0:00:07 > 0:00:11'Ancient Rome was once the centre of a vast empire
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'that stretched from Spain to Syria,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17'dominating the Western world for over 700 years.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22'In many ways, we still live under its shadow.'
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Like it or not, the Romans are still all around us -
0:00:27 > 0:00:31in our laws, in our architecture, in our roads.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35And we keep on recreating them in film and fiction.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38And every year, thousands of us trek here, to Rome,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40to see the monuments up close.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45'But hidden all over the modern city, in its walls,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49'behind its facades, even under its streets,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53'is something much harder to find but just as captivating -
0:00:53 > 0:00:56'the forgotten voices of its ordinary people.'
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Here's a great kid, holding his little pet dog.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05And I guess it's his mum and dad on either side.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08And up above, there's the tombstone
0:01:08 > 0:01:11of "Curiatia Ammia."
0:01:11 > 0:01:18And she was someone's best-beloved partner, "concubina amatissima."
0:01:18 > 0:01:20'In this series,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23'I'm getting the voices of these Romans speaking again,
0:01:23 > 0:01:28'to piece together a more intriguing view of ancient Roman life.'
0:01:28 > 0:01:30This wasn't just a mugging...
0:01:31 > 0:01:33..this was mass murder!
0:01:33 > 0:01:35'They'll reveal a world so different from our own,
0:01:35 > 0:01:37'and yet eerily familiar.'
0:01:37 > 0:01:43She liked to get a bit drenched in Bacchus.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46So what he's saying is, she was a bit of a wild thing,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48and she really liked a drink or two.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54'We've already seen how the Empire turned Rome
0:01:54 > 0:01:57'into the world's first global city,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00'where everyone, everything was from somewhere else.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06'Now I'm going down into the streets to explore its slums,
0:02:06 > 0:02:10'its bathhouses and bars,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14'where the crime, sex and humour in everyday Roman life
0:02:14 > 0:02:16'shows us what it was really like
0:02:16 > 0:02:19'to live in an ancient city of a million people.'
0:02:21 > 0:02:25We think of ancient Rome as all white, marble columns,
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and classical order.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32But actually, it was a chaotic place, rambling and dirty.
0:02:32 > 0:02:33It was a right mess.
0:02:33 > 0:02:40It was as much a shanty town as it was Trafalgar Square or Washington DC.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Welcome to my Rome.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18This is a fantastically detailed model of the ancient city of Rome.
0:03:18 > 0:03:21It's got all the familiar things in it -
0:03:21 > 0:03:24the Coliseum, the Imperial Palace,
0:03:24 > 0:03:28the temples, the gleaming marble, the pleasure gardens.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33But for my taste, it's all a bit grand.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35And it's a bit misleading,
0:03:35 > 0:03:38because it misses out so many important things
0:03:38 > 0:03:40that I want to try and get back in.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44The smell. The dirt.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48The pubs. The slums.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52And it doesn't answer the questions that we want to ask.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54What was it like to be a kid in this city?
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Where did you go to the lavatory?
0:03:59 > 0:04:02What did you do if you got ill?
0:04:03 > 0:04:07What was it like to be just an ordinary Roman?
0:04:13 > 0:04:16'So how do we start to answer these questions?
0:04:16 > 0:04:20'In fact, there's a lot more evidence than you might think,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23'hidden away all over modern Rome.'
0:04:23 > 0:04:25When you first come into a place like this,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28what hits you in the eye is the rich Romans.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30The great and the grand.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34But look behind them, look at the wallpaper, as it were,
0:04:34 > 0:04:39and you'll hear a babble of ordinary Roman voices
0:04:39 > 0:04:41trying to be heard.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45In fact, behind this emperor, here,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48there's the tombstone of a little girl
0:04:48 > 0:04:53who lived just two years, ten months and 23 days.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57She's waving goodbye.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Most tombstones today record just the bare essentials.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05But the Romans often told us a lot more about themselves.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09They're asking anyone and everyone to read about their ordinary
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and extraordinary lives from beyond the grave.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15And what they give us aren't just the success stories,
0:05:15 > 0:05:20but a unique vision of life at the bottom of the social heap too.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25This guy certainly wants us to know about his troubles in life.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28His name is Ankarenus Nothus.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30He lived for 43 years
0:05:30 > 0:05:35and he's the ex-slave of a woman, which is what that symbol means.
0:05:35 > 0:05:41This is what he has to say about his life and what it's like being dead.
0:05:41 > 0:05:47It happens to everybody, he says. My bones are now resting sweetly.
0:05:47 > 0:05:49"Dulciter."
0:05:49 > 0:05:54And I'm no longer worried that I might die of starvation.
0:05:54 > 0:05:55"Esuriam."
0:05:55 > 0:05:59And I don't any longer have those awful aching feet
0:05:59 > 0:06:02and I'm not contracted to my rent payments.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04"Pensionibus."
0:06:04 > 0:06:06That's a quite technical phrase,
0:06:06 > 0:06:09but it really means - I'm no longer in hock to the rent collector.
0:06:10 > 0:06:16In fact, I'm enjoying board and lodging. "Hospitio.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18"Gratis."
0:06:18 > 0:06:21For free. For eternity.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23"Aeterno."
0:06:23 > 0:06:27The stone was put up by his wife and by his daughter
0:06:27 > 0:06:31to her father, who she calls "indulgentissimus",
0:06:31 > 0:06:34who's very indulgent.
0:06:34 > 0:06:36He spoiled her something rotten.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39There are three things that stand out.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43How am I going to get my next meal?
0:06:43 > 0:06:48What shall I do if I'm ill, and how shall I pay the rent?
0:06:48 > 0:06:54And we know that the figure of the rent collector-cum-bailiff -
0:06:54 > 0:06:57called extractor in Latin -
0:06:57 > 0:07:00was one that terrified the Roman poor.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Ankarenus Nothus might have been a bit of a joker
0:07:04 > 0:07:09and his family might have been trying to tug on our heartstrings,
0:07:09 > 0:07:15but the important point is that these few lines sum up the plight.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19The grim realities of life for so many ordinary Romans.
0:07:25 > 0:07:30So, where might someone like Ankarenus Nothus have lived with his family?
0:07:30 > 0:07:33It's pretty clear he didn't live in the marble villas
0:07:33 > 0:07:36we think of when we think Ancient Rome.
0:07:36 > 0:07:39One of the best places to get a glimpse of his world
0:07:39 > 0:07:42actually still survives in the centre of town,
0:07:42 > 0:07:46hidden in the shadow of the Vittorio Emanuele monument.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49One of Rome's most famous modern landmarks.
0:07:49 > 0:07:54This humble brick building doesn't look like much from the outside.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Most visitors walk past it without even giving it a glance.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02But once you know what it is, a very different Rome opens up
0:08:02 > 0:08:04before your eyes.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07This building was converted into a Christian church.
0:08:07 > 0:08:14But originally, it was an ancient Roman high-rise apartment block.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19The city was full of them. They were called, in Latin, insulae.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21That means islands.
0:08:22 > 0:08:28So, think away the churchy bits, and Ancient Rome lies underneath.
0:08:29 > 0:08:35Right down there, you can still see the ancient street level, and facing
0:08:35 > 0:08:40onto the street, there are a series of shops with wide entrances.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43And above them, little mezzanine flats.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47So these guys were literally living above the shop.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52But up here, there were six, perhaps seven more floors.
0:08:52 > 0:08:58More than survive today. But to get the real authentic Roman impression,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03you have to remember that just a few feet that way,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06there was another block like this.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09So this wasn't so much a nice open road down there,
0:09:09 > 0:09:11it was a narrow alley.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16It must have felt like a canyon between two vast buildings.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21The flats are usually locked up,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24but I've got permission to have a look around with my colleague
0:09:24 > 0:09:27Ed Bisphum, who's been here many times before.
0:09:27 > 0:09:33- So we are at what's the first floor. - This is the first floor proper, yeah.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35- And this, then, is the window. - This is the window.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38So we are really burgling. We are breaking and entering here.
0:09:38 > 0:09:39Right, OK.
0:09:45 > 0:09:46Gosh.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49The windows have since been blocked, but on the first floor,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52there was once a spacious apartment where a reasonably
0:09:52 > 0:09:56well off family might have lived with their children and slaves.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59You wouldn't be pushed for space in here as a single family.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03You've got probably four nicely barrel-vaulted rooms here.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06But further up the building, light, space
0:10:06 > 0:10:10and fresh air was in much shorter supply.
0:10:10 > 0:10:14Up here, off each dark corridor, are four or five rooms just a few
0:10:14 > 0:10:15metres square.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18We don't know for sure how many people lived here,
0:10:18 > 0:10:21but to get a million people into a city the size of Rome,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24you had to pile them high and squash them in.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27My guess is that these weren't single occupancy.
0:10:27 > 0:10:31This looks a bit spacious, but that's because
0:10:31 > 0:10:36the dividing walls have gone, so you've got to imagine a wall here...
0:10:36 > 0:10:38Going right the way up to the vault,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40with maybe a little light window in it.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The thing that always kind of shocks me
0:10:44 > 0:10:49is the sense that we might have had six people "living" in here.
0:10:50 > 0:10:52This is one step up...
0:10:52 > 0:10:56One or two steps up, actually, from the real bottom of Roman society, isn't it?
0:10:56 > 0:11:00Yeah, compared to sleeping in a tomb or under an aqueduct arch,
0:11:00 > 0:11:02this is quite bijou. SHE LAUGHS
0:11:10 > 0:11:14Here's another bijou apartment. This is really small.
0:11:14 > 0:11:16We've got to get, well,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19let's say we might have four or six people in here.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21You know, one question is, how do they fit?
0:11:21 > 0:11:24And I'm now going to see what it would be like.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28How much space does one person take up trying to get to sleep on the floor?
0:11:29 > 0:11:30Urgh!
0:11:32 > 0:11:33- Not much space left.- No, no.
0:11:35 > 0:11:40And who are the guys and the women who are living in these?
0:11:40 > 0:11:44- What are they doing?- The guys are probably working on constructions.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47When you think of a big thing like the baths of Caracalla.
0:11:47 > 0:11:49The baths of Diocletian.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52We're talking 6,000 to 10,000 people on a four-year building job,
0:11:52 > 0:11:54and then there's porterage.
0:11:54 > 0:11:59- Humping goods from the barges to the warehouse... - Yeah, sacks of grain, yeah.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Day labour. You get it when you can.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06You've been working all day, humping stuff about. You get back here.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10You're soaked in sweat. You stink. You don't have any spare clothes.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12There's no running water. You can't have a bath.
0:12:12 > 0:12:16There's three other smelly guys sleeping on the floor too.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Or there's your, your partner. Your female partner, and two kids.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24- Yes.- I mean...
0:12:24 > 0:12:28One thing is to think about these as sort of male dorm accommodation,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31which I think a lot of them must be, but for some of them...
0:12:31 > 0:12:34- You know, there are women having babies here.- Yes.- You know? And actually...
0:12:34 > 0:12:39where I'm sitting, some woman probably gave birth.
0:12:39 > 0:12:42- That's what's scary.- Yeah.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46And that wasn't even the top of the block.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49There were even more storeys above this one.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53A basic rule was, the further you went up, the worse it got.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56There were no luxury penthouses here.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59This was social climbing backwards.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04In their time, these tenements must have been the tallest
0:13:04 > 0:13:06residential buildings on the planet.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09But they were built poorly, cheaply and fast
0:13:09 > 0:13:13and only a handful have survived to any height, so the fact is,
0:13:13 > 0:13:17we no longer think of Ancient Rome like this.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20But that is how we should see it.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25Not just a city of marble, but a city of tower blocks,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29and the ordinary people who lived in them.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Perhaps the best place to get a snapshot of the kind
0:13:38 > 0:13:41of community you might have found in a Roman high-rise
0:13:41 > 0:13:45is now hidden at the bottom of a garden in a Roman suburb.
0:13:45 > 0:13:49In this extraordinary communal tomb lie the remains of every
0:13:49 > 0:13:51walk of Roman life.
0:13:51 > 0:13:56There's hundreds and hundreds of them here.
0:14:01 > 0:14:10And greeting you when you come in is a little face, and it's a touching
0:14:10 > 0:14:18story because it's Valeria Italis, who was the sweetheart of Hilarus.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23I bet he made sure that he got his sweetheart into prime position.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30This is a...just fantastic kind of career directory
0:14:30 > 0:14:33of the ordinary Roman people.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35This was probably quite a bruiser.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37It's Sinnio, the bodyguard.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And, in the corner here...
0:14:42 > 0:14:47..we've got the barber. Marcus Valerius, the barber.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50And...
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Ah... Hygia, the midwife.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03And up there - and I am not going to risk a Roman ascent up there -
0:15:03 > 0:15:06we have got a nice accountant.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08All of Roman life is here.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12But this isn't just a Roman job directory, it is a wonderful glimpse
0:15:12 > 0:15:16into how the Romans lived, stacked up in death, not just in life.
0:15:16 > 0:15:21Trying to understand ancient Rome is always a bit of a post-mortem.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25I mean, they're dead, the Romans are dead.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28But they can still speak to us.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Not just the rich and powerful, not just the great writers,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35but the ordinary people, like those in this tomb.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40They send us these little tweet-size messages telling us
0:15:40 > 0:15:45who they were, what they did, and saying, "Remember me!"
0:15:45 > 0:15:49It is one of my very favourite places in the city of Rome
0:15:49 > 0:15:55because it gets us close to real people with real jobs, and real names.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Sinnio, the bodyguard. Hygia, the midwife.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05We find them here in death, just like they did in life.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07This is a kind of burial high-rise.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13And also, I can't help thinking, somewhere behind this,
0:16:13 > 0:16:17there might have been a landlord asking the dead for their rent.
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Today, modern Rome isn't a world apart from the ancient one.
0:16:28 > 0:16:35And seen from the air, it's still a city of rented apartment blocks in a grid of little islands.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38But apart from that modern model, how else can
0:16:38 > 0:16:43we get closer to the way the ancient city was actually laid out?
0:16:47 > 0:16:51At the Museum of Roman Civilisation, packed up in boxes,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53is a tantalising clue.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01It's sadly not usually on display, but what's inside
0:17:01 > 0:17:06are the remains of a precious Roman map, carved in stone -
0:17:06 > 0:17:09a kind of marble A-Z that once showed
0:17:09 > 0:17:12a complete ground plan of the city.
0:17:12 > 0:17:13Over the last few hundred years,
0:17:13 > 0:17:18about 1,000 fragments have been discovered - only ten percent of it.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22But luckily, a few bits do still fit together.
0:17:22 > 0:17:27It's not hard on any jigsaw puzzle to recognise the Colosseum.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33And here, you can see circular lines of the seating of the Colosseum.
0:17:34 > 0:17:39And above it is written what looks like,
0:17:39 > 0:17:42although we've only got the very end of the word,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44"amphitheatrum" the amphitheatre.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48And that was what people called the Colosseum in the Roman world,
0:17:48 > 0:17:49they didn't call it "Colosseum".
0:17:49 > 0:17:52What strikes me as I look at it here, actually,
0:17:52 > 0:17:56is how big this thing was.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01The calculation is that it's at the scale of 1:240.
0:18:01 > 0:18:06That fills a whole whacking wall with an image of the city of Rome.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14But even more intriguing than those pieces of the grand Rome
0:18:14 > 0:18:18are the fragments of the map which show in extraordinary detail
0:18:18 > 0:18:22the streets, houses and apartment blocks where ordinary Romans
0:18:22 > 0:18:23lived and worked.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28And what they show is that Rome had not been laid out by city planners.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31It had grown chaotically over time.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33- It fits! - SHE LAUGHS
0:18:34 > 0:18:38So what we've got here is a really mixed area.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43We've got the rich houses, the rather large ones, quite posh
0:18:43 > 0:18:46with little portico gardens at the back.
0:18:46 > 0:18:52Even these large houses have got shops or workshops opening
0:18:52 > 0:18:54directly onto the street in front.
0:18:54 > 0:18:58And opposite those houses is what looks to me like
0:18:58 > 0:19:02a kind of medium-rank high-rise building.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07Over here is what looks, for all the world, like a warehouse.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13This is a bit more of a mystery. It's got columns round about.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19And these rather strange U-shaped things in the middle.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23The current idea is that these are hedges,
0:19:23 > 0:19:26so this is some sort of garden,
0:19:26 > 0:19:31possibly private, possibly public, possibly religious, who knows.
0:19:31 > 0:19:32What this reminds me
0:19:32 > 0:19:38is that Rome is not zoned in the way that many modern cities are.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Rome was a place where the rich lived next to
0:19:42 > 0:19:45the shops and to the workshops and to the bar,
0:19:45 > 0:19:50and to the not-so-rich, and to the warehouse, and to the public garden.
0:19:50 > 0:19:55The other thing is that the streets themselves are pretty narrow.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59And this one, on the plan, looks like a main highway.
0:19:59 > 0:20:02And in a way, it is. But if you look at its width,
0:20:02 > 0:20:06it's only as wide as these little shops are deep.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10And if you go round here, there is a tiny little passageway
0:20:10 > 0:20:15that certainly, you wouldn't want to walk down late at night.
0:20:15 > 0:20:19Rome is not like Paris. It isn't full of boulevards.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Rome was a rabbit warren.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28It is frustrating in a way that so little of the map has survived,
0:20:28 > 0:20:33but there are other ways to get a feel for the ancient streetscape,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36like coming to a mediaeval street in the modern city.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Ancient Rome's roads were so narrow and its roofs
0:20:40 > 0:20:42so perilously high that they were full of dangers,
0:20:42 > 0:20:45like falling chamber pots.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47And Roman writers jokingly recommended that
0:20:47 > 0:20:50no Roman go out without writing a will.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55We even know of one 13-year-old tourist, Papirius Proculus,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58who was brained by a flying roof tile.
0:20:58 > 0:21:06There are all kinds of things here that remind me of the Roman streetscape.
0:21:06 > 0:21:10This little shop opening directly onto the street.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15The lock-ups, how narrow it all is.
0:21:15 > 0:21:21There is actually a story told by one Roman writer about how he could
0:21:21 > 0:21:26shake hands with the guy living in the apartment across the road.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30You couldn't quite do that here, unless you had really long arms,
0:21:30 > 0:21:31but it's not far off.
0:21:32 > 0:21:38I also wonder about the kind of street community you had here.
0:21:38 > 0:21:46The funny thing about the story of the two guys who could shake hands is that they never did.
0:21:46 > 0:21:52In fact, the writer says he never saw the guy on the other side of the street,
0:21:52 > 0:21:53he never even heard him.
0:21:53 > 0:21:59Which makes me think that amongst all this face-to-face proximity,
0:21:59 > 0:22:01amongst the on-top-of-each-other living,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05for some people, it must have been a pretty anonymous kind of city.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16That Roman writer was a poet called Juvenal,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20a satirist who lived in Rome around 100 AD.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24So how might HIS domestic arrangements compare with ours today?
0:22:24 > 0:22:28To help me find out, a very gracious Italian lady
0:22:28 > 0:22:32living on the same street has let me poke around her apartment.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36- Buongiorno! Come va? - Bene. Sono Mary...
0:22:36 > 0:22:38'Looking at the modern setup can help us see
0:22:38 > 0:22:42'what's distinctively different about the ancient one.'
0:22:49 > 0:22:53It may seem a bit odd just barging into someone's house like this,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56but I've got a simple point to make.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59On the outside,
0:22:59 > 0:23:06a place like this looks much like an ancient Roman apartment block.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09But come inside and it reminds you of the differences.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12Now, that's not just the washing machine, the microwave.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15We know the Romans didn't have those.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20But all the things that we take for granted as absolutely basic services here -
0:23:20 > 0:23:25running water, a lavatory, heating.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Actually, some natural light.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35Many of the people living on the upper floors of a Roman high-rise wouldn't even have those.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Now, the consequence of that is absolutely obvious.
0:23:39 > 0:23:45You simply had to go out to get almost everything that we
0:23:45 > 0:23:47take for granted as having at home.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50You went out to eat, to wash, to get water,
0:23:50 > 0:23:56and if you didn't throw it out of the window, to go to the lavatory.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Grazie. Grazie tante.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10It's a way of life that has largely disappeared from modern cities in the West.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13But in ancient Rome, life was lived outdoors.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16Rooms in a high-rise were used mostly just for sleeping.
0:24:16 > 0:24:21Your basic facilities were spread out over the city.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25As one amazing archaeological site not far from Rome makes clear
0:24:25 > 0:24:26for ordinary Romans,
0:24:26 > 0:24:31what we now do in private could be a far more public affair.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35I just love this place.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39If you want to understand a culture, look to its lavatories.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42It's not a bad motto.
0:24:42 > 0:24:46And this is a Roman communal toilet.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49According to one ancient guidebook that survives,
0:24:49 > 0:24:54there are 144 public latrines in downtown Rome.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57But of course, we don't know how many seats each had.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07It's not exactly clear how this worked. What about this channel?
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Did it have running water in it,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12or was it just to catch the drips and the bad aims?
0:25:12 > 0:25:15And what about this hole? Was that for men to pee through?
0:25:18 > 0:25:23Or was that where you put the sponge to wipe your bottom? Perhaps both.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27And do we think it was unisex? Who knows?
0:25:27 > 0:25:31But the point's a simple one - this is how we have to imagine the ancient city.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Everyone shitting together.
0:25:35 > 0:25:42Tunics up, togas up, trousers down, chatting as they went.
0:25:42 > 0:25:47And it wasn't just going to the lav that was a social activity.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50Often, there was no sanitation on the upper floors of a high-rise,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54so most Romans went to the public baths to wash
0:25:54 > 0:25:56and let it all hang out.
0:25:56 > 0:25:58We don't often you get to hear what
0:25:58 > 0:26:01the baths meant to ordinary people.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05But this tombstone
0:26:05 > 0:26:07of an ordinary guy
0:26:07 > 0:26:10interestingly lists baths,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13and associated activities,
0:26:13 > 0:26:15as one of THE great pleasures of life.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19And he says, Here I am, I'm in this tomb...
0:26:19 > 0:26:23"Primus notissimus..."
0:26:23 > 0:26:27..known to the world as Primus, or famous Primus.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29Then he goes on to say,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32I lived on Lucrine oysters...
0:26:32 > 0:26:35It's the very best you could get.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38..and I often drank Falernian wine.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41That's like saying, "I often drank the really best claret."
0:26:41 > 0:26:44He has a nice summing up.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46"Balnea,
0:26:46 > 0:26:48"vina, venus..."
0:26:48 > 0:26:51Baths, wine and sex.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54"..me cum senuere per annos."
0:26:54 > 0:26:57They grew old with me, I enjoyed them - I suppose -
0:26:57 > 0:26:59till I was old.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02We find that combination -
0:27:02 > 0:27:05baths, wine and sex - elsewhere.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08There's another nice tombstone of a man called
0:27:08 > 0:27:11Tiberius Claudius Secundus
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and he appeals to the same threesome,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17but in a slightly more worldly-wise way.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20"Baths, wine and sex," he said,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22"ruin your body!"
0:27:22 > 0:27:24True!
0:27:24 > 0:27:27But they're what makes life really worth living!
0:27:33 > 0:27:34When you look at Rome's baths,
0:27:34 > 0:27:39it's not hard to see why ordinary Romans were so keen on them.
0:27:39 > 0:27:40Built by various emperors,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44the most famous were the size of small towns
0:27:44 > 0:27:47and their ruins still loom large in the Roman cityscape.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53By far the best preserved is actually one of the smaller sort
0:27:53 > 0:27:57in the town of Herculaneum, not far from Pompeii.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00It's an extraordinary place,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03the only one where you can walk through Roman baths,
0:28:03 > 0:28:05pretty much as they were.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10WATER DRIPS
0:28:10 > 0:28:14More Turkish baths than local swimming pool, they were centres
0:28:14 > 0:28:18of social life, where locals didn't just get a place to sweat and steam,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21they also got stalls for food and drink
0:28:21 > 0:28:23and booths for a massage, a shave,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26or maybe even sex on the side.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Although it's hard to visualise today,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33there are vivid descriptions of the baths as rough, noisy places,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36full of grunting gym-goers, men getting their armpits plucked
0:28:36 > 0:28:39and loitering thieves, where you were as likely
0:28:39 > 0:28:42to get your coat nicked as catch the clap.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46The baths weren't just about hygiene -
0:28:46 > 0:28:49they were about pleasure and about community.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Even the rich,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54who had their own private baths at home,
0:28:54 > 0:28:55even the Emperor,
0:28:55 > 0:28:59might occasionally put in a celebrity appearance
0:28:59 > 0:29:01at the people's baths.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03In some ways,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06they were a great social leveller.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Imagine - everybody's here in the nude.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It's then that the poor man,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16aged 20, with a great body,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19can turn the tables on that
0:29:19 > 0:29:2160-year-old Roman plutocrat,
0:29:21 > 0:29:24with a paunch and a hernia!
0:29:24 > 0:29:26But in other ways,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30they tended to reinforce the social hierarchy.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The poor came along with no-one to carry their stuff
0:29:33 > 0:29:34or rub them down.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38The rich came with a whole retinue of staff,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41elbowing the man's way through to the pool,
0:29:41 > 0:29:43pushing the poor aside.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48In fact, there's a lovely anecdote of the Emperor Hadrian,
0:29:48 > 0:29:51who goes to the public baths one day
0:29:51 > 0:29:56and sees a man rubbing himself down against the wall.
0:29:56 > 0:30:00Hadrian says, "What's that guy doing?"
0:30:01 > 0:30:05And someone replies, "Oh, he's rubbing himself down on the wall
0:30:05 > 0:30:08"because he doesn't have a slave to do it for him."
0:30:08 > 0:30:12So the generous Emperor gives him a slave.
0:30:12 > 0:30:16The next time Hadrian shows up at the baths,
0:30:16 > 0:30:20there's 20 or so men rubbing themselves down against the wall,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24all hoping for a little piece of imperial generosity.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27But Hadrian's a canny old bird
0:30:27 > 0:30:28and he says,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31"Tell them to rub each other down!"
0:30:35 > 0:30:39However exotic this world might now seem,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42for me, spaces like the public baths and toilets
0:30:42 > 0:30:44tell us a lot about how
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Roman communal living created those voices
0:30:48 > 0:30:51that feel so familiar today.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Sure, some of them have got serious messages, but they're also
0:30:55 > 0:30:57wonderfully sardonic,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01irreverent, and so recognisably urban.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06There's a marvellous guy from Tivoli, Flavius Agricola,
0:31:06 > 0:31:09and he's got some great advice on his tombstone.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12"Put on your party hats, my friend,
0:31:12 > 0:31:14"drink down that wine,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18"and don't say no to sex with pretty girls,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21"because you won't get a chance when you're dead."
0:31:22 > 0:31:24That's what urban living,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28cheek-by-jowl, bottom-by-bottom, is all about.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31It makes you live faster,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34talk faster and think a bit differently.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37PEOPLE CHATTER
0:31:39 > 0:31:42One of the big best places to glimpse the humour
0:31:42 > 0:31:45and saltiness of this world
0:31:45 > 0:31:47is the ancient Roman bar.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49Much like any modern Italian city,
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Rome was awash with hundreds of taverns and eating places,
0:31:53 > 0:31:56ranging from seedy dens and strip joints to something
0:31:56 > 0:31:59much more like the modern winebar or gastropub.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Today, these places are nice lifestyle extras,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07but if you were living at the top of an ancient high-rise, the streets
0:32:07 > 0:32:11were your living room, the baths your bathroom
0:32:11 > 0:32:13and this was your kitchen.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16So, who do you meet in a Roman bar?
0:32:17 > 0:32:19Well, the poet Juvenal
0:32:19 > 0:32:23conjures up a really disreputable crew who, he says,
0:32:23 > 0:32:27hang out in Roman bars - thieves and cutthroats,
0:32:27 > 0:32:30runaways, even the local coffin-maker,
0:32:30 > 0:32:32because in Rome, it's the poor who are eating out,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35the rich are dining at home.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38We mustn't forget the landlord and landlady.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42We get a little glimpse of them in an amazing tombstone
0:32:42 > 0:32:44found just outside Rome,
0:32:44 > 0:32:48put up to a pair of innkeepers, man and wife.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53He's called Lucius Calidius Eroticus
0:32:53 > 0:32:57and she's Fanniae Voluptas.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Now, these have just got to be trade names,
0:33:00 > 0:33:04because Calidius Eroticus
0:33:04 > 0:33:06means Mr Hot Sex
0:33:06 > 0:33:12and Fanniae Voluptas... well, she's Madame Gorgeous,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16so it's the bar of Hot Sex and Mrs Gorgeous!
0:33:16 > 0:33:20Don't get the wrong idea about Fanniae, though,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22because it doesn't mean that in Latin!
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Quite a few ancient bars have actually survived,
0:33:32 > 0:33:34but one in particular, in Pompeii,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37captures the flavour of ancient bar life on its walls.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41Here, at eye level, in its back saloon,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43are wonderfully vivid images
0:33:43 > 0:33:47of Romans eating and drinking, gambling and being served wine.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52And here, one that's been sadly hacked away,
0:33:52 > 0:33:54probably by some Victorian moralist,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56because what it showed,
0:33:56 > 0:34:01as we can tell from an early 19th-century picture of it,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04is a couple of people - a bloke and woman -
0:34:04 > 0:34:06having sex,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09with wine glasses in their hand,
0:34:09 > 0:34:13simultaneously, and balanced on a tightrope.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17All that's left of it is the bloke's feet!
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Whether life in the average Roman pub
0:34:22 > 0:34:27was quite as raunchy as these pictures suggest, I don't know,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31but there are plenty of graffiti round Pompeii, saying words
0:34:31 > 0:34:34to the effect of, "I screwed the barmaid,"
0:34:34 > 0:34:36so it doesn't take much to guess
0:34:36 > 0:34:38what happened after closing time.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41And certainly, the Roman rich
0:34:41 > 0:34:44were paranoid about pub culture.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48It's here they thought that the people got above themselves,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51planned riots, got awkward,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55got very drunk, and they were hugely disdainful
0:34:55 > 0:34:57of the kind of vulgarity of it all.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01Of course, the rich have always said that kind of thing.
0:35:01 > 0:35:03They gambled themselves silly,
0:35:03 > 0:35:06but take a couple of poor travellers and give them a game of dice
0:35:06 > 0:35:11and the rich are prophesying instant moral decline.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19The best example of a bar that isn't bothered by any of this moralising
0:35:19 > 0:35:24is in ancient Ostia, a harbour town not far from Rome.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Inside are a set of paintings that take us right into the world
0:35:28 > 0:35:31of Roman anti-establishment bar humour.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36The art historian John Clarke has come to explore it with me.
0:35:36 > 0:35:37Come in here
0:35:37 > 0:35:40and you see these men...
0:35:40 > 0:35:42We've only got the tops of them
0:35:42 > 0:35:45because later on, they got cut off and lost.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48But they are sitting on a common latrine.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52Here, the artist has given them speech lines
0:35:52 > 0:35:54above each of their heads.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56We have "mulione sedes" -
0:35:56 > 0:36:00you're sitting on a mule driver.
0:36:00 > 0:36:03A mule driver was a common saying for being constipated,
0:36:03 > 0:36:06because mule drivers were very stubborn.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09So this is a very stubborn evacuation procedure.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14- So this guy has got constipation. - Right. That one is quite wonderful.
0:36:14 > 0:36:16It's my favourite, actually.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18"Amice fugit te proverbium - bene caca et irrima medicos?"
0:36:22 > 0:36:23That's a bad word.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26It would be something like this.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28Buddy, don't you know the saying -
0:36:28 > 0:36:32"shit well and bugger the doctors"?
0:36:32 > 0:36:34In other words, you don't need them.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36Higher up on the wall are images
0:36:36 > 0:36:39of the great thinkers of ancient Greece -
0:36:39 > 0:36:42the Seven Sages - only three of which are left.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44Thales from Miletus.
0:36:44 > 0:36:45Solon from Athens.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Chilon from Sparta.
0:36:47 > 0:36:49Much loved by Roman teachers,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52they were known for their high-minded catchphrases
0:36:52 > 0:36:53on how best to live,
0:36:53 > 0:36:57yet here, even they are literally talking crap.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Here's the best of all, really...
0:36:59 > 0:37:03"Vissire tacite Chilon docuit subdolus."
0:37:03 > 0:37:08Clever Chilon taught people how to fart without making noise.
0:37:08 > 0:37:12Silent farting was a speciality, apparently!
0:37:13 > 0:37:17Chilon's the one who did say, you shouldn't...
0:37:17 > 0:37:21His canonical saying is - you shouldn't desire the impossible.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26Maybe it's possible to learn how to be a silent farter. Who knows!
0:37:34 > 0:37:37We shouldn't get the impression from a place like this
0:37:37 > 0:37:41that the only thing the ordinary Romans joked about
0:37:41 > 0:37:44was their bowels and their constipation.
0:37:44 > 0:37:51In fact, an amazing collection of Roman popular jokes still survives.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54Almost 300 of them. The Roman joke book.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59And that shows Romans joking about almost everything.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01One of my favourites goes like this...
0:38:01 > 0:38:05A man is walking along the street, he meets a friend and says,
0:38:05 > 0:38:09"Oh, are you alive? I heard you were dead."
0:38:09 > 0:38:12He replies, "Look, you can see I'm alive."
0:38:13 > 0:38:15"Oh," said the other.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19"The man who told me you were dead, is much more reliable than you are."
0:38:21 > 0:38:26Silly joke, perhaps a slightly nasty joke, but for me,
0:38:26 > 0:38:31it opens up one of the big problems of big-city living.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35In a world without ID cards or passports,
0:38:35 > 0:38:36who are you?
0:38:36 > 0:38:38How do you know who you are?
0:38:38 > 0:38:41How do you prove who you are?
0:38:41 > 0:38:42That's a problem.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51What jokes like these do
0:38:51 > 0:38:54is take us into the minds of ordinary Romans,
0:38:54 > 0:38:56but they also give us a different view
0:38:56 > 0:38:59on how to picture the ancient city streets.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04They really weren't filled with all the big guys, the toffs,
0:39:04 > 0:39:08the togas, the politicians, they were flooded by its ordinary people.
0:39:08 > 0:39:10This was the people's city.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18You wouldn't have come across
0:39:18 > 0:39:22many of the rich and powerful in the streets and squares of ancient Rome.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26They'd much more likely have been hurried along in a sedan chair
0:39:26 > 0:39:30carried by slaves, curtains drawn, a bit like a modern celeb
0:39:30 > 0:39:33in a modern, chauffeur-driven blacked-out limo.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37These kind of places were the people's places
0:39:37 > 0:39:41for doing business, for grabbing a bite to eat, for fighting,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45for flirting, for just hanging out.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48And it could all get pretty packed,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51as one tragic tombstone makes horribly clear.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55It's put up to a woman called Ummidia
0:39:55 > 0:39:57and to Ummidius Primigenius, a boy of 13 years old.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03It's put up by Ummidius Anoptes, probably her partner.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08He explains, "una dies" - one day, carried them both off.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13They met the final day of their destiny together.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15How did they die?
0:40:15 > 0:40:18"Compressi examine turbae."
0:40:18 > 0:40:22They were crushed by the swarm of a crowd.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Now, we don't know what was going on in Rome that day,
0:40:26 > 0:40:29but it sure gives you a very clear idea
0:40:29 > 0:40:32of just how crowded the city could get.
0:40:38 > 0:40:39If this gives us a clue
0:40:39 > 0:40:43on how to re-people the streets of ancient Rome,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46what happens when you look at its most famous public space
0:40:46 > 0:40:48through this lens?
0:40:48 > 0:40:51That space is known as The Forum.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55It's now a picturesque but sad wreck of what it once was,
0:40:55 > 0:40:59and honestly, it's hard for almost anyone to make head or tail of.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03This was once the location of some of the city's main law courts,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06political meeting places and grandest temples.
0:41:07 > 0:41:12Let's forget for a bit the forum of the great speech makers,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16the politicians, the celebrity lawyers,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20the friends, Romans, countrymen types.
0:41:20 > 0:41:22Of course, all of that stuff happened here,
0:41:22 > 0:41:28but my Forum isn't the Forum of those bigwigs in their white togas.
0:41:28 > 0:41:33My Forum is the Forum of the poor people, the middling people,
0:41:33 > 0:41:38the ordinary people in their tunics, even in their trousers.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40In fact, one Roman comic writer
0:41:40 > 0:41:44has left us a guide to the types of the Forum.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48A satirical guide to who you might find where.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50I'm off to follow him.
0:41:54 > 0:41:56This writer was a man called Plautus,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59the author of boy-meets-girl farces.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01What he gives us isn't the official guide
0:42:01 > 0:42:04to the Forum as the big guys might want us to see it,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08but a down and dirty rough guide.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13This doesn't look great now, but it used to be a big public hall.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16What does Plautus say?
0:42:16 > 0:42:17He says,
0:42:17 > 0:42:20this is where you find the bargain hunters
0:42:20 > 0:42:22and the clapped-out prostitutes.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29Elsewhere, Plautus talks about the wideboys,
0:42:29 > 0:42:31the sort you might have found playing for profit
0:42:31 > 0:42:33at one of the gaming boards you can still see
0:42:33 > 0:42:36scratched all over the steps of one of the main law courts.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43This is the board and it's got loads of dips in it.
0:42:43 > 0:42:48Actually, someone has spent a long time making those great pockets.
0:42:48 > 0:42:50It's always hard to reconstruct the rules of these games.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52It's like having a Monopoly board
0:42:52 > 0:42:54and a house and a get-out-of-jail-free card
0:42:54 > 0:42:57and trying to reconstruct what you're supposed to do.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59I'm going to give this game a try.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04First off, the marbles.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Losing my marbles.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Perhaps what you did was tiddlywinks. That's a possibility.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19Oh, look at that.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25My conclusion from this academic experiment,
0:43:25 > 0:43:27is that this is a tiddlywink board.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34What about the Forum's temples of the Roman gods?
0:43:34 > 0:43:37What does Plautus have to say about those?
0:43:37 > 0:43:40This is one place where all those different levels of life
0:43:40 > 0:43:43in the Forum come very nicely together.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48It's the temple of the God Castor.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Those three columns are one of the most iconic images
0:43:51 > 0:43:54of the whole forum.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57But round the corner, we find a really different kind of temple.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01Underneath, built into the temple itself,
0:44:01 > 0:44:04is a row of little shops.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08You walk a bit further on and you look to the back of the temple,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10go back to Plautus, what does he say?
0:44:12 > 0:44:13Rent boys.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20And we don't just have to rely on a comic writer for evidence
0:44:20 > 0:44:23of ordinary life in the Forum.
0:44:23 > 0:44:26Modern archaeology has succeeded in backing him up.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29When a group of Scandinavian archaeologists excavated
0:44:29 > 0:44:31one of the temple's shops,
0:44:31 > 0:44:35they unearthed some extraordinary ordinary objects,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39including evidence of what looks like a Roman dentists.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41Siri, tell me about these teeth.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47They are one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries
0:44:47 > 0:44:49ever made. There's 86 of them.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Where exactly were they found?
0:44:51 > 0:44:54They were found in the drain of one of the shops
0:44:54 > 0:44:57in the podium of the Temple of Castor and Pollux
0:44:57 > 0:45:01and they were probably meant to be flushed down into the Cloaca Maxima,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05which runs by the side of the temple, but for some reason, they got stuck.
0:45:05 > 0:45:08And they've all been actually extracted, haven't they?
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Their roots are pretty much whole.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14No anaesthetic, apart from a quick glass of wine.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17They must have screamed during these operations.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20- This is just somebody's agony.- Yes.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23'And I didn't just find rotten Roman teeth.'
0:45:23 > 0:45:26It was something like a beauty parlour, I think.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30We have these fine glasses for oils
0:45:30 > 0:45:31and creams,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33and this is a drinking cup.
0:45:33 > 0:45:36They could also gamble.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37See these dice?
0:45:37 > 0:45:39Yeah, these are very nice dice.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Perhaps you were playing dice while you were waiting.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- Instead of reading magazines, you were playing dice.- Yes, yes, indeed.
0:45:46 > 0:45:50And this looks like a tongue depressor.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55- Open wide!- Yes!
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Putting all this stuff together,
0:45:57 > 0:46:02it's a really wonderful glimpse of the other side of the Forum.
0:46:02 > 0:46:08This says the people's place as much as it is the rich people's place.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13- Yes.- And this is the kind of stuff that the people are doing there.
0:46:13 > 0:46:17- They're playing dice and having their appalling teeth removed.- Yes.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Urgh!
0:46:33 > 0:46:35The Roman Forum is a great example
0:46:35 > 0:46:38of how our traditional images of Rome are so skewed.
0:46:38 > 0:46:42Sure, Rome was a society where the rich dominated the poor,
0:46:42 > 0:46:45but it was also an incredibly mixed place,
0:46:45 > 0:46:48where even its most sacred spaces were shared.
0:46:50 > 0:46:51But just occasionally,
0:46:51 > 0:46:56we can see some aggressive attempts to divide the toffs from the poor.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Most people come here to look at this vast temple
0:47:16 > 0:47:19put up by the Emperor Augustus.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Nobody pays much attention though to that massive wall behind it,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26and in a way, that wall can tell us
0:47:26 > 0:47:30more about life in ancient Rome than the marble can.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34On the other side of it was an area known as the Subura.
0:47:34 > 0:47:39Not exactly slums, but mention Subura to your average Roman
0:47:39 > 0:47:41and they'd think crime, prostitution,
0:47:41 > 0:47:43something pretty seedy.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47This wall's an ideological barrier.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51It's saying to anyone who lived in the Subura,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54"This is posh territory, keep out!"
0:47:56 > 0:47:57There's another story too.
0:47:57 > 0:48:03The Subura was full of rickety, wooden, jerry-built,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07high-rise blocks, constantly falling down.
0:48:07 > 0:48:09It was a real fire trap.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14Actually, this wall is a vast firewall.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19'Unsurprisingly, the buildings of the Subura have largely disappeared
0:48:19 > 0:48:21'but some of the voices from the tenements,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24'from that dangerous side of the city, have survived.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28'One was found in the foundations of a modern office block in
0:48:28 > 0:48:32'a rather grey part of suburban Rome.'
0:48:52 > 0:48:57This is the tombstone of a little girl called Doris.
0:48:57 > 0:49:01She was "Infelicissima", terribly unlucky.
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Why was she unlucky?
0:49:04 > 0:49:09Because she died in a fire, a sudden fire of incredible violence.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12She had only just had her seventh birthday.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15She was seven years and 22 days.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20This was put up to her by one of her friends or family,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23a woman called Licinia Hedone.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26She ends rather touchingly,
0:49:26 > 0:49:29"May your bones rest quietly
0:49:29 > 0:49:33"and may the earth lie lightly on you."
0:49:40 > 0:49:43Doris can't have been the only kid to die this way.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46Fires were so common that large parts of the city
0:49:46 > 0:49:49burned to the ground on numerous occasions.
0:49:49 > 0:49:54But the point is, it wasn't just easy to start a fire,
0:49:54 > 0:49:58it was very hard to put one out once it had started.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03And there was no efficient, effective public Fire Brigade
0:50:03 > 0:50:05in the terms that we know.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10There was, it's true, a kind of paramilitary organisation
0:50:10 > 0:50:14of watchmen, "vigiles", who did keep an eye open
0:50:14 > 0:50:18for fires starting, but they hadn't got much effective equipment
0:50:18 > 0:50:20to deal with them if they did.
0:50:20 > 0:50:24A few poles to pull building downs to make a fire break,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27some pails of water and vinegar
0:50:27 > 0:50:31and some blankets to try and stifle the flames.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35Some of them were probably pretty brave, but others were corrupt
0:50:35 > 0:50:38and on the make.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41One story is that in the Great Fire of Rome,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43under the Emperor Nero,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47the watch, instead of trying to put the flames out,
0:50:47 > 0:50:51they joined in looting the buildings that were already ablaze.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54I wonder if anyone came to try and rescue Doris?
0:51:08 > 0:51:11And that's the big difference with our modern cities.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13When you look around them,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16it's easy to see all the things we take for granted,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18everything from litter bins
0:51:18 > 0:51:21to friendly or unfriendly cops on the corner.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25But in ancient Rome, there were none of these services.
0:51:25 > 0:51:28There was hardly a fire brigade, there was no police force,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31no prisons, and the only real security forces
0:51:31 > 0:51:33were in the pay of the rich.
0:51:33 > 0:51:37To flesh out the picture, I went out to meet Corey Brennan,
0:51:37 > 0:51:39from the American Academy in Rome.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44The issue for me is why they didn't provide services.
0:51:44 > 0:51:46Did the poor want the services?
0:51:46 > 0:51:48Oh, I'm sure they did.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51Because when that guy, Egnatius Rufus,
0:51:51 > 0:51:53in the reign of the Emperor Augustus,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56starts his own fire brigade, the Emperor Augustus,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59instead of saying, "Well done, Egnatius, congratulations,
0:51:59 > 0:52:01"thank you very much for helping the people of Rome,"
0:52:01 > 0:52:04- he basically had him executed. - Yes, precisely.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09It goes to show the competition amongst the ruling class,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12amongst elites, because each one of them knew if they stepped forward
0:52:12 > 0:52:15and effectively provided these types of social services,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19that were really needed, that people really wanted,
0:52:19 > 0:52:21the type of political cachet
0:52:21 > 0:52:23that they could build just from that act
0:52:23 > 0:52:25really would make it unbeatable,
0:52:25 > 0:52:29so they really worked to cancel each other out, and the people who suffered
0:52:29 > 0:52:32were, in fact, the Romans themselves.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37But the lack of social services weren't the only problems
0:52:37 > 0:52:38on the city streets.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41They might have been filled with real life,
0:52:41 > 0:52:46but real life, as in any modern city, could be hard to control.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49Violence was an ever-present danger,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52as one nastily familiar story tells us.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55I am about to reveal
0:52:55 > 0:52:58a nasty bit of Roman street crime,
0:52:58 > 0:53:01a kind of Roman cold case.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04It needs a bit of cleaning up first,
0:53:04 > 0:53:05it's very dusty.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07It's a tombstone
0:53:07 > 0:53:10and it's put up by a lady called
0:53:10 > 0:53:14Otacilia Narcisa,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18to her darling husband.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21"Coniugi dulcissimo."
0:53:21 > 0:53:23His name...
0:53:23 > 0:53:27was Julius Timotheus
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and he lived, she said,
0:53:30 > 0:53:34P-M - plus or minus 28 years.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37That means Otacilia wasn't entirely certain
0:53:37 > 0:53:40how old the husband was.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44And he had "his blameless life
0:53:44 > 0:53:47"snatched away from him
0:53:47 > 0:53:52"a latronibus - by robbers."
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Not just him -
0:53:55 > 0:53:58he was with his
0:53:58 > 0:54:01seven alumni.
0:54:01 > 0:54:04That can mean foster kids, dependants,
0:54:04 > 0:54:07sometimes even pupils.
0:54:07 > 0:54:09They were all killed too.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11That's what it really means.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14This wasn't just a mugging,
0:54:14 > 0:54:16this was mass murder.
0:54:21 > 0:54:26If the streets were never completely safe by day, then by night,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28we know they were lawless places.
0:54:28 > 0:54:32The poet Juvenal writes graphically of having
0:54:32 > 0:54:35to pick his way home in the dark, dodging the violent gangs
0:54:35 > 0:54:38and drunken bullies on the prowl for fights.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Preserved under the foundations of a church in central Rome
0:54:43 > 0:54:47is one place that helps us get close to this atmosphere.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51Here are the mean streets of a real Roman neighbourhood.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53We're a few hundred metres from the Colosseum
0:54:53 > 0:54:55and this is a back alley.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57This feels like a Roman street.
0:54:57 > 0:55:01It's because it IS a Roman street!
0:55:03 > 0:55:05What you've got to do,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07if you try and reconstruct this,
0:55:07 > 0:55:11- you've got to think dirt. - A lot of it.- This is very clean.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15- You've got to think smell... - A lot of it.
0:55:15 > 0:55:16..but it's also...
0:55:16 > 0:55:18it feels a bit scary.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22It's a mugger's paradise, there's no doubt about it.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25I mean, street crime's one thing but, you know,
0:55:25 > 0:55:29apartment blocks directly on the street,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32- it's a burglar's, a cat burglar's paradise.- Precisely.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36When the Emperor Augustus really wanted people
0:55:36 > 0:55:37to come to his games,
0:55:37 > 0:55:41what he did was he distributed armed guards throughout the city,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44because otherwise, people would be reluctant to leave their houses,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47because it was known when there was a big game day, so to speak,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50that's precisely... It's like New Year's Eve,
0:55:50 > 0:55:54basically, that's the prime day to go robbing.
0:55:54 > 0:55:57I mean, when there's a question of a serious breach of public order,
0:55:57 > 0:56:01then the officials get interested.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07So if the authorities had little interest in the day-to-day
0:56:07 > 0:56:09welfare of their ordinary citizens,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12what happened if you got murdered in streets like this?
0:56:12 > 0:56:14How could your family pursue justice?
0:56:14 > 0:56:17The Romans had the system of public courts
0:56:17 > 0:56:19and the name is misleading because
0:56:19 > 0:56:22what it was was courts that saw to
0:56:22 > 0:56:24breaches of the social order.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27So you get murder, but really, when there's a political...
0:56:27 > 0:56:30- Upper-class murder.- Exactly.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33They looked at conspiracy, setting fires.
0:56:33 > 0:56:37In order to come in the purview of Roman law, you either have to go
0:56:37 > 0:56:40after someone who's rich, well-connected and powerful,
0:56:40 > 0:56:44or you have to be making a very big tear in the social fabric.
0:56:44 > 0:56:48So if somebody murders my brother,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50unless he's important, that's...
0:56:50 > 0:56:54the only person who's going to do anything about it, really, is me.
0:56:54 > 0:56:56Yes, the self-help.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04Today, when we look at Rome's impressive marble monuments,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08it's hard to imagine the dirty, dangerous, chaotic city
0:57:08 > 0:57:11in which ordinary Romans lived their lives.
0:57:11 > 0:57:13So little of it has survived above ground.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16But if you know where to look,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20it is still possible to get glimpses of their world -
0:57:20 > 0:57:22the high-rise tenement blocks,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26where tenants lived in fear of fires and the rent collector,
0:57:26 > 0:57:30the grunts of gamblers and gym-goers in its bars and bathhouses,
0:57:30 > 0:57:34and the hustle of life on its mean streets,
0:57:34 > 0:57:37where there was no safety nets when things went wrong.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41These streets must have been a tough place to live your life.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46All the same, I can't help feeling that they had a spontaneity
0:57:46 > 0:57:50and a fun about them that many of our streets have lost.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53And just listen to those voices.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57What they're saying is that despite all the dangers,
0:57:57 > 0:57:59Rome was an exhilarating,
0:57:59 > 0:58:02a life-affirming place to be.
0:58:03 > 0:58:05And that's why it still speaks to us
0:58:05 > 0:58:08after 2,000 years.
0:58:09 > 0:58:11'Next week, I'll meet the Romans at home,
0:58:11 > 0:58:16'where I'll discover some familiar objects of domestic family life...'
0:58:16 > 0:58:20It's a really, really precious piece, because it's the only
0:58:20 > 0:58:23cradle that survived from the Roman world.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26'..and where I'll piece together a surprising view
0:58:26 > 0:58:28'of Roman marriage, childhood,
0:58:28 > 0:58:31'slavery and sex.'
0:58:31 > 0:58:35This is a Roman menage-a-trois.
0:58:55 > 0:58:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd