COLOSSEUM: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire *Marathon*

[Music] in 107 A.D Emperor trajan celebrates an extended series of games [Applause] when trajan succeeds the Roman Empire Rome is at its greatest vast is successful it's rich and trajan really personifies that the energy the success and the sophistication of this extraordinary Institution under his leadership the Roman Empire reaches its greatest territorial extent two million square miles stretching from Britannia in the west to Syria in the east the 50 million subjects of Rome believe in a wide array of different religions and gods but one underground spiritual movement in particular is gaining momentum the number of Christians is growing and what started as a very small movement based around Jerusalem has now spread across the Empire there's always protect our brother Ignatius from those who will do easily pop Christians and they see a few of their High priests eaten by lions they'll turn to our gods the Roman sea Christianity is a threat because of its promise to undermine Roman conceptions of how power and authority were supposed to work a prominent Christian leader is brought to Rome to be killed most likely in the city's Amphitheater Ignatius of Antioch he is clearly the target of trajan's anger because he is arrested brought to Rome to be executed by being fed to Lions probably in the Coliseum if these people share disrespect to the emperor on the Roman state that sedition and for that they should be killed public executions were supposed to teach a lesson to those who witnessed them the fate of Christians who persisted in their belief was a capital offense it was a death penalty offense but this will be no ordinary execution Ignatius is convinced that he's going to die violently and this is okay with him because Ignatius wants to follow the model of Christ Ignatius is willing to do this to die just like Jesus to be martyred while Ignatius is on his way to Rome he's able to write seven letters and it's because of these letters that we know who he is these are first person accounts of what's happened to him how he feels about it why he thinks it matters or might make a difference cheers of the crowd above darkness and heat below one couldn't think of a worse place to be there would have been hundreds if not a thousand people along with all of these animals cramped together in the hypogen you can imagine what this would have been like for Ignatius no I won't think ballet of the shadow of death I will fear no evil he's got to ask himself is he going to die with Grace or is he going to end up some grisly carcass on the Coliseum floor [Applause] citizens of Rome [Applause] marble at the worst criminals as they experience the true power of the Empire the Roman Judicial System Quest classroom I think we're very very high status you would be allowed to do it in some way that was quick and easy and relatively painless if however you were of a lower class or you were a slave then you were going to be killed fairly brutally [Applause] so we have the expression in English being thrown to the lines we use it sort of metaphorically right but it was very literal in the Roman Empire people actually were thrown to the Lions and they see a few of their High priests eaten by lions they'll turn to our gods just his own words because of his letters and they can really help us to get into his mind [Applause] the cross the hordes of wild beasts cool phenomenon of Christian martyrdom is absolutely massive Enigma in the Roman mind cannot understand it just as they cannot understand the sort of joy that they see in the faces of the martyrs in the amphitheaters hideous tortures of the devil he's saying things like he wants to be torn apart by the wild beast he wants to be ground like bread between the teeth of the lion the language in it is extraordinarily strong and severe real sense of wanting to die wanting to suffer the wrenching of my boats dicing [Music] he knows that dying as a martyr is actually going to do far more in spreading the gospel than just standing there and preaching and so when they see this martyr just stand there and die gracefully willingly they're gonna ask what does he believe and when they find out oh man Christianity is going to begin to spread [Applause] the Romans plan to make an example of Ignatius was about to completely backfire touch it there are great stories of Christians being thrown before the Beast before the Lions and instead of the Lions devouring them the Lions lie down at their feet [Applause] who doesn't like that idea of a lion who's supposed to tear you apart instead rolling over to get a belly rub instead of eating you foreign he held to his beliefs and died for it why for something he believed in and that must have been astounding to the Romans in the First Century A.D Rome is the biggest city on earth with a population of more than a million people now after eight years of construction the largest Amphitheater in the ancient world has just opened the Coliseum in Rome is one of the most iconic structures in the history of humanity the new emperor Titus is a war hero who inherited the throne less than a year ago the Empire he Now commands began with Rome's founding as a powerful city-state in 753 BC it conquers the Italian Peninsula then ancient Greece the seafarers of Carthage the Pharaohs of Egypt and by 80 A.D most of Western Europe to Mark the coliseum's opening Titus lines up a fight to the death between two of the Empire's best-known gladiators Rome's champion varus and the Barbarian priscus [Applause] they're the prime athletes of ancient Rome and that specific moment you could say that they are the heavyweight champions of the Roman Empire what we know about the fight comes to us from Just One Source but it's a really important Source it's the Roman poet Marshall who was a spectator at the games he actually saw this fight and saw how it played out Marshall's poem is the only surviving account of its kind the fight he records captures some of the contradictions of Rome its combatants are celebrated but they are also enslaved [Applause] our gladiator from Germany and you look up at the Imperial box there is Rome's emperor in the flesh with the power of life and death over you well that must have been an overwhelming experience the emperor's presence in the Imperial box was absolutely key the emperor could see everyone and everyone could see him the games are all about the Roman emperors giving the people what they need and it's it's always described as bread and circuses they had to feed the people of Rome but once they were fed they had to be entertained [Music] schedule is an astonishing Festival of death the standard sequence of events was as follows in the morning is when you had the venationes the Beast combats [Applause] thank you [Applause] at noon the meridiani this is when the executions of criminals condemned to death take place in ways that were memorable and in the afternoon is when you have the paired combats the Gladiators the ones that entertained most of the people when we aren't there you're not my friend you were not my brother you are my enemy there are huge Stakes for priscus and bears the pressure must have been incredible they are the headlining fight and they will walk into that Arena knowing that one of them may not walk out of their life Gladiators enter the arena through the port of son of avaria the Gate of life if Victorious they leave the same way if defeated they exit through the port of libertina the Gate of death the winner will be given a rudus a wooden staff given as a trophy which symbolizes his freedom [Applause] so the stakes couldn't be higher it's death or freedom foreign having a huge metal pot essentially on your head you can't breathe your eyesight's limited you're lifting a heavy Shield you've got 35 to 40 pounds of armor [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the noise of the crowd the heat your heart pumping and remember you're fighting for your life on top of that it's going to take nerves of Steel but if you fight bravely enough and the emperor Graces you is the chance of being free of becoming a citizen of becoming someone normal [Applause] foreign [Music] to a brutal draw now each was dead on his feet but Caesar was bound by the letter of his own law the rules were clear there had to be a winner and only a raised finger could stop the bow if a gladiator is wounded if he's down on the Sands he can lift his finger and ask for missio ask for survival [Music] What marshall says is that they both submitted and the crowd don't know what to make of it staff [Applause] One winner the outcome of the games has ultimately decided by the emperor but he's there to please the audience it's very rare that the emperor is going to go against the people because he does not want to be unpopular [Applause] and the crowd you can imagine are going wild some of them will have been cheering for priscus I'm cheering for Paris what's the emperor going to do he might say well you've both submitted you should both die ultimately Titus is going to have to make a decision but he cannot go against his word there is only one staff and that means there can only be one winner holding the rudest this symbol of Liberty Titus is literally holding their life and death in his hands foreign [Music] [Applause] to you both Champions [Music] [Applause] Titus ultimately doesn't designate won the winner and won the legion both were the victors Victors in this case over dead Titus is stealing the Limelight but he's showing that he is ultimately in charge of life and death over everybody and if you fight well if you serve him well if you're loyal to the emperor then you will be rewarded Titus has used his political instincts to turn a potential embarrassment into a Triumph culmination of of power of control of distraction is everything really that the Coliseum stood for imagine what it must feel like for priscus and bears overwhelming relief Pride joy and they will have been conscious that they're going to be remembered forever here we are still talking about them by 192 A.D the Colosseum is over a century old [Applause] [Applause] Emperor Commodus has a surprise he's the headline bout fighting as a gladiator Gladiators were at the lowest stratum of free Romans they had no legal personality they were in the same category as prostitutes and pimps so for a Roman Emperor to try to leverage the popularity of Gladiators by becoming one is a shock for Commodus the Coliseum would become an obsession a place that would play a pivotal role has rise and fall after inheriting a vast and Powerful Empire from his father the great Marcus Aurelius Commodus is at odds with the ruling class of Rome the Senate the sentences Remain the most powerful body of people the the very embodiment of the elite of Rome the Senate would always be the rallying place of opposition the Roman Elite was ashamed of Commodus actions they felt that to fight as a gladiator was to willingly debase himself this was the Tipping Point in an already fractured relationship between the two most powerful forces in Rome the emperor and the Senate every one of these senatorial families has Holdings all over the Roman Empire they're the equivalent of small multinational corporations they are wealthy in a way that is impossible for us to understand so even if the heart of political power has moved elsewhere these are still tremendously important people and so the Senate is dangerous several Emperors had previously been destroyed by their enemies in the Senate including the notorious leaders Caligula Nero and domission the history of Rome's Emperor shows that it's pretty dangerous to cross the Senate but Communists had a plan and it really was to ignore the Senate and to appeal directly to the people to win the people over Commodus has an incredible tool at his disposal he has the games less than a year into his Reign Commodus throws lavish games to celebrate the end of his father's Barbarian Wars [Applause] because it was such an important event the Imperial family such as his sister Lucilla would be there and of course the Senate themselves so they would have been witness to this event [Applause] for the Senate they are an absolute joke travel games were put on at the end of great wars fought for many years wars that established the power of Rome this was the opposite of that and yet here he was parading himself as some sort of triumphant General but it's not the Senate Commodus is trying to impress Empress could communicate with the people in the coliseum in those days you didn't see the emperor very much except it triumphs after after great um victories abroad and in the Colosseum where he appeared in his box and the crowd had a chance to express what they thought of them too secured their people and the emperor and one can imagine thousands and thousands of people chanting what they want encouraging the emperor in what he's doing in sponsoring and being generous and putting on a show for them it was kind of like a contract I am giving these games to you you need to honor me it's extraordinary for an emperor to take to the Sands himself this is not something that's expected of Elites let alone the emperor [Applause] thank you Gladiators use their bodies to please the masses so they are like prostitutes they are like actors [Applause] it would have been hard for the ruling class to accept any of communist's actions they were cultured people they were educated and so the fact that one of them would degrade himself to that degree that he's going to present himself in the same profession of the scum of the scum according to Cassius Dio Commodus charges the bankrupt Roman treasury one million sesterces for his appearance almost 10 million dollars in today's money [Applause] foreign [Applause] after the games Commodus embarks on a Still grander project he intends to rebuild Rome with himself at the center he renames Rome Colonia camodiana the colony of Commodus and we wouldn't believe that this was true if we're not for the fact the coins of communist's era showed that this was the case he really did name it after himself Commodus goes into overdrive the Romans are going to be called comodiani the Senate is going to be called the fortunate comediani Senate he fills the city with statues of himself dressed as the god Hercules one was a giant figure of an Archer looking very much like the emperor himself with a arrow aimed right at the front door of the Roman senate and if there was ever a louder political message well I'm not aware of it that could not be tolerated even by commodus's World weary contemporaries when Commodus announces yet another games with himself as the star the Senate know they must act Commodus meets his end at the hand of his gladiatorial trainer at the hands of narcissus acting on the orders of the Senate there's a sort of poetic irony that in the end it was the very figure that he so admired so wanted to be that put an end to his life [Music] 83 A.D the opening day of a new series of games that Emperor domitian promises will be dancing the headline the most extravagant Beast hunt Rome has ever seen the Beast hunts were much more than just fighting animals it was a way to demonstrate Roman control over the entire world both the human world and also the natural world [Applause] domitian is a real contrast to his brother and father father Vespasian had been a bluff man of people and Titus had been charming and Suave the mission was all harsh edges from the mission's perspective to follow his father vespace and his elder brother Titus that was a difficult Act ress prowess in terms of their popularity so the mission had to strike out in a different direction to win the Good Will of the world he decides to use the power of the Coliseum by putting on the greatest show that anyone had foreign at the center of this deadly spectacle one man a famed Beastmaster or bestiarius charged with facing 20 wild beasts one after the other most of them weren't successful long enough for us to learn their name but there was one Beastmaster that the poet Marshall mentions his name is arpopharus to have caught the attention of a poet of Marshall's caliber the fight must have been incredible these Mass just were enslaved people and so therefore they were also a display of Roman domination over the people subjected by the Roman Empire these games will be bigger Boulder and better than anything Rome has ever witnessed the emperor has requested one Beastmaster to be the main event of the morning opening a fight with 20 beasts one after another demands is there was rivalry between opposing beastmasters after all there was Glory Fame and potential Freedom at stake we have evidence of this and cursed tablets that were found in the amphitheater in Carthage the curse tablets contain spells and magical symbols that were meant to evoke the help of demons to harm rival beastmasters kill destroy and wound galicus at his hour in the ring of the amphitheater is a very Cutthroat industry and obviously everybody's vying for that one spot it's a very narcissistic Sport and what we know is that they really hated each other in certain moments or entreating the gods to do nasty things to other Beast Hunters bind gallicus the son of Prima let the bear crush him and wound him I'm sorry my friend the gods will decide Our Fate now the commencement of the games was a major deal for the city of Rome these took place on holidays a great portion of the population would have had the day off I think it's impossible to overstate the kind of excitement and energy of a crowd that's been pent up to see blood the buzz would have been building for months by the time at least 50 000 people made their way to the Coliseum and packed themselves in you can imagine for someone like beneath the floor of the amphitheater and waiting for his turn to go up and fight these 20 beasts this is an opportunity of a lifetime you can imagine the stink of fear the smell of wild animals everything is ready to go you can hear the buzz of the crowd above [Applause] there's almost like a religious aspect to the line he's this revered animal not just the eagle was to the Romans he's he's the top predator he's the the top of the food chain and that for the Romans is a representation of of Rome [Music] the line has always been a symbol of strength and ferocity in many ancient societies [Applause] foreign Kings and in the court of Alexander the Great but what the Romans do is they import lions in their thousands so this is the Romans as ever trying to go one step further than the civilization that went before so they're saying it's not just that we can kill Lions it's that we can Mass Slaughter the most ferocious and Powerful creature that Mother Nature has to offer [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for car poppers it's an epic achievement that sure enough has made his name live down in history perhaps by his victory and accomplishments corpophores actually challenged the very foundations of Roman society here was an enslaved person who actually elevated himself as a hero and in Victory became a symbol to the Roman people of success it's 83 A.D just three years after the coliseum's triumphant opening but Rome's new emperor domitian is launching what he promises will be the most astonishing games of all time giving successful games was a fundamental part of being a successful Emperor his predecessors had built the Coliseum he wanted to do them one better he's got to prove himself to the people of Rome to the Empire that he is worthy of the mantle he plans a surprise ordering a major renovation to the Coliseum digging a vast Labyrinth Beneath The Arena floor it's called a hypogeum and through its sophisticated engineering animals humans and scenery will suddenly appear before the spectators it's going to add another layer of visual complexity to the Coliseum so rather than people walking out of doors and walking slowly into the middle of the Coliseum they're going to appear up through the floor as if by Magic to engineer this complex hypogem beneath the arena dimitian relies on a skilled master builder hatarius the job of creating a Subterranean aspect for the Coliseum well that was a task for an engineering genius and his team would undoubtedly have been under a lot of pressure not to screw up to make sure that on Game Day everything came off according to plan especially the complex special effects Machinery designed to Dazzle the crowd in order to lift huge cages from the hypergem to the floor of the Coliseum the special effects man underneath the Coliseum turned huge capstans in order to make sure that both the people the animals and the scenery arrived instantly in the spot they were needed for the show but there's a problem hutarius's Machinery isn't working now he needs to find a solution no good idea came from an exhausted mind get some sleep if I don't think of something father I'll be sleeping forever soon enough I can't help you you left me behind years ago with your forces and multipliers what is it police the Singapore supplies three more pulleys pulleys in particular are vital for the proper functioning of the hyper Jam it's almost like a underground sailing ship ropes and pulleys are everywhere but enormous loads constantly to the floor of the Arena so Romans don't have power tools obviously but they do have a series of physical devices that multiply the power that actually produce amazing results all the pressure would have been on the Builder hittarius the whole question though is could he pull it off you can imagine what kind of sense of anticipation there was but equally of course for the mission it just raises the stakes the crowd could get nasty if they weren't excited by it but when you have Gladiators coming up through the floor when you have Beasts coming up through the floor changes of scenery coming up through the floor that's the kind of thing that's going to excite the crowd and get them on board waiting under the floor of the Coliseum for the festivities to begin would have been kind of a hellish and surreal experience you would have heard the cries of injured people you would have heard the growls of wild beasts you would see chained criminals who were awaiting execution it must have been an intoxicating but pretty horrifying experience [Applause] [Music] welcome one and all to the greatest games ever witnessed I'm strong the men are ready of the emperor Commission make sure when we pull we pull together a spectacle [Music] at the games again pull it pull it pull it [Applause] foreign it was The Crucible of tension good morning [Applause] the Coliseum had played host to all sorts of really incredible spectacles over the years but this was on a whole other level the idea of wild beasts beastmasters appearing up through the floor nobody had ever seen anything like that one of the amazing things that the poet martial describes was the incredible special effects in the Coliseum that were made possible because of the hypogem he says a cliff crawled a wood ran forward a Wonder to behold unexpected things can pop up from the stadium floor at any moment and something that you couldn't see anywhere else in the Empire it would have been Way Beyond the experience of any normal person this had to be the greatest day they've ever had in the Coliseum 50 000 people were at these games and the result of these games for domition was terrific the mission to someone who played to the crowd he knew that he had to be popular and they helped give him a reputation as a friend of the Roman people hutarius succeeds and survives we have some sense of what happened to hittarius after this because we have his tomb the Tomb of the hatteri this is where he lays out his life story it's where he tells us about his involvement in the construction of the Coliseum this was a high point of his life it was important enough that he felt that he should celebrate it even in death with this vast Arena finally complete haterius and the three flaving Emperors create one of the wonders of the ancient world an enduring emblem of The Emperor's power and Rome's might the Colosseum is instantly recognizable and the word itself has come to symbolize the Roman Empire at its greatest [Music] 401 A.D it's now more than 300 years since the inaugural games were held at the Coliseum both Rome and the arena have changed at this point the Coliseum would have been a somewhat sad reminder of a more glorious earlier age in a way this is a reflection of what was happening in Rome's Empire itself this is now a new era of Roman history Rome is no longer what it was Rome is in Decline the empire was beset on all sides by Barbarian Invaders who sensed Rome's weakness there were Saxons in the north there were Goths along the Danube Frontier Franks along the Rhine Persians in the East Rome was under threat the once Invincible Roman army struggles to hold back the tide of enemies on multiple fronts in 395 A.D the Empire itself is split into two halves neither centered in Rome simply too big for any one person to handle so each half of the Roman Empire is ruled by one of the sons of theodosius the last man to rule a United Roman Empire the 16 year old arcadius rules from Constantinople in the East and the 15 year old honorius rules from Milan in the West they are very young they're very inexperienced and they're clearly not up to the job neither of them ever visits Rome this means that the city that is the ideological and spiritual heart of the Empire is something of a Backwater but one man wants to revive Rome by holding the most lavish games seen in the Coliseum for many years his name is simicus this is a man who was highly literate who produced a lot of writing over his lifetime and so we have a good record of who he was through the letters that have survived which have been collated by his son memius who was devoted to his father we get a real window into the life of this man who was desperately trying to preserve ancient Rome is a leader of the Senate and in the absence of the emperor in Rome he's one of the most powerful people in the city symbicus in many ways is a throwback someone who is bound by tradition he wants to maintain the old order and the reverence for the old gods but there's a new God on the rise by the end of the fourth Century CE we think possibly as many as 50 of the population had become Christian even both Roman emperors are now Christian for simicus and his supporters hosting games in the arena provides the perfect opportunity to push back at this new religion simakis and people like him would have seen the Colosseum and the games within them as absolutely essential to Roman Life to the greatness of of Rome as a city of staging games was an unsettling one to Christian Senators but it wasn't necessarily something that they absolutely thought could not happen there's no question that Christian Senators would have attended simicus's games because more than anything else this is a huge social event for Rome's Elite and even though some members of Rome's remained Pagan others have converted to Christianity what tied them together far more than Faith was the fact that they were members of Rome's Elite but then the name is telemachus a fanatical monk fiercely opposed to Rome's old ways he is an Eastern ascetic monk someone who's renounced all worldly pleasure in his search for Christian God he comes to Rome from the East and because of that looks with terrible eyes upon the things that were happening in the Coliseum he's a man who wants to see that worldview come to an end exactly a Roman pleasure Seeker in the name of the one true God he was on a collision course with the powers that be in Rome and his beliefs are at complete odds with Pagan beliefs in the name of the one true God what is he doing it's as far as he's concerned what's happening in the amphitheater had to be stopped [Applause] foreign he wants to end these games in the name of our true take it from here now please will face his wrath what telemachus did was unprecedented and was shocking it really was the first time in close to 600 years that anyone had tried to stop a gladiatorial fight at any event where there's going to be Bloodshed the crowd has an expectation of violence the Bloodshed pulled the crowd in and kind of enraptured them the people of Rome were always capable of exploding into violence crowd became so outraged and having its entertainment interrupted that they threw stones at telemachus so to have a Christian monk come in and disrupt the game it's like stepping right into the cultural fault line that's dividing people right at the heart of Rome it said because he was trying to revive the traditional values of Rome then it's a complete failure Roman society had moved on word of telemachus's death in the Coliseum reaches the emperor in Milan horrified by the violence he orders a total ban on gladiatorial combat throughout the empire things were never going to be the same nobody was ever going to spend the amount of money that simicus did nobody was ever going to go back in time and make Rome the center of the universe again [Applause] [Music] 162 A.D Rome's Golden Age The Empire of the mid-second century it's at its Pinnacle in terms of its territorial expanse and its wealth it's an Empire that is leading the world in science and culture in philosophy and in medicine wrong is really the cultural center of the universe in this moment authors doctors Architects philosophers flock to the city because they are enticed by Rome itself among those entranced by Rome is Galen of pergamon a brilliant medical scientist whose works are still studied today Galen is probably the single most influential figure in the history of Medicine [Applause] he was an author philosopher a scientist a doctor and an incredibly ambitious man his writings survive which is true for very very few doctors from this period and we know that he's exceptionally skilled and he has an ego to manage shut up Galen comes to the Coliseum to catch the eye of Emperor Marcus Aurelius one of the Empire's great minds Marcus Aurelius comes at the tail end of the five good emperors Marcus Aurelius was an intellectual and was very much engaged in philosophical reflection and in fact his nickname is sometimes the philosopher king he was an extraordinary character he had been chosen as a very young man and trained to be Emperor and for once they got it absolutely right but Marcus Aurelius does not rule alone for the first time in Roman history two Emperors governed side by side [Applause] israelis's adopted brother Lucius virus they were almost opposites they reigned together perfectly because they were two sides of a coin there's no greater example of how absolutely opposite these men were as to their attitude to the Coliseum to the games someone like Marcus who was so intellectual so philosophical for him the endless and pointless Bloodshed made no sense lucious on the other hand absolutely yes it's a vulgar sport it's a vulgar Vice to have but he adores me [Applause] a surgeon like Galen plays a crucial role in keeping Gladiators alive but he wants more Galen was such an ambitious and driven individual that he wanted to become the world's greatest doctor he already thought of himself as such she just wanted people to acknowledge it by all accounts the plague was a horrible horrible disease I mean in addition to the expected diarrhea and vomiting and fevers what happened to the skin was really disconcerting calves would form and then fall off leaving horrible lesions it was devastating in its effects people didn't seem to have any previous immunity and killed a large percentage of the people that it infected no one is spared including Emperors not you too it's nothing as a doctor I met once he cured you Demus when no one else could he claims to have an attitude to any poison do you want to bring him here to this I cannot simply watch you die the Roman Empire has never been free of diseases but epidemics like the one that Marcus Aurelius is experiencing that's something new it rapidly became apparent to the high command and to the emperor himself that they were wrestling with a Health crisis of the highest order Marcus who really just reacted by summoning Galen from Rome [Music] imagine that kind of emotion that would have been in Galen at that time here's my chance to actually serve the emperor directly and on the other hand it's like this is a really bad situation I'm going into the situation that Galen found when he reached aqualea was more severe than anything he could have imagined Caitlyn gives us some pretty detailed description of symptoms and based on those symptoms we think it was likely smallpox it might have been the first appearance of smallpox in the Mediterranean world there's some argument that he's seeing a lot of hemorrhagic smallpox which is a really lethal form of smallpox where you get a lot of bleeding under the skin this crisis comes in many ways for the Empire but in a very different and essential way for Galen the defining challenge of his life more than perhaps at any point in human memory disease had become an existential threat to Rome itself the winter that he spent at aqualea was very difficult for him it's rare for him to express despair or feeling of being overwhelmed but that is exactly what he does he treated hundreds of plague victims and he says that the whole population struggled to survive that winter of plague in 168. Varys didn't make it very far only 50 miles from aqualea for Marcus Aurelius he is left on his own to rule an Empire that's stricken by plague has enemies at the borders an army that's been devastated by this disease he knows that the responsibility is his to rule the Roman Empire by himself not to be on the front lines and now we can turn his attention to his favorite activities Reading Writing composing scientific Works journals and the like Galen is probably the single most influential figure in the history of Medicine he left us a massive collection of medical texts in fact he's probably the most prolific author in antiquity his Greek Works comprise about 1 8 of all ancient Greek manuscripts that we have the knowledge that galen's medical text contain defined Islamic and European medicine for 15 centuries foreign A.D the Coliseum has been open for 27 years and stands as the ultimate symbol of Roman values Sam was the purest expression of the Roman Empire put simply it was the symbol of how to live as a Roman and how to die as a Roman with strength with courage and With Honor but the game's begin [Applause] but now controversial new Fighters are stepping into the arena women [Applause] so female Gladiators or also known as a gladiatrix were extremely uncommon in Roman society for several reasons most of all because they represented an inversion Gladiators embodied masculine energy foreign this Twist on gladiatorial combat is supported by Emperor trajan who came to power nine years earlier in 98 A.D trajan was an amazing character he was a tough General he was incredibly successful he was unpretentious he was immensely popular he was really chosen as the ideal Emperor from the beginning foreign had an interesting self-image best emperor that was his self-image the best and he saw himself as Rome's Emperor par Excellence he took all the best qualities of his predecessors but also expanded Rome's Empire to an unprecedented level during his 19-year Reign trajan pushes the boundary of Rome to its greatest ever extent winning Arabia Armenia Mesopotamia and Dacia which is modern day Romania by the end of trajan's rule the Empire will stretch across two million square miles [Applause] train hundreds of thousands of prisoners of War to Rome the female fighters from Nation they provide the perfect opportunity for fresh entertainment trajan might have looked at a female Gladiator as yet another sign of his greatness and his ability to bring ever new and more exotic spectacle to the people of Rome politics is partly Show Business the audience is in the Coliseum expected more and more forbidden and fascinating things a fighting woman was the ultimate new delicacy to please the jaded appetite of the Roman crowd but one gladiatrix is different nevia [Applause] [Applause] she is a rarity a free citizen of Rome and that fact enrages the popular satirist juvenile infernal expresses a real social anxiety there there's a conventional moral attitude that Rome had grown soft and that all style Roman virtues had virtually disappeared there was also a worry when fads such as women practicing as Gladiators come in that this was somehow tear the fabric of Roman society fighting woman might be seen as a dilution of what made Rome great it was also something that you you wouldn't see a Roman do mevia could well have been the first documented Roman woman to take the gladiator's oath all right repeat after me I will endure I will endure to be burned to be burned shame change beaten beaten and slain by the sword slain by the sword thank you Mark understand this contract means and three are here than I was at home the Gladiators oath binds together the trainer and the Gladiator for better or worse they are in it together this is like a Macabre marriage oath she is signing herself over body and soul the Gladiator oath is one of the most serious vows you can take you are committing yourself life and limb to the life of Gladiators so you are willingly or voluntarily subjecting yourself to this rigorous training knowing that at the end of it you might die on The Sands of the Coliseum foreign there's no way out for her her family probably would have disowned her because it would have been an embarrassment a staying on the family's history she would never have been able to go back to them she would never have been able to get married or have the life that her parents had expected for her all Gladys Trail combat was a fight to the death because if someone did not surrender and basically indicates that they had given up the fight would continue till someone was killed [Applause] a gladiator could submit they would raise their finger in submission the emperor will turn to the crowd and ask for their opinion about what he should do whether the submitting Gladiator should be allowed to live or whether he should be killed the Roman idea of clemency is an imperial virtue this goes all the way back to Julius Caesar but when we see it being activated there's a positive side but there's also a Sinister side and it's a way of the emperor signaling that I'm in total control mevia's Victory resonates far beyond the coliseum's walls [Applause] [Music] but after her documented appearance in the arena little is known about her to have earned a place in juvenile's writings it's possible that she dominated female gladiatorial combat throughout trajan's reign

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 810,067

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, the history channel, documentary history channel, history documentary, documentary, history channel full episodes, documentaries, history channel documentaries, colosseum, history colosseum, new premium documentary series, new series, History channel documentaries, Colosseum, Colosseum History, gladiator, Rome, ancient Rome, iconic empire, documentary series, history specials, specials, marathon, colosseum marathon

Id: xiAY4UJfplI

Length: 67min 29sec (4049 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 08 2023