0:00:04.863,0:00:06.221 When I was studying ancient Rome 0:00:06.221,0:00:08.032 one of the most difficult things for me to understand is 0:00:08.032,0:00:11.257 how all of these ancient ruins fit together, 0:00:11.257,0:00:13.568 but luckily we have Dr. Bernard Frischer 0:00:13.568,0:00:16.590 who has built an extraordinary video simulation 0:00:16.590,0:00:19.057 that allows us to move through this space. 0:00:19.057,0:00:21.026 The difficulty is always two-fold. 0:00:21.026,0:00:23.864 First of all, that ancient cities are now in ruins 0:00:23.864,0:00:25.448 so the one problem we have is 0:00:25.448,0:00:27.598 how do you go from ruins to the way 0:00:27.598,0:00:28.854 it did look in antiquity. 0:00:28.854,0:00:30.804 Secondly, we only have random ruins, 0:00:30.804,0:00:31.630 we don't have everything. 0:00:31.630,0:00:33.858 So even if you can visualize what the Pantheon looks like 0:00:33.858,0:00:34.767 or the Colosseum, 0:00:34.768,0:00:36.024 they are a mile apart in the city . 0:00:36.024,0:00:38.985 What was everything else? Most of it is missing. 0:00:38.985,0:00:41.494 So the visualization is trying to put the whole city together 0:00:41.494,0:00:43.247 And so let's take a look. Okay. 0:00:43.247,0:00:44.877 It is just beautiful. 0:00:44.877,0:00:48.365 We're now flying low over the city, over the Tibre. 0:00:48.365,0:00:50.028 It's a good place to start because you know, 0:00:50.028,0:00:52.344 the Tibre does divide Rome into two parts. 0:00:52.344,0:00:55.180 And I see in the distance a very large temple. 0:00:55.180,0:00:58.504 That's the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. 0:00:58.504,0:00:59.936 Jupiter, the best and the greatest, 0:00:59.936,0:01:03.039 which was the main temple of the Roman state cult. 0:01:03.039,0:01:05.431 And it's on top of the Capitoline Hill 0:01:05.431,0:01:07.733 which because of this temple and some others, 0:01:07.733,0:01:10.090 was considered the center of the state cult 0:01:10.090,0:01:11.262 and the state religion. 0:01:11.262,0:01:14.137 So what moment in Rome's history have you chosen? 0:01:14.137,0:01:16.709 This is notionally the year 320 AD, 0:01:16.709,0:01:19.641 the peak of Rome's urban development, 0:01:19.641,0:01:21.142 certainly in terms of public architecture 0:01:21.142,0:01:22.342 for the simple reason that 0:01:22.342,0:01:24.974 the Emperor at this time was Constantine the Great 0:01:24.974,0:01:26.440 and shortly after this year 0:01:26.440,0:01:28.255 he moved the capital from Rome 0:01:28.255,0:01:31.036 to his city of Constantinople. 0:01:31.037,0:01:32.309 Ok so we're flying up the river 0:01:32.309,0:01:36.441 and after the Capitoline Hill we see the Palatine Hill, 0:01:36.441,0:01:39.701 another one of the seven canonical hills of Rome. 0:01:39.701,0:01:43.193 And the Palatine is obvious to anybody who visits Rome. 0:01:43.194,0:01:44.635 If you're in the forum, 0:01:44.635,0:01:47.207 this is the great hill with the palaces. 0:01:47.207,0:01:49.735 In fact, the word palace derives from the word Palatine. 0:01:49.736,0:01:52.459 The Romans, as time went on in their history, 0:01:52.459,0:01:54.833 said "where ever the emperor is, there the palace is," 0:01:54.833,0:01:57.306 or the paletine. So, the term palace got detached 0:01:57.306,0:01:58.908 from this physical hill 0:01:58.908,0:02:01.907 and came to just mean "a place where the ruler lives". 0:02:01.907,0:02:04.107 And actually as we're flying past 0:02:04.108,0:02:05.853 what is the Circus Maximus, 0:02:05.853,0:02:08.800 I see the imperial palace, it is so large. 0:02:08.800,0:02:11.262 It is literally enveloped the entire hillside. 0:02:11.262,0:02:12.866 We have to remember this was not only 0:02:12.866,0:02:14.832 where the emperor lived, and his family with him, 0:02:14.832,0:02:17.314 but it was also the center of the government. 0:02:17.314,0:02:19.894 any important relationship 0:02:19.895,0:02:22.657 between this enormous circus and the palace? 0:02:22.657,0:02:24.089 They are in fact connected 0:02:24.089,0:02:26.965 and the Emperor was a great giver of the circus games 0:02:26.965,0:02:31.175 and could easily come down to the Imperial box 0:02:31.175,0:02:32.321 from the palace, 0:02:32.321,0:02:33.266 or if he even wanted 0:02:33.266,0:02:36.049 he could watch the circus races at the Palace. 0:02:36.050,0:02:38.362 So we're not talking about Barnum & Bailey, 0:02:38.362,0:02:40.924 we're talking about sporting events. 0:02:40.924,0:02:43.116 We're mainly talking about chariot races. 0:02:43.116,0:02:46.119 Think Ben Hur, the very famous chariot race scenes. 0:02:46.119,0:02:47.460 And there were also animal hunts, 0:02:47.460,0:02:50.062 there were parades, religious processions, 0:02:50.062,0:02:51.623 and the triumphal processions. 0:02:51.623,0:02:54.135 So let's go into the city proper. We know that 0:02:54.135,0:02:57.662 Rome was this mercantile culture that has real markets. 0:02:57.663,0:02:59.204 How much do we know about 0:02:59.204,0:03:01.509 the daily lives of the inhabitants? 0:03:01.509,0:03:02.685 We know a huge amount. 0:03:02.686,0:03:05.818 We know about their hundreds of trades and professions, 0:03:05.818,0:03:07.360 the different social classes. 0:03:07.360,0:03:09.768 We know about their diet, we know about their longevity. 0:03:09.768,0:03:12.884 The scholars have really reconstructed in great detail 0:03:12.884,0:03:14.273 what everyday life was like. 0:03:14.274,0:03:15.713 So one of the most impressive structures 0:03:15.713,0:03:19.156 that I'm seeing is this aqueduct, this highway for water. 0:03:19.156,0:03:21.186 Yeah, the Romans are famous for their aqueducts. 0:03:21.186,0:03:22.934 They never could have had their big city 0:03:22.934,0:03:24.323 of a million or even the 2 million that 0:03:24.324,0:03:26.456 we're now seeing without the aqueducts 0:03:26.456,0:03:27.861 that brought water in from 0:03:27.861,0:03:29.233 20 or 30 miles away in the mountains. 0:03:29.234,0:03:32.384 They kept this gravitational sytem working 0:03:32.384,0:03:34.730 by getting the sources up into the mountains, 0:03:34.730,0:03:35.894 bringing it down into the city 0:03:35.895,0:03:38.519 and the valley which gave the force to the water. 0:03:38.519,0:03:40.529 And they were able to somehow calculate 0:03:40.529,0:03:43.215 a slope of even just 1 foot every 2000 feet, 0:03:43.215,0:03:44.242 which is remarkable. 0:03:44.242,0:03:46.456 We don't know how they could measure so accurately 0:03:46.456,0:03:49.116 so that the water kept moving gently downhill 0:03:49.116,0:03:50.684 but relentlessly downhill. 0:03:50.684,0:03:52.349 There is this kind of ambition, 0:03:52.349,0:03:54.953 this notion that man can control nature. 0:03:54.953,0:03:58.853 It does not need to build a city where the water is already, 0:03:58.853,0:04:02.056 but one can actually bend nature to man's will. 0:04:02.056,0:04:04.334 The Romans were remarkable engineers. 0:04:04.334,0:04:06.654 They used the water for drinking purposes, 0:04:06.654,0:04:07.560 obviously cooking, and so on. 0:04:07.560,0:04:09.564 But also a lot of these aqueducts 0:04:09.564,0:04:11.118 ended at great fountains, 0:04:11.118,0:04:12.995 but also in the great public baths. 0:04:12.995,0:04:16.629 So this area seems to be sort of set apart from 0:04:16.629,0:04:18.471 this denser, urban part of the city, 0:04:18.471,0:04:20.250 and these are the baths of Trajan. 0:04:20.250,0:04:22.467 Yes, these were not the first public baths, 0:04:22.467,0:04:23.977 but they were the baths 0:04:23.977,0:04:26.582 that gave the standard design for public baths. 0:04:26.583,0:04:28.282 Block of bathing buildings 0:04:28.282,0:04:30.000 in the middle of a kind of garden area, 0:04:30.000,0:04:31.544 delimited by a wall. 0:04:31.544,0:04:34.582 And we were talking earlier about the way 0:04:34.583,0:04:36.273 in which the emperors would provide for 0:04:36.273,0:04:37.340 the well- being of the city, 0:04:37.340,0:04:38.479 and this is really a prime example. 0:04:38.480,0:04:40.542 So now we are moving to some of the most 0:04:40.542,0:04:42.674 well known monuments in ancient Rome. 0:04:42.674,0:04:43.996 The Colosseum. 0:04:43.997,0:04:46.389 But we're in a fairly late moment in Roman history. 0:04:46.389,0:04:49.165 Before the Colosseum, wasn't there another palace here? 0:04:49.165,0:04:49.750 There was. 0:04:49.750,0:04:52.324 The Colosseum was built by the emperor of Vespasian, 0:04:52.324,0:04:56.097 who became emperor in 69 AD. 0:04:56.097,0:04:59.945 After the suicide of Nero, a very unpopular emperor. 0:04:59.945,0:05:02.493 One of the reasons he was so unpopular was that 0:05:02.493,0:05:04.364 after the great fire of 64 AD 0:05:04.364,0:05:06.236 in which a lot of the city was destroyed, 0:05:06.237,0:05:09.253 he took over 100 acres in the heart of the city 0:05:09.253,0:05:10.972 and converted it from private property 0:05:10.972,0:05:13.596 to his own personal use as a palace. 0:05:13.596,0:05:14.984 The Golden House of Nero. 0:05:14.984,0:05:18.015 And the Colosseum was actually a lake in that palace. 0:05:18.016,0:05:19.202 And Vespasian, 0:05:19.202,0:05:21.094 to show that he was a friend of the people, 0:05:21.095,0:05:23.326 filled in that lake and built a Colosseum on top of it. 0:05:23.326,0:05:26.400 The Colosseum was not originally called the Colosseum. 0:05:26.400,0:05:27.551 No. That's a term that 0:05:27.552,0:05:29.384 only goes back to the early middle ages. 0:05:29.384,0:05:31.758 The Romans called it the Flavian Amphitheatre 0:05:31.758,0:05:34.844 because the Vespasians' family name was Flavius, 0:05:34.844,0:05:36.303 so Flavian. 0:05:36.303,0:05:38.846 And it's an Amphitheatre, or kind of a double theatre, 0:05:38.846,0:05:40.477 an oval in shape. 0:05:40.477,0:05:42.513 The Romans certainly didn't call it Colosseum, 0:05:42.513,0:05:45.032 but they did call this enormous statue the Colossus. 0:05:45.032,0:05:46.532 It's a statue of the sun god. 0:05:46.532,0:05:49.542 Now you have mentioned that this is the moment 0:05:49.542,0:05:51.337 when Constantine rules Rome 0:05:51.338,0:05:53.715 and has not yet moved the capital to the east. 0:05:53.715,0:05:55.679 And it's interesting to look at his arch, 0:05:55.680,0:05:57.146 the arch of Constantine, 0:05:57.146,0:05:59.124 and realize that this is brand new. 0:05:59.124,0:06:00.780 It's only a couple of years old, 0:06:00.780,0:06:04.299 Constantine left Rome after he defeated Maxentius 0:06:04.299,0:06:06.032 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. 0:06:06.032,0:06:07.054 As far as we know, 0:06:07.054,0:06:08.700 he never came back to Rome to actually see it. 0:06:08.700,0:06:12.032 So we've just risen over the edge of the Colosseum 0:06:12.032,0:06:13.198 and we're looking down. 0:06:13.199,0:06:15.613 This is in a way, a mirror of Roman society. 0:06:15.613,0:06:17.796 The best seats are the ones farthest down, 0:06:17.796,0:06:19.262 closest to the arena, 0:06:19.262,0:06:21.456 and that was reserved for the emperor, 0:06:21.456,0:06:24.224 top office holders, priests, and so on. 0:06:24.224,0:06:25.914 Then behind them were the senators. 0:06:25.914,0:06:27.563 Behind them, the wealthy business men. 0:06:27.564,0:06:30.932 And behind them, the free born, normal citizens. 0:06:30.932,0:06:35.319 At the very top, sat women, slaves, and foreigners. 0:06:35.319,0:06:36.907 So what were they coming to watch? 0:06:36.907,0:06:38.609 As we can see now what's going on 0:06:38.610,0:06:40.530 is the main thing that we associate with the Colosseum, 0:06:40.530,0:06:42.236 the gladiatorial combats. 0:06:42.237,0:06:43.508 Another thing that went on here that 0:06:43.508,0:06:46.207 the Romans loved was hunts of wild animals. 0:06:46.208,0:06:49.106 The third thing is the execution of criminals. 0:06:49.106,0:06:51.255 Often in very colorful ways. 0:06:51.255,0:06:53.397 Ways we would find very cruel. 0:06:53.397,0:06:56.769 So let's make a left turn and move towards the forum. 0:06:56.769,0:06:58.875 What is that enormous temple? 0:06:58.875,0:07:01.496 It's the biggest temple of the state religion. 0:07:01.496,0:07:03.186 It's the temple of Venus and Rome. 0:07:03.187,0:07:05.267 It was built by the emperor Hadrian. 0:07:05.267,0:07:06.555 It's actually interesting because 0:07:06.555,0:07:08.071 it's two temples back-to-back. 0:07:08.071,0:07:10.569 One part of it is dedicated to the worship 0:07:10.569,0:07:12.025 of the goddess, Venus. 0:07:12.025,0:07:13.568 That's the one facing the Coliseum. 0:07:13.569,0:07:16.029 The other, to the goddess, Roma, that's facing the forum. 0:07:16.029,0:07:17.736 And there seems to be a reason for that. 0:07:17.736,0:07:19.435 Venus is looking at the Colosseum 0:07:19.435,0:07:21.042 which is associated with fun and games. 0:07:21.042,0:07:23.323 Otium, the Romans would say. Leisure. 0:07:23.324,0:07:26.000 Whereas Roma is a more serious goddess. 0:07:26.000,0:07:28.201 She's facing the forum which is the area of negotium, 0:07:28.201,0:07:30.134 or business and work. 0:07:30.134,0:07:32.860 Ok, so now we're moving over to the forum itself. 0:07:32.860,0:07:36.061 And we'll stop first at the Basilica of Maxentius, 0:07:36.061,0:07:38.417 the last of the great civic buildings 0:07:38.417,0:07:41.294 built in Rome before Constantine moved the capital. 0:07:41.294,0:07:42.688 This is a huge structure 0:07:42.688,0:07:45.448 and the word Basilica is familiar to us. 0:07:45.448,0:07:47.233 We often call churches "basilicas" now. 0:07:47.233,0:07:49.679 For the Romans it was a civic building 0:07:49.679,0:07:51.792 used mainly for courts, 0:07:51.793,0:07:53.834 the Christians adopted the building forum 0:07:53.834,0:07:55.233 because they worshipped inside, 0:07:55.233,0:07:58.667 so they adopted this preexisting building forum 0:07:58.667,0:07:59.806 and gave it a new content. 0:07:59.807,0:08:01.238 So now we're moving into 0:08:01.238,0:08:03.326 one of the most complicated parts of Rome, 0:08:03.326,0:08:05.205 especially when you try to look at the ruins 0:08:05.205,0:08:07.726 and understand how these buildings related to each other. 0:08:07.726,0:08:10.330 I always say the forum is like the wall in Washington. 0:08:10.330,0:08:12.241 It's a big open public space 0:08:12.241,0:08:16.096 used for public events like parades and speeches. 0:08:16.096,0:08:19.425 The buildings around that open space are also public 0:08:19.425,0:08:21.931 and they are courthouses and temples. 0:08:21.931,0:08:24.155 Then, on the forum plaza are, 0:08:24.155,0:08:26.794 as in the case of the wall in Washington, 0:08:26.794,0:08:27.998 monuments commemorating 0:08:27.999,0:08:30.321 great men and important events. 0:08:30.321,0:08:31.691 Adjacent to the forum, 0:08:31.691,0:08:34.265 private property was increasingly bought up 0:08:34.267,0:08:36.639 so that each emperor could build his own forum, 0:08:36.639,0:08:40.408 the so called imperial fora of the emperors. 0:08:40.408,0:08:41.929 We've made a full circle 0:08:41.929,0:08:44.126 and we're now looking again at the Capitoline. 0:08:44.128,0:08:45.872 We're flying over the Roman forum, 0:08:45.872,0:08:46.779 we'll acutally come back to it. 0:08:46.779,0:08:48.519 We're flying over the Capitoline hill, 0:08:48.519,0:08:51.239 we can see the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, 0:08:51.239,0:08:53.447 and we're going beyond, back to the river, 0:08:53.447,0:08:55.814 where we find a big flat area of Rome 0:08:55.814,0:08:57.175 called the Campus Martius, 0:08:57.175,0:08:58.401 the field of Mars. 0:08:58.402,0:09:00.701 It was called that because in the Roman republic 0:09:00.701,0:09:01.773 when there was a citizen army, 0:09:01.773,0:09:03.784 the army would meet here and train. 0:09:03.784,0:09:08.366 Now, we've just moved over this lovely squared pond, 0:09:08.366,0:09:10.297 and we're looking at the flank 0:09:10.297,0:09:13.154 of an enormously important building, the Pantheon. 0:09:13.154,0:09:14.741 The rotunda, the round part, 0:09:14.741,0:09:16.952 we wouldn't really see in antiquity. 0:09:16.952,0:09:19.324 We would see the part that has the eight columns 0:09:19.324,0:09:21.709 across the front that looks like a traditional temple. 0:09:21.709,0:09:25.252 We like to say that it was built as a building 0:09:25.252,0:09:26.623 with a surprise on the inside. 0:09:26.624,0:09:28.926 Because it does look like a regular 0:09:28.926,0:09:29.970 Greek or Roman temple 0:09:29.970,0:09:31.045 but when you get inside, 0:09:31.045,0:09:33.774 that's when you notice that there's actually a rotunda. 0:09:33.774,0:09:35.484 I just want to spend just a second 0:09:35.484,0:09:37.959 marvelling at the scale of this structure. 0:09:37.959,0:09:41.704 Look at those columns, they are enormous. 0:09:41.704,0:09:45.200 The ability to get stones that large upright 0:09:45.201,0:09:47.244 is just a phenomenal feat in itself. 0:09:47.244,0:09:50.508 It's phenomenal and even more so when you consider that 0:09:50.508,0:09:52.625 this is granite, and it's all from Egypt. 0:09:52.625,0:09:54.637 So it was brought from very far away. 0:09:54.637,0:09:57.497 This is a building that celebrates the Roman emperors. 0:09:57.498,0:09:59.504 This building we know had statues of 0:09:59.504,0:10:01.654 Julius Caesar and Augustus, 0:10:01.654,0:10:04.813 so we think that this building was dedicated always 0:10:04.813,0:10:06.693 to the worship of the emperors. 0:10:06.693,0:10:10.023 So this space opens up just magically. 0:10:10.023,0:10:12.485 It does, and the magic is really remarkable, 0:10:12.485,0:10:14.087 I've taken many visitors there, 0:10:14.087,0:10:15.203 and I've asked them 0:10:15.203,0:10:17.184 if they've had the same experience that I've had. 0:10:17.184,0:10:18.540 If you stop right on the threshold, 0:10:18.541,0:10:21.160 and you hold your head straight, I always say, 0:10:21.160,0:10:23.233 "what can you see?" And everybody always agrees. 0:10:23.233,0:10:25.906 You can see the hole in the dome up at the top, 0:10:25.907,0:10:26.824 we call it the eye. 0:10:26.824,0:10:27.769 You can see the floor, 0:10:27.769,0:10:30.473 and you can see the two sides left and right. 0:10:30.473,0:10:33.257 That is to say that this is a grandiose space. 0:10:33.258,0:10:35.631 But it's right at the limit of human vision, 0:10:35.631,0:10:38.223 and for me it always defines what is the classical, 0:10:38.224,0:10:41.534 which is always derived from the human form, 0:10:41.534,0:10:44.157 its proportions and its limitations. 0:10:44.157,0:10:46.746 And by building a building that exactly 0:10:46.746,0:10:51.515 corresponds to the limits of our vision it ennobles us. 0:10:51.515,0:10:54.292 It makes us feel as big and great 0:10:54.292,0:10:55.580 as we can feel as humans. 0:10:55.580,0:10:57.497 It doesn't reduce us. Had it been ten times bigger, 0:10:57.497,0:10:59.203 we would have felt ourselves 0:10:59.203,0:11:01.486 reduced to the size of an ant, or something. 0:11:01.486,0:11:05.205 The building is obsessively concerned with circular form. 0:11:05.205,0:11:07.777 But it is also concerned with squares. 0:11:07.777,0:11:09.507 We look at the floor we actually see 0:11:09.507,0:11:11.041 this play of squares and circles. 0:11:11.042,0:11:12.828 And then of course there are the coffers 0:11:12.828,0:11:15.257 that create this beautiful sense of rhythm. 0:11:15.258,0:11:17.087 Absolutely. And notice we also there 0:11:17.087,0:11:18.450 get the play of squares and circles, 0:11:18.450,0:11:20.084 because these are square coffers that 0:11:20.084,0:11:21.743 give us a semi circular dome. 0:11:21.744,0:11:24.092 But what's interesting to me about it is 0:11:24.092,0:11:25.332 first of all it's painted, 0:11:25.332,0:11:25.928 when you go there today, 0:11:25.928,0:11:27.480 the paint has been completely lost. 0:11:27.480,0:11:29.153 In a dome of heaven motifs. 0:11:29.153,0:11:31.836 So the ground of the dome is painted blue. 0:11:31.836,0:11:34.295 The coffers are highlighted in yellow as if 0:11:34.295,0:11:35.589 radiating the light of the sun, 0:11:35.590,0:11:37.867 and in the middle were probably rosettes 0:11:37.867,0:11:40.723 that are supposed to be suns or stars. 0:11:40.723,0:11:43.276 And even in antiquity we know from a historian 0:11:43.276,0:11:44.839 who wrote only a hundred years 0:11:44.839,0:11:46.244 after the building was built. 0:11:46.244,0:11:47.751 People wondered, how did they build the dome? 0:11:47.751,0:11:49.136 How could they do that? 0:11:49.136,0:11:51.093 They marvelled at it even in antiquity. 0:11:51.093,0:11:52.804 The light is very interesting. 0:11:52.804,0:11:56.149 If you look at the coffering, you can get the idea that 0:11:56.149,0:12:00.337 you know the light from the eye is going to 0:12:00.337,0:12:02.917 direct the sunbeams to different coffers 0:12:02.917,0:12:04.893 at different times of day, on different days of the year. 0:12:04.893,0:12:07.288 Recent scholarship suggests that 0:12:07.288,0:12:09.005 this wasn't really a sundial, 0:12:09.005,0:12:11.740 but there was a play of the passage of time 0:12:11.740,0:12:13.674 and a play of light on space to indicate 0:12:13.674,0:12:15.404 the passage of time during the year. 0:12:15.404,0:12:17.447 There is though one alignment 0:12:17.447,0:12:19.066 that seems to be very intentional 0:12:19.066,0:12:22.656 and that is the sunlight coming through the eye 0:12:22.656,0:12:25.203 at noon on April 21 0:12:25.203,0:12:28.076 exactly illuminated the main door of the Pantheon. 0:12:28.076,0:12:30.673 Remember Hadrian was the man 0:12:30.673,0:12:33.270 responsible for the Pantheon in this phase. 0:12:33.270,0:12:36.206 April 21 was the birthday festival of Rome, 0:12:36.206,0:12:38.542 and Hadrian's very interested in the birthday festival, 0:12:38.542,0:12:41.275 changed the name to the Romaea festival 0:12:41.275,0:12:42.939 in honor of the goddess Roma. 0:12:42.940,0:12:47.060 He seems to have aligned the building in such a way that 0:12:47.060,0:12:48.772 there would be this dramatic effect at noon, 0:12:48.773,0:12:49.980 and we can only imagine that 0:12:49.980,0:12:52.414 there must of been some sort of birthday festival 0:12:52.414,0:12:53.614 happening in the Pantheon that day. 0:12:53.614,0:12:56.323 So let's move back down to the forum now. 0:12:56.323,0:12:58.481 Some of the main roads going through the city 0:12:58.481,0:13:00.352 met here in the forum, 0:13:00.352,0:13:03.002 it's a place that the average Roman 0:13:03.002,0:13:05.176 on an average day might well pass through. 0:13:05.177,0:13:06.741 As the camera pulls back 0:13:06.741,0:13:09.793 and we can really see the full extent of the city, 0:13:09.793,0:13:12.398 you really understand how complex, 0:13:12.398,0:13:14.585 how advanced this ancient world was. 0:13:14.585,0:13:15.971 How many buildings were here, do we think? 0:13:15.971,0:13:20.274 We have two censuses from the fourth century AD that 0:13:20.274,0:13:21.477 suggest there were 0:13:21.477,0:13:23.579 between eight and ten thousand buildings here. 0:13:23.580,0:13:24.970 We think the population 0:13:24.970,0:13:26.513 might have been between one and two million. 0:13:26.513,0:13:29.325 The total surface area was about 0:13:29.325,0:13:31.452 twenty-five square kilometers, 0:13:31.452,0:13:33.536 so it was the biggest city in the Western world anyway 0:13:33.536,0:13:35.608 until 19th Century London.