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Documentary, 8 Days That Made Rome S01E07 - Theatre Of Death
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00:00Ancient Rome, one of the greatest superpowers in history, whose far-reaching legacy continues to shape our lives.
00:09For close on a thousand years, the Romans dominated the known world.
00:16Theirs was an extraordinary empire that heralded an age of unprecedented prosperity and stability,
00:23but that also ruled through violence and oppression.
00:27Rome's rise to greatness wasn't inevitable.
00:32Its epic history was often decided by single critical moments.
00:39In this series, I'm exploring eight key days that I believe help to explain Rome's remarkable success.
00:49To understand the full significance of these eight days, I'm travelling across the Roman world.
00:55I am incredibly lucky to get access to this archaeological site.
01:00Examining remarkable finds.
01:03This is a bit of prized gladiatorial sports graffiti.
01:07It does remind us of just how macro Roman society is, though.
01:10One of my eight days played out here, right in the heart of Rome, in 80 AD.
01:25Let the games begin!
01:28When a desperate emperor Titus unveiled the greatest monument in the history of Rome, the Colosseum.
01:36One of these gladiators will die!
01:41The opening day of this incredible building.
01:47Evidence of the callous Roman mindset.
01:51That helped Rome stay master of the known world.
01:55Today, the Colosseum is still a towering statement of the excess and might of the Roman Empire at its height.
02:12But the day it opened was a huge gamble by a new imperial dynasty.
02:18Desperately trying to cling on to power.
02:20The opening day of the Colosseum was rammed with spectacle and violence and is packed with historical clues.
02:32I've chosen it as one of my eight days that made Rome.
02:35Not just because of the role it played in securing the stability of a fragile new dynasty,
02:40but because of what it can tell us about the Roman psyche,
02:45about Roman attitudes to life and death,
02:48how they saw themselves and their relationship to the world.
02:52For me, this building can help us to understand what it meant to be Roman.
02:59The Romans can seem like us.
03:07They're educated, they're literates, they're masters of political spin,
03:12their technology is a precursor to ours, and their art fills our museums.
03:17But nothing makes them feel stranger or more alien than the slaughter in the arena of animals and humans for entertainment.
03:32The significance of this blood-filled opening day would have been felt most acutely by one man.
03:39The emperor, or Caesar, Titus.
03:47He wanted to secure the empire not just for himself, but for his dynasty, the Flavians,
03:54including his ambitious younger brother, Domitian, who'd succeed him.
03:58Touch of nerves, brother.
04:00Must have eaten something that disagreed with me.
04:02Surely nothing would dare disagree with you, Caesar.
04:05I do regret our father did not live to see this day.
04:12Perhaps he had a lucky escape.
04:15Meaning?
04:16Meaning it is you, Caesar, that will either face the consequences of the old man's folly,
04:22or reap the rewards of his remarkable vision.
04:28Titus and Domitian were the beneficiaries of a bold power grab by their father, Vespasian.
04:34This day was their chance to secure his legacy.
04:38Kick-started when he'd seized control of the world's greatest empire in 69 AD,
04:44to become Rome's ninth emperor.
04:50Rome had been ruled by one great dynasty since 31 BC,
04:54when Augustus became its first emperor.
04:58Are we not still standing?
05:00Marking the arrival of the Julio-Claudians.
05:04But the excesses of the dynasty's fifth emperor, Nero,
05:08brought the empire into disrepute.
05:11What an end is this for an emperor of Rome?
05:14When he died in 68 AD,
05:17the Julio-Claudians died with him,
05:20leaving the empire in chaos.
05:23The civil war that followed left thousands dead.
05:26Out of the carnage emerged this man,
05:35the emperor Vespasian.
05:38Now, he was determined to nourish the security of the Flavian dynasty.
05:43His bloodline and that of his two sons, Titus and Domitian,
05:48and at the same time to win over the hearts of the people of Rome.
05:52And his strategy, to build the largest arena the world had ever seen.
06:01What was originally called the Flavian Amphitheatre.
06:05The Colosseum.
06:09Unlike previous emperors,
06:12Vespasian wasn't an elite politician.
06:14He was a soldier from humble origins.
06:16His position was fragile.
06:20The senate was full of ambitious men itching to seize control.
06:25Winning over the people of Rome was critical if he was to stay in power.
06:30Vespasian's master plan was to offer ordinary Romans an alternative to the corruption of Nero.
06:35Where I'm walking now was once actually a massive lake
06:42that stood right at the heart of a ridiculously excessive palace and garden complex
06:48built on the orders of the Emperor Nero.
06:51Now, it is no coincidence whatsoever that this was the spot
06:55chosen by the emperor Vespasian to construct his grand new amphitheatre.
07:01It's really interesting that Vespasian chose that particular side to build the Colosseum.
07:08Vespasian wants to really contrast his reign with that of Nero.
07:13Nero had built himself a huge private pleasure palace right in the heart of the city
07:19and it's really unpopular.
07:21What Vespasian is doing is saying,
07:23here I am, I'm building a huge pleasure palace for the people
07:28where once had stood a lake that had only been for an emperor's enjoyment.
07:32When we think of Rome, we often think of the Colosseum.
07:35It does become something that really defines the city.
07:39Absolutely, and it's a profound symbolic statement
07:42that ordinary people were going to get a lot out of having Vespasian in charge.
07:47From his years as a general, Vespasian knew how effective amphitheatres were
07:53at keeping up the morale of soldiers right across the empire.
07:58The bloody celebration of what they called vertus,
08:03a kind of macho manliness, was embedded in the Roman psyche.
08:08Vespasian was going to use this concept to unite the people of Rome
08:12by building the largest amphitheater ever.
08:17As the construction of the Flavian amphitheater progressed,
08:21Romans must have wondered whether Vespasian could deliver on his promise.
08:26The building would eventually become known as the Colosseum,
08:31after the Colossus, a massive statue of Nero that once stood nearby.
08:35The Colosseum had taken a decade to build,
08:41but in 79 AD, the Emperor Vespasian died,
08:45leaving his brainchild unfinished.
08:48Now, a year later, on the day of the grand opening,
08:51it was down to his eldest son Titus to prove to the Roman people
08:55that all this had been worth the wait.
08:58Emperor Titus was now ready to unveil the Flavian amphitheater.
09:14Although Titus was emperor, that didn't mean that he was secure.
09:18The jury was still out on whether Rome would accept
09:21this upstart Flavian dynasty.
09:24Then, to add to his challenges,
09:26as soon as he was in power,
09:29disaster struck.
09:32Just two months into Titus' reign,
09:36Mount Vesuvius erupted,
09:38obliterating the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
09:42A year later,
09:43a three-day fire ravaged Rome,
09:47followed by a plague.
09:49These disasters were a very inauspicious start.
09:52The Romans were superstitious in the extreme,
09:55and events like this were taken as a clear sign
09:59that the gods were displeased.
10:01Now, Titus' hold on power was already shaky,
10:05and there was a very real possibility
10:07that it would evaporate.
10:09Titus had a golden opportunity to show a nervous public he was worthy of the title, Caesar,
10:16and the construction of the Flavian amphitheater was finally completed.
10:23He announced a mind-boggling 100 days of games,
10:30with free entry to those lucky enough to get a ticket.
10:33It would be up to the organiser or editor
10:37to deliver a show to remember.
10:41Caesar!
10:45Is everything ready?
10:48Is everything ready or isn't it?
10:50Everything is ready, Caesar.
10:52Then let us begin.
11:10On that opening day in the early summer of 80 AD,
11:15the stakes couldn't have been higher.
11:17They seem happy enough for now.
11:23They want blood.
11:25Blood, blood, and more blood.
11:28That's what I'm giving them, brother.
11:32Citizens of Rome,
11:35welcome to this,
11:37the first of 100 days in celebration
11:39of the glory of the Empire!
11:41To let the games begin!
11:59That went better than expected.
12:02Domitian,
12:04do shut up.
12:11It never fails to impress me
12:14just how vast this place is,
12:18but it's also chilling,
12:21because, and I don't think I'm being over-fanciful here,
12:25if you stop for a moment,
12:27you can almost hear the crowd
12:29baying for blood.
12:40Go, go, go, go, go!
12:41Go, go, go!
12:49The games were a chance for the Romans
12:51to celebrate and marvel
12:52at the diversity of their empire,
12:55including hunters, or Venatores,
12:58in Ethiopia.
12:58Behold, from Africa,
13:10I present a beast,
13:14the likes of which
13:16you will not believe!
13:20my eyesight, as you know,
13:42is not the best.
13:43that looks very much to me
13:46like a herd of goat.
13:46Go, go, go!
13:49Come from theist,
13:49the
13:52challenge!
13:52The
13:53ura
13:53that looks very Tinder
13:54is bad for
13:55most of its
14:00Because of our
14:02family battle is the pursuit of
14:04it is messed up to us,
14:04where you may understand
14:05the
14:19Here!
14:49This first event of the day was the Venationes, the slaughter of wild beasts, a popular Roman tradition.
15:01As the empire expanded, Romans were fascinated by the exotic animals they encountered.
15:08Gathering and transporting animals to be used in the Venationes became an empire-wide industry,
15:14made possible by Rome's ability to connect cities from as far afield as Scotland to Gerash, here in Jordan.
15:24It was such a big operation, even the Roman army got involved.
15:28The animals would be recorded at busy cities like this one, boxed up and then exported over the waterways
15:35and the intercontinental system of roads that the Romans had constructed with such care and skill.
15:41Such was the impact of the Roman appetite for these animals that many species were simply wiped out from the empire.
15:54As the author Petronius put it, the wild beast is searched out in the woods at great price.
16:00Strange, ravening creatures freight the fleets, and the Padding Tiger is wheeled into a gilded palace
16:08to drink the blood of men while the crowds applaud.
16:14The Venationes weren't just a way of showing Rome's dominion over the natural world.
16:20They were used by the wealthy to demonstrate their power.
16:24This mosaic would originally have decorated the grand villa of a wealthy man from North Africa.
16:32And it tells us how people use the Venationes to show off.
16:37Basically, it's a kind of storyboard.
16:39So you've got four leopards pitted against four hunters in the games.
16:44And you can see where they've been skewered and they're spurting blood.
16:48Now, because the animals are damaged goods, their owner is asking for money in recompense.
16:55And the man who put on the games, Magerius, obliges.
16:59Just in the middle there, you can see somebody coming in carrying a tray of loot.
17:04And each of those bags of money contains 1,000 denarii.
17:09That is a huge amount of cash.
17:12Put together, it's around a quarter of a million pounds in today's money.
17:17And the writing in the middle rams home the message.
17:21This is what it is to be rich.
17:25This is what it is to be powerful.
17:29At the Colosseum, Titus was taking this concept to the nth degree in a bid to impress the people with his wealth and potency.
17:41But the Venationes weren't just about showing off.
17:46The animal hunts that took place in amphitheaters and stadiums right across the Roman Empire
17:51were a reminder to the local population that the Romans ruled the world with absolute ferocity.
17:57And the beast hunts back at Rome were a way of bringing the exoticism of the empire to Rome's home turf.
18:06It's the Romans saying,
18:08With might and muscle, we have conquered the known world full of wild and wonderful things.
18:14Let's bathe in our own glory.
18:20Titus Caesar shipped in exotic animals from the far corners of the empire for the slaughter.
18:265,000 beasts, we're told, on this first day alone.
18:32Is everything proceeding to your satisfaction, Caesar?
18:36You had us buried there with the goats.
18:38Ah, all part of the plan, Caesar.
18:41I don't need to remind you what's at stake here.
18:44What my dear brother means to say is,
18:46Mess this up and you'll have the gladiators sharpen their swords on your skull.
18:54I understand.
18:55These games were costing a fortune.
19:01Not to mention the financing of building the Colosseum in the first place.
19:06When Titus' father Vespasian came to power,
19:10he'd inherited an empire almost bankrupt from the excesses of Nero.
19:14So how on earth did he pay for all of this?
19:20A discovery in 2001 reveals how proud the Flavians were of just how they funded the construction.
19:28This conscribed stone was originally mounted on the outside of the Colosseum.
19:35And the letters that you can see tell us that these were carved in 400 years or so after the building was finished.
19:42They read that a senator called Lampedius gave money to the Colosseum once it had become run down in order for it to be restored.
19:49But then archaeologists spotted all these little holes and realised that these were where brass letters were originally fixed to the stone.
20:00And if you join the dots together, this is what they say.
20:03The Emperor Caesar Vespasian Augustus built this new amphitheatre with the spoils of war.
20:12The Romans were blatantly advertising the fact that the Colosseum had been built with foreign plunder, dirty money.
20:25And much of that money came from one city in particular.
20:32Just a stone's throw from the Colosseum is this spectacular victory arch, the Arch of Titus.
20:39When Vespasian became emperor, his son Titus was in Judea, crushing a Jewish revolt with absolute ferocity and laying siege to Jerusalem.
20:52The sack of Jerusalem has gone down in history as one of the horror stories of humanity,
20:59both for the scale of the slaughter and the destruction of the sacred temple.
21:04There's Titus, being crowned by the goddess of victory, and over here is his train, fat with loot,
21:13including the treasured Menara, a sacred candelabrum with seven arms that were said to have been carried by Moses from Egypt
21:21to end up in its resting place in the temple at Jerusalem.
21:25The Arch of Titus tells us something unsettling about the Roman psyche,
21:31that the Flavians were thrilled by the fact that they could use the proceeds of a Jewish bloodbath
21:38to fund the building of a giant stadium.
21:42For the Romans, theirs was the only civilization that mattered.
21:46Now, on this opening day, the crowd would decide if Titus had spent his Jewish loot well enough
21:55to save his troubled reign.
21:58Emperor Titus' grand opening of the Colosseum might have been a chance for him to shore up the Flavian dynasty.
22:13But one aspect of the games reveals something far deeper about Rome's attitudes to crime and punishment,
22:20and how it dealt with those who dared to transgress the rules of Roman society.
22:26At midday, the arena was turned into a place of public execution.
22:35We all know that in some parts of the world, and in the dark recesses of the Internet,
22:41executions can draw thousands of viewers.
22:45But what the Romans did here was elaborately repulsive.
22:50They turned their public executions into a kind of snuff theatre.
22:56They'd take a well-known Greek myth, part of their shared heritage, and give it a macabre spin.
23:04The crowd could share the dubious delight of watching these sinister spectacles.
23:10What sort of a beast is that?
23:16This, my lord, is Action the hunter, who, on seeing a diable bathing, was overcome with lust,
23:24and as a punishment, transformed into a stag.
23:28This merchant here defiled the young daughter of his neighbour.
23:39And so the hunter becomes the hunted.
23:44I toma this.
23:57Emoji!
23:58Emoji!
23:58Emoji!
23:59Emoji!
24:01Emoji!
24:03Emoji!
24:04Emoji!
24:09Emoji!
24:10I know that we shouldn't judge ancient societies
24:25from a 21st century point of view,
24:27but I have to say I am very troubled
24:30by the degree of cruelty that you find in the Colosseum.
24:34I mean, it has to be said that most societies
24:37show some propensity to enjoy violence.
24:40I mean, if you look at Hollywood movies now
24:42or some computer games,
24:44I mean, they are pretty violent, albeit at one remove.
24:48And so partly I think the Romans do just show
24:51this kind of almost instinctive human interest in violence.
24:55But I think there's much more to it than that.
24:58What they're trying to do is really show
25:00that Rome has power of life and death,
25:04over-transgressors, outsiders,
25:06people who it has conquered.
25:09And in a way, that kind of violent execution
25:11is a way of the Romans coming together as a group,
25:16celebrating their Roman-ness
25:17and celebrating law and order.
25:22At the Colosseum, it wasn't just about entertainment.
25:26Titus was selling this law and order like never before.
25:30The very seating was designed to show the audience
25:33exactly where they belonged in Rome's pecking order.
25:37Starting with the emperor himself,
25:39the seating plan was an incarnation of Roman society.
25:43The emperor Titus and his family,
25:45including his younger brother Domitian,
25:47would have sat in the imperial box,
25:49which was probably over there.
25:51then radiating up the influential senators
25:56and patricians on the first level,
26:00the equites or knights on the second.
26:06Up here,
26:07separated from the more important high-status citizens,
26:11were the plebs,
26:12the ordinary people.
26:14The very poorest had the rubbish seats right at the back.
26:19But it didn't stop there.
26:22Above the plebs were the women,
26:24rich and poor alike.
26:26Rome was a patriarchal society,
26:29and women were expected to stay at home
26:31and manage the household.
26:33Their attendance at the games was somewhat frowned upon.
26:35The perfect Roman woman
26:38demonstrated modesty and chastity,
26:41very different to the values
26:42prized in the ideal Roman man,
26:45a kind of heroic manliness.
26:48And the main event on that day
26:50was a uniquely Roman celebration
26:53of that manliness.
26:56At the Colosseum,
26:58the success of the opening day
26:59would be decided by the people's favourite,
27:03the highlight of the games.
27:04the gladiators.
27:13Get this animal to his cell
27:15and out of the way!
27:18No way to speak to a champion.
27:21Briskus.
27:26Thanks to the celebrated poet Marshall,
27:29who witnessed the games,
27:30we know that the two gladiators
27:32who fought one another
27:33were called Verus and Priskus.
27:36Now, these two would have been
27:37well-known to the crowd.
27:40Celebrities in their own right.
27:41A bit like when Muhammad Ali
27:43met Joe Frazier in Manila.
27:50Priskus?
27:51Yes, Caesar?
27:52You are to fight Verus.
27:54Are you ready to die?
27:57Yes, Caesar.
28:00Are you afraid to die?
28:02No, Caesar.
28:05I make you an offer.
28:07One which will motivate you
28:08to fight well and hard.
28:10To the one of you
28:11that kills the other,
28:13I shall grant freedom.
28:14May you give me a fight
28:19worthy of my clemency.
28:22May the gods show you their favor.
28:27Although the fight
28:28between two champions
28:29would have been a big draw,
28:30there was another key reason
28:32to attend this spectacular
28:33first day of the games.
28:35At the Colosseum,
28:40there was also the rare chance
28:41for the crowd
28:42to let their emperor know
28:44what they thought of him.
28:46Something they'd been deprived of
28:48for over a hundred years
28:49since the demise of the Republic
28:51under Augustus.
28:53Here, they could cheer and applaud
28:56or howl
28:57or just stay quiet.
29:00A kind of oral opinion poll.
29:02To be met by silence
29:05rather than adulation
29:07was a body blow
29:08for the ambitious.
29:12Titus was taking a big gamble
29:14by addressing the crowd directly.
29:18Citizens!
29:19Is this not the greatest spectacle
29:21in the history of the empire?
29:27The animation by the crowd
29:29was essential
29:30to secure his leadership.
29:32and he was counting
29:35on the next act
29:36to win him instant popularity.
29:40Gladiators!
29:47At last.
29:51They cheer louder for you
29:53than for the new emperor.
30:02Gradiators!
30:13Gradiators!
30:15Gradiators!
30:16Gradiators!
30:17Gamgrads!
30:18Big dum하다!
30:18Rock and rabbits!
30:22aggressive
30:24Ach sack
30:26We seem to be obsessed with gladiators in the modern world, and we think that the Romans
30:36were too. There is this idea of virtue, and a good gladiator can encapsulate that.
30:42Yes, what's also remarkable is that most of these gladiators are slaves or they're prisoners
30:47of war. They're the lowest of the low in Roman society, and yet here they are giving displays
30:52of Roman courage and virtus, which is a sort of combination of bravery, courage, and excellence.
31:02And it's what they think has won them the empire in the first place.
31:06And I guess that's very important. It's not pure bloodlust, which is how we think of it.
31:11Absolutely. Now, of course, by the time of the emperor Titus, hardly any Romans had actually
31:16ever seen a battlefield, but they want to see a version of those traditional values in
31:22a modern setting.
31:31These men need no introduction!
31:38He's going to give them one anyway.
31:41My money's on the big one.
31:43I just hope it's not over too soon.
31:45On my left, the bringard of brutality, the rough, the tough, the vicious sparrows!
31:59On my right, the quick, the snippery, pretty boy Christmas!
32:16On the order of the emperor, one of these gladiators will die!
32:37Titus was hoping that the grand finale of his opening day would go down in history.
32:56We can get a sense of what gladiatorial combat meant to the spectators at the Coliseum that
33:02opening day here in Aphrodisias, modern-day Turkey. Ongoing excavations are revealing how
33:10passionate ordinary Romans across the Empire were about this brutal sport.
33:18Tucked away by the city walls is a clue left for us by one of its citizens close on
33:252,000 years ago. There's a very special stone in here I'd like you to see. Gosh
33:31you're gonna have to decode this for me because I'm not sure what I'm looking at.
33:34This is a bit of prize sports graffiti. It's a slab face up in the wall that has been
33:40decorated by a modest artist with his favorite stars from the arena. The one
33:46we can see most clearly is this one in the middle and you can see him holding a
33:51long trident which goes out like that. Yes there are the three prongs yeah. And
33:56that's the identifying weapon of the retiarius, the net man. Yes. Who fights
34:01against the pursuer. He's a heavily armed gladiator with a big fishbowl helmet and a
34:07short sword like a Roman soldier. Very different kinds of fighters but equally
34:12matched and it was an exciting contest to see which one would win. And would
34:17something like this be viewed as vandalism, the fact that somebody scratched this into the marble?
34:21No it seems to be perfectly acceptable celebration of a shared activity. I mean they're tiny little
34:26things but they're brilliant on lots of levels aren't they? Because it's because
34:29this is just ordinary people you know telling us what they think and who they
34:32like and recording that in the stone. But it does also remind us just how
34:37macho Roman society is though. Yeah yeah we're average citizen values courage and
34:43fighting skill above all else. It's a very macho culture in which these these
34:48people are absolute stars. The graffiti here shows us just how embedded gladiatorial
34:58combat was in the Roman psyche and that's what Titus was banking on with the
35:03Colosseum, this grand temple to testosterone and its brilliant opening day ending
35:09with the climax of a gladiatorial fight.
35:39The poet Marshall writes that Varys and Priscus were evenly matched
35:53and that both fought with equal determination. Neither of them would show the sign of surrender,
36:03the raising of a single finger.
36:10Why doesn't one of them just yield? Because to yield is to die, idiot.
36:18both of them yielded at the same time. As blind as Tyrese's. No, look.
36:40A dilemma. I suppose both must die.
36:47Remarkably, thanks to Marshall's poetry, we know that on the opening day of the Colosseum,
36:53almost 2,000 years ago, the gladiator fight between Priscus and Varys ended in a draw.
37:01What are you?
37:04The crowd have been deprived of their moment to watch death in action.
37:08Titus would have to think quickly to pacify them or he'd have a riot on his hands.
37:14I said they wanted blood.
37:16Titus's inaugural games had reached their climax with a spectacular gladiatorial battle.
37:29Get them up on their feet! Get them both up!
37:31But as the fight ended in an unprecedented stalemate,
37:37Titus had a critical decision to make.
37:40The success of the day hinged on the crowd's reaction.
37:43Gladiators, you fought bravely and well.
37:53By decree, one of you should go free, and one of you should die.
38:13But I have noted your courage and your commitment,
38:18and decided to present you both with these wooden staffs.
38:28Both shall go free!
38:35Caesar decrees...
38:37both shall go free!
38:57...
38:58We know that Titus' act of mercy caused a sensation.
39:17The Roman poet, Marshall, who was nigh witness to the Games, wrote this in celebration.
39:22This has happened under no glorious leader but you, Caesar, two fought and both won.
39:34I'm sure, like any sensible Roman artist, Marshall was just buttering up the emperor.
39:40But even so, PR like this told the world that the inaugural Games had been a great success,
39:46something that brought the Roman people together.
39:48As Marshall also wrote, rather overexcitedly,
39:53Rome has been restored to her true glory.
39:56And under you, Caesar, the delights that belonged to a master now belong to the people.
40:07Titus' 100 days of inaugural Games were a huge success
40:12and cemented his position in the eyes of the people.
40:16His future looked secure.
40:21But Titus didn't get to enjoy the rewards of his and his father's achievement for long.
40:27Around 18 months after the opening day, he died from a sudden illness.
40:34Titus' brother, Domitian, succeeded him as emperor.
40:36Crucially, unlike Titus, Domitian failed to win over the crowd.
40:44And in 96 AD, he was assassinated.
40:48His death marked the end of the second of Rome's imperial dynasties, the Flavians.
40:54The Colosseum, though, lived on.
41:02The building would flourish as Rome grew to its greatest extent.
41:06Within a generation, the men who met here ruled over 21% of the world's population.
41:14A fifth of the globe.
41:15For another 500 years, it remained a place where rulers sought to win the adoration of their subjects.
41:23And where the people came to celebrate the ideals of a glorious past.
41:28Despite the ravages of two millennia, including a number of earthquakes,
41:38the Colosseum is still a breathtaking sight.
41:42And I think it is possible to imagine the awe and wonder of those ancient Romans
41:48on the first day of the games in Titus' reign.
41:51But I can't come here and not have a sickening sense of the fear and the shame
42:00and the excruciating pain that must have been felt by the Colosseum's victims.
42:08The Colosseum gives us a fascinating insight into the Roman psyche,
42:13so different from our own.
42:15For them, death wasn't something to be feared, but to be faced, and faced bravely.
42:23And Romans, from all classes, were united in the celebration of Virtus,
42:27a belief that they were a people better, stronger, and more powerful than any other on earth.
42:35The Colosseum remains an extraordinary testament to Rome's reach and ambition,
42:40and its thirst for blood and glory.
42:45Next time, the day that Rome's first Christian emperor, Constantine,
42:55makes peace with his violent past.
42:58Can I really be forgiven?
43:02And founds the new Rome, a city that will endure for a thousand years.
43:08And now, I receive divine light.
43:15A Christ big Scottish, this is the new Rome, a town hall of mine,
43:29a city to caricature that I peace with hiswig llevway and hisha property,
43:34is one of the best Бог in him.
43:35The Lafayette Christ topiana is a spectacle of Christ and a city man Rs.
43:39You
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