¿Cómo y por qué se formó el Imperio Romano? ¿Cuál fue la causa de su final? ¿Cómo vivía el pueblo? ¿En qué innovaron? Mary Beard, Premio Princesa de Asturias de Ciencias Sociales 2016, viaja por todo el territorio del desaparecido Imperio para responder estas preguntas. La catedrática de Cambridge y un equipo de científicos especializados analizan los éxitos y los fracasos de la Antigua Roma, así como la gran herencia que nos han llegado. Mary Beard viaja por España, Irán, Egipto, Escocia, Italia, Grecia, Alemania...mostrando el gran legado del imperio romano. La historia del Imperio Romano desde una perspectiva global: su historia, sus construcciones, sus batallas, su cultura, su comida, sus gentes, sus costumbres...
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00:00Once upon a time, not far from here, a princess gave birth to two twins.
00:09Her evil uncle, the king, fearing that one day these children would become his rivals,
00:15ordered his faithful servants to throw them into the river.
00:19But as it was all denied, they were left in a basket on the bank,
00:23and the current carried them downstream,
00:26until they were rescued by the wolf that would feed them.
00:30Later, they would be found by a shepherd who would raise them as if they were his own children.
00:37Their names were Romulo and Remo, and they would end up founding Rome.
00:53This small city in the centre of Italy would become the nucleus of an empire,
01:01which would extend from the Sahara's borders,
01:05to the humid params of the north of Great Britain,
01:10from Spain to Israel, from the Nile to the Rhine.
01:15It has marked the geography of modern Europe,
01:18and it has defined our conception of empires,
01:21transforming the western world, revolutionising commerce.
01:26This is one of the first examples of globalisation.
01:31Agriculture, olives, olives, and more olives.
01:36Art, law, and architecture.
01:39This is what makes me amazed by Roman engineering.
01:43It presents us with lots of conquests and defeats, battles and massacres,
01:48but it also raises great questions.
01:51How did it work?
01:53What made the difference?
01:55Why did it fall?
01:57And how was it created in the first place?
02:01Was it ambition or just luck?
02:04To answer this question, we will go back to the opinions of the Romans themselves,
02:10to their doubts, their debates, and their conversations.
02:15Because, like us, they also wondered what made them different.
02:40In the Via Appia, one of the main footpaths linking Rome to the south of Italy,
02:45we began to get a clear idea of how the first Romans lived.
02:50A long period prior to the marble columns and the Colosseum,
02:55which is usually overlooked.
02:59This tomb was built 500 years after the foundation of Rome.
03:06This tomb was built 500 years after the foundation of Rome.
03:11It's a very long time after Romulus.
03:14But what's been written here tells us for the first time
03:18what the feelings and thoughts of the Romans were.
03:23In a way, what we really know about the Romans starts here.
03:35This is not the Rome we imagine,
03:40but it was the greatest thing they could do at the time,
03:45something that was innovative at the time.
03:50This is the tomb of the first man buried here,
03:55Scipio Barbato, which means beardy Scipio,
04:00and it tells us a bit about his excellent qualities.
04:05Fortis vir sapiens.
04:10He was a strong and brave man, but he was wise.
04:15This is quite strange.
04:18It says his appearance was as good as his virtues.
04:23So, if his appearance was as good as his virtues,
04:28would that end his conquests?
04:32Subegit omne Lucanat.
04:35He suppressed all of Lucania, a region of southern Italy.
04:41Obsides quae abducit, and he took hostages.
04:47So, it's very clear what the priorities of these people were,
04:52but it doesn't reduce to that.
04:55In some ways, this is just a preview of an epitaph,
05:00but in another way, this is the first short form of historical narrative
05:06that anyone that we have has survived.
05:09This is the beginning of the Roman history writing.
05:13Maybe 500 years had passed since the foundation of the city,
05:18but it's the first place where we can really see the Romans.
05:23We get the vivid idea of a people committed to conquest
05:28and to the glory that military victories brought.
05:32A commitment that all the surrounding towns also shared.
05:37So, what differentiated the Romans?
05:41Without direct evidence, the best place to find the answer
05:46are the stories they told and their elaborate speculations
05:51about the origins of the city.
05:54In particular, the mythical story of Romulus and Remus,
05:59the brothers breastfed by a wolf,
06:02that was told over and over again
06:05and that contained a message about the internal conquests and wars of Rome.
06:11So, we find a bit of Roman history in the myth.
06:16It would be easy to dismiss the story of Romulus and Remus
06:21as if it was just a fairytale, just a myth.
06:24This really isn't history in our mind.
06:28We don't really mean that it doesn't have a lot to tell
06:31about how the Romans saw themselves,
06:34what their cultural priorities were,
06:37and their anxieties as well.
06:40Why a wolf?
06:42History wouldn't have been the same with a cow or a sheep.
06:46The fact that they were rescued by a ferocious predator
06:49revealed the fate of the twins.
06:52Some Romans questioned that detail.
06:55Wolf, in Latin, lupa, also means prostitute.
06:59Would it really be a prostitute who rescued them?
07:03But, in general terms, did they consider the story true?
07:08When, later, they came to describe in the forum
07:13a list of the names of all the generals
07:18who had led the bloodiest,
07:22bloodiest chases for Rome,
07:25with people like Stygian,
07:28who did they start the list with?
07:31With Romulus.
07:34The person who doesn't appear in the list is Remus,
07:37Romulus' twin brother.
07:40They both got into a big argument
07:43about where to establish the new city.
07:47This ended with Romulus murdering his brother,
07:51an act that would reflect the bloody civil wars
07:54that would later destroy Roman politics.
07:59This must be one of the strangest stories in the world
08:03about the founding of a city.
08:07It doesn't just talk about a pair of twins and two founders,
08:11but it also says that one of them killed the other.
08:15Thus, the fratricide of a city
08:18is the only way to establish the new city.
08:23It also says that one of them killed the other.
08:26Thus, the fratricide settled at the beginning of Roman history.
08:31The murder of twin brothers was linked to Rome.
08:42After establishing the city in the Palatine Mountains,
08:45Romulus was their only ruler.
08:50Romulus' first problem was that his city
08:53barely had any inhabitants.
08:56So he declared it an asylum
08:59and gave refuge to criminals,
09:02enslaved, dispossessed and homeless people from all over Italy.
09:07It's not a strange aspect to add.
09:10While many ancient cities
09:13wanted to think that their original inhabitants
09:16had miraculously sprung from the soil of their native land,
09:19the Romans thought that theirs had been an asylum city.
09:23It was an attempt to give it a mythical dimension,
09:27which would later become one of its main characteristics.
09:32Rome not only welcomed foreigners,
09:36but also extended Roman citizenship throughout the empire.
09:44Romulus' next problem was that he had no women,
09:48and therefore his city had no future.
09:51But none of the inhabitants of the neighboring towns
09:54were prepared to let their daughters marry Romans.
09:58In fact, they were quite offensive
10:01and made it clear that they didn't think that a gang of fugitives
10:04were good husbands for their daughters,
10:07so Romulus resorted to cheating.
10:14According to legend,
10:16Romulus invited his neighbors, the Sabines,
10:19to a religious celebration.
10:24In the middle of it, he gave a signal to his men
10:27to kidnap the young visitors
10:30and turn them into his wives.
10:35This is the famous Rapture of the Sabines,
10:38and it offers us some almost uncomfortably explicit images.
10:42This woman here has been captured and tries to escape,
10:45but she can't.
10:47This one has already vanished,
10:50and another is trying to escape, but it's useless.
10:54The rape may have been the answer
10:57to the terrible humiliation of the Romans,
11:00but it was still a violent assault.
11:03These women were not forced, they were victims.
11:09It's an instance that the Romans discussed,
11:12debated, and would expose forever.
11:15Some of Rome's enemies said
11:18that it reflected their typical behavior.
11:21If they wanted something, they just went out and grabbed it.
11:29The story goes that the families of the Sabines,
11:32as is logical, counterattacked,
11:35which would become the first war and victory of Rome,
11:39commemorated in a strange monument
11:42in the heart of the city.
11:46A lot of people pass by here.
11:49The place where the Romans were convinced
11:52that the core of the battle had taken place
11:55would become the Forum.
11:57But before that, it was just a swamp,
12:00and they marked the place where one of Rome's first enemies fell.
12:10This is just one of a series of monuments
12:13in which the origins of Rome would later be recorded in the city.
12:19Anyone who wanted could go up to the Palatine Mountain
12:23to see what was supposed to be the refuge of Romulus,
12:27a tourist attraction even in the 4th century AD.
12:31The myths of Rome were there for all to see,
12:34and with them the problems of being Roman.
12:37Fratricide, kidnapping, violence, and constant conflict.
12:50At first, Rome would be ruled by kings,
12:53Romulus and the six who followed him.
12:58But the citizens would end up rejecting
13:01what they considered a tyranny,
13:04and they established a form of democracy
13:07through which every year people would choose
13:10who would rule the city and fight in their wars.
13:14Soon there would be signs that Rome was beginning to grow.
13:20And why did it end up becoming a small town next to Tiber
13:24and much more than that?
13:28The truth is that we don't know.
13:31But we do know when, and we can almost feel it.
13:38Because at the beginning of the 4th century BC,
13:42the Romans built this huge wall around the city.
13:48But its purpose was not just defensive,
13:51but to proclaim that Rome was already here.
13:56And the most interesting thing is that many of the stones
14:00that they had used to build it came from a small town
14:04that they had taken just a few kilometers away.
14:08This is one of the first signs of Roman expansion.
14:22But the growth of Rome was not limited to its walls.
14:26It expanded beyond them,
14:29to the interior of the Italian peninsula.
14:32But don't imagine the Romans surrounding a map,
14:35conspiring to dominate the world.
14:38To begin with, they had no maps,
14:41and in any case, they were not much more militaristic than their neighbors.
14:45Italy, in its origins, was a violent place.
14:48So the question is not why they went out to fight,
14:51but why they did not stop winning.
14:54The traditional pattern of the contests,
14:57if you want to call it that,
15:00consisted in the fact that every year,
15:03the men of a place would attack a neighboring city,
15:06and if they were lucky, they would return with slaves and cattle.
15:10It was not an organized conflict, but an insurgent attack.
15:14What the Romans did was establish permanent relations
15:17with the defeated peoples.
15:20Of course they came back with slaves and cattle,
15:23but they demanded that in the future
15:26the defeated peoples provide troops for the Roman army.
15:31Progressively, this gave them a great advantage,
15:34because in ancient times,
15:37it was not a high-tech military team that counted,
15:40but the number of men that could meet.
15:47In Solitario, the city of Rome,
15:50it would never have been able to dominate all of Italy.
15:54It was crucial the relationship it established with other peoples.
15:58Rome not only conquered,
16:01but also integrated its enemies,
16:04and that differentiated it.
16:07In the 3rd century BC,
16:10Rome already had more than 700,000 soldiers.
16:13And as those numbers were assured,
16:16we can see it in the first gold coins of the city.
16:20Jonathan Williams is the sub-director of the British Museum.
16:23What do we have here?
16:26I can read Rome at the bottom,
16:29but the scene we see above is quite complicated,
16:32and I do not understand it well.
16:35Well, here we have a couple of men standing,
16:38and in the center, another one who seems to be kneeling
16:41and holding something with his hands.
16:44What he holds is a pig, a pig upside down.
16:47It may seem quite strange to us,
16:50any Roman would have known what it represented.
16:53It is a scene of oath,
16:56of promises made and accepted between two parties.
16:59And this is how the Romans did it.
17:02It is strange to us,
17:05but it was a significant ceremony for the Romans.
17:08Some think it could be a mythological scene
17:11of the oath of Romulus,
17:14one of the first allies of Rome.
17:17But it could be a more general reference
17:20to the system of alliances between the Romans
17:23and other peoples of Italy,
17:26which was so important,
17:29and the basis of the way in which the Romans
17:32came to conquer and dominate the entire Italian peninsula.
17:35So, this coin, in a way,
17:38projects or creates an image of Rome
17:41as the center of these alliances with other peoples.
17:44Exactly. It sends a message to the allies,
17:47but also to the Romans themselves.
17:50We are good allies, loyal and firm,
17:53but it is better for you to remain united with us
17:56because you would not want to see what would happen
17:59if you turned your back on us.
18:02The expansion of Rome was more improvised than planned.
18:05Thanks to a conglomerate of alliances
18:08the walled city came to control almost all of Italy.
18:11Then, the Romans would not take long
18:14to enter into conflict with the other great superpower
18:17of the time, the city of Carthage.
18:28And there was another empire that rivaled Rome.
18:33The network of alliances of the Romans
18:36began to intervene to support their friends and allies
18:39further and further away,
18:42as it happens today with modern superpowers.
18:45A particular request for help brought great consequences.
18:48During a dispute between two Sicilian cities,
18:51different groups turned to Rome and Carthage.
18:57After an intense debate in Rome between those who wanted to fight
19:00and those who thought it was better to stay out of it,
19:03the Romans decided to fight.
19:06And that was how the first direct conflict
19:09between Rome and Carthage took place.
19:17Along a narrow waterfront,
19:20the island of Sicily, more Greek than Italian,
19:23became the scene of the First War of Rome in Ultramar.
19:28A naval conflict against the most powerful maritime state
19:31of the Western Mediterranean.
19:34The Romans had never had or needed combat ships until then.
19:39The story goes that what they did was capture a Carthaginian ship
19:42and copy it to create their own.
19:46That was a great turning point.
19:49And in 241 BC,
19:52these waters ended up swamped by Quinqueremes,
19:55the military ships of the time,
19:58fighting in a fierce final battle.
20:07The underwater archaeologist Jevon Royal and his team
20:10have been in charge of discovering and rescuing
20:13the remains of the bottom of the sea.
20:16It is very difficult to assimilate this.
20:19I keep looking and thinking that every rock
20:22we find on the seabed
20:25belongs to the military team of the Romans or Carthaginians.
20:28But when you find remains of the battle,
20:31like these amphorae on the ground,
20:34it impacts you.
20:37You're looking at it right where it fell with your own eyes.
20:40It's extraordinary.
20:45What's the most memorable thing you've found?
20:48The spolans are always very memorable
20:51because it's very important to find them.
20:54And they are one of the objectives of the study.
20:57So, of course, when we see them, we are always excited.
21:01The spolan was placed on the bow
21:04in order to cover other boats.
21:07What the tests show us is that,
21:10obviously, there was a lot of destruction
21:13at sea level, on the surface of the sea.
21:16And everything is wasted, the helmets, the spolans.
21:19The spolans are damaged in the front. We have 11 spolans.
21:22Did they try to collide with each other?
21:25Yes.
21:28They tried to collide with each other.
21:31Yes.
21:34As they were at sea and at the speed at which they were going,
21:37you could see from an hour and a half,
21:40an hour and 45, or two hours earlier,
21:43what was going to happen.
21:46Did you have time to change your mind?
21:49Yes.
21:55Thanks to Jed's work,
21:58I can touch some of the remains of the battle with my own hands.
22:01This extraordinary object
22:04is one of the bronze spolans
22:07that would have been attached to the bow of the ships
22:10under the flotation line.
22:13This one clearly pierced an enemy ship
22:16that is part of a Carthaginian board,
22:19is still fixed to it.
22:22The decoration is beautiful.
22:25We see a helmet here, the logo of a helmet with feathers.
22:28And going down here,
22:31we find a wonderful fingerprint of the Roman official.
22:34It says,
22:37Lucius Quinctius,
22:40that is, the quality control agent approved this spolan.
22:43Proof of the wonderful Roman administrative efficiency.
22:49In fact, it contrasts a lot with the Carthaginian spolan,
22:52whose inscription says something like,
22:55may God hit your ships
22:58and make holes in them.
23:02In a way,
23:05the most interesting and moving object we have discovered
23:08is this helmet,
23:11which would have protected the face of the fighter
23:14and bring you about as close as you can ever get
23:17to the people who once fought
23:20and maybe died in this great battle.
23:32I suspect that I could be the first person
23:35to wear this helmet since 241 B.C.
23:41Whoever wore it,
23:44had to have the biggest head
23:47or quite a lot of some kind of padding.
24:06Finally, the Carthaginians
24:09were expelled from Sicily
24:12and that island became the first
24:15territory in the overseas under Roman rule.
24:18In a way, it could be said
24:21that the Roman Empire began here.
24:26Rome defeated Carthage twice.
24:29The first was the famous occasion
24:32when Hannibal carried out the feat of crossing the Alps
24:35with his elephants
24:38and the Romans finished the job.
24:41A few years later, in 146 B.C.,
24:44the Romans would finish the job
24:47whether it was because they were worried
24:50about the Carthaginians recovering
24:53or to show their strength.
24:56They embarked on an expedition to the north of Africa
24:59with Scipio Emiliano in command
25:02and completely destroyed the city.
25:05We don't know what led Rome
25:08to destroy the city of Carthage
25:11because they had done with almost the entire Carthaginian Empire
25:14when they defeated Hannibal
25:17so maybe it was a devastating
25:20demonstration of the Empire's self-confidence.
25:23But the year 146 B.C.
25:26would also be remembered for the destruction
25:29of another city.
25:32It was the year when Rome looted Corinth,
25:35the richest city in Greece.
25:46The year 146 B.C.
25:49would be engraved in the minds of the Romans.
25:52Rome had become so powerful
25:55that it was barely left with important challenges to face.
26:03The destruction of two of the most famous cities
26:06in the Mediterranean
26:09changed the rules of the game forever.
26:12There was still no sign of a Roman master plan
26:15or that they wanted to govern somewhere
26:18but they had more power than anyone
26:21even though they didn't really know how to use it.
26:24Basically, the priority of the Romans
26:27was to get away with it
26:31but the year 146 B.C.
26:34was an ambivalent year.
26:37Some celebrated it
26:40but others saw it as the beginning of the end
26:43and there is a logic in the history of empires
26:46when you reach the top, you can only fall.
26:53Carthage had disappeared from the face of the earth
26:56but Greece was very different
26:59and it gave Rome something more precious
27:02than the economic benefit, its culture.
27:08Its conquest not only changed the people that Rome conquered
27:11but also Rome.
27:14And thanks to Greece, Rome began to be filled
27:17with marble columns,
27:20elegant statues and works of art.
27:23This was the beginning of the Rome we know
27:26and also the beginning of a prosperous artistic market.
27:31This was once a great work of art.
27:34It's a statue of Hercules.
27:37He was part of the cargo of a ship that sank
27:40but he didn't go alone.
27:43He was accompanied by 30 other marble statues,
27:46bronze statues and also exquisite jewels,
27:49crystal, scientific instruments
27:52and they even say that they found the bones
27:55before the disaster.
27:58But from our point of view,
28:01what matters to us is that this was one of the thousands
28:04of goods that were transported
28:07from the Greek world on a trip
28:10just to go to Rome.
28:19The Greece that conquered Rome
28:22had a long history of art, theater and literature.
28:28And many Romans thought that the cultural traditions
28:31of Greece were superior to theirs.
28:34But Rome not only bought, looted
28:37and emulated the Greek culture
28:40but the Romans were included in the Greek legends
28:43going back to their own origins,
28:46to the mythical war between Greeks and Trojans
28:49and to the most famous literary work
28:52of the Greek literature of all time,
28:55the Iliad.
28:58One crucial character for the Romans was Aeneas
29:01who played a rather discreet role
29:04during the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad.
29:07The Romans took the story of Aeneas
29:10who would flee from Troy to reach Italy
29:13and found the Roman race
29:17It's almost as if they were saying
29:20that they also belonged to the Greek world,
29:23not just to the Roman.
29:32The story of Aeneas involved the Romans
29:35in the Greek traditions
29:38but to what extent to adopt them
29:41was a matter of debate
29:44and many conservatives argued
29:47that the Greek culture was destroying the Roman values.
29:52Not only was it conquered with swords
29:55it was conquered with books,
29:58with words and with culture.
30:01A Roman poet would later say
30:04that in reality, Rome had not conquered Greece
30:07but Greece had conquered Rome.
30:10What he meant was that the Greeks
30:13had been the real winners
30:16because Rome was indebted to them
30:19for having paid off its great cultural debt
30:22prior to the conquest of Corinth.
30:25But at the same time, Rome's interest
30:28in Greek culture and its study,
30:31conservation and reproduction of it
30:34is what kept it alive for us.
30:37In a way, I like to think that Rome
30:40had given itself to Greece.
30:43The Romans had taken control
30:46of the entire Mediterranean.
30:49They were the only ones who had succeeded
30:52but not only for annexing territories
30:55but also for their ability to get away with it.
30:58When we think of this empire,
31:01we think of the land that surrounds the sea
31:04but the heart of it was in the Mediterranean.
31:07It is crucial to understand what was happening
31:10throughout this huge liquid territory.
31:13But we are not only talking about ships
31:16transporting sculptures.
31:19Controlling the sea posed problems
31:22as serious as controlling Carthage and Corinth.
31:28The Mediterranean was the interior sea of the empire
31:31and its main road.
31:34They called it Mare Nostrum, our sea.
31:37Travelling by sea was much cheaper
31:40and faster than by land
31:43but it was dangerous.
31:46And not because a storm was enough
31:49to lose everything but because of the pirates
31:52and kidnappers who wanted to do
31:55with everything that was sailing.
31:58Not only goods but also people.
32:01A highway full of traffickers.
32:09The conquests of Rome had turned
32:12thousands and thousands of prisoners into slaves.
32:17And that led to a great demand.
32:20It was a lot of the benefits
32:23that the slave trade brought.
32:26Delos was a huge merchant community
32:29and people made a lot of money here.
32:32One Roman writer considered
32:35that it was the largest market on the planet.
32:38All kinds of goods were marketed
32:41perfumes, spices, sculptures, furniture.
32:44But Delos was famous for being
32:47the world capital of the slave trade
32:50and one of its main suppliers
32:54were the bandits and kidnappers
32:57whom the Romans called pirates.
33:00For the Roman pirates it was all
33:03that they did not want to see in a ship.
33:06From small opportunists to big criminals
33:09more like a mafia.
33:12Their relationship was not easy
33:15and the men of these ships were difficult to control.
33:18One day they supplied your market
33:21and the next day they attacked you.
33:27And that's just what we see here.
33:32Here we have a wonderful pair
33:35of clearly Roman faces, wrinkled
33:38and with their cheeks sunken,
33:41both with a sinister look.
33:44It is tempting to imagine that they were involved
33:47in some form of business ruin
33:50but they are quite human.
33:53They have been hit and seem a little burnt.
33:56And the reason we find it at a key moment
33:59in the history of this place.
34:02In 69 BC the pirates came here
34:05set fire to the place,
34:08there was a great fire and Delos was destroyed.
34:15But the pirates also had an impact
34:18on Rome.
34:21The fear they generated in the Romans
34:24gave them a reason or excuse
34:27to make a decision that would set the foundations
34:30for great political changes
34:33that would undermine democracy and
34:36would enhance autocracy.
34:39Pirates were a nuisance and sometimes a danger
34:42but the threat could always be manipulated
34:45The war against the pirates
34:48was a kind of war against terror.
34:51In 67 BC the Roman people
34:54endowed with powers almost unlimited
34:57to a single man to finish off the pirates.
35:00That man was Pompey.
35:07Pompey the Great, as he was known
35:10got rid of the pirates in just three months.
35:13Then he concentrated his forces
35:16against some powerful eastern kings
35:19to return to Rome by all means
35:22with a spectacular two-day parade
35:25and a multitudinous carnival.
35:32The parade of his victory
35:35was one of the biggest parties ever held
35:38in the streets of Rome.
35:41It was accompanied by the booties
35:44and the wealth he had brought
35:47as well as the captured prisoners.
35:50The idea was for the people to see
35:53what the generals and the troops
35:56had achieved abroad and what they had brought.
35:59Some people thought it was a terribly vulgar
36:02display and sometimes
36:05people would cry
36:08to see the poor prisoners go past.
36:14But for most Romans
36:17it was an occasion to have fun.
36:20To see how it was.
36:23Not bad.
36:26And to enjoy the wealth they had won.
36:29Centuries after the party
36:32there is not much trace of Pompey's triumph
36:35but in the corner of a museum
36:38we can see one of the pieces
36:41he was proud of in that show.
36:44Not every day we find an object
36:47displayed in the streets of Rome
36:50in a triumphal procession.
36:53In fact, this may be the only one.
36:56It is a large bronze jug
36:59possibly used to mix
37:02wine, water and honey.
37:05And it contains the name of one of the kings
37:08whom Pompey defeated
37:11engraved on the edge.
37:14This makes me quite clear
37:17that this was one of the thousands and thousands
37:20of treasures that the Roman people
37:23saw pass in the parade of Pompey
37:26in 61 BC.
37:33The empire had traditionally been founded
37:36formed and governed by democrats
37:39who shared power for a year.
37:42The idea had always been to prevent
37:45someone from becoming king again.
37:48But with Pompey, the rejection of the Romans
37:51to individual power began to decrease.
37:54To defend or extend the empire
37:57perhaps it was necessary to put control
38:00over a single man.
38:03However, to have revolutionized Rome
38:06it left very few visible traces.
38:09This is a wonderful example of archaeology
38:12in the Roman streets.
38:15You might miss it, but the layout of these buildings
38:18this extensive curved facade
38:21matches the ancient Roman foundations
38:24underneath.
38:27Foundations that belonged
38:30to a large semicircular amphitheater.
38:33This is what remains of a theater
38:36that Pompey built with the benefits
38:39of his oriental campaigns.
38:42And this is the first time
38:45that a Roman building
38:48began to resemble the Rome
38:51that we imagine.
38:54Monumental, magnificent
38:57and designed to impress.
39:07Pompey established how the appearance
39:10of an imperial building should be
39:13and later entrepreneurs would follow his pattern.
39:20But his name would never be well known.
39:23It would always be eclipsed
39:26in the search for glory
39:29and in the competition for personal power.
39:32The man who would be remembered
39:35for all eternity would be his great rival,
39:38Julius Caesar.
39:42Blimey, off we go.
39:45Never done this before.
39:48Unlike Pompey,
39:51Caesar headed west.
39:54After Pompey's impressive
39:57and bloody victory
40:00that allowed him to return with lots of wealth,
40:03Caesar wanted to overcome it
40:06and his only option was to carry out
40:09a great conquest.
40:12But Caesar overcame Pompey
40:15in a very important way.
40:18Pompey achieved great victories
40:21but Caesar also achieved them
40:24and wrote about them.
40:27The reason why we can go to Alesia
40:30where one of Caesar's last victories took place
40:33is because it was he himself
40:37In Alesia, the army of the Gauls
40:40had camped on a hill.
40:43According to Caesar,
40:46everything seemed to be under control.
40:49Their camps were in strategic points
40:52and they stationed pickets day and night.
40:55Both fronts fought hard.
40:58Caesar ordered to dig two trenches
41:01and erect a wall and a fence.
41:04When you look at the scale of it,
41:07despite what it says in his writings,
41:10it was impossible for Caesar to see
41:13all the areas of this battlefield.
41:16In the end, winning a battle in antiquity
41:19depended on the number of troops,
41:22on making the enemy hungry,
41:25on surprising them from behind
41:28or perhaps, in good part,
41:31on the number of soldiers.
41:37Whether he was lucky or not,
41:40Caesar would be delighted to know
41:43that we continue to read his version of these campaigns.
41:46Whether he won or not,
41:49the reality is that his story has lasted for centuries.
41:52And in terms of imperial propaganda,
41:55it shows that a pen could be more powerful
41:58or at least more durable than a sword.
42:01The leader of the Gauls in their last
42:04and disastrous resistance was Vercingetorix.
42:07Since then, he has become a hero of modern France,
42:10a fighter for freedom
42:13that he faced for his nation.
42:16The ironic thing is that everything we know
42:19about Vercingetorix goes back
42:22to what Caesar wrote about him.
42:25In a way, our Vercingetorix
42:28is a Roman creation.
42:31Whatever he was really,
42:34Caesar had to show that he had defeated
42:37a dangerous, brave, and above all, worthy opponent.
42:40The Romans would never have considered
42:43the merit of defeating a coward.
42:48Caesar also boasted about the number of Gauls
42:51that his army killed during his campaign.
42:54At present, it is estimated that around a million.
42:57Their numbers could have been inflated
43:00to impress on their return.
43:03But there is little doubt that Caesar materialized
43:06his desire to overcome the glories of Pompey
43:09through a whole genocide.
43:12The excavations of the battlefield have unearthed
43:15some of the weapons with which Caesar achieved victory,
43:18such as the ancestral version of the terrestrial mines.
43:21These things aren't exactly high-tech,
43:24but they are very unpleasant.
43:27Look at this one in particular.
43:30Imagine stepping on it with a leather sandal.
43:33The point goes right through your foot
43:36and you can't get your sandal off.
43:39You can't get your sandal off.
43:42You're in agony.
43:45You can't get your sandal off.
43:48I'm choking just thinking about it.
43:51There were people in Rome who were concerned
43:54about what was happening in Gaul and the magnitude of the massacre.
43:57Some of Caesar's enemies even suggested
44:00that he be judged for war crimes
44:03and that the jury be made up of Gauls only.
44:06The Roman Empire was quite cruel,
44:09but there were levels of cruelty
44:12that even the Romans couldn't stand.
44:18Julius Caesar would never have won
44:21without the loyal support of his troops.
44:24They were no longer the cattle thieves of the beginning,
44:27but professional soldiers
44:30as closely linked to their general as he was to them,
44:33even more so than to the state.
44:36And unlike Pompey,
44:39Caesar was prepared to use this army
44:42to control Rome.
44:46For his part, Caesar was aware
44:49that his enemies in Rome were conspiring against him,
44:52that they were trying to put him into a corner
44:55and, as he said,
44:58to undermine his dignity,
45:01the Roman concept that combined prestige and honour.
45:04So he took a chance
45:07and with one of his legions he marched towards Rome.
45:10When he reached the river Rubicon,
45:13the border between Gaul and Italy,
45:16he proclaimed,
45:19In other words, luck is on our side.
45:27Some Romans considered it
45:30the legacy of Romulus and Remus,
45:33the twins whose disputes ended
45:36with the death of one of them.
45:39Now a Roman would face another for power.
45:43Caesar's return unleashed a chaotic civil war
45:46that would not only engulf the Italian peninsula
45:49but the entire empire.
45:55Pompey was assassinated on the coast of Egypt
45:58and his beheaded head
46:01was presented to Caesar,
46:04who, according to legend,
46:07broke into tears when he saw it.
46:10Caesar won the battle
46:13and officially became the only ruler of Rome,
46:16but not for long.
46:21If there is one Roman known by all,
46:24that is Julius Caesar.
46:27Not because of what he did, but because of his death.
46:30His assassination became
46:33that epic scene that we all know
46:36or think we know
46:39that goes along with his famous last words
46:42et tu brute?
46:45Which he never pronounced.
46:48What we do know for sure
46:51is that a group of friends
46:54ambushed him at a meeting in the Senate House,
46:57ironically built by his great rival, Pompey.
47:00It all happened right where that tree is now.
47:04Once again,
47:07the story reminded us of that of the foundation of Rome.
47:10Now it was Caesar who had been assassinated as Remus.
47:22It is the most famous political assassination in history
47:25carried out in the name of liberty
47:28just a few weeks after Caesar
47:32was proclaimed dictator for life.
47:35Too soon to know if he had succeeded or failed.
47:38But the fact that the murderers
47:41got rid of the man they considered a tyrant
47:44did not get rid of them.
47:47It was too late.
47:50At that point, it was inevitable
47:53that the empire would be ruled by one man.
47:56The question was, who would that man be?
48:01The first long-term autocrat
48:04and whom we would call the first Roman emperor
48:07would be Caio Julio Cesar Octaviano
48:10or as he would be called later, Augusto.
48:15This title had no concrete meaning
48:18but it could be assigned to him as venerable.
48:22He stood up to the pros and cons
48:25of being the sole ruler.
48:28At the beginning of the 3rd century BC
48:31Scipio Barbado had summarized his career
48:34in just a few lines.
48:37300 years later, Emperor Caesar Augustus
48:40would write the epitaph for his own tomb
48:43in hundreds of lines.
48:59It's an extraordinary and pretentious report
49:02of what he did
49:05but it also gives some guidelines
49:08on how to be an emperor in the future.
49:11Three things stand out.
49:14First, you have to be enormously generous
49:17to the Roman people.
49:20You have to offer them help,
49:23entertainment and services.
49:27And that's what's listed here.
49:30All the money he invested in that.
49:33But you also have to build, build and build.
49:36And even if that was Pompey's motto
49:39Augustus tells us about all the temples
49:42and theatres he built.
49:46But most importantly of all
49:49and this is what occupies most of this document
49:52you have to invest in conquests.
49:56And Augustus explains how he extended
49:59the borders of the Roman Empire
50:02how he brought peace to the borders
50:05of Gaul and Spain
50:08and how he brought peace to the Alps.
50:12The message he insists on is clear
50:15to be a Roman emperor
50:18you have to be a conqueror.
50:27No matter how much the Romans wanted to avoid
50:30rulers like Pompey or Julius Caesar
50:33the problems of governing and watching
50:36an increasingly large empire
50:39showed that the decisions made by a committee
50:42did not work.
50:45It was not the emperor who had created
50:48the Roman Empire
50:51but the empire had created the emperors.
50:54Augustus' epitaph was a practical kit
50:57of tools to be an emperor
51:00but the hidden ideology behind all this
51:03is better represented in another monument
51:06he erected to celebrate the Pax
51:09Peace.
51:12This is the altar of peace
51:15it celebrates the security and prosperity
51:18that the Roman Empire is capable of bringing
51:21but it isn't peace as we understand it
51:24this isn't about the absence of wars
51:27it's about the peace
51:30that is the result of wars
51:33this is peace
51:36that has been won with victory
51:39really
51:42this is an altar of pacification
51:46But it's much more than that
51:49built in marble by the best artists
51:52of the city
51:55we can't overlook their messages
51:58their walls are full of friezes
52:01some of them representing Augustus and his family
52:04with the imperial dynasty carved in stone
52:07some of the images reveal the idea
52:10that his is a divine right of birth
52:13and that his lineage goes back
52:16to the mythical founders of Rome
52:24On either side of the main steps
52:27we find two different representations
52:30of the past of Rome
52:33on one side, the wolf with Romulus and Remus
52:36and on the other, Aeneas, just arrived in Italy from Troy
52:39and this had a particular resonance for the emperor
52:42because Augustus claimed that he was a direct descendant of Aeneas
52:45but there is an idea
52:48that is even more obvious
52:51when combining both scenes
52:54on one side we have Romulus
52:57who received in his new city, marginalized and fugitives
53:00and on the other, Aeneas
53:03who came from abroad
53:06the message about the origins of Rome is clear
53:09Rome was always foreign
53:15this made a lot of sense for the Romans
53:18the stories they told about their origins
53:21reflected the growing diversity
53:24expansion and breadth of their world
53:27and there was always a corner of the empire
53:30that had a particular relevance
53:33many Romans consider that the history of their city
53:36began here
53:39more than 3000 km from Rome
53:42is the city of Troy
53:45the city of the Trojan war
53:48the most famous and decisive in all the history
53:51and mythology of the classical world
53:54it is the war of Helena, Achilles, Hector and the Trojan horse
54:00it was also the birthplace of Aeneas
54:04and in the Augustan era
54:07the Roman poet Virgilio
54:10reimagined and rewrote the journey of Aeneas
54:13from Troy to Italy
54:16in his epic, Aeneid
54:19he used mythology
54:22to analyze the complexity
54:25of the growth of Rome and its empire
54:34in this epic we find everything
54:37love, honor, heroism
54:40and imperialism
54:43Virgilio also highlights
54:46some of the most disconcerting facets
54:49of imperial power
54:52at the end of the story
54:55the last thing we see our hero Aeneas do
54:58is to murder a enemy soldier
55:01who had just surrendered to him
55:04it's as if in Virgilio's hands
55:07the story of Aeneas
55:10celebrated the Roman Empire
55:13and displayed its potential brutality
55:20however Virgilio also presented the Roman Empire
55:23as a gift from the gods themselves
55:31at the beginning, Jupiter, king of the gods
55:34prophesied the future power of Rome
55:37I have given the Romans
55:40an infinite empire
55:43I have given them an empire without limits
55:50but it hadn't really started like that
55:53any city had expanded
55:56beyond its walls to become
55:59the core of a vast empire
56:06and had gone from twins to emperors
56:09from cattle thieves
56:12to organized soldiers
56:15from the first victories of Scipio Barbato
56:18to the destruction of Corinth in the East
56:21and the bloody murders in Gaul in the West
56:25through a combination of improvisation
56:28good luck, greed and ambition
56:31Rome has become in our minds
56:34the definition of empire
56:39the idea of an empire without limits
56:42is something that Scipio Barbato
56:45would never have understood
56:48he knew all the conquests and military glory
56:51and the benefits they got from them
56:54but for Rome to take control of territories
56:57all over the world
57:00and for it to be considered unlimited
57:03would have been absolutely incomprehensible
57:06two and a half centuries later
57:09Virgilio's Aeneid would affirm that Jupiter
57:12had planned it like that
57:15it's as if Virgilio, looking back
57:18on the chaotic and improvised history
57:21of the Roman conquests
57:24in a magnificent plan of manifest destiny
57:32now that Rome has acquired an empire
57:35what will it do with it?
57:38it was a terrible system that exploited
57:41resources, landscape and people
57:44what would feed it and what would connect it?
57:47Virgilio said that all roads lead to Rome
57:50but that's how it was
57:53who would lose and who would win?
57:56one of the biggest things he did
57:59was raise this great amphitheater
58:17to be continued