0:00:19 > 0:00:22This is the skull of a Roman.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26When we say "Romans", we tend to think of men from Italy
0:00:26 > 0:00:30dressed up in togas, orating in the Forum, trampling over
0:00:30 > 0:00:34the fields in armour, building bridges and probably overeating.
0:00:36 > 0:00:38This Roman lived in York.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41And this Roman was a woman.
0:00:41 > 0:00:47All we know about her comes from her bones and what was found with them.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50She can't have been more than about 20 when she died
0:00:50 > 0:00:52and she must have been pretty well-off,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54to judge from the nice jewellery that was found with her.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57It's a lovely little blue necklace...
0:00:59 > 0:01:04..a jet bracelet, an ivory bangle,
0:01:04 > 0:01:08a nice blue glass vase and a pair of little glass earrings.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12There's actually more to her than that.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15We can tell from the shape of the skull
0:01:15 > 0:01:19that she was certainly of mixed race.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23Either she came from North Africa or maybe her parents
0:01:23 > 0:01:25or perhaps her grandparents.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28So she really makes us think -
0:01:28 > 0:01:30who were the Romans?
0:01:30 > 0:01:33And what did it mean to be Roman?
0:01:44 > 0:01:49Of all the ingredients that helped the Romans build their empire,
0:01:49 > 0:01:54none was so successful or surprising as the one you can't see.
0:01:55 > 0:01:56Citizenship.
0:01:56 > 0:02:01And their ability to turn people not born in Rome
0:02:01 > 0:02:03into fully fledged Romans.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09He saw the toga everywhere. "Frequens toga."
0:02:09 > 0:02:12A Roman could be all sorts of different people.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17Rich or poor, black or white, from the fringes of the Sahara
0:02:17 > 0:02:20to the damp frontier of northern Britain.
0:02:22 > 0:02:26The Britons were really tough. It was true grit!
0:02:28 > 0:02:31So what difference did it make to be a Roman?
0:02:32 > 0:02:34And how did you become one?
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Buried behind a modern industrial estate in southern Spain
0:02:58 > 0:03:01are the ruins of a small Roman settlement.
0:03:02 > 0:03:05You have to be pretty determined to find this site.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08I don't think it's on the main tourist beat, really.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13This is the beginning and the entrance to the site.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18It's beginning to look a bit more hopefully Roman.
0:03:21 > 0:03:22Right.
0:03:44 > 0:03:50This one looks fairly ordinary, but for me, this place is one
0:03:50 > 0:03:54of the most important places in the whole history of the Roman Empire.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58The story goes back to 171 BC.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02A delegation from Spain turned up in Rome,
0:04:02 > 0:04:07representing more than 4,000 men who were the sons of Roman soldiers
0:04:07 > 0:04:11and Spanish women, and as such, they had no political rights.
0:04:11 > 0:04:16They were effectively stateless and they were looking for a home.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21It was one of the unintended consequences of conquest and, interestingly,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25the historian Livy calls these people "a new species".
0:04:25 > 0:04:31And the Romans, characteristically, improvised a new solution.
0:04:31 > 0:04:35For a start, they gave them Carteia to be their home.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42But the Romans did more than that.
0:04:42 > 0:04:45They didn't just give them a home, they gave them a status.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48They made them Latins, which was the kind of halfway house
0:04:48 > 0:04:53between being full Roman citizens and not citizens at all.
0:04:53 > 0:04:57And that may not sound very much, but it was actually revolutionary,
0:04:57 > 0:05:01because it established the principle that you could be a Roman citizen
0:05:01 > 0:05:06of some sort without having anything to do with Rome and Italy itself.
0:05:06 > 0:05:12And it kick-started a process that ended up, hundreds of years later,
0:05:12 > 0:05:17with every free inhabitant of the Roman Empire being a Roman citizen.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24CALL TO PRAYER
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Throughout history, citizenship has come in many forms.
0:05:32 > 0:05:38But the idea that outsiders in large numbers could become Roman citizens
0:05:38 > 0:05:41was entirely new in the ancient world.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Radical, startling and the unique ingredient of empire.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54To see what being Roman looked like thousands of kilometres from Rome itself,
0:05:54 > 0:05:59I've come to what is now Algeria, on the Empire's southern edges.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07When the Romans conquered a place, they didn't
0:06:07 > 0:06:10set about imposing their norms, they didn't make people learn Latin,
0:06:10 > 0:06:15they didn't make people worship Roman gods,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19they didn't even make people use the Roman calendar.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23They exercised their power through incorporation.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Now, I'm not talking about the poor suffering peasants here,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32but they managed to get the local elites onside.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36And one of the main ways they managed that was by extending
0:06:36 > 0:06:39full Roman citizenship.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43Salud!
0:06:49 > 0:06:53Roman citizenship was always a gift.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57You didn't have to pass a citizenship test, or pay a fee,
0:06:57 > 0:07:02you didn't have to learn Latin, and you didn't have to salute the flag.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05Not that Romans had flags, but you know what I mean.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12So, why would you want to be a Roman citizen?
0:07:12 > 0:07:15Well, there were all kinds of particular legal rights it
0:07:15 > 0:07:19gave you - to make contracts, marriage rights,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and it meant you could never be crucified.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27I doubt that that's what's driving most people.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31The important thing about Roman citizenship was that it gave
0:07:31 > 0:07:33you a stake in Rome.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36It's a bit like the American Dream.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40You know it doesn't work for most people, but the dream still matters.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55We don't know how far the extension of citizenship was
0:07:55 > 0:08:00a carefully planned strategy, or one of history's lucky accidents,
0:08:00 > 0:08:04but the Roman Empire worked better by bringing people in
0:08:04 > 0:08:06and not by keeping them down.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11Now, we shouldn't exaggerate the effect.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14I bet many locals here wouldn't have been keen on becoming Roman
0:08:14 > 0:08:17citizens or wouldn't have cared either way.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25And in any case, imperialism is never cosily consensual.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33Algeria is no stranger to the conflicts of empire,
0:08:33 > 0:08:34to put it mildly.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37From the Ancient Phoenicians, through the Arabs
0:08:37 > 0:08:43and Ottomans, to the French, and that's not to mention the Romans.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47In fact, it's in Algeria that some of the most impressive Roman
0:08:47 > 0:08:51remains in the whole world are to be found.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54And they have really important stories to tell.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01The story of Roman Algeria began, as most stories of the empire
0:09:01 > 0:09:05began, with the brutal oppression of the native population.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10I'm driving through what were once the killing fields of Africa.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15It's where the Romans fought for decades and even after the conquest
0:09:15 > 0:09:18proper, there were thousands of soldiers stationed here,
0:09:18 > 0:09:22policing and nudging the frontier sand.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Even in parts of the empire where there had been no towns before,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29the Romans sponsored,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31encouraged and bankrolled
0:09:31 > 0:09:35the building of cities, Roman style.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42Timgad was originally built for retired Roman soldiers,
0:09:42 > 0:09:45serving nearby, to settle.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50And it reveals a lot about how Rome put down roots far from Italy
0:09:50 > 0:09:52and how its identity
0:09:52 > 0:09:55and culture flourished at the fringes of the empire.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01I'm beginning to get my bearings now.
0:10:01 > 0:10:06This must have been one of the main gateways into the town.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12When you first walk in, it looks a terrible jumble, actually,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16but almost instantly, you come to a cross street, you can
0:10:16 > 0:10:20see another paved street, an absolute grid pattern.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24This must be one of the best surviving examples of Roman
0:10:24 > 0:10:28town planning anywhere in the empire.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32It's a pretty aggressive statement of Roman-ness in the middle of the
0:10:32 > 0:10:37desert, which means it's not that hard for me to find my way around.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41And I guess I'm now in a little house, and a rather splendid door...
0:10:46 > 0:10:50This is a truly regal set of Roman loos.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55It's on the standard multi-seater pattern.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59You get a little bit of privacy from these rather natty dolphins here.
0:10:59 > 0:11:04It's a nice thought, I think, that one of the poshest sets
0:11:04 > 0:11:10of loos anywhere in the Roman world is still to be found in Algeria.
0:11:10 > 0:11:11Ooh!
0:11:15 > 0:11:20What I've got in my sights now is a rather grand building coming up,
0:11:20 > 0:11:24the grandest we've seen really, with a whole load of columns,
0:11:24 > 0:11:26which is worth exploring, I think.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39A rather posh entrance courtyard. What on earth is it?
0:11:41 > 0:11:45This is really interesting. It's a bibliotheca. It's a library.
0:11:47 > 0:11:51If that's the case, it must be, this is a very, very rare example
0:11:51 > 0:11:57of a surviving public, presumably, library from the Roman world.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01It's very smart.
0:12:03 > 0:12:04Sort of...
0:12:04 > 0:12:07It's quite interesting that we've come into this town
0:12:07 > 0:12:12and the first monument we really met is indeed a monument to culture.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16The public library.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21I think if I'd been a citizen of Timgad,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25this is where I would have spent my time, if I'd been allowed.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31My guess is that this library was a pretty blokeish community.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36It might have started off as a Roman soldiers' retirement home,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39but within just a few generations of its birth,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43Timgad had expanded well beyond its original foundations,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47home to over 10,000 reasonably peaceful
0:12:47 > 0:12:52inhabitants of Roman, African and Berber descent.
0:12:52 > 0:12:56You might expect to see a very filtered down version
0:12:56 > 0:13:01of Roman-ness here, and yet, we find quite the opposite.
0:13:01 > 0:13:06This is the main square, the forum, the centre of business life,
0:13:06 > 0:13:09commerce, law and local government.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13What is striking is it actually looks so standard.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19Anyone visiting here from Roman Italy would instantly
0:13:19 > 0:13:23recognise this as the forum.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25And yet, we're just on the edge of the Sahara.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32Whoever designed this must have been working from some
0:13:32 > 0:13:34kind of kit for Roman forums.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39Or actually, a kit for a whole Roman town.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45You really do get the feeling that the people of Timgad are
0:13:45 > 0:13:51investing unusually heavily in high culture and in their Roman identity.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55All around the forum, all around town,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58there are thousands of inscriptions proclaiming
0:13:58 > 0:14:01the Roman-ness of the inhabitants,
0:14:01 > 0:14:05but the man who really capped it all for culture is this man, Vocontius.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11And it's actually written, not in the usual capital letters that you
0:14:11 > 0:14:13see on inscriptions, but in the lower case
0:14:13 > 0:14:15that you get in manuscripts,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18so it's as if you're reading a book here.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23Now, instead of the usual CV that you'd expect under his statue,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26you get an elaborate hymn of praise
0:14:26 > 0:14:29to Vocontius's culture.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33The ordo, the local council, has put this up to him.
0:14:33 > 0:14:38It's the council of the town that lives next to a spring,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42a spring that brings it water.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46But Vocontius is a spring, they say, that brings them something more.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49He's their "other source".
0:14:49 > 0:14:55What he's a source of is not water, it's culture, literature
0:14:55 > 0:14:56and eloquence.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22Here, on the margins of the empire, the people of Timgad
0:15:22 > 0:15:27are as committed as anyone else to showing they are Romans.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36All these mosaics come from the floors of buildings in Timgad
0:15:36 > 0:15:39and they give you some idea of what the original
0:15:39 > 0:15:41colour of the place must have been like.
0:15:43 > 0:15:44And also, the richness.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55We might call this Roman soft power.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Most of the people who lived in Timgad would never actually
0:15:58 > 0:16:03have seen Rome, but they're using their Roman-ness as a badge
0:16:03 > 0:16:07of honour, a way of showing they belong.
0:16:07 > 0:16:09That must come from a little bath building -
0:16:09 > 0:16:11"Have a good bath," it says.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14And I suppose it means - flip-flops only in here.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22And here, we've got some of the classic scenes of Roman mythology.
0:16:22 > 0:16:25There's the goddess Venus up there, rising from the ocean
0:16:25 > 0:16:30and balanced a bit awkwardly on the bum of a sea monster.
0:16:30 > 0:16:35And there is the god Neptune, rowing his trident.
0:16:35 > 0:16:37He's the god of the sea.
0:16:40 > 0:16:43What's interesting is that there are artists round here who can
0:16:43 > 0:16:46produce this kind of stuff
0:16:46 > 0:16:50and the people of Timgad are literally at home with it.
0:16:50 > 0:16:53They're really unmistakably doing the Roman thing.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07I'm sure there must have been awful quarrels going on here,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11but on the surface, Timgad looks a pretty happy little place.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15And that's summed up by this bit of pavement art.
0:17:15 > 0:17:20What it is is a gaming board, with words written across.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23In fact, you move your piece from letter to letter.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27And the words make a slogan. "Venari, lavari."
0:17:27 > 0:17:29Hunting and bathing.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35"Ludere, ridere." Gaming and laughing.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39"Occ est vivere." That's living.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43Kind of makes you realise how far this place
0:17:43 > 0:17:45and its inhabitants have come.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49They started out as a bunch of top ex-squaddies.
0:17:49 > 0:17:54A few generations later, they're not just hunting and bathing,
0:17:54 > 0:17:59they're bookworms in the local library, and they're visiting
0:17:59 > 0:18:03a rather posh local lavatory with dolphin fittings.
0:18:15 > 0:18:17In some ways,
0:18:17 > 0:18:22it didn't matter how far from the centre of the empire you were.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Being Roman meant belonging.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27If you had lots of money.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31By allowing the local elite into the club, Rome secured their support.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36In return, the local rich felt part of a bigger world
0:18:36 > 0:18:39and it's here in Algeria that we have one of the most
0:18:39 > 0:18:44extraordinary cases of how one could climb the greasy pole of Roman
0:18:44 > 0:18:46political power.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52This is a really proud boast of success.
0:18:52 > 0:18:54It's a standout memorial,
0:18:54 > 0:18:59designed to show just how far you could go, even if you were
0:18:59 > 0:19:04brought up on the margins of the empire, in what's now rural Algeria.
0:19:06 > 0:19:12It's put up by a man called Quintus Lollius Urbicus to his dad,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16to his mum, his brothers and his uncle.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19But most of all, it's put up to himself.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25We know precious little about Urbicus's roots,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29whether he was of Roman or Berber descent, or perhaps both.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36What we do know is that he grew up just a few kilometres
0:19:36 > 0:19:40away from the family mausoleum, in the small remote Roman
0:19:40 > 0:19:44town of Tiddis and his family were Roman citizens.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57And you can tell it's Roman because of all these winged willies.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Even in its heyday,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Tiddis is unlikely to have had more than 1,000 inhabitants.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09It's more of a village than a town.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12And I doubt that it was particularly well known in Algeria.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16No-one else in the Roman world would even have heard of it.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23This really must take the prize for being the smallest
0:20:23 > 0:20:26forum in the whole of the Roman Empire.
0:20:26 > 0:20:30Local offices there, loads of plinths that once carried
0:20:30 > 0:20:34statues of emperors and local bigwigs.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38This one was actually the statue of
0:20:38 > 0:20:41a rather important local Roman lady.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45But here was the statue to the
0:20:45 > 0:20:48biggest local bigwig of them
0:20:48 > 0:20:51all, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
0:20:52 > 0:20:56The statue's lost, but you can see where his feet would have been,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59perhaps in marble, maybe even in bronze.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02And it's underneath that, on this plinth,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05that you find his CV written out.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11It's terribly abraded now, but you can just about feel the letters.
0:21:11 > 0:21:16You can see his name here, Lollius Urbicus.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18You can see that...
0:21:18 > 0:21:23Well, you can feel that he was consul and underneath, you get loads
0:21:23 > 0:21:28of the other things that he did in his life, the offices he held.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31We learn that he was a bit of a war hero,
0:21:31 > 0:21:38he served in the expedition against Judea with the Emperor Hadrian
0:21:38 > 0:21:43and he seems to have won military decorations, a sort of
0:21:43 > 0:21:50honorific spear and a golden crown, a bit like a purple heart or an MC.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53He's the biggest thing that ever came out of Tiddis.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59He's the local boy who really made good and no-one made gooder
0:21:59 > 0:22:04and round here, he would have been absolutely exceptional.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06What we've got to remember, though, is that there were
0:22:06 > 0:22:10thousands of people like Lollius Urbicus
0:22:10 > 0:22:16in the Roman Empire, going from provincial towns to make it
0:22:16 > 0:22:20big in the city itself and in the army.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26In some ways, for me, that's what's exceptional about the Roman Empire.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35The story of Urbicus doesn't end here.
0:22:35 > 0:22:39If we follow his trail, Urbicus takes us about as far
0:22:39 > 0:22:43away from Africa as you could possibly get in the Roman Empire.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54To the empire's northern frontier.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04It's in Britain that a plaque was discovered, put up by a unit
0:23:04 > 0:23:10of the Roman army, recording some new building they'd just erected.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13This unit says they're working underneath
0:23:13 > 0:23:20Quinto Lollio Urbico, Quintus Lollius Urbicus, who was "leg aug",
0:23:20 > 0:23:25he was the Legatus Augusti, he was the emperor's representative.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29That's to say he was the governor of the province.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34So, our man from Africa has ended up with the top job in Britain.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43So, what we have here is one provincial turned Roman now
0:23:43 > 0:23:46governing other provincials on the other side of the Roman world
0:23:46 > 0:23:49and that was part of a regular pattern.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52What Lollius Urbicus from North Africa
0:23:52 > 0:23:56made of his time in Britain, we can only guess,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01but in the Roman imagination, this island had particular significance.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05By expanding beyond the Mediterranean world, and conquering
0:24:05 > 0:24:11a place across different seas, they were venturing into the unknown.
0:24:13 > 0:24:17For the Romans, this wasn't just the sea, it was the ocean.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20It was part of that vast waterway
0:24:20 > 0:24:24that went round the inhabited world.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28It meant, really, that Britain
0:24:28 > 0:24:31was in another world.
0:24:31 > 0:24:37That made it hugely attractive to conquer and explore,
0:24:37 > 0:24:42but it was almost as if they were going into space, in our terms.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46And of course, they told loads of tall and not
0:24:46 > 0:24:50so tall stories about what you might find in Britain when you got here.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55It was cold, it was wet, it was foggy,
0:24:55 > 0:25:00and the sun didn't shine very much, but the natives had weird habits.
0:25:00 > 0:25:05They grew very tall cos it was so cold
0:25:05 > 0:25:11and they lived to a vast age, 120 years old, you'd find people here.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Some people even said it didn't exist.
0:25:15 > 0:25:20But there were others who thought that, actually, Britain was
0:25:20 > 0:25:22where you found real virtue.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26The Romans had become corrupted by decadence and luxury,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29the Britons however were really tough.
0:25:29 > 0:25:31It was true grit!
0:25:33 > 0:25:38Britain was certainly the perfect target for the doddery
0:25:38 > 0:25:43Emperor Claudius, who needed a decisive military conquest to
0:25:43 > 0:25:46bolster his unmilitary reputation.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49Yet like anywhere, even here,
0:25:49 > 0:25:55where the cultural gap was perhaps at its widest, an outsider could
0:25:55 > 0:26:01become Roman, if he served for 20-odd years in the Roman army,
0:26:01 > 0:26:05a clever mechanism that turned the conquered into the conquerors.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09These pieces of bronze must once have been someone's most
0:26:09 > 0:26:11precious possession.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15They belonged to a man called Reburrus,
0:26:15 > 0:26:19and what they do is they document the fact that
0:26:19 > 0:26:23when he'd completed his years of army service,
0:26:23 > 0:26:27the emperor had then given him Roman citizenship.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30I think what we have to imagine is that there would be some very
0:26:30 > 0:26:34big document on public display in Rome,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37naming a load of people who were given citizenship,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42but individuals could get their own personalised little copy, like this.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45It does a bit more than just give him citizenship.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49It's very clear about that, "civitatem".
0:26:49 > 0:26:54It also gives citizenship to his children, to his descendents, and if
0:26:54 > 0:26:58he's living with someone as man and wife, the wife gets citizenship too.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00But if he's a bachelor,
0:27:00 > 0:27:06then anybody he subsequently marries will get those same rights,
0:27:06 > 0:27:10provided, it says, there is no polygamy going on.
0:27:10 > 0:27:13"Dumtaxat singuli singulas."
0:27:13 > 0:27:17As long as it's kind of one each, which I think is probably
0:27:17 > 0:27:21an attempt to stop any sham marriages for immigration purposes.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Reburrus was Spanish in origin, but he'd done his military
0:27:32 > 0:27:35service in Britain and almost certainly
0:27:35 > 0:27:37settled here on retirement.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39He was one of very many.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42Because long after the Emperor Claudius had
0:27:42 > 0:27:44celebrated his British conquest,
0:27:44 > 0:27:49guerrilla warfare raged on and there were thousands of Roman
0:27:49 > 0:27:54soldiers based in barracks across the country, like this one,
0:27:54 > 0:27:58tucked away amongst modern terraced houses in South Shields.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03This all looks very Roman and very military,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07but we shouldn't imagine that this was a world in which Roman
0:28:07 > 0:28:09soldiers were cooped up in their barracks
0:28:09 > 0:28:13and the native British were somewhere outside.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16There were all kinds of things going on here and all sorts of people -
0:28:16 > 0:28:21traders and money makers, slaves and women and children.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25It was a small community, but a very mixed one.
0:28:25 > 0:28:28And we certainly shouldn't imagine that all the Roman soldiers
0:28:28 > 0:28:31came from sunny Italy,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35just itching to get back home to better weather and better food.
0:28:35 > 0:28:40Most of the men actually came from places much like this in other
0:28:40 > 0:28:44parts of the empire - from Belgium, Germany, or northern France.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50And for a real glimpse into the cultural complexity that you
0:28:50 > 0:28:53find on the northern frontier, I think
0:28:53 > 0:28:56this tombstone is absolutely extraordinary.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01It's the tombstone to a woman called
0:29:01 > 0:29:05Regina and she is an ex-slave,
0:29:05 > 0:29:07a "liberta".
0:29:07 > 0:29:13And she's the wife, "coniuge," of a man called Barates.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18And Barates wants us to know that he is from a long way away.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22He's Palmyrenus, he says very proudly across the middle.
0:29:22 > 0:29:30He is a man of Palmyra, that's in Syria. She came from down south.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32She's "Natione Catuallauna".
0:29:32 > 0:29:37She's a member, originally, of the Catuvellauni tribe,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40somewhere around St Albans now.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43Interestingly, underneath,
0:29:43 > 0:29:46we've got another text,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48written this time in Palmyrene.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51Now, my Palmyrene's a bit rusty,
0:29:51 > 0:29:57but I'm assured it says, "Regina, the ex-slave of Barates, alas."
0:29:57 > 0:30:01How much I miss her. But that's not all there is to it.
0:30:01 > 0:30:08The image, too, has that kind of cultural mishmash to it.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12Partly, she looks here like many Roman
0:30:12 > 0:30:14women are represented in death.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17They're obedient, they're doing their spinning, we've got
0:30:17 > 0:30:22her wool down here, got a little treasure chest here.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25But it's not quite as simple as it seems
0:30:25 > 0:30:30because various bits of the image seem to be drawn almost
0:30:30 > 0:30:34directly from Palmyrene or Syrian examples.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36Sadly, someone's bashed off her face,
0:30:36 > 0:30:40but what you can still see of her hairstyle is
0:30:40 > 0:30:44a kind of hairstyle that you find in tombs in Syria
0:30:44 > 0:30:49and this little idea of having this spindle held in her hand and put
0:30:49 > 0:30:54across her lap, that's also found very often in Palmyra,
0:30:54 > 0:31:00so you've got Palmyrene, Roman, British identity,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04being paraded both by the writing and by the image.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Now, for me, this raises any number of questions.
0:31:08 > 0:31:10I mean, I wonder, for example,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14how a poor girl from the Catuvellauni tribe ended up
0:31:14 > 0:31:17being the slave of a Palmyrene and eventually marrying him
0:31:17 > 0:31:20and ending up here on Hadrian's Wall,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23but I wonder even more, really,
0:31:23 > 0:31:28did this couple stick out in 2nd century AD, South Shields?
0:31:28 > 0:31:32Did people sort of think that their relationship was noticeable or
0:31:32 > 0:31:36did they just blend in with a lot of other people who were
0:31:36 > 0:31:39enjoying very kind of mixed relationships?
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And what language do we think they spoke at home?
0:31:44 > 0:31:47And I guess overall,
0:31:47 > 0:31:51this looks to me as if it's an absolutely perfect example
0:31:51 > 0:31:56of the kind of clashes of cultural identity, the merging of cultures.
0:31:56 > 0:32:01If you like, the sort of cultural mess that you find
0:32:01 > 0:32:05when you look carefully at the kind of communities that you have here.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19This is about mobility of people.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23This was a world where people moved around freely.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27All kinds of migrants travelled the empire in search of a career
0:32:27 > 0:32:31opportunity, or simply dreaming of fortune.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35We can see what this mobility meant by looking at their skeletons.
0:32:35 > 0:32:40It's changing our view of the communities of Roman Britain.
0:32:40 > 0:32:46They weren't static little places, but full of people born elsewhere.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Archaeologist Hella Eckardt, from the University of Reading,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54has been investigating the identity of individuals
0:32:54 > 0:32:58discovered in ancient burial sites throughout the country.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02How do you actually go about working out where the guy or woman
0:33:02 > 0:33:04came from?
0:33:04 > 0:33:07We usually start with the grave goods and here you can see
0:33:07 > 0:33:11an array of finds from Catterick and they're quite unusual.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14So, there are crossbow brooches here, like this.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17And they are thought to be worn as badges of office,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20so soldiers and administrators wear them.
0:33:20 > 0:33:23And the object itself might not be unusual,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26but the idea of placing it in the grave is.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29- So this is hinting foreignness. - It is.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Then what do you do with the skull?
0:33:31 > 0:33:35So what we do with the skull is we will test the teeth,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39so we will look at the molar and we will test the chemical signature,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42preserved in the tooth's enamel, and it will tell us
0:33:42 > 0:33:45what was the geology like where this person grew up.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49So, when my teeth were forming, when I was kind of three, four,
0:33:49 > 0:33:50five, what I was eating
0:33:50 > 0:33:53and drinking kind of gets locked inside the tooth enamel.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56That's absolutely right. It's like a chemical fingerprint.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58The water relates to the climate,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02so if you grow up in a hot coastal North African climate,
0:34:02 > 0:34:06that will look different chemically to a continental cool climate,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08like Germany or Poland.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11Right. And for this one?
0:34:11 > 0:34:14For this one, we think that this individual and a whole group of...
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Most of these men come from somewhere colder
0:34:16 > 0:34:18and more continental.
0:34:18 > 0:34:22- Be somewhere like Germany or Poland, something like that.- Right.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25'So Polish migration to Britain isn't as new as we think.'
0:34:26 > 0:34:31If I were to ask you to just guess - what rough proportion
0:34:31 > 0:34:37of the people in Roman Britain do you reckon didn't grow up here?
0:34:37 > 0:34:41If we look at the countryside, for example, we simply don't know.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43We haven't tested
0:34:43 > 0:34:47and we assume that people didn't move very much in the countryside.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51But for the cities, which is where our work has been, we think 20 to
0:34:51 > 0:34:5730% of the ones we've sampled may be incomers, from outside of Britain.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02So quite a significant proportion of migrants, doing what?
0:35:02 > 0:35:04The cities are very mixed and diverse
0:35:04 > 0:35:05and what they seem to be doing,
0:35:05 > 0:35:08a lot of these individuals are in quite high-status roles,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11so the lady from York has very rich grave goods,
0:35:11 > 0:35:14these individuals, they have these crossbow brooches and the belt
0:35:14 > 0:35:18fittings, so they're probably soldiers and administrators.
0:35:18 > 0:35:19They're running the Roman Empire.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24So our picture of Roman Britain has to be, it's not
0:35:24 > 0:35:26just that there are cities,
0:35:26 > 0:35:28it's that there are cities with a very different
0:35:28 > 0:35:31sort of community than you could ever possibly have found,
0:35:31 > 0:35:34you know, a couple of hundred years before the Roman invasion.
0:35:34 > 0:35:36- Absolutely.- Yeah.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43These migrants, Poles and Germans,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47people like the Yorkshire lady with roots in North Africa,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50or Barates from Syria, made the Roman Empire,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54just as much as the emperors and the politicians did.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01And it isn't just a question of moving around the empire.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05It's also people from the provinces making it to Rome, getting to
0:36:05 > 0:36:09hold the highest positions of power in the capital itself.
0:36:11 > 0:36:14In our terms, the Roman ruling class
0:36:14 > 0:36:18was strikingly ethnically diverse, but we shouldn't
0:36:18 > 0:36:23conclude from that that the Romans were all sugar coated liberals.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28When they felt like it, they could be just as xenophobic as anyone.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30And we can see that from an extraordinary
0:36:30 > 0:36:35survival in the French city of Lyon. That's to say, in Gaul.
0:36:35 > 0:36:39It's all related to a proposal of the Emperor Claudius -
0:36:39 > 0:36:42the same man who took Britain as his trophy.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46He stirred up a real hornet's nest in Rome when he suggested
0:36:46 > 0:36:50that Gauls should be allowed into the heart of Roman government.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56Claudius ran in to all kinds of objections.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00Some people complained that the Gauls had only recently been
0:37:00 > 0:37:05vicious enemies of Rome and others said they didn't much fancy
0:37:05 > 0:37:09kowtowing to a load of nouveau riche men from the backwoods.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13What's amazing is that we
0:37:13 > 0:37:16still have a word-for-word
0:37:16 > 0:37:20transcript of Claudius's reply,
0:37:20 > 0:37:25later inscribed on bronze and put up in Gaul.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30The interesting thing is that Claudius
0:37:30 > 0:37:34justifies his policy by going right back to the very
0:37:34 > 0:37:37beginning of Roman time, when he says -
0:37:37 > 0:37:43"aileni et quidem exter ni."
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Aliens, foreigners, and some outsiders already came to Rome,
0:37:47 > 0:37:54and that's going back to the time of Romulus.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59Now, to be honest, Claudius's speech is a bit nerdy
0:37:59 > 0:38:03and he grindingly goes through every example
0:38:03 > 0:38:07he can think of of foreigners coming in to the political
0:38:07 > 0:38:12structure of Rome, people who - "Romam migravit" -
0:38:12 > 0:38:15the people who came as migrants to Rome.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20But objections or not, Claudius got his way.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24And the Gauls were incorporated into the power structure of Rome.
0:38:24 > 0:38:28And that was really the standard pattern.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31One notable exception was Britain.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37We don't know of any native Brit who made it big at Rome.
0:38:42 > 0:38:48If the Brits never dominated Rome, the Roman way dominated Britain.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51Whether that was spending their afternoons,
0:38:51 > 0:38:55like we imagine every Roman did, going to the baths,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58or whatever the weather, dressing up in a sheet.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08Some locals probably just didn't get all this bathing stuff.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09Or take to wearing the toga.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15But some must have relished the fun you could have here.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18And some probably got a bit too hooked
0:39:18 > 0:39:20in the kind of, "Is that a toga version 5
0:39:20 > 0:39:23"or a version 6 you're wearing?"
0:39:23 > 0:39:28And that's exactly what one Roman writer, referring to Britain,
0:39:28 > 0:39:30has to say.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33He says he saw the toga everywhere.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35"Frequens toga."
0:39:35 > 0:39:40And they took to baths and to elegant dining
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and they called it culture.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47But it was really "pars servitutis" -
0:39:47 > 0:39:49part of their enslavement.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58This was partly mocking the people for their Roman pretensions.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01And at the same time acknowledging
0:40:01 > 0:40:04that it played into the hands of Rome.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08But the cultural interactions are more complicated than that.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16Here in Roman Bath, long before the Roman invasion,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20the local population had worshipped the goddess Sulis
0:40:20 > 0:40:22at these hot springs.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27After the conquest, the Romans saw her as the equivalent
0:40:27 > 0:40:31of their own goddess Minerva and addressed her by that name.
0:40:33 > 0:40:38She began to be called Sulis Minerva, a hybrid god
0:40:38 > 0:40:40combining both identities.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44But was she really native, or was she Roman?
0:40:44 > 0:40:47What's left of the facade of the temple tells us
0:40:47 > 0:40:49a lot about the world of Roman Bath.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55Some of it is really very, very Roman.
0:40:55 > 0:40:56But not all.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01It looks as if, in the middle of the gable,
0:41:01 > 0:41:04the sculptor's been asked to do
0:41:04 > 0:41:07an image of the shield of the goddess Minerva.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Which in Roman mythology had at its middle
0:41:10 > 0:41:14a snaky-headed female figure.
0:41:14 > 0:41:16The gorgon looking out.
0:41:16 > 0:41:22That's fine, except what we've got here is a bloke with a moustache.
0:41:22 > 0:41:27Now, the question is, has the sculptor just got it wrong?
0:41:27 > 0:41:31You know, has he failed to be properly Roman?
0:41:31 > 0:41:36Or has he perhaps refused to be entirely Roman?
0:41:36 > 0:41:40And is this Sulis, you know, creeping in?
0:41:40 > 0:41:43Or is it actually something a bit more interesting than that?
0:41:43 > 0:41:49Is this really a new hybrid culture for a new Britain?
0:41:50 > 0:41:55In the merging of Roman and pre-Roman images in art,
0:41:55 > 0:41:57in the worship of dual gods,
0:41:57 > 0:42:01and in the cultural mix of its towns and cities,
0:42:01 > 0:42:04what we're beginning to see is the emergence
0:42:04 > 0:42:06of a new identity in Britain.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09Perhaps we shouldn't think of these people as being
0:42:09 > 0:42:12either native or Roman,
0:42:12 > 0:42:17perhaps being Roman here meant something new altogether.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19That is - British.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22When the Romans invaded this island,
0:42:22 > 0:42:26it was home to thousands and thousands of people.
0:42:26 > 0:42:27Lots of different groups,
0:42:27 > 0:42:31each one thinking a little bit of it was their own.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34It wasn't a political unity in any sense.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37That's what the Romans tried to make it.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41And in that sense, they didn't just find Britain,
0:42:41 > 0:42:45they didn't just conquer it, they created it.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52And it's thanks to the Romans that we have London.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58London was a brand-new Roman city.
0:42:58 > 0:43:03Basically, there was just open country here before.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05And it's actually thanks to the Romans
0:43:05 > 0:43:10that London became the capital city, stuck down here in the South East
0:43:10 > 0:43:13with all the disadvantages and advantages that brings.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19And what's amazing is if you dig down
0:43:19 > 0:43:22underneath the later buildings that we now see,
0:43:22 > 0:43:26you find all kinds of elements still surviving
0:43:26 > 0:43:27of the Roman city itself.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31For us, that's the Guildhall.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34But it's where the Roman amphitheatre once was.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37And underneath here was the Roman forum.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39The city centre.
0:43:39 > 0:43:43Supposed to be one of the largest public buildings north of the Alps.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49Most people here are looking at the Tower Of London.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53Behind them, they'd see part of the Roman wall, 1,000 years older.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57But we can't ignore that all this
0:43:57 > 0:44:00was bought at the price of violent conquest
0:44:00 > 0:44:02and that not everyone in Britain
0:44:02 > 0:44:05and the other provinces of the empire were busy
0:44:05 > 0:44:08happily embracing their new identity.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12In fact, one of the heroines of British national culture
0:44:12 > 0:44:17is a rebel and resistance fighter against the Roman occupation.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20She's Boudicca, the wife of a local king,
0:44:20 > 0:44:23who'd actually got on rather well with the Romans
0:44:23 > 0:44:24and had left his kingdom to them.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29The trouble was, that the Romans took over their inheritance
0:44:29 > 0:44:31with terrible brutality.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35They flogged Boudicca and they raped her daughters.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42Boudicca seized her chance and led a revolt.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47Storming London and other Roman towns, burning them to the ground.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50On one occasion,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54Boudicca's forces are supposed to have cut off the breasts
0:44:54 > 0:44:58of the Roman women and sewed them into their mouths
0:44:58 > 0:44:59when they killed them.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08In the end, however, Roman firepower won out, as it always did.
0:45:08 > 0:45:10And Boudicca killed herself.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17The strange thing is, that a couple of hundred years ago,
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Boudicca, that virulent opponent to the Roman Empire,
0:45:21 > 0:45:27was reinvented as an ancestor of the British Empire.
0:45:27 > 0:45:30The words on the base of her statue say it all.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35Basically, don't worry, Boudicca, your descendants will conquer
0:45:35 > 0:45:37more territory than those Romans ever did.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42I have to say that for different reasons,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45a bit of my heart's invested in Boudicca.
0:45:45 > 0:45:50The tough woman who stood up to the might of the Roman Empire.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54But my head says a bit different.
0:45:55 > 0:46:00I'm sort of ashamed to say it, but I'm kind of glad she didn't win.
0:46:00 > 0:46:03Even if the Romans were exaggerating about her crimes,
0:46:03 > 0:46:05she was a brutal terrorist.
0:46:05 > 0:46:10And what sort of place would this have been if she'd got her way?
0:46:12 > 0:46:16I often find it hard to decide which side I'm on.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Romans or rebels.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20But one thing's for sure,
0:46:20 > 0:46:23Romans had to fight to maintain a hold over Britain.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27And the island was always something of an awkward and exotic possession.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37On the other side, going east, things are very different.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44The Greek world, that also included what we call Turkey
0:46:44 > 0:46:46and much of the Near East,
0:46:46 > 0:46:51cities, urban living and long-standing relations with Rome
0:46:51 > 0:46:53had existed for centuries.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56MAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
0:46:56 > 0:47:00Becoming Roman here took a very different form.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07All the same, there was still a desire to make sense
0:47:07 > 0:47:11of the brave new world to which they now belonged.
0:47:14 > 0:47:18I'm in a place that I haven't been for almost 40 years.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22It's Aphrodisias, the city of the goddess Aphrodite.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24And it's very special
0:47:24 > 0:47:28because it's probably the place in the whole of the Roman Empire
0:47:28 > 0:47:31where you can see better than anywhere else
0:47:31 > 0:47:34how it was that people outside Rome
0:47:34 > 0:47:37represented the power of Rome to themselves.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45'And we can see how the two civilisations of Greece and Rome
0:47:45 > 0:47:49'came together and what the empire looked like from the Greek side.'
0:47:53 > 0:47:55People in the eastern part of the empire
0:47:55 > 0:48:01went on speaking and writing Greek like they had for centuries.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03The Romans didn't make them change to Latin,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06they went on being Greek, under Rome.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12They went to Greek plays, they read Greek books,
0:48:12 > 0:48:16they worshipped Greek gods in Greek temples.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19And they did something the Romans rather disapproved of.
0:48:19 > 0:48:20Naked athletics.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22In stadia like this one.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30This is the 30,000-seater stadium of Aphrodisias.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35In contrast to the new towns and cities that sprung up
0:48:35 > 0:48:37in Britain and Algeria,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41here there are at first sight few clear signs
0:48:41 > 0:48:44of specifically Roman culture.
0:48:44 > 0:48:50But if we dig beneath the surface, another story begins to emerge.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52It takes a bit of a leap of the imagination
0:48:52 > 0:48:55to imagine the scene of Greek athletics going on
0:48:55 > 0:48:58underneath all this long grass.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00But that's what happened here.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03But it wasn't the only thing that happened here.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10It's always worth looking very hard at the details
0:49:10 > 0:49:12on these big lumps of stone.
0:49:15 > 0:49:20We can see some strong hints of a very Roman kind of use.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25All along the front row of the seats,
0:49:25 > 0:49:27there are these little fixings.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32There's a hole here which must have taken rope.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36There's some kind of wedge here which presumably took a post.
0:49:36 > 0:49:39What these are, are part of a structure
0:49:39 > 0:49:43of ropes and posts and nets
0:49:43 > 0:49:48which keep the audience safe from something dangerous
0:49:48 > 0:49:50going on in the stadium.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Now, that's not athletics.
0:49:53 > 0:49:54That's animals.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59What we've got to imagine is that sometimes the people of Aphrodisias
0:49:59 > 0:50:04were showing up here to watch the very Greek sport of athletics.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09Sometimes, they showed up for the characteristic Roman entertainment
0:50:09 > 0:50:13of gladiatorial combat and wild-beast hunts.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20So, this stadium is kind of dual use.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25And it shows just how much this Greek culture is incorporating
0:50:25 > 0:50:27bits of Rome.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34And there's another even more obvious way
0:50:34 > 0:50:37that the people of Aphrodisias incorporated Rome
0:50:37 > 0:50:40into their own cultural world.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43That is in the worship of the Roman emperors.
0:50:43 > 0:50:46And in a brand-new sanctuary,
0:50:46 > 0:50:51sponsored by some local grandees, for exactly that purpose.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54This is one of the most important archaeological discoveries
0:50:54 > 0:50:57of the last 50, even 100, years.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02It's a temple complex dedicated to the honour and worship
0:51:02 > 0:51:04of the Roman emperor.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06And I'm sitting on the temple steps.
0:51:07 > 0:51:11We have to be a bit careful about what we mean by worship.
0:51:11 > 0:51:14I think there's no chance that the people of Aphrodisias
0:51:14 > 0:51:18thought the Roman emperor was just the same
0:51:18 > 0:51:22as Zeus, or Aphrodite, or any of those traditional gods.
0:51:22 > 0:51:26What they did think is that the power of the Roman emperor
0:51:26 > 0:51:29was very like the power of a god.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32And they worshipped him in those terms.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39Temples dedicated to the Roman emperors
0:51:39 > 0:51:41have been found all over the empire.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45But what made this discovery
0:51:45 > 0:51:48so special was that it was loaded with sculptures.
0:51:50 > 0:51:55Represented are the emperors, their families,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59images of the traditional gods and myths
0:51:59 > 0:52:03and the conquered provinces imagined in human form.
0:52:07 > 0:52:11This wasn't simple flattery of the central power,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14though there was no doubt a bit of that,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18this was a local initiative designed for a local audience.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22Setting in stone their own interpretation
0:52:22 > 0:52:25of the Roman world and their place in it.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34And here's an almost-naked emperor having a go at a province.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38What's quite interesting about all the ways
0:52:38 > 0:52:42that provinces and conquered territories are represented
0:52:42 > 0:52:45in this series is that they're all female.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47So, there's a wonderful bit of gender...
0:52:47 > 0:52:50Or a horrible bit of gender politics going on,
0:52:50 > 0:52:55with the heroic, masculine emperor slaughtering,
0:52:55 > 0:52:57or raping the helpless woman.
0:52:59 > 0:53:03A woman trying not to reveal her naked body.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07And is putting her hand up, probably to ask for mercy.
0:53:07 > 0:53:10He's got his hand tugging on her hair.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The caption is wonderfully revealing.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20The emperor is Tiberius Claudius Kaisar.
0:53:21 > 0:53:24That is the Emperor Claudius.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27But the province is a bit of a surprise.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30Because she's "Bretannia".
0:53:32 > 0:53:35It's about the easiest bit of Greek you could ever see.
0:53:39 > 0:53:46This actually is the very, very first image of Britannia
0:53:46 > 0:53:49ever to appear in world art.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53And I think it's a bit of a shock to discover that she's not appearing
0:53:53 > 0:53:55as a proud warrior woman on the back of a coin,
0:53:55 > 0:53:58but she's here as a rather sad victim of what is,
0:53:58 > 0:54:02to all intents and purposes, rape by a Roman.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07It's funny that once you get down to look at the captions,
0:54:07 > 0:54:11you start to see these sculptures in a bit of a different light.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15Because they were really meant to be seen very high up from below.
0:54:15 > 0:54:18And they look quite different from this angle.
0:54:18 > 0:54:23And the lower you get, actually, the better this one works.
0:54:23 > 0:54:28And so if you actually lie down, what you find is you're looking
0:54:28 > 0:54:33straight up into the rather pathetic face of Britannia.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39And that must be the view of her that the Aphrodisians
0:54:39 > 0:54:42walking down the porticoes must have had.
0:54:43 > 0:54:48We can only wonder what they would have thought as they looked.
0:54:48 > 0:54:53My guess is that a few of them might have been on Britannia's side.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55But many of them would have been in awe
0:54:55 > 0:54:57of the god-like power of Claudius.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01And many would have seen Rome's glory as their own.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Not so much subjects, as partners in the empire.
0:55:08 > 0:55:12Here, you could be Greek and Roman with no contradiction.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18For me, the really important thing that comes out of all this
0:55:18 > 0:55:22is that there was no single way to be Roman.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24We've been all over the Roman Empire,
0:55:24 > 0:55:29we've found Romans in togas, in tunics, in trousers, probably.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33We found them speaking Latin, Greek, Celtic.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38There wasn't a rule book for how to be Roman.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40In fact, it was the sheer diversity
0:55:40 > 0:55:42and the acceptance of diversity
0:55:42 > 0:55:45that actually underpinned the Roman Empire.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55Whether you came from the margins of the empire in the east,
0:55:55 > 0:56:01its northern frontiers, or the fringes of the Sahara in the south,
0:56:01 > 0:56:03if you were a Roman citizen,
0:56:03 > 0:56:06you had the same rights and privileges as a citizen in Rome.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11And that was radical and new.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13An idea still worth cherishing.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Rome's extension of citizenship was one factor
0:56:20 > 0:56:22that gave its empire unity.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Something few empires before or since have managed.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36But one man would put that unity on an entirely new footing.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42The Emperor Caracalla was born here, in Lille.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47And he's gone down in history as an awful brute.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51He started his reign by murdering his brother.
0:56:51 > 0:56:52A bit like Romulus.
0:56:52 > 0:56:57But in this case, the poor lad was sheltering on his mother's lap.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Things went on from there.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06But in 212, he changed the world.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11He gave full Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant
0:57:11 > 0:57:12of the Roman Empire.
0:57:12 > 0:57:18About 30 million people became Roman citizens at a stroke.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23Why he did it? We haven't a clue.
0:57:23 > 0:57:28By the look of him, I don't imagine it was simple generosity.
0:57:28 > 0:57:34All the same, it was the culmination of the Roman project
0:57:34 > 0:57:39of incorporating outsiders, extending citizenship
0:57:39 > 0:57:45and making the Roman way of doing things seem universal.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47Even natural.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50After 1,000 years, in a way,
0:57:50 > 0:57:56this was the triumphant finale of that project.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00But the truth is that when they became all the same,
0:58:00 > 0:58:07the Romans soon found new ways to divide and exclude.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16'Now, the Roman Empire would come under pressure
0:58:16 > 0:58:18'both from the outside...'
0:58:18 > 0:58:23The wall must have been something to do with controlling that.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26'..and from a new threat within.'
0:58:26 > 0:58:29This was Romans attacking Romans.