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Today, when we think of
ancient Rome, this is what we see.


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A city of marble ruins,
colossal amphitheatres


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and imperial power.


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A world of emperors and armies
and lavish spectacle.


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All those gladiators
fighting to the death.


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But what happens
if we turn that upside down?


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We take a look at Rome
from the bottom up.


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Hidden away,
all over the modern city,


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you can still find evidence
for a very different ancient Rome.


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The forgotten voices
of its bakers and butchers,


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its slaves and children.


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Gosh, this is a sad one.
"He lived for just one year."


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"Vixet Annum Unum."
The death of a baby.


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Here we've got a
young slave girl, aged 17.


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"Africana."


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"She came from Africa."


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This wasn't just a mugging.


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This was mass murder.


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In this series, I've been exploring
the lives of these ordinary Romans


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through the extraordinary stories
they tell us on their tombstones.


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We've already seen how
the Empire turned Rome


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into the world's first global city,


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a place where a million people from
three continents lived together,


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where life was full of
luxury and laughter,


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but also disease and danger.


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In this final film,
I want to delve even deeper


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and go behind the closed doors
of the Roman home


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to lift the lid on their personal
lives and prized possessions.


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It's a really, really precious piece
because it's the only cradle...


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SHE LAUGHS
..to survive from the Roman world.


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And take you to meet
some extraordinary, ordinary Romans


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who'll reveal an intimate,
at times dark,


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but very surprising picture
of the Roman family.


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Step through the front door
into a Roman home


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and you'll find a place
brimming with stories,


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from the shocking to the sweet.


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Loving couples, that's for sure,
but also teenage pregnancies,


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abandoned babies, drunken
housewives, runaway slaves,


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menage-a-trois


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and a very nasty case
of domestic violence.


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Welcome to my Rome.


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This house in Pompeii


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is the perfect example
of a conventional Roman home.


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You come through the front door
into a grand formal hall


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with several rooms off it.


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Pool for collecting water,
and opposite the front door,


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a reception room-cum-study called,
in Latin, the tablino.


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'The standard view is
that this is where


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the master of the house presided,


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dressed in his toga,
receiving his guests,


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while at the back of the house,
in the private quarters,


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is where we find the wife and kids


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and the cook,
slaving away over a hot oven.


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The problem with that is


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there's a touch of the Frankie
Howerd Mr and Mrs Pompeii about it.


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Or, to put it another way,


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there's temptation for us
to take a rather idealising image


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of our own families,


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dress them up in togas,
add a couple of slaves,


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and say, "Hey presto!
That's a Roman family."


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And it's not actually
entirely wrong,


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and there's some quite strikingly
familiar things about a Roman house,


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right down to some of them having
a "Beware Of The Dog" sign


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at the front door.


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But if you look a bit harder,
you find it isn't quite so simple.


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So, how do we start
to bring back to life


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what really went on
within the walls of a Roman home?


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And how do we get close
to a real Roman family?


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Well, the best way is to look at
what the Romans themselves


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tell us from beyond the grave.


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When you come into
a place like this,


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what first hits you in the eye
are the statues of the rich,


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stern emperors
and ladies with expensive hairdos.


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But if you look behind them,


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you'll find thousands
of ordinary Roman voices,


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compelling us
to read their stories.


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Some have forked out on portraits,


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others on just a few lines of text.


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But they all give you clues


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about who they lived with
and who they loved.


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Here's a cute little boy
with his pet dog.


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Here's a dad.


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He's commemorating
his daughter, Giulia.


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There she is. Really natty hairdo.


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She must've been quite
fashion-conscious, I think.


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But one of the most striking things
about all these tombstones


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is how Roman husbands and wives
portray themselves in death.


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And if you want to know why we've
inherited such a traditional view


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of the Roman family,


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then the best place to start
is with Roman marriage.


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So, this is one end
of a big Roman marble coffin.


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We don't know who
was originally inside it,


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but this end, at least,
talks to us about marriage.


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Got a husband, wife,
and they're holding hands.


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That's the absolutely classic
image of the Roman married couple.


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It's really such a cliched logo
of Roman marriage


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that stone carvers would have
churned these things out


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by the dozen.


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This will all be prepared,


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and the stonemason will just
put your faces onto the heads.


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Whatever it looks like,


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it isn't an equal
relationship, though.


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In the stereotype,
the husband has all the control.


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The wife's job is to serve
him every which way.


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You even get some Roman epitaphs
that sum up a woman's life,


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just by listing her service.


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She talked nicely,
she walked nicely,


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she had kids, she kept house,
she made wool. Enough said.


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And it goes right to the top
of Roman society, too.


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There's a lovely story about
the Empress Livia,


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the scheming, poisoning wife
of the Emperor Augustus.


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She's supposed to have taken
great care that people saw her,


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in the Imperial Palace itself,


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spinning and weaving the wool
for her husband's togas.


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That was what Roman women
were supposed to do.


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On the surface, then,
these tombstones show us


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a rather poised, cool,
even cold view of Roman marriage.


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But tombstones
tend to give that impression.


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Even today, they trade in cliches.


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But there's
plenty of other evidence


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that helps us get behind
these stereotyped impressions.


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At the British Museum in London
is a wonderful collection


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of Roman rings
covered in the same imagery.


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They look pretty familiar to us.


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We know, actually, that
what we call the wedding finger


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was the favourite place
to put a ring.


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Some Roman doctors thought
it was a direct link


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between that finger and the heart.


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But it's hard to get through
these sort of standardised images


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of the clasped hands.


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Just occasionally, you can.


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This ring here...


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..it's a pretty plain ring,


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but in the centre, it's got,
written on it in Latin,


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"Te Amo Parem."


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Which means, literally, umm...


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"I love you not enough."
"I don't love you enough."


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It's slightly odd at first sight.


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It's particularly odd
to imagine that


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you would give a rather expensive
gold ring to somebody to say,


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"Here you are.
Have this lovely ring.


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"But I don't care for you
that much!"


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Think it's probably
a bit cleverer than that.


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And I think what the message
must mean is,


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"I can't love you possibly as much
as you deserve to be loved.


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"You are so fantastic and
gorgeous and loveable


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"that nobody could love you
as much as you ought to be loved."


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It's like a wonderfully rare,
really rare, glimpse


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of somebody's kind of
personal voice,


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sort of shouting through these
rather cliched images of marriage.


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That ring hints some of the passion
you can find in Roman relationships.


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But it's also there
if you look beyond the man's voice


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and think about it
from the woman's side.


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Scattered across Rome
is an amazing trio of tombstones,


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which although
still written by men,


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give us a much more intimate,


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a more honest portrait
of their partners.


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You have to be a bit careful


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about what husbands and wives say
about each other on their epitaphs.


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They do tell such terrible whoppers
about their marriage.


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"We lived together for 30 years
without a cross word."


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I don't imagine that that could've
been any more true in ancient Rome


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than it is now.


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But just occasionally,


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you find someone who comes
a bit off-centre,


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breaks through those cliches


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and really conjures up
the character.


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This is a great example.


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It's a tombstone of a woman
called Glyconis,


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put up by her husband.


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Now, Glyconis is a Greek name
and it means "sweet".


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So, she's Sweetie.
And he says that, in fact.


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He says she is, "sweet by name
but even sweeter by nature.


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"She didn't like to be
all proper and austere," he says.


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"She much preferred
to be a bit wild."


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"Lascivos." "Rather sexy."


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"Suaves." She liked
to "get a bit drenched in Bacchus."


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Now, Bacchus is the god of wine.


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So, what he's saying is
she was a bit of a wild thing


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and she really liked a drink or two.


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"It's a pity," he says,
"she didn't live for ever."


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After all that affection,


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the next one reveals a
much darker side to Roman marriage.


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Here's another tombstone
which doesn't look very special,


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but has got a horrible
sting in the tail.


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It's put up by a husband and wife.


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He's called Restutus Piscinesis.


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And the wife is called
Prima Restuta.


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And they've put it up, "Fecerunt,"


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to Primae Florentiae,
their "dearest daughter,"


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"Filiae Carissimai,"
"Dearest Daughter."


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So far, so ordinary.


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But HOW did she die?


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"She was thrown," "Deceptaest,"


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"In Tiberi," "into the Tiber,"


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"by her husband, Orpheus."


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00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:09,320
"She was just
16-and-a-half years old."


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If Mum and Dad are right,
this was a case of domestic murder.


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I'm afraid some things never change.


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The woman in this last tombstone


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deserves to be a lot more
famous than she is.


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Her story gives us
a very different view


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on Roman virtue and fidelity


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00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:34,440
and is put up to a woman called
Alliae Potestatis.


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00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:36,720
And she's an ex-slave.


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She's a "Liberta"
of a man called Aulus, her partner.


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00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:47,400
Starts off with some pretty
standard praise for a Roman woman.


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She was "always the first
to get out of bed in the morning


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and "the last
to go to bed at night,"


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i.e. she was doing all the
housework.


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00:12:57,640 --> 00:12:59,680
But then,


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it starts to get a bit weirder...


213
00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:05,720
..because the writer becomes...


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00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:10,520
..a bit strangely explicit
about her body.


215
00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:13,800
He says here,


216
00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:19,160
"she's got lovely snow white breasts
and small nipples"


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and that "her arms
and legs were beautifully smooth."


218
00:13:24,440 --> 00:13:26,080
And then he explains why.


219
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It's because she was a very
"active depilator."


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She "sought out every little hair
and plucked it out."


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00:13:32,640 --> 00:13:35,080
But it gets even weirder than that.


222
00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:42,120
This woman had actually "two
lovers that she was living with."


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One household held them all.
"Una domus" held them all,


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and they lived
in a spirit of perfect harmony.


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00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:56,400
This is, in other words,
a Roman menage-a-trois.


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00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:03,080
But after she died,
the blokes went their separate ways,


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00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:07,120
and they're now growing old apart.


228
00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:11,160
If you wanted just one example


229
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of how Roman relationships could
be as messy, as murky


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00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:18,360
and as mixed-up as our own,


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it would have to be the
household of Allia Potestas.


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00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:27,680
I can't help wondering, though,
what Allia Potestas' version


233
00:14:27,680 --> 00:14:31,240
of the story about these guys
would have been.


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00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:37,800
So if these three voices tell us
how we can fill the Roman home


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00:14:37,800 --> 00:14:40,520
with a more unexpected
set of occupants,


236
00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:42,640
what about the house itself?


237
00:14:42,640 --> 00:14:46,760
Well, if you look beyond
those rather posh houses in Pompeii


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00:14:46,760 --> 00:14:50,400
with their grand entrance halls
and expensive paintings,


239
00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:52,360
you'll find that Roman homes


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00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:55,840
came in just as many shapes
and sizes as their relationships.


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This place
was in multiple occupancy.


242
00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:07,960
It had three or four
separate apartments,


243
00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:11,600
and actually the walls inside
were partly made of wicker.


244
00:15:11,600 --> 00:15:15,560
A kind of ancient
equivalent of prefab.


245
00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:17,840
But don't think dirt poor,


246
00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:20,960
there was a really pricey little
collection of bronze statuettes


247
00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:22,960
found in there.


248
00:15:24,760 --> 00:15:28,240
This one is
a pretty interesting one, actually,


249
00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:31,880
because it seems to be
partly apartment block,


250
00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:35,080
but also partly lodging house,


251
00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:36,480
partly B&B.


252
00:15:38,240 --> 00:15:42,120
Just around the corner
is one of my favourite Roman homes.


253
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:44,000
The ground floor flat


254
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,040
of what was once a quite comfortable
Roman apartment block.


255
00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:50,080
Anyone at home?


256
00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:53,120
What's so surprising about
this place is that its layout,


257
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,040
basically a series of rooms
off a central corridor,


258
00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:59,920
feels like any flat that you
might find in any modern city.


259
00:15:59,920 --> 00:16:02,440
It's now called
the Insula of the Painted Ceiling,


260
00:16:02,440 --> 00:16:03,920
for obvious reasons.


261
00:16:03,920 --> 00:16:06,920
I almost feel
I could move right in today!


262
00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,440
Now, we don't know how many people
would actually have lived here,


263
00:16:10,440 --> 00:16:12,840
and that does make a difference
to how we picture it.


264
00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:16,840
And we certainly don't know
exactly who they were,


265
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:23,400
but I don't find it difficult to
imagine Glyconis or Allia Potestas


266
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:25,920
waking up early in
a place like this.


267
00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:32,440
The point is that most Romans
didn't live in those grand houses


268
00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,160
that you see in Pompeii.


269
00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:38,280
They had all kinds of variety
of accommodation.


270
00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:42,600
Right at the bottom there were
people who lived in slum tenements,


271
00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:44,600
in a room over the shop,


272
00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:49,080
or people who just bedded down
under somebody else's staircase.


273
00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:54,160
And this
is comfortably in the middle.


274
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:57,840
This was someone's home, sweet home.


275
00:16:57,840 --> 00:17:00,320
All the same,
part of the difficulty we have


276
00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,560
in trying to bring spaces
like these alive


277
00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:06,160
is that hardly any of the stuff
that went into them has survived.


278
00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:09,680
Imagine trying to work out
what went on in a modern house


279
00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:13,080
if we didn't have
any of the furniture!


280
00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:18,200
But the task
is not entirely impossible.


281
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,680
Hidden away in a store room
in Herculaneum


282
00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,360
is a priceless treasure trove
of domestic furniture


283
00:17:29,360 --> 00:17:31,520
found in houses around the town.


284
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:36,560
Carbonised
when Vesuvius erupted in AD 79,


285
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,040
they have been painstakingly
put back together.


286
00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,000
It's terribly evocative.


287
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:47,240
Here we've got a table, the kind of
thing that you'd have by your bed,


288
00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:49,440
it's what you eat and drink off,


289
00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:52,000
don't imagine that all Romans
lie down to eat,


290
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:56,360
they put their takeaways on here
and sit down and have a nosh.


291
00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:58,800
And here...


292
00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,640
..two little wicker baskets.


293
00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:07,120
I'm going to actually
take the lid off.


294
00:18:10,560 --> 00:18:12,000
Almost the kind of...


295
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:18,680
It's the stuff, the bric-a-brac that
you'd find just in any Roman house.


296
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:26,160
It's as close as you can get
to a Roman furniture shop.


297
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:30,040
There are table legs
with stunning ivory decoration,


298
00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:33,600
others with strange dogs
carved all over them.


299
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:36,480
There's what we call a sofa bed,


300
00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:39,240
which you can still see
was beautifully inlaid.


301
00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:40,920
Even a perfectly preserved cupboard


302
00:18:40,920 --> 00:18:44,120
that I guess once held
all sorts of trinkets.


303
00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:48,800
It's beautiful.
You can see all the little hinges


304
00:18:48,800 --> 00:18:51,560
and the little handle.


305
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:54,360
But one find is the rarest of all.


306
00:18:56,960 --> 00:19:02,440
And this is a baby's cradle.


307
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:05,400
It's a really,
really precious piece,


308
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:10,040
because it's
the absolutely the only cradle


309
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:13,120
that has survived
from the Roman world,


310
00:19:13,120 --> 00:19:16,760
and that makes you think that
maybe we've just been unlucky


311
00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:19,200
in not getting the
other kids' cradles,


312
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,800
or maybe most babies
didn't sleep in something like this,


313
00:19:22,800 --> 00:19:26,800
but they bedded down in the ancient
equivalent of a drawer,


314
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,440
or, actually, they slept in the
bed with Mum or nurse.


315
00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:37,000
When it was found, it actually had
a tiny little skeleton in it,


316
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:43,000
and around the skeleton
were bits of fabric textiles


317
00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:45,320
and a whole load of leaves,


318
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:49,680
and it looks as if this baby
was sleeping on a mattress


319
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:53,080
stuffed full of leaves,
covered by a blanket,


320
00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:56,920
when the eruption of
Vesuvius came in 79


321
00:19:56,920 --> 00:19:59,720
and put an end to that little life.


322
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:02,280
Still touching, though, isn't it?


323
00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:09,600
Rocking the cradle that's been
rocked by Roman mums and nurses.


324
00:20:13,040 --> 00:20:17,600
For me, that collection of furniture
is a symbol of all the things


325
00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:21,440
we can put back into the
Roman home if we try.


326
00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:22,960
Not just the clutter,


327
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,560
but husbands and wives
and their messy relationships, too.


328
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:29,800
Seeing a child's cradle
up close reminds us


329
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:32,800
not to forget the children
in the Roman household.


330
00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:36,560
That baby, of course, didn't survive
the eruption of Vesuvius,


331
00:20:36,560 --> 00:20:40,680
but if it had, how different would
its childhood have been from ours?


332
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:45,360
Nowadays, we separate
childhood off from the adult world.


333
00:20:45,360 --> 00:20:49,920
We dress kids in clothes
quite different from adults,


334
00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,400
we give them their own
entertainment, their own books,


335
00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:55,760
we even feed them different food,


336
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:57,480
and in the last 50 years,


337
00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,200
we even invented the category
of the teenager.


338
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,680
In ancient Rome,
childhood was quite different.


339
00:21:08,360 --> 00:21:12,360
We hardly ever see or hear
the kids in a Roman home.


340
00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:17,400
They're usually cast out at the back
of the house, rarely mentioned.


341
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:20,400
Today, the only way
we can hear their voices


342
00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:22,160
is to look at the dead ones.


343
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,320
These books hold
a record of over 30,000 tombstones


344
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:27,800
from the city of Rome.


345
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:29,920
Every age, sex and walk of life,


346
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:34,600
but what hits your first is the
sheer number of child tombstones.


347
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,560
There's just hundreds
and hundreds of them.


348
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:40,400
I mean, here's little
Titius Eutychus.


349
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:42,160
He lived to be just four.


350
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,240
Here's Titius Posphorus.


351
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,200
He made it to five.


352
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:50,760
Over the page, Titiae Regillae.


353
00:21:50,760 --> 00:21:54,760
She was one years old
and five months and 11 days.


354
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,640
That's only a few of the Ts.


355
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:03,920
And it fits absolutely with what we
know about child mortality in Rome.


356
00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:08,360
At least half of the kids wouldn't
have lived until they were ten,


357
00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:11,960
a third wouldn't have made it
to their first birthday.


358
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,720
And I think you have to have
a heart of stone


359
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:19,760
not to be moved
by that statistic.


360
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:24,320
All the same,
it isn't quite all gloom and doom.


361
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,920
My absolute, absolute favourite


362
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:31,200
is a tremendous character.


363
00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:35,400
A little girl who died
when she was just five,


364
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,240
but we can really get
a sense of her.


365
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,600
She was called
Geminiae Agathe Matri.


366
00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,280
It turns out
she was a bit of a tomboy.


367
00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:48,440
"I had a 'pueri voltum' -
the face of a boy.


368
00:22:48,440 --> 00:22:52,560
"But I was a gentle soul -
'ingenio docili'.


369
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:56,280
"I was pretty
and I got a bit spoilt.


370
00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:01,240
"'Veneranda'. I had red hair
cut short on top,


371
00:23:01,240 --> 00:23:04,840
"but I let it grow long
down the back."


372
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:10,720
And then she says,
"Don't grieve too much for me.


373
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:12,960
"Have a drink,


374
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:17,320
"and don't be too sad at the rest
that my little body is having."


375
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,240
It's, as it were,
speaking to her relatives.


376
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:26,000
There's also a message there,
I think, for us.


377
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:32,200
Because although these tombstones
are kind of obviously about death,


378
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:39,240
for me, they also reek of love,
of warmth,


379
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:41,720
actually of life.


380
00:23:43,360 --> 00:23:47,200
So what happened if kids like little
Geminiae Matri did survive?


381
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:48,760
Are we talking school,


382
00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,560
or did Roman parents have
something else in store for them?


383
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,800
Well, rather predictably,


384
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:57,280
it depended on where you were
in the pecking order.


385
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,240
In their labs
on the outskirts of Rome,


386
00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:02,640
a group of Italian anthropologists
have analysed


387
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,120
over 6,000 Roman skeletons,


388
00:24:05,120 --> 00:24:09,120
dug up in and around Rome
over the past century.


389
00:24:09,120 --> 00:24:13,480
Alongside full adult skeletons
are some rare child bones,


390
00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:15,720
found in poorer graves.


391
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,400
For although Roman kids
died in vast numbers,


392
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,320
their fragile little skeletons
rarely survive.


393
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:23,120
SHE SPEAKS ITALIAN


394
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:27,920
TRANSLATION:


395
00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:45,240
What's extraordinary
is that these bones


396
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,360
show some very telling signs
of wear and tear.


397
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:28,240
So this guy has been doing
hard work with his legs


398
00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,680
for many years, and he is only 16.


399
00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:57,360
You couldn't get those
kind of lesions just by


400
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:01,600
playing football, or... skipping?


401
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,800
This has to be hard manual work?


402
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:22,760
And Fullonica...


403
00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:26,840
You're treating the cloth,
you're dyeing the cloth,


404
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,800
you're stamping on the cloth.


405
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,960
So what we've got is a kid doing
heavy manual labour


406
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:38,640
at a time when we think
they should be in infant school.


407
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,960
Also found by Paola's team, in the
grave of a one-year old girl,


408
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,200
was a strange collection of
trinkets that once formed


409
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:53,280
a gorgeous little necklace.
They look pretty innocuous.


410
00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:57,120
There's an amber rabbit,
a figurine of an Egyptian god,


411
00:26:57,120 --> 00:26:58,920
a mini phallus and some beads.


412
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:02,080
But hidden within them
is a much darker story.


413
00:27:03,520 --> 00:27:07,160
These are what the Romans would
have called crepundia.


414
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:11,560
They'd have been strung together
and worn around the neck of a child,


415
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:16,520
so they are half-toy,
half-amulet or lucky charm.


416
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:19,200
But they also have a part to play


417
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,800
in one aspect of Roman culture
that we find rather shocking.


418
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,480
And that is child exposure.


419
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:32,800
What that means, if in Rome
you have a child you don't want,


420
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,320
you can just throw it away.


421
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:38,440
In the street, on the rubbish dump.


422
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,680
And that's where the
crepundia come in.


423
00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:45,920
Because some parents were supposed
to have left these babies out


424
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,760
with their crepundia
around their necks,


425
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:54,120
as a kind of link to their birth
family, to their original identity.


426
00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:56,640
It's a wonderful plotline, actually,


427
00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:00,480
in some Roman comedies,
that the slave girl heroine


428
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,440
is suddenly spotted
and recognised by her mum and dad


429
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,920
because they've seen the crepundia
that they had left out with her.


430
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:12,000
So in some Roman comedies,


431
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,160
these things can bring about
a very nice happy ending.


432
00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,880
In real life, I'm not so sure.


433
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,000
The unavoidable fact then,
for Roman kids in poorer families,


434
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,880
is that if you weren't exposed,
and let's be honest,


435
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:34,720
we don't know how many babies
really were,


436
00:28:34,720 --> 00:28:38,680
they were put to work
as soon as they were fit and able,


437
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:40,480
perhaps as early as five.


438
00:28:40,480 --> 00:28:44,760
But further up the social scale,
things were predictably different.


439
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:48,600
In the centre of Rome, in a covered
arcade just behind the forum,


440
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,720
we can still find evidence
of a Roman school.


441
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,600
All over its plaster walls
you find writing, drawing,


442
00:28:55,600 --> 00:28:57,960
and even caricatures
of the schoolmaster.


443
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,920
Which reminds us
just how little kids have changed.


444
00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:05,800
Here's a great picture of a bloke
with a big beard, full on.


445
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:07,680
Here we're in Rome, a willy.


446
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:13,760
What you've got here is people's
letter practice, A-B-C-D,


447
00:29:13,760 --> 00:29:19,320
you've also got little snatches
of Latin poetry written.


448
00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:24,600
What it looks like to me
is an old-fashioned school desk.


449
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,320
And that, in a way,
is exactly what it is.


450
00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:31,240
Schools in Rome weren't
schools in our sense.


451
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,360
Lessons took place in arcades
like this, under shady trees,


452
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:38,000
even in the streets. They were
fee-paying, for the most part,


453
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,040
so only for the well-off
and only for boys.


454
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:43,320
Some of those lessons
would have been much like ours.


455
00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,240
They would have learned to
read and write,


456
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:47,720
they would have done
a modern language,


457
00:29:47,720 --> 00:29:50,040
in their case, it would
have been ancient Greek,


458
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:54,320
no science and PSE, it would be
public speaking and poetry.


459
00:29:56,600 --> 00:30:01,200
An image of a Roman school
in action still survives.


460
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:04,120
The original painting in Pompeii
is pretty faded,


461
00:30:04,120 --> 00:30:07,440
but this 19th-century copy
shows exactly what's going on.


462
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,880
Here are the good boys
at their lessons.


463
00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,840
But here is the unfortunate
malefactor.


464
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,720
He's the one who must have
been caught


465
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,160
doing a caricature of
the master on the wall.


466
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,560
He's being beaten.


467
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:28,000
He's being held down by two
of his fellow pupils,


468
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,720
and he's been stripped down
to his pants,


469
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:32,960
well, they're sort of pants.


470
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:37,720
And the master here is whacking him.
And he is clearly screaming.


471
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,200
This was such a well-known form
of Roman corporal punishment


472
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:45,240
that it even had its
own name, catomus.


473
00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,560
Perhaps it's not surprising that
one favourite nickname


474
00:30:49,560 --> 00:30:55,080
for a schoolmaster in Rome
was Plagosus - "whacker".


475
00:30:57,960 --> 00:30:59,880
For wealthy Roman families, then,


476
00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:03,480
rote learning and discipline
was the ideal boys' education.


477
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:05,760
But it also served as an ideal


478
00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,840
to families trying to climb
the social ladder.


479
00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:12,200
The best way to put a human face to
this story is to pay a visit


480
00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,560
to one of my favourite characters,
a real Roman schoolboy,


481
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:20,040
the son of ex-slaves
whose memorial can still be found


482
00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,280
overlooking a square
in central Rome.


483
00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:25,480
I have come here to meet up with
this little lad.


484
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:27,560
Sulpicius Maximus was his name,


485
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,720
and he was something of
a Roman child prodigy.


486
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:35,720
Aged just 11, he entered
a grown-up poetry competition,


487
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,000
a sort of Rome's Got Talent.


488
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:40,280
But stardom was not to come.


489
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:45,720
He died, and his mum and dad
put up this great memorial to him.


490
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:49,600
It says up there that
he died of too much study.


491
00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,360
I can't help thinking
he might have been


492
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,160
a bit of a victim of pushy parents.


493
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,040
Sulpicius's original memorial is now


494
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,200
in an unloved corner
of a Rome museum,


495
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:04,560
but it's a chance to
meet the boy face-to-face.


496
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:09,080
His story makes me wonder what life
was really like for kids like him


497
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:11,320
in families
desperately trying to get on.


498
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:15,640
Were you never naughty? Did you
ever refuse to do your homework?


499
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,160
Did you never
lose your school shoes?


500
00:32:19,800 --> 00:32:24,720
I can't help thinking
that life in Sulpicius's household


501
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,600
wasn't quite what his parents
wrote it up to be.


502
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:32,720
But all the same,
there is a sense that childhood,


503
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:37,240
as a category that we know, didn't
really exist in the Roman world.


504
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:38,920
I mean, look at him.


505
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:41,000
If you came across this statue


506
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,040
and you didn't know the story
written round about him,


507
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,080
you'd think this was some orator
haranguing the masses


508
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,560
in the Roman forum.


509
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:52,320
In fact, it's a kid
of 11-years-old,


510
00:32:52,320 --> 00:32:54,320
and you'd never know it.


511
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:59,280
For aspiring Roman families,
if you wanted to educate your boy,


512
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,080
you concentrated on public life,
and oratory, even poetry.


513
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:06,320
Not on what we would call
emotional development.


514
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:08,920
But how different was it
for rich Roman girls?


515
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,400
In the store room of the same
museum is one remarkable object


516
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,840
that helps to tell their
side of the story.


517
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:23,760
This is the most exquisitely
beautiful Roman doll.


518
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:29,600
She's the most perfect specimen
to survive from the Roman world,


519
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:32,040
and she is so precious
and fragile that,


520
00:33:32,040 --> 00:33:35,840
although I'm just itching to
pick her up, I'm not allowed to.


521
00:33:37,160 --> 00:33:41,040
She looks as if she's made of wood,
but in fact she's ivory.


522
00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:46,080
She's a woman with
very cleverly jointed limbs,


523
00:33:46,080 --> 00:33:50,960
she's got a rather posh,
fashionable hairdo,


524
00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:54,160
and on her hand
she's got a little gold ring.


525
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:58,520
Now, there's no such thing as
a toy shop in the Roman world,


526
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:02,080
and for most kids like Sulpicius
if they went out to play,


527
00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:04,920
they would be improvising with
nuts and stones


528
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,400
and playing ducks and drakes
on the river.


529
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,720
This is something a bit special.


530
00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:12,880
She's not just Barbie,
she's Empress Barbie.


531
00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:18,640
But there's another side to
a toy like this.


532
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:22,080
It's not just about play,
like all toys,


533
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:25,400
it's helping to teach
whoever owns it


534
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,240
what their role
is going to be in life.


535
00:34:28,240 --> 00:34:35,280
Roman women were made for marriage
and for breeding children.


536
00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:37,320
And in fact,
some Roman writers tell us


537
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,800
that just before they
do get married,


538
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:42,480
Roman girls would
go along to a temple


539
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:45,560
and they would leave their
dolls in the temple.


540
00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,920
But that didn't happen to this doll.


541
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,040
Because, actually,


542
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,720
it was found in a big stone coffin


543
00:34:54,720 --> 00:34:59,000
of a woman called
Creperia Tryphaena.


544
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:03,520
To judge from the skeleton,
Creperia was about 20.


545
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,280
She presumably hadn't got married,


546
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:10,200
so she took her doll
with her to her tomb.


547
00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:12,680
That's quite extraordinary to us.


548
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:17,200
We wouldn't ever imagine burying
a 20-year-old with her Barbie.


549
00:35:21,160 --> 00:35:23,200
An awful lot of Roman girls


550
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,040
must have gone to the grave
with their dolls.


551
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:30,480
In fact, one of the most famous
writers of the Roman world, Pliny,


552
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:35,320
tells the story of one girl
who died young, Minicia Marcella,


553
00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,240
the daughter of a friend
of his, Fundanus.


554
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:43,400
Pliny says that she was going on 14,


555
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,280
but she had an old head
on young shoulders.


556
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:48,480
She was wise beyond her years.


557
00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:53,840
She was sweet and charming, and she
was the spitting image of her dad.


558
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:55,680
The really sad thing, he says,


559
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,160
is that she was
just about to be married.


560
00:35:58,160 --> 00:36:02,760
By an absolutely extraordinary
piece of good fortune,


561
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:07,360
we actually have
Minicia Marcella's tombstone.


562
00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:11,280
Here it is, this rather elegant,
austere affair.


563
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:16,000
"To the spirits of
Minicia Marcella," it says,


564
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:19,920
"the daughter of Fundanus."


565
00:36:19,920 --> 00:36:22,880
But there's a sting
in the last line.


566
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:27,000
Pliny said she was going on 14.


567
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:32,480
This says she lived for 12 years,


568
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:36,880
11 months, and seven days.


569
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:42,040
So she was 12 years old,
and just about to be married.


570
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:47,760
Now, we don't know how many Roman
girls got married this young,


571
00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:51,720
but a significant minority, I think.


572
00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:55,520
And it raises an obvious question.


573
00:36:55,520 --> 00:37:00,480
Were marriages like this
consummated straight away?


574
00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:02,840
We like to think not.


575
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:06,040
But the chances are that they were.


576
00:37:10,240 --> 00:37:14,200
When you put all these children
together, our child workers,


577
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:16,120
child poets and child brides,


578
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:20,160
Roman childhood can appear
a pretty brutal phase of life.


579
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:24,240
But I don't think
we should get too carried away.


580
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:26,960
To help me put it into context,
I met up with a colleague


581
00:37:26,960 --> 00:37:29,240
and father of two Greg Woolf.


582
00:37:29,240 --> 00:37:33,520
I still find it hard to
get my head around Roman childhood.


583
00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:36,440
I mean, was it really that brutal?


584
00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:40,480
I'm not really sure that it is
quite as unfamiliar as that.


585
00:37:40,480 --> 00:37:43,760
Some bits were brutal,
and some bits were different,


586
00:37:43,760 --> 00:37:46,800
but a lot is just the same.
They had a childhood, even if


587
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,200
it's a bit shorter than
the childhood that our kids have.


588
00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,840
But they're not the kind
of protected species


589
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:56,120
that modern Western kids are?
That must be right.


590
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,560
They haven't got a kids' room
full of kids' stuff.


591
00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:02,120
They don't have kids' entertainment,
they don't have kids' clothes.


592
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,680
Maybe just a few children
of the very rich,


593
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:07,320
with their Greek pedagogue


594
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,520
or slaves taking them to school
and their wet nurses,


595
00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:12,720
but most children
are just doing what adults did


596
00:38:12,720 --> 00:38:14,720
in the same places with them.


597
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:18,280
We're undergoing a huge transition
from a world where


598
00:38:18,280 --> 00:38:20,680
lots of children are born
and lots of them die,


599
00:38:20,680 --> 00:38:23,840
where they are fully part of
the world of the adults,


600
00:38:23,840 --> 00:38:27,960
to a world where not many children
are born and most of them survive,


601
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:31,160
and their childhoods
are prolonged to a point


602
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:35,240
which Romans would have thought
was well into young adulthood.


603
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:37,560
Yeah. If you reckon that
half of them,


604
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:42,000
at least half of them are going to
be dead before the age of ten,


605
00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:43,440
what does that do


606
00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:46,000
to the relationship between
parents and kids?


607
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,680
I think they were tragedies
when you lose a child,


608
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:50,440
in any society, any period.


609
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:52,800
And when Romans lost their children


610
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:55,320
we know sometimes
they were devastated.


611
00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:57,400
But it was a normal tragedy,


612
00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:00,800
it was the same tragedy that the
other families on your street had.


613
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,160
It's the same tragedy
your parents had.


614
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:07,080
The tombstones kind
of show us, really,


615
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:11,840
that even if it happens often,
it still is terribly hurtful.


616
00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:16,880
It isn't in some ways half as
unfamiliar as we like to make it,


617
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:22,240
and I was struck by the tombstone
on the wall of this bar up there


618
00:39:22,240 --> 00:39:24,960
what's obviously
mum and dad, a little kid,


619
00:39:24,960 --> 00:39:28,680
and he's holding a dog,
he's holding his pet.


620
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:32,120
You can sort of recognise that
as mum, dad and child,


621
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,280
with all the things
that we think go with it.


622
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:38,480
The difference is the project
of having that is much more risky.


623
00:39:38,480 --> 00:39:42,160
It's a much more precarious
existence. Yeah.


624
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:48,240
I mean, really, the bottom line
is Roman childhood - a big risk.


625
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,560
Of course, we mustn't forget
that for a Roman women the risk


626
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:58,280
was not just child-rearing,
it was also child-bearing.


627
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:01,400
In a world with
little medical care as we know it,


628
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,840
Roman pregnancy
wasn't always straightforward.


629
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,160
One of the most suggestive objects
to open this world to us


630
00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:12,200
is an eerie-looking medical
instrument found in Pompeii.


631
00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:24,320
Every woman will recognise
exactly what this is.


632
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:29,080
It's an ancient Roman
gynaecological speculum.


633
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:30,720
The principle's pretty clear,


634
00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:35,000
you have the prongs here and
they're put into the vagina.


635
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,680
You then turn the screw,


636
00:40:39,720 --> 00:40:41,560
which opens the prongs


637
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:45,160
and so extends the vagina, so you
can examine the woman.


638
00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:48,160
We all know how it works, I
don't need to demonstrate it.


639
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:51,320
So a rather nice one,
decorated at the top.


640
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:54,560
I think this was a rather
pricy doctor who owned this,


641
00:40:54,560 --> 00:40:57,000
with rather expensive
female clients,


642
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,840
I don't think this got shoved up
any poor woman.


643
00:40:59,840 --> 00:41:03,400
But I think we shouldn't get carried
away with the familiarity.


644
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:07,480
One of the nastiest bits of Roman
literature I've ever read,


645
00:41:07,480 --> 00:41:10,440
and there's plenty of nasty bits
to choose from,


646
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:15,760
describes what you do when you
can't get a baby out of a woman.


647
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,840
When the baby's got stuck and you
want to save the mother's life.


648
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:23,640
You put a speculum up,
you get a sight of what's going on.


649
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:27,960
You then put a hook into the woman
and try to pull the baby out.


650
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:29,560
You'll kill it in the process,


651
00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:31,480
it's going through its
eye and skull.


652
00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:35,440
I can't imagine, even if it
was intended to save her life,


653
00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,200
that many women could have
survived that process.


654
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:41,840
Childbirth today has its dangers,


655
00:41:41,840 --> 00:41:44,720
but in the Roman world,
it was a battlefield.


656
00:41:44,720 --> 00:41:50,560
I think if in the Roman world
men died as soldiers,


657
00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:52,520
women died in childbirth.


658
00:41:57,320 --> 00:42:00,360
It's hard to get a feel
for such experiences


659
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,200
in the Roman home itself.


660
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,360
The rooms they used for sex and
childbirth have given us a few beds,


661
00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:11,040
but curiously no double ones and
plenty of erotic pictures.


662
00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:15,240
But occasionally we get a glimpse
of how women could transcend


663
00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:18,240
the traditional roles
that were expected of them.


664
00:42:18,240 --> 00:42:22,600
In a house in Pompeii, now known as
the House of Julius Polibius


665
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:24,720
after the man who owned it,


666
00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:28,680
is one example of a woman who may
have done just that.


667
00:42:28,680 --> 00:42:32,360
I have come to see her with my
colleague, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.


668
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:36,480
What I'm interested in is this
extraordinary painting.


669
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:40,920
It's showing a
religious sacrifice going on


670
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,920
and it is full of weird
religious symbolism,


671
00:42:43,920 --> 00:42:46,720
like this snake and the altar,


672
00:42:46,720 --> 00:42:49,760
but what I'm interested in
is this couple here


673
00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:52,240
because this to me


674
00:42:52,240 --> 00:42:58,160
looks as if it's meant to be the
head of a household and his wife.


675
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:02,080
And it's very unusual,
because the standard scene


676
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:04,920
is just the man in his
toga doing the sacrifice


677
00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:06,400
and everyone always says,


678
00:43:06,400 --> 00:43:10,880
"This must be the head of household"
and here we have her too.


679
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,160
She's cut in on the action.


680
00:43:13,160 --> 00:43:15,960
But the woman, because her
property's completely separate


681
00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:18,120
from that of her husband,


682
00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:20,920
could be more wealthy and
more powerful.


683
00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:24,040
What's this lady doing here right
bang in the middle of picture,


684
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:27,280
if she isn't richer
and more important


685
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,920
than the little man at her side?


686
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,640
So in some cases it is possible to
turn upside down


687
00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,480
the traditional
roles in the Roman household.


688
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,560
But there is still
one part of the Roman home


689
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:45,640
that feels completely alien to us.


690
00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:47,440
The part that actually
made it function.


691
00:43:47,440 --> 00:43:50,080
And by that I mean the slaves.


692
00:43:50,080 --> 00:43:53,640
Archaeology has produced very
little material


693
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:55,920
that relates
directly to slavery,


694
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,320
but tucked away in a Roman museum
is one rare object


695
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:02,080
that speaks volumes
about its dark side.


696
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,120
You'd think this was
a Roman dog collar,


697
00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:07,520
a band of iron and a
little metal tag on it.


698
00:44:07,520 --> 00:44:13,720
And on the tag is written in Latin,
"fugi - teneme".


699
00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:19,960
"I've escaped, catch me, if you
take me back to my master, Zoninus,


700
00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:22,440
"you'll get a solidus, a gold coin."


701
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:24,920
It's probably not a dog collar.


702
00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:28,160
It's probably the collar
of a Roman slave.


703
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:31,280
Admittedly it's quite small,


704
00:44:31,280 --> 00:44:36,360
but things like this have been found
around the necks of human skeletons.


705
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:40,440
And actually the fact that
we can't really be sure


706
00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:44,480
whether it's a slave
collar or a dog collar


707
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:48,000
tells us quite a lot
about Roman slavery


708
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:51,200
and the inhumanity that it evoked.


709
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:56,240
There is a horribly touching story
about the Emperor Hadrian,


710
00:44:56,240 --> 00:44:58,640
who got cross with
one of his slaves,


711
00:44:58,640 --> 00:45:04,040
so cross that he gouged his eye out
with a stylus pen.


712
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:07,120
Hadrian instantly felt apologetic,


713
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,600
humbled by what he has done
and he said to the slave,


714
00:45:10,600 --> 00:45:14,080
"Have any present from me, I'm
so sorry, have anything you want."


715
00:45:14,080 --> 00:45:16,640
The slave remained quite dumb.


716
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,680
Hadrian pressed him and said,
"I'll give you anything."


717
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,600
The slave said,
"I just want my eye back."


718
00:45:22,600 --> 00:45:26,840
So it's not hard to see why
Roman slaves might have wanted


719
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:30,400
to escape and why Roman masters
might have wanted


720
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:33,280
to tag their slaves
as their property.


721
00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:37,480
Either this way,
or with branding or tattoos.


722
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:41,960
My hunch, though,
is that fewer actually escaped


723
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,360
or even tried to escape
than we like to think.


724
00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:49,040
My guess is that most slaves
showed their resentment


725
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:54,400
against their masters by much more
kind of domestic sort of warfare.


726
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:58,680
They'd have pilfered things,
broken precious ornaments,


727
00:45:58,680 --> 00:46:02,080
they'd have pocketed
the loose change,


728
00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:05,960
and I expect they'd have spat
in the master's soup.


729
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:17,160
Today, slavery is one of
the nasty cliches of Roman culture.


730
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:18,960
It's a word loaded, understandably,


731
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,280
with all kinds
of modern preconceptions,


732
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:24,680
but the fact is, it was deeply
embedded in Roman culture.


733
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:28,280
In a population of a million,
one-third might have been slaves.


734
00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:32,800
And they weren't just for the rich.
Poorer households had them too.


735
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:34,720
Even some slaves had slaves.


736
00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:37,720
Of course Roman slavery
was brutal,


737
00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:41,400
but relations between masters
and slaves weren't anything like


738
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:43,680
as black and white
as we tend to imagine.


739
00:46:43,680 --> 00:46:47,680
Sure, there must have been fear,
suspicion,


740
00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:49,880
hatred, on both sides actually.


741
00:46:49,880 --> 00:46:54,600
There are some marvellous Roman
urban myths about crafty slaves


742
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,360
running rings around their poor
long-suffering masters.


743
00:46:58,360 --> 00:47:02,040
But at the same time,
there was plenty of respect,


744
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:05,080
affection, even love.


745
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:09,320
One of the best places
to see evidence


746
00:47:09,320 --> 00:47:13,160
of these conflicting emotions
at the heart of this relationship


747
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,160
is actually in one of Pompeii's
grandest houses.


748
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:19,640
In a suite of rooms off the back
garden is a private bath house


749
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:22,400
with some pretty graphic mosaics.


750
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:24,240
They hint rather heavily,


751
00:47:24,240 --> 00:47:29,560
at one part of every slave's job
description we tend to forget - sex.


752
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:35,440
So this is the entrance-way to
the hot room, the sauna room. Yes.


753
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:38,760
So what you've got here
are some strigils,


754
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:42,200
bronze things that you use
for scraping the oil off.


755
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,600
It's really rather gynaecological
in the end.


756
00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:46,720
The thing is, we can't
really read that


757
00:47:46,720 --> 00:47:49,080
without looking at
this guy here.


758
00:47:49,080 --> 00:47:52,720
This strange sort of
naked black figure.


759
00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:54,400
He's got little white panties on.


760
00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:57,480
A white loincloth, which is
completely failing to do its job.


761
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:01,240
The one thing it's not covering
is his genitals,


762
00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:03,760
which are enormous, hanging down.


763
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:09,880
The bronze tip matches
those lamps or flasks,


764
00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:12,080
or whatever
he's carrying in his hands.


765
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:14,480
And they themselves look phallic.


766
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:18,400
So we're being given a very strong
sexual theme as we enter.


767
00:48:20,720 --> 00:48:26,280
So this is the dinky little sauna.
You can hear it echoes around us.


768
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:31,280
It's lovely. It's an amazing space.
And this mosaic, which is...


769
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:34,120
well, it kind of says
"sex in the swimming pool" to me.


770
00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:36,240
It appears to be another slave,
doesn't it?


771
00:48:36,240 --> 00:48:40,480
What comes out of this is something
about the sexuality of bathing,


772
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:42,720
but also about the use of slaves.


773
00:48:42,720 --> 00:48:45,000
Their total availability,


774
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:49,440
their bodily availability
to their masters for sex.


775
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:55,120
No-one living in a big house says,
"I'll go down to the local brothel."


776
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:59,120
They use a slave as they want,
when they want,


777
00:48:59,120 --> 00:49:01,280
and that's the basic deal
of slavery.


778
00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:05,240
Isn't it interesting that it's not
just the master of the house


779
00:49:05,240 --> 00:49:08,720
exploiting female slaves
and male slaves,


780
00:49:08,720 --> 00:49:14,280
it's also the female owners
and dominant figures in the house


781
00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:18,040
exploit male and
possibly female slaves.


782
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,800
That's the really nasty bit
of Roman slavery.


783
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:25,200
To be pressurised into having sex
with the master or mistress,


784
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:28,560
it's an assault on your freedom,
but that's the point,


785
00:49:28,560 --> 00:49:31,160
you've lost your freedom,
the freedom to control your body.


786
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:35,280
But you mustn't think
that because sex happens


787
00:49:35,280 --> 00:49:36,760
between master and slave,


788
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:40,360
it's necessarily a bad thing
for the slaves all the time.


789
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:42,880
What about the fact
that we constantly find


790
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,800
slaves marrying their masters?


791
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:50,200
Sex is a way of earning money,
but it's also a route to freedom.


792
00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:55,600
And that's the great paradox
about Roman slavery.


793
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:59,880
We might think it was brutal,
at times even amounting to rape,


794
00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:02,640
but it was not always
a life sentence.


795
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:06,800
And if you look at the tombstones,
what's striking is that the majority


796
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,320
of those that survive from the city
of Rome belong to ex-slaves.


797
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:13,400
They were freed in their thousands.


798
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,800
Here's a lady with
a really great name.


799
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:19,160
She is and ex-slave, she tells us,
a "liberta".


800
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:24,480
And her name is Vettia Erotice.


801
00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:25,880
I like that name.


802
00:50:28,520 --> 00:50:30,800
Here's a nicely complicated one.


803
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:34,520
It's a tombstone put up
by an ex-slave, a "libertus",


804
00:50:34,520 --> 00:50:39,240
to his own slave, and was
"very dear to him", "carissimo".


805
00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:43,520
This is a woman with
an interesting job.


806
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:48,960
She's called Dorcas and she's
the ex-slave of Julia Augusta,


807
00:50:48,960 --> 00:50:51,520
that's the Empress Livia.


808
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:54,760
What was her job?
She was an "ornatrix".


809
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:57,560
She was the Empress's hairdresser.


810
00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:00,040
Nice work if you can get it.


811
00:51:00,040 --> 00:51:02,880
This one's a nice picture.
It's from a tombstone,


812
00:51:02,880 --> 00:51:05,960
it shows a husband and wife,
I guess, having a banquet.


813
00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:08,840
But it's the little chap on the
left but I'm interested in.


814
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:12,600
He's serving at table
and he must be a young slave boy.


815
00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:17,440
There were thousands and thousands
like him at Rome.


816
00:51:17,440 --> 00:51:20,520
I don't know exactly where
they all came from, but,


817
00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:24,360
almost certainly not all of them
from the slave market,


818
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:26,120
as we like to think.


819
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:28,120
Probably the majority of them


820
00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:31,360
would actually have been born
in the household.


821
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,680
And like this little guy,
they'd have got


822
00:51:34,680 --> 00:51:37,920
pretty up close and personal
with their owners,


823
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:40,640
wait at table, wet nurses,


824
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,520
tutors, nannies.


825
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:48,040
And it starts to give us
a different slant on Roman slavery,


826
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:49,920
and it helps to explain


827
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:53,000
why you could get quite strong
bonds of affection


828
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:56,160
between owners and their slaves.


829
00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:00,360
Actually, the Roman word
for family, "familia",


830
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,760
doesn't just include husband,
wife and a couple of kids,


831
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,080
it also includes the slaves.


832
00:52:06,080 --> 00:52:11,120
So, in Rome, slaves really were
part of the family.


833
00:52:13,320 --> 00:52:14,960
And that's what I find


834
00:52:14,960 --> 00:52:19,440
so disappointing about the standard
image of the Roman family.


835
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:22,680
The slaves are not always
segregated,


836
00:52:22,680 --> 00:52:26,160
they WERE the familia, as much
as the master and mistress.


837
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,000
In fact, the best way to see


838
00:52:28,000 --> 00:52:32,400
just how open it could be
is to visit a Roman family tomb.


839
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:35,160
I've come to see some in ancient
Ostia, with Corey Brennan


840
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:37,640
from the American Academy in Rome.


841
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:41,520
This feels like the kind of back
alley in the city of the dead.


842
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:43,560
That's precisely what it is.


843
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:47,280
And here is a home in the city
of the dead, so to speak,


844
00:52:47,280 --> 00:52:52,280
and it's something that
Marcus Saenius Aristo set up


845
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,040
for himself and for his ex-slaves,


846
00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:58,400
the "libertis", the male ex-slaves,


847
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,240
and the "libertabus",
the female ex-slaves.


848
00:53:01,240 --> 00:53:04,360
It's interesting too
that in the last line here,


849
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:08,760
he makes clear how much land
he owns for this tomb, doesn't he?


850
00:53:08,760 --> 00:53:13,040
It's not just marking off the legal
perimeter of his space here,


851
00:53:13,040 --> 00:53:16,840
but it's a way of boasting
how much real estate he has here


852
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:18,400
in the city of the dead.


853
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,440
What's important then


854
00:53:22,440 --> 00:53:25,400
is that masters and slaves chose
to live together in death,


855
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:27,600
not just in life.


856
00:53:27,600 --> 00:53:31,120
In a way, these tombs are like
mirrors of their own homes,


857
00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:33,280
with separate rooms, upper storeys,


858
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:37,600
and spaces for urns
that outnumber the nuclear family.


859
00:53:37,600 --> 00:53:41,600
What strikes you when you come in,
is the kind of communality,


860
00:53:41,600 --> 00:53:45,560
the sheer number of burials
that must have been here.


861
00:53:45,560 --> 00:53:48,960
Well, there's about two dozen
of these niches,


862
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:51,200
and each niche is a double


863
00:53:51,200 --> 00:53:54,320
and so you're talking
48 people or so.


864
00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:57,000
It's interesting to see how
they are all mixed in here.


865
00:53:57,000 --> 00:53:59,720
You don't walk in here and say,
"There's the masters niche."


866
00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:02,520
In fact, it's hard to tell
where it would have been.


867
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:08,560
And it's so completely different
from what we're familiar with in,


868
00:54:08,560 --> 00:54:14,480
say, Victorian England, where
the idea that Mr and Mrs Posh


869
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,360
and their Posh kids
would be buried in the same tomb


870
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:23,200
as the cook or the tweeny or the
butler, is absolutely unthinkable.


871
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:27,560
This is meant to be an ideal,
this is the image which these folks,


872
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:30,640
these aspirational folks,
wanted to convey,


873
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:34,960
which was that of inclusivity,
of the large family.


874
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:38,000
Harshness was not
in anyone's interests.


875
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:42,280
It shows us a softer side of this
horrible institution of slavery.


876
00:54:42,280 --> 00:54:48,600
Yeah, it's great, you boast, "This
is a tomb for me and my ex slaves."


877
00:54:52,640 --> 00:54:56,000
But it wasn't always
happy families,


878
00:54:56,000 --> 00:55:01,520
as the unusual tombstone of a little
girl called Junia Procula tells us.


879
00:55:01,520 --> 00:55:04,080
Its storyline reads
like a Roman soap opera.


880
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:09,680
The stone was put up by her father,
a man called Euphrosinus.


881
00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:12,240
When he was putting it up,
for the little girl,


882
00:55:12,240 --> 00:55:16,080
and eventually for himself
and for somebody else,


883
00:55:16,080 --> 00:55:19,840
whose name has been hacked out.


884
00:55:19,840 --> 00:55:22,400
That's puzzling.
Why has it been hacked out?


885
00:55:22,400 --> 00:55:26,040
On the back of the stone,
the puzzle's solved.


886
00:55:26,040 --> 00:55:30,120
Because there's another
text written there.


887
00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:34,280
And what we can see has happened
is that Euphrosinus


888
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:36,680
had had a slave called Acti.


889
00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:42,000
He'd freed her, he'd married her,
they'd had the kid, the kid had died


890
00:55:42,000 --> 00:55:46,160
and then things had gone
very badly off the rails.


891
00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:48,360
He's cursing her on the back.


892
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:51,680
"These are the eternal marks
of infamy," he says.


893
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:57,960
"On that ex-slave of mine who was
a poisoner, who was 'perfida',


894
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:02,960
"who was faithless, who was
'dolosa', who was deceitful,"


895
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:04,760
and then he really
curses her, he says,


896
00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:07,080
"I'm bringing a nail
and a piece of rope


897
00:56:07,080 --> 00:56:12,000
"so that she can hang herself,
and I'm bringing 'picem candentem'


898
00:56:12,000 --> 00:56:17,600
"burning pitch, to consume
her awful heart."


899
00:56:17,600 --> 00:56:21,040
What on earth had happened?
Well, he then explains.


900
00:56:21,040 --> 00:56:25,280
"She had gone off with an
adulteress, 'secuta adultorum'",


901
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:31,120
and what is more, she'd pinched
two of his slaves, a boy and a girl.


902
00:56:33,160 --> 00:56:36,160
She left behind
poor old Euphrosinus


903
00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:42,360
"lying in bed, robbed,
all alone, an old man."


904
00:56:42,360 --> 00:56:46,280
Now, we've got to remember that we
don't know Acti's side of the story,


905
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:49,960
and that might have been very
different, but what is clear is that


906
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:55,720
one man's domestic fluidity could be
another man's domestic mess.


907
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:02,600
In a way,
that's the Roman home in a nutshell.


908
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:06,800
For sure, it was a place inhabited
by the traditional Roman cliches,


909
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:09,280
the pompous husbands in their togas,


910
00:57:09,280 --> 00:57:12,080
the dutiful wives
weaving their wool.


911
00:57:12,080 --> 00:57:14,720
But it was also far more intriguing.


912
00:57:14,720 --> 00:57:18,640
Especially if we put back
all the clutter and the cradles


913
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:20,320
and the topsy-turvy relationships.


914
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:25,040
And above all, the extraordinary
voices of the Romans themselves


915
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:28,240
that still talk to us
after 2,000 years.


916
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:31,160
"I lived on Lucrine oysters."


917
00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:35,120
"..snatched away from him."


918
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:37,400
"She had gone off
with an adulteress."


919
00:57:37,400 --> 00:57:38,600
"Secuta adultorum."


920
00:57:38,600 --> 00:57:40,160
Menopholos.


921
00:57:40,160 --> 00:57:41,280
Menopholos.


922
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:44,160
"And I don't any longer have
those old, flaking feet."


923
00:57:44,160 --> 00:57:47,560
This is a monument of
the baker, get it?


924
00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:52,040
"She much preferred
to be a bit wild."


925
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:54,840
"..a Roman menage-a-trois."


926
00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:00,360
And what they tell us is that
ordinary life in ancient Rome


927
00:58:00,360 --> 00:58:06,800
was as wonderfully mixed up, as
messy and as emotional as our own.


928
00:58:08,760 --> 00:58:13,040
It's almost as if they are holding
up a mirror to us and our own lives


929
00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:19,440
and they're speaking to anyone with
the time to stop and listen to them.


930
00:58:19,440 --> 00:58:22,640
It turns out, that's you and me.


931
00:58:48,000 --> 00:58:51,040
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