What Was Normal Life Like In Ancient Rome? | Absolute History

i'm alice loxton and i present documentaries over on history hit tv if you're passionate about all things history sign up to history hit tv it's like netflix but just for history we've got hours of ad-free documentaries about all aspects of the past you can get a huge discount from history hit tv make sure you check out the details below and use the code absolute history all one word when you sign up now on with the show over 2000 years ago the first great european capital cities rose around the shores of the mediterranean [Music] more and more people lived in increasingly crowded conditions the arts commerce and sciences flourished [Music] struggling for power and influence these cities tried to outshine each other by erecting magnificent buildings people from different cultures and parts of the world were drawn to these cities seeking prosperity and happiness [Music] rome during the second century a.d the roman empire was at its height and the city held a million inhabitants [Music] no city was richer more powerful or more ruthless and none was so bloodthirsty monumental buildings testified to the power and greatness of the roman empire rome was the center of the ancient world [Applause] [Music] rome the eternal city with its eternal chaos even two thousand years ago the romans complained about the noise and the traffic ox carts were prohibited from driving through the city during the day instead they robbed people of sleep at night [Music] the coliseum was the largest arena of its time and could hold 50 000 spectators when it was inaugurated in 80 a.d the festivities ran for 100 days during the festival 52 000 gladiators lost their lives they demonstrated to people and emperor alike that only courage in the face of death could make you truly great and victorious the capital of the roman empire was also the capital of crime murder manslaughter and fraud were everyday events [Music] on the streets of rome drusis captain of the city cohort is in charge of law and order he pursues murderers and thieves and unscrupulous traders such as petronius who are not above shady deals to capture a crook like petronius drusis slips into the roman underworld [Music] harsh punishment awaits anyone who cheats the emperor [Music] right next to the coliseum archaeologists are excavating imperial rome they are not interested in palaces and villas but in simple buildings the realm of ordinary people such as drusis and petronius these sites have been excavated before but as the ruins held neither marble statues nor rich murals the archaeologists weren't very interested and the sites were filled in again but these days excavations have a different purpose archaeologists are trying to understand how people lived at the time gradually the finds are pieced together to form a picture of everyday life which was amazingly like life in a big modern city you have to look closely at the pieces to coax their story from them [Music] this necklace is not made of precious jewels it's simple costume jewelry perhaps it was a young man's gift to his beloved german archaeologist richard noedecker is looking for signs of everyday life in antiquity he's interested in these buildings the insulai the world's first large tenement blocks they were four to seven stories high some even higher living space was at a premium in rome noydecker knows how this city once looked what happened on its squares and in its alleys modern rome was built on the debris of millennia what was once the ground floor of this ancient tenement block now lies eight meters below ground these rooms are almost two thousand years old they housed people who had come to rome to seek their fortune [Music] alive [Music] [Music] the lack of living space and the price of land forced people to live in narrow cramped houses they were dark and noisy and stank horribly but the tenants were still forced to pay exorbitant rents [Music] [Applause] and bills [Music] [Music] the poor had to share accommodation with strangers communities forged of necessity [Music] the cityscape of ancient rome had many such high-rise tenement blocks separated by narrow alleys [Music] this is the beat for drusis and the men of the city cohort they are rome's policemen respected and feared [Music] is heading for the market at trajan's forum an informer has revealed that one of the traders has been watering the wine which is routine but has also been cheating on the tax owed to the emperor drusis intends to find this villain and send him to the coliseum as lion [Music] the history of rome is written in blood legend has it that the city began with a crime with the murder of a man by his brother [Applause] on the banks of the river tiber rome was founded in 753 bc says the legend the tale begins with the trojan hero inius his two descendants romulus and remus were abandoned on the banks of the river the twins would have starved to death if they had not been adopted by a she-wolf later they quarreled over founding a city romulus killed his brother and named the new settlement after himself in fact rome began as an etruscan peasant village the village grew to become the capital of a huge empire extending from britain to north africa from the atlantic ocean to the black sea [Music] wherever the roman legions went roman builders erected splendid cities here the elite of the conquered land copying their roman masters lived in affluence but in the city of rome itself everything was bigger and more impressive [Music] the imperial palaces on the palatine hill here life passed in luxury and extravagance the roman lifestyle set the example for the entire empire but how could ram afford all this these shards reveal how rome financed all this extravagant luxury rome was known as the city of the seven hills monte testacho was rome's eighth hill jose remasal has found it a rewarding excavation site for himself and his group of archaeologists rome produced prodigious quantities of waste monte testacio was nothing more than a gigantic tip for the archaeologists it's nothing but shards all the way down in antiquity millions of shattered amphoras were dumped here over a long period with the contents of these amphoras the provinces paid their tribute to the emperor the vessels were filled with the provisions needed to feed the million people then living in rome the shards tell the history of roman trade and of the tributes from the provinces and how the capital was supplied with food materials [Music] the archaeologists are working on a huge puzzle the shapes of the fragments and their inscriptions revealed that most of the amphoras contained olive oil from the province of hispania bayetica in southern spain today's andalusia not far from monte testacho were rome's docks on the tiber here the amphoras were unloaded from cargo vessels directly behind the docks was the quarter where this endless stream of goods was stored some of the warehouses are still standing today squeezed into the narrow space between the tiber and modern rome the area is not open to the public but jose remissal knows its importance this is what remains of a vast trade center which once supplied the city with all manner of goods [Music] in these vaults wholesalers stored grain oil and wine and other commodities [Music] [Music] popular garum which most of us would find a bit on the nose it was a fermented fish sauce that served as a spice for many roman dishes workers repacked this expensive delicacy into smaller vessels for the retail trade wine amphoras were used over and over but amphoras for oil were smashed they would have been too hard to clean up [Music] but as trade and profits boomed so did swindling smuggling and fraud [Music] [Applause] [Music] these warehouses belong to petronius he deals in anything that can bring a profit mostly oil and wine but it's best not to ask too closely where he gets his goods [Music] for some years now petronius has forced his clerk to fiddle the accounts and falsify documents [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] petronius has no idea that drusis is already closing in on him [Music] thank you monte testacio is testimony to the fact that on rural estates countless slaves worked till they dropped their labor enabled a small roman upper class to lead the soft life roman tax officials rigorously controlled the flow of tax revenues most of what they recorded on wax tablets and sheets of papyrus has been lost forever but valuable information about the tax system can be gained from monty to status pottery shards demand an elaborate network of roads connected the roman provinces but most of the tribute arrived by sea olive oil and fish sauce from spain wine and grain from sicily and north africa the province's tribute kept rome viable exact accounts were recorded tax officials marked every amphero with their seal the contents of each amphora were carefully noted so that nothing could be pilfered [Music] for a long time petronius has been a thorn in the centurion's flesh but until now drusis has lacked proof [Music] now dreucis has definite information someone has denounced petronius for failing to pay attacks the seals on the anthras give him away [Music] nearly [Music] hey [Music] petronius is caught red-handed all he can do is flee [Music] from austria he could have left rome forever the city seaport was located 30 kilometers from the city gates docking at austria were ships from every corner of the mediterranean though some never reached their destination as is shown by a sensational discovery in pisa [Applause] perhaps the port was already patrolled in antiquity as it surely attracted anyone seeking to start a new life abroad two thousand years ago pisa was a mediterranean port just like austria but today pisa is 10 kilometers inland in 1998 construction workers discovered this roman port during excavations for a new railway station pumps prevent the excavation site from flooding as the archaeologists have to work below groundwater level the muddy ground kept the air away from the timbers thus preserving entire roman ships and their cargos [Music] [Music] [Music] for the archaeologists this discovery in pisa was uniquely lucky the conditions have rarely been so ideal for preserving materials such as wood that readily decay [Music] along with amphoras from the ship's cargo the archaeologists discovered objects preserved in mud that had been found nowhere else a piece of leather perhaps from a sailor's kit [Music] is in the mud of the harbour the archaeologists have begun to release the hull of another ship they owe their discovery to a tragic accident the ship must have reached port safely when it capsized and sank in a storm in the boat's hold the archaeologists found a brush probably used by a young sailor to scrub the deck just before the storm hit once the ships have been cleaned it's a race against time as the timbers crumble when exposed to air engineers and archaeologists secure the hulls with a framework of steel through plastic pipes under a fiberglass covering the wood is soaked with resin solution to preserve it when this work is finished the ships await transport to the museum workshops timbers and planks from the ships and the docks were also retrieved scarring indicates a ship may have rammed the dock in a storm and sunk before its cargo could be unloaded from most tribute payments were brought to roman ships like these the only way to transport such large loads they delivered goods to all the big ports of the roman empire the most important of these was austria the port for rome but natural disaster must have overcome them their cargos might have been intended for the market at trajan's forum in rome [Music] rickard noedecker believes that the market played a special role in roman life emperor trajan ordered the construction of a trading center in the year 110 a.d it was a project so huge the part of one of the city's hills even had to be removed [Music] 150 shops offered romans whatever their hearts desired fresh vegetables from the region wheat from north africa spices from asia the finest tableware expensive cosmetics and precious jewelry from distant [Music] [Music] foreign on the ground floor with the shops those at the front were open to the street but were shut with boards at night to prevent theft and burglary the markets were patrolled by guards here a better class of shopkeepers leased their premises it was a desirable area for a store so the rents were probably high the upper stories housed offices of the city administration here poor people could register for free food however only male romans enjoyed this privilege other romans who did not have to worry about surviving from day to day could apply to have the public water supply connected to their homes [Music] such public areas were always extremely important to roman society because life took place not indoors but on the street this was true of all roman cities a tragedy has preserved one of them in its entirety pompeii pompeii lies at the foot of mount vesuvius one of the world's most dangerous and unpredictable volcanoes [Music] no one knows when vesuvius will erupt again but three million people still live in the shadow of the volcano [Music] british archaeologist rick jones came to pompeii to research how a roman city functioned in antiquity our anglo-american project in pompeii is trying to study how the city that was destroyed in 1879 came to be like that how the whole mix of big houses of rich and poor of medium-sized houses of workshops and bars came to be created over a period of some several centuries maybe five centuries and to examine that within the space of one complete block of the city pompeii was a small city set in the countryside amid gardens and vineyards still many aspects of day-to-day existence must have been similar to those in rome so pompeii can serve as a model of life in every roman city pompeii is a time machine which will take you on a journey into the roman past nowhere else is the everyday life of ancient times so palpable [Music] the city's last day was virtually frozen in mid-action [Music] in the year 79 a.d mount vesuvius broke apart spat fire rained ashes and obliterated the city the colonnade of a luxurious villa the head of this family ran a bakery these millstones ground grain into fine expensive flour or into coarse flour considered good enough for the poor and the slaves [Music] the stable with the animals that turned to millstones they perished in the hot and poisonous gases as did all those who could not flee the city in time [Music] generations of archaeologists have excavated pompeii but there are still new discoveries to be made with the help of more than 100 staff rick jones is currently exploring a whole block of pompeii their common goal is to reconstruct life as it once was in this ancient city [Applause] these are the remains of an evening meal at which wild boar was served but only wealthy households had kitchens with their own stove the poor bought their meals on the street or in cheap taverns [Applause] there were hundreds of these taverns in ancient rome congregating there were denizens of the underworld and those with nothing more to lose least of all their good name [Music] petronius cannot return home because the police are after him so he has come here believing he will be safe [Music] [Applause] vino [Music] [Laughter] [Music] now petronius has made enemies but someone on the run from the city cohort can't afford to make enemies previous excavations in pompeii concentrated primarily on its last day but now scientists are digging deeper to find out more about the ways the city evolved the houses were continually rebuilt changing over time like the people [Applause] the archaeologists are searching specifically for small items the surgeon's house was first excavated in 1926 his surgical instruments were given to a museum long ago now the history of the building and the changes in society are being examined more closely what we're finding is that the the rich in simple terms got richer and the poor got poorer we see a process by which the um the bigger houses got bigger more luxurious more well appointed with mosaics and fountains whereas the poor are squeezed into smaller spaces into upstairs spaces into tighter places all around whether it within the big house as the servants and slaves or within the bars below the street archaeologists uncover a lead pipe which brought fresh spring water to public fountains and to some villas but only wealthy households were connected to this water supply the masses of slaves enjoy none of the luxuries typical of the roman lifestyle roman cities functioned because slaves did the heavy work and because roman engineers devised technologies which made life more comfortable the houses of the rich had running water bathrooms and underfloor heating but much greater demands were placed on builders and city planners in rome than in pompeii people who lived in rome suffered from the problems of any big city the sheer scale of it is something that is only really paralleled in modern times and so they had many of the problems of congestion of expensive accommodation of difficulties of sleeping at night because of the noise all those things that were that go with people being crammed together in a tight urban space rome was greedy for water drinking water for private and public wells water for decorative fountains in upper class houses and water for the numerous public baths [Music] eight aqueducts brought millions of liters of water into the city every day the arch was a roman invention as was cement it was these lightweight arches that made the aqueducts possible but eventually even the finest spring water ends its run as stinking sewage the stench pervaded all of rome even the forum romanum here there were temples honoring the gods here the senate conferred and created policies and high society used to meet at the forum romanum is the entrance to the city's underworld today's close to tourists the famous clowaka maxima all of rome's sewage both the refuse and the human waste flowed through here more than two thousand years ago rome already had a sewerage system nevertheless large quantities of sewage and rubbish ended up in the streets back then oil lamps burned in the niches of these dark tunnels they provided a feeble light for the work of maintenance crews the sewers frequently blocked and had to be cleaned regularly 600 metres of the koaka maxima are still part of today's system in spite of his aqueducts and sewerage system rome suffered from a lack of hygiene is a so the city's water supply was also a source of disease this was centuries before organisms were known to cause disease so people resorted to home remedies cabbage for instance was said to be a cure even for cancer the [Music] um the health centers of roman cities were the hot spring baths only wealthy romans could afford doctors most came from greece like galen he started his roman career as doctor to the gladiators and later became the emperor's personal physician [Music] many romans had already finished work by lunchtime and spent the rest of the afternoon at the baths they practiced sports enjoyed the baths or had a massage here they were able to leave the dusty streets and hectic pace of city life behind [Music] the roman museum of archaeology houses the largest collection of artworks and everyday objects from ancient rome in the laboratories specialists work tirelessly to preserve this heritage the marble for these statues often came from far away some of it from north africa wealthy romans commissioned these works to decorate their homes but it was not the artists and artisans who were admired it was the buyers beautiful objects gave the owners a higher social status and they enjoyed flaunting it everything can be found in the museum storerooms from the simplest objects for daily use to magnificent artifacts from the emperor's palace [Applause] these objects are eloquent about the city splendor but also about people whose lives were spent in the shadows economically the romans were fond of surrounding themselves with beautiful things even objects for daily use were created with an artistic sense [Music] the humblest cooking utensils were decorated [Music] money everyone in rome knew that anything could be bought with money even votes and official positions traitors and informers [Music] rome never slept night was the time for delivering everything which would be needed the following day but those who moved through rome's dark streets at night had to be wary and not just of gangs of robbers [Music] [Music] knows that arresting petronius is only a question of time and money [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] among the last drinkers the arrest causes only a slight stir but for patronus it is the beginning of a nightmare from which there will be no awakening the coliseum above was the arena down here stretches a labyrinth of narrow alleys and tiny chambers until recently not all their functions were known [Music] the architectural historian heinz jurgen bester has studied this complex minutely he has concluded that the structures beneath the floor of the arena were part of an elaborate stage machinery that could suddenly release starving lions panthers and tigers into the arena [Music] with more than a hundred performances per year the coliseum had to come up with more and more sensational acts to keep the public interested the hoyt league foreign what appeared miraculous to the spectators was really hard work performed by a skilled stage crew below the arena's wooden floor while the crowds roared in their seats above teams of soldiers slaves and animal tamers were busy below running the stage machinery nowhere else could romans get so close to their emperor for him the behavior of the crowds was a barometer of public sentiment at times he could even be booed [Music] people and emperor watched the same spectacle despite the cruelty of combatants being stabbed or mauled to death for the audience it was merely another entertainment in the ring the next video foreign [Music] 50 000 people enjoyed watching men and women fight for their lives [Music] petronius has cheated the emperor and can expect no mercy with murderers and temporal robbers he waits to make his entrance [Music] [Applause] [Music] with their bare hands these hapless prisoners must fight lions and bears for public amusement [Applause] many gladiators were highly trained professional fighters who could achieve recognition and even wealth some of them became celebrated stars adored by a fanatical public that is as long as they managed to stay alive [Music] at the coliseum the law was kill or be killed [Applause] especially as it's his day off he's looking forward to exciting games and unforgettable fights that will be talked about for days not unlike sporting events in today's world [Music] [Applause] [Music] but there was some criticism as well this is how the philosopher and politician seneca condemned it man once sacred to his own kind is now murdered for amusement as if it were a game people find the killing of one man at the hands of another a welcome spectacle [Music] [Applause] [Music] visitors from all the provinces gathered at the world's largest arena to see the famous gladiators fight each other rome was mighty and it was merciless the roman empire lasted a thousand years its center was the great city of rome with all the advantages of big city life there were problems as well the first city in history with a million inhabitants struggled with problems such as traffic congestion housing shortages and crime problems which routinely appear where a great number of people live together they existed then as they do now and they will most likely exist in the future

Channel: Absolute History

Views: 749,725

Keywords: history documentaries, absolute history, world history, ridiculous history, quirky history

Id: 0ZEzEBUCOAc

Length: 52min 15sec (3135 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022