1 00:00:17,852 --> 00:00:21,094 It's March the 17th in A.D. 73. 2 00:00:21,118 --> 00:00:24,288 We're visiting ancient Rome to watch the Liberalia, 3 00:00:24,312 --> 00:00:28,956 an annual festival that celebrates the liberty of Rome's citizens. 4 00:00:30,418 --> 00:00:36,251 We're looking in at a 17-year-old named Lucius Popidius Secundus. 5 00:00:36,275 --> 00:00:41,111 He's not from a poor family, but he lives in the region known as the Subura, 6 00:00:41,135 --> 00:00:45,550 a poorer neighborhood in Rome, yet close to the center of the city. 7 00:00:45,574 --> 00:00:46,574 (Gong) 8 00:00:48,084 --> 00:00:50,525 The tenants of these apartments are crammed in, 9 00:00:50,549 --> 00:00:51,550 (Grunting) 10 00:00:51,574 --> 00:00:53,629 which poses considerable risk. 11 00:00:54,851 --> 00:01:00,225 Fires are frequent and the smell of ash and smoke in the morning is not uncommon. 12 00:01:01,635 --> 00:01:06,274 Lucius, who awoke at dawn, has family duties to perform today. 13 00:01:07,772 --> 00:01:08,785 (Cheering) 14 00:01:08,809 --> 00:01:11,367 His 15-year-old brother is coming of age. 15 00:01:12,302 --> 00:01:16,812 Half the children in ancient Rome die before they reach adulthood, 16 00:01:16,836 --> 00:01:20,106 so this is a particularly important milestone. 17 00:01:20,702 --> 00:01:23,970 Lucius watches his brother stand in his new toga 18 00:01:23,994 --> 00:01:27,459 before the household shrine with its protective deities, 19 00:01:27,483 --> 00:01:31,440 as he places his bulla, a protective amulet, 20 00:01:31,464 --> 00:01:33,790 in the shrine with a prayer of thanks. 21 00:01:35,737 --> 00:01:38,237 The bulla had worked. It had protected him. 22 00:01:39,118 --> 00:01:43,256 Unlike many others, he had survived to become an adult. 23 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:49,778 At 17, Lucius has almost completed his education. 24 00:01:49,802 --> 00:01:53,035 He has learned to speak well, make public speeches, 25 00:01:53,059 --> 00:01:56,159 and how to read and write both Latin and Greek. 26 00:01:57,088 --> 00:01:59,873 His father has taught him the types of things 27 00:01:59,897 --> 00:02:02,389 you can't learn in the classroom: 28 00:02:02,413 --> 00:02:04,142 how to run, 29 00:02:04,166 --> 00:02:06,832 how to swim, 30 00:02:06,856 --> 00:02:08,270 and how to fight. 31 00:02:08,294 --> 00:02:13,394 Lucius could choose, at 17, to become a military tribune 32 00:02:13,418 --> 00:02:15,772 and command soldiers on the edge of the Empire. 33 00:02:18,068 --> 00:02:22,008 But in other ways, Lucius is still a child. 34 00:02:22,032 --> 00:02:24,871 He's not trusted to arrange business deals. 35 00:02:24,895 --> 00:02:28,386 His father will take care of that until he is 25. 36 00:02:30,335 --> 00:02:35,430 And Dad will arrange Lucius' marriage to a girl 10 years younger. 37 00:02:36,436 --> 00:02:41,026 His dad has his eye on a family with a 7-year-old daughter. 38 00:02:41,685 --> 00:02:43,229 Back to the Liberalia. 39 00:02:43,253 --> 00:02:45,409 As Lucius leaves with his family, 40 00:02:45,433 --> 00:02:49,058 the shops are open as the population goes about its business. 41 00:02:50,588 --> 00:02:54,511 The streets are full of itinerant traders selling trinkets 42 00:02:54,535 --> 00:02:56,902 and people bustling from place to place. 43 00:02:57,801 --> 00:03:02,254 Large wagons are not allowed in the city until after the ninth hour 44 00:03:02,278 --> 00:03:04,235 but the streets are still crowded. 45 00:03:06,183 --> 00:03:10,328 Fathers and uncles take the kids to the Forum Augustus 46 00:03:10,352 --> 00:03:13,157 to see statues of Rome's famous warriors 47 00:03:14,140 --> 00:03:18,243 like Aeneas, who led Rome's ancestors, the Trojans, to Italy. 48 00:03:19,069 --> 00:03:20,932 And Romulus, Rome's founder. 49 00:03:21,948 --> 00:03:25,677 And all the great generals of the Republic from more than 100 years earlier. 50 00:03:27,569 --> 00:03:30,861 Lovingly, we can imagine fathers and guardians 51 00:03:30,885 --> 00:03:33,444 with their now adult children 52 00:03:33,468 --> 00:03:36,664 remembering stories of Rome's glory 53 00:03:36,688 --> 00:03:40,578 and re-telling the good deeds and sayings of the great men of the past: 54 00:03:41,356 --> 00:03:43,688 lessons on how to live well, 55 00:03:43,712 --> 00:03:46,560 and to overcome the follies of youth. 56 00:03:47,674 --> 00:03:51,835 There is a sense of history in this place, relevant to their present. 57 00:03:53,354 --> 00:03:57,806 Romans made an empire without end in time and space. 58 00:03:57,830 --> 00:03:58,831 (Thump) 59 00:03:58,855 --> 00:04:01,518 Rome was destined to be eternal through warfare. 60 00:04:02,769 --> 00:04:06,879 Wars were a fact of life, even in A.D. 73. 61 00:04:06,903 --> 00:04:10,994 There are campaigns in the north of England and into Scotland, 62 00:04:11,018 --> 00:04:13,678 to the north of the River Danube into Romania, 63 00:04:13,702 --> 00:04:18,583 and on the frontier between Syria and Iraq to the east. 64 00:04:18,607 --> 00:04:22,249 It's now the eighth hour -- time to head for the baths. 65 00:04:22,273 --> 00:04:26,461 Lucius and his family head up the Via Lata, the wide street, 66 00:04:26,485 --> 00:04:30,396 to the Campus Martius, and the enormous Baths of Agrippa. 67 00:04:31,684 --> 00:04:35,403 The family members leave the clients and freedmen outside, 68 00:04:35,427 --> 00:04:37,761 and enter the baths with their peer group. 69 00:04:38,981 --> 00:04:43,109 Baths would change from dark, steamy rooms to light ones. 70 00:04:44,149 --> 00:04:46,212 The Romans had perfected window glass. 71 00:04:47,768 --> 00:04:51,311 Everyone moves from the cold room 72 00:04:51,335 --> 00:04:52,548 to the tepid room 73 00:04:53,959 --> 00:04:55,942 and to the very hot room. 74 00:04:55,966 --> 00:04:57,149 (Man) Oops! 75 00:04:57,173 --> 00:05:00,577 More than an hour later, the bathers leave 76 00:05:00,601 --> 00:05:02,807 massaged, oiled, 77 00:05:02,831 --> 00:05:03,973 (Whistling) 78 00:05:03,997 --> 00:05:06,731 and have been scraped down with a strigil 79 00:05:06,755 --> 00:05:08,321 to remove the remaining dirt. 80 00:05:10,066 --> 00:05:14,126 At the ninth hour, seven hours after they left home, 81 00:05:14,150 --> 00:05:16,648 the men return for a celebratory dinner. 82 00:05:17,829 --> 00:05:20,278 Dinner is an intimate affair, 83 00:05:20,302 --> 00:05:24,072 with nine people reclining around the low table. 84 00:05:25,085 --> 00:05:27,428 Slaves attend to their every need 85 00:05:27,452 --> 00:05:32,075 if the diners, through gestures, demand more food and wine. 86 00:05:33,675 --> 00:05:38,223 As the day closes, we can hear the rumble of wagons outside. 87 00:05:38,247 --> 00:05:39,646 The clients and freedmen, 88 00:05:39,670 --> 00:05:43,796 with a meal of robust -- if inferior -- food inside them, 89 00:05:43,820 --> 00:05:46,028 shuffle off to the now tepid baths 90 00:05:46,052 --> 00:05:48,240 before returning to their apartment blocks. 91 00:05:49,453 --> 00:05:54,345 Back at Lucius' house, the drinking continues into the night. 92 00:05:54,369 --> 00:05:57,346 Lucius and his stepbrother don't look too well. 93 00:05:57,370 --> 00:06:01,866 A slave stands by in case either of them needs to vomit. 94 00:06:05,051 --> 00:06:07,910 With hindsight, we know Lucius' future. 95 00:06:07,934 --> 00:06:13,345 In 20 years' time, the Emperor Vespasian's youngest son, Domitian, as emperor, 96 00:06:13,369 --> 00:06:14,997 will enact a reign of terror. 97 00:06:15,021 --> 00:06:17,237 Will Lucius survive? 98 00:06:17,261 --> 00:06:19,150 (Drums)