Discovery Channel Ancient Rome_8of8_Hidden History of Rome
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00:00the power, the glory that was Rome.
00:30The emperors and generals and senators certainly left their mark on the world, and we know
00:40a surprising amount about how they lived. But what about all those other Romans who
00:45didn't leave statues and monuments? What about the unnamed millions who never made
00:51it to the history books?
00:55Most Roman citizens didn't live in marbled villas with mosaic floors and central heating.
01:01It's just that the buildings of the rich are all that remain. How ordinary Romans lived
01:06is, for the most part, unrecorded. Theirs is the hidden history of Rome.
01:36Let me introduce you to an ordinary Roman citizen. We don't actually know his name,
01:42but I hope you won't mind if we call him Marcus for the sake of argument. Marcus was
01:48one of the thousands of people who died in Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Well,
01:55let's assume he was, say, 60 years old. What might he have seen in his lifetime? What sort
02:02of a life might Marcus have led? In Marcus's day, Pompeii was a town of some 20,000 people.
02:14Let's assume that Marcus wasn't a member of the ruling elite, that he was an ordinary
02:19man working for a living. Let's make him a cobbler, making ordinary sandals for the ordinary
02:26Roman in the street, like himself. What kind of a town would he have been living in? And
02:34I've always imagined that life in Pompeii must have been pretty cool, with those lovely
02:38shady courtyards, and the elegant colonnades, and those fancy dining rooms with the frescoes
02:44on the walls. But was life really like that for the majority of Romans? Lost from this
02:51shop, a bronze water pot, 65 sesterces reward to anyone who brings back the same. If he
02:58produces the thief, from whom we may rescue our property, 84 sesterces. I bet whoever
03:06stole that pot wasn't dining in elegant frescoed rooms, or arguing philosophy in shady colonnades.
03:13This was a society with a vast gulf between rich and poor. But maybe it wasn't always
03:18like that. It's almost impossible to imagine what life was like for the poor. You have to
03:26go to a very poor third-world country to get the standard of living. Fantastic difference
03:33between the very well-off and the poor. No cars, no fridges, no telephones. Pre-industrial poverty.
03:39Archaeological evidence suggests that there was a time when the gap between the classes was not
03:46so wide. Before its absorption by Rome, Pompeii appears to have consisted of houses of mostly the
03:52same size, most with gardens and plenty of open spaces. But after Roman integration in the 1st
04:07century BC, the character of Pompeian society seems to have changed. And today the Anglo-American
04:13project in Pompeii is piecing together the evidence for that change. The leader of the
04:20project, Rick Jones, from the University of Bradford, believes that Romanisation may have
04:24brought a widening of this gulf between rich and poor. After we see the Roman takeover of the city,
04:31what had before then been three houses, is knocked through into one great big house. And it's knocked
04:37right through here, and right through inside there. Does that indicate that before it became Romanised,
04:42it was a slightly more equal society? It would seem so. It's hard to know how many people lived
04:48in the bigger house. There may be one big family with a number of servants and so forth. But it's
04:54clear that previously there were three families. Not only did they seek to enlarge their properties,
05:00as the wealthy got wealthier, they also sought to distance themselves from their social inferiors.
05:05In a big house like this, the owners even began to insulate themselves from their domestic staff.
05:11Later on, what you find when they put the mosaics in, they changed the layout, and in fact bring
05:17the servants' quarters away from one part of the house. And the servants in the kitchen go down
05:22this little corridor here. So we have a small doorway there. And that separates the servants
05:28from... Shut the door. Can't see them. So you're now going into the servants' quarters. Servants'
05:32quarters. A bit pokey, I think. A bit pokey. Staircase would have been up there. They'd
05:38probably have tucked away out of there. Marcus would have grown up in a society that was
05:44increasingly polarised. He would have seen some families getting richer, while poorer families
05:50lost their independent status. In the countryside, peasant farmers were bought out by the wealthy,
05:56and sucked into the cities. What we're seeing is the absolute disappearance of all the small farms,
06:06and their replacement by huge villas. Now, this actually drags with it the disappearance of many
06:15of the little towns, so that the little towns depended on, you know, had markets, you voted
06:24there, they had roles in the life of the farmers. Once you don't have small farmers, and once all
06:29the agricultural land is being held by absentee landlords, big Roman senators,
06:37the little towns cease to have any point at all. Many country towns around Rome became ghost towns,
06:47and an urban tradesman like Marcus lived a very different life from the independent countrymen
06:52of bygone times. He would have had nowhere to grow his own vegetables, or keep a pig. He may
06:56not even have had anywhere to do his cooking. He would have been dependent on earning cash to buy
07:02food. And in the streets of Pompeii, we can see how Marcus's life would have been very different
07:07from his predecessors. And yet another bar, I mean, that must be about the, this must be about
07:13the 50th bar we've come across. There's lots of them, maybe they like to drink. In Pompeii, it
07:18seems as if almost every other shop is a bar or quick snack counter. The urban poor, crowded into
07:32small apartments without the means or time to cook their own meals, generally relied on fast food and
07:38ready-made snacks from the cookshops. And what exactly would Marcus have eaten? Suzanne Evans,
07:51an expert on Roman cookery, took me to buy a typical Roman lunch. So he would probably live
07:57mainly on things like cabbage. Cabbage, oh, cabbage. Yeah, we got cabbage here. Yeah, definitely garlic.
08:03I think we should have a couple of garlics. Did everybody eat garlic? Well, no, I think he would
08:08generally try to spice up his rather bland diet, but it was included in many recipes, as it is
08:13today. Tomatoes? No, sorry, no tomatoes. Mexico tomatoes. So, all these Italian sauces and things. Sorry, can't have any of those.
08:23Rice? Very rich people had rice. A good trade link with Asia, but no, no rice for Marcus. Rice would
08:33have been a sort of, again, a luxury. Absolutely luxury, those gluttonous, rich Romans eating that.
08:39You're going to be eating rice. Okay, chickpeas. Here we are, down here. I think one of the reasons also, the problems of
08:48preparing the food at home, because chickpeas need to be soaked overnight, simmered for an hour and a
08:54half. He's got to keep his fire going that long just to cook his chickpeas. This would bind it all
09:01together. So, after simmering it, then you would mix it up with flour. So, you've got a kind of porridge with
09:07peas. But this would be a kind of a treat for once a week? Yeah, perhaps something like that. If he made a
09:15particularly good pair of shoes, he might get a reward from his butcher. So, this is a kind of a
09:21thick, coarse, dried sausage. Plenty of fat, lots of flavour in it. Lots of spices. So, what we've got here is
09:30basically the ingredients that Marcus would have... for a meal for Marcus, really. Yes, yes. Except they wouldn't have been
09:36like this. He would have bought them ready-made. He would have had it ready-made. Convenient living for him, really.
09:41I suppose it's really like nowadays, when, if you're not a peasant living off the land, growing your own food, you rely on
09:47other people pre-packaging your meals, like this.
09:50This is really, I suppose, what they call a dependency culture, when you don't grow your own food, you rely on other people
10:01making the food, pre-packaging it for you, and you have to buy it.
10:13We can see the difference between, you know, a modern shopping expedition and what an ancient Roman would have... of
10:18Marcus's class would have had. It does look a bit sad, doesn't it? It does, doesn't it? I'm sorry for him now.
10:24I'm sure when you've cooked it up, it'll be delicious.
10:30In a reconstructed Roman kitchen, Suzanne reconstructed a Roman workman's lunch.
10:37We might add a few chopped herbs. A bit of rosemary, ground up. Perhaps some sage leaves. So, he'd want a bit of flavour in it,
10:46and this is a pretty upmarket takeaway, so adding those herbs. Let's add a few ripped cabbage leaves into it as well.
10:55There we go. So now, after these have gone in, really, it's the time that the cabbage takes to cook.
11:03So, what's he going to pay for this dish?
11:05Well, a couple of soles, new soles on a pair of shoes, perhaps? Morning's work, maybe?
11:11He might be bartering his food.
11:13Yes, he might be, and it's very difficult to work out exchange rates.
11:18So, what's this dish called?
11:20Pulsum, Terry, yes, Pulsum. Looks a little bit repulsive.
11:25So, this is flavoured cheese.
11:28It is, and really strong flavour of garlic. So, you want your whole clove of garlic in there. The whole lot.
11:37A little salt. Push it against the grits at the bottom.
11:42I see those grits at the bottom are actually...
11:45It's quite hard work.
11:47How often does he use garlic?
11:49A little in their cooking to flavour the sauces that went with some of the meat dishes, certainly.
11:54Really, the poor were the people that used garlic. In fact, it was well known about their stinking breath, I think.
12:01I see. So, if you smelt of garlic, you were generally lower class.
12:05I would say so, yes.
12:07Now, we're going to add kind of weed-like herbs, really, but this one is lovage.
12:14Again, would these be sort of things that the aristocracy would use? Would they have different kinds of herbs?
12:19They would have all sorts of varieties, but many more than these from the takeaway.
12:26Spices that have been brought from all parts of the Roman Empire.
12:29Where's this lovage and...?
12:31Lovage, and this one is rue. A pepper flavour.
12:34That's something that might be just growing in the roadside.
12:37Yes, could well be, and certainly outside the back door of our takeaway here.
12:41So, we've got our lower class spices all mashed up.
12:44It smells wonderful. Have a sniff.
12:46It's weird, actually. It's really good smell.
12:49I'm not being snooty about them at all.
12:52We're going to mix the ricotta into it.
12:59I think that's enough.
13:01Have a little taste of it.
13:05Oh, it's delicious, actually.
13:07It's got a little hot taste in it.
13:09Very hot taste with a lot of garlic in it.
13:11Is that the lovage that's hot?
13:13No, it's the rue.
13:15That's really good.
13:17It is good. He would have had it with bread, I think, don't you?
13:20Have some bread here? Have some bread, yes.
13:22This was made this morning, was it? Made this morning.
13:24It's not Roman bread. Well, it's to a Roman recipe.
13:27It's got things like honey, olive oil... Yeah.
13:30..and stone-ground flour, yeast, of course.
13:33Mmm. It's good. Mmm, good bread, actually.
13:36OK, so, what must he be drinking with this, then?
13:39Well, I suppose, generally speaking, he would stick to water.
13:42He would have water to drink with his breakfast.
13:45But on a high day holiday, end of a good week,
13:48he would go for some malzum. Malzum? Malzum, yes.
13:51What kind of wine is this? It is.
13:53This is a modern equivalent of malzum.
13:55OK, thank you.
13:57Thank you very much.
13:59So, is this diluted? This would be, as it is now to drink,
14:02already diluted, but generally, when you were making it... Come out.
14:05..it would be thicker, then you'd water it down, add honey and spices.
14:09Yeah. Can you imagine it warmed, perhaps?
14:12Yeah, warmed, it'd be quite nice.
14:14It's quite sort of sweetish, yeah.
14:16That's the honey. Very alcoholic?
14:18Yes, quite potent.
14:20So, they were getting drunk all the time, were they?
14:22Bad form, really, to do that, to get drunk. Bad manners.
14:25What, the Romans didn't...?
14:27No, not as much as people think they did.
14:29Yeah, couldn't you just imagine they were all lying around getting drunk?
14:32No, I don't think, obviously, it happened, but not all the time.
14:35I heard, in some ways, something saying that a lot of people
14:38ate standing up a lot of the time.
14:40Yes, you could, at a bar, you would do it.
14:42At a taverna, you would do it, then.
14:44It was a sign that Romans lay down, the aristocrats lay down to eat,
14:48and their servants and their slaves.
14:50But that was a sign that how well off you were, you were so well off.
14:53Absolutely right.
14:54Not only could you sit down, but you could lie down.
14:58A dining for the rich and famous was a totally different experience.
15:05Well, this is how the nobs ate, reclining on a triclinium.
15:09Salve.
15:11Of course, eating lying down was really just a way of showing off.
15:16It demonstrated not only that you had enough time
15:19to be able to indulge in long meals,
15:21but also you could afford servants and slaves,
15:24because it's actually quite awkward supporting yourself with one arm.
15:27You can only use one hand, so you can't use a knife.
15:29You have to have somebody to cut your food up for you.
15:32Fingerstyle buffet was de rigueur on the triclinium.
15:37It's all a far cry from Marcus grabbing a quick bite at a street stall.
15:42This gulf between rich and poor widened as the empire developed.
15:47The few became crazily rich, while the majority were trapped in poverty.
15:52However, there was one thing that all Roman citizens,
15:56whether rich or poor, could enjoy almost as equals.
16:07MUSIC
16:13As the Roman Empire expanded, the wealthy grew staggeringly rich,
16:18while the poor remained badly housed and often undernourished.
16:22There was one thing, however, that brought rich and poor together,
16:27and that was water.
16:37MUSIC
16:41The Romans were crazy about the stuff.
16:44They built huge stone conduits to bring it into the very centres
16:48of their cities at phenomenal expense.
16:57But it was worth it, because for most Romans,
17:00the baths were the high point of the day.
17:03Here in the city of Herculaneum,
17:05the eruption of Vesuvius has miraculously preserved the baths
17:09in almost pristine condition.
17:11Marcus gets off the boat and this is the first place he comes to.
17:14Yes, he comes and he finds this great open area.
17:17If Marcus, our shoemaker, had come to Herculaneum to look for work,
17:22this is where he'd have made his first port of call,
17:25because the baths were one place where everybody met everybody else.
17:31It's so beautiful here, though.
17:33Isn't it stunning?
17:34But he'd be able to come in here and use these facilities.
17:39Well, I think the whole idea of the ancient town
17:43is to try and bring the community together,
17:46and the baths are the great chance where every citizen,
17:50however rich or poor,
17:52you only pay a couple of pennies to come into.
17:55It's almost a symbolic amount.
17:57Maybe, if you're lucky,
17:58some rich man will declare a free week of bathing or something
18:02and pay for it himself.
18:19Marcus is naked, presumably, at this point.
18:21He's coming through doing his business.
18:23And one way you'll be able to tell what Marcus' status is
18:27is how brown he is,
18:29because the rich get time to sunbathe,
18:33to exercise, to exercise in the gymnasium.
18:36And the cult of the body beautiful is there.
18:39And probably our Marcus will have a white, flabby body.
18:42He's just a cobbler.
18:43Cos he's just working the whole time.
18:45And so, you know, this is one of the public shame
18:48of not having a beautiful body exercised in the gym
18:51shows you haven't quite made it.
18:57MUSIC PLAYS
19:16You've got a cascade of fresh, hot water coming out
19:20and splashing into this pool.
19:23I don't think I'll go straight in there,
19:25cos I think it might be a bit too hot.
19:27The doctors fussed about it a lot.
19:29They said, you know, if you've got a bit of a fever, be careful.
19:33Don't go straight into the hot plunge. You may overdo it.
19:36So we get into the hot plunge and...
19:39Oh!
19:41Oh, it's hot! Oh, it's so hot!
19:44It's a jacuzzi.
19:46I mean, we could...
19:48Stay under the gush of hot water coming out.
19:53But how long we could take it for?
19:55You could easily spend half an hour here once you get used to it.
19:59But I guess there's a queue of other people out there
20:02trying to get in. Our Marcus is trying to get in.
20:05Sorry, Marcus, we'll get out. We'll let you come in.
20:15But even with water, the wealthy seemed to have won out.
20:19As always, there were those who knew
20:21how to take advantage of the situation.
20:24Sextus Julius Frontinus, a former governor of Britain
20:27and the man charged with supervising Rome's water supply,
20:30noted that...
20:32"..many of the landowners through whose land the water is carried
20:36tap the conduit, with the result that public aqueducts
20:39stop their courses for private individuals."
20:49The rich used water for pleasure and for display.
20:53The Anglo-American Project in Pompeii has been able to chart
20:57how the new Roman owners of one house
21:00celebrate their increasing wealth
21:02with mosaics in every room, a new bath suite
21:05and even a swimming pool in the middle of the house.
21:08So, what is this called? This is the...
21:10This is the parish garden. And it's like a cloister, isn't it?
21:13The internal garden, yeah.
21:15And there are a number of posh rooms off there,
21:17dining rooms, at least three off here,
21:19and you have a swimming pool in the middle,
21:21with some planting a garden around.
21:23They'd actually jump in there without having to make the temptation.
21:26Yeah, on a day like this.
21:42There'd be loads of fountains playing as well as the pool here,
21:45from the piped aqueduct.
21:47Now, none of that's being used for domestic use.
21:50So it's all for showing off, it's all for showing for display,
21:53and it shows how much the rich are using their resources for display
21:58and simply saying how rich they are.
22:00And one of the ways they do it is to see that the gushing water
22:03that goes with the fountains runs out in the street.
22:05As you're walking past the street. So he'd see it there.
22:07But the only way he'd get at the running water
22:09is from the fountains that are in the streets themselves,
22:12the public fountains that he could have access to.
22:16The rich and powerful in ancient Rome
22:18were refreshingly uninhibited about flaunting their wealth,
22:22and a poor shoemaker like Marcus
22:24would have had little doubt about where to apply for work.
22:28Wherever you find rich men, you find poor men too,
22:31because the rich men need the poor men to look after them,
22:34to be their slaves, their servants, their supporters, their tradesmen.
22:38One obvious thing for him to do is to go and call on one of the rich houses.
22:42You knock on the door, you don't even have to knock on the door,
22:45because the rich characteristically keep their doors open
22:48so that you can walk straight in.
22:50He might have come here, can I get any chance of a job?
22:53But wouldn't I need to get an introduction?
22:55You tuck your forelock and... Excuse me, boss.
22:57Have you got anything... Get out!
22:59Oh, my God!
23:01Oh, bloody rich.
23:04All the knobs are all the same, aren't they?
23:07That door goes straight to stairs leading up.
23:12And that door leads...
23:14It's a rather long corridor that goes into a sort of courtyard
23:17and there's a flat beyond there
23:19and there's a little set of stairs up at the back there
23:22that goes on to another flat up there.
23:24Where the poor live, what the poor do is the hardest to trace
23:28because they spend least money.
23:30What the rich do, you know, if it's putting down beautiful paving stones
23:34or creating a lovely atrium or whatever, it survives, it's solid.
23:38This has a rather flimsy structure made of wood
23:41with bits of stone in between.
23:43And, of course, that's the first thing to go in an earthquake
23:46or an eruption and so on.
23:48And typically, in the historical record,
23:50you don't see the flimsier structures where the poor people lived.
23:58Modern scholars have analysed bones
24:00and they find bone after bone and corpse after corpse
24:05is suffering from serious dietary deficiency.
24:08The poor in the cities of the Roman Empire were very poor indeed.
24:15In the beginning, before the Romans conquered,
24:17there would be much more equal society.
24:19The gap between the rich and the poor would have been much more modest.
24:23But when you were conquered by Rome,
24:25the rich Romans come in, Romans exploit.
24:28An empire is an exploitative system.
24:32In Herculaneum, that gap between rich and poor
24:35made it just the sort of place a cobbler like Marcus
24:38might have looked for work.
24:40Oh, yes.
24:41The pub, the popina.
24:43Well, he might...
24:44I think it would be a good place to stop
24:46because you could just ask people.
24:48There are bound to be a few people propping up the bar here
24:51and you could ask around.
24:53Have a quick one.
24:54Any openings for a cobbler around these parts?
24:59Look at all the amphorae stored up in the racks there.
25:02Yes, presumably you have your different brands of wine,
25:05each in different shaped wine bottles in amphorae.
25:08And then right up at the top you can see a bed, a corner of a bed,
25:12because that's the living quarters up at the top.
25:14You can even see their kitchen up there.
25:16Do you see that great block in the corner?
25:18You do the cooking on top of the masonry structure.
25:22Then right on top you make a fire and you put a tripod on it
25:25and you put the pot on top of that.
25:27But it'd be charcoal, so there's not too much smoke.
25:29But, you know, he hasn't got a chimney up there,
25:32so doubtless the smoke comes straight out into the street.
25:39In the Roman world, wealth was there to be flaunted.
25:43And even if they didn't have it, some people tried to pretend they did.
25:48It's a very nice example of not the grandest in town.
25:51This is much more the sort of house he'd aspire to.
25:54He makes a killing in a new fashion line of shoes,
25:59fashion sent by Emperor Vespasian.
26:01He makes shoes.
26:03He makes a small, a modest fortune, OK?
26:06This is the sort of house.
26:08It looks initially quite grand,
26:10because it's got the atrium and the impluvium.
26:13But above all, your eye is caught the moment you go in the front door
26:17by this very flashy mosaic at the end.
26:20There's Neptune looking all bronzed.
26:22And really, so you're pulled through.
26:24Come along, come and see in my nice mosaic.
26:27So through we come to admire his mosaic.
26:30And really, this space is a bit of a joke,
26:33because this is an all-purpose space.
26:36This is his garden.
26:38This is his fountain.
26:40This is his dining room.
26:42This is his everything.
26:44This is his joy and pride.
26:47The House of Neptune is living proof
26:50that the art of social climbing
26:53was alive and well in the ancient Roman world.
26:56It's also a neat reminder that in provincial towns
26:59like Herculaneum and Pompeii,
27:01there was a big gap between rich and poor.
27:04However, it was even bigger in Rome itself.
27:09Rome was the heart of a vast empire.
27:12It attracted in the poor and the itinerant
27:15from all over what we now call Italy and beyond.
27:19And if Marcus, our shoemaker,
27:21wasn't able to find work in Pompeii or Herculaneum,
27:24he may well have turned to the great city itself.
27:28If Marcus had come here, what would he have found?
27:32Surely, life at the heart of the empire.
27:35What would he have found?
27:37Surely, life at the heart of the world's greatest empire
27:40must have been a bed of roses.
27:42Rome conquers the whole of the Mediterranean basin
27:45between 200 BC and the birth of Christ's day.
27:48Rome moves from being the largest town of Italy
27:51to the capital of the whole of the Mediterranean.
27:54And by 0BC, 1AD,
27:57basically the whole wealth of the Mediterranean basin
28:01from Spain to Egypt, Syria to Greece,
28:04is pouring into the city of Rome.
28:07Rome sucked in all the wealth from the Mediterranean.
28:11And this created enormous disparities
28:14between not only the wealth of Rome and the outposts of empire,
28:18but also within Rome itself.
28:21The city of Rome, it was immense by ancient standards.
28:24A million people, the streets were paved with gold.
28:27There was a vision that if you go to Rome, you can make a fortune.
28:31And no doubt some people did.
28:33But it was also a place where the mortality was fantastically high.
28:36You go to the baths, the sick people bathe first,
28:39then the women, then the men.
28:41It was like modern hospitals, that's where you catch a disease.
28:44Cleanliness and dirt go hand in hand.
28:47Great holes just outside the city in which corpses, shit,
28:51ordeal from animals, carcasses from dead animals
28:54were just thrown all together.
28:56The smell must have been horrendous.
28:58So it's a place of opportunity, a place of dirt, a place of crime.
29:02But, ah, it's a place where you see temples glimmering
29:08with glistening gold roofs,
29:10palaces such as no-one's ever seen, eyes opened.
29:15Nothing Marcus would have seen in Pompeii
29:18could have prepared him for the sights of Rome.
29:21These buildings are on a totally different scale
29:24from anything he would have come across before.
29:26They flaunt the wealth and power of the men who built them.
29:30The Senate controlled the vast wealth of the Roman Empire,
29:34not for the benefit of people like Marcus, but for themselves.
29:38They operated like mafia dons, appropriating for themselves
29:42whatever they could get their hands on.
29:46There's a bloody society
29:48in which, basically, emperors kill aristocrats.
29:52And in turn, aristocrats gather together and kill emperors.
29:56So it's a violent society at the top,
29:59very volatile, very unpredictable.
30:01But within that, the empire gets administered
30:05by aristocrats growing up to govern Britain or govern Germany.
30:09The Rome that Marcus would have become familiar with
30:12is still to be found in these narrow alleys,
30:16amongst these workshops and little factories
30:19that still exist today, very much as they always have done.
30:25So, what would Marcus, the country mouse,
30:28have thought of life in the greatest city on earth?
30:32One of the biggest differences he'd have found to life in Pompeii
30:36would have been where he had to live.
30:38You see, the majority of Romans lived in large apartment blocks,
30:41up to five or even six storeys high.
30:44And behind me is the only five-storey apartment block
30:49still standing from ancient times.
30:53This is a real Roman house.
30:55This is a real Roman house.
30:57This is a real Roman street and a real Roman block of houses.
31:00It's a bit rougher than Herculaneum, isn't it?
31:03Yeah, but it's on just a completely different scale.
31:06But if you think of all those little shops and workshops
31:10of medieval Rome, this is the ancient equivalent.
31:14We're going into a workshop now.
31:16You come in from the street to this...
31:18There's a single room here in which they can,
31:21whatever their trade is, they can do it
31:23and the customers can come in.
31:25Their private quarters are up above.
31:27So that's where the art is at.
31:29The people working the shop, they'd be living up above there.
31:32We decided to take a closer look at the living quarters
31:36that Marcus might have found for himself above his cobbler's shop.
31:40He's got a fervour to climb, hasn't he?
31:42He'll be clambering for a long time to come.
31:45We're only at the beginning here.
31:47We're up on the fourth floor.
31:49I hate to say it, but this looks like a corridor.
31:53No, no, the Romans were right there.
31:55And it's a corridor that leads to other corridors.
31:58Because if we turn down here,
32:00we've got to imagine there's a door here.
32:02We're going through a bit of wood.
32:04OK, so this is the beginning of an apartment.
32:06So let's knock and go in.
32:08And this is then the corridor to one unit, an apartment unit.
32:13And we can see over here, one, two, three,
32:17Do you see they've got little windows above them?
32:19Nobody's in it.
32:21There we go, a smallish, narrow room.
32:24It's got a window that way, though.
32:26OK, well, let's say then...
32:28Marcus takes this back room.
32:30OK, we've given you the worst possible room.
32:33So when Marcus finally gets his room,
32:35he'd have furnished it in a simple style like this.
32:38Except I don't think he'd have had a...
32:40I don't think he'd have had a...
32:42I don't think he'd have had a...
32:45Except I don't think he'd have had a fancy couch like that.
32:48It's far too high class for our Marcus.
32:51And although there's archaeological evidence
32:53that the Romans had wicker chairs like that,
32:56I don't think our Marcus could have afforded one.
32:59Or a fancy sideboard with the household gods above it.
33:03And he certainly wouldn't have had a chair to sit on.
33:08A bucket, a stool and a mattress, I suppose that's all he'd have.
33:14Many of the apartment buildings of ancient Rome
33:17were also falling down on the job.
33:20The famous politician and orator Cicero was himself a landlord
33:24and he complained...
33:25Two of my buildings have fallen down and the rest have large cracks.
33:30Not only the tenants but even the mice have moved out.
33:33Of course, Rome was too proud to allow that sort of thing
33:36to happen to their public buildings.
33:38But there was something which they were even prouder of.
33:41It was the idle pyramids or the useless famous works of the Greeks
33:46with these indispensable structures.
33:51The Romans were very keen on hygiene.
33:53Well, they had to be.
33:54It was bad enough in a city like Pompeii with 20,000 citizens.
33:58But Rome itself, with its million inhabitants,
34:01had to come up with another solution.
34:03And the one they came up with was a very modern one.
34:06They created an underground network of sewers
34:10from the main outlet into the Tiber,
34:12and it's still working to this day.
34:15It's been said that a million people
34:18produce 70,000 kilos of faeces every day.
34:22That's roughly my body weight in solids every two minutes.
34:25No wonder some of the sewers were big enough
34:28to drive a horse and cart through.
34:33Even small towns considered hygiene a key element of good living.
34:38Here in Pompeii,
34:39there seems to be plenty of evidence of indoor toilets.
34:42There are loads of these down pipes
34:44which would have gone into a cesspit or into a sewer
34:47and would have been connected with the toilet on the upper floor there.
34:55However, if you were poor, an alleyway would probably have to suffice.
35:00Though, curiously, there was one group of tradesmen
35:04who were only too happy for you to pee outside their shop.
35:08So our man Marcus, while he's wandering around Pompeii looking for work,
35:12if he gets taken short and he wants to do the laundry people a favour,
35:16he might take a pee in their pot here, standing outside the shop,
35:19because urine is rich in ammonia and was in demand by clothes cleaners.
35:27Nice to be able to do somebody a favour by having a pee.
35:34But what if food was scarce?
35:36Or what if Marcus simply wasn't earning enough to be able to eat?
35:40Did Roman society have any mechanism
35:43for dealing with people on the breadline?
35:57The pagan society is by and large not a caring society,
36:01it's not a pro-beggar society.
36:03There's no obligation to give.
36:05But, there's an exception.
36:07Rome had got to greatness because it was a citizen society.
36:11The Roman armies, the armed citizens, had fought for the glory of Rome
36:15and citizens had votes.
36:17So in the city of Rome, there were monthly donations of bread
36:23and frequent traditorial shows or circuses, bread and circuses,
36:28so citizens received a regular monthly ration of free wheat.
36:35Bread and circuses kept the underprivileged masses of Rome quiet.
36:40But the biggest draw wasn't the gladiators, but horse racing.
36:53There were four teams, red, white, blue and green.
36:58Fans dressed in their team's colours.
37:01They sat together, they chanted in unison,
37:04they sang team songs together and caused riots together.
37:09There was plenty of betting and later times,
37:11the fans sported outrageous haircuts.
37:14And, of course, it was a great pick-up place.
37:19The Roman poet Ovid, in his famous book The Art of Love, wrote...
37:24Don't neglect the horse races if you're looking for a place to meet your girlfriend.
37:28A circus crowded with people offers many advantages.
37:32Sit right next to a girlfriend and squeeze up beside her as closely as possible.
37:37Be sure to ask with great interest which horses are running
37:40and then immediately cheer for the same one that she cheers for.
37:43Perhaps a speck of dust will settle on your girlfriend's breast.
37:47It often happens. Be sure to brush it off with your hand.
37:51If her skirt is trailing too far along the ground,
37:54carefully lift the soiled part off the dust.
37:57At once you'll receive a reward for your careful concern.
38:00You'll be able to look at her legs and she won't mind.
38:03Yes, the circus provides many opportunities for initiating a love affair.
38:09Marcus may have been a poor cobbler,
38:11but that's no reason why he wouldn't have got married.
38:13So, let's give him a wife.
38:15Let's call her Judith.
38:17What sort of a relationship could the average Roman couple expect?
38:21It's very difficult for us to know about the lives of simple folk in Rome.
38:27All the literature is upper-class literature.
38:29That's not quite true.
38:31There's some simple memorials from the lower classes
38:34expressing affection, husbands to wives, wives to husbands, on death.
38:38So, perhaps it's affection after death rather than during life.
38:43But as far as we can tell,
38:46Roman women could have expected reasonable independence
38:51in the sense of owning property for themselves,
38:53being able to choose their husbands,
38:55being able to divorce their husbands if they wish,
38:58simply because they wished.
39:14What kind of life is his wife going to have?
39:17Is it a very restricted life as a Roman woman?
39:20It's not half as restricted as Greek women.
39:23You could go to parties, you could go to dinner,
39:25you could mix with men who weren't part of your family,
39:28and we know that, and some Greeks are actually shocked by it.
39:32And she would probably participate in the business.
39:35I mean, if he were a baker,
39:37she would probably be at least taking some part in it,
39:40so that you obviously, in the non-elite classes,
39:43you have women shopping, working, they could go to the baths.
39:50What I'd like to know is how did the men and women of ancient Rome
39:54manage to find so much leisure time?
39:59How is it possible for Roman citizens
40:01to spend all afternoon at the baths or every other day at the games?
40:06Could it be an effect of that secret economic weapon of the Romans,
40:10slavery?
40:12And if it was, what I'd like to know is,
40:14was it worse to be a poor but free Roman or a slave?
40:20Most slaves were captured in battle,
40:22so there are obviously plenty of them.
40:24But how many?
40:26Could there really have been enough to do all the work that needed doing?
40:30Well, there's an old estimate that says that for Italy as a whole,
40:33you have three million slaves in a population of eight.
40:36So three out of eight people are slaves.
40:39This could be high.
40:41But certainly, the last century BC,
40:45at least a million captives were sold as slaves,
40:49and many of them arrived in Italy.
40:51And we know that the big villas on the coast
40:55had staffs of 40 to 60 slaves.
40:58These had to be shipped to Italy,
41:00they had to be sold in slave markets,
41:02they had to be acquired by landlords.
41:04And this is without counting the more educated people,
41:07the Greeks and the household slaves
41:09and the tutors and, you know, dancing girls.
41:21One place you can absolutely guarantee finding a slave in these baths
41:24is working here in the furnace.
41:26This is the hot spot, the really unpleasant spot to be in the baths.
41:30Massive great cooker here with great big bronze cauldron.
41:34And keeping that thing down there stoked and full of wood
41:39was a very hot, sweaty job.
41:41Pretty enclosed space, isn't it?
41:43Yeah, it would have been very unpleasant working conditions.
41:46But that's what a world of slaves is all about,
41:50that you can make people work.
41:53The slaves don't have any union to complain about?
41:55No, absolutely.
41:56You would string them up on a load of crosses if they form a union.
42:00So slaves really were the lowest of the low in ancient Rome.
42:06I think there's a big difference between a slave and a poor man,
42:12even, suppose, an illegal immigrant.
42:15Illegal immigrants in Italy nowadays get pretty close to slavery,
42:20but there's this enormous difference
42:22that they are still entitled to some sort of self-respect.
42:26An ancient slave has no self-respect.
42:29You're not allowed to have self... You are nothing.
42:32You have no rights, no human rights of any sort whatsoever.
42:37How did slaves and owners get on together?
42:40And who could own slaves?
42:42For example, could Marcus, a cobbler, have owned a slave?
42:46He could easily have owned one or two slaves,
42:48maybe a girl to help his wife in the kitchen,
42:51a slave to help him.
42:52I think it's really standard that one slave
42:57has to be a slave to help another slave.
43:00And I think it's really standard
43:03that, what are we calling it, the middle class,
43:06but the artisan class did actually own slaves
43:09and they would live with them in their household.
43:11Punishment for wayward slaves was harsh.
43:14They could be executed without trial.
43:16After all, they were just pieces of property.
43:18They could also be branded and collared.
43:21One slave wore an ID tag which read,
43:24I have run away, capture me,
43:26and when you return me to my master Zeninus,
43:29you will receive a reward.
43:31It's rather like those lorries that drive around now
43:34with how am I driving on the back.
43:38So let's say Marcus has done well enough at making shoes
43:42to be able to afford a slave.
43:44What would it have cost him?
43:46They can't be cheap because you have to feed them.
43:49It's a lot like a car.
43:50You have to pay the insurance, not just the capital costs,
43:53it's the running costs that you have to consider.
43:55Formally speaking, depending on beauty and age and strength,
44:00a slave cost four times the annual income of a peasant.
44:04Quite a lot.
44:06It's not... It's...
44:08$20,000, £20,000, something in that order.
44:12It's very difficult to give a modern figure.
44:15Maybe owning a slave in ancient Rome was a bit like owning a motor car.
44:19Some people could afford a spanking new Alfa Romeo,
44:22while others had to be content with a clapped-out second-hand model.
44:26Young boys were expensive.
44:28Say, a Jaguar. Young girls, less so.
44:31A Toyota, perhaps.
44:35The Emperor Nero had a tutor by the name of Seneca,
44:38and he bemoaned the treatment of slaves by the nouveau riche of his day.
44:42Of course, he may have been romanticising the past,
44:45but there's a ring of truth about what he says.
44:47As the rich get richer and more removed from their inferiors,
44:51so they come to treat them less and less like human beings.
44:55The slightest murmur is repressed by the rod.
44:58Even a chance sound, a cough, a sneeze or a hiccup,
45:01is visited by the lash.
45:03All night long, they must stand about, hungry and dumb.
45:07The slaves of former days were permitted to converse
45:10not only in their master's presence, but actually with him.
45:14Nowadays, we Romans are excessively haughty, insulting and cruel.
45:20Slavery was big business, very big business.
45:24Rome had plenty of millionaires,
45:26and Tacitus mentions a city prefect who had 400 slaves in his mansion.
45:31The whole Roman Empire rested on the sweating and beaten backs of its slaves.
45:37It must feel horrid to be a slave in a society in which there are free people.
45:42So it's easy to think that slaves...
45:44The one thing that slaves wanted was to be free.
45:48And some people, some slaves saved up for a lifetime to buy their freedom.
45:51That's certainly true.
45:53And always slaves were under the threat of being flogged or crucified, I mean killed.
45:59So that must have been terrible.
46:02But on the other hand...
46:04And Romans were conscious of this.
46:07Once you were freed, you were responsible for finding your own food.
46:11So slaves had someone to care for them, which a free person didn't.
46:16The free people were by themselves.
46:24There was no welfare state in ancient Rome,
46:28and the handicapped or deformed were more often than not singled out at birth.
46:37I mean, notice there are no orphanages in ancient Rome.
46:40No need to have an orphanage,
46:42no need even to have contraception or to have abortion,
46:46because they frequently had abortions.
46:50There is absolutely no reason why a mother should not expose a child.
46:55You're allowed to do it because the child may be malformed.
47:00You certainly wouldn't bring up a malformed child.
47:03You simply expose it and let it die.
47:05Where would you put it? How would you expose it?
47:07You might simply take it to the town rubbish dump.
47:10The same Romans that conquered the Mediterranean,
47:13that built aqueducts and amphitheatres,
47:16also dumped unwanted children with the city garbage.
47:27But whatever life was like for the free people,
47:30there was always a price to pay.
47:32They had to pay.
47:35But whatever life was like for ordinary Romans,
47:38for those who lived around the Bay of Naples in 79 AD,
47:42it came to a horrifyingly abrupt end.
47:45On 24th August, the volcano Vesuvius erupted.
47:50For the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum, time simply stopped.
47:57It stopped for the rich and the poor alike.
48:00The cook in the cook shop, the prostitute by the bar,
48:03the slave traders in the forum, the sportsmen at their bets.
48:07It stopped, too, for Marcus, his wife and family.
48:13Behind the glorious story of the Roman Empire,
48:16the story of military campaigns and imperial triumphs,
48:19there lies another story,
48:21the one that actually shaped the lives of people like Marcus.
48:24It's the story of how Romans,
48:27It's the story of how Rome was run as a mafia-like business,
48:31of senators worth $30 million
48:33who supported a system that let the poor go to the wall
48:36while they supported free trade and low taxes for the businessmen.
48:41It's the story of a society
48:43in which the noble families flaunted their wealth
48:46while the majority drifted into relative poverty.
48:49A society based on inequality,
48:53on the tantalising luxury that was possible for a few
48:57as long as the vast proportion of the population had no rights at all
49:01or could be fooled into compliance with bread and circuses.
49:05A society that had no need for orphanages or contraception
49:09because unwanted children could simply be left on the town rubbish dump
49:13or turned into slaves.
49:16It's the story of millions of people like Marcus,
49:19the people who actually were the Roman Empire
49:22but whose history is so often hidden.
49:49Transcription by ESO. Translation by —