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In this series,

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I've looked at how theatre
was first invented in ancient Athens

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and at how it played a vital part
in the lives of the Ancient Greeks.

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I've also seen how it grew
in scale and popularity,

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spreading throughout
the Greek world and beyond.

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But in this episode,

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I want to look at what happened
to theatre when the Romans arrived

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and when the era of Greek dominance
and independence drew to a close.

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It's a story that is symbolised

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by a building that was constructed
in Athens in the 2nd century AD

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and which still looks proudly
over the modern city.

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This magnificent theatre

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was paid for
by one of Athens' richest citizens -

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an intellectual
called Herodes Atticus -

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who had it carved out of the rock
beneath the Acropolis,

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at the heart of the very city
where tragedy and comedy were born.

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Herodes Atticus built this theatre

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in memory of his recently deceased
wife, Regilla.

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It's not a bad way to say,
"I miss you."

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But although Herodes was Greek,
and we're in Greece,

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this is not your typical
Greek theatre.

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And that's because it was built
when the Romans controlled Greece.

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And that Roman influence
is very discernable

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in the way the 28-metre high
solid-stone backdrop walls

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meet absolutely with the seating
on either side -

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a very Roman conception of theatre,
not a Greek one.

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And as a result,
the theatre is the perfect symbol

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for what happened
when the Romans took over Greece.

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They adopted Greek art,
architecture and culture,

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and in doing so, preserved the
legacy of Greek theatre

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for us today. But they also adapted
Greek theatre

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for their own - very Roman - ends.

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The ways in which that process of
adoption and adaptation took place

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give us a fascinating window
into one of the most dynamic

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and monumental periods
of ancient history,

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as the Romans turned
the Mediterranean Sea

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into "Mare Nostrum" -
their lake.

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In this episode,

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I want to look at the vital part
played by the Romans

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in the preservation of Greek drama
and in the history of theatre.

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And I want to explore
how this famous empire

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provides one of the crucial
connections between our modern drama

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and the great plays
of Ancient Greece.

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Drama as we know it was invented
in Athens in the 6th century BC.

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At the very same time,

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Athens created
the world's first democracy.

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One man, one vote.

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And the two came together
in an explosive mixture.

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Year after year,

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in the Theatre of Dionysus
in Athens,

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the city put on tragic drama and
comedy for an audience of citizens.

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Plays like Oedipus The King,
The Persians,

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Antigone and the Bacchae

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told savage stories of murder,
violence and incest

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drawn from myth and legend,

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while comedies
like Birds and Lysistrata

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mocked daily life in Athens

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through bawdy humour, absurd fantasy
and political satire.

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All of these plays
were more than just stories.

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They unlocked issues
of justice and loyalty,

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war and peace,
vengeance and compassion -

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all issues the audience
had to think about

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as active citizens in a democracy.

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For a century, theatre and democracy
had helped to bring Athens

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to a peak of political
and cultural dominance.

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But after 400 BC,

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defeat in war destroyed
the city's power and independence.

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Democracy slowly gave way
to autocratic kings

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like Alexander the Great.

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But despite this,
theatre continued to prosper,

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spreading far and wide
across the Greek world

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and throughout the empire
built by Alexander.

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I'm on my way to a remote valley
in Epirus in north-western Greece

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to look at the part theatre played

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in this bigger,
more autocratic world.

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For the classical Greeks, this was
a harsh and inhospitable place

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at the north-western frontiers
of the Greek world.

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Thucydides went as far as to say

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that people from here
were "barbarians".

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And yet at the same time, Aristotle
claimed that the Hellenes -

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the Greeks - originated
from this part of the world.

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In many ways,
it was that curious ambiguity

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that was this place's
main attraction.

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This is Dodoni,
at the heart of the Epirus region.

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In ancient times,
it was the site of a famous oracle.

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Greeks came here from all over
to get answers to their problems

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from Olympian Zeus,
King of the Gods.

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One popular story was that
oracular responses were divined

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by listening to the rustling
of the leaves on the sacred tree.

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Another that there was a series
of bronze cauldrons around the tree

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that made sonorous noises.

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Now, this place was never as flash
as other oracular sanctuaries,

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like Delphi. That was,
until the early 3rd century BC,

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when everything changed.

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The turning point was the death
of Alexander the Great.

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His enormous empire fragmented

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and much of Greece
came under the control of warlords,

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autocrats and kings.

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Dodoni was no exception,

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and it eventually came under
the control of a man called Pyrrhus.

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These were more turbulent times,

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and you might expect theatre
to suffer as a result,

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but the ruins here at Dodoni
tell a different story.

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This spectacular theatre could hold
at least 20,000 spectators.

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It was part of a huge building
programme instigated by Pyrrhus,

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and it was the centrepiece
of a grand new annual festival.

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Pyrrhus was a classic warlord

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from the time following that
of Alexander the Great,

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to whom he was related. He was not
a democrat, he was an autocrat,

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the kind of guy
who had his co-ruler murdered.

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But in building, here at Dodoni,

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this theatre
and the athletic tracks,

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and setting up the competitions
and festivals,

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Pyrrhus gave a concrete centre,

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not only for the new alliance
that brought Epirus together,

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but also a concrete demonstration
of his own personal power.

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The very architecture
of this theatre,

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its retaining walls, look like
Hellenistic fortress towers.

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And by doing all this,

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Pyrrhus put Dodoni,
Epirus and himself on the map

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as players in the wider Greek world.

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Rather than taking a back seat

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in the rivalries and conflicts
that beset Greece,

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theatre had become a tool
in these power struggles.

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It was a symbol
of power and prestige.

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But the plays that would have been
performed at Dodoni

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and at other theatres
throughout Greece

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were no longer the same
democratically charged tragedies

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and satirical comedies
with which theatre began.

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Instead, the stories that played out
in these grand arenas

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were more down-to-earth affairs.

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As Athens' power waned,

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its brightest star
was the comedian Menander,

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whose universally acceptable
and enjoyable situation comedy

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meant that he and his plays
debunked Athens' decline,

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and spread throughout
the now-much-wider Greek world

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that went all the way into Asia,

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and whose epicentres
were now not in central Greece,

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but in places like Alexandria
in Egypt

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or Pergamon in Asia Minor.

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Indeed, what we have of Menander
today has survived to us

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because it was written down
on papyri

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in desert places like Egypt,

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which is what makes it
all so frustrating that, today,

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despite his incredible popularity
in the ancient world,

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we only have one complete
surviving play of Menander.

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That is, until recently.

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Because now we have enough
bits and pieces of a second

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to put its plot back together.

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It was called the Woman Of Samos.

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The woman of the title
is a prostitute called Chrysis.

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She has been invited
to live with her lover, Demeas,

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and his son, Moschion, in Athens.

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But while Demeas
is away on business,

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Moschion gets the girl next door
pregnant.

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When the child is born,
he gives it to Chrysis to nurse,

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hoping to keep it a secret
until a marriage can be arranged.

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But when Demeas returns,
a series of misunderstandings

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lead him to believe
that his son and his courtesan

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have been having an affair.

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Comedy and carnage ensue,

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but eventually the play ends well,
with Moschion's wedding

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and the reconciliation
of Demeas and Chrysis.

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It's very much a domestic comedy

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and a comedy of manners
playing on stock characters.

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You've got the courtesan

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who's actually very good-natured,

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you've got an angry old father

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and the misguided young man
who's trying to get married,

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and, you know, the cook.
The usual crowd.

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It's about a family,

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it's got a love story in it,
of course,

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it's about a couple who are
eventually going to get married

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one way or another.

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I think it transfers very well
culturally.

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It's a comedy of errors,
and these always work,

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no matter where you are.

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Plays like this pulled in audiences
from Afghanistan to Marseilles,

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throughout the wider Greek world

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and what had once been
Alexander's empire.

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And nowhere were they more popular

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than in the Greek colonies
of Italy and Sicily.

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Rich, cultured and powerful,
these Greek settlements

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were the opposite
of a colonial backwater -

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they were the equals
of any Greek cities anywhere.

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They were a byword
for luxury and style,

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and they adored theatre.

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One of the most enthusiastic
was here -

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the city of Syracuse in Sicily.

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Syracusan patrons had invited
the great Athenian dramatists

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Aeschylus and Sophocles
to perform their plays here.

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And Syracusan dramatists had written
and produced plays back in Athens

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and even introduced their
own native form of drama - mime -

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to the great city.

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The success of theatre
here in Sicily

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demonstrates the pulling power
of Greek culture

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in the ancient world.

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Greek drama, architecture,
vase painting and sculpture

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were an intoxicating attraction -

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they were the height
of sophistication.

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And in 282 BC,

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the wealth and culture of the Greeks
in southern Italy and Sicily

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attracted the attention
of a new power - Rome.

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It was at the Greek city of Taras,
now Taranto,

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that the Romans first forced
their way into the Greek landscape.

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The people of this city found
themselves attacked from the sea

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by a Roman fleet.

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The Tarentines won this encounter,

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but we all know their luck
wasn't going to last.

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Within little more than 250 years,

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Rome would be calling
the Mediterranean "Mare Nostrum" -

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"Our Sea".

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The Tarentines knew it too.

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When Rome attacked,
they sent out a call for help

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to their fellow Greeks -

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a call that reached the ears
of the warlord Pyrrhus,

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across the Adriatic in Dodoni.

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Dodoni had long been connected

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to the Greek colonies
of southern Italy,

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one of which was Taras,

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and so it was
in a fantastic position

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to know that things in the west
were changing.

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And so when Rome attacked Taras,
it's no surprise

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that Taras came here, to Epirus
and to Pyrrhus, to ask for help.

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Pyrrhus, just a few years before,
had failed in his campaigns

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to expand his empire east.

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This was his opportunity
to head west.

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Pyrrhus sailed for Italy
to check the upstart Romans

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with an army of 25,000 soldiers
and 20 elephants.

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But the Romans fought much harder
than he had expected.

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Even his victories
cost thousands of lives.

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"Another such victory,"
said Pyrrhus after one of them,

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"and we shall be lost." In fact,
one of Pyrrhus' greatest legacies

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is the term "pyrrhic victory" -

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a victory won at too great a cost
to be worthwhile.

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In the end, the attempts of Pyrrhus
and the Greeks

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to withstand the Romans failed.

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And when Pyrrhus returned to Greece
to expand his domains elsewhere,

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he was killed in a street fight

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and his empire collapsed
like a house of cards.

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When news of Pyrrhus' death
reached Taras in 272 BC -

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the death of a commander

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Hannibal thought second
only to Alexander the Great -

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the city capitulated.

245
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,640
It was the beginning of the end.
By the end of the century,

246
00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:33,120
most of the Greek cities of Italy
and Sicily were under Roman control.

247
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:35,040
And when the Romans took Taras,

248
00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:37,160
they didn't just
take its buildings,

249
00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:38,840
they took its people.

250
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:43,080
And that, according to one source,
included a playwright.

251
00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:46,200
Theatre was about to enter
the Roman bloodstream.

252
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,880
And it did so as part of a wider
Roman desire for all things Greek.

253
00:13:56,720 --> 00:13:58,160
When we think of the Romans,

254
00:13:58,160 --> 00:14:01,560
we think of the grandeur of Empire
and the glory of Rome

255
00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:03,720
which are expressed here
in the Forum,

256
00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:08,200
the teeming centre
of ancient Roman public life.

257
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:11,160
But when Rome first conquered Taras,

258
00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:14,480
it had not yet become
the centre of a mighty empire.

259
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:19,480
It was a city-state, a republic,
on the hunt for power and prestige.

260
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,800
And one of the ways it could get it

261
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,360
was by absorbing
the cultural achievements

262
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:29,760
of the conquered Greeks,

263
00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:33,880
including architecture, literature
and, of course, drama.

264
00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:35,720
We've become so used today

265
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:39,920
to seeing Rome as the eternal city,
the imperial city -

266
00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:45,160
powerful, solid, indisputably
in charge of all they survey.

267
00:14:45,160 --> 00:14:47,720
But of course, we first need
to dial ourselves back

268
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:49,280
to the very origins of this place,

269
00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,320
to when it was a pugnacious
republican city,

270
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:53,920
dominated by rival clans,

271
00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:56,800
fighting to gain that supremacy
and that power.

272
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,040
Not far from the Roman forum,
in the Largo Argentina,

273
00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:06,440
20 feet below the city streets
of modern Rome,

274
00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:10,120
you can see how this upstart
Roman republic worked,

275
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:11,840
and how it responded

276
00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:13,840
when it brushed up
against the Greeks -

277
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,480
the cultural champions
of the ancient world.

278
00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,040
Today, when we look around Rome,

279
00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:22,760
we're seeing mostly Imperial Rome,
we're seeing the eternal city.

280
00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:24,800
How would you sum up to someone

281
00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,200
what it was like to be in Rome
during the republican era?

282
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:34,280
If you can imagine a large mafia,

283
00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:38,280
which doesn't use violence
between the rival clans

284
00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:40,560
and is also the state,

285
00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:44,320
and also has a clientelistic
relationship, like the mafia,

286
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:45,920
with the people low down,

287
00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:50,520
that sense of the power
of the individual family,

288
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:54,200
their competitiveness,
their sense of personal honour,

289
00:15:54,200 --> 00:15:57,760
the ease of front,
and the vast amount of fixing

290
00:15:57,760 --> 00:15:59,720
and the money that comes out of it,

291
00:15:59,720 --> 00:16:04,360
I think those are all things
that would strike a Greek visitor.

292
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:08,080
For these Romans, the conquest
of the Greek cities in Italy

293
00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:10,600
made Rome a city that mattered.

294
00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,080
And incorporating aspects
of Greek culture

295
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,080
was a great way to show it.

296
00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,520
Are there elements
of the Greek world

297
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,320
and of Greek architectural
styles and art

298
00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:21,240
that we can see
within Roman buildings?

299
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:23,880
Yes. Things that aren't here
any more.

300
00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:26,320
The cult statues, things like that,
were very Greek.

301
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:30,920
The orders - the Corinthian order,
Doric order, Ionic order -

302
00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:33,760
but also, if we can see over there,
I don't know...

303
00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,240
They understand that Greek temples
have to glint.

304
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,840
They understand that
they're made of white marble.

305
00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:42,000
You can see this local, brown,
rather crumbly stone - the tufo.

306
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:44,880
They understand that doesn't look
like Greek temples.

307
00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,480
You look on the columns over there,
just the remains, the white stuff -

308
00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,280
that's stucco. It looks rather like
large amounts of chewing gum,

309
00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:53,920
but actually it's stucco,

310
00:16:53,920 --> 00:16:56,640
which is meant to clad
this brown tufo stone.

311
00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:58,680
And when you polish it, it shines.

312
00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,080
It's got little bits of ground-up
mica and marble in it

313
00:17:02,080 --> 00:17:04,120
so it gives that effect
that you would see

314
00:17:04,120 --> 00:17:07,240
if you went to Greece or Sicily
and saw a full-on marble temple.

315
00:17:07,240 --> 00:17:09,480
So are these the Romans
trying to compete with

316
00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,760
the extraordinary examples
of Greek architecture

317
00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:16,640
or is it to sort of show they have
somehow taken over the mantel

318
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,880
and incorporated them
and are better than...?

319
00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:24,080
I think initially it is competition -
I think they opened their eyes

320
00:17:24,080 --> 00:17:26,720
to what can be done
and what should be done.

321
00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,960
If you want a proper city
with proper houses for the gods

322
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,240
which properly commemorate
your relationship with them,

323
00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:34,600
that's how you do it.

324
00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,280
As we pass later towards
the end of the Republic,

325
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:39,080
it becomes a discourse of dominance -

326
00:17:39,080 --> 00:17:42,560
it's about saying "We've taken it,
we've conquered it, we've earned it

327
00:17:42,560 --> 00:17:44,640
"and now we're doing it
bigger and better."

328
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:48,000
And one of the things
that gets inserted into that mix

329
00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:54,720
in the mid 3rd century is theatre,
Greek theatre and Greek playwrights.

330
00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,120
What does theatre offer
and why is it taken up?

331
00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:00,840
I think it offers
something sophisticated,

332
00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:02,880
so there's clearly an appreciation

333
00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,320
that there's a superior culture,
which manifests in this way,

334
00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,200
in the sense that this is
how a community ought to behave,

335
00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:13,880
it ought to have these sort of ways
of expressing itself.

336
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,480
Very important in the Roman context,
as in the Greek context,

337
00:18:16,480 --> 00:18:20,000
that these are plays staged
at religious opportunities.

338
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:24,640
Like this temple, the plays are
another acquisition of Empire.

339
00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:29,120
Some types of poetry and drama

340
00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:31,320
did already exist
in the Roman world,

341
00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:35,200
including forms of farce, mime
and religious performance,

342
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:41,360
but soon after the capture of Taras,
the Romans started staging plays.

343
00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:44,160
These plays were put on
at religious festivals

344
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,080
and relied heavily on Greek stories
and the Greek style.

345
00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:52,920
The man who wrote them
was called Lucius Livius Andronicus.

346
00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:56,000
Sadly, only fragments and titles
of his works survive,

347
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:57,920
but they paint
an intriguing picture.

348
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:01,880
Livius Andronicus was not a Roman,

349
00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:04,440
but probably a Greek,
potentially a slave,

350
00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,480
and, according to some sources,
from the Greek city of Taras,

351
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:10,880
the very city that the Romans
had captured in battle.

352
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,240
And yet some of the greatest writers
in Roman history

353
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:17,880
call him the father
of Latin literature.

354
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:19,200
He began, it was said,

355
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,440
by translating Greek texts
into Latin for use in schools,

356
00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:23,640
and his own tragedies

357
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:27,200
had the names Achilles, Ajax,
The Trojan Horse,

358
00:19:27,200 --> 00:19:30,840
and, as the Roman poet Horace put it
two centuries later,

359
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,560
"captured Greece,
captured her uncouth conqueror

360
00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,840
"and brought the arts
to rustic Latinum."

361
00:19:37,840 --> 00:19:41,800
But it was never going to be
such a straightforward story

362
00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:44,240
of Roman indebtedness to Greece.

363
00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:48,000
Livius Andronicus marks the very
beginning of Roman engagement

364
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:49,800
with Greece and Greek literature,

365
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,600
and the key thing is
that his plays are in Latin.

366
00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:58,480
Unlike other Mediterranean
communities,

367
00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:02,200
the Romans didn't just import
Greek theatre whole.

368
00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,360
They adapted elements of Greek drama

369
00:20:04,360 --> 00:20:09,200
but they created their own
new plays, from scratch, in Latin.

370
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:12,440
Sadly, very little
of what was written has survived,

371
00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:14,840
and what HAS is comedy.

372
00:20:16,240 --> 00:20:18,920
The first author
whose plays survive to us in full

373
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,320
is an ex-stagehand from Umbria
called Plautus.

374
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:24,440
Now, all his comedies were based
on the Greek model,

375
00:20:24,440 --> 00:20:25,800
that of Menander.

376
00:20:25,800 --> 00:20:29,680
In 1968, a papyrus was found
with a play of Menander on one side

377
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:32,040
and a play of Plautus
directly opposite.

378
00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,960
And all of Plautus's plays are set
in Greece, usually in Athens,

379
00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:38,520
and there's lots of Greek borrowings
into the Latin.

380
00:20:38,520 --> 00:20:41,680
But all of this
is not because Plautus thought

381
00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:44,480
the Greeks and Greece
were wonderful -

382
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,680
it's because he thought
they were funny.

383
00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:54,080
Plautus' comedy
is full of ridicule for Greece.

384
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:55,840
His plays are lewd and bawdy,

385
00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,040
and comedies like The Ghost
show stupid Greek citizens

386
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:01,880
being outwitted
by their scheming slaves.

387
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,080
In Plautus' play The Ghost,
Philolaches is a no-good son,

388
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,320
who is having fun
while his dad is away.

389
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:11,720
Their slave, Tranio, is helping out.

390
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,640
But when the dad suddenly returns,
Philolaches panics,

391
00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,080
and it's up to Tranio
to save the day.

392
00:21:18,200 --> 00:21:20,280
With his father out of town,

393
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:24,840
Philolaches does what any young man
would do and throws a house party.

394
00:21:24,840 --> 00:21:29,600
He has also borrowed money
to free his favourite slave girl.

395
00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:33,000
The drinking is in full flow
when his father returns.

396
00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:36,280
But Tranio moves fast.
He locks the revellers in the house

397
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,840
and tells Philolaches' father
that the house is haunted.

398
00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:41,760
Through his quick thinking,

399
00:21:41,760 --> 00:21:44,440
he buys enough time
for the revellers to escape

400
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:47,360
and for the money Philolaches owes
to be repaid.

401
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,280
Now, that's a pretty similar plot

402
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,960
to Menander's Woman Of Samos,
for example.

403
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:57,120
Somebody leaves,
things happen in their absence

404
00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:00,520
and chaos ensues when they return.

405
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:04,680
But what's different here is it's
now the Greeks who are the fools.

406
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,520
It's the slave who saves the day.

407
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:10,360
Plautus has completely
turned the tables

408
00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:12,600
about who has the last laugh.

409
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,960
The fact that the Romans were
watching plays about Greeks,

410
00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:19,840
and were laughing at Greeks,

411
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:21,800
has given scholars
an interesting insight

412
00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:25,400
into both the ambitions
and boundaries of Roman society.

413
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:26,920
You have a situation

414
00:22:26,920 --> 00:22:32,320
where you have ostensibly Greek
characters, living in Athens,

415
00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:35,800
expressing the ambition
to Greek it up, or live like Greeks,

416
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,480
and one of the things
that that is reflecting

417
00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:42,840
is the Roman obsession
with Greek luxury

418
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:47,280
as a form of wish fulfilment,
so it reflects the way

419
00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:50,120
that also Roman society
is becoming more Greek

420
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:54,120
and more luxurious. This is
an idealised form of Hellenism

421
00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:56,960
and it's also, in some ways,
a very comic form of Hellenism

422
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:03,960
that is about as Greek as the version
of Germany and France in 'Allo 'Allo

423
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:05,440
is either French or German.

424
00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:09,360
But it's interesting, isn't it,
what Greeks are NOT in Roman comedy?

425
00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:11,960
Greeks are not dynamic, macho,
heroic figures, are they?

426
00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:14,800
They're generally sort of foppish,

427
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,320
aristocratic,
rather clueless figures.

428
00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:22,160
There is obviously more general
freedom allowed to the poet

429
00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:23,560
in the characterisation,

430
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:25,760
if they're dealing
with Greek characters.

431
00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:27,520
You can have relationships

432
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,840
that you don't have in Rome,
you have slaves doing things

433
00:23:31,840 --> 00:23:33,640
that would not be allowed in Rome.

434
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:37,000
One of the things about comedy set
in Ancient Athens, Aristophanes,

435
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:42,800
is it pokes very bitter, pointed fun
at Athenians in the audience.

436
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,520
Could the Romans laugh at themselves
in the same way

437
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:48,640
that we understand the Greeks to
have been laughing at themselves?

438
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,800
You do get references to Romans
in Roman comedy.

439
00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,080
For example, there's a line
where a character is said

440
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,640
to be smellier
than a group of Roman rowers.

441
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:58,880
So, yeah, you do get
this mockery of Romans,

442
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,960
but it's always displaced
into the mouths of non-Romans

443
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:04,800
mocking Romans for being barbarians.

444
00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:08,480
As the Romans took over
the domestic form of comedy,

445
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:13,440
there is no direct political jokes
as we have in Greek old comedy,

446
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,640
where politicians are more or less
directly named and portrayed.

447
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:22,040
One of Plautus's great contemporaries
and predecessors, Naevius,

448
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:26,840
actually ended up getting banged up
in prison under a libel law,

449
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,720
specifically for having made jokes
at the family of the Metelli,

450
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:36,280
and therefore the type of humour
about families or individuals

451
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,920
that Aristophanes
was able to indulge in

452
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:43,960
is very much impossible
for a comic writer such as Plautus.

453
00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:49,640
Mocking political leaders
on the stage had been fine in Athens

454
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,920
because it was a way
of keeping the democracy in check.

455
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,400
But Rome was ruled
by powerful aristocrats,

456
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:02,120
and mocking them would have been
a difficult and dangerous game.

457
00:25:02,120 --> 00:25:04,120
For the authorities in Rome,

458
00:25:04,120 --> 00:25:06,400
controlling the story was paramount,

459
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,640
and this helped to give birth
to a new kind of drama -

460
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:11,520
a drama that is reflected

461
00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,200
in the spectacular monuments
to Roman history

462
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:16,040
that still litter the city.

463
00:25:16,040 --> 00:25:18,280
One of the most famous structures
of this kind

464
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,440
comes from the time
of the Roman Empire.

465
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:22,880
It's called Trajan's Column.

466
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,000
This is one of the most famous
landmarks in Rome today,

467
00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:29,600
known because of the way it tells
a visual historical narrative

468
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,560
spiralling up the column,

469
00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:35,160
that of Emperor Trajan's
military campaigns.

470
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:38,120
But this interest in telling
stories, historical narrative,

471
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:40,720
goes right back to the roots
of Roman culture.

472
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:42,160
And in the 3rd century BC,

473
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:44,960
the Romans actually created
their own form of drama,

474
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:49,080
that mixed tragedy with reality,
with historical narrative -

475
00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,400
telling the stories of some
of their most famous adventurers.

476
00:25:57,320 --> 00:25:59,280
The Romans had adapted tragedy

477
00:25:59,280 --> 00:26:02,440
into what would become
a new theatrical genre -

478
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:04,400
the history play.

479
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:08,640
And one such play commemorated a man
who played an important role

480
00:26:08,640 --> 00:26:10,720
in the subjugation of Greece.

481
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,320
In the 2nd century BC,

482
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:17,600
the Romans set about conquering
the Greek mainland, and in 168 BC,

483
00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:20,920
Lucius Aemilius Paullus
won an epic victory.

484
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,000
This spectacular
18th-century painting

485
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,920
shows him returning to Rome
and showing off his Greek prisoners

486
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,280
in a lavish triumph ceremony.

487
00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,600
But the commemorations
didn't end there.

488
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:34,760
As part of his victory triumph,

489
00:26:34,760 --> 00:26:36,800
following the subjugation
of the Greeks,

490
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,960
Aemilius Paullus commissioned
a historical narrative drama,

491
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,920
and its title was Paullus,

492
00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:46,440
and it told the story of
Paullus's triumphant campaign.

493
00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,960
He clearly agreed
with the Roman maxim

494
00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:52,880
that virtue deserves praise.
And was it any good?

495
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:56,520
Well, the problem is,
we've only got four lines surviving.

496
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,040
One describes, we think,
the march of the Romans to Olympus.

497
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,560
Another is a snatch of prayer
before a battle.

498
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,720
The third is a line
about spears flying,

499
00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:14,600
and the fourth quotes
an unlucky Roman calling for help.

500
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:15,600
And that's it.

501
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,240
We can tell that the author
Pacuvius's Latin

502
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:21,440
is both elegant and educated.

503
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,320
But if his other plays
are any guide,

504
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,080
it's likely that this one ended

505
00:27:25,080 --> 00:27:27,480
not with a question
for the audience to consider

506
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,400
or a moral dilemma
for them to wrestle with,

507
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,560
but with a sense of a world
restored from disorder -

508
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:36,240
a triumph.

509
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:39,520
This kind of play was very different
from Greek tragedy,

510
00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,720
but the development
of this new drama

511
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,320
is one of Roman theatre's
greatest legacies.

512
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,560
Part of the problem in Greece,
in Athens,

513
00:27:48,560 --> 00:27:51,360
when they're experimenting
with tragedy

514
00:27:51,360 --> 00:27:54,440
at the beginning of the 5th century,
is that actually,

515
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:57,560
these history plays can be
a bit close to the bone.

516
00:27:57,560 --> 00:28:00,160
There's an example of a playwright
who actually gets fined

517
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:04,280
because of doing a tragedy
on recent history

518
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:05,800
and getting it wrong.

519
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:07,800
He makes the audience feel terrible

520
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,160
about how they didn't help out their
allies and they don't like it.

521
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:14,720
So they fine it and that play
is never performed again.

522
00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:15,920
With the Romans,

523
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,080
I think there's something
slightly different going on with it.

524
00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,640
They really want to commemorate
their victories

525
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,760
and actually,
by doing this culturally,

526
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:27,520
this is part of conquest -

527
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:32,200
you're saying, "Look what we've done,
we've got this, this is our genre

528
00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,520
"and we're celebrating
our own victories through it."

529
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:37,640
You have to think about performances

530
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,160
in the context of all the other
performances that are going on -

531
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:45,000
triumphal processions,
gladiatorial spectacles

532
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,720
where you're literally
bringing everything to Rome

533
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:51,040
to show off about your conquest,

534
00:28:51,040 --> 00:28:53,000
and this is really
an extension of that.

535
00:28:56,720 --> 00:29:00,040
By 150 BC,
Roman theatre had come of age

536
00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,360
in the service of Rome's
governing elite.

537
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,080
It had its own political dynamic
and purpose.

538
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:08,520
And it included writers

539
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,600
who have entered the canon
of Western literature -

540
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:14,960
writers like Plautus,
and even more so, Terence.

541
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,200
Terence is a classic case.

542
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,080
He was a foreigner, brought to Rome
as a slave from Carthage,

543
00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:23,800
Rome's deadliest enemy,

544
00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,840
and yet went on to become
a famous writer of Roman comedy

545
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,800
that was performed on temporary
stages all over the city.

546
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,440
The most famous is right behind me
here on the Palatine,

547
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,200
in front of the temple
of Magna Mater.

548
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,560
Now, Terence used Greek models
for his comedies

549
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,120
but his Latin was so pure,
so sophisticated,

550
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:41,400
that in later generations,

551
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,480
he became the textbook
from which to learn the language.

552
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:47,320
One person said,
"Good morals, good taste,

553
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,800
"good Latin, as Terence has."

554
00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,200
So this is no longer Roman comedy

555
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:55,320
borrowing, begging,
stealing Greek models -

556
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,520
this is Roman comedy standing
on its own two feet,

557
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,880
confident in its own Roman-ness,
its "Romanitas."

558
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:09,240
This Roman confidence was evident

559
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,520
when Roman soldiers returned
to Athens many years later,

560
00:30:12,520 --> 00:30:16,320
in 87 BC, to put down a revolt.

561
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:21,080
The general leading the Roman forces
was called Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

562
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:22,840
He laid siege to Athens

563
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:26,040
and, despite the city's impressive
cultural reputation,

564
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:28,040
he showed no mercy.

565
00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,680
He used wood from sacred groves,
he plundered temples,

566
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,000
and when Athens finally fell,

567
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,200
the slaughter was said
to be so great

568
00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:38,640
that the streets
were flowing with blood.

569
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:40,840
BATTLE CRIES ECHO

570
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:44,600
Sulla was not just the man
who had captured Athens for Rome.

571
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,520
He was also the epitome
of a breed of Roman

572
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,160
who was fully immersed
in Greek culture,

573
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:52,920
yet not overawed by it.

574
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:54,320
When he captured Athens,

575
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,840
he is said to have quoted one of
Athens's own playwright's lines

576
00:30:57,840 --> 00:30:59,160
right back at them.

577
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,640
It was a line from
Aristophanes' play, The Frogs.

578
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,040
"First learn to row,
before you can steer."

579
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,240
And in that one line,
Sulla had brilliantly taken

580
00:31:09,240 --> 00:31:11,840
two of Athens's most
treasured accomplishments

581
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:13,080
in all of its history -

582
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:16,440
the theatre and their supremacy
at sea with the fleet -

583
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,960
and combined them into one of
history's most sarcastic put-downs.

584
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:26,040
The Athenians were forced to eat
their own humble pie.

585
00:31:26,040 --> 00:31:27,280
Ouch!

586
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,920
The Romans had succeeded
in making drama their own,

587
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,120
but it didn't play the same role
or have the same status

588
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:38,320
that it had had in Greece.

589
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:39,880
I want to find out more

590
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,680
about the differences
between these two societies.

591
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,440
And I think that the different
designs of their theatres

592
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,120
could be a good place to start.

593
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,960
The Ancient Greek world was littered
with monumental theatres,

594
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:52,920
many of which survive to this day,

595
00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:55,960
evidence of Greek architectural
skill and ambition.

596
00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:01,440
To harness and contain
the emotional power of their plays,

597
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,160
the Greeks had developed very
special places for performance.

598
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:09,640
Their theatres were open spaces,
easy to get into and out of,

599
00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,920
and usually with views
over the stage

600
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:13,920
to the landscape beyond.

601
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,320
They were part of the landscape
and part of the community,

602
00:32:17,320 --> 00:32:19,120
both religious and political.

603
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,240
This theatre at Epidaurus

604
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:24,360
is probably the most perfect
example to survive.

605
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:26,760
Even today, visitors here respond.

606
00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,240
There's something I notice
every time I come to this theatre.

607
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,120
And that's whatever nationality,
whatever language,

608
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,480
whether you're a show-off
or a recluse,

609
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:42,160
everyone is drawn
to the very centre of the stage.

610
00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:43,600
Now, partly I think that's to do

611
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:46,160
with the visual sightlines
of the theatre all meeting here

612
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:47,840
and the perfect acoustics

613
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:50,600
which make this such an
extraordinary experience.

614
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:55,480
But...I think there is an honesty
and a nakedness

615
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,160
to the design of the Greek theatre
and its stage

616
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:01,880
that allows the audience
to empathise more easily

617
00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:03,200
with the performers.

618
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:08,040
And as a result,
the very design of the Greek theatre

619
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,560
builds on what all the religious
rituals that happened beforehand

620
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:13,400
were trying to do -
to eliminate the gap

621
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,080
between them in the audience
and us on the stage,

622
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:20,400
to create not two different
entities, but one body.

623
00:33:23,880 --> 00:33:26,920
This same design was used
all over the Greek world.

624
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:31,600
But in Rome,
theatres were very different indeed.

625
00:33:31,600 --> 00:33:35,040
To begin with, there was
no permanent accepted venue.

626
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:36,520
Terence and other writers

627
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,120
had to perform their plays
on temporary stages,

628
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:41,520
in places like the Forum
or in a sanctuary,

629
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:45,200
or here in the Circus Maximus,
more usually used for chariot races.

630
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,080
Reconstructions by modern scholars,

631
00:33:48,080 --> 00:33:52,040
following ancient depictions like
that in the house of Livia in Rome,

632
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,240
revealed that these structures
could be very lavish indeed.

633
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:59,720
But I want to know
what their temporary nature tells us

634
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,440
about the role of theatre
in Roman society.

635
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,560
You can see temporariness
as a form of popular control.

636
00:34:08,560 --> 00:34:12,520
The senate pays for
the dramatic festival every year,

637
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,280
someone pays to have the stage
put up.

638
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:17,560
If it isn't there permanently,

639
00:34:17,560 --> 00:34:20,800
one of the threats is,
"Well, if you don't behave yourself,

640
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:22,480
"it won't be here next year."

641
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:24,080
One other way
in which you can measure

642
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,560
the value of theatre
and theatrical production in Rome

643
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:28,360
is to think
about the status of actors.

644
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:30,680
In the Greek world,
they're relatively high-status,

645
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:35,000
we know there's this guild of
actors, the Artists of Dionysus.

646
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,040
In the Roman world,
they're "infames",

647
00:34:37,040 --> 00:34:38,400
they're the lowest of the low -

648
00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:41,240
that's basically
what being an infames means.

649
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:43,360
But then we also get
these very strange arguments

650
00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:46,320
about the morally corrupting nature
of sitting down at the theatre.

651
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:50,360
What was the morally corrupt aspect
of sitting down?

652
00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:54,320
I think the Greeks conducted
their assemblies while sitting down

653
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:58,400
and the Romans didn't, so
you were more virtuous and strong.

654
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,280
The funny thing is that the Greek
word for civil strife, "stasus",

655
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,960
seems to be associated
with ideas of standing up,

656
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,280
whereas the Roman word
for civil strife, "sedition",

657
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,440
is actually connected
with ideas of sitting down,

658
00:35:08,440 --> 00:35:10,200
and therefore sitting in the theatre

659
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,960
might be a dubious
and morally damaging activity.

660
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Roman theatres reflect
the aristocratic nature

661
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:20,960
of Roman society,
and unlike Greek theatres,

662
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:23,960
which encouraged the audience
to explore their emotions,

663
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,800
they betray
a sense of social unease.

664
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,800
Eventually permanent theatres
were constructed in Rome,

665
00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,600
but these too were different
from the Greek style.

666
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:38,480
As the Roman republic grew,

667
00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:42,240
it fell into the hands
of rival politician warlords -

668
00:35:42,240 --> 00:35:44,360
men like Sulla,
the subjugator of Athens,

669
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,840
and Pompey,
Julius Caesar and Augustus.

670
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:50,360
And the competition
between these men

671
00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:54,840
helped to drive the construction
of permanent theatres in Rome.

672
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,640
In 55 BC, while Julius Caesar
was raiding in Britain,

673
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,640
his rival, Pompey the Great,

674
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:04,280
dedicated the first purpose-built
theatre in Rome.

675
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:08,680
It still exists, but as a ghost
in the Roman street plan.

676
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:10,240
So, Ed, where are we now?

677
00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:12,840
We are in the heart of medieval Rome,

678
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,040
and the great thing
about medieval street plans

679
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,760
is they exploit
pre-existing structures

680
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:22,360
and they fossilise
the previous urban texture,

681
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,240
and where we are right now,
we're in the Theatre of Pompey.

682
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,960
So the curvature
of this entire street here

683
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:31,960
is following the line
of the Theatre of Pompey?

684
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:33,920
It follows the internal line
of the theatre.

685
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:35,760
So if you imagine
the edge of the orchestra,

686
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:37,400
this is the curve of the orchestra.

687
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,760
So this is the stage right here?
You'd be looking at the stage.

688
00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:42,840
The good thing about the height
of this building

689
00:36:42,840 --> 00:36:46,200
is it allows you to imagine
really well the height of the stage,

690
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:53,160
its enormous, highly sculpted,
elaborate stage facade.

691
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:54,960
And on this side,

692
00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:57,480
this is the beginning
of the spectators' seating?

693
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,400
This is the curve of the seats, yes,

694
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:02,040
so we would imagine,
from pretty much where we are,

695
00:37:02,040 --> 00:37:04,640
the seats running up, up and up.

696
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:06,560
But again, look at the size
of that thing,

697
00:37:06,560 --> 00:37:07,840
the scale, the elevation -

698
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:10,920
it gives you an idea
of what a monster this thing was,

699
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:14,040
a cauldron of sound and noise,
atmosphere.

700
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:19,480
Pompey's monster marked
a new epoch for theatre.

701
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,360
This reconstruction, based on the
work of the architect Luigi Cannina,

702
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:25,800
reveals its scale and ambition.

703
00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:28,360
It could hold
up to 40,000 spectators,

704
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:30,800
even more than Greek theatres
like Epidaurus.

705
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,600
And it was a very different
kind of building.

706
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:36,040
It was completely enclosed.

707
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:38,560
Behind the 100-metre stage

708
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:43,160
rose a lavishly decorated
scene building, three storeys high,

709
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,000
and the whole thing
was part of a walled complex

710
00:37:46,000 --> 00:37:49,480
which included a park
and a new building for the Senate.

711
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:53,440
I mean, this was an unmistakable
and unmissable marker

712
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:55,480
on the city plan of Rome, wasn't it?

713
00:37:55,480 --> 00:37:58,920
It's the biggest thing that's been
built in the city up to this point.

714
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,760
Staking ownership and dominance
over the entire place.

715
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:07,320
Yes, it's a fantastically daring
piece of victory building.

716
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:12,800
This kind of theatre design

717
00:38:12,800 --> 00:38:16,480
reflected the hierarchical nature
of the Roman world,

718
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:21,360
a world that soon went from being
a republic to being an empire.

719
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:23,240
This theatre,
the theatre of Marcellus,

720
00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:26,040
was built by an Emperor,
the Emperor Augustus.

721
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:30,400
It's a structure that still evokes
a sense of power, order and control.

722
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:36,520
Where you had once enjoyed theatre
in a public open space,

723
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,400
this was a permanently enclosed
building.

724
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:45,520
And unlike Greek theatres,
where people arrived all together,

725
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:48,320
at this theatre, people entered
through a large number

726
00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:50,520
of separate, narrow entrances,

727
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,600
because Roman leaders
had a fear of large crowds.

728
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:58,760
After that, stairways took you
into different levels of the theatre

729
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,760
which were assigned to people
of different social classes.

730
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:05,200
Senators in the best seats
and the plebs at the top.

731
00:39:07,520 --> 00:39:08,680
In the Greek world,

732
00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:12,360
theatre was an inherently open,
socially risky process,

733
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,240
but here in the Roman world,

734
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:17,040
the risk just isn't part
of the calculation.

735
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,520
This became the archetypal model
for Roman theatres

736
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:22,680
spreading across the Mediterranean.

737
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,600
It didn't just keep people in order
in their seats.

738
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:27,440
The stuff that was being put
on the stage

739
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,400
was also increasingly anodyne
as well.

740
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:32,680
And at the end of the day,
that was all due to the man

741
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:35,960
who was responsible for pretty much
everything we can see here -

742
00:39:35,960 --> 00:39:40,440
the Emperor Augustus
and his plan for peace and harmony.

743
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:47,360
Augustus' reign as emperor

744
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:52,240
marked the start of an unprecedented
period of stability in Rome.

745
00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:54,600
And this ordered, harmonious climate

746
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,640
would ultimately give birth
to a new kind of drama.

747
00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:03,880
Long ago, the Greek poets
had spoken of an age of gold,

748
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:07,120
an age of peace and harmony.

749
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:11,240
And now, after the long
and vicious years of civil war

750
00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:14,160
that had torn the Roman world
in two,

751
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:18,600
Augustus promised
a new age of peace.

752
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:21,520
His poets sang of it,
and most importantly,

753
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:26,400
he celebrated it here in marble
at the Altar of Peace.

754
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:35,120
It's called the Ara Pacis Augustae,
the Altar of Augustan Peace.

755
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:39,520
It is perhaps
the most spectacular example

756
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,000
of Roman sculpture in the world.

757
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,960
And it all has a political message.

758
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,920
It's an altar on which sacrifices
would be made

759
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:49,240
to the goddess of peace.

760
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:53,720
The garlands around it
indicate the prosperity

761
00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:55,600
which will hopefully result.

762
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:57,160
On the end walls,

763
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,720
mythological scenes depict
the new golden age

764
00:41:00,720 --> 00:41:03,760
which will come
with Augustus's peace.

765
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:07,640
And on the sides, we meet the people
who have brought it about -

766
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:11,400
Augustus and his entourage,
not forgetting the Roman people.

767
00:41:12,680 --> 00:41:15,920
The whole building mirrors
the content of Roman plays -

768
00:41:15,920 --> 00:41:18,560
a combination of history
and mythology

769
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:21,000
with a heavy dose of propaganda.

770
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:24,120
Peace had never much been worshipped
in Rome before this,

771
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,800
but now Augustus put it at the very
heart of his message for Rome

772
00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:29,800
and for her empire.

773
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:33,160
And the delicate subtlety
of the carving on this building

774
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:36,800
belies the brick-in-the-face message
it contained.

775
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,000
This was to be a world of peace,
but also a world

776
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:44,800
in which every element, every part
of Rome's empire was united -

777
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:48,480
united UNDER the power of Rome.

778
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,600
This was to be a place, and a world,

779
00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,680
unlike any that had been seen
before.

780
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:02,160
This united, pacified world
gave birth to a new kind of play -

781
00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:05,720
one that could cross linguistic
and cultural boundaries.

782
00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:08,360
It was called pantomime.

783
00:42:08,360 --> 00:42:10,640
But it was not pantomime
as we know it.

784
00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:15,200
Augustan pantomimes
were mythically fraught episodes

785
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:18,120
communicated through mute dancing.

786
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:19,920
All the action was handled

787
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:22,320
by a solo dancer
performing all the parts,

788
00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:24,560
changing masks as he went on,

789
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:26,520
hence the word "panto" - "every",

790
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,360
"mime" - "part".

791
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:34,320
Alessandra Zanobi
is both a scholar and a dancer.

792
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:38,880
I think the closest comparison
we can make

793
00:42:38,880 --> 00:42:41,320
is with Katakhali dance,

794
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:43,720
which is this Indian dance drama.

795
00:42:43,720 --> 00:42:47,560
In a way, I think it's the thing
which comes closest

796
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,120
to ancient pantomime,

797
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,360
even if the two traditions
are so different, you know?

798
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:57,880
But this combination of story,
words, gestures, movement,

799
00:42:57,880 --> 00:42:59,840
it's something so special,

800
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,920
that not even opera maybe
could be compared.

801
00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:07,880
There is a story sometimes,
but the story is really inferred

802
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:10,280
just from the movements.

803
00:43:10,280 --> 00:43:11,840
So we're talking about...

804
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:13,720
The dancer would be would be mute,

805
00:43:13,720 --> 00:43:17,800
but there would be a storyteller
alongside, is that right?

806
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,720
Basically the dancer was mute,
he wore a mask,

807
00:43:21,720 --> 00:43:24,120
a beautiful mask with a closed mouth,

808
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:28,920
and he would be backed
by a choir or a singer

809
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:32,880
who were singing
the words of the story,

810
00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:37,320
and then a large orchestra
usually used to accompany the dance.

811
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,920
You can imagine the impact
must have been really powerful.

812
00:43:40,920 --> 00:43:43,880
It's quite a spectacle.
Yeah, a big spectacle.

813
00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:46,840
So, obviously,
using gesture and dance,

814
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:50,400
it makes pantomime
a very universal medium.

815
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:52,880
To what extent, really,
was it a universal medium

816
00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:57,120
and to what extent was it so popular
in Augustan Rome and beyond

817
00:43:57,120 --> 00:43:59,480
BECAUSE it was a universal medium?

818
00:43:59,480 --> 00:44:01,120
Yes, I think that...

819
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:02,680
Yes, this is a very good point.

820
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:05,280
I mean, it was so popular

821
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,920
and I think that Augustus, in a way,

822
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:13,520
supported it because it could
cross linguistic boundaries

823
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:18,880
and ethnic boundaries as well,

824
00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:22,240
and so it embodied, in a way,

825
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:27,960
Augustus's ideology of a world
pacified and united under his reign.

826
00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:32,760
Pantomime was something
that could be enjoyed by everyone,

827
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,640
and as a result,
it was a fantastic symbol

828
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:38,320
for the Augustan
cultural programme -

829
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:40,560
uniformity for all.

830
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,840
It's also a sign of a shift away
from serious drama

831
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:46,640
towards mass entertainment.

832
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:47,920
In Ancient Rome,

833
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:51,880
theatre had always had to compete
directly with other entertainments -

834
00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:54,360
spectacles like
gladiatorial combats.

835
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:55,920
The playwright Terence complained

836
00:44:55,920 --> 00:44:58,280
that on one occasion,
half the audience left

837
00:44:58,280 --> 00:45:02,000
when they heard that a rope-dancer
was performing next door.

838
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:05,440
Now, in the age of Empire,
lavish public entertainments

839
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,120
were used to augment the power
and status of the emperors,

840
00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:12,120
and the desire for this kind
of spectacle increased.

841
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,320
Over time,
new amphitheatres like the Colosseum

842
00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:29,480
would not only dwarf
even Pompey's great theatre,

843
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:33,760
but would also be dedicated
to real - not stage - violence,

844
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:38,760
bloodily performed before audiences
of up to 50,000 at a time.

845
00:45:38,760 --> 00:45:43,040
With spectacles like this to see,
performances of plays would dwindle

846
00:45:43,040 --> 00:45:46,480
and drama would become
more of a writers' medium.

847
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:49,840
But not before Latin drama
had one last hurrah

848
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:51,600
in the reign of Emperor Nero.

849
00:45:53,040 --> 00:45:57,840
Nero today is not remembered
for many good things.

850
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:01,680
But from our perspective,
he was not only a Hellenophile,

851
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,880
a man who had visited Greece,
competed in the Olympic Games,

852
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,160
he was also a lover of the arts.

853
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:08,840
Cultural life during his reign

854
00:46:08,840 --> 00:46:11,960
was thought to be extremely
important, and flourished.

855
00:46:11,960 --> 00:46:13,960
Indeed, it's Nero's time

856
00:46:13,960 --> 00:46:18,000
that sees one of the last real
flowerings of Latin literature.

857
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:25,480
These included a number of plays
written by Nero's tutor, Seneca.

858
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:27,280
Seneca wrote nine tragedies,

859
00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:29,680
which retold stories
from Greek myth.

860
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,520
Thyestes was one of Seneca's
Greek-style tragedies,

861
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:36,920
and comparing it
to an original Greek tragedy

862
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:41,680
gives us a fascinating insight
into just how far drama had come,

863
00:46:41,680 --> 00:46:44,680
and into the differences
between the two great cultures

864
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,120
of Greece and Rome.

865
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:49,880
The twin brothers
Atreus and Thyestes

866
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:52,760
are rivals
for the throne of Mycenae.

867
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,760
Thyestes has been banished
after seducing Atreus' wife,

868
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:58,960
and Atreus,
thrown into a violent rage,

869
00:46:58,960 --> 00:47:01,760
concocts a cruel and bloody revenge.

870
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:04,080
He lures Thyestes
back to the kingdom

871
00:47:04,080 --> 00:47:06,160
with false promises of peace.

872
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:09,680
Then he brutally sacrifices
Thyestes' children.

873
00:47:09,680 --> 00:47:12,360
With his own hands
he cuts the body into parts...

874
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:20,320
His terrible vengeance

875
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:24,240
culminates with him feeding Thyestes
his dead children for dinner.

876
00:47:27,520 --> 00:47:31,440
With Seneca, what you get
is a lot more rhetoric,

877
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:35,320
so you get longer speeches -
and this is part of the argument

878
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:40,200
that perhaps these were actually
recited rather than performed.

879
00:47:40,200 --> 00:47:43,880
Some of these descriptions,
particularly messenger speeches,

880
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,920
where you're reporting something
that took place off stage,

881
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:48,760
some of these are very graphic.

882
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:54,400
So I'll read you a bit from
the messenger speech in the play,

883
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:58,960
and this is where Atreus
is sacrificing his nephews.

884
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:03,680
"Torn from the still living breasts,
the vitals quiver,

885
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:09,200
"the lungs still breathe
and the fluttering heart still beats.

886
00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:12,960
"But he handles the organs
and enquires the fates

887
00:48:12,960 --> 00:48:16,320
"and notes the markings
of the still warm entrails."

888
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:20,440
And to what extent do you think
that sense of gore

889
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:24,200
responded to the types of things
Romans would see about them

890
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:25,800
on a fairly daily basis?

891
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:27,960
I think you have had
this cultural shift,

892
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:32,680
and I think if we think about
spectacles like gladiatorial shows

893
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:36,240
and understand this as entertainment,

894
00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:40,400
then that really perhaps helps us
to understand what's going on

895
00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:41,680
with these descriptions.

896
00:48:45,720 --> 00:48:47,200
The plain fact of the matter is

897
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,120
that however influential
Seneca's plays may have been,

898
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:52,360
they were probably rarely performed.

899
00:48:52,360 --> 00:48:55,720
And that meant their influence
was confined to the written page.

900
00:48:55,720 --> 00:48:58,400
They'd lost that sense
of mass participation

901
00:48:58,400 --> 00:49:01,000
and political dynamism
that accompanied theatre

902
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:03,320
back at its very inception.

903
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,000
And that raises
a fundamental question -

904
00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:08,320
in this brave new world,

905
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,880
what happened to drama and theatre
back in its birthplace,

906
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:13,520
in Greece, in Athens,

907
00:49:13,520 --> 00:49:17,600
particularly now that power was held
not in the hands of many,

908
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:19,080
but in the hands of one man?

909
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:26,760
Back in Greece, theatre had remained
part of public life.

910
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:30,160
But there are signs
that drama now faced competition

911
00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:32,400
from Roman spectacular
entertainments.

912
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:35,240
This is Argos,

913
00:49:35,240 --> 00:49:38,600
a classic middle-of-the-road
Ancient Greek city-state.

914
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:40,320
But the impressive Greek theatre
here

915
00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:42,920
was given
some very Roman renovations.

916
00:49:46,440 --> 00:49:50,960
This place vies for the title
of the biggest theatre in Greece.

917
00:49:50,960 --> 00:49:53,200
What we are seeing
is not just the centre section,

918
00:49:53,200 --> 00:49:56,080
there would have been seats going
all the way round to the sides,

919
00:49:56,080 --> 00:49:59,000
making this a space
for 20,000 people.

920
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:01,440
And it made it the kind
of opportunity

921
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:03,600
the Romans were never going
to pass up on.

922
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:05,000
And, by God, they didn't.

923
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:08,280
But the best thing they did
is over here.

924
00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:11,720
The Romans didn't just use
Greek theatres for drama,

925
00:50:11,720 --> 00:50:14,200
but also for gladiatorial combat.

926
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:15,640
And that led to problems,

927
00:50:15,640 --> 00:50:17,960
because here,
in the first reserved row,

928
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:19,760
where religious officials sat,

929
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,720
gladiators kept falling over
and dying on them.

930
00:50:22,720 --> 00:50:26,280
So the Romans came up
with a solution. And here it is.

931
00:50:26,280 --> 00:50:29,760
These large potholes that run
all the way along the front row

932
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:34,000
were used for large wooden posts,
along which could be strung nets,

933
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,400
and these nets would keep out
not only dying gladiators,

934
00:50:37,400 --> 00:50:40,920
but also the wild beasts that
the Romans brought onto the stage.

935
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:42,840
And if you've ever seen a bullfight,

936
00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:45,600
you'll know how necessary
these nets are.

937
00:50:45,600 --> 00:50:48,480
Frankly, I think I'd prefer
a seat a couple of rows back.

938
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:53,920
Now, the man responsible for
all this was the emperor Hadrian.

939
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:56,400
And he came to Greece in the 120s

940
00:50:56,400 --> 00:50:58,560
and not only built
an enormous aqueduct

941
00:50:58,560 --> 00:51:01,640
that was able to bring water
to this perpetually dry city,

942
00:51:01,640 --> 00:51:03,600
but as a result,
he was able to build

943
00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:05,280
the massive baths behind me,

944
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,080
and of course,
this theatre here as well.

945
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:10,120
Now, Hadrian's family was Italian,

946
00:51:10,120 --> 00:51:12,000
but had been living in Spain
for a long time,

947
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:14,480
and yet he was a lover
of all things Greek.

948
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:17,280
He had a beard,
he liked Greek philosophy,

949
00:51:17,280 --> 00:51:19,360
he had a Greek lover
called Antinous,

950
00:51:19,360 --> 00:51:21,400
and it was here in this theatre

951
00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:24,480
that he established a cult
in his honour.

952
00:51:29,880 --> 00:51:31,560
Today, we remember Hadrian

953
00:51:31,560 --> 00:51:34,280
for the great wall
that he constructed in Britain,

954
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:38,640
but it's his classical enthusiasm
that is his greatest legacy.

955
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:41,120
And nowhere benefited more
than Athens,

956
00:51:41,120 --> 00:51:44,880
the city which had given birth
to theatre half a millennium before.

957
00:51:46,040 --> 00:51:48,440
Hadrian's aim was to restore Athens

958
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:51,120
to what he saw
as its ancient cultural glory.

959
00:51:52,720 --> 00:51:56,600
He even managed to finish their
gigantic temple of Olympian Zeus,

960
00:51:56,600 --> 00:51:58,760
started nearly 600 years before.

961
00:52:00,160 --> 00:52:03,360
Hadrian pulled out all the stops
for Athens.

962
00:52:03,360 --> 00:52:05,560
That went from building temples
like this,

963
00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:07,960
to intervening
in the olive oil trade,

964
00:52:07,960 --> 00:52:09,920
to laying down
the water pipe system

965
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,840
that Athens, in part,
still depends on today.

966
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:16,120
Not for nothing was Hadrian
given the title "Graeculus" -

967
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:17,200
"the Greekling".

968
00:52:21,640 --> 00:52:25,280
Hadrian also made improvements
to the Theatre of Dionysus.

969
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:29,280
Whereas his predecessors had staged
gladiator fights in the theatre,

970
00:52:29,280 --> 00:52:31,280
building a wall
in front of the seats

971
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:33,640
to separate the action
from the spectators,

972
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:37,280
Hadrian attempted to reinforce
its dramatic origins

973
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:40,160
by adding an elegant frieze
to the stage building.

974
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:44,840
A little later,
a new theatre was constructed

975
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:48,280
by the tutor of Hadrian's children,
Herodes Atticus.

976
00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:56,520
Today,
this theatre of Herodes Atticus

977
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,640
is at the epicentre
of modern Greek drama in Athens.

978
00:52:59,640 --> 00:53:02,400
I last saw a performance of
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night here,

979
00:53:02,400 --> 00:53:07,560
in Greek. Plays put on this stage
inherit a fascinating tradition

980
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,040
that stretches back
over 2,500 years.

981
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,360
From the great tragedians,
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

982
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,960
and the sparky comedy
of Aristophanes and Menander,

983
00:53:17,960 --> 00:53:20,360
the plays still speak
to the ongoing issues

984
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:21,680
that occupy human society.

985
00:53:23,080 --> 00:53:26,640
And it would be nice to think
that when this theatre was built,

986
00:53:26,640 --> 00:53:28,720
it ushered in a whole new era

987
00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:31,120
of new tragedies
and new playwrights,

988
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,120
a new golden age.

989
00:53:34,120 --> 00:53:36,200
But sadly, it was not to be.

990
00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:44,320
There was no new golden age
of theatre.

991
00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:47,120
And perhaps that was inevitable.

992
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:49,360
The riches showered on Athens

993
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:52,040
were the direct product
of Hadrian's patronage.

994
00:53:54,120 --> 00:53:57,400
When he died,
it all began to dry up.

995
00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:02,000
And in the end, his interest
was fundamentally a literary one,

996
00:54:02,000 --> 00:54:06,160
a love of all those brilliant
writers of the past golden age.

997
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:09,040
So it's no surprise

998
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:12,160
that Hadrian's most spectacular
monument here now

999
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,720
is not a temple or a theatre,

1000
00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:15,880
but a library.

1001
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:21,960
This is the business end.
This is where the books were kept.

1002
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:27,560
These alcoves once held wooden
bookcases for the papyrus scrolls

1003
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:30,680
not just of poetry, philosophy
or state archives,

1004
00:54:30,680 --> 00:54:33,640
but also plays, comedies.

1005
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:36,680
And with this repository
of knowledge,

1006
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:38,920
the Library of Hadrian
here in Athens

1007
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:41,920
was set to rival the great
Library of Alexandria

1008
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:45,000
and become the intellectual focus
for the Mediterranean.

1009
00:54:48,960 --> 00:54:53,080
It was perhaps the most luxurious
public building in Athens,

1010
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:56,920
with gilded ceilings,
marble columns imported from Turkey,

1011
00:54:56,920 --> 00:54:59,800
and elegant pools and gardens
in the courtyard.

1012
00:55:03,320 --> 00:55:05,960
Revered the great works
of Greek literature

1013
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:07,680
may have been by the Romans,

1014
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:11,520
but that reverence came intertwined

1015
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:16,320
with a Roman treatment of Greece
a bit like a theme park -

1016
00:55:16,320 --> 00:55:19,160
a place to go and play
at being Greek

1017
00:55:19,160 --> 00:55:23,600
and use those great works
of literature for debate practice

1018
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:25,240
or just entertainment.

1019
00:55:25,240 --> 00:55:28,080
And like with any theme park,
there came a time when you went home

1020
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:29,880
and the Romans became fully Roman
again.

1021
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:35,680
And yet, it was because
of that curious mix

1022
00:55:35,680 --> 00:55:40,720
of reverence, make-believe
and a little bit of tackiness

1023
00:55:40,720 --> 00:55:45,080
that the tragedies and comedies of
Ancient Greece survive for us today.

1024
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:52,920
I'm returning to what has become
my home from home,

1025
00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:55,040
the British School of Athens.

1026
00:55:55,040 --> 00:55:57,920
It's the nerve centre
of British archaeology in Greece,

1027
00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:01,240
and it was here I decided
not just to study Ancient Greece,

1028
00:56:01,240 --> 00:56:03,040
but to make it into my career.

1029
00:56:04,720 --> 00:56:06,880
And one of the reasons
for my decision

1030
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:10,200
was my fascination with the plays
to be found on its shelves.

1031
00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:13,800
For more than two millennia,

1032
00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:16,600
it's thanks to the innumerable
anonymous hands

1033
00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:19,440
writing on I don't know
how many different types of paper

1034
00:56:19,440 --> 00:56:22,600
in locations littered
across the globe

1035
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:26,440
that we still have surviving
in our hands today these plays,

1036
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:30,160
these extraordinary examples
of human creativity.

1037
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:35,480
And yet it's not until
you take the words off the page

1038
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:38,160
and put them on the stage
that you realise

1039
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:41,200
not only the incredible emotional
impact and innovation

1040
00:56:41,200 --> 00:56:43,920
that theatre represented
in the ancient world,

1041
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:46,360
but also how crucial theatre was

1042
00:56:46,360 --> 00:56:48,520
to the story
of the Greek and Roman empires.

1043
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:01,280
Ancient Greek drama began
as an astonishing innovation

1044
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:03,680
in a revolutionary world.

1045
00:57:03,680 --> 00:57:06,800
It guided and shaped democracy
in Athens

1046
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:09,360
and became extraordinarily popular

1047
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:11,560
throughout the Greek world
and beyond.

1048
00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:17,000
And when the Romans arrived,
Greek theatre wasn't lost.

1049
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:20,400
It was adopted and adapted
for the new Roman world,

1050
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,000
but most importantly,
it was preserved.

1051
00:57:25,280 --> 00:57:26,880
The influence of Menander,

1052
00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:29,440
and of Roman playwrights
like Plautus and Terence

1053
00:57:29,440 --> 00:57:32,160
can be seen in the works
of Shakespeare, Ben Johnson

1054
00:57:32,160 --> 00:57:33,600
and Oscar Wilde,

1055
00:57:33,600 --> 00:57:37,880
not to mention in modern dramas,
romantic comedies and in sitcoms.

1056
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:39,280
But more than that,

1057
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:43,560
we still stage epic performances
of the original plays themselves -

1058
00:57:43,560 --> 00:57:45,280
a truly astonishing outcome

1059
00:57:45,280 --> 00:57:48,680
when we consider that the oldest
surviving Ancient Greek drama

1060
00:57:48,680 --> 00:57:52,120
is now 2,500 years old.

1061
00:57:52,120 --> 00:57:55,000
These plays still speak to us today.

1062
00:57:55,000 --> 00:57:58,800
They reveal the fundamental
contradictions,

1063
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:01,720
emotions and possibilities

1064
00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:05,160
that are represented
in human existence.

1065
00:58:05,160 --> 00:58:08,960
And that, for me, means that
they are going to be around with us

1066
00:58:08,960 --> 00:58:10,440
for a long time to come.

1067
00:58:20,560 --> 00:58:22,800
Join The Open University
as we explore

1068
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:25,840
the connections between Greek
theatre and modern-day democracy.

1069
00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:30,040
Go to bbc.co.uk/ancientgreece
and follow the links

1070
00:58:30,040 --> 00:58:32,840
to The Open University's
free learning website.

1071
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:55,040
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