homeland.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Because when they built their colonies, they were starting
0:10:53 > 0:10:57from scratch, they could afford to be even bolder in their thinking.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03It became a spectacular experiment in city building.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15This beautiful site is known today
0:11:15 > 0:11:18by its Roman name of "Paestum".
0:11:18 > 0:11:21But before it was a Roman city, it was a Greek one.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25Founded by Greek colonists around 600 BC,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28they gave it the name of "Poseidonia" - Poseidon City.
0:11:29 > 0:11:35Now, it may seem a bit weird to look for a Greek city in Italy,
0:11:35 > 0:11:40but the south of Italy and Sicily are full of new cities
0:11:40 > 0:11:45founded by the Greeks in that period in the seventh, sixth century BC,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48when they were experimenting with new ideas
0:11:48 > 0:11:52of what a city-state, a Polis, might be.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56And it's maybe, in this site, better than anywhere else
0:11:56 > 0:12:00that you can see the elements that go to make up a Polis.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08To find out what was so revolutionary
0:12:08 > 0:12:10about the way this place was planned,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14I've come here with my colleague from Cambridge, Tiziana D'Angelo,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21Tiziana, can you give me an idea of how formal
0:12:21 > 0:12:26was it to creating a new Greek colony? A new Greek city?
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Well, it was a gradual process, but the colonists arrived here
0:12:30 > 0:12:34and they had a clear idea what they needed to build their city.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37And they had a set of priorities
0:12:37 > 0:12:39and so they were starting what was the main priority.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42The main priority was public space.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Known to Greeks as the "Agora",
0:12:46 > 0:12:50this was the leap of imagination that, more than anything else,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53differentiated the new Greek settlements from Mycenae.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58At the heart of the Polis was not a palace for a king,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01but an open meeting space for the citizens.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07We are basically entering the southern border of the Agora.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11And the Agora was huge, so it extended there for ten hectares.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Oh, wow, so...not just this.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17Ten hectares is absolutely gigantic.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21So, public space is really important in the city.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24- It was the first thing that they were very concerned about.- Yeah?
0:13:24 > 0:13:28So they arrived here and they sort of saved this large square.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32They said, "OK, this is it and then we'll build everything around it."
0:13:32 > 0:13:35Yeah. So, this is for the "demos". This is for the people,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39and then individuals can have their houses further away.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Yes. West and East of the Agora, but we don't touch this space.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53In total, the public space here, including the sanctuaries,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56was the equivalent of nearly eight football pitches.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59That's a quarter of the town's surface area.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11The Agora of the Polis put the inhabitants at the centre
0:14:11 > 0:14:15of a new kind of settlement. One run by the citizens themselves.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18The city as we begin to know it.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28It was here that the citizens, the "Politeia",
0:14:28 > 0:14:30met to exchange goods and ideas,
0:14:30 > 0:14:35to buy and sell. Also just to talk to each other.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Agora comes from the Greek word for to talk, "agoreuo".
0:14:40 > 0:14:45The idea of public space as a place to talk may seem innocuous,
0:14:45 > 0:14:48but out of talk came political discussion,
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and out of political discussion came politics.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00The Agora and the approach to politics that came with it became
0:15:00 > 0:15:02as popular on the Hellenic mainland
0:15:02 > 0:15:05as it did in colonies like Poseidonia, or Paestum.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11In 900 BC, there hadn't been a single Polis in Greece.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14By 600 BC, there were hundreds.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18At the time when Paestum was established,
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Athens was just another Polis in central Greece.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25But it was developing fast.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27Above all, it's Agora began to evolve,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30not just in size, but also in role.
0:15:32 > 0:15:37Just after 600 BC, politics in the Agora was revolutionised.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44The agent of change was the reform of government by Solon,
0:15:44 > 0:15:45described by Aristotle.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54What you saw in the British Library is only a section of the Politeia.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57An entire scroll, like this copy I put together,
0:15:57 > 0:15:59was even longer.
0:15:59 > 0:16:05Laid end-to-end, the complete text is a staggering 5.7 metres,
0:16:05 > 0:16:06nearly 20 feet long.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12It tells us in detail not only about Solon's reforms,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15but also what life was like in Athens before he arrived.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25It says all the land was in the hands of the rich,
0:16:25 > 0:16:28and the poor, women, children
0:16:28 > 0:16:31were effectively their slaves.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36And then it talks about how Solon had his great revolution,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41his "seisachtheia" - his shaking up of everything.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43And here we have Solon talking about
0:16:43 > 0:16:47how he gives freedom to the people of Attica.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51He liberates them from shameful slavery,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55"doulien aeikea", and makes them free citizens.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02The laws say no-one who is born in Attica can be turned into a slave.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05There is no more slavery for debt.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09And the constitution then gives them political rights.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16And without that, there is no such thing as democracy.
0:17:16 > 0:17:19Solon, back in 594 BC,
0:17:19 > 0:17:25legislated the instrument to create freedom and democracy.
0:17:28 > 0:17:31He gave them an "Ecclesia", an assembly
0:17:31 > 0:17:36where they had a vote and where they had the freedom to speak.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41That freedom of speech is fundamental for democracy.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Solon's reforms weren't perfect.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51They excluded women and foreign slaves from citizenship.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57But they launched the idea of people power,
0:17:57 > 0:18:00which came to its peak in the fifth century Athens,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03as male citizens voted on almost every decision.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08These were thrashed out in sight of the Acropolis,
0:18:08 > 0:18:10at the heart of the Athenian democracy,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12On the hill of The Pnyx.
0:18:14 > 0:18:17One of those who knows best how this place worked
0:18:17 > 0:18:20is my old friend John Papadopoulos,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22who has been studying here for 30 years.
0:18:24 > 0:18:28We get a great view of the Acropolis from this spot, don't we?
0:18:28 > 0:18:31And I guess down there we've got the Agora.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36And that's where so much of democracy happens.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41And yet, this is an even more important spot for democracy,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44- isn't it?- This is the iconic spot.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47This is where the assembly of male citizens,
0:18:47 > 0:18:52that constitute the Athenian democracy, this is where they met,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55this is where they made all of their decisions.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00And it's just here that we have the orators' platform.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03- Mm-hm.- And this is very important. This is where the orators stood.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08And in order to make your voice heard,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11you had to shout above a quorum
0:19:11 > 0:19:15of a minimum of 6,000 citizens.
0:19:15 > 0:19:186,000 is an enormous number.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22You're filling this entire space, aren't you?
0:19:22 > 0:19:25And they sent people down into the Agora with ropes,
0:19:25 > 0:19:27literally to rope them in.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30They had red paint on the ropes
0:19:30 > 0:19:34so you could see who was, you know, loitering around.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36You fill the place till it's full.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40By definition, you've got a lot of poor people there.
0:19:40 > 0:19:44You couldn't ignore the will of the poorest people in this society.
0:19:44 > 0:19:51And that is, of course, one major reason why the democracy expanded.
0:19:53 > 0:19:59And over time, it didn't just expand in Athens but across the world.
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Do you think the numbers we have in Barnet and Camden are adequate?
0:20:03 > 0:20:06- You've got more police... - Straightforward question.
0:20:06 > 0:20:07- Answer the question.- Yes!
0:20:07 > 0:20:10- Answer the question.- Ask a sensible question, Dumbo. Yes.
0:20:10 > 0:20:14- Ooh, here we go again!- Order! - Here we go again.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18Democracy is alive and well in modern cities today,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and one place that's proud to have inherited the mantle is London.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26Yes or no? Did you say it was going to be free?
0:20:26 > 0:20:28I urge you to get up on the cable car and...
0:20:28 > 0:20:32I've been on the cable car, Mr Mayor, but I...
0:20:32 > 0:20:36It's a system where politicians have to take the rough with the smooth.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Ancient Athens' greatest champion in this capital, Boris Johnson,
0:20:40 > 0:20:41is no exception.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45But the Athenians would have considered this version
0:20:45 > 0:20:48of democracy tame by comparison.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53The citizens delegated little to their politicians,
0:20:53 > 0:20:58and had the right to do more than just vote them from power.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00MURMUR OF DEBATE
0:21:05 > 0:21:08I want you to imagine you're in The Pnyx,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11- that you're an orator on the Bema.- Yes.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14- You haven't got a mic at all. - I know, I know.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17- What would it have been like? - It would have been very difficult.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21And, of course, the Athenians have the inexpressible pleasure
0:21:21 > 0:21:24of being able, when they were fed up with people,
0:21:24 > 0:21:26to vote to ostracise them.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29- Absolutely. - Can you imagine the impact on you
0:21:29 > 0:21:32as the humble person of Athens, you're never going to be one of
0:21:32 > 0:21:35these guys, but you can send them to Bulgaria.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Or wherever. For a long time.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40And it must have been a fantastically powerful thing.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43I think we should bring it back.
0:21:43 > 0:21:46I'm not going to say anything and comment on that!
0:21:49 > 0:21:53But none of this was a joke to the ancient Athenians.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56They didn't just have the right to expel those
0:21:56 > 0:21:57who threatened their democracy...
0:22:02 > 0:22:05So, what's going on here?
0:22:05 > 0:22:09We've got a stele, a long piece of marble,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11with a long inscription down the bottom,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and then an image up above
0:22:14 > 0:22:17of a woman crowning a seated man.
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Well, it's a celebration of democracy.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24What we see here is a woman
0:22:24 > 0:22:28who was the personification of democracy,
0:22:28 > 0:22:31crowning a seated gentleman
0:22:31 > 0:22:35who is a representation of the demos, of the people.
0:22:35 > 0:22:42So we have the story both in image and in word.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47The long inscription, says that anyone who attempts
0:22:47 > 0:22:50to overthrow the democracy,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54anybody who wants may murder them.
0:22:54 > 0:22:58They may kill them with impunity and there will be no prosecution.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04Athens guarded its democratic status with pride.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11Even in today's Athens, you can still find clues
0:23:11 > 0:23:15to how the visionary government, created by ancient Athenians,
0:23:15 > 0:23:19took the lead over its rivals.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22- Kalimera!- How are you? Good morning! - Good morning. Good morning.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26Do you have ancient coins? Archaa nomismata?
0:23:26 > 0:23:28- Yes, yes, we have.- Here. Oh, terrific!
0:23:28 > 0:23:30Oh, brilliant. Brilliant.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33- And here, how much?- Two Euro.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36- Two Euro?- Yes. - You've made me a happy man.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41I have to say, I really am pleased to have my own Athenian owl here.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45Two Euros is a small price to pay for this beauty.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47Of course, it's not an original Athenian owl,
0:23:47 > 0:23:50it's just a modern copy but, symbolically,
0:23:50 > 0:23:55this is what the wealth of Athens was all about.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57They made these coins which they always stamped with
0:23:57 > 0:24:00the owl of Athena, the goddess of wisdom,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03with the silver from the mines at Laurium.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08And it's the Lucky strike of one particular year - 493 BC,
0:24:08 > 0:24:13when the state makes a profit of 100 talents.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15What to do with this?
0:24:15 > 0:24:19Their first idea, split it up between the citizens of Athens.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23It would have worked out at ten drachma a head.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26And the great politician Themistocles says, "no, no, no.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28"Invest, invest, invest.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32"With those 100 talents, we can build 100 ships."
0:24:34 > 0:24:38Themistocles was a statesman of Churchillian importance
0:24:38 > 0:24:40in Democratic Athens.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44He realised he had to persuade his citizens of the need to build
0:24:44 > 0:24:48up the Navy, to defend both the Athenian democracy
0:24:48 > 0:24:50and its strategic interests.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55Like Churchill, Themistocles was a great orator.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59It was no small feat to get the Athenian voters to forego
0:24:59 > 0:25:03a cash hand-out, and invest instead in naval power.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Control of the sea and the trade brought with it
0:25:11 > 0:25:14would stimulate the growth of the most populated city
0:25:14 > 0:25:15in the Mediterranean.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22This is a replica Trireme, or Athenian battleship.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27Its design is based on original stone carvings.
0:25:27 > 0:25:32It's 35 metres long with three banks of oars.
0:25:32 > 0:25:38This was the pinnacle of naval technology in its day.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43With 170 oarsmen, a ship like this needed to outmanoeuvre the enemy.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48It required a high degree of training
0:25:48 > 0:25:54and skill to achieve the synchronisation for all the rowers.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58They could complete a full turn of the boat in fewer than 70 metres.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02That's only two ship lengths.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06It's battering ram was its lethal weapon.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09As the ship's current Honorary Commander,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12Captain Panos of the modern Greek Navy, explains.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18They used all the oarsmen during the battles in order to give
0:26:18 > 0:26:23strength when the ram was hitting the other vessel.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26So, the ram is a really important part of the ship?
0:26:26 > 0:26:31- This is the true weapon of the ship, isn't it?- Correct.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35And what you want to do is get up the maximum speed
0:26:35 > 0:26:40- so that that bronze ram goes right into the side.- Correct.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42The oarsmen, they were free men,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45something that a lot of people don't know.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48Because, of course, historically,
0:26:48 > 0:26:52rowing ships have often been rowed by slaves.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54Often chained to the oars.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56It was a brutal and horrible thing to do.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00And it must have been, actually, quite unpleasant,
0:27:00 > 0:27:01rowing in a ship like this.
0:27:01 > 0:27:06It was unpleasant but the fact that those men were free citizens,
0:27:06 > 0:27:09they were not slaves, and that's why they gave their best.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15The Athenian navy, the future growth of the city of Athens
0:27:15 > 0:27:19and the freedom of its citizens became inextricably linked.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25The investment of the profits of the silver mines at Laurium
0:27:25 > 0:27:29in building up a new Navy had enormous consequences
0:27:29 > 0:27:31for the development of Athens.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36On the one hand, it made Athens a great naval power
0:27:36 > 0:27:38and led to victories,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42but it also had deep political implications.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46The people who pulled the orders were Athenian citizens.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50But, above all, they were the poor citizens of Athens,
0:27:50 > 0:27:55and that meant that their voice really mattered in politics.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58They voted to send themselves into battle.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05In 480 BC, Persia invaded Greece.
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Now, the ability of a citizen-state
0:28:09 > 0:28:13to stand up to a great empire would be put to the test.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23Their Athenian leader decided to take a huge risk.
0:28:23 > 0:28:28An Oracle had told the Athenians to trust in their wooden walls.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Themistocles interpreted this to be the Athenian Navy.
0:28:34 > 0:28:38Instead of defending the city with soldiers, he would instead abandon
0:28:38 > 0:28:43Athens and withdraw his troops to ships moored off Salamis.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50According to the Greek historian Heroditus,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53the Persians outnumbered the Greeks by more than four to one.
0:28:57 > 0:28:58But as night fell,
0:28:58 > 0:29:03the master tactician Themistocles sent messages to the Persians,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06hinting that he was ready to change sides.
0:29:08 > 0:29:12The Persians, in order to maintain their position, as negotiations
0:29:12 > 0:29:18continued through the night, were forced to backpaddle as dawn broke.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22With the Persians exhausted, Themistocles attacked,
0:29:22 > 0:29:24annihilating his enemy.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30Though Athens itself had been razed to the ground,
0:29:30 > 0:29:34and the old Acropolis destroyed, the Athenian people
0:29:34 > 0:29:38and the revolutionary system of government had triumphed in war.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45They were now in a position to win the peace
0:29:45 > 0:29:49and transform their home from just another Greek Polis
0:29:49 > 0:29:52to the most glittering city in the ancient world.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58To understand Salamis as a turning point,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01you need to see the landscape from the top of the Hill of the Muses.
0:30:07 > 0:30:13So we're looking out here on the heart of Athenian naval power?
0:30:13 > 0:30:18This is the most magic spot for Athenian history and topography.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23Right in front of us, we have that crescent moon-shaped harbour,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and that is Phaleron, and it was there that the harbour was
0:30:26 > 0:30:28during the battle of Salamis.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33But because Phaleron was too open and too exposed,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35at or shortly after 480,
0:30:35 > 0:30:40under the inspired leadership of Themistocles,
0:30:40 > 0:30:42in order to protect the harbour,
0:30:42 > 0:30:46decided to move the main harbour from Phaleron
0:30:46 > 0:30:50to the three different harbours of Piraeus.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53And there's that one modern skyscraper in the middle,
0:30:53 > 0:30:55one harbour is to the left of that,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58one harbour is more or less there,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01and the main harbour, Kantharos, is to the right.
0:31:05 > 0:31:08The wooden walls of Athens, its legendary fleet,
0:31:08 > 0:31:12were now reinforced by these famous long walls,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15formidable fortifications of stone,
0:31:15 > 0:31:1920 metres high and six kilometres in length.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23They effectively enclosed the route from Athens to Phaleron
0:31:23 > 0:31:28and the Piraeus, protecting the link to the sea,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31and the future greatness of democratic Athens as a maritime power.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38They transformed Athens into a city of unprecedented size,
0:31:38 > 0:31:41integrated with a system of ports
0:31:41 > 0:31:43that made it the trading hub of the Aegean.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54The modern Piraeus is an enormous ferry port,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58but it's in exactly the position of the ancient Piraeus,
0:31:58 > 0:32:04and it's this gigantic port that is the secret of the commercial success of ancient Athens.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11With its hard-won political freedom came economic freedom.
0:32:11 > 0:32:15Athens' naval power meant the Athenian merchant fleet
0:32:15 > 0:32:19was free to trade with whoever they wished, bringing in vast wealth
0:32:19 > 0:32:22and goods from all over the Mediterranean and beyond.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34Parts of the ancient sea fortifications of Athens survive today.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41And more remarkable still,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44an archaeological team from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities
0:32:44 > 0:32:47and the Danish Institute at Athens
0:32:47 > 0:32:53has discovered one key element of the city's supreme maritime status in the fifth century BC.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58The foundations of the ship sheds in Zea harbour.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05What we have here is an artistic reconstruction of the Zea harbour,
0:33:05 > 0:33:10and this is exactly the point that we are standing right now.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14And this is one of the two fortifications towers that would
0:33:14 > 0:33:17block the entrance of the harbour.
0:33:17 > 0:33:19So right here, going across?
0:33:19 > 0:33:21Exactly.
0:33:21 > 0:33:24One tower would have been here, the other one, the other side,
0:33:24 > 0:33:28and by using a chain, they would block the entrance.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Because they wouldn't like anybody coming in
0:33:31 > 0:33:33and having access to their triremes.
0:33:33 > 0:33:38This harbour complex would have been almost 110,000 square feet.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45You would have space for 196 ship sheds.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52Themistocles didn't just inspire a great navy,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56he also persuaded the citizens to begin a public infrastructure
0:33:56 > 0:34:00project which was without parallel in the ancient world.
0:34:02 > 0:34:05When Themistocles developed this area
0:34:05 > 0:34:07and created his new system of ports,
0:34:07 > 0:34:12he built a great wall around it, linked it up to the Acropolis,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15you can see the trace of the long walls
0:34:15 > 0:34:18which are followed by modern streets.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22But he also created a residential quarter,
0:34:22 > 0:34:25and he brought in a famous architect,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28a certain Hippodamus of Miletus,
0:34:28 > 0:34:31to lay out this new residential quarter for him.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Hippodamus was famous for his radical ideas
0:34:37 > 0:34:40about how people should live in his new cities.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Sometimes regarded as the father of modern town planning,
0:34:45 > 0:34:49he disliked the confusion of the older settlements of antiquity
0:34:49 > 0:34:53and sought to impose a new order in the planning of Greece.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59His was a utopian vision and a democratic one.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02In modern Athens, it's hard to get a feel
0:35:02 > 0:35:05of what Hippodamus' city would have looked like.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12However, there is one place you can really get the idea.
0:35:13 > 0:35:17In northern Greece, 125 miles from the Bulgarian border,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20are the remains of the ancient city of Olynthos.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27It's the best surviving example of the layout of a Greek city of the classical period.
0:35:29 > 0:35:30At the south of the site,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34there is an earlier development from the sixth century BC,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36with clusters of houses strewn here and there.
0:35:40 > 0:35:42Then, in the 430s BC,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45we can see the scale of the revolution that took place.
0:35:51 > 0:35:55The new settlement is laid out with pinpoint mathematical precision.
0:35:57 > 0:36:00Long, straight streets, dividing equally sized blocks.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06In each, are ten houses. All of them of the same dimensions.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16The clear boundaries of the grid helped avoid disputes between neighbours,
0:36:16 > 0:36:20because this was a society where the law reigned supreme,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24and the equal sized houses symbolised the equality between citizens.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Themistocles' development of Piraeus after the battle of Salamis
0:36:34 > 0:36:38had created not only a mechanism for economic expansion,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42but also one which would energise the young democracy.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48The grid at Piraeus stretched out towards the old town
0:36:48 > 0:36:50and Athens was entering a new phase.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54The golden age of the city.
0:37:00 > 0:37:05The key to success was an alliance of cities, each of them unique
0:37:05 > 0:37:08and diverse, with Athens at the helm.
0:37:08 > 0:37:13Athens' victory over the Persians led to an explosion of growth.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15The Persians may have been defeated
0:37:15 > 0:37:18but they were still a real menace to the Greeks and what Athens does
0:37:18 > 0:37:23is to form an alliance of all the cities threatened by the Persians,
0:37:23 > 0:37:28a couple of hundred cities sign up to a great naval alliance.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32The Athenians led the alliance, but they also set it up
0:37:32 > 0:37:36in a way that proved very advantageous to themselves.
0:37:36 > 0:37:38They said to their allies, "Well,
0:37:38 > 0:37:43"either you provide ships to add to our Navy or you give us cash."
0:37:43 > 0:37:47And progressively, as the cash came in, the Navy got bigger
0:37:47 > 0:37:52and stronger and it became harder and harder for the other allies
0:37:52 > 0:37:57to do anything but pay tribute to Athens.
0:37:57 > 0:38:02By 460, the Persians had been driven right out of the Aegean,
0:38:02 > 0:38:07there wasn't a single Greek city left threatened by the Persians.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10And at that point it becomes slightly less important
0:38:10 > 0:38:13to the Athenians to put their navy out
0:38:13 > 0:38:16and they find other ways of spending their money.
0:38:18 > 0:38:24The city of Athens flourishes on its naval victory and naval power.
0:38:27 > 0:38:29Almost immediately, they start building,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33and the Acropolis is built on the profits
0:38:33 > 0:38:36coming in from this great naval alliance.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45The city was now free to make real its urban ideal.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51And in the 440s BC, under its new and dynamic leader Pericles,
0:38:51 > 0:38:54this lavish building programme began in earnest.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02Although he was born into a noble family, Pericles was a populist
0:39:02 > 0:39:07who would take Athenian democracy into an even more radical direction.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Under his leadership, the poor would not only be allowed
0:39:10 > 0:39:15to sit on the juries, but be paid handsomely for it.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19He even introduced subsidies to enable them to attend the theatre.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31The monuments on the Acropolis were designed to make ordinary Athenians
0:39:31 > 0:39:34feel proud of the achievements of their grassroots democracy.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Although the Parthenon is the most famous of those buildings,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47by looking a little closer, you can decipher the clues
0:39:47 > 0:39:50left by the ancient Athenians themselves
0:39:50 > 0:39:53about what they thought had made their city great.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58It's interesting, isn't it, how all of these tourists
0:39:58 > 0:40:02come flooding through and they've got eyes only for the Parthenon?
0:40:02 > 0:40:06They all know that this is the monument to see on the Acropolis.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10And they don't even pause to look at this one down here.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17The Propylaea may seem just an entrance to the Acropolis,
0:40:17 > 0:40:19but John has a striking new theory.
0:40:19 > 0:40:24If he's right, the tourists are missing something monumental.
0:40:24 > 0:40:25What's really remarkable,
0:40:25 > 0:40:29and this has been an enigma for a long time,
0:40:29 > 0:40:32was why did architect, Mnesicles,
0:40:32 > 0:40:38in 437 BC change the orientation by almost 40 degrees?
0:40:38 > 0:40:41- What, thataway?- Out there.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45- It used to point out towards the Hill of the Muses and towards Phaleron. - Yeah.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48Whereas now he changed it
0:40:48 > 0:40:52and nobody could quite figure out what that was all about.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54It's so elegantly simple
0:40:54 > 0:40:58and it typifies what the Athenians were all about.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Upon exiting the Acropolis,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04- upon exiting the Propylaea...- Yes.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07Salamis is in your face.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11Mnesicles captured for eternity
0:41:11 > 0:41:15the watershed event that defined Athens.
0:41:20 > 0:41:21Elsewhere on the Acropolis
0:41:21 > 0:41:25there are the signs of the human story behind these monuments.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28They reveal the spirit of openness
0:41:28 > 0:41:32which would make Athens the centre of the Mediterranean world.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36Of course, the big names involved in putting up these wonderful temples,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39people like Phidias or Mnesicles,
0:41:39 > 0:41:42they were probably Athenian citizens,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46but what about the workmen who did all the detailed work?
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Well, this is in fact very interesting,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52because we actually have inscriptions that give accounts,
0:41:52 > 0:41:57a list of all the workmen and what exactly they did.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03This amazing historical document,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05now on display in the Acropolis Museum,
0:42:05 > 0:42:09lists the names of all the workmen who built the Erechtheion,
0:42:09 > 0:42:12giving their jobs, their place of origin,
0:42:12 > 0:42:16and in many cases even their social status.
0:42:16 > 0:42:23I love the fact that you know the names of each and every carpenter who worked here, the stonemasons,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27the guys who carved the fluting, it's quite specific,
0:42:27 > 0:42:31not who made the columns, but who did the little channels down.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35And there's this guy called Simias, who he has a group of four slaves,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and they were working explicitly on the fourth column,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40which must be one, two, three, four.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43That's Simias at work. Brilliant fluting!
0:42:49 > 0:42:52Look at the Erechtheion, one of the great buildings of Ancient Athens,
0:42:52 > 0:42:57of the 86 builders, sculptors of the Erechtheion who we've identified.
0:42:57 > 0:43:0040 were metics, resident aliens,
0:43:00 > 0:43:03I think 26 were slaves,
0:43:03 > 0:43:05and the rest were free workers.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07So, in other words, the overwhelming majority
0:43:07 > 0:43:11were either slaves or... And the biggest category were foreigners.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13It was built by the Poles, as it were.
0:43:13 > 0:43:19It was built by the immigrant labour from what was then the equivalent of Albania,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21or wherever it happened to be.
0:43:24 > 0:43:26What the Erechtheion documents
0:43:26 > 0:43:29is a willingness to welcome energy and talent
0:43:29 > 0:43:32if it could be turned to advantage of the city as a whole.
0:43:34 > 0:43:38It was an openness that went hand-in-hand with democracy.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47As the prosperity of the Piraeus with its metic traders grew,
0:43:47 > 0:43:52so the road system was transformed to accommodate the rising number
0:43:52 > 0:43:55of goods needed to supply the increasing population.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03It's no accident that the modern railway link from the old Agora to Piraeus today
0:44:03 > 0:44:08traces the road linking Athens to the port in ancient times.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12The technology has changed, but the infrastructure blueprint
0:44:12 > 0:44:16laid down by 5th-century Athenians remains the same.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22The new transport links meant that then as now Athenians could buy
0:44:22 > 0:44:26from an international shopping list in the Agora.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31An open city meant global trade
0:44:31 > 0:44:35as Pericles boasted in the 5th century BC.
0:44:36 > 0:44:39"Because of the importance that our city,
0:44:39 > 0:44:42"the products of the whole world flow in here.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46"And it is our good fortune to enjoy with the same familiar pleasure
0:44:46 > 0:44:50"both our home produce goods and those of other people."
0:44:55 > 0:45:00But we know from contemporary descriptions just how rich the Agora was
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and just what a wide range of goods you could buy there.
0:45:03 > 0:45:09There's a lovely passage here that I'm going to quote to you from a comic poet.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14And he says you can buy pretty well anything in Athens.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17"It comes from all over the world.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21"Syracuse gives us choose and well-fed pigs.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24"Sails come from Egypt and this paper too.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27"Incense from Syria.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30"In Paphlagonia grows the almond grove.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34"The elephant sends its teeth from Africa's sands.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37"Venetia sends us dates across the billows.
0:45:37 > 0:45:42"And Carthage, carpets rich and well-stuffed pillows."
0:45:45 > 0:45:49With so much trade going on in and around the city,
0:45:49 > 0:45:54the Athenian government imposed a strict system of weights and measures
0:45:54 > 0:45:58to ensure that no-one got cheated buying the city's produce.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03In a democracy the rule of law mattered
0:46:03 > 0:46:08and public officials were appointed to ensure that all aspects of daily life
0:46:08 > 0:46:11were managed freely, fairly and cleanly.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19- So this drain, John, is this an original feature?- Oh, very much so.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23This is actually one of the most important parts of the Agora.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26This is the Great Drain.
0:46:26 > 0:46:29In order for the Agora to become an Agora,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32you had to have water management.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Fountains brought drinking water into Athens,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40the Great Drain channelled the excess out,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44preventing flooding and removing waste.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48So the Athenians really cared about keeping their city clean.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50It's not just having drains,
0:46:50 > 0:46:54but, of course, they have a board of officials who are responsible for it.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Oh, yes indeed, the so-called "astynomi".
0:46:57 > 0:47:01And these were the people responsible for keeping the city clean
0:47:01 > 0:47:06and "asty" the first part of the word is the word for the city,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10"nomi" being rules, laws etc.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13So these were the people who kept the drains flowing,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15who kept the city clean,
0:47:15 > 0:47:19and they were also responsible for the koprologoi.
0:47:19 > 0:47:24- The koprologoi would mean literally "shit carriers"?- Exactly.
0:47:24 > 0:47:29And there were very clear prescribed rules and regulations
0:47:29 > 0:47:35as to where and how far from the city walls you could take the human waste.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39It's all part and parcel of managing this great city.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44- That's wonderful. The City of hygiene.- The City of Hygiene.
0:47:50 > 0:47:54The democratic government of Athens had done more than create the institutions
0:47:54 > 0:47:56which could make a great city work,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01it had set a benchmark of what a polis increase should be.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07And that standard had been set by public demand,
0:48:07 > 0:48:09the power of the people, democracy.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13It was a standard not just for Ancient Athens,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16but for the cities of the future.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Summed up by one of the greatest Athenian leaders, Pericles,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25his words continue to inspire our leaders of today.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31"A spirit of freedom governs our conduct not only in public affairs
0:48:31 > 0:48:35"but also in managing the small tensions of everyday life
0:48:35 > 0:48:39"where we show no animosity at our neighbour's choice of pleasures,
0:48:39 > 0:48:45"nor cast aspersions that may hurt even if they do not harm."
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Now, that is what we're all about, that's London.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51That's the idea that you let people get on with their lives.
0:48:51 > 0:48:57That you don't have any prejudices on grounds of race or gender or sexuality or whatever.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59And you welcome and you tolerate.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03And that's what they believed in and that's the ideal we articulate today.
0:49:04 > 0:49:09And it was that tolerance that led arguably to Athens' greatest legacy.
0:49:11 > 0:49:16For Athens political freedom and freedom of trade went hand in hand.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20But Pericles understood for a city really to take off,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23it needed ideas, freedom of thought.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26This is the modern Academy of Athens,
0:49:26 > 0:49:31but it recalls the great philosophical schools of Ancient Athens,
0:49:31 > 0:49:33like Plato's Academy.
0:49:33 > 0:49:39Athens' spirit of freedom meant that it became a magnet for the greatest thinkers in the known world,
0:49:39 > 0:49:44following the lead of Socrates and Plato.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47And, indeed, it was Plato's star pupil, Aristotle,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51who recorded the Constitution of Athens, its politeia,
0:49:51 > 0:49:55a document which has given us our unique insight
0:49:55 > 0:49:58into the workings of Ancient Athens.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03It was Solon's law code which had drawn the link between freedom
0:50:03 > 0:50:04and the city
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and established the rights of citizens for the first time.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16And just how unique Athens was would quickly become apparent
0:50:16 > 0:50:18because success brought rivalry.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24As the Persian threat subsided, there was
0:50:24 > 0:50:28a protracted series of wars with another Greek state.
0:50:28 > 0:50:30Sparta.
0:50:33 > 0:50:37These wonderful pieces are copies of sculptures from the Acropolis
0:50:37 > 0:50:38in Athens.
0:50:38 > 0:50:43Athens was full of sculptures, images, works of art, monuments.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45That's what Athens was about.
0:50:45 > 0:50:50Here we've got the tyrant slayers, Harmodios and Aristogeiton,
0:50:50 > 0:50:54the originals stood in the Agora as symbols of democracy.
0:50:54 > 0:50:58These were the people who drove out tyrants.
0:50:58 > 0:51:03By contrast, Sparta is an almost image-free zone.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06One of the rare exceptions is this guy here,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10who is supposed to be the Spartan king, Leonidas, the king who
0:51:10 > 0:51:16commanded the 300 who met their death at the Gates of Thermopylae.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21Sparta was in so many ways the polar opposite of Athens.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25It was the opposite of all the ideals which Solon stood for,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28that idea that if you were born in the territory,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30you should always be free.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34In Sparta, by contrast, there was a whole population of serfs,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38they called them helots, who were generation after generation
0:51:38 > 0:51:42bound to work for the land-holding elite, the Spartiates like Leonidas.
0:51:44 > 0:51:49They had no laws, no coinage, not very fond of trade.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51They didn't really like immigrants.
0:51:51 > 0:51:56In fact, once a year, they ritually drove out all foreigners.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00It was called the Xenelasia, the driving out of foreigners.
0:52:00 > 0:52:05And as a consequence, Sparta wasn't much to write home about as a city.
0:52:05 > 0:52:10At least compared to Athens, Sparta seemed to be just
0:52:10 > 0:52:12a collection of villages.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16There was one thing these Spartans did better than anyone else
0:52:16 > 0:52:17and that was warfare.
0:52:19 > 0:52:21From the early stage,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24these Spartiates were trained in the arts of war.
0:52:24 > 0:52:29They knew better than anyone else in Greece how to defend their land
0:52:29 > 0:52:33and how to ravage other people's land and when they did so,
0:52:33 > 0:52:35nobody could stand up to them.
0:52:37 > 0:52:38If the Spartans invaded,
0:52:38 > 0:52:42Athens could survive without the farmland of Attica, as the city
0:52:42 > 0:52:47state was already importing much of its food through the Pireaus.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52Pericles knew in times of crisis the Athenians could fall
0:52:52 > 0:52:55back behind the long walls of the extended city.
0:52:57 > 0:53:01But this apparently well-devised defensive strategy
0:53:01 > 0:53:02had a fundamental flaw.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12The Kerameikos here is the biggest graveyard of ancient Athens
0:53:12 > 0:53:15and it was near here, when they were excavating a new metro line
0:53:15 > 0:53:20just back there, that they made an extraordinary discovery.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24Among the individual burials, there was an enormous pit, full of
0:53:24 > 0:53:31skeletons thrown in ram-jam, without any ceremony, over 100 in number.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35They must be victims of the Great Plague.
0:53:35 > 0:53:41The Great Plague was the great flaw in Pericles' strategy.
0:53:41 > 0:53:46Pericles thought he could survive Spartan invasion by gathering
0:53:46 > 0:53:50the whole population within the long walls.
0:53:50 > 0:53:52It was in fact an effective strategy,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55but it had a big downside and the downside was
0:53:55 > 0:53:59if you cram people into the same space, they spread disease.
0:54:00 > 0:54:05A terrifying plague broke out and we know about it in great detail
0:54:05 > 0:54:08because the historian Thucydides was one of its victims.
0:54:08 > 0:54:12And he tells us with medical precision how the plague was.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis has been analysing new
0:54:20 > 0:54:22evidence of how the victims died.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27So, Manolis Papagrigorakis has come with one of the skeletons
0:54:27 > 0:54:32- he's studying. This is the head of a young girl...- 11 years old.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36- Are you certain she suffered from the plague?- Yes.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38How do you know?
0:55:03 > 0:55:07So, what are the symptoms of typhoid fever? How does someone die?
0:55:27 > 0:55:31Tragically, the plague's greatest casualty was the Athenian
0:55:31 > 0:55:35leader, Pericles, a victim of his own strategy.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42It was the reliance on Athens' naval fortifications
0:55:42 > 0:55:46and water supply system, the pride of its civic infrastructure,
0:55:46 > 0:55:48which dealt a terrible blow to the city.
0:55:50 > 0:55:54But the idea which Pericles and his city had championed lives on.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00I think that idea of freedom is something we need to stick up for.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03We do in our city, freedom of speech, freedom of association.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05These things are contested now.
0:56:05 > 0:56:07They are not accepted everywhere in the world.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10These are not trivial values.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13They are incarnated here in London,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17just as they were in ancient Athens and we need to stick up for them.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23The democratic values which had been the hallmark of the ancient
0:56:23 > 0:56:29city would finally crumble, but in the end, it was neither
0:56:29 > 0:56:33the plague nor the Spartans which proved Athens' final downfall.
0:56:37 > 0:56:41More than 300 miles north of Athens lay another Greek state.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48This is Pella, home of Philip II of Macedon,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50and his son, Alexander the Great.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59Pella was the new capital of the Macedonian kingdom
0:56:59 > 0:57:01that defeated Athens.
0:57:01 > 0:57:07The defeat by Sparta knocked Athens back, but did not bring her down.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11Her empire briefly revived.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14It was the defeat by Philip of Macedon at the Battle
0:57:14 > 0:57:19of Chaeronea that ended Athens' chances of being an imperial power.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26The Macedonian empire enabled them
0:57:26 > 0:57:30to build cities on a scale that dwarfed Athens.
0:57:31 > 0:57:36Instead of small streets with egalitarian housing, they built
0:57:36 > 0:57:42great avenues and opulent mansions, decorated with extravagant mosaics.
0:57:49 > 0:57:53But in terms of making cities work, they followed the Athenian
0:57:53 > 0:57:57example of public space, public water supply, and public buildings.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Across the Mediterranean, another city state looked on admiringly.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10While the Athenians had set a new standard of urban living,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14it would take a much greater empire to create the world's first
0:58:14 > 0:58:16mega city, by ancient standards.
0:58:18 > 0:58:22And that empire would be launched from a polis not in Greece,
0:58:22 > 0:58:24but in Italy.
0:58:24 > 0:58:30Its name, in Greek, spelled strength - "rhome". Rome.