[energetic music] ERIC GELLER: They
used to say, all roads lead to Rome, and for
nearly 1,000 years, that wasn't far from the truth. At one time, over 50,000
miles of roads led right here. And while this capital city
was exploding above ground, there was another world
brewing down below. A world packed with pipes
and sewer lines, auditoriums, and cities of the dead. It's a world
directly responsible for the rapid rise of Rome. And today-- All right. I'm stepping down a
few thousand years. --we've got special
access to go down. From one of the world's oldest
sewers that started it all. Oh, it smells
delightful down here. It's like [bleep] soup. To ancient Roman warehouses
and apartment complexes hidden beneath this
modern building. It is incredible. And just outside the
capital, this growing city had to get creative
with the dead. And it could be small
ribs from a child. I really wouldn't know
how to explain that. Entire ancient neighborhoods are
banished beneath these streets. The beginnings of
modern-day engineering are lost underground as 2000
years of dirt and debris have buried the roots of Rome. We're peeling back
the layers of time on "Cities of the
Underworld," "Rome, the Rise." [energetic music] I'm Eric Geller. I'm in Rome, Italy, the biggest
open air museum in the world. At its height, the Roman
Empire was the largest the planet had ever seen. But Rome wasn't built in a day. Aqueducts, roads, apartment
building, sophisticated sewers, they practically invented
the modern-day big city. Millions of tourists come here
to see Rome's grand palaces and Colosseum. But the clues that tell you
how this small town became a great empire are still
buried in its underworld. 2000 years ago, the city
of Rome had a population of over a million people. It was the capital
of an empire that covered 2.3 million square
miles and its powers seemed limitless. But just four centuries
later, less than 15,000 people remained in the city. Its great monuments
were reduced to rubble and its once bustling forum
became overgrown pastures for pigs and cattle. But there were some
structures that survived untouched underground. In the 6th century BC,
Rome was a growing city. And like any growing city, it
had a big problem getting rid of its waste. The solution, an
innovative sewer system that would funnel
wastewater out of the city and into the Tiber River. Now it's not the most
pleasant artifact in Rome. But if I want to see how
the city got its start, I've got to get down there. It all begins in
the imperial forum, in the heart of both
modern and ancient Rome. Somewhere beneath the forum
lies the Cloaca Maxima or great drain. It's one of the
world's oldest sewers, and without it, the world's
greatest capital city could have ended up a sewage
filled second rate town. Hey, Paul. Thanks for meeting with me. Eric. Nice to meet you. Paul Bennett, a leading
expert on subterranean Rome agreed to take me down there. So where is this sewer? OK, well, the sewer
runs right here through the heart of the forum. It goes right
through this area it runs all the way
underneath the forum and then empties into the river. Thousands of people pass
through the Great Roman Forum every day. They have no idea that the
roots of Rome run beneath it. But why did the Romans choose to
found their city in this spot? How did a group of farmers
transform a marshy valley into the world's first megacity? The answer is underground,
almost 20 feet beneath today's street level. The Cloaca, despite
its importance, is the great hidden
secret of Rome. It runs silently
underneath the city street. The Cloaca, although it's
supposed to be just filled with effluent from
the streets actually has quite a bit of raw
sewage flowing through it. So you don't want to
touch any of the water. There are rats. There's plenty of garbage,
there's lots to trip over. You're walking up a slippery
marble surface that's been covered with
sludge for 2000 years. There's quite a bit of danger. ERIC GELLER: Normally,
no one is allowed down into the Cloaca or great drain,
but I had special access. OK. So we're going to need
to wear waders and a mask and some rubber
gloves and a helmet. I've got to take off my
boots, get ready to get dirty. To this day, runoff from the
hills and streets of Rome still drains into
the ancient sewer. You can guess what's down there. It's overflowing with
disease, bacteria, and worst of all, rats. All right. Take me to your sewer, PAUL BENNETT: OK. You may want to put
on your gas mask, because it's a little
stinky down there. You clear, Paul? PAUL BENNETT: Yep. All right. I'm stepping down a
few thousand years. It smells delightful down here. It's like [bleep] soup. [energetic music] This is one stinky
smelling [bleep] sewer. Holy [bleep]. This is amazing. This looks like a
modern facility. I mean, really it's massive. And I can hear some
water flowing over there. It's calling me. Should we go over there? PAUL BENNETT: Definitely. Let's go. ERIC GELLER: What am I stepping
in that I'm sinking into right now? Oh you're stepping in a
wonderful melange of urine and dirt and paper
and beer bottles, and pretty much everything that
falls on the ground in Rome eventually makes its way
into the Cloaca today and 2000 years ago. ERIC GELLER: Delicious. Woo. This looks like a bone, huh. PAUL BENNETT: Yeah, a big bone. And look, pieces of pottery. This is an ancient beer bottle
and a modern beer bottle. ERIC GELLER: The
Cloaca Maxima has been collecting Rome's trash
and waste for over 2,500 years. Buried 20 feet beneath
the modern city, it's one of Rome's oldest
standing structures. But who was responsible for
such a revolutionary idea? It was the fifth King of Rome,
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus. Around 600 BC, the tribes
living in the surrounding hills began to merge into one city. Their first major
construction project was to build a sewer
that would drain the marshes between the hills
and carry away its waste. To do this, they dug
a parallel channel that sloped at a perfectly
steady grade from the hills into the Tiber,
an impressive feat without the help of
modern machinery. Large stones were fitted
together to Channel the stream, and finally, the water was
released through the Channel creating the Cloaca Maxima. This is only about
three feet high now. What is this? PAUL BENNETT:
Everything changes here. This is part of the original
Cloaca Maxima going back to the 6th century. This is the mother lode, the
beginning of Rome, arguably one of the most important spaces
in all of ancient Rome. ERIC GELLER: And you
can still see the form. Here's the arch, right here. This is the Roman arch
for you in a nutshell. So it's so strong on the side
that they can build right on top of it. The famous Roman arch began
to show its usefulness in the sewers beneath
a quickly rising Rome. Along with the Cloaca,
this engineering feat, more than any other
Roman invention, contributed to the
rise of this city. In the beginning, the Cloaca
was simply an open ditch. But as the city grew, Romans
needed more building space. So they began to cover the
ditch and build on top. To reinforce the
buildings above, they added the arch
to the sewer below. And in the 1st century when
Rome became the richest empire in the world, they
added yet another touch to the Cloaca. It was nothing but the best
for Rome even in its sewers. OK. So now I'm walking on something,
and it's a smoother surface. What is this here? This is the travertine area
where the emperor decided even though this is a sewer,
he would use travertine to pave the floor of it. So we're walking on a kind of
limestone marble surface here. ERIC GELLER: So this was the
fancy part of the sewer, huh? PAUL BENNETT:
Yeah, that's right. ERIC GELLER: The
emperor's plan worked. 2000 years later, here
I was down in the sewer admiring the marble floor. As the city grew
out from the center and as new larger
buildings were constructed, the sewer changed as well. Since the sewers needed
to reach every building, the Cloaca became a
subterranean network that mirrored the city above. In other words,
no matter how much the city has changed
today, the sewers are like a street
map of ancient Rome. The Cloaca spans for at least
a mile beneath the city, but much of it is too
dangerous to explore. PAUL BENNETT:
We're at a juncture of a lot of different lines
coming in to the central sewer of Rome. Some of these dates
are the antique period. Some of them are modern. There was a great need to
get water out of the city and to the sea. We have to stop here. We can't go any further
because the floor drops out. It drops out, and there is a
large layer of scum right there and all these waterfalls
you've got to dodge. It's hard to believe that one
of the wonders of ancient Rome is a drain full
of ancient sewage. But this dirty off
limits pipe was step one towards creating one of the most
powerful cities in the world. While today's Romans are used
to walking past Caesar's tomb or Nero's favorite
stomping grounds up above, few know none of this
would be here today if not for the
engineering marvel buried beneath their feet. [instrumental music] [instrumental music] By the 1st century AD, Rome
already had a complex sewage system, over 250 miles
of aqueducts, even apartment buildings. Life inside these city
walls was bustling. But just beyond the walls
was a city of the dead. Ancient Rome was surrounded
by 6 miles of nearly impenetrable city walls that
stood more than 30 feet high. But it was another invisible
wall that separated the living from the dead. It was called the pomerium, and
it was the religious boundary of the city. Roman law stated that the
dead could not be buried inside the sacred area. But with over a million people
living in a city that suffered plagues, fires, and
Civil wars, death was an everyday part of life. Burying a lot of people
in a short amount of time was a real problem. In the early days of
the city, most Romans were pagan and simply
cremated their dead. For the more wealthy residents,
they built elaborate mausoleums to house the remains. But as the Empire expanded,
there was a growing community of Jewish and
Christian citizens who didn't believe in cremation. Their solution, catacombs,
large subterranean superstructures that snake
for several miles underground. Over a half million
people were buried in them creating an
enormous necropolis just outside the ancient city walls. Many of the mysteries
about everyday Roman life have been uncovered by exploring
the underground labyrinths, and I was heading
down to find them. I met Greg de Pippo, an expert
on religions in ancient Rome along the Via Appia. GREG DE PIPPO: Eric? Greg, thanks for
meeting with me. How are you doing? ERIC GELLER:
Catacombs can be found below many of the
streets, parks, and even private homes just
outside the city walls. There are 77 known
catacombs buried just outside ancient Rome. But six of them are
unlike any other. They were left behind not by the
Christians, but by Roman Jews. Rome is the oldest diaspora
community in Western Europe. But after an earthquake
in the 11th century, a 1,000 years of Jewish
presence there was diminished. But some of that still
remains underground. GREG DE PIPPO: Come on in. ERIC GELLER: And I
had special access to go beneath the yard of
a private home to see it. Watch your head. All right. You're definitely going
to need one of these, and you're going to
want to watch your step. [energetic music] So Greg, am I in the
2nd century right now? Is this ancient Rome? This is Ancient Rome. This is Ancient Rome. ERIC GELLER: This looks
like natural roofing here. GREG DE PIPPO: Yes,
this is a cave. Italy is mostly volcanic
material called tufa. ERIC GELLER: Rome sits on layers
of this compressed volcanic material or tufa. Tufa is soft and easy to dig
making the city of the dead fairly easy to
carve out by hand. GREG DE PIPPO: And as
tufa is exposed to air, it becomes harder. So it does become strong enough
that you can just sort of leave the gallery without a
worry about a collapse. I see. So that's why this
doesn't come down? Right. ERIC GELLER: They had to dig
fast to accommodate the bodies so the layout is haphazard. The catacomb was only
discovered in 1859 and hasn't been
entirely excavated. But what has been cleared
out is almost two miles long and holds
nearly 7,000 bodies. Now this is-- this
is incredible. GREG DE PIPPO: These are the
original burials, by the way. This is what is called
a loculus, which means a little place in Latin. They're carved into the walls. And the stones here you
see, this is in Greek. ERIC GELLER: Inscriptions
on the stones tell us who's found
in each burial site. But why isn't it in Hebrew? Many believe that the Jews
buried here migrated to Rome from Jewish colonies in
Egypt, Greece, and modern day Turkey and not directly
from the Holy Land. So they would have spoken
Greek, the language of the common people. But there are other
clues down here. It is not so well carved. And so this indicates that
these people were poor. Catacombs are a way of
creating lots of burial space quickly and cheaply. ERIC GELLER: With a high
infant mortality rate and an average life
expectancy of under 25 years, there was plenty of
business for the undertakers in ancient Rome. Here, all you need really
is a pick in a wheelbarrow, and you've created
your burial space. So when they were getting
ready to bury someone in a catacomb, a digger would
come in, create a loculus, they would put the body
in, wrap it up in a shroud. Very often they would
put lime on top of it to hasten decomposition. And then they would seal
the loculus with the bricks. And the Jews would put their
inscriptions next to the body. ERIC GELLER: As
more people died, they simply dug farther
and farther underground. This nearly two
mile long catacomb was only used for 200 years from
the 2nd to the 4th centuries. Archeologists know this
by the clues left behind, marks in the hand-carved walls. And they know for sure
this was a Jewish site, not a Christian one, by the
menorah left behind. This is clearly what tells you
that this is a Jewish catacomb. Yes, absolutely. And for the Jews, in
the ancient world, this was their symbol of
themselves, the seven branched menorah. Wherever you go and you find
a clear archeological evidence of a Jewish presence, the
menorah is what you see. The Star of David
was not the thing. And here you have an arcosolium. ERIC GELLER: An
arcosolium is something the Jews and the
Christians had in common. It's a Latin word for
the arched burial space as we saw throughout
the catacombs. The Greeks used the
term sarcophagus, meaning flesh eater,
a word both Jews and Christians may
have taken offense to. GREG DE PIPPO: The
Jews and Christians do not want to give the
impression that the body is being definitively
consumed by the Earth. So when they put
people in these things, they call them solium, which
is the name of the shape underneath an arch. So it is an arcosolium. ERIC GELLER: Throughout
the catacomb, there are several burial
spaces like this one. But not all were for the
poorest of Jewish Romans. GREG DE PIPPO: This is the one
part of the catacomb where you have clear indication of
burial for wealthy people, because you've got a lot
of very elaborate painting. It's a fountain. You see the water
springing out of it. Water is very important thing,
especially for people who come from a desert originally. And so water is always
a sign of paradise. And likewise, these palm trees,
these are actually date palms. Oh, sure. Look at this. You can make it up. Yes. You have children's
graves also stuck in here ruining the really
nice plaster decoration. What you're maybe
looking at is the result of a plague where a bunch of
members of the same family die from plague. They need to create a space very
quickly to get rid of the body, so to speak. ERIC GELLER: There I was, 15
feet beneath a private home. Just seems to snake around
in different directions where ancient Jewish
Romans would have gathered to bury and pay respects to
their dead family members. But what was most eerie was
that it was like they had never left. That's because for
1,500 years, these rooms were sealed up tightly. That meant the artwork and
human bones remained intact. Those are human bones. [interposing voices] GREG DE PIPPO: These have
survived maybe 18 centuries probably because the grave
was originally sealed up very, very tight, and so there was
less air and moisture getting in to cause decay. ERIC GELLER: Several areas
revealed eerie bunches of small loculi
or burial spaces. About half of the
people who were born did not live to
see five years old. So you also are going to
have a lot of infant graves. So because of plague or just
because of a really hot summer and lots of infants would die. ERIC GELLER: Oh, my God. Look at that. I mean you can see all
the bones right there. I don't even know
what those curved. I mean, they could be
small ribs from a child. I really wouldn't
know how to explain. GREG DE PIPPO: It's
a child's grave. ERIC GELLER: It's like some
Indiana Jones moment here. I was walking in one of the few
time capsules of Jewish Rome still left intact. It was littered with
clues about their lives. But there was much
more to see down here. It seems to snake around
in different directions. As we walked to the deepest
part of the catacomb, we ran into another
burial space, and this one was carved out by
a different group altogether. Ah, this is mind blowing. GREG DE PIPPO: Yeah. I mean, this-- my
God, look at this. The artwork was different
here, mythological paintings in vivid colors. We had run into a
pagan burial space. Greg says that at some point
during the construction of the catacomb, the builders
had actually broken through to an even older
pagan burial plot. They connected the
two separate catacombs expanding the ever-growing
underground city of the dead. GREG DE PIPPO: Well
you were actually in the part that was not
made by the Jews originally. Probably from the earlier
part of the 2nd century AD. It's deliberately created to
create a sense of a garden of the afterlife as
a place of enjoyment, as a place of happiness. ERIC GELLER: Over 1800s years
ago, pagan and Jewish Romans began burying their
dead in this catacomb. And as this diverse
community grew up above, so did the massive
underground cemetery. Today, few realize
this world of clues sits just beneath their feet. I mean there's major
thoroughfares, that roads that go right past it. There's a house above a garden. People would have no idea? I mean, there's so
many layers of history. It's so rich here. GREG DE PIPPO: It is very
much so, very much so. [upbeat music] For over 2000 years, Rome
has been under construction. By constantly building
new structures on top of old foundations,
the street level has been raised 30 feet
above the ancient one. Imagine this entire neighborhood
buried beneath the ground. Well, in Rome, that's
exactly what you'll find. In the 1st century AD, Rome
had a population density higher than modern-day Calcutta. And like many-modern day
cities, most of its residents were packed into high-rise
apartment buildings called insulae. Like the Circus Maximus
or the Colosseum, these buildings were among
the secrets to Rome's success. So what happened to the
common neighborhoods? Like much of ancient
Rome, they're buried beneath the modern city. And Tom Rankin, an expert
on ancient architecture was going to show me how these
ancient neighborhoods are actually holding up the
neighborhoods of today. You must be Tom. Yeah, Eric. Tom, so I'm told you got an
apartment building to show me. Well, it's more than
an apartment building. It's a little bit of everything. But we're going to go into
a four-level building. Move back here and see
the brickwork there. Yeah, this little patch. Yeah, that dates
from late ancient Rome. It's what would have been the
fourth floor of a building, but it's now the second
floor of the building. We'll be entering at
modern ground level, but be going down two stories
to the most ancient level that we have surviving. Going down after you. ERIC GELLER: Thank you. Tom took me through the entrance
and down into the sublevels of the building. TOM RANKIN: Watch
your head there. ERIC GELLER: OK. It's a sprawling complex
of ancient warehouses, apartment blocks, and even
the streets in between them. It's literally an
entire neighborhood lost beneath the
streets of modern Rome. [energetic music] Look at this. I've got a nice Roman arch
above me, a barrel vaulted room. This is incredible. Yeah, and it goes
down even further. We'll be going down
another level below this. The building we're in was built
in a number of phases dating back to as early as the year
zero when this part of Rome was inhabited under
Augustus by warehouses, industrial buildings. It's a nice slice
through history where each era is pretty well
preserved and visible to us. ERIC GELLER: The
underground neighborhood spans over 400 years
of constant building and rebuilding, from the
height of Roman power in the 1st century
to the empire's fall. But when the empire fell,
why didn't these buildings fall with him? There were no bulldozers back
then, so each generation just built on top of the next leaving
time capsules like this one beneath the streets. We began our journey 25 feet
underground and 2000 years in the past, in the oldest
part of the subterranean neighborhood. TOM RANKIN: We're at
the ground floor level. So the brick walls back
here, those are authentic. And here I'm talking about
1st century AD, the time of the flavian emperors. ERIC GELLER: The building
we were walking through was built when Rome's first
emperor, Augustus, began rebuilding the city after
years of turmoil and neglect. As the Empire and its capital
grew, warehouses like this one were needed to store goods
from around the empire. But how was this underground
neighborhood still able to support the city up above? The answer is in the concrete. Common concrete
is made with sand. But the Romans
used volcanic ash, which was much more porous. When ash, lime, and
water are mixed together, a chemical reaction occurs. The result is an extremely
durable, waterproofed concrete that still bonds the bricks
of these buildings today. 2000 years ago, this space
would have been filled with dock workers and slaves hauling
imported goods on barges from around the empire. This space is still just a
few blocks from the river, but today. It's buried 25 feet
below the ground. As we walked up just
one flight of stairs, we were moving forward 200
years in time and into what used to be a courtyard. TOM RANKIN: Leaving
behind the 1st century AD and coming up to see
what changed over time. And this was actually an
outdoor space around 200 AD. When the rooms below
had become basements, ground level started rising up
a little bit because of some of these earthquakes and fires. And we have to imagine something
very different from what we see today. This is stuff that was found
here lying around here. ERIC GELLER: You're kidding. So these-- these are the actual
amphoras that were found here in this space? Yes. And like so many
other things in Rome, they are unbelievably abundant. This is what 1800
years from now people are going to be picking
up twinkies wrappers and looking at them like this. So you're looking at an
ancient twinkie wrapper. The pottery left behind reminded
us that 1800 years ago this was a busy warehouse with Romans
working right where we stood. But 25 feet beneath the
street, I found a lot more than ancient wrappers. I found myself standing
inside a 1700-year-old house. TOM RANKIN: We're getting
up into medieval times. So this is a decorative
geometric pattern floor of probably a house
from late antiquity, meaning 4th century AD or so. We can even see over
here plumbing which lies underneath the floor. Are you kidding me? Is this ancient plumbing? This is Ancient plumbing. It's modular terracotta tubes. ERIC GELLER: We had walked out
of a warehouse into a courtyard and back inside into
an apartment building, all within this one
underground neighborhood and all beneath the modern city. Even still, there was more. A small opening in the wall
led to another corridor. Even our expert wasn't sure
what was beyond the wall. TOM RANKIN: Oh, let's go. ERIC GELLER: This place
just keeps snaking around, doesn't it? It's like we're in
an underworld city. TOM RANKIN: Well, we
are underneath the city, and this was a city
underneath the city. Another series of
floors down here. That's a nice piece. ERIC GELLER: Oh, look at this. TOM RANKIN: So these are
rooms which were residential. They were probably
sleeping rooms, and they were well
off middle class. The nice decorative mosaic
floors, the decorative frescoes which might have had some
figural paintings in them. ERIC GELLER: This nearly
3,000 square foot complex is impressive. But it's just a small
piece of the puzzle. Look under almost
any street in Rome, and you'll find the
foundations of an empire. TOM RANKIN: We would find
clues, clues that would help put further together this
puzzle and give us a better understanding of what Rome
was like in that period. ERIC GELLER: Like
in most big cities, it was the common folk who lived
in neighborhoods like this one that made Rome great. Its dockworkers, carpenters, and
merchants built the foundations for the capital city of one of
the world's greatest empires. And today, these
ancient buildings are literally the foundations
for the modern ones. [rock music] There's no city in the world
with more fountains than Rome. Walk around any street
corner, and you'll probably see one from small
drinking fountains to amazing works of art. The ability to harness water
was key to the survival of ancient Rome. And as you can see,
no one did it better. Today, Rome's water fountains
pump millions of gallons of fresh water into the city. Trevi fountain alone pours
out 22 million gallons of water each day,
all of it still coming from an original
Roman aqueduct. Romans have been building
elaborate fountains for over 2,000 years. The constant flow of fresh water
came to symbolize the health and wealth of the city. Yet with all of the
towering aqueducts and elaborate fountains
above the ground, most of the ancient
city's waterworks are still buried 25 feet
beneath the streets. [energetic music] Hi, Katie. Thanks for meeting with me. Hi. Nice to meet you, Eric. On the other side-- ERIC GELLER: I met with Katie
Parla, a guide who specializes in Rome's underworld. She was taking me to what seemed
like an ordinary fountain. But this fountain was different. It was a symbol of
power in ancient Rome. Today, the ground level
has risen over 25 feet. So believe it or
not, the fountain is actually buried underneath
this modern apartment building. KATIE: We have to envision
late Republican Rome. Delete the Colosseum
and fill this area with the villas of Roman
aristocrats, public buildings, offices, commercial spaces,
and residential areas. So the Colosseum is not here? Right. The fountain was
built in 50 BC, which was more than 100 years before
the Colosseum was constructed. ERIC GELLER: In fact, in 50 BC,
not only was the Colosseum not there, but much of the hill
itself was actually leveled. After more than 2,000 years of
construction and destruction, The Hill today is actually
the rubble of ancient Rome. But tucked away along
the retaining wall is a door that most
people would never notice, a door that's not open to the
public, that would take us over 2,000 years back in time. [energetic music] We were headed down to
an ancient fountain that was unearthed in 1894
during construction of the street above us. Ugh, kind of a narrow
stairway here, Katie. KATIE: Yep, it's a spiral
staircase leading down into the nymphaeum. ERIC GELLER: The nymphaeum was
a monumental fountain built on a private villa
or dome around 50 BC. The worship of nymphs
or sea goddesses was common in Rome emphasizing
the importance of water in the ancient world. 2,000 years ago, this would have
been a semicircular fountain adorned with shells. There were several niches
with statues inside, and most likely a
pool in front of it. Today, it's a time capsule
preserved beneath the streets. KATIE: Right, we're looking at
four of nine original niches that formed part of a nymphaeum
or monumental fountain. So we've got to imagine
five niches continuing in a semi-circular shape
towards the modern street that we just left. Water would have flowed here. And in order to reinforce
the water aspect, the decorations in the
niches and on the walls include seashells. ERIC GELLER: Fountains were
more than just decorations in ancient Rome. They were a mark of an advanced
society, one that was concerned about hygiene and one
that could harness water. The fountain was a link to
Rome's ancient waterworks, one of the key ingredients
to the rise of Rome, and I was standing
in the middle of it. 2,000 years ago, we would
have been underwater. The fountain would have been
fed by a water source that was not necessarily visible. I mean, the whole aspect here
of having this nymphaeum is to posit it as a
naturally occurring spring that this aristocrat
just happened to build a house around. So we're supposed to be tricked
into thinking that he's tamed nature in some way,
whereas this is absolutely a man-made structure that was
supplied by probably lead pipes that fed the water to the site. ERIC GELLER: Even
without modern machinery, early Romans created an
elaborate world of plumbing. Here's how it worked. The water's journey
began over 40 miles away. It ran through the Aqua Anio
Vetus, a winding aqueduct that sat almost entirely underground. Once the water approached
the outskirts of the city, it poured into large
castella or cisterns. Today, the cisterns are
scattered and buried throughout the modern city,
like this one that still sits in the middle of
a business park. It's off limits to the public. But Katie agreed
to take me down. [energetic music] You can feel it getting
colder as we walk down. Yeah, it's a
little humid, too. This is much bigger
than I anticipated. You can't see it
from the outside. But this snakes around. And I can see there's
different chambers. I mean, here's a
chamber right here. And I can see beyond
that one and around there and around there. I mean, this is
quite a structure. Not only is it amazing that
2,000 years ago Romans knew how to get this much water here. Once it was here, they also
installed an elaborate system of purification. These cisterns or castelo
purified the water and then redistributed the
water to smaller holding tanks. But how? The cistern was designed
with two concentric rings and a center cylinder
where the water entered. From there, the water would
flow through the openings in the walls into the next ring. KATIE: So the water would enter
in one part of the building. It would circulate
around the structure. But the separate rooms
would cause the water to slow down in its path. So this would allow the
particles in suspension to fall away. ERIC GELLER: As the water
moved through the rings, the opening slowed
the water down. The dirt and debris in the
water would fall to the floor and the purified water
continued through the cistern and out through a channel
on the opposite end. Other cisterns
throughout the city use this ingenious combination
of gravity and circulation to purify the water. But this was no
ordinary cistern. KATIE: This cistern is
about 50 feet in diameter and the chambers are about 20
feet in height, which makes it unusually large if it was
for private or domestic use, implying it was used for
agriculture industry. ERIC GELLER: More than
five times the size of the standard
Roman cistern, it's likely that this was built to
water a large industrial farm that helped to feed
the citizens of Rome. But how did they prevent the
pressure of more than 200,000 gallons of moving water from
cracking the outer walls? So you can see a lot
of exposed brick. But then you have this
really thick mortar. Right here, there's a
huge patch that's missing. Why was the mortar so thick? Well, this is a
traditional thickness for plaster in antiquity. And this particular plaster
is a waterproof plaster. ERIC GELLER: The Romans invented
this waterproof plaster, just one more example of how
advanced the Romans were. But that's not all. Besides the waterproof plaster,
the walls of this cistern were designed to withstand
tremendous force. KATIE: This is tufa, which
is a local volcanic stone. And these are pyramidal
pieces that were embedded in the concrete core. Now, what we don't
see is that above and below the
two-foot construction are parallel lines of bricks. And when you see
these two arrangements beside one another, this is a
technique called opus mixtum. ERIC GELLER: And why
would they mix them? You've got two different
types of compressive materials pushing up against one another. They thrive under pressure,
they create a stronger building. ERIC GELLER: The two layers of
brick work like a vise pushing the concrete and
tufa layers together. The more pressure pushing
against the layers, the stronger they become. It's no surprise that in Rome
you can go beneath the streets to uncover an ancient
water world, a world that made it possible for
the empire to become the largest in the world. It may look like just a
fountain, but it was much more. [rock music] For over 2,000 years, Rome
has had a terrible problem with traffic. At one point, Julius
Caesar actually banned carriages and
wagons in the city. And today, it isn't much better. But banning traffic in a modern
day city isn't realistic. So the solution seems
simple, build new roads. The problem,
everywhere you dig, you run into the
remains of the past. Just like 2,000 years
ago, today, Rome is constantly under construction
fixing aqueducts, adding extra sewer lines, and
building new roads. The city's new metro
line project is still in its first stage of
operation, but it's already unearthed dozens of new
archeological finds. So it was no surprise when
the construction of a new road in this bustling
residential neighborhood unveiled an ancient secret. The intact remains of a
2000-year-old Roman villa including an auditorium that was
center stage and one of Rome's greatest power plays. Xander Evers, an
expert on ancient Rome, agreed to take me
underground to show me. Hey, Xander, thanks
for meeting with me. Good to see you. Welcome. The ancient building sits
almost 20 feet beneath this park in the Piazza
Vittorio neighborhood. Today, it's packed
with shops, businesses, and modern buildings. But 2,000 years ago, this was
the suburbs, the playground of the rich and famous. XANDER EVERS: Imagine
this 2,000 years back. And we're right in
the middle of what used to be an enormous complex,
big villa, huge gardens all very nicely decorated. But sadly, this is the
only part left of it. ERIC GELLER: Can we
go in and take a look. We can certainly go in. It's spectacular inside. I can promise you that one. Great. Hundreds of locals walk by this
inconspicuous brick building every day and have no idea it
sits on top of ancient Rome. This was all buried until
the end of the 19th century. This was all buried? XANDER EVERS: This
was all buried. So we're walking
into an auditorium. This was a big hall where
you could listen to poets performing, people sitting on
those steps there in the back and listening. This is gorgeous here. It's not bad. ERIC GELLER: The
underground structure was just one small part
of the sprawling estate. It was built around 30 BC by
Gaius Maecenas, an extremely wealthy citizen. Maecenas was close friends
with a man who would later become known as Augustus,
Rome's first emperor. When Maecenas built the villa,
Rome was still a Republic. Just a few years later,
his friend Octavian was granted the title Augustus
and became the sole leader of Rome. Keeping the image of a Republic
while consolidating control wasn't easy. But with the help of
his friend Maecenas, Augustus found a unique weapon
keeping political power. The big purse of those
days come in and write works to entertain, but also to
broadcast a political message on why Augustus should have
become the emperor, why it was justified for him to have become
the emperor after the time where the Republic effectively
had come to an end. ERIC GELLER: Transforming Rome
into the capital of an empire took ingenious engineering
like sewers, aqueducts, and high-rise buildings,
but this auditorium became the place where the
real dealings went down. Rome's decision makers
gathered right here, including Virgil and Horace. Maecenas built this space
to show off his power and influence. But this auditorium became
the cultural and political hub of Rome. The colorful character of the
whole building just expressing the glory of its owner was
part of a political development as well where you have
the rich and famous wanting to express their
wealth and their fame. This is brilliant. Yeah. It's cracked up, but it's--
the stucco itself was painted. This is really gorgeous. XANDER EVERS: Brilliant
colors as well. Also the blue in there. Oh, wow. Yeah, look at this. The motifs are not
very clear anymore, but it's almost like looking out
of a window with a countryside scenery. And what we call
a trompe-l'oeil. So it's the trick of the eye. It's a 3D effect
painted on the wall. That's really cool. The auditorium created an almost
hypnotic effect on the crowd. But beneath the
mystical surface were the guts of Roman engineering. How did they construct
this auditorium? A, with slaves, B,
with a lot of material. You have almost a
sandwich structure. Outside layers filled in
with either rubble or brick. But it gives you a
very solid structure. That's why a lot of these
walls are still standing up. ERIC GELLER: When the
building was discovered, a small portion of the wall was
sticking out above the ground. When they started construction
on the road along the Piazza, they began to remove the
rubble and debris that filled the auditorium. A retaining wall was installed
to protect and enclose the delicate frescoes
and murals inside. In doing so, they also protected
the incredibly significant role this auditorium played in
the rise of ancient Rome. After Maecenas died,
he left it to Augustus. From then on, it became
the private pleasure palace for every emperor for 400 years. This villa was even used
by one of Rome's most notorious and ruthless
rulers, Emperor Nero. XANDER EVERS: Nero is said
to have been on this spot, on the property, when Rome
was ablaze in the year 64 AD and was overlooking the
city from the Esquiline Hill from this
particular property and enjoying the view of it. It's maddening to
think about that. I mean, this spot
here so much history. Nero was here and
Virgil was here, and Augustus Sherley was here. Yeah. ERIC GELLER: This little
drop in the middle of it looks like surrounded
by all of modern Rome. You wouldn't even
know about this place. XANDER EVERS: No, it's
very hard to discover. But it's one of Rome's little
jewels, little secrets. Around the corner, all of a
sudden you find something. That's the magic of
Rome I would say. It's a reminder of Rome's
glorious past and only bits and pieces. Can you imagine the whole of it? It's like a treasure. You see something sticking
out of the ground, you start digging down, and
then you discover this place. You really get the
Indiana Jones feeling. It's sort of you're in
the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden it's there. You find treasures. ERIC GELLER: The
Romans are credited for being innovators,
philosophers, and master craftsmen. From creating the first sewer
system to building auditoriums to promote their ideas the,
Romans were ahead of their time allowing them to become
one of the greatest empires in history. Today, evidence of the
influence of ancient Rome is seen not only in its ruins,
but also in every modern city around the world. Ancient Rome grew from a small
town on the banks of the Tiber into a mega metropolis that went
unrivaled for over 1,000 years. Its sewers, aqueducts,
and high rises became the blueprint
for modern-day cities. Today, much of that
master plan is covered by 2000 years of history. But as the modern world
collides with the ancient one, who knows what secrets they'll
find buried in its underworld.
