1
00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:11,080
'Ancient Rome was once the centre
of a vast empire


2
00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:13,840
'that stretched from Spain to Syria,


3
00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:17,520
'dominating the Western world
for over 700 years.


4
00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,680
'In many ways, we still live
under its shadow.'


5
00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:27,440
Like it or not, the Romans
are still all around us -


6
00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:31,400
in our laws, in our architecture,
in our roads.


7
00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:35,000
And we keep on recreating them
in film and fiction.


8
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,080
And every year, thousands of us
trek here, to Rome,


9
00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,840
to see the monuments up close.


10
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:45,400
'But hidden all over the modern
city, in its walls,


11
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:49,040
'behind its facades,
even under its streets,


12
00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:53,600
'is something much harder to find
but just as captivating -


13
00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:56,360
'the forgotten voices
of its ordinary people.'


14
00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,200
Here's a great kid,
holding his little pet dog.


15
00:01:02,200 --> 00:01:05,320
And I guess it's his mum and dad
on either side.


16
00:01:05,320 --> 00:01:08,440
And up above, there's the tombstone


17
00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,880
of "Curiatia Ammia."


18
00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:18,840
And she was someone's best-beloved
partner, "concubina amatissima."


19
00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:20,640
'In this series,


20
00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,440
'I'm getting the voices of
these Romans speaking again,


21
00:01:23,440 --> 00:01:28,520
'to piece together a more intriguing
view of ancient Roman life.'


22
00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:30,720
This wasn't just a mugging...


23
00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:33,520
..this was mass murder!


24
00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:35,760
'They'll reveal a world
so different from our own,


25
00:01:35,760 --> 00:01:37,560
'and yet eerily familiar.'


26
00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:43,080
She liked to get a bit
drenched in Bacchus.


27
00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:46,280
So what he's saying is,
she was a bit of a wild thing,


28
00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:48,640
and she really liked a drink or two.


29
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:54,520
'We've already seen how the Empire
turned Rome


30
00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,360
'into the world's first global city,


31
00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:00,400
'where everyone, everything
was from somewhere else.


32
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:06,440
'Now I'm going down into the streets
to explore its slums,


33
00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,400
'its bathhouses and bars,


34
00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,280
'where the crime, sex and humour
in everyday Roman life


35
00:02:14,280 --> 00:02:16,280
'shows us what it was really like


36
00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:19,080
'to live in an ancient city of
a million people.'


37
00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:25,240
We think of ancient Rome as
all white, marble columns,


38
00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:27,440
and classical order.


39
00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:32,520
But actually, it was a chaotic
place, rambling and dirty.


40
00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:33,960
It was a right mess.


41
00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:40,320
It was as much a shanty town
as it was Trafalgar Square or
Washington DC.


42
00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:42,320
Welcome to my Rome.


43
00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,920
This is a fantastically detailed
model of the ancient city of Rome.


44
00:03:18,920 --> 00:03:21,560
It's got all the familiar things
in it -


45
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,560
the Coliseum, the Imperial Palace,


46
00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,880
the temples, the gleaming marble,
the pleasure gardens.


47
00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,720
But for my taste,
it's all a bit grand.


48
00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:35,560
And it's a bit misleading,


49
00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,560
because it misses out
so many important things


50
00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:40,760
that I want to try and get back in.


51
00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,960
The smell. The dirt.


52
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,360
The pubs. The slums.


53
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:52,520
And it doesn't answer the questions
that we want to ask.


54
00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:54,960
What was it like to be a kid
in this city?


55
00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,960
Where did you go to the lavatory?


56
00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:02,280
What did you do if you got ill?


57
00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:07,480
What was it like to be just
an ordinary Roman?


58
00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:16,440
'So how do we start to answer
these questions?


59
00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:20,440
'In fact, there's a lot more
evidence than you might think,


60
00:04:20,440 --> 00:04:23,080
'hidden away all over modern Rome.'


61
00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,040
When you first come into
a place like this,


62
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:28,400
what hits you in the eye
is the rich Romans.


63
00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,800
The great and the grand.


64
00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,840
But look behind them,
look at the wallpaper, as it were,


65
00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:39,600
and you'll hear a babble
of ordinary Roman voices


66
00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,920
trying to be heard.


67
00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,080
In fact, behind this emperor, here,


68
00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:48,120
there's the tombstone
of a little girl


69
00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:53,760
who lived just two years,
ten months and 23 days.


70
00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:57,520
She's waving goodbye.


71
00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:01,160
Most tombstones today record
just the bare essentials.


72
00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,040
But the Romans often told us
a lot more about themselves.


73
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:09,080
They're asking anyone and everyone
to read about their ordinary


74
00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:12,480
and extraordinary
lives from beyond the grave.


75
00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:15,840
And what they give us
aren't just the success stories,


76
00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:20,120
but a unique vision of life at the
bottom of the social heap too.


77
00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:25,520
This guy certainly wants us to
know about his troubles in life.


78
00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,480
His name is Ankarenus Nothus.


79
00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:30,920
He lived for 43 years


80
00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:35,560
and he's the ex-slave of a woman,
which is what that symbol means.


81
00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:41,920
This is what he has to say about his
life and what it's like being dead.


82
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:47,760
It happens to everybody, he says.
My bones are now resting sweetly.


83
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:49,920
"Dulciter."


84
00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:54,160
And I'm no longer worried that
I might die of starvation.


85
00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:55,800
"Esuriam."


86
00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:59,240
And I don't any longer have those
awful aching feet


87
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:02,320
and I'm not contracted
to my rent payments.


88
00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:04,000
"Pensionibus."


89
00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:06,000
That's a quite technical phrase,


90
00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,480
but it really means - I'm no longer
in hock to the rent collector.


91
00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:16,840
In fact, I'm enjoying
board and lodging. "Hospitio.


92
00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:18,280
"Gratis."


93
00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:21,200
For free. For eternity.


94
00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:23,200
"Aeterno."


95
00:06:23,200 --> 00:06:27,040
The stone was put up by his wife
and by his daughter


96
00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,800
to her father, who she calls
"indulgentissimus",


97
00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:34,240
who's very indulgent.


98
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,320
He spoiled her something rotten.


99
00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,600
There are three things that
stand out.


100
00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,520
How am I going to get my next meal?


101
00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:48,560
What shall I do if I'm ill, and how
shall I pay the rent?


102
00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:54,360
And we know that the figure of
the rent collector-cum-bailiff -


103
00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:57,320
called extractor in Latin -


104
00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,760
was one that terrified
the Roman poor.


105
00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:04,600
Ankarenus Nothus might have
been a bit of a joker


106
00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:09,640
and his family might have been
trying to tug on our heartstrings,


107
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:15,960
but the important point is that
these few lines sum up the plight.


108
00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:19,880
The grim realities of life
for so many ordinary Romans.


109
00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:30,640
So, where might someone like
Ankarenus Nothus have lived with
his family?


110
00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:33,480
It's pretty clear he didn't live
in the marble villas


111
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:36,280
we think of when we think
Ancient Rome.


112
00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,640
One of the best places to get
a glimpse of his world


113
00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,880
actually still survives in the
centre of town,


114
00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,320
hidden in the shadow of the
Vittorio Emanuele monument.


115
00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:49,840
One of Rome's most famous
modern landmarks.


116
00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:54,960
This humble brick building doesn't
look like much from the outside.


117
00:07:54,960 --> 00:07:58,320
Most visitors walk past it without
even giving it a glance.


118
00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,800
But once you know what it is,
a very different Rome opens up


119
00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:04,520
before your eyes.


120
00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,520
This building was converted
into a Christian church.


121
00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:14,000
But originally, it was an ancient
Roman high-rise apartment block.


122
00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:19,280
The city was full of them.
They were called, in Latin, insulae.


123
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,040
That means islands.


124
00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:28,280
So, think away the churchy bits,
and Ancient Rome lies underneath.


125
00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:35,600
Right down there, you can still see
the ancient street level, and facing


126
00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:40,960
onto the street, there are a series
of shops with wide entrances.


127
00:08:40,960 --> 00:08:43,280
And above them,
little mezzanine flats.


128
00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:47,040
So these guys were literally
living above the shop.


129
00:08:47,040 --> 00:08:52,280
But up here, there were six,
perhaps seven more floors.


130
00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:58,800
More than survive today. But to get
the real authentic Roman impression,


131
00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:03,120
you have to remember that
just a few feet that way,


132
00:09:03,120 --> 00:09:06,080
there was another block like this.


133
00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:09,800
So this wasn't so much
a nice open road down there,


134
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:11,840
it was a narrow alley.


135
00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:16,280
It must have felt like a canyon
between two vast buildings.


136
00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:21,240
The flats are usually locked up,


137
00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:24,440
but I've got permission to have
a look around with my colleague


138
00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:27,640
Ed Bisphum, who's been here
many times before.


139
00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:33,360
So we are at what's the first floor.
This is the first floor proper, yeah.


140
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:35,840
And this, then, is the window.
This is the window.


141
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,880
So we are really burgling.
We are breaking and entering here.


142
00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:39,920
Right, OK.


143
00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:46,680
Gosh.


144
00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:49,600
The windows have since been blocked,
but on the first floor,


145
00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:52,960
there was once a spacious
apartment where a reasonably


146
00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:56,600
well off family might have lived
with their children and slaves.


147
00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,600
You wouldn't be pushed for space
in here as a single family.


148
00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,560
You've got probably four
nicely barrel-vaulted rooms here.


149
00:10:03,560 --> 00:10:06,480
But further up the building,
light, space


150
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,080
and fresh air was in
much shorter supply.


151
00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:14,240
Up here, off each dark corridor,
are four or five rooms just a few


152
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:15,800
metres square.


153
00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:18,400
We don't know for sure
how many people lived here,


154
00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:21,720
but to get a million people
into a city the size of Rome,


155
00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,320
you had to pile them high
and squash them in.


156
00:10:24,320 --> 00:10:27,880
My guess is that these weren't
single occupancy.


157
00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:31,480
This looks a bit spacious,
but that's because


158
00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:36,200
the dividing walls have gone, so
you've got to imagine a wall here...


159
00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:38,640
Going right the way up to the vault,


160
00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:40,760
with maybe
a little light window in it.


161
00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:44,000
The thing that always
kind of shocks me


162
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:49,400
is the sense that we might have had
six people "living" in here.


163
00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:52,680
This is one step up...


164
00:10:52,680 --> 00:10:56,960
One or two steps up, actually,
from the real bottom of
Roman society, isn't it?


165
00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,080
Yeah, compared to sleeping in a tomb
or under an aqueduct arch,


166
00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,880
this is quite bijou.
SHE LAUGHS


167
00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:14,400
Here's another bijou apartment.
This is really small.


168
00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:16,360
We've got to get, well,


169
00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:19,040
let's say we might have
four or six people in here.


170
00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:21,440
You know, one question is,
how do they fit?


171
00:11:21,440 --> 00:11:24,160
And I'm now going to see what
it would be like.


172
00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:28,600
How much space does one person
take up trying to get to sleep on
the floor?


173
00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:30,720
Urgh!


174
00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:33,840
Not much space left. No, no.


175
00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:40,720
And who are the guys and the women
who are living in these?


176
00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:44,200
What are they doing? The guys are
probably working on constructions.


177
00:11:44,200 --> 00:11:47,040
When you think of a big thing
like the baths of Caracalla.


178
00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,520
The baths of Diocletian.


179
00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:52,840
We're talking 6,000 to 10,000 people
on a four-year building job,


180
00:11:52,840 --> 00:11:54,400
and then there's porterage.


181
00:11:54,400 --> 00:11:59,720
Humping goods from the barges
to the warehouse...
Yeah, sacks of grain, yeah.


182
00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:02,240
Day labour. You get it when you can.


183
00:12:02,240 --> 00:12:06,080
You've been working all day, humping
stuff about. You get back here.


184
00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:10,400
You're soaked in sweat. You stink.
You don't have any spare clothes.


185
00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:12,800
There's no running water.
You can't have a bath.


186
00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:16,000
There's three other smelly guys
sleeping on the floor too.


187
00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:21,880
Or there's your, your partner.
Your female partner, and two kids.


188
00:12:21,880 --> 00:12:24,600
Yes. I mean...


189
00:12:24,600 --> 00:12:28,120
One thing is to think about these
as sort of male dorm accommodation,


190
00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:31,200
which I think a lot of them must be,
but for some of them...


191
00:12:31,200 --> 00:12:34,720
You know, there are women
having babies here. Yes. You know?
And actually...


192
00:12:34,720 --> 00:12:39,640
where I'm sitting,
some woman probably gave birth.


193
00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:42,000
That's what's scary. Yeah.


194
00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:46,320
And that wasn't even
the top of the block.


195
00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:49,120
There were even more
storeys above this one.


196
00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:53,240
A basic rule was, the further you
went up, the worse it got.


197
00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,120
There were no luxury
penthouses here.


198
00:12:56,120 --> 00:12:59,000
This was social climbing backwards.


199
00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:04,080
In their time, these tenements
must have been the tallest


200
00:13:04,080 --> 00:13:06,920
residential buildings on the planet.


201
00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,200
But they were built poorly,
cheaply and fast


202
00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:13,960
and only a handful have survived
to any height, so the fact is,


203
00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,640
we no longer think of
Ancient Rome like this.


204
00:13:17,640 --> 00:13:20,560
But that is how we should see it.


205
00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:25,840
Not just a city of marble,
but a city of tower blocks,


206
00:13:25,840 --> 00:13:29,440
and the ordinary people
who lived in them.


207
00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:38,360
Perhaps the best place to get
a snapshot of the kind


208
00:13:38,360 --> 00:13:41,080
of community you might have found
in a Roman high-rise


209
00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:45,720
is now hidden at the bottom of
a garden in a Roman suburb.


210
00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:49,720
In this extraordinary communal tomb
lie the remains of every


211
00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:51,480
walk of Roman life.


212
00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:56,560
There's hundreds and hundreds of
them here.


213
00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:10,120
And greeting you when you come in is
a little face, and it's a touching


214
00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:18,120
story because it's Valeria Italis,
who was the sweetheart of Hilarus.


215
00:14:18,120 --> 00:14:23,760
I bet he made sure that he got
his sweetheart into prime position.


216
00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:30,840
This is a...just fantastic kind of
career directory


217
00:14:30,840 --> 00:14:33,160
of the ordinary Roman people.


218
00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:35,400
This was probably quite a bruiser.


219
00:14:35,400 --> 00:14:37,120
It's Sinnio, the bodyguard.


220
00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:41,720
And, in the corner here...


221
00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:47,480
..we've got the barber.
Marcus Valerius, the barber.


222
00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:50,000
And...


223
00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,800
Ah... Hygia, the midwife.


224
00:14:58,400 --> 00:15:03,760
And up there - and I am not going to
risk a Roman ascent up there -


225
00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:06,240
we have got a nice accountant.


226
00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:08,120
All of Roman life is here.


227
00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:12,400
But this isn't just a Roman job
directory, it is a wonderful glimpse


228
00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:16,720
into how the Romans lived, stacked
up in death, not just in life.


229
00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:21,960
Trying to understand ancient Rome
is always a bit of a post-mortem.


230
00:15:21,960 --> 00:15:25,800
I mean, they're dead,
the Romans are dead.


231
00:15:25,800 --> 00:15:28,560
But they can still speak to us.


232
00:15:28,560 --> 00:15:32,840
Not just the rich and powerful,
not just the great writers,


233
00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:35,680
but the ordinary people,
like those in this tomb.


234
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:40,640
They send us these little
tweet-size messages telling us


235
00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:45,600
who they were, what they did,
and saying, "Remember me!"


236
00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,160
It is one of my very favourite
places in the city of Rome


237
00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:55,880
because it gets us close to real
people with real jobs,
and real names.


238
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:58,880
Sinnio, the bodyguard.
Hygia, the midwife.


239
00:16:02,240 --> 00:16:05,600
We find them here in death,
just like they did in life.


240
00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:07,960
This is a kind of burial high-rise.


241
00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:13,280
And also, I can't help thinking,
somewhere behind this,


242
00:16:13,280 --> 00:16:17,280
there might have been a landlord
asking the dead for their rent.


243
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,920
Today, modern Rome isn't a world
apart from the ancient one.


244
00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:35,560
And seen from the air, it's still
a city of rented apartment blocks
in a grid of little islands.


245
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,600
But apart from that modern model,
how else can


246
00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,320
we get closer to the way the
ancient city was actually laid out?


247
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:51,440
At the Museum of Roman Civilisation,
packed up in boxes,


248
00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:53,080
is a tantalising clue.


249
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:01,720
It's sadly not usually on display,
but what's inside


250
00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:06,720
are the remains of a precious
Roman map, carved in stone -


251
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:09,120
a kind of marble A-Z
that once showed


252
00:17:09,120 --> 00:17:12,040
a complete ground plan of the city.


253
00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:13,960
Over the last few hundred years,


254
00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:18,360
about 1,000 fragments have been
discovered - only ten percent of it.


255
00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:22,040
But luckily,
a few bits do still fit together.


256
00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:27,640
It's not hard on any jigsaw puzzle
to recognise the Colosseum.


257
00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:33,280
And here, you can see circular lines
of the seating of the Colosseum.


258
00:17:34,560 --> 00:17:39,760
And above it is written
what looks like,


259
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,360
although we've only got
the very end of the word,


260
00:17:42,360 --> 00:17:44,960
"amphitheatrum" the amphitheatre.


261
00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:48,200
And that was what people called
the Colosseum in the Roman world,


262
00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:49,680
they didn't call it "Colosseum".


263
00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:52,960
What strikes me as I look at it
here, actually,


264
00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:56,160
is how big this thing was.


265
00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:01,520
The calculation is that it's
at the scale of 1:240.


266
00:18:01,520 --> 00:18:06,880
That fills a whole whacking wall
with an image of the city of Rome.


267
00:18:11,320 --> 00:18:14,400
But even more intriguing than those
pieces of the grand Rome


268
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:18,320
are the fragments of the map
which show in extraordinary detail


269
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:22,080
the streets, houses and apartment
blocks where ordinary Romans


270
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:23,280
lived and worked.


271
00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:28,240
And what they show is that Rome had
not been laid out by city planners.


272
00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:31,120
It had grown chaotically over time.


273
00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:33,640
It fits!
SHE LAUGHS


274
00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:38,520
So what we've got here is
a really mixed area.


275
00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:43,520
We've got the rich houses,
the rather large ones, quite posh


276
00:18:43,520 --> 00:18:46,280
with little
portico gardens at the back.


277
00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:52,080
Even these large houses have got
shops or workshops opening


278
00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:54,960
directly onto the street in front.


279
00:18:54,960 --> 00:18:58,760
And opposite those houses
is what looks to me like


280
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:02,880
a kind of medium-rank
high-rise building.


281
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:07,880
Over here is what looks, for all
the world, like a warehouse.


282
00:19:07,880 --> 00:19:13,640
This is a bit more of a mystery.
It's got columns round about.


283
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,840
And these rather strange
U-shaped things in the middle.


284
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,520
The current idea is that
these are hedges,


285
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:26,280
so this is some sort of garden,


286
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:31,240
possibly private, possibly public,
possibly religious, who knows.


287
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:32,960
What this reminds me


288
00:19:32,960 --> 00:19:38,800
is that Rome is not zoned in the way
that many modern cities are.


289
00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:42,400
Rome was a place where
the rich lived next to


290
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:45,840
the shops and to the workshops
and to the bar,


291
00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:50,000
and to the not-so-rich, and to the
warehouse, and to the public garden.


292
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:55,680
The other thing is that the streets
themselves are pretty narrow.


293
00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:59,480
And this one, on the plan,
looks like a main highway.


294
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:02,880
And in a way, it is.
But if you look at its width,


295
00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,480
it's only as wide as
these little shops are deep.


296
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:10,800
And if you go round here, there is
a tiny little passageway


297
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:15,320
that certainly, you wouldn't want to
walk down late at night.


298
00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:19,960
Rome is not like Paris.
It isn't full of boulevards.


299
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:22,600
Rome was a rabbit warren.


300
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,880
It is frustrating in a way that
so little of the map has survived,


301
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:33,120
but there are other ways to get
a feel for the ancient streetscape,


302
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:36,920
like coming to a mediaeval
street in the modern city.


303
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,320
Ancient Rome's roads
were so narrow and its roofs


304
00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:42,880
so perilously high
that they were full of dangers,


305
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,560
like falling chamber pots.


306
00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:47,520
And Roman writers jokingly
recommended that


307
00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,800
no Roman go out without
writing a will.


308
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:55,000
We even know of one 13-year-old
tourist, Papirius Proculus,


309
00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,960
who was brained by
a flying roof tile.


310
00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:06,080
There are all kinds of things here
that remind me
of the Roman streetscape.


311
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:10,320
This little shop opening directly
onto the street.


312
00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:15,280
The lock-ups, how narrow it all is.


313
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:21,440
There is actually a story told by
one Roman writer about how he could


314
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:26,320
shake hands with the guy living
in the apartment across the road.


315
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:30,160
You couldn't quite do that here,
unless you had really long arms,


316
00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:31,560
but it's not far off.


317
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:38,720
I also wonder about the kind of
street community you had here.


318
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:46,000
The funny thing about the story of
the two guys who could shake hands
is that they never did.


319
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:52,000
In fact, the writer says
he never saw the guy on
the other side of the street,


320
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:53,840
he never even heard him.


321
00:21:53,840 --> 00:21:59,080
Which makes me think that amongst
all this face-to-face proximity,


322
00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:01,280
amongst the on-top-of-each-other
living,


323
00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:05,800
for some people, it must have been
a pretty anonymous kind of city.


324
00:22:13,080 --> 00:22:16,160
That Roman writer was a poet
called Juvenal,


325
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:20,400
a satirist who lived in Rome
around 100 AD.


326
00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,720
So how might HIS
domestic arrangements
compare with ours today?


327
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,320
To help me find out,
a very gracious Italian lady


328
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,600
living on the same street has let me
poke around her apartment.


329
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,360
Buongiorno! Come va?
Bene. Sono Mary...


330
00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:38,920
'Looking at the modern setup
can help us see


331
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,200
'what's distinctively different
about the ancient one.'


332
00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,680
It may seem a bit odd just barging
into someone's house like this,


333
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:56,120
but I've got a simple point to make.


334
00:22:57,800 --> 00:22:59,800
On the outside,


335
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:06,040
a place like this looks much like
an ancient Roman apartment block.


336
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,720
But come inside and it reminds you
of the differences.


337
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:12,240
Now, that's not just
the washing machine, the microwave.


338
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,080
We know the Romans
didn't have those.


339
00:23:15,080 --> 00:23:20,720
But all the things
that we take for granted as
absolutely basic services here -


340
00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:25,800
running water, a lavatory, heating.


341
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,800
Actually, some natural light.


342
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:35,920
Many of the people living on the
upper floors of a Roman high-rise
wouldn't even have those.


343
00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:39,080
Now, the consequence of that
is absolutely obvious.


344
00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:45,520
You simply had to go out
to get almost everything that we


345
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,440
take for granted as having at home.


346
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:50,160
You went out to eat, to wash,
to get water,


347
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:56,560
and if you didn't throw it out of
the window, to go to the lavatory.


348
00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,600
Grazie. Grazie tante.


349
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:10,480
It's a way of life that
has largely disappeared
from modern cities in the West.


350
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,320
But in ancient Rome,
life was lived outdoors.


351
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:16,840
Rooms in a high-rise were used
mostly just for sleeping.


352
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:21,000
Your basic facilities
were spread out over the city.


353
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,560
As one amazing archaeological site
not far from Rome makes clear


354
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:26,600
for ordinary Romans,


355
00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:31,520
what we now do in private
could be a far more public affair.


356
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,240
I just love this place.


357
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,960
If you want to understand
a culture, look to its lavatories.


358
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,280
It's not a bad motto.


359
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:46,360
And this is a Roman communal toilet.


360
00:24:46,360 --> 00:24:49,640
According to one
ancient guidebook that survives,


361
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:54,040
there are 144 public latrines
in downtown Rome.


362
00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,760
But of course, we don't know
how many seats each had.


363
00:25:02,360 --> 00:25:07,360
It's not exactly clear how this
worked. What about this channel?


364
00:25:07,360 --> 00:25:09,200
Did it have running water in it,


365
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:12,880
or was it just to catch
the drips and the bad aims?


366
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:15,800
And what about this hole?
Was that for men to pee through?


367
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:23,360
Or was that where you put the sponge
to wipe your bottom? Perhaps both.


368
00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:27,280
And do we think it was unisex?
Who knows?


369
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:31,640
But the point's a simple one -
this is how we have
to imagine the ancient city.


370
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:35,520
Everyone shitting together.


371
00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:42,760
Tunics up, togas up, trousers
down, chatting as they went.


372
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:47,000
And it wasn't just going to the lav
that was a social activity.


373
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,360
Often, there was no sanitation
on the upper floors of a high-rise,


374
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:54,160
so most Romans went to
the public baths to wash


375
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,240
and let it all hang out.


376
00:25:56,240 --> 00:25:58,760
We don't often you get to hear what


377
00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:01,520
the baths meant to ordinary people.


378
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,040
But this tombstone


379
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,440
of an ordinary guy


380
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,960
interestingly lists baths,


381
00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:13,000
and associated activities,


382
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,680
as one of
THE great pleasures of life.


383
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,680
And he says,
Here I am, I'm in this tomb...


384
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,120
"Primus notissimus..."


385
00:26:23,120 --> 00:26:27,040
..known to the world as Primus,
or famous Primus.


386
00:26:27,040 --> 00:26:29,680
Then he goes on to say,


387
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,880
I lived on Lucrine oysters...


388
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:35,080
It's the very best you could get.


389
00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,200
..and I often drank Falernian wine.


390
00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:41,880
That's like saying, "I often drank
the really best claret."


391
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,320
He has a nice summing up.


392
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,800
"Balnea,


393
00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:48,520
"vina, venus..."


394
00:26:48,520 --> 00:26:51,720
Baths, wine and sex.


395
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:54,960
"..me cum senuere per annos."


396
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:57,840
They grew old with me,
I enjoyed them - I suppose -


397
00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:59,960
till I was old.


398
00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:02,400
We find that combination -


399
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:05,240
baths, wine and sex - elsewhere.


400
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,760
There's another nice tombstone
of a man called


401
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,360
Tiberius Claudius Secundus


402
00:27:11,360 --> 00:27:14,440
and he appeals to
the same threesome,


403
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:17,960
but in a slightly more
worldly-wise way.


404
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,840
"Baths, wine and sex," he said,


405
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:22,840
"ruin your body!"


406
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:24,360
True!


407
00:27:24,360 --> 00:27:27,880
But they're what makes life
really worth living!


408
00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:34,760
When you look at Rome's baths,


409
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:39,000
it's not hard to see why ordinary
Romans were so keen on them.


410
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:40,880
Built by various emperors,


411
00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,320
the most famous were the size
of small towns


412
00:27:44,320 --> 00:27:47,800
and their ruins still loom large
in the Roman cityscape.


413
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:53,640
By far the best preserved
is actually one of the smaller sort


414
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:57,680
in the town of Herculaneum,
not far from Pompeii.


415
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:00,160
It's an extraordinary place,


416
00:28:00,160 --> 00:28:03,720
the only one where you can
walk through Roman baths,


417
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:05,960
pretty much as they were.


418
00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:10,440
WATER DRIPS


419
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,240
More Turkish baths than local
swimming pool, they were centres


420
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:18,960
of social life, where locals didn't
just get a place to sweat and steam,


421
00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:21,400
they also got stalls
for food and drink


422
00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:23,880
and booths for a massage, a shave,


423
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,360
or maybe even sex on the side.


424
00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:29,320
Although it's hard
to visualise today,


425
00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:33,120
there are vivid descriptions
of the baths as rough, noisy places,


426
00:28:33,120 --> 00:28:36,720
full of grunting gym-goers,
men getting their armpits plucked


427
00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:39,320
and loitering thieves,
where you were as likely


428
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,080
to get your coat nicked
as catch the clap.


429
00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:46,160
The baths weren't
just about hygiene -


430
00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:49,600
they were about pleasure
and about community.


431
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:51,920
Even the rich,


432
00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,280
who had their own
private baths at home,


433
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:55,600
even the Emperor,


434
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:59,400
might occasionally put in
a celebrity appearance


435
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:01,480
at the people's baths.


436
00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,480
In some ways,


437
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:06,360
they were a great social leveller.


438
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:10,520
Imagine - everybody's here
in the nude.


439
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:13,320
It's then that the poor man,


440
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,000
aged 20, with a great body,


441
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,160
can turn the tables on that


442
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:21,800
60-year-old Roman plutocrat,


443
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,640
with a paunch and a hernia!


444
00:29:24,640 --> 00:29:26,520
But in other ways,


445
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,200
they tended to reinforce
the social hierarchy.


446
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,600
The poor came along with no-one
to carry their stuff


447
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:34,840
or rub them down.


448
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,320
The rich came
with a whole retinue of staff,


449
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:41,960
elbowing the man's way
through to the pool,


450
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:43,920
pushing the poor aside.


451
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:48,240
In fact, there's a lovely
anecdote of the Emperor Hadrian,


452
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:51,760
who goes to the public baths one day


453
00:29:51,760 --> 00:29:56,640
and sees a man rubbing
himself down against the wall.


454
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,120
Hadrian says,
"What's that guy doing?"


455
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,680
And someone replies, "Oh, he's
rubbing himself down on the wall


456
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,720
"because he doesn't have a slave
to do it for him."


457
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,760
So the generous Emperor
gives him a slave.


458
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,160
The next time Hadrian shows up
at the baths,


459
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:20,240
there's 20 or so men rubbing
themselves down against the wall,


460
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:24,240
all hoping for a little piece
of imperial generosity.


461
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,480
But Hadrian's a canny old bird


462
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:28,720
and he says,


463
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,680
"Tell them to rub each other down!"


464
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,000
However exotic this world
might now seem,


465
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,680
for me, spaces like the public baths
and toilets


466
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:44,440
tell us a lot about how


467
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,400
Roman communal living
created those voices


468
00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:51,400
that feel so familiar today.


469
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,240
Sure, some of them have got serious
messages, but they're also


470
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:57,280
wonderfully sardonic,


471
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:01,200
irreverent,
and so recognisably urban.


472
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:06,040
There's a marvellous guy
from Tivoli, Flavius Agricola,


473
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,360
and he's got some great advice
on his tombstone.


474
00:31:09,360 --> 00:31:12,040
"Put on your party hats, my friend,


475
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,560
"drink down that wine,


476
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,240
"and don't say no to sex
with pretty girls,


477
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,360
"because you won't get a chance
when you're dead."


478
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:24,960
That's what urban living,


479
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,760
cheek-by-jowl, bottom-by-bottom,
is all about.


480
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:31,480
It makes you live faster,


481
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,680
talk faster
and think a bit differently.


482
00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:37,560
PEOPLE CHATTER


483
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,600
One of the big best places
to glimpse the humour


484
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,000
and saltiness of this world


485
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,440
is the ancient Roman bar.


486
00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:49,640
Much like any modern Italian city,


487
00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:53,400
Rome was awash with hundreds
of taverns and eating places,


488
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,800
ranging from seedy dens
and strip joints to something


489
00:31:56,800 --> 00:31:59,920
much more like the
modern winebar or gastropub.


490
00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:03,800
Today, these places
are nice lifestyle extras,


491
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:07,920
but if you were living at the top
of an ancient high-rise, the streets


492
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,120
were your living room,
the baths your bathroom


493
00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:13,240
and this was your kitchen.


494
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:16,240
So, who do you meet in a Roman bar?


495
00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:19,920
Well, the poet Juvenal


496
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:23,720
conjures up a really
disreputable crew who, he says,


497
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:27,160
hang out in Roman bars -
thieves and cutthroats,


498
00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,040
runaways, even the local
coffin-maker,


499
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,840
because in Rome,
it's the poor who are eating out,


500
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,040
the rich are dining at home.


501
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:38,840
We mustn't forget
the landlord and landlady.


502
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:42,480
We get a little glimpse of them
in an amazing tombstone


503
00:32:42,480 --> 00:32:44,720
found just outside Rome,


504
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,520
put up to a pair of innkeepers,
man and wife.


505
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:53,120
He's called
Lucius Calidius Eroticus


506
00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:57,160
and she's Fanniae Voluptas.


507
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,920
Now, these have just got
to be trade names,


508
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:04,240
because Calidius Eroticus


509
00:33:04,240 --> 00:33:06,880
means Mr Hot Sex


510
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:12,080
and Fanniae Voluptas...
well, she's Madame Gorgeous,


511
00:33:12,080 --> 00:33:16,840
so it's the bar of
Hot Sex and Mrs Gorgeous!


512
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,120
Don't get the wrong idea
about Fanniae, though,


513
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,120
because it doesn't mean that
in Latin!


514
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:32,200
Quite a few ancient bars
have actually survived,


515
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:34,520
but one in particular, in Pompeii,


516
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,800
captures the flavour
of ancient bar life on its walls.


517
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:41,520
Here, at eye level,
in its back saloon,


518
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:43,720
are wonderfully vivid images


519
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,720
of Romans eating and drinking,
gambling and being served wine.


520
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:52,040
And here, one that's been
sadly hacked away,


521
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,720
probably by some Victorian moralist,


522
00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:56,440
because what it showed,


523
00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:01,120
as we can tell from an early
19th-century picture of it,


524
00:34:01,120 --> 00:34:04,200
is a couple of people -
a bloke and woman -


525
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,000
having sex,


526
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,120
with wine glasses in their hand,


527
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:13,400
simultaneously, and balanced
on a tightrope.


528
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:17,000
All that's left of it
is the bloke's feet!


529
00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,960
Whether life
in the average Roman pub


530
00:34:22,960 --> 00:34:27,600
was quite as raunchy as these
pictures suggest, I don't know,


531
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:31,760
but there are plenty of graffiti
round Pompeii, saying words


532
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:34,320
to the effect of,
"I screwed the barmaid,"


533
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,520
so it doesn't take much to guess


534
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:38,880
what happened after closing time.


535
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:41,640
And certainly, the Roman rich


536
00:34:41,640 --> 00:34:44,680
were paranoid about pub culture.


537
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:48,760
It's here they thought that the
people got above themselves,


538
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,480
planned riots, got awkward,


539
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:55,200
got very drunk,
and they were hugely disdainful


540
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,520
of the kind of
vulgarity of it all.


541
00:34:57,520 --> 00:35:01,000
Of course, the rich have always
said that kind of thing.


542
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:03,240
They gambled themselves silly,


543
00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:06,520
but take a couple of poor travellers
and give them a game of dice


544
00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:11,720
and the rich are prophesying
instant moral decline.


545
00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:19,640
The best example of a bar that isn't
bothered by any of this moralising


546
00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:24,520
is in ancient Ostia,
a harbour town not far from Rome.


547
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,080
Inside are a set of paintings
that take us right into the world


548
00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:31,960
of Roman anti-establishment
bar humour.


549
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:36,080
The art historian John Clarke
has come to explore it with me.


550
00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:37,880
Come in here


551
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:40,240
and you see these men...


552
00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:42,920
We've only got the tops of them


553
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,680
because later on,
they got cut off and lost.


554
00:35:45,680 --> 00:35:48,880
But they are sitting
on a common latrine.


555
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:52,520
Here, the artist has given them
speech lines


556
00:35:52,520 --> 00:35:54,640
above each of their heads.


557
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:56,360
We have "mulione sedes" -


558
00:35:56,360 --> 00:36:00,360
you're sitting on a mule driver.


559
00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,760
A mule driver was a common saying
for being constipated,


560
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,080
because mule drivers
were very stubborn.


561
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:09,840
So this is a very stubborn
evacuation procedure.


562
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:14,920
So this guy has got constipation.
Right. That one is quite wonderful.


563
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:16,440
It's my favourite, actually.


564
00:36:16,440 --> 00:36:18,920
"Amice fugit te proverbium -
bene caca et irrima medicos?"


565
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:23,920
That's a bad word.


566
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,600
It would be something like this.


567
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:28,400
Buddy, don't you know the saying -


568
00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:32,280
"shit well and bugger the doctors"?


569
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:34,520
In other words, you don't need them.


570
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,680
Higher up on the wall are images


571
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:39,520
of the great thinkers
of ancient Greece -


572
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:42,080
the Seven Sages -
only three of which are left.


573
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,280
Thales from Miletus.


574
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:45,920
Solon from Athens.


575
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:47,280
Chilon from Sparta.


576
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:49,880
Much loved by Roman teachers,


577
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,480
they were known for their
high-minded catchphrases


578
00:36:52,480 --> 00:36:53,760
on how best to live,


579
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,640
yet here, even they
are literally talking crap.


580
00:36:57,640 --> 00:36:59,720
Here's the best of all, really...


581
00:36:59,720 --> 00:37:03,800
"Vissire tacite Chilon
docuit subdolus."


582
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:08,960
Clever Chilon taught people
how to fart without making noise.


583
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,040
Silent farting
was a speciality, apparently!


584
00:37:13,520 --> 00:37:17,000
Chilon's the one who did say,
you shouldn't...


585
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,040
His canonical saying is - you
shouldn't desire the impossible.


586
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:26,640
Maybe it's possible to learn how
to be a silent farter. Who knows!


587
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,440
We shouldn't get the impression from
a place like this


588
00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,160
that the only thing the ordinary
Romans joked about


589
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:44,240
was their bowels
and their constipation.


590
00:37:44,240 --> 00:37:51,000
In fact, an amazing collection of
Roman popular jokes still survives.


591
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,680
Almost 300 of them.
The Roman joke book.


592
00:37:54,680 --> 00:37:59,320
And that shows Romans
joking about almost everything.


593
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:01,880
One of my favourites
goes like this...


594
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,320
A man is walking along the street,
he meets a friend and says,


595
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:09,280
"Oh, are you alive?
I heard you were dead."


596
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,200
He replies,
"Look, you can see I'm alive."


597
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:15,080
"Oh," said the other.


598
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:19,520
"The man who told me you were dead,
is much more reliable than you are."


599
00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:26,160
Silly joke, perhaps a slightly
nasty joke, but for me,


600
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:31,280
it opens up one of the big problems
of big-city living.


601
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,600
In a world without ID cards
or passports,


602
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:36,920
who are you?


603
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:38,560
How do you know who you are?


604
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:41,400
How do you prove who you are?


605
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:42,520
That's a problem.


606
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:51,640
What jokes like these do


607
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:54,160
is take us into the minds of
ordinary Romans,


608
00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,600
but they also give us
a different view


609
00:38:56,600 --> 00:38:59,480
on how to picture
the ancient city streets.


610
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:04,520
They really weren't filled with all
the big guys, the toffs,


611
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,000
the togas, the politicians, they
were flooded by its ordinary people.


612
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:10,000
This was the people's city.


613
00:39:15,720 --> 00:39:18,200
You wouldn't have come across


614
00:39:18,200 --> 00:39:22,440
many of the rich and powerful in the
streets and squares of ancient Rome.


615
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:26,200
They'd much more likely have been
hurried along in a sedan chair


616
00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:30,760
carried by slaves, curtains drawn,
a bit like a modern celeb


617
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,600
in a modern, chauffeur-driven
blacked-out limo.


618
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:37,480
These kind of places were the
people's places


619
00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,760
for doing business, for grabbing
a bite to eat, for fighting,


620
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,480
for flirting, for just hanging out.


621
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:48,320
And it could all get pretty packed,


622
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:51,000
as one tragic tombstone makes
horribly clear.


623
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:55,000
It's put up to a woman
called Ummidia


624
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,680
and to Ummidius Primigenius,
a boy of 13 years old.


625
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:03,440
It's put up by Ummidius Anoptes,
probably her partner.


626
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:08,920
He explains, "una dies" -
one day, carried them both off.


627
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:13,400
They met the final day of their
destiny together.


628
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:15,720
How did they die?


629
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:18,640
"Compressi examine turbae."


630
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:22,680
They were crushed by
the swarm of a crowd.


631
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:26,240
Now, we don't know what was
going on in Rome that day,


632
00:40:26,240 --> 00:40:29,320
but it sure gives you
a very clear idea


633
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:32,560
of just how crowded the city
could get.


634
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:39,760
If this gives us a clue


635
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:43,000
on how to re-people the streets
of ancient Rome,


636
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:46,160
what happens when you look at
its most famous public space


637
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,520
through this lens?


638
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:51,120
That space is known as The Forum.


639
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:55,600
It's now a picturesque
but sad wreck of what it once was,


640
00:40:55,600 --> 00:40:59,640
and honestly, it's hard for almost
anyone to make head or tail of.


641
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:03,360
This was once the location of some
of the city's main law courts,


642
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,200
political meeting places
and grandest temples.


643
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:12,520
Let's forget for a bit the forum of
the great speech makers,


644
00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:16,560
the politicians,
the celebrity lawyers,


645
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:20,200
the friends, Romans,
countrymen types.


646
00:41:20,200 --> 00:41:22,760
Of course,
all of that stuff happened here,


647
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:28,840
but my Forum isn't the Forum of
those bigwigs in their white togas.


648
00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:33,240
My Forum is the Forum of the
poor people, the middling people,


649
00:41:33,240 --> 00:41:38,080
the ordinary people in their tunics,
even in their trousers.


650
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,800
In fact, one Roman comic writer


651
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,600
has left us a guide
to the types of the Forum.


652
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:48,560
A satirical guide
to who you might find where.


653
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:50,000
I'm off to follow him.


654
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,800
This writer was a man
called Plautus,


655
00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,280
the author of
boy-meets-girl farces.


656
00:41:59,280 --> 00:42:01,720
What he gives us
isn't the official guide


657
00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:04,960
to the Forum as the big guys
might want us to see it,


658
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,640
but a down and dirty rough guide.


659
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:13,920
This doesn't look great now, but it
used to be a big public hall.


660
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,080
What does Plautus say?


661
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:17,360
He says,


662
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,000
this is where you find
the bargain hunters


663
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,280
and the clapped-out prostitutes.


664
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,200
Elsewhere, Plautus talks about
the wideboys,


665
00:42:29,200 --> 00:42:31,600
the sort you might have found
playing for profit


666
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:33,880
at one of the gaming boards
you can still see


667
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:36,960
scratched all over the steps of
one of the main law courts.


668
00:42:38,720 --> 00:42:43,800
This is the board
and it's got loads of dips in it.


669
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:48,160
Actually, someone has spent a long
time making those great pockets.


670
00:42:48,160 --> 00:42:50,960
It's always hard to reconstruct
the rules of these games.


671
00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:52,680
It's like having a Monopoly board


672
00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:54,800
and a house and a
get-out-of-jail-free card


673
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,600
and trying to reconstruct
what you're supposed to do.


674
00:42:57,600 --> 00:42:59,400
I'm going to give this game a try.


675
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:04,280
First off, the marbles.


676
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:10,320
Losing my marbles.


677
00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:13,600
Perhaps what you did was
tiddlywinks. That's a possibility.


678
00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:19,760
Oh, look at that.


679
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:25,120
My conclusion from this
academic experiment,


680
00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,920
is that this is a tiddlywink board.


681
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,000
What about the Forum's
temples of the Roman gods?


682
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,560
What does Plautus have to say
about those?


683
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,640
This is one place where
all those different levels of life


684
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:43,680
in the Forum
come very nicely together.


685
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,680
It's the temple of the God Castor.


686
00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:51,600
Those three columns are
one of the most iconic images


687
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,120
of the whole forum.


688
00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:57,760
But round the corner, we find
a really different kind of temple.


689
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,960
Underneath, built into
the temple itself,


690
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,720
is a row of little shops.


691
00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:08,240
You walk a bit further on and you
look to the back of the temple,


692
00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:10,840
go back to Plautus,
what does he say?


693
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:13,600
Rent boys.


694
00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:20,960
And we don't just have to rely on
a comic writer for evidence


695
00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,400
of ordinary life in the Forum.


696
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:26,320
Modern archaeology has
succeeded in backing him up.


697
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:29,720
When a group of Scandinavian
archaeologists excavated


698
00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:31,200
one of the temple's shops,


699
00:44:31,200 --> 00:44:35,160
they unearthed some extraordinary
ordinary objects,


700
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:39,240
including evidence
of what looks like a Roman dentists.


701
00:44:39,240 --> 00:44:41,760
Siri, tell me about these teeth.


702
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:47,440
They are one of the most amazing
archaeological discoveries


703
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:49,280
ever made. There's 86 of them.


704
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:51,160
Where exactly were they found?


705
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:54,000
They were found in the drain
of one of the shops


706
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,160
in the podium of
the Temple of Castor and Pollux


707
00:44:57,160 --> 00:45:01,240
and they were probably meant to be
flushed down into the Cloaca Maxima,


708
00:45:01,240 --> 00:45:05,680
which runs by the side of the temple,
but for some reason, they got stuck.


709
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:08,960
And they've all been actually
extracted, haven't they?


710
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:11,400
Their roots are pretty much whole.


711
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:14,200
No anaesthetic, apart from a quick
glass of wine.


712
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,280
They must have screamed
during these operations.


713
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:20,120
This is just somebody's agony. Yes.


714
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:23,360
'And I didn't just find
rotten Roman teeth.'


715
00:45:23,360 --> 00:45:26,240
It was something like
a beauty parlour, I think.


716
00:45:26,240 --> 00:45:30,000
We have these fine glasses for oils


717
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:31,480
and creams,


718
00:45:31,480 --> 00:45:33,800
and this is a drinking cup.


719
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:36,280
They could also gamble.


720
00:45:36,280 --> 00:45:37,680
See these dice?


721
00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:39,840
Yeah, these are very nice dice.


722
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:42,640
Perhaps you were playing dice
while you were waiting.


723
00:45:42,640 --> 00:45:46,400
Instead of reading magazines, you
were playing dice. Yes, yes, indeed.


724
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:50,400
And this looks like
a tongue depressor.


725
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,040
Open wide! Yes!


726
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,400
Putting all this stuff together,


727
00:45:57,400 --> 00:46:02,920
it's a really wonderful glimpse
of the other side of the Forum.


728
00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:08,240
This says the people's place as much
as it is the rich people's place.


729
00:46:08,240 --> 00:46:13,240
Yes. And this is the kind of stuff
that the people are doing there.


730
00:46:13,240 --> 00:46:17,760
They're playing dice and having
their appalling teeth removed. Yes.


731
00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:19,080
Urgh!


732
00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,280
The Roman Forum is a great example


733
00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,720
of how our traditional images
of Rome are so skewed.


734
00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:42,840
Sure, Rome was a society where
the rich dominated the poor,


735
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:45,480
but it was also
an incredibly mixed place,


736
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:48,520
where even its most sacred spaces
were shared.


737
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:51,880
But just occasionally,


738
00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:56,560
we can see some aggressive attempts
to divide the toffs from the poor.


739
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:16,680
Most people come here to look
at this vast temple


740
00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:19,240
put up by the Emperor Augustus.


741
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:23,760
Nobody pays much attention though
to that massive wall behind it,


742
00:47:23,760 --> 00:47:26,680
and in a way, that wall can tell us


743
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:30,160
more about life in ancient Rome
than the marble can.


744
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,680
On the other side of it was an area
known as the Subura.


745
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:39,000
Not exactly slums, but mention
Subura to your average Roman


746
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:41,680
and they'd think crime,
prostitution,


747
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,960
something pretty seedy.


748
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:47,880
This wall's an ideological barrier.


749
00:47:47,880 --> 00:47:51,120
It's saying to anyone
who lived in the Subura,


750
00:47:51,120 --> 00:47:54,520
"This is posh territory, keep out!"


751
00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:57,920
There's another story too.


752
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:03,840
The Subura was full of rickety,
wooden, jerry-built,


753
00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:07,600
high-rise blocks,
constantly falling down.


754
00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:09,360
It was a real fire trap.


755
00:48:10,720 --> 00:48:14,640
Actually, this wall
is a vast firewall.


756
00:48:15,640 --> 00:48:19,360
'Unsurprisingly, the buildings of
the Subura have largely disappeared


757
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:21,640
'but some of the voices
from the tenements,


758
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:24,960
'from that dangerous side
of the city, have survived.


759
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:28,760
'One was found in the foundations
of a modern office block in


760
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:32,080
'a rather grey part
of suburban Rome.'


761
00:48:52,720 --> 00:48:57,160
This is the tombstone of
a little girl called Doris.


762
00:48:57,160 --> 00:49:01,880
She was "Infelicissima",
terribly unlucky.


763
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,120
Why was she unlucky?


764
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:09,600
Because she died in a fire, a sudden
fire of incredible violence.


765
00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:12,320
She had only just had her
seventh birthday.


766
00:49:12,320 --> 00:49:15,200
She was seven years and 22 days.


767
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:20,440
This was put up to her by
one of her friends or family,


768
00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:23,640
a woman called Licinia Hedone.


769
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:26,640
She ends rather touchingly,


770
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:29,520
"May your bones rest quietly


771
00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,240
"and may the earth
lie lightly on you."


772
00:49:40,200 --> 00:49:43,200
Doris can't have been the only
kid to die this way.


773
00:49:43,200 --> 00:49:46,120
Fires were so common that
large parts of the city


774
00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:49,920
burned to the ground
on numerous occasions.


775
00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:54,880
But the point is,
it wasn't just easy to start a fire,


776
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:58,760
it was very hard to put one out
once it had started.


777
00:49:58,760 --> 00:50:03,200
And there was no efficient,
effective public Fire Brigade


778
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:05,200
in the terms that we know.


779
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:10,080
There was, it's true, a kind of
paramilitary organisation


780
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:14,200
of watchmen, "vigiles",
who did keep an eye open


781
00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:18,720
for fires starting, but they
hadn't got much effective equipment


782
00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:20,760
to deal with them if they did.


783
00:50:20,760 --> 00:50:24,800
A few poles to pull building downs
to make a fire break,


784
00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:27,280
some pails of water and vinegar


785
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:31,040
and some blankets to try
and stifle the flames.


786
00:50:32,320 --> 00:50:35,760
Some of them were probably pretty
brave, but others were corrupt


787
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,240
and on the make.


788
00:50:38,240 --> 00:50:41,840
One story is that in
the Great Fire of Rome,


789
00:50:41,840 --> 00:50:43,680
under the Emperor Nero,


790
00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:47,160
the watch, instead of trying
to put the flames out,


791
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:51,200
they joined in looting the buildings
that were already ablaze.


792
00:50:51,200 --> 00:50:54,440
I wonder if anyone came to try
and rescue Doris?


793
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,240
And that's the big difference
with our modern cities.


794
00:51:11,240 --> 00:51:13,320
When you look around them,


795
00:51:13,320 --> 00:51:16,320
it's easy to see all the things
we take for granted,


796
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:18,280
everything from litter bins


797
00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:21,920
to friendly or unfriendly cops
on the corner.


798
00:51:21,920 --> 00:51:25,200
But in ancient Rome,
there were none of these services.


799
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,480
There was hardly a fire brigade,
there was no police force,


800
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:31,680
no prisons,
and the only real security forces


801
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:33,840
were in the pay of the rich.


802
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:37,040
To flesh out the picture,
I went out to meet Corey Brennan,


803
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:39,080
from the American Academy in Rome.


804
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:44,200
The issue for me is
why they didn't provide services.


805
00:51:44,200 --> 00:51:46,720
Did the poor want the services?


806
00:51:46,720 --> 00:51:48,520
Oh, I'm sure they did.


807
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:51,200
Because when that guy,
Egnatius Rufus,


808
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:53,400
in the reign
of the Emperor Augustus,


809
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:56,120
starts his own fire brigade,
the Emperor Augustus,


810
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:59,360
instead of saying, "Well done,
Egnatius, congratulations,


811
00:51:59,360 --> 00:52:01,920
"thank you very much for helping
the people of Rome,"


812
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,800
he basically had him executed.
Yes, precisely.


813
00:52:06,000 --> 00:52:09,280
It goes to show the competition
amongst the ruling class,


814
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:12,560
amongst elites, because each one of
them knew if they stepped forward


815
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:15,360
and effectively provided these types
of social services,


816
00:52:15,360 --> 00:52:19,560
that were really needed,
that people really wanted,


817
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:21,480
the type of political cachet


818
00:52:21,480 --> 00:52:23,920
that they could build
just from that act


819
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:25,640
really would make it unbeatable,


820
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:29,400
so they really worked to cancel each
other out, and the people
who suffered


821
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,280
were, in fact, the Romans themselves.


822
00:52:33,720 --> 00:52:37,040
But the lack of social services
weren't the only problems


823
00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:38,880
on the city streets.


824
00:52:38,880 --> 00:52:41,160
They might have been filled
with real life,


825
00:52:41,160 --> 00:52:46,160
but real life, as in any modern
city, could be hard to control.


826
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,040
Violence was an ever-present danger,


827
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,200
as one nastily familiar story
tells us.


828
00:52:53,640 --> 00:52:55,080
I am about to reveal


829
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:58,720
a nasty bit of Roman street crime,


830
00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:01,440
a kind of Roman cold case.


831
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:04,200
It needs a bit of cleaning up first,


832
00:53:04,200 --> 00:53:05,960
it's very dusty.


833
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:07,880
It's a tombstone


834
00:53:07,880 --> 00:53:10,960
and it's put up by a lady called


835
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:14,400
Otacilia Narcisa,


836
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:18,000
to her darling husband.


837
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,480
"Coniugi dulcissimo."


838
00:53:21,480 --> 00:53:23,880
His name...


839
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:27,680
was Julius Timotheus


840
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:30,200
and he lived, she said,


841
00:53:30,200 --> 00:53:34,600
P-M - plus or minus 28 years.


842
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:37,960
That means Otacilia
wasn't entirely certain


843
00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:40,880
how old the husband was.


844
00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:44,760
And he had "his blameless life


845
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:47,240
"snatched away from him


846
00:53:47,240 --> 00:53:52,000
"a latronibus - by robbers."


847
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:55,320
Not just him -


848
00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:58,200
he was with his


849
00:53:58,200 --> 00:54:01,360
seven alumni.


850
00:54:01,360 --> 00:54:04,720
That can mean foster kids,
dependants,


851
00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,080
sometimes even pupils.


852
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:09,120
They were all killed too.


853
00:54:09,120 --> 00:54:11,920
That's what it really means.


854
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:14,640
This wasn't just a mugging,


855
00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:16,880
this was mass murder.


856
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:26,000
If the streets were never completely
safe by day, then by night,


857
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:28,560
we know they were lawless places.


858
00:54:28,560 --> 00:54:32,040
The poet Juvenal
writes graphically of having


859
00:54:32,040 --> 00:54:35,360
to pick his way home in the dark,
dodging the violent gangs


860
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:38,240
and drunken bullies
on the prowl for fights.


861
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:43,920
Preserved under the foundations
of a church in central Rome


862
00:54:43,920 --> 00:54:47,560
is one place that helps us
get close to this atmosphere.


863
00:54:47,560 --> 00:54:51,120
Here are the mean streets of
a real Roman neighbourhood.


864
00:54:51,120 --> 00:54:53,640
We're a few hundred metres
from the Colosseum


865
00:54:53,640 --> 00:54:55,560
and this is a back alley.


866
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:57,880
This feels like a Roman street.


867
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:01,440
It's because it IS a Roman street!


868
00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:05,520
What you've got to do,


869
00:55:05,520 --> 00:55:07,480
if you try and reconstruct this,


870
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:11,880
you've got to think dirt.
A lot of it. This is very clean.


871
00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:15,120
You've got to think smell...
A lot of it.


872
00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:16,560
..but it's also...


873
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:18,680
it feels a bit scary.


874
00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:22,360
It's a mugger's paradise,
there's no doubt about it.


875
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,800
I mean, street crime's one thing
but, you know,


876
00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:29,120
apartment blocks
directly on the street,


877
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:32,640
it's a burglar's, a cat burglar's
paradise. Precisely.


878
00:55:32,640 --> 00:55:36,280
When the Emperor Augustus
really wanted people


879
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:37,720
to come to his games,


880
00:55:37,720 --> 00:55:41,400
what he did was he distributed
armed guards throughout the city,


881
00:55:41,400 --> 00:55:44,560
because otherwise, people would be
reluctant to leave their houses,


882
00:55:44,560 --> 00:55:47,960
because it was known when there was
a big game day, so to speak,


883
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:50,400
that's precisely...
It's like New Year's Eve,


884
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:54,000
basically, that's the prime day
to go robbing.


885
00:55:54,000 --> 00:55:57,680
I mean, when there's a question
of a serious breach of public order,


886
00:55:57,680 --> 00:56:01,480
then the officials get interested.


887
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:07,000
So if the authorities had little
interest in the day-to-day


888
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:09,320
welfare of their ordinary citizens,


889
00:56:09,320 --> 00:56:12,520
what happened if you got murdered
in streets like this?


890
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:14,840
How could your family
pursue justice?


891
00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:17,800
The Romans had the system
of public courts


892
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:19,920
and the name is misleading because


893
00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,160
what it was was courts that saw to


894
00:56:22,160 --> 00:56:24,560
breaches of the social order.


895
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,800
So you get murder, but really,
when there's a political...


896
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,720
Upper-class murder. Exactly.


897
00:56:30,720 --> 00:56:33,760
They looked at conspiracy,
setting fires.


898
00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:37,000
In order to come in the purview
of Roman law, you either have to go


899
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:40,200
after someone who's rich,
well-connected and powerful,


900
00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,920
or you have to be making a very big
tear in the social fabric.


901
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:48,240
So if somebody murders my brother,


902
00:56:48,240 --> 00:56:50,800
unless he's important, that's...


903
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:54,480
the only person who's going to do
anything about it, really, is me.


904
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,000
Yes, the self-help.


905
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:04,200
Today, when we look at Rome's
impressive marble monuments,


906
00:57:04,200 --> 00:57:08,560
it's hard to imagine the dirty,
dangerous, chaotic city


907
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,040
in which ordinary Romans
lived their lives.


908
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,720
So little of it has survived
above ground.


909
00:57:13,720 --> 00:57:16,400
But if you know where to look,


910
00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:20,000
it is still possible to get
glimpses of their world -


911
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,080
the high-rise tenement blocks,


912
00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:26,480
where tenants lived in fear of fires
and the rent collector,


913
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:30,400
the grunts of gamblers and gym-goers
in its bars and bathhouses,


914
00:57:30,400 --> 00:57:34,080
and the hustle of life
on its mean streets,


915
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,440
where there was no safety nets
when things went wrong.


916
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:41,040
These streets must have been
a tough place to live your life.


917
00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:46,480
All the same, I can't help
feeling that they had a spontaneity


918
00:57:46,480 --> 00:57:50,040
and a fun about them
that many of our streets have lost.


919
00:57:50,040 --> 00:57:53,200
And just listen to those voices.


920
00:57:53,200 --> 00:57:57,240
What they're saying is that
despite all the dangers,


921
00:57:57,240 --> 00:57:59,720
Rome was an exhilarating,


922
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:02,440
a life-affirming place to be.


923
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:05,960
And that's why it still speaks to us


924
00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:08,600
after 2,000 years.


925
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:11,960
'Next week,
I'll meet the Romans at home,


926
00:58:11,960 --> 00:58:16,520
'where I'll discover some familiar
objects of domestic family life...'


927
00:58:16,520 --> 00:58:20,280
It's a really, really precious
piece, because it's the only


928
00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:23,960
cradle that survived
from the Roman world.


929
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,760
'..and where I'll piece together
a surprising view


930
00:58:26,760 --> 00:58:28,520
'of Roman marriage, childhood,


931
00:58:28,520 --> 00:58:31,840
'slavery and sex.'


932
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:35,520
This is a Roman menage-a-trois.


933
00:58:55,320 --> 00:58:57,880
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