0:00:03 > 0:00:05Once you've got an empire, what do you do with it
0:00:05 > 0:00:08and what did it feel like to be part of it?
0:00:09 > 0:00:12- Buona sera.- Ciao.- Prego.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16Well, clues can often be found in very surprising places.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26I'm talking rubbish.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Ancient Roman rubbish.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33I'm in the middle of a Roman landfill site.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Millions and millions of broken pots
0:00:37 > 0:00:40that once contained the fuel of the ancient city -
0:00:40 > 0:00:42olive oil.
0:00:42 > 0:00:44It's trash,
0:00:44 > 0:00:46but it's very valuable trash,
0:00:46 > 0:00:50because it's through the leftovers of the Roman world -
0:00:50 > 0:00:52the bits and pieces and the junk
0:00:52 > 0:00:55as much as the monuments and the treasures -
0:00:55 > 0:00:59that we can see how the Roman Empire works.
0:00:59 > 0:01:00What feeds it?
0:01:00 > 0:01:02What connects it?
0:01:02 > 0:01:04Who are the winners
0:01:04 > 0:01:05and who are the losers?
0:01:14 > 0:01:17The Romans never set out to acquire an empire,
0:01:17 > 0:01:22but their undistinguished little town came to control a territory
0:01:22 > 0:01:25that stretched from Britain in the north
0:01:25 > 0:01:27to Algeria in the south...
0:01:29 > 0:01:31..Spain to Israel,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33the Nile to the Rhine.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39How did it look to the Romans?
0:01:39 > 0:01:42What did they make of it all?
0:01:42 > 0:01:43How did they visualise it?
0:01:45 > 0:01:48We tend to joke when we say "All roads lead to Rome,"
0:01:48 > 0:01:50but actually they did.
0:01:50 > 0:01:51What about the conquered?
0:01:51 > 0:01:53What difference did it make to them?
0:01:53 > 0:01:56Just olives, olives and more damn olives.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00There were great fortunes for some,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03but at the expense of the many.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06This tombstone, for me, is a bit of a tear-jerker.
0:02:09 > 0:02:14So just how did Rome transform the landscape of our world?
0:02:34 > 0:02:36For an extraordinary record
0:02:36 > 0:02:39of the scale and impact of the Roman Empire,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42I've come to see what must be one of the most remarkable
0:02:42 > 0:02:45and surprising leftovers from the Roman world.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48So I'm going to show you our freezer.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52And it's not a piece of pottery or even an inscription.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53- Should I shut the door?- Yes.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Blimey, this must be what Greenland feels like.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Yes.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02What I'm here to see is ice
0:03:02 > 0:03:05recently drilled from the Arctic ice sheets,
0:03:05 > 0:03:08preserving layers and layers of buried history
0:03:08 > 0:03:11right back to Roman times.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15How far in Greenland do you actually have to drill down to
0:03:15 > 0:03:17get to the Roman bit?
0:03:17 > 0:03:20I would say 400-500 metres deep in the ice sheet.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25By analysing this ice,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Celia Sapart and her team at Utrecht University
0:03:28 > 0:03:31have discovered some striking evidence
0:03:31 > 0:03:35about Rome's impact on the environment.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37So here you can see a piece of ice from Greenland
0:03:37 > 0:03:39that we have already measured.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42So in fact you see all these small air bubbles
0:03:42 > 0:03:45and each air bubble represents the composition of our atmosphere
0:03:45 > 0:03:46in the past.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49Gosh.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54There's Roman history melting in your hands.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58And what we do, in fact, is we measure the greenhouse gases
0:03:58 > 0:04:00in those little bubbles, especially methane.
0:04:00 > 0:04:01That's our main interest.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03And we had a big surprise -
0:04:03 > 0:04:09around year one we had an increased level in this methane fingerprint
0:04:09 > 0:04:11showing that higher level of biomass burning,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13burning can be... burning because of deforestation,
0:04:13 > 0:04:16burning because of all kind of other processes.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Comparing our data with historical data,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22this peak was related to population growth
0:04:22 > 0:04:25and to the Roman Empire expansion.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30The data revealed a sharp spike in the level of methane
0:04:30 > 0:04:31in the Earth's atmosphere
0:04:31 > 0:04:35that wouldn't be seen again for over 1,000 years.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37This is really great for me
0:04:37 > 0:04:41because we know that the Romans had all this extra increase
0:04:41 > 0:04:43in productivity and industry etc,
0:04:43 > 0:04:47but, you know, actually to see it kind of trapped there for ever
0:04:47 > 0:04:50in the ice, that's truly extraordinary.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53I kind of think we feel a bit differently about it perhaps,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56but I think the Romans would have been absolutely delighted
0:04:56 > 0:05:00to see their impact kind of preserved like this.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Roman pollution captured in the Greenland ice sheets
0:05:05 > 0:05:09is dramatic evidence of a burst of energy
0:05:09 > 0:05:12as Rome transformed the world it conquered.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30In southern France is another of the remaining traces
0:05:30 > 0:05:33of that transformation - the Via Domitia,
0:05:33 > 0:05:37the ancient road linking Italy to Spain,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41because Rome built its empire from the ground up,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43connecting people and places
0:05:43 > 0:05:45in a way that had never been seen before.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52For us, roads almost STAND for Rome
0:05:52 > 0:05:56and, actually, Roman roads still do lie underneath
0:05:56 > 0:05:59many of our own transport routes,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03but it's easy to forget quite how revolutionary it was
0:06:03 > 0:06:08to go from a system of windy local dirt tracks
0:06:08 > 0:06:14to great paved highways striking out across the continent.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18It wasn't that the speed you could go on them was that impressive -
0:06:18 > 0:06:21it still took even the fastest Romans about a week
0:06:21 > 0:06:24to go what we could cover in a day,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27but the idea that you could start out in Rome,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30get on a road, stick on it
0:06:30 > 0:06:34and end up in Spain or Greece, that was entirely new.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Like sinews crossing the empire,
0:06:40 > 0:06:42the Romans built a network of roads
0:06:42 > 0:06:45over 80,000km long,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48not only creating a new geography
0:06:48 > 0:06:51but introducing an entirely new Roman way
0:06:51 > 0:06:53of thinking about the world.
0:06:58 > 0:07:02This is a bit of disused signage from a Roman road.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08It's one in a series of milestones that were set every Roman mile -
0:07:08 > 0:07:10that's about 1.5km -
0:07:10 > 0:07:12along all the major routes.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Most of the writing on it
0:07:14 > 0:07:17is actually the emperor's name and titles
0:07:17 > 0:07:20so you know who to thank for this lovely road.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24Underneath, there's a big number three.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29That means we're three miles from the nearest staging point.
0:07:29 > 0:07:34What's important about this is that you know exactly where you are.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40For the first time, you can place yourself in the world.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Of course, once you got off the beaten track,
0:07:55 > 0:07:59people in the countryside may hardly have noticed the arrival of Rome.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01Life would have gone on much as before.
0:08:03 > 0:08:07But where there were Roman roads, things changed,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09not necessarily for the better.
0:08:09 > 0:08:13It wouldn't have been fun finding a brand-new superhighway
0:08:13 > 0:08:15going straight through your land
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and Romans complained, much as we do,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20about the bad food and exorbitant prices
0:08:20 > 0:08:23at the ancient equivalent of service stations.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27For some, though, these new roads were a cause for celebration.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36These are copies of four really strange Roman drinking goblets.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42They're quite recognisably in the shape of milestones,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45but not just that,
0:08:45 > 0:08:52they've got lists and lists of names of places scratched into them.
0:08:53 > 0:09:00What it says round the top is that this is the route from Gades -
0:09:00 > 0:09:02that's Cadiz in Spain -
0:09:02 > 0:09:04to Roman, to Rome.
0:09:04 > 0:09:08And between each place,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11it's giving you the number of Roman miles
0:09:11 > 0:09:13that you have to travel.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17And at the bottom, it does a grand total
0:09:17 > 0:09:19of the whole length of the road,
0:09:19 > 0:09:23which is over 1,800 Roman miles.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26That would take you more than 40 days to travel.
0:09:26 > 0:09:31Now, quite what they were for is actually a bit of a mystery.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33I mean, they might be very practical.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36It might be a useful travelling cup
0:09:36 > 0:09:40plus your route inscribed on the outside of it,
0:09:40 > 0:09:43but I think it's rather more likely
0:09:43 > 0:09:47that they're either souvenirs of the road
0:09:47 > 0:09:51or a sort of celebration
0:09:51 > 0:09:55of the length and the splendour
0:09:55 > 0:09:57of this great road.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01The simple idea that you could find Romans
0:10:01 > 0:10:05drinking out of lookalike milestones
0:10:05 > 0:10:09really shows how sort of internalised
0:10:09 > 0:10:12that sense of road culture had become,
0:10:12 > 0:10:14which is exactly what I'm going to do.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Salut, everybody!
0:10:31 > 0:10:34The goblets also point to that other great marker
0:10:34 > 0:10:37of Roman presence on the landscape -
0:10:37 > 0:10:39towns.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43The Romans sponsored the greatest programme of urbanisation
0:10:43 > 0:10:44in history,
0:10:44 > 0:10:48and in Western Europe, their cities still often underlie our own.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53All over the empire,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55towns needed infrastructure.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57It's the old cliche about the Romans,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00that they built roads and bridges,
0:11:00 > 0:11:02baths and drains
0:11:02 > 0:11:04and aqueducts like this one,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08and they ploughed an awful lot of cash into it.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16This wasn't one of the longest or the most vital aqueducts
0:11:16 > 0:11:18in the Roman world -
0:11:18 > 0:11:20it channelled water just 15km
0:11:20 > 0:11:25from a mountain spring to the small Spanish town of Segovia,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28but all the same, it's hard not to feel impressed
0:11:28 > 0:11:30by the ingenuity of it
0:11:30 > 0:11:34and the sheer chutzpah of that series of arches.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38- This is where even- I- get a bit gobsmacked by Roman engineering.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46And in a way, that's the point.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48It's one of the trademarks of the Roman Empire.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50It's meant to be in your face
0:11:50 > 0:11:54and its message goes far beyond any practical purpose.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01This can't just be about the water supply.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03This is about Roman power,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06it's about the Romans making an impact on the landscape,
0:12:06 > 0:12:10it's about the Romans making themselves permanent.
0:12:10 > 0:12:11To put it another way,
0:12:11 > 0:12:15if you want to bring a water supply to a small town,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18do you really need all this extravagance?
0:12:20 > 0:12:21Aqueducts,
0:12:21 > 0:12:23towns,
0:12:23 > 0:12:25roads -
0:12:25 > 0:12:28these are the classic stereotypes of the Roman Empire.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30They're what it did for us.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33But, more than just clever engineering projects,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37the Romans could imagine them all fitting together.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52- This is a map of the Roman Empire. - Oh, right.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55An ancient map. It's a medieval copy of an ancient map.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59- Oh, medieval. - But it's copying a Roman map
0:12:59 > 0:13:01which doesn't survive.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05This is the only Roman map of the empire we have,
0:13:05 > 0:13:08or, actually, it's a copy of a 13th century copy
0:13:08 > 0:13:10of an ancient Roman map.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Why this is important is it gives us a glimpse
0:13:14 > 0:13:17of how the Romans pictured their own empire.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Some of that's pretty obvious.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22You've got Rome right in the middle
0:13:22 > 0:13:25and leading out from it you can see the roads.
0:13:25 > 0:13:26There's some familiar names.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28There's Naples, or Neapolis,
0:13:28 > 0:13:31and there's Pompeii.
0:13:31 > 0:13:35And that rather squashed island there, that's Sicily.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39But then you move further and further east.
0:13:39 > 0:13:41Past Crete here.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45But my favourite bit, I think, is the Nile Delta
0:13:45 > 0:13:48with the city of Alexandria and its lighthouse here
0:13:48 > 0:13:52and then all the little rivers and tributaries in the delta there.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58In some ways this looks like a very mad representation of the world -
0:13:58 > 0:14:03it's all terribly squashed and it's not arranged north-south,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05but it's making more important points than that.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08It's saying that Rome is at the very centre
0:14:08 > 0:14:12and what's important about the empire is its cities,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14its towns and its roads.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18We tend to joke when we say "All roads lead to Rome,"
0:14:18 > 0:14:22but, actually, they did and they led away from Rome, too.
0:14:22 > 0:14:28What the Romans are telling us is that theirs is a joined-up world.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42It's a dramatic statement of Roman power and control
0:14:42 > 0:14:44and a network of connectivity
0:14:44 > 0:14:48which joins up places never before joined up.
0:14:48 > 0:14:52And in this new, connected world, the demands of the Roman state
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and over a million consumers in Rome itself
0:14:55 > 0:15:00could be met by producers many hundreds of kilometres away.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04This is when the hills of southern Spain became a giant olive farm
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and juicing enterprise.
0:15:07 > 0:15:13This kind of monoculture - just olives, olives and more damn olives,
0:15:13 > 0:15:15is one legacy of the Roman Empire.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19It was then that southern Spain first became
0:15:19 > 0:15:22the world's biggest producer of olive oil.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26More than seven million litres of the stuff
0:15:26 > 0:15:29going to the city of Rome alone every year.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33It was an agricultural revolution.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Anyone who'd lived through it would have seen
0:15:36 > 0:15:40the countryside around about them completely transformed.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45The Roman Empire ran on olive oil.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48It was used not only for cooking, but lighting,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52and even the ancient equivalent of soap. You couldn't live without it.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Olive grower Francisco Nunez de Prado is still in the business.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04Is the whole economy of this area, is it all based on olives?
0:16:04 > 0:16:10Yes, olive trees with olive oil and the whole process,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13represent, in this area,
0:16:13 > 0:16:18practically 70% of the income.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22- Some people, like you, are growing the olives.- Yes.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26But then you've got your pickers, your specialist pickers.
0:16:26 > 0:16:29But you've got, presumably, transporters,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32you've got a middleman, expert agents.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36Everybody has to be specialising in something.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41It was much the same 2,000 years ago.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Olive oil provided jobs in a highly profitable industry.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50There were lots of people who made lots of money out of all this.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54There were the growers and the pickers and the pressers
0:16:54 > 0:16:59and the packers and the transporters and the distributors.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02And don't forget, there were the men who cashed in on it all
0:17:02 > 0:17:06by making the containers to put it in.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08This was an oil economy.
0:17:09 > 0:17:11BELL CHIMES
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Shipping seven million litres of olive oil
0:17:27 > 0:17:30to Rome and the wider empire each year,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33required more than just trees and presses.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35It needed an entire infrastructure,
0:17:35 > 0:17:39whether in the form of warehouses, bottling plants or ports.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48One of the main transport hubs and distribution centres
0:17:48 > 0:17:52was a place the Romans called Hispalis, and we call Seville.
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Built into the fabric of the modern city,
0:17:57 > 0:17:59unnoticed by most passers-by today,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03is an introduction to one of the Roman officials whose job it was
0:18:03 > 0:18:07to make sure the precious oil reached its final destination.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12This is a plaque put up in honour
0:18:12 > 0:18:16of a man called Sextus Julius Possessor,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21and it's ended up, I'm afraid, in an extremely inconvenient place.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25Really, what it is, is a description of Possessor's whole career.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30First of all, he seems to be stationed in Italy itself,
0:18:30 > 0:18:35looking after the incoming supply of oil
0:18:35 > 0:18:38from both Africa and Spain.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41But then he moves out to Seville to a job
0:18:41 > 0:18:45which is described as procuratorial,
0:18:45 > 0:18:49somebody's who's in charge of the "ripam Baetis",
0:18:49 > 0:18:52the river bank of the river Baetis.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57An interesting case of how Roman imperial administration works.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59They never have very many people on the ground,
0:18:59 > 0:19:05but they do get men into place in key areas.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08And here we've got Possessor, I think,
0:19:08 > 0:19:12as a safe pair of hands in Seville,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15making sure that nothing goes wrong
0:19:15 > 0:19:19with the supply of oil to Rome from this end.
0:19:21 > 0:19:25Of course, ultimately, this was all for the benefit of Rome.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29But a more complex exchange was taking place too.
0:19:29 > 0:19:34As olive oil flowed to Rome, money flowed into Spain
0:19:34 > 0:19:39and there's evidence in the branding stamped into the oil jars themselves
0:19:39 > 0:19:42that this new wealth allowed some people
0:19:42 > 0:19:44access into the politics of Rome itself.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50This is a particularly tantalising example,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54because the stamp here reads very clearly,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57"Port P-A-H".
0:19:57 > 0:20:03That's port, short for portus, or probably river warehouse,
0:20:03 > 0:20:06of someone called P-A-H.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10One thing we know is that the father of the Emperor Hadrian had
0:20:10 > 0:20:13those initials.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Publius Aelius Hadrianus.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21So it's possible that this handle is telling us something
0:20:21 > 0:20:25about the source of the wealth of Hadrian's family in the oilfields
0:20:25 > 0:20:30of Spain and that it's telling us something about the commercial
0:20:30 > 0:20:35profits that underpinned the power structure of the Roman Empire.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Whether this was really where he'd made his money or not,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44we know that Hadrian, the man on the Roman
0:20:44 > 0:20:48throne for 20 years in the second century AD, came from Spain.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55It's a reflection of just how joined up the empire had become
0:20:55 > 0:20:57and it's not surprising
0:20:57 > 0:21:02that Hadrian bankrolled big building schemes here.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06This is what's left of the town of Italica, where the
0:21:06 > 0:21:09Emperor Hadrian's family came from.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11They weren't native Spanish,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14they were Roman settlers from way back,
0:21:14 > 0:21:18but they obviously thought of Spain as their home.
0:21:18 > 0:21:24Hadrian ploughed an awful lot of cash into his hometown,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29tremendous showing off and, to be honest, all a bit out of proportion.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33One of the biggest things he did was
0:21:33 > 0:21:37put up this huge amphitheatre.
0:21:37 > 0:21:42It would have accommodated 25,000 people.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44Now, to put that in context,
0:21:44 > 0:21:49the Coliseum in Rome accommodates about 50,000 or so,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53so you've got a small town amphitheatre in Roman Spain
0:21:53 > 0:21:56with half the seating of the Coliseum.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02Or to put it another way, the population of little Italica
0:22:02 > 0:22:06was only something like 8,000 people in all.
0:22:06 > 0:22:11To me, that sounds a bit like a plutocratic benefactor giving
0:22:11 > 0:22:16little Cambridge United a stadium half the size of Wembley.
0:22:16 > 0:22:17It is a little bit absurd.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29We're now almost in the century of the arena.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34This is where the gladiators would have fought, where the wild beasts
0:22:34 > 0:22:37would have been slaughtered and, right in the middle here, you've
0:22:37 > 0:22:42got a sort of mini version of what you find in the Coliseum itself.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45The underground cellars, where the gladiators
0:22:45 > 0:22:48and the animals would have waited to come up into the arena
0:22:48 > 0:22:51through trap doors in the floor.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55It's very easy to get a rather
0:22:55 > 0:22:59overblown view of the brutality
0:22:59 > 0:23:02and the extravagance of gladiatorial
0:23:02 > 0:23:04and animal spectacle.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08My guess is that you didn't see gladiators here very often.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12You certainly didn't see very many exotic wild beasts.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14They did put on performances,
0:23:14 > 0:23:18perhaps once a year on Hadrian's birthday, would be my guess,
0:23:18 > 0:23:23because the real point of this monument was not actually
0:23:23 > 0:23:27entertainment for the locals, of whatever sort.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30The real point of this monument was to stamp
0:23:30 > 0:23:33the image of Hadrian on his native city.
0:23:37 > 0:23:41And what Hadrian's Italica really shows is something of the wider
0:23:41 > 0:23:45process by which Rome remodelled the world in its own image.
0:23:49 > 0:23:54In Spain and elsewhere, Rome established itself for good,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58not just in bricks and mortar, but in institutions and laws
0:23:58 > 0:24:03which defined a specifically Roman urban way of life.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11These bronze tablets are just covered in columns
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and columns of writing,
0:24:14 > 0:24:17and what that writing is, is a constitution
0:24:17 > 0:24:21devised in Rome for a Roman town in Spain.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25Really, it's a series of do's and don'ts,
0:24:25 > 0:24:29how to be a Roman town abroad.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30Here's one about what the local
0:24:30 > 0:24:34officials called the aediles should do.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39They're supposed to, every year, to put on some nice plays in the city.
0:24:39 > 0:24:45They have to pay no less than 2,000 sesterces -
0:24:45 > 0:24:49that's twice a soldier's pay - from their own money,
0:24:49 > 0:24:52"de sua pecunia", and they might just get
0:24:52 > 0:24:58a grant of 1,000 sesterces from public funds if they do that.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02So here we've got our generous local officials obliged to
0:25:02 > 0:25:04give us a theatrical display.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08Everything, from seating arrangements at public events to
0:25:08 > 0:25:12the speaking time allotted to accusers and defendants at trial,
0:25:12 > 0:25:17are outlined in this document, and many have a familiar feel.
0:25:17 > 0:25:20There's a great bit here which is about...
0:25:20 > 0:25:24well, in our terms, it's about electoral expenses.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30It says - if you are standing for office, you're a candidatus.
0:25:30 > 0:25:36What you mustn't do is lavish expensive meals
0:25:36 > 0:25:40on people in order to encourage them to vote for you.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44Although it is allowed to give
0:25:44 > 0:25:47nine people a meal on one day.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49But no more than that.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51After that, it's bribery.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54That's the kind of level of micromanagement that the Romans
0:25:54 > 0:25:56are trying to impose.
0:25:58 > 0:26:03From roads to aqueducts, civil servants to public performances,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07in this kind of empire building, cash was as important as armies.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16In the ancient world, if you needed cash, you had to dig for it.
0:26:16 > 0:26:21Southern Spain wasn't entirely olives.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24There were plenty of riches in the form of silver to be
0:26:24 > 0:26:27unearthed here too.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31Ex-miner and local archaeologist, Saturnino Aguera, is taking me
0:26:31 > 0:26:34to see evidence of the Roman operations here.
0:26:34 > 0:26:392,000 years ago, this would have been an industrial landscape,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41heaving with people.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44One Roman who actually visited reckoned that there
0:26:44 > 0:26:50were 40,000 men working for the mines in this area.
0:26:52 > 0:26:54HE SPEAKS SPANISH
0:26:54 > 0:26:56Right.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00So what we've got here is a place where the later mining has
0:27:00 > 0:27:05cut through to give a cross-section of the Roman working
0:27:05 > 0:27:08and you can see some little square holes,
0:27:08 > 0:27:12galleries or passageways, and all over the rock you can,
0:27:12 > 0:27:16I think, see the pockmarks where the Roman miners have come in
0:27:16 > 0:27:20and they must have followed the ore seams and just taken
0:27:20 > 0:27:23the silver ore out and not bothered with the rest of it.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30And it's the scale of the industrial processes that
0:27:30 > 0:27:35went on around here, from the mining to the smelting, that helps us
0:27:35 > 0:27:38understand those traces of methane we can still recover
0:27:38 > 0:27:42from the Arctic ice sheets.
0:27:42 > 0:27:45The Romans also recognised the problem of pollution.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49They built the chimneys of the smelting plants very high,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52to get rid of the noxious smoke.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56It was a terribly exploitative system of resources,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59of landscape and of people.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02But there were also vast profits to be made too.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07There were people who came here from Italy in search of their fortune.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12I mean, in a way, this was a bit like the Gold Rush,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16or Spain, in a sort of way, was Rome's Eldorado.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24The first silver entrepreneurs took full advantage of a ruthless system
0:28:24 > 0:28:28in which profit was the sole consideration.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33The organisation of the Spanish mines was a mixture of public
0:28:33 > 0:28:36enterprise and private enterprise.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40The Roman state owned most of them, but didn't have the infrastructure,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45so it sold the franchise to a range of private companies.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48They called them publicani.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51In our terms, that's public service providers.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54The dangers of that are obvious.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56The state gets the basic minimum.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00The only incentive for the private companies is to maximise their
0:29:00 > 0:29:05profits, and the people who pay the price are the poor guys down there.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19We've got to imagine hundreds of people underground,
0:29:19 > 0:29:24all toiling to get the ore out, and using pretty rudimentary tools.
0:29:26 > 0:29:31This is a Roman pick and you have to imagine that there's a wooden
0:29:31 > 0:29:37handle here and you're picking at the surface of the rock like that.
0:29:37 > 0:29:42This one is really heavy. It's a rather clever dual-use tool.
0:29:42 > 0:29:45Again, it's got a wooden handle going through there
0:29:45 > 0:29:49and you can either hammer at the rock or you can
0:29:49 > 0:29:51pick at the rock, using the other end.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55You'd have to be pretty strong to wield that effectively.
0:29:55 > 0:30:01You'd have to be even stronger, though, to manage this crowbar.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Imagine you're coming and you're trying to pick out
0:30:05 > 0:30:08the seams of the ore and you're jabbing this
0:30:08 > 0:30:14into the rock to loosen it out with this sharp end.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20This is obviously very dark, dirty, sweaty, heavy labour.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34And it's a reminder that beneath the surface of this sparkling new empire
0:30:34 > 0:30:39there were the silent underclasses keeping the wheels in motion.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43This tombstone for me is a bit of a tear-jerker.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48We read about Roman children being used in the mines as workers,
0:30:48 > 0:30:50but here we actually seem to meet one.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57He's a little boy called Quintus Archilus
0:30:57 > 0:31:01and he lived to be just four years old.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06There he is - he's got a little tunic on,
0:31:06 > 0:31:10he's got a pick in one hand and a basket in the other.
0:31:10 > 0:31:13He's all set for working the mine.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18We don't actually know that that's where he died,
0:31:18 > 0:31:20although many children must have.
0:31:20 > 0:31:25What we do know, is that it is as a miner that he is being remembered.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37It was on small backs like these that the wealth of Rome was built.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42The silver he helped to mine minted into the currency of empire.
0:31:42 > 0:31:48What most of this Roman silver went into was coin, things like this.
0:31:48 > 0:31:53One Roman estimates that each year in this area, they got
0:31:53 > 0:31:56nine million of these.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58That's an enormous impact
0:31:58 > 0:32:01on Roman economy and society.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04You can buy an awful lot of aqueducts
0:32:04 > 0:32:07and armies for nine million of these.
0:32:07 > 0:32:12But what's amazing is that these coins came to be used all over
0:32:12 > 0:32:16the Roman Empire - same denomination, same designs.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20Jonathan Williams is an expert in coins
0:32:20 > 0:32:23and deputy director of the British Museum.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25These are two very similar coins
0:32:25 > 0:32:27of the Emperor Hadrian.
0:32:27 > 0:32:29Distinctive face there.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32- And Hadrianus Augustus. - That's right.
0:32:32 > 0:32:36They are very similar. They're both Roman silver denari,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39the lifeblood in many ways of the Roman currency system.
0:32:39 > 0:32:42Both have that of Hadrian on, very similar.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45They're the same value, same mount of silver,
0:32:45 > 0:32:46but they were found completely
0:32:46 > 0:32:48opposite ends of the Earth.
0:32:48 > 0:32:49This one here was found
0:32:49 > 0:32:52in Bletchley, in southern England,
0:32:52 > 0:32:55and this one was found in southern India.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57Britain, of course, inside the empire.
0:32:57 > 0:32:58India, outside the empire.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00But loads of trading links.
0:33:00 > 0:33:02- Absolutely.- Does that mean that,
0:33:02 > 0:33:04in a sense, what Rome has done
0:33:04 > 0:33:06has created a unified, internal
0:33:06 > 0:33:08economy and coinage system?
0:33:08 > 0:33:10We've got monetary union, really,
0:33:10 > 0:33:11in the Roman Empire.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14It's a single currency union when you're talking about gold
0:33:14 > 0:33:18and silver coins particularly. Those are the ones, as we see,
0:33:18 > 0:33:20that circulate throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Everybody wants good Roman gold and good Roman silver.
0:33:23 > 0:33:25But what you do have, the other way
0:33:25 > 0:33:27in which the currency unifies
0:33:27 > 0:33:31the Empire, is that they have all got the head of the ruling man
0:33:31 > 0:33:36and it's his head being seen and used and noticed and counted upon,
0:33:36 > 0:33:39from Britain all the way through to India.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42That's one of the key unifying factors about the Roman Empire,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45together with all those statues and all those other things.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52From its Spanish mines,
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Rome maintained a constant flow of hard cash,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59trickling down to contractors, soldiers
0:33:59 > 0:34:02and traders across the Roman world,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05who could hardly have forgotten that all this wealth
0:34:05 > 0:34:07was tied to Roman power.
0:34:07 > 0:34:11In return, Rome became the focal point
0:34:11 > 0:34:13for all the Empire had to offer,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17drawing in taxes, talent and the raw materials
0:34:17 > 0:34:20to build the imperial city we know today.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And one of the highlights still standing in all its glory
0:34:24 > 0:34:27is the Pantheon.
0:34:27 > 0:34:29For many Romans walking past this building,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33the most striking thing about it would have been the columns
0:34:33 > 0:34:35holding up the porch.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37We tend not to pay them very much attention
0:34:37 > 0:34:42and if we do notice them, we really don't know how to read them.
0:34:42 > 0:34:47But they're actually one of the loudest boasts you can make
0:34:47 > 0:34:49about imperial power.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52That's partly because they are monoliths.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55They're carved out of a single piece of stone.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58Just think how difficult that would be to do
0:34:58 > 0:35:00without them breaking or cracking.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03But it's also the material itself.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06They all come from quarries
0:35:06 > 0:35:12deep in a province 3,000km away from here - Egypt.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16They've been loaded onto camels and donkeys, dragged across the desert,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19put onto ships in the Nile, taken to the Mediterranean,
0:35:19 > 0:35:23across the sea, to stand here.
0:35:24 > 0:35:29It's an extraordinary statement about the resources of empire
0:35:29 > 0:35:33and about the ability of the Emperor Hadrian, who put this building up,
0:35:33 > 0:35:36to control those resources.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39In a sense, the stone is the message.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51But even emperors couldn't control everything.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56If you look hard at the building, you'll see some awkward mismatches,
0:35:56 > 0:36:00some odd misalignments, which make it look as if the architects
0:36:00 > 0:36:04had been expecting columns a few metres taller
0:36:04 > 0:36:07and had to make some last-minute adjustments
0:36:07 > 0:36:09when smaller ones arrived.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14Maybe the quarry just couldn't supply what was asked for,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17or maybe some poor devil got the order wrong.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19I wouldn't have liked to have been him!
0:36:26 > 0:36:30For me, the Pantheon reflects how the empire changed Rome
0:36:30 > 0:36:33just as much as Rome changed the empire.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37The capital was where stuff from all over the Roman world
0:36:37 > 0:36:39was on display and on sale.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46And at the centre of this world was the Mediterranean itself -
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Rome's internal sea.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53It was much quicker and cheaper to bulk transport goods by water
0:36:53 > 0:36:57than by land, and the Mediterranean became a busy highway
0:36:57 > 0:37:02with cargo ships laden with things from grand granite columns
0:37:02 > 0:37:05to humble objects of daily life.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Everywhere you went in the Roman Empire,
0:37:10 > 0:37:13you would have found people eating and drinking
0:37:13 > 0:37:15out of shiny red pots like this.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19You still find them stacked on museum shelves
0:37:19 > 0:37:23everywhere from Hadrian's Wall to north Africa.
0:37:23 > 0:37:26Most of us - that's me included -
0:37:26 > 0:37:29just walk past them without a second glance.
0:37:29 > 0:37:34But, actually, they are what's left of a most extraordinary case
0:37:34 > 0:37:36of Roman mass production.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Most of them are pretty plain
0:37:39 > 0:37:42but this one has got a more exciting decoration.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46It's got pictures of the goddess Diana having a bath
0:37:46 > 0:37:50and being spotted by the unfortunate Actaeon,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54who gets attacked by his dogs
0:37:54 > 0:37:56as punishment for having seen
0:37:56 > 0:37:59the goddess with no clothes on.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03It's quite hard to place exactly the social level of this,
0:38:03 > 0:38:05but I reckon it's, erm, sort of...
0:38:05 > 0:38:09very, very middle-market ordinary.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12That's to say there would be some people
0:38:12 > 0:38:16who would lust for just one of these bowls for their table.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19There would be others for whom this would be
0:38:19 > 0:38:21normal everyday crockery.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25What's really important about all this is the simple fact
0:38:25 > 0:38:27that it just got everywhere.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31When people dig us up in 2,000 years' time,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34I guess they'll find loads and loads of fizzy drink cans
0:38:34 > 0:38:37and identical trainers across the world.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42This is one of the first examples of globalisation.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45This is the Roman brand.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50Through its roads and sea routes,
0:38:50 > 0:38:54the Roman brand spread throughout the empire.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00This wasn't only the movement of goods, but people too.
0:39:05 > 0:39:08In the remote town of Hierapolis, in modern Turkey,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13we find the remarkable tomb of a man who seems to have made the most
0:39:13 > 0:39:17out of the opportunities of belonging to the new Roman world.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22This is a wonderful story of an exciting life on the high seas.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26It's the tombstone of a man called Flavius Zeuxis
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and he says that during his life
0:39:30 > 0:39:34he has sailed around the promontory of Cape Malea -
0:39:34 > 0:39:37that's the very southern tip of Greece -
0:39:37 > 0:39:40between here in Turkey and Italy...
0:39:40 > 0:39:4572...times.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47So what's he doing?
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Well, Hierapolis was the textile capital of this part of Turkey
0:39:52 > 0:39:57and he can only have been going from here to Italy
0:39:57 > 0:39:59to flog all the things they were making.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04But what's interesting is, what he chooses to put on his tombstone
0:40:04 > 0:40:07to sum up his life
0:40:07 > 0:40:10are those dangerous 72 journeys.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Zeuxis must've been unusually successful,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25or he wouldn't have bragged on his tomb.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27But with someone like him,
0:40:27 > 0:40:33the Roman Empire made the world simultaneously bigger and smaller.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36Bigger because of the expanded horizons
0:40:36 > 0:40:40and the distant markets now open to those who dared.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46Smaller because of the network of connectivity that enabled
0:40:46 > 0:40:51people and goods to get around the world more easily than ever before.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54And a key part of that distribution were the ports -
0:40:54 > 0:40:58nerve centres of Roman trade and commerce.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01One of the cities that flourished in the commercial world
0:41:01 > 0:41:04of the Roman Empire was Ephesus,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08which became a hub of import and export.
0:41:08 > 0:41:14It had once been an old famous Greek town going back centuries,
0:41:14 > 0:41:17but it was transformed by the Romans.
0:41:17 > 0:41:21Everything we now see here is the result of Roman investment.
0:41:21 > 0:41:25And the reason it was so important in the Roman world is simple -
0:41:25 > 0:41:27its harbour.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Imperial trade needs more than ships and merchants,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34it needs well-functioning harbours.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43The coastline around Ephesus has long since changed,
0:41:43 > 0:41:45and it's now a good way inland.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48But in its heyday it was an important maritime gateway
0:41:48 > 0:41:52to the East and to rich pickings from as far away as India.
0:41:52 > 0:41:58A reminder that the Roman world was much bigger than the Roman Empire.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02And Ephesus would have felt like the whole cosmos had descended here.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05People from everywhere, speaking as many languages
0:42:05 > 0:42:08on the streets then as they do now.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10A city of a quarter of a million.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15Not just those that lived here, but people coming and going.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18And everyone busy, busy, busy.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21The honest guys doing a hard day's work,
0:42:21 > 0:42:25the cheats and the chancers, the go-getters and the bureaucrats,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27and of course the money makers.
0:42:40 > 0:42:42If you could afford a pad in the heart of Ephesus,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44then the chances are you'd profited
0:42:44 > 0:42:48from the constant flow of goods through the harbour.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52These are upmarket houses for those who'd made it.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58This is all amazing, but it's also quite confusing.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01There's a series of houses, one above the other,
0:43:01 > 0:43:04running up the hillside. And they're partly interlocking,
0:43:04 > 0:43:09so it's quite hard to tell where one house stops and the next one starts.
0:43:09 > 0:43:15But what is clear is that there was a luxurious lifestyle going on here.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17That some people in Ephesus,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19including the owners of these properties,
0:43:19 > 0:43:22were doing very nicely, thank you.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26And it makes the point that the benefits of empire did not
0:43:26 > 0:43:32only flow to the Imperial Palace or to people in Rome itself.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39The homes of the Ephesus elite were evidently pretty flashy -
0:43:39 > 0:43:41no expense spared.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44The fashions and trends of the city of Rome itself
0:43:44 > 0:43:47were imitated and reproduced.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Here we've come into a kind of reception hall
0:43:51 > 0:43:54on a really palatial scale.
0:43:54 > 0:44:01Also, it must all have been faced with marble right the way round.
0:44:01 > 0:44:03And you can see the columns of marble on the side,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06and there would be panels in between.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10And this is where somebody big entertained
0:44:10 > 0:44:12and displayed his wealth and power.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16This is, you know, almost imperial scale.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19It must have been pretty terrifying, I think,
0:44:19 > 0:44:21to be a guest at this house.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23I'm standing on a modern walkway,
0:44:23 > 0:44:27but you can see there must have been a great big door,
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and there's big door fixings on either side.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34You have to imagine that you would have had the door opened
0:44:34 > 0:44:35for you into this.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38And there, the big man would be ready
0:44:38 > 0:44:41to greet and possibly humiliate you.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54The things that came from the temples of Ephesus really live up
0:44:54 > 0:44:58to that classy Roman style.
0:44:58 > 0:45:04So too do the things from the terraced houses.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08One of the highlights are some exquisite -
0:45:08 > 0:45:11of to my taste, slightly militaristic -
0:45:11 > 0:45:16ivory plaques showing the Emperor on campaign.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19But across the board, the finds here
0:45:19 > 0:45:22really are top of the range -
0:45:22 > 0:45:24the best that money could buy.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32The question is, where did the money come from?
0:45:32 > 0:45:37Where did these guys who own these houses make their cash?
0:45:37 > 0:45:38Well, trade, obviously.
0:45:38 > 0:45:43But to say "trade" makes it all sound a bit easy, a bit comfortable.
0:45:43 > 0:45:46Cos one of the biggest commodities that came through
0:45:46 > 0:45:50the port of Ephesus were human beings.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53This town was a great centre of the slave trade.
0:45:56 > 0:45:59Slaves flowed through the marketplace at Ephesus,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01like olive oil through Seville.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05The brutal truth was that many Romans wouldn't have seen
0:46:05 > 0:46:07much of a distinction between the two.
0:46:07 > 0:46:12As they saw it, slaves were one of the products of empire.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17Many, the victims of Roman conquest, kidnapping or just foundlings.
0:46:18 > 0:46:22If you wanted to buy a slave this is where you'd have come.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24It's uncomfortable to grasp,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28but the Roman Empire depended on slave labour and,
0:46:28 > 0:46:30like every other ancient society,
0:46:30 > 0:46:35the Romans took slavery absolutely for granted.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39But uncomfortable as it is, if we want to understand,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43rather than just deplore, what went on here, we have to try to
0:46:43 > 0:46:48get into the mind-set of those who came to buy slaves.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50What did they think they were doing?
0:46:51 > 0:46:54My guess is they thought they were doing their shopping.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57Perhaps they were here after a gardener,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59or a tutor for their child,
0:46:59 > 0:47:00or maybe a hairdresser.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03How are they going to be sure they weren't ripped off?
0:47:03 > 0:47:06Could they trade in last year's model?
0:47:06 > 0:47:08Where they missing out on a special offer next week?
0:47:08 > 0:47:10Three for two.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13That may seem a very callous way of putting it,
0:47:13 > 0:47:17but it is the everyday reality of Roman life.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22Slaves were the operating system of empire.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26Picking the olives, quarrying the stone, mining the silver
0:47:26 > 0:47:28and constructing the buildings.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31They weren't just a perk for the rich,
0:47:31 > 0:47:33quite ordinary craftsmen or small farmers
0:47:33 > 0:47:34could have afforded at least one.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38But if you were the emperor, it would have been thousands.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41In fact, it's at the Emperor Hadrian's villa,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44just outside Rome at Tivoli, that we can see still get
0:47:44 > 0:47:48one of the clearest glimpses of the slaves' world,
0:47:48 > 0:47:52and the strict social hierarchy that underpinned the empire.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56And this is where the slaves lived -
0:47:56 > 0:47:58in hundreds of rooms.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02How many were squashed into each one we just don't know.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06But I don't imagine we should be thinking of individual bedsits.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Some of those slaves were servants or labourers,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13and that's how we usually think about slavery.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17But others would have been slave doctors, accountants,
0:48:17 > 0:48:20librarians and musicians.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24These were the people who were needed to power this estate.
0:48:27 > 0:48:31A slave in the imperial household would have been in a lucky position
0:48:31 > 0:48:36compared to those working in the silver mines of Southern Spain.
0:48:36 > 0:48:41But the truth is we can't ever see it from their point of view because
0:48:41 > 0:48:45they haven't left any account which gives their side of the story.
0:48:45 > 0:48:47So all we can do is imagine it.
0:48:50 > 0:48:55This is where some slaves spent most of their working lives -
0:48:55 > 0:49:00downstairs in a network of dark service tunnels -
0:49:00 > 0:49:04beneath the grand, airy quarters upstairs.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08But people scurrying about down here were always meant
0:49:08 > 0:49:09to be invisible,
0:49:09 > 0:49:12and they've remained pretty much invisible to us,
0:49:12 > 0:49:16largely because they've left no trace behind them.
0:49:16 > 0:49:21For me, this underground world is a powerful symbol of
0:49:21 > 0:49:25one very nasty side of Roman slavery and exploitation.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31But before we feel too much moral superiority coming on,
0:49:31 > 0:49:35it might be worth reflecting how many invisible people
0:49:35 > 0:49:38there are beneath the surface of our world, too.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48This was the empire that Hadrian kept hidden -
0:49:48 > 0:49:52a labyrinth of tunnels separating the underclasses from the elite
0:49:52 > 0:49:55who inhabited the luxurious buildings above.
0:49:57 > 0:50:02This was the empire that Hadrian wanted to present to the world,
0:50:02 > 0:50:07and it was built very deliberately to do just that.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Even after almost 2,000 years of plunder
0:50:10 > 0:50:12and exposure to the elements,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15it's at Tivoli that we can still see
0:50:15 > 0:50:19better than anywhere Hadrian's own vision of the empire
0:50:19 > 0:50:23in the biggest palace the Roman world had ever seen.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29If you came to visit the Emperor Hadrian in his great villa
0:50:29 > 0:50:31this is the approach you'd have taken.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34And pretty impressive it was too.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37Big flight of stairs leading up to the monumental gates,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40and on each side fountains playing,
0:50:40 > 0:50:42a niche for statues,
0:50:42 > 0:50:46and there probably would have been some burly guards.
0:50:46 > 0:50:49In fact, "villa" is a dreadful understatement.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52Even "palace" doesn't quite get it.
0:50:52 > 0:50:55This imperial residence - Hadrian's country pad -
0:50:55 > 0:50:57was the size of the town.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Once you'd passed security and got your foot in the door,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10the sheer scale of the place and the luxury would have been dazzling.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17The paths, the libraries, the miniature theatres.
0:51:17 > 0:51:22Not that you'd have found Hadrian here very much though.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24More than any other Roman ruler,
0:51:24 > 0:51:26he was off for years touring his empire.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35Hadrian was always getting on the back of his horse going somewhere.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38He was one of the greatest tourists of the Roman world,
0:51:38 > 0:51:42and half of his 20-year reign he spent on the road.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45What he saw - the monuments, the temples,
0:51:45 > 0:51:48the exotic highlights of the provinces -
0:51:48 > 0:51:52he reproduced, replicated and copied at Tivoli.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58The organisation it would have taken to construct this place
0:51:58 > 0:51:59is almost unimaginable.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02The builders themselves were only a part of it.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05There were the people who sourced the material,
0:52:05 > 0:52:06who placed the orders,
0:52:06 > 0:52:10the architects, the accountants and clerks,
0:52:10 > 0:52:13and the dinner ladies who catered for the whole team.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16I don't know if anybody's ever actually counted
0:52:16 > 0:52:20the total number of bricks in Hadrian's villa.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24But this really is building as a military operation.
0:52:24 > 0:52:28Those bricks now do make it all look a bit naked, but remember,
0:52:28 > 0:52:33it was originally covered with slabs of marble and works of art.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43It's difficult to visualise it today, but Tivoli's interiors
0:52:43 > 0:52:46must have been amongst the most lavish in the Roman world.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53Just a few broken pieces of marble have been unearthed,
0:52:53 > 0:52:56giving us a snapshot of what it might have looked like.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02Conservationist Barbara Caponera has the tricky task of trying
0:53:02 > 0:53:04to put the jigsaw back together.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10Sometimes you can get to see what covered those bare brick walls,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15and this is an amazing image of a horse
0:53:15 > 0:53:19and a charioteer or his rider.
0:53:19 > 0:53:24It's the horse's tail here and his leg there.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27It's all made on the kind of same principle as a mosaic,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29but with larger pieces.
0:53:29 > 0:53:30So this is marble
0:53:30 > 0:53:34and the horsemen's belt is made out of blue glass.
0:53:34 > 0:53:38And it was surrounded by a frame,
0:53:38 > 0:53:40so it's kind of like a painting on the wall.
0:53:40 > 0:53:45These marbles have been brought in from all over the empire.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48The horse's body is a rich yellow marble
0:53:48 > 0:53:51that we know comes from Tunisia.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56And one of these other fragments here is a great green marble
0:53:56 > 0:53:59that was from Greece, actually in the area around Sparta.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01What else have you got, Barbara?
0:54:01 > 0:54:04SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN
0:54:06 > 0:54:10Right, so this is porphyry from Egypt,
0:54:10 > 0:54:12and it can go next to Tunisia.
0:54:13 > 0:54:20And this is another very bright, red, orange marble
0:54:20 > 0:54:21that comes from Greece.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24That goes next to Sparta there.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28It's almost as if we've got a map of the empire in marble
0:54:28 > 0:54:31on the walls and the floors of the villa.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40Tivoli echoes Rome's imperial possessions.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46Here, statues representing Rome, with its mythical founders,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51Romulus and Remus, sit side by side with the God of the River Nile,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54representing Egypt.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59A visual reminder of how far and wide the emperor's domain stretched.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03At the pantheon,
0:55:03 > 0:55:07Hadrian had displayed his power to control the resources of empire.
0:55:07 > 0:55:11But here he went a step further -
0:55:11 > 0:55:13trying to evoke, on his own estate,
0:55:13 > 0:55:18some of the most admired monuments and landscapes of the provinces,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22including a slice of Egypt.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24This was perhaps the swankiest dining room
0:55:24 > 0:55:27in the whole of the Roman world.
0:55:27 > 0:55:32You have to imagine the select few guests reclining here,
0:55:32 > 0:55:37surrounded by water and picking up the delicacies from little boats
0:55:37 > 0:55:39floating in front of them.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44But they weren't just eating five-star food
0:55:44 > 0:55:46in a lavish setting,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49they were eating in a replica of one
0:55:49 > 0:55:53of the most famous monuments of the province of Egypt.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57Because Hadrian's project was not simply
0:55:57 > 0:56:01to create a luxurious lifestyle for himself,
0:56:01 > 0:56:05it was to make the empire seem to converge here.
0:56:05 > 0:56:10Whether by sucking in its resources to this one place,
0:56:10 > 0:56:17or by literally recreating the wonders of his world on his estate.
0:56:17 > 0:56:21To tour the villa must have been like touring the empire.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25This WAS the empire in microcosm.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36In its ambition, Tivoli captures the essence of an empire that
0:56:36 > 0:56:39brought together places and people as never before.
0:56:41 > 0:56:45Along its roads, in its busy cities and ports,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47the inhabitants of the Roman Empire
0:56:47 > 0:56:51experienced deep changes which still affect the world around us -
0:56:51 > 0:56:55revolutions in engineering, trade and agriculture.
0:56:57 > 0:57:00These offered new opportunities and the riches for some,
0:57:00 > 0:57:04and matching inequality for others.
0:57:04 > 0:57:07It's always easier to find the winners than losers.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11The destitute, the exploited, the underdogs
0:57:11 > 0:57:14have left very little behind them.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18The profiteers of Ephesus, the oil barons of Spain and the
0:57:18 > 0:57:22entrepreneurs of the seas have left the traces of their success stories,
0:57:22 > 0:57:28whether in the shape of broken bits of pottery or great grand columns.
0:57:28 > 0:57:33But one thing is for sure, winners and losers lived in a new world.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Hadrian's villa at Tivoli offers an idealised and,
0:57:39 > 0:57:43to be honest, rather sanitised vision of the Roman Empire.
0:57:43 > 0:57:48An ordered world with established hierarchies and everything in its place,
0:57:48 > 0:57:54And here, obviously, under the command of one man.
0:57:54 > 0:57:59The reality of course was more fluid, more fractured and messy.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02But this is the emperor's frozen vision
0:58:02 > 0:58:06of how the Roman world was and should be.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13In this new joined-up world,
0:58:13 > 0:58:16what did it really mean to be Roman?
0:58:16 > 0:58:20You saw the toga everywhere - "frequens toga".
0:58:20 > 0:58:22How would you become one?
0:58:22 > 0:58:25And what difference would it make to your life?
0:58:25 > 0:58:26"Have a good bath," it says.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28And I suppose it means,
0:58:28 > 0:58:29"Flip-flops only in here."