Original subtitles

Seneca (dramatized): "Dearest Mother:

"What other place could be so desolate

"with cliffs so steep, as this rock?

What else so barren, so uncivilized?"

WEAVER: Near the middle of the first century

a man named Seneca was banished for offending the Roman emperor.

He was a living reminder

that absolute power could bring absolute ruin.

And he was not alone.

"One man's exile," Seneca wrote

"was but a drop in the sea of human upheaval."

For in the first century, no one was immune from imperial abuse.

The emperor's whim was law

and the emperor's law could be harsh, especially under Nero.

During his erratic rule, fire would gut the city of Rome

Christians would pay the price

and brutality would sweep the empire.

Soon, winds of change would begin to blow

first in the provinces, then in the very heart

of the Roman Empire in the first century.

SUETONIUS ( dramatized ): In his youth, Claudius set out to write a history.

His first public reading was nerve-wracking.

At the beginning, a fat man sat down and broke some benches.

( cracking )

The audience burst into roars of laughter.

Even when the crowd settled

Claudius could not control himself

but kept remembering the incident

and dissolving into laughter.

WEAVER: Writing 2,000 years ago

an imperial biographer describes a world ruled by Rome

and Rome ruled by an unlikely man.

His name was Claudius.

Claudius limped and stuttered.

An embarrassment to his imperial family

he lived most of his life in the shadows.

He found solace as an amateur scholar

without power or influence.

But as the first century neared its midpoint

a twist of fate had left Claudius emperor

and his critics amazed.

For Claudius took the helm of the world's greatest empire

with more confidence than any man since the dynasty began.

Claudius expanded Roman territory.

To the south, he completed Rome's conquest of North Africa.

To the north

he subdued the fiercely independent tribes of Britain.

From Turkey to Morocco

from the Red Sea to the North Sea

the many faces of the ancient world

had become part of one empire.

But Claudius did more than expand the empire.

He passed laws protecting sick slaves.

He allowed conquered peoples to become citizens

even members of the Senate.

I like Claudius.

I find Claudius very winning

not just because of the adversity of his youth--

his illness, his limp, his stutter--

but when he does come to power

he's truly humane towards slaves.

He cares about the peoples of the empire

and he seems to be quite remarkable

for a man who had no chance whatever

of attaining the imperial throne.

( owl hooting )

WEAVER: But the tranquil years would soon veer sharply off course

and the empire would confront the ugly face of imperial rule.

Despite his power, Claudius was fragile.

His life had been plagued by plots and betrayal.

Most of his family had been killed by political enemies

and Claudius himself had endured

the execution of a disloyal wife.

Now in the year 49, Claudius was seeking a new wife.

Roman society mobilized; the rivalry was intense.

Many families sought to link their bloodlines

with the emperor's.

While they schemed, Claudius hesitated, and tensions grew.

Finally, Claudius made a decision that startled Rome.

Writing some years later

a historian named Tacitus explained why:

The emperor chose to wed his own niece

a woman of steely resolve and questionable character.

Her name was Agrippina.

TACITUS ( dramatized ): From this point, the empire was changed.

All obeyed a woman.

But this was a woman without feminine frivolity.

She was openly severe and often arrogant.

Agrippina's dominance was almost masculine.

HALLETT: The most tragic thing about Agrippina

is that she wrote memoirs and they have been lost.

And I would give anything to hear her side of the story.

The frustrating thing about recovering Roman women

is that so little from them survives.

It may not have been very different

from what Roman men would have said about them

but it would be wonderful to hear her rationale

for why she did what she did her way.

WEAVER: Agrippina turned her back on Roman ideals of feminine virtue.

She seized power directly, and used it proudly.

Agrippina struck down her rivals

founded a colony in her own name

and reversing her new husband, Tacitus tells us

she secured the pardon of one of his exiles--

the writer and philosopher Seneca.

TACITUS: Agrippina did not want to be known only for wicked deeds

so she obtained a pardon for Seneca.

She assumed this would please the public

because he was a popular author.

She also wanted Seneca to tutor her young son.

WEAVER: Her son was Nero, a 12-year-old boy by a previous marriage

and still just a pawn

in Agrippina's drive for total control.

Another pawn was Seneca, all too eager to leave exile behind him.

TACITUS: Seneca, she believed, would join her plans for supremacy

out of gratitude for her favors.

WEAVER: As Seneca returned to the capital's ruthless politics

he faced a stark dilemma.

He had always scorned luxury and power

and condemned moral slackness.

But Seneca was obliged to Agrippina

and driven by ambition.

After languishing for a decade in obscurity

he was drawn to the promise of influence

and to the thrill of Rome.

SENECA ( dramatized ): Look around at the huge influx of people

which even a city as large and diverse as Rome

can scarcely house.

From the whole world they converge.

Ambition draws some; others are compelled by duty.

Many thirst for liberal studies; others crave spectacles.

Some put their beauty on sale; others sell their eloquence.

The entire human race has flocked here

a city offering rich returns for both virtues and vices.

WEAVER: Inside the imperial palace

Seneca would encounter far more vice than virtue

for after luring Claudius into marriage

Agrippina had begun to weave an elaborate plot.

First, pushing aside Claudius's son

she convinced the emperor to adopt Nero

and designate him heir.

With the line of succession now clear, Tacitus says

Agrippina's only remaining obstacle was her husband.

TACITUS: Her plans for murder were firm.

As she bided her time, waiting for opportunity

Agrippina sought the right poison.

A specialist in the field was chosen

and by her skill, a potion prepared.

It was delivered to Claudius

by the eunuch who served and tasted his food.

WEAVER: Claudius collapsed, teetered on the brink of death

then began to recover.

Horrified, Agrippina quickly enlisted

the emperor's own physician in her crime.

While pretending to help Claudius vomit his tainted food

the doctor put a feather dipped in poison

down the emperor's throat.

"Dangerous crimes," Tacitus commented, "bring ample reward."

Claudius, the emperor of Rome, was dead.

Within hours, the palace gates were thrown open.

Agrippina's son was declared emperor

and Seneca was launched on a path

that would batter his deepest convictions.

The reign of Nero had begun.

MAN: I am a Jewish man

educated strictly according to the law of our fathers.

WEAVER: In the Roman province of Judea

during the lifetime of the emperor Claudius

an ardent young Jew named Saul headed for dilemmas all his own.

He was seeking the arrest of religious heretics--

members of a tiny Jewish sect

known as the Followers of Jesus.

Saul was dedicated to wiping them out.

SAUL ( dramatized ): Indeed, that is what I did in Jerusalem.

I imprisoned many and cast my vote against them

when they were marked for death.

In my extreme fury, I pursued others even into foreign cities.

WEAVER: But as he walked the road from Jerusalem to Damascus

Saul's future suddenly changed, and with it

the future of his troubled province, its Roman rulers

and of world religion itself.

SAUL: Around midday

a mighty light from the heavens flashed around me.

I fell to the ground and heard a voice say

"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

I replied, "Who are you, Lord?"

And he said to me, "I am Jesus of Nazareth."

I said, "What should I do, Lord?"

And the Lord said to me, "Get up and go to Damascus

and there you will be told all that has been ordained for you."

Since I could not see

those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus.

WEAVER: Saul became Paul, and he dedicated the rest of his life

to spreading the word of Jesus

with the same zeal he had once directed to wiping it out.

Paul's fervor drew converts and hatred.

One night, his claim that Jesus was messiah drew a violent mob.

( crowd shouting )

Trapped in a top-floor apartment

Paul avoided death by hiding in a basket.

Supporters lowered him to safety through a window.

It was but one in a lifetime of narrow escapes.

For the next 30 years

Paul traveled some 10,000 miles across territory ruled by Rome.

He preached in the empire's great cities:

Ephesus, Philippi, Corinth, Athens and others--

cities that enjoyed imperial grandeur

but cities teeming with poor and desperate subjects of Rome.

They made eager audiences for Paul's message of eternal life.

CALLAHAN: There's a legend that says

that Paul's family was originally enslaved by Romans

and then later liberated from slavery by Romans

and this is how Paul's family received Roman citizenship.

That is, Paul has internalized

the experience of slavery and freedom.

Paul speaks a message that finds power in this powerlessness

that finds community where community has been destroyed.

Paul is the premier poster child for the real Roman Empire

in this way: that he speaks

to the underside of the Roman imperial experience.

WEAVER: Like Jesus before him

Paul spoke to people in their homes and synagogues.

But while Jesus had preached only to Jews

Paul believed his message should be taken to non-Jews--

to the Gentiles of the Roman Empire--

and that meant relaxing timeless Jewish laws

about food and circumcision.

It was a radical slap at Jewish tradition

and key to the spread of this new faith.

MAN: The fact that Paul was a staunch advocate

of going to the Gentiles

not requiring of them that they circumcise themselves

or follow the Jewish dietary laws

was certainly, in the long run, of the greatest importance

because it did mean that Christianity could develop

into something that was independent of Judaism.

In Paul's day, Christianity was still an outgrowth of Judaism.

WEAVER: Paul's abandonment of the laws of his ancestors

horrified many Jewish followers of Jesus

but Paul was adamant.

As he left the region of Galatia, now part of Turkey

Paul learned that his disciples were backsliding

and requiring converts to be circumcised.

Paul sent an angry letter.

PAUL ( dramatized ): You foolish Galatians!

Who has bewitched you?

I wish those that set you adrift would castrate themselves!

You were running well.

Who kept you from pursuing the truth?

Look! I, Paul, say that if you are circumcised

Christ will bring you no reward.

For in Jesus Christ

neither circumcision nor foreskins prevail

but only faith acting through love.

CALLAHAN: Paul was a man of very deep convictions

passionate convictions.

He is very invested in these people to whom he is writing.

They are his life.

And he takes that very seriously.

So that passion and the pathos of those troubled relationships

that he's negotiating long distance

come through in his letters.

WEAVER: Tradition holds

that Paul returned to Jerusalem intent on forcing his views;

that he was imprisoned for causing a riot

by bringing noncircumcised men into the Temple.

In jail, Paul reportedly revealed his Roman citizenship

and was sent to Rome.

Along the way, he was shipwrecked.

PAUL: Three times I was shipwrecked;

five times I received the 40 lashes minus one;

once they stoned me.

I've been in danger from robbers

danger from my own people, danger from false brothers

hungry and thirsty, often without food.

And in addition to these threats

every day I am weighed down by my worry for all the churches.

GRUEN: It's been said

that Christianity might have been possible without Jesus

but it was certainly not possible without Paul.

And that is a very accurate statement

because Paul was able to spread that message

to various parts of the Mediterranean

from Palestine to Rome.

WEAVER: No one knows how or where Paul died;

on this the Bible is silent.

But wherever he spent his final years

Paul's success outstripped his boldest dreams.

He had been stubborn and proud, but Paul had transformed

a Jewish splinter group into the beginnings of a world church

a church that would one day conquer Rome itself.

SENECA: There is a proverb:

"You have as many enemies as you have slaves."

But in truth, we make them our enemies.

We abuse them as if they were beasts of burden.

When we recline for dinner, one wipes our spittle

another picks up the scraps and crumbs thrown down by drunkards.

The point of my argument is this:

Treat your inferior as you would like to be treated.

WEAVER: The new emperor's tutor, Seneca

had devoted much of his life to ethical problems.

He was a follower of Stoic philosophy.

In an age of slavery

Stoics advanced the notion of universal humanity

a brotherhood of man, that predated Christian doctrine.

In an age of opulence, Stoics shunned ostentatious living.

And in an age of absolute rule

Stoics walked a narrow path between integrity and hypocrisy.

SALLER: Seneca was the leading Stoic philosopher of his day.

The main teaching of Stoicism was the acceptance of one's fate

to play the role that one had been assigned by fate

in the world.

And so Seneca's fate was to participate in court politics.

WEAVER: Seneca participated in court politics through Nero

now a 16-year-old boy

whose path to the imperial palace had been bathed in blood.

Seneca's task was

to mold this spirited son of a power-hungry family

into a tolerable world leader

And at first, his chances were good

for the young Nero had a sensitive nature.

He loved theater, music and, the biographer Suetonius reports

the popular pastime of horse racing.

SUETONIUS ( dramatized ): Nero had been passionate about horses from early childhood.

At the beginning of his reign

he played every day with toy chariots made of ivory.

Soon he wished to drive a chariot himself.

So first, practicing with his slaves

he appeared before the whole city in the Circus.

( crowd cheering )

WEAVER: The Roman Circus, or racetrack, was a rough and raucous place.

Chariot drivers were usually slaves or former slaves

and fans often cursed rival teams

with ferocious partisanship.

MAN: I entreat you, O demon, whoever you are

and demand of you from this hour, from this very moment

you crucify the horses of the green and white teams

and that you kill the drivers Clarus and Felix and crush them!

Do not leave any breath in them!

( crowd cheering )

WEAVER: Nero's enthusiasm for the sport of commoners

scandalized Rome's elite, but it endeared him to the masses.

"For such is a crowd," sneered the stately historian Tacitus

"eager for excitement

and thrilled if the emperor shares their taste."

Nero did, long past his childhood years.

It is not clear to me that Nero ever changed

or that Nero ever grew up

and that was both his strength and his weakness.

Nero was an extraordinarily popular emperor.

He was like Elvis.

WEAVER: But in ancient Rome, popularity was a mixed blessing

and as the pliable young emperor indulged his various passions

efforts to control him reached a fevered pitch

particularly between the emperor's mother and Seneca.

Seneca exerted power discreetly

but Agrippina would not tread lightly.

She heard stories

that her son seduced married women and young boys

that he castrated and "married" a male slave

and, according to the gossipy Suetonius, much worse.

SUETONIUS: As soon as it was dark

he was in the habit of going to the taverns wearing a wig.

He would wander the streets, looking for action

and not just juvenile pranks either.

He attacked people on the way home from dinner

stabbed them when they fought back

and threw their bodies into the sewers.

WEAVER: As stories of Nero's degeneracy increased

so, too, did Agrippina's disapproval.

Relations between mother and son deteriorated fast.

BRADLEY: As Nero grew older

he quickly, I think, began to realize

that he could not rule in his own right

as long as Agrippina still had

the ambition to rule through him.

So it was the clash between two titans, you might say--

people both of enormous egos and people with great power lusts.

The system didn't allow both of them to rule

so she had to disappear.

And if she wouldn't go voluntarily

well, that left Nero little choice.

WEAVER: He decided to kill her.

The plot began at a seaside resort.

Nero invited his mother to sail down

to reconcile their differences.

When the reunion ended, Agrippina set out for home.

Tacitus tells the story.

TACITUS: The ship had just set sail.

Agrippina was attended by two servants.

One of them stood near the rudder

the other leant over her feet

happily recalling the apologies of Nero

and Agrippina's restored favor.

Then a signal was given.

The roof collapsed under weights of lead.

Agrippina's attendant was crushed and died instantly.

But chance intervened: Agrippina was saved by her sturdy couch.

WEAVER: Amid the confusion, Agrippina swam to safety.

Nero was stunned to learn that his mother had survived.

Back in the imperial palace, he called for Seneca

and the commander of his palace guard, a man named Burrus.

TACITUS: It is unclear if they'd been advising Nero from the beginning

but the emperor summoned these men immediately.

Shuddering, Nero shouted

that Agrippina could appear at any moment.

She could incite the soldiers.

She could arm her slaves.

Seneca and Burrus were silent for a long time.

Then Seneca ventured to ask

whether Burrus's troops should complete the murder.

WEAVER: Burrus refused to involved his elite battalion

so Nero sent some regular soldiers to finish the job.

TACITUS: An armed and threatening force circled her villa

and broke down the doors.

They found her in a dimly lit room with a single maid.

The assassins surrounded her bed.

First, the captain struck her head with a club.

Then another soldier drew his sword for the deathblow.

Agrippina cried out, "Stab my womb!"

Again and again they thrust their swords

and she was stabbed to death.

WEAVER: Rome was appalled.

Matricide was among the worst impieties a Roman could commit.

Nero solemnly informed the Senate

that the Imperial Mother had conspired to overthrow him

her own son.

But the excuse was obviously a fiction

and it was not Nero's idea.

Seneca had concocted the story to justify his pupil's acts.

The moral philosopher was increasingly implicated

in the brutal realities of imperial politics.

MAN: I write this to you from my winter quarters.

I salute you.

( wind whistling )

WEAVER: Britain was the northern limit of the Roman Empire.

Soldiers and their families found it a remote, hostile land

with few amenities.

MAN: I ask that you send me what I need for the use of my lads

things I need as soon as possible--

since I've just been transferred here--

six woolen cloaks and five tunics.

WEAVER: Lonely letters preserved in mud for 2,000 years

echo with yearning for loved ones

and the for the comforts of home.

WOMAN: I have sent you some socks, two pairs of sandals

and two pairs of underwear.

WEAVER: In the year 60

Britain had been a province for less than 20 years.

Like other provinces far from Italy

supply lines were thinly stretched.

Without hope of quick reinforcements

three legions and a few forts held the entire province.

Some settlements, such as the infant community of Londinium

were cities in the making.

Rome held tenuous control

by maintaining client kings from local tribes

and by encouraging tribes to war among themselves.

As long as Rome's governor kept them divided

the imperial army was the strongest force on the island.

That equation, common throughout the empire

broke down just four years after Nero became emperor.

It started among the Iceni, a local tribe allied with Rome.

When their king died

he left half his estate to his two daughters.

He offered the other half in tribute to the emperor Nero.

The historian Tacitus tells the story.

TACITUS: The king hoped by such subservience

to safeguard his kingdom and home from harm.

What happened was just the opposite.

First, his wife, Boudicca, was whipped

and his daughters were raped.

Then the army laid waste to his land

and his household was raided.

The king's own relatives were enslaved.

WEAVER: In response to these outrages

Boudicca, the widowed queen, rallied neighboring tribes.

Together they attacked Londinium.

The British tribes routed Roman forces.

It was an astonishing upset, and it was not the last.

As the Romans fell back in retreat

the tribes of Britain seemed poised

to reclaim their native land.

And Boudicca, defying all odds, was poised to enter history

among the most fearsome and charismatic leaders

ever to defy Rome.

As her emboldened forces prepared for another attack

Tacitus has Boudicca mounting a rostrum of piled earth

and issuing a rallying cry worthy of dread and admiration.

BOUDICCA ( dramatized ): I do not fight to reclaim my birthright

but like you, I fight to avenge my stolen freedom

my abused body and my raped daughters.

The gods bring vengeance to the just.

The one legion that dared raise arms against us has fallen.

The others yearn to escape.

If you consider our numbers and our reasons for war

you will conquer the Romans or die trying.

BRADLEY: It could be said

that Boudicca was the object of respect to some Romans

who must have admired the courage that a woman displayed

in mounting rebellion against Roman troops.

And, of course, at first she was very spectacularly successful.

She, um, led an uprising

which made the Romans really seriously think

about the limits of their power in Britain

and they had to respond to her very quickly indeed.

WEAVER: The startled Romans did respond quickly.

Soon, reinforcements arrived

and the battle-tested Roman army turned the tide.

Some 80,000 Britons were massacred.

Boudicca poisoned herself.

Suicide was better than slavery--

the predictable fate for defeated enemies of Rome.

Tacitus called the outcome a "glorious victory

comparable with bygone triumphs"

but he meant to be ironic.

The Roman "peace," Tacitus knew, was imposed by brutal war

and prosperity in the capital was often bought

with the blood of conquered peoples.

"Rome creates a desert," Tacitus later wrote

"and calls it peace."

TACITUS: This year saw many omens:

unlucky birds settled on the Capitol

houses fell in numerous earthquakes

and the weak were trampled by fleeing crowd.

WEAVER: Britain had been stabilized.

But in Rome the situation was worsening rapidly

for the empire and for Seneca.

New advisers had gained the emperor's ear.

They criticized Seneca

for his excessive wealth and unseemly popularity.

They urged the emperor to discard his childhood teacher.

Perhaps recognizing his weakened position

perhaps losing his appetite for affairs of state

Seneca asked Nero for permission to retire.

The emperor refused.

For the next two years, Seneca's life was precarious.

Then, in A.D. 64, a new disaster struck.

TACITUS: Fire began in shops near the Circus.

Fanned by the winds and fed by merchandise

the flames engulfed the entire district.

They surged up the hills consuming all in their path

gaining strength in the city's narrow, twisting roads.

The cries of women, children, invalids, frantic people

trying to help themselves or others, all added to the panic.

WEAVER: The great fire of Rome lasted for six days and seven nights.

Of Rome's 14 districts, only four remained untouched.

Countless temples, homes and shops were destroyed.

When the fire burnt itself out

Nero surveyed the smoldering ruins.

He opened public buildings, even his own property

to the homeless.

But according to Tacitus, the emperor's aid was cold comfort.

TACITUS: However well intended, his relief measures were in vain

because a rumor had spread that while fire ravaged the city

Nero was on his private stage... singing.

WEAVER: Nero hadn't "fiddled while Rome burned"

but his gaiety was equally damning.

And worse, it was even said that Nero started the fire himself

to clear land for a new palace.

The emperor's popularity plummeted.

Hostile lampoons appeared on city walls.

Insolent citizens even dared to insult Nero in person.

Rumors of his role in the fire were so widely believed

that the emperor decided

to divert attention away from himself.

He found a scapegoat

in Rome's strange new religious sect, the Christians.

TACITUS: To suppress the rumor, Nero shifted the blame for the fire

onto that band called the Christians

hated for their shameful practices.

WEAVER: Jesus had been crucified barely 30 years before

and while his followers were spreading his word

the number of Christians in Rome was still very small.

But already, as Tacitus reveals

Christian converts were viewed with suspicion.

TACITUS: The founder of that sect, Christ, had been executed.

His death had briefly suppressed the destructive cult

but again erupted, not only in Judea--

the birthplace of the evil--

but also in Rome, where shameful atrocities fester and spread.

KING: The Christians would have made a good target.

After all, their main hero was a criminal

who'd been put to death by Roman order.

In addition to this, they were doing things

like exchanging a kiss among brothers and sisters

at their meetings, which sounded a little bit like incest.

They were also eating the body and drinking the blood

of their god, which sounded a bit like cannibalism.

WEAVER: Nero rounded up all the Christians in the city.

They were hideously tortured and executed.

Then Nero plundered the empire for funds.

Temples were robbed of their statues.

Treasures that generations had dedicated

to the greatness of Rome were absorbed into imperial coffers.

For Seneca, this was the last straw.

He pretended illness and confined himself to bed.

Eventually Nero allowed his aging tutor

to retire to the country.

There, on his private estate

Seneca could reflect on the tattered remnants of his honor.

SENECA: If someone who barks against philosophy

should ask the standard question

"Why do you preach more boldly than you live?"

I will someday reproach myself more strongly still.

But for now, I make this defense:

I am not wise and never will be.

Demand not that I be equal to the best

but better than the wicked.

WALLACE-HADRILL: Seneca, of course, knows very well

that he isn't a perfect man.

To play around with the court

is to be trapped in a system of hypocrisy.

And quite frankly, he pushes Stoicism at the end of his life

when he's trying to distance himself

from the vast embarrassments he's got involved in

as he's gradually realized that he can't control the young Nero.

WEAVER: Nero was beyond anyone's control.

With his mother dead, his tutor retired

Rome was subject to the whims of an unstable tyrant.

Only one course of action could remove him.

TACITUS: A conspiracy was born and grew

a plot which senators, knights and even women competed to join

out of hatred for Nero.

WEAVER: In the year 65, a few defiant Romans began talking of murder.

But stymied by fear, they hesitated.

Finally, a freed slave named Epicharis took charge.

She found a disgruntled officer who had access to the emperor.

Meeting him in secret, she begged the officer

to strike the first blow, to free Rome of the tyrant.

TACITUS: Epicharis began by listing the emperor's crimes.

There was only one way, she said, to punish Nero

and the officer could expect a worthy reward.

WEAVER: It was a fatal mistake.

The officer betrayed Epicharis to Nero

and Nero sought revenge.

He demanded the names of the plotters.

Epicharis refused.

He raged, he threatened and worse.

TACITUS: Assuming a woman's body was not equal to the pain of torture

he ordered her torn to pieces.

But neither whips nor fire could break her iron will.

Even when dragged back a second day on dislocated limbs

she did not betray her coconspirators.

Thus, this freed slave woman

outshone freeborn men, knights and senators.

WEAVER: The next day Epicharis tied a noose around her neck

and ended her life.

With the plotters still at large

Nero redoubled his guard and unleashed a reign of terror.

Countless people, some innocent, some guilty

were sucked into the fury of Nero's revenge

Seneca was one of them.

On meager evidence, the emperor sent an officer

to demand the philosopher's suicide.

TACITUS: Seneca embraced his wife

and gently begged her to live and temper her grief

but she chose to die with him.

With a single stroke of the blade they sliced their arms.

Seneca, hardened by frugal living, did not bleed easily.

He cut the veins of his knees and thighs

but still he did not die.

He asked his doctor to dispense some poison hemlock.

He drank it-- in vain.

Finally, he was carried into the baths...

where he suffocated in vapor.

WEAVER: Few philosophers had reached such powerful heights.

Few paid so dearly.

Seneca's actions fell short of his ideals

but history, he hoped, would judge him well.

SENECA: The man who considers his generation alone

is born for few.

Many thousands of years and people will come after him.

Look to these.

If virtue brings fame, our reputation will survive.

Posterity will judge without malice and honor our memory.

WEAVER: As Seneca's lifeblood drained away

the wicked were left ruling Rome alone.

While Rome was besieged by its own ruler

the empire's distant subjects

were once again chafing under Roman rule

this time in the province of Judea.

After 70 years of subjugation

the region was slipping into chaos.

Bandits prowled the countryside

and Jewish terrorists began attacking

people who collaborated with Rome, people like Josephus

a wealthy Jewish priest who feared for his life.

JOSEPHUS ( dramatized ): These criminals would kill men

in broad daylight in the middle of the city.

Especially during festivals, they would mingle in the crowd

hiding small daggers under their clothes

and using them to stab their enemies.

Many were killed each day and terror stalked the city.

WEAVER: Judea was one spark away from revolt.

That spark came in the year 66.

Someone emptied a chamber pot outside a synagogue

defiling the holy site.

The Jews were outraged; rioting erupted.

( crowd shouting angrily )

During the melee, some Jews shouted insults

at the Roman governor, a man named Florus.

Enraged, Florus pulled Jewish leaders before a tribunal.

It was a pivotal moment in Josephus's life

and in the lives of others struggling

between cooperation with Rome and their Jewish heritage.

JOSEPHUS: Florus demanded the Jewish leaders hand over the hecklers.

The men refused, insisting they could not identify

the guilty from the innocent.

Florus, they said, should pardon the unknown scoundrels

for the sake of the whole city.

Provoked even more by this impudent speech

Florus shouted to the soldiers to plunder the market

and to kill all they saw.

Even prominent citizens were taken to Florus

who had them whipped and crucified.

Florus conducted a wholesale massacre

in the streets of Jerusalem

and the brutality and viciousness reached a point

where Josephus himself... or so he tells us--

that Josephus decided that under these circumstances

there's no way that he could do anything

other than take up his post as a leader of the Jews.

WEAVER: Within months, the former priest

was leading a full-scale Jewish rebellion

and confronting a battle-tested Roman army

as it swept across his homeland.

"From one end of Galilee to the other," Josephus recounted

"there was an orgy of fire and bloodshed."

Eventually, Josephus and his beleaguered troops took refuge

within the walled city of Jotapata.

The Romans surrounded it.

On the 47th day, just before dawn

Roman soldiers scaled the city's high walls.

While the Jews slept, Roman troops streamed into the city.

40,000 Jews were killed.

Josephus and 40 others fled to a concealed cave.

There was no escape, and choosing death over surrender

his followers prepared to kill themselves

but Josephus argued that Jewish law prohibited suicide.

JOSEPHUS: Trusting God, I staked my life on a fateful gamble.

"Since we expect to die," I said, "let us draw lots

"and assign our deaths to each other.

"He who draws the first shard

"will fall by the hand of the next, and so on

and in this way, no one will kill himself."

My listeners were convinced, and I drew with the rest.

Each died in turn.

Soon, whether by chance or God's will

I was left with only one man

and eager to avoid the fate of the lottery

I persuaded him to stay alive.

GRUEN: Josephus...

tells us this story-- you would think...

that it would be embarrassing, humiliating

and utterly... self-destructive, in a way, to tell this story.

Why does he tell it?

I don't think anybody has come up with an adequate explanation

of Josephus's psyche here.

One can talk about guilt feelings and so on.

There may be a much simpler explanation;

namely, that he got out of the siege of Jotapata alive

when nobody else did.

I think it was a source

of considerable hostility to the Jews

so he needed to come up with some explanation.

WEAVER: The "explanation" took shape just hours later.

When Josephus emerged from the cave

he was brought before Vespasian, the victorious Roman general.

Josephus was sure to face death or slavery.

But his guile did not desert him.

Jewish prophets had predicted

that a new world leader would emerge from the East.

Josephus declared that Vespasian was that man.

Bemused, Vespasian let Josephus live.

But as the Roman army prepared for its final attack

events in Rome brought the campaign to an abrupt halt

and the imperial household to a frenzy of panic.

Nero's biographer reports

that the emperor's reign of terror had finally gone too far

and in the year 68, Josephus's prediction was becoming reality:

Nero was losing his grip.

SUETONIUS: Having endured

such a tempestuous emperor for almost 14 years

the world at last dismissed him.

The uprising began in the northern territories.

WEAVER: Nero had tried to purge the ranks of the military.

Armies from two provinces rebelled

and began to march towards the capital.

SUETONIUS: When Nero learned of the revolt

he collapsed and lay on the floor

stunned and deathly silent.

When word reached him that other armies had also defected

he tore up the dispatches

and tried to enlist his officers to flee with him.

Some turned their backs and others openly refused.

WEAVER: Senators also turned on Nero.

They declared him a public enemy

permitting him to be killed with impunity.

Terrified, the emperor fled to the country

with his few remaining slaves.

SUETONIUS: Although he was barefoot and wearing only a tunic

he grabbed a hooded cloak and galloped away to an old villa.

While waiting for servants to prepare a secret entrance

he cleaned his torn cloak of thorns, then crawled in.

He ordered them to dig his own grave.

Weeping as he spoke, he moaned over and over

"Such an artist dies in me!"

With the help of his secretary

he drove an iron blade into his throat.

WEAVER: The dynasty of Augustus was extinct.

The empire was rudderless.

As the year 68 drew to a close

rival generals began marching towards the capital.

Civil war closed in on Rome.

MAN: My mind trembles to remember, but I will begin.

( low rumbling )

The earth had been shaking for many days.

We weren't very frightened, because that's common here.

But by night, the tremors had grown so strong

that everything shook and fell.

WEAVER: In the twilight of the first century

the Roman Empire shook to its foundations.

MAN: The buildings around trembled with such force

that we were sure to die if we stayed.

As we fled, I took my mother's hand.

The sea swallowed itself and then hurled back a huge wave.

You could hear women wailing, babies bawling

and men shouting.

A few were so afraid of death, they prayed it would come soon.

WEAVER: The author would survive the eruption of Mount Vesuvius

but other disasters would rock his life

and the lives of millions around the empire.

For as the first century passed its midpoint

civil war would be unleashed

and despotism would once again stalk the capital city.

Many wondered if Rome would collapse

after a century of glory, if the years of eruption would destroy

the Roman Empire in the first century.

WEAVER: As the year 68 unfolded

the city of Rome was approaching a century of unbroken peace.

Prosperity reigned and dangerous times seemed buried in history

as people pursued lives of comfortable routine.

They rose at dawn

and prepared to make, or receive, morning visits.

Women used cosmetics of mineral and ash and imported perfumes.

The more affluent dressed in dazzling colors

wore fine jewelry and elaborate hairstyles.

Fashion required men be clean-shaven

but according to one ancient humorist

the tools of the day made fashion a painful pursuit.

MAN: These scars on my chin make me look like an old boxer.

They were not made by my wife in a fit of anger

but by the criminal hand and evil razor of my barber.

The billy goat is the only animal to have the courage

to wear a beard and avoid the blade.

WEAVER: Such peaceful vanities, however, were swept aside in 68 A.D.--

the year the emperor Nero was overthrown

and with him the dynasty that had ruled Rome for a century.

The revolt had begun in Gaul and spread quickly to Spain.

The imperial army posted there rose up

and marched toward Rome.

Nero committed suicide.

The empire echoed with the fury of civil war.

Generals worldwide wondered

if they, too, should enter the fray.

In the province of Judea

one man was already hardened by battle.

His name was Vespasian

and he was one of the empire's most successful generals.

For three years

Vespasian had been fighting to suppress a local revolt.

With victory in sight

Vespasian's ambitions suddenly turned

in directions unprecedented for a man of his station.

MELLOR: Vespasian was not from the old aristocracy.

His family comes from a small town not very far from Rome

but a world away in social class.

His father and grandfather had been tax collectors

and soldiers

and he himself liked to put on the image of a man of the people

a man of the camp, a man who is one with his soldiers.

WEAVER: Vespasian's troops urged him to seize power.

Soldiers in other provinces backed him, too.

Emboldened by the opportunity

Vespasian directed them to march on the capital.

Vespasian's advance troops began in the Balkans.

They rounded the Adriatic Sea and descended on Rome.

Upon reaching Italy

they found themselves face-to-face with the enemy

and for the first time in 100 years

"the enemy" were fellow Romans.

The historian Cassius Dio describes the tragedy.

CASSIUS DIO ( dramatized ): They fought as if against foreigners and not kinsmen.

Even when night fell, they would not relent.

But whenever the moon broke through the shifting clouds

you could see exhausted opponents talking.

While over here, some battled on

over there, others rested, leaning on their swords.

Occasionally, one would take another aside

and say, "Fellow soldier, citizen, what are we doing?

"Why are we fighting?

Defect to my side."

The other would reply, "No indeed, you come to mine."

And so they spent the night

alternately fighting and talking, until sunrise.

WEAVER: In the morning, Vespasian's forces gained the upper hand.

They cut down their countrymen, ransacked a nearby town

and, inflamed by blood and plunder, they closed on Rome.

Soon the empire's capital was a battleground

for competing armies

and Rome's civilians were caught in the middle.

CASSIUS DIO: The city of Rome was under siege

and the inhabitants were fighting or fleeing

or even joining the looting

hoping that they may be taken for invaders

and save their lives.

WEAVER: Some 50,000 were killed.

Vespasian's forces won the day

and the feeble Senate ratified the result:

Vespasian, a rustic man of the camp, was now emperor of Rome.

MELLOR: The civil war revealed the dirty secret of the empire:

that power really rested on military force.

Anyone who had sufficient military might at his back

could make a run at the imperial throne

and any emperor in the future would have to bear that in mind.

WEAVER: Rome was now a military dictatorship

and the empire's citizens braced for an uncertain future.

MAN: Greetings, my friend.

I write to you in deepest sadness:

The younger daughter of our mutual friend, Fundanus

has died.

WEAVER: Pliny the Younger was a witness to his age.

His letters, published during his lifetime

show Pliny striving to reconcile with turbulent times

in his public and private life.

PLINY ( dramatized ): I've never seen a girl more cheerful and friendly

more worthy of long life.

Barely 14, she blended virginal modesty

with the wisdom and dignity of a mature woman.

And her early death was all the more tragic

since she was soon to marry a fine young man.

The day had been chosen and the invitations sent.

Such joy has turned to such sorrow.

WEAVER: Pliny was just a child during Rome's civil wars.

He was born into a wealthy family

from the countryside of northern Italy.

Far from the capital

he was spared the immediate violence of war.

But he was not spared personal tragedy.

His own father died while young Pliny was still a boy.

It was a life-changing blow, but it was hardly unusual.

Apart from the hazards of war

many Romans died young from infectious disease, famine

and women, from childbirth.

Funerals and mourning were painful staples of daily life

and ancient monuments immortalize

the timeless emotion of loss.

WOMAN: Here I'm laid to rest.

I lived 27 years and was married for 16.

I was a faithful wife who gave birth to six children.

Only one survives me.

MAN: To my most beloved wife, who lived with me for 18 years

and gave me no cause for complaint.

But now I complain

and I beg you, spirits, to return my wife to me

that I may not experience such criminal separation any longer.

WEAVER: These were laments young Pliny could easily understand

for the events of Pliny's childhood

taught him early and well that life was fleeting.

Fame, he concluded, was the only tonic.

By chronicling his times, Pliny hoped

he might shape the empire's legacy and write his own.

PLINY: Death seems bitter and premature

for those composing timeless works.

My own mortality, my own writings, come to mind.

No doubt the same thoughts frighten you.

While life is with us, we must struggle to make our mark

so that death finds little it can wipe away.

WEAVER: While Pliny confronted

the precarious nature of first-century life

the new emperor Vespasian was in Egypt

confronting the realities of late-century politics.

His troops controlled Rome

but Vespasian knew that Egypt was a key to supremacy.

He needed to control Rome's food supply--

the grain growing along the Nile.

He needed to control the army stationed there

and he needed the aura of grandeur

that Egyptian culture readily supplied.

SUETONIUS: The unexpected and still new emperor

lacked authority and majesty.

But both these traits were offered to him.

WEAVER: The biographer Suetonius recalled

the new emperor's awkward first steps towards a new persona.

SUETONIUS: As Vespasian held court before a large audience

two men approached.

They begged Vespasian to cure their afflictions.

They told him a dream had predicted

that sight would return

if Vespasian spit in the blind man's eyes;

that the other would walk

if Vespasian's heel touched his lame leg.

The emperor was dubious, and at first refused.

But his friends persuaded him to try, openly, before the crowd.

To Vespasian's amazement the invalids were cured.

WALLACE-HADRILL: All emperors needed legitimacy.

They needed authority.

They needed some sign that their power came from outside

had the will of the gods behind it.

And it's very common to have miracle-type stories

hovering around emperors--

Vespasian particularly, because he comes to power from nowhere.

He's not part of the reigning dynasty.

He needs these signs of authority.

WEAVER: Vespasian embraced his newfound stature

but he knew image alone could not hold the empire together--

that his real power came from the military

and nothing would cement it more surely than a foreign victory.

Vespasian fast returned his attention to Judea

to the province he left in haste the year before.

Judea was still aflame.

For five long years, the Jewish population had been waging

a full-scale war of independence against Rome.

The revolt showed stunning audacity

and brought staggering costs.

By the year 70

Roman forces had reduced much of Judea to smoldering ruins.

The Jewish army had been decimated

and the few surviving rebels were now besieged

inside the walled city of Jerusalem

with one notable exception.

His name was Josephus.

MELLOR: Josephus was a Jewish aristocrat.

He was educated as a Pharisee.

He was very much a freedom fighter for his people

and a military leader.

But he became convinced-- or perhaps convinced himself--

that God was on the Roman side in this battle, in this war.

WEAVER: Just months before, Josephus had been a rebel fighter.

But he had been captured and changed sides.

Now he operated freely

in the Roman camp outside Jerusalem's walls

and he offered useful information

to the invading army.

Josephus's former allies-- even his own family--

were still besieged inside the city

but on the Romans' behalf

Josephus now urged his fellow Jews to surrender.

JOSEPHUS: I circled the wall.

I begged them to spare themselves and their country

and their temple.

They knew Roman strength was irresistible.

What land had escaped the Romans?

Fortune's favor had turned to Rome and God was now in Italy.

"You stubborn men!

"Throw down your weapons and pity your collapsing city!

"My family is trapped inside with you.

"Perhaps you think that's why I urge surrender.

"But kill them!

"Take my blood as the price for your salvation.

I, too, am ready to die if that will teach you sense."

WEAVER: The defenders ignored his appeal.

The Roman noose continued to tighten.

Roman soldiers stripped the countryside of trees

for miles around.

They built a giant siege tower to scale the Jewish fortress.

But supply tunnels dug by the rebels

had weakened Jerusalem's walls.

To the amazement of all, one of them suddenly collapsed...

and the astonished Romans flooded in.

Romans and Jews fought face-to-face

through the narrow, winding streets.

Soon the surviving Jews were driven back

into their last bastion:

the walled sanctuary of Jerusalem's sacred temple

deep inside the city.

GRUEN: The Temple was the symbol of the faith

and not just for the Jews who happened to live in Jerusalem.

This was true of the Jews all over the Mediterranean

most of whom had never been to Jerusalem

had never seen the Temple

but for whom it was the emblem of continuity of Judaism.

WEAVER: However sacred

the walls of the Temple could not withstand the onslaught.

A Roman soldier flung some burning wood

into the temple grounds.

Immediately the Temple burst into flames...

and Roman troops invaded.

Josephus witnessed the massacre.

JOSEPHUS: Passion alone took charge.

Flight and death were everywhere.

Most of those killed were unarmed citizens

butchered wherever they were caught.

Around the holy altar, corpses piled up

and slid in a river of blood down the steps.

The cries of the stricken spread everywhere.

I can imagine nothing more horrifying than those cries.

WEAVER: The rebellion was broken.

Thousands died.

But for many Jews

the fate of the Temple was even more devastating

than the human carnage.

With no place to conduct their timeless rituals

the Jews of Jerusalem braced

for the extinction of their religion.

But Judaism would not die.

Jews outside Jerusalem

would keep their practices and memories alive.

Ironically, one of them was Josephus.

The rebel-collaborator followed the conquering army

back to Rome, even became a Roman citizen

but he did not abandon his heritage.

Perhaps to ease his conscience

Josephus would dedicate his remaining life

to recording the events he had witnessed.

He would become one of the great chroniclers of Jewish history.

PLINY: Recently, I have spent all my time

among writing tablets and books.

"How is that possible with the races on?" you ask.

They're not the kind of spectacle I find tempting.

I marvel that thousands are so childish

and long to see, again and again

galloping horses pulling men standing in chariots.

WEAVER: While Judea burned

the empire's capital returned to the rhythms of peace

and Pliny, to the rhythms of a young Roman gentleman.

Pliny and his widowed mother had moved to Rome.

Only the capital, his family decided

could provide the boy a suitable education.

But writing later, the bookish newcomer found Rome

a city of contrasts

both richly endowed and wasteful with its culture.

PLINY: This year has produced a great crop of poets

despite the reluctance of the public to come and listen.

People say that in our parents' day, things were different.

Once the emperor Claudius was walking

on a rare break from work

when he learned that a poetry reading was in progress.

So great was his love of letters

that unexpectedly, he joined the audience.

But today, even men with ample leisure neglect the arts.

WEAVER: The lost refinement that Pliny mourned

may have been more imagined than real

but Rome had changed over the course of the first century.

Many old families had died out

and new ones, such as Pliny's own, were rising to prominence.

Foreigners also enjoyed growing influence

and their cultures left a strong mark on Rome.

New religions such as the worship of Isis and Mithras

were absorbed from the East, and philosophy from Greece.

GALINSKY: The Romans were not cultural imperialists

who came in and said

"You've got to do just like we are doing.

Quite the opposite.

They gave a lot of freedom.

It is not simply Rome coming in, laying things down from the top.

The local cultures are being given the opportunity

to make their own contributions in many different ways.

WEAVER: Rome's willingness to embrace cultures not its own

was one key to the empire's strength.

But for some, it was also profoundly unsettling.

Towards the end of the first century

a man named Juvenal wrote scathing satire

voicing the frustrations of many Romans.

Few groups escaped Juvenal's poison pen.

JUVENAL ( dramatized ): Now, let me say something about that race that most appalls me.

I just can't stand our city full of Greeks.

For too long now

the East has dumped this scum into our beloved Tiber

carrying with them their language and habits

their flutes and ridiculous stringed instruments.

What a travesty!

Foreigners just blown into Rome get a better deal than I do--

I, who drew my first breath in the city.

With Juvenal, what you've got is

a satirist who will fire at any target that moves.

But in firing, he creates a consistent figure for himself.

And the figure is of a good Roman

what a Roman really ought to be

in a city where everything is going wrong--

where Rome has ceased to be Roman

where it's flooded with immigrants.

Juvenal is a voice of the old-fashioned Roman

protesting about the way the world is changing around him.

JUVENAL: Really aggravating is that woman who sits down at a dinner party

and immediately starts holding forth

weighing the merits of Virgil against Homer.

Words spew from her mouth, clattering like pots and pans.

Lawyers and vendors and even other women dare not speak.

Such matters are men's concerns.

WEAVER: Juvenal's bitterness was not universal.

Indeed, as the century entered its final decades

most Romans were enjoying a surge of optimism

a sense that the empire was back on course.

Now with Jerusalem conquered

the capital was marking its first foreign victory in years.

The former rebel Josephus was there.

JOSEPHUS: That day, the city of Rome celebrated

the victory over her enemies, the end of civil war

and the beginning of hope for a prosperous future.

In the procession, spoils of war flowed

like a river of gold, silver and ivory

fashioned into all forms.

Marvelous statues of the gods were carried

huge and made with great skill.

And there were creatures of many lands.

But what stood out above the rest

were those objects captured in the Temple of Jerusalem.

WEAVER: Josephus well understood that this was a pivotal moment.

It symbolized the revival of an empire traumatized by civil war

the mending of Rome's frayed society

and the unassailable authority of the new emperor, Vespasian.

Vespasian restored the war-torn capital.

He built temples, a theater

and began a massive amphitheater later called the Coliseum.

But Vespasian also constructed something less tangible:

He constructed a fresh image for the position of emperor.

SUETONIUS: Vespasian was almost always in high spirits

his sense of humor often scurrilous and off-color.

Once his son Titus scolded the emperor

for his unseemly new tax on public toilets.

Vespasian held a coin up to his son's nose

and asked whether the odor caused offense.

And when Titus denied it

Vespasian said, "But it comes from piss."

WEAVER: Vespasian approached the business of government

with an earthy humor and common sense

rarely shown by his predecessors.

He was frugal.

Expenditures were financed by new taxes.

And he was approachable.

SUETONIUS: Vespasian was stocky

with strong, firm limbs and a strained expression.

Once, when Vespasian invited a local wit to take a jab at him

the man replied

"I will, when you have finished unloading your bowels."

WEAVER: The emperor roared with laughter

and the empire sighed with relief.

For after decades of abuse and uncertainty

Vespasian became much more than a conquering general.

He became the empire's hope for stability.

Vespasian, an adventurer in politics

was able to found the new dynasty

and he held on to power for ten years

against the odds, one might say.

He was able to restore the stability

that Augustus had first introduced many decades earlier.

WEAVER: All of Rome benefited by Vespasian's steady hand.

But for young Pliny

the unconventional emperor opened the world.

He was not yet a teenager when Vespasian took control

and for the next decade of his life

Rome would be an exhilarating place to live.

Pliny studied with famous teachers

particularly his uncle

a man born far from the center of power

whose prodigious talents

brought him to the attention of the emperor

and into the inner circle of imperial advisers.

Pliny's uncle was an accomplished scholar

and a prolific author.

He compiled a 37-volume encyclopedia

on the natural world.

His writings covered everything

from marine life to planetary motions

and provide a unique glimpse

into the world view of ancient Rome.

PLINY THE ELDER ( dramatized ): An octopus, when he fears capture, emits a dark ink

which he has instead of blood

and is able to conceal himself in the darkened water.

The whole world is divided into three continents:

Europe, Asia and Africa.

When bees die, some think they can be brought back to life

by covering them with the stomach of a newly killed cow.

WEAVER: "We are now in such a happy time of peace"

the elder Pliny wrote, "under an emperor

who welcomes the pursuit of research and writing."

Young Pliny was deeply impressed

by his uncle's exhaustive curiosity

and exhausting efforts.

Industry and proficiency, the boy observed

paved the road to success

and made his revered uncle a celebrated figure.

PLINY THE YOUNGER: You marvel how my uncle could have written so many volumes

when he was so busy.

His enthusiasm was unbelievable, and he would rise before the sun

to pursue his studies by lamplight.

Sometimes while working, he would nod off and wake again.

Still before dawn, he would go to the emperor Vespasian

who also worked at night

and only then start his professional duties.

WEAVER: Vespasian rewarded Pliny's uncle with important posts

in Spain, Gaul, Africa

and the boy rejoiced when the elder returned to Italy

to command the Roman fleet.

But in the year 79, a shadow fell across young Pliny's path.

After ruling for a decade, the family patron

the emperor Vespasian, became gravely ill.

The emperor knew he was dying

but his humor remained to the end.

"Oh, dear!" he quipped--

mocking Rome's habit of deifying dead emperors--

"I think I'm becoming a god."

Vespasian had brought Rome

through the gravest crisis of the century, civil war

and left the empire stronger and more resilient than ever.

But Vespasian passed on a troubled legacy, too.

"My sons will succeed me," he declared openly

"or no one will."

The empire was still plagued by the scourge of hereditary rule.

Vespasian had done nothing to change that.

MAN: And so the day came.

The people had already gathered

for the spectacle of our punishment

and those who were about to die

were forced to march through the arena.

WEAVER: Ritualized violence had been a favorite entertainment

of the Roman populace for centuries.

Criminals, slaves and war captives

were often sent to the arena

where they fought to the death before roaring crowds.

PRISONER: All around I could hear the instruments of death.

I could hear the sound of a blade being sharpened

of metal weapons heating in the fire

the clatter of sticks, the cracking of whips.

The trumpets sounded the death knell.

Stretchers for the dead were brought on

a funeral parade before death.

Everywhere there were wounded men, groans, gore--

nothing but danger before my eyes.

BRADLEY: We have to recognize that the Romans

actually enjoyed the spectacle of seeing people die.

This is one of the fundamental characteristics of Rome.

They were a militaristic society from their very beginnings.

And when they saw gladiatorial combats

they were seeing in many ways

a symbol of their own martial prowess

and enjoying the bloodlust

that was always part of the national character.

WEAVER: While most had no choice

some volunteered to enter the arena.

Ancient graffiti hint at the attraction.

MAN: The gladiator called Celadus is the heartthrob of all the girls.

WOMAN: Crescens, who fights with a net, ensnares his female fans.

BRADLEY: In many ways, gladiators were like movie stars today.

They could achieve great fame, great success

and become extremely wealthy.

There was almost a show-business atmosphere to what went on there

and the desire for popularity

certainly must have impelled many gladiators

to go out into the amphitheater and fight

despite all the risks that were involved.

MAN: Suettius Certus presents a band of gladiators

to fight in Pompeii on May 31!

Shade will be provided.

WEAVER: In the summer of 79, the city of Pompeii

was a thriving community of some 10,000 people.

Many are known to us, thanks to a twist of fate

that preserved their world for 2,000 years.

Like most Roman cities, Pompeii boasted a stadium

theaters, temples, public baths and shops.

On any given day, the residents of Pompeii

ate, drank and socialized

in the cafés and taverns that lined the streets.

WOMAN: Here a decent drink costs a few coins.

Twice that buys something better

and for four times the price, you can savor the best wine.

WEAVER: The wine may have been supplied by Pompeii's Vettii brothers.

Former slaves, they entered the wine trade and prospered.

Their home was large and elegant

radiating signs of newly acquired wealth.

This couple is thought to have owned a bakery.

They posed for their portrait

holding symbols of education and status.

Across town lived a woman named Julia Felix

a wealthy landowner who rented real estate

on the grounds of her expansive villa.

WOMAN: On the estate of Julia Felix, the following are for rent:

luxurious baths, shops, cafés, workspaces

and second-story apartments.

WEAVER: And then there was Eumachia, a woman of wealth and authority

so esteemed for her contributions

to Pompeii's civic life that a statue was erected in her honor.

These people and countless others, rich and poor

lived and flourished in the region.

Ancient graffiti reveal the vitality

of their everyday lives.

WOMAN: A copper pot has vanished from this shop.

Whoever returns it, the reward is yours.

WALLACE-HADRILL: Pompeiian graffiti are wonderful

because they give a sort of unedited voice

an informal voice, when we're so used to hearing from antiquity

those very formal voices of formal literature

or imperial pronouncements, or so on.

You go into a bar, and you find this little inscription

about the barkeeper's daughter.

MAN: Successus the weaver loves the handmaiden Iris

who does not care for him, but he begs her to pity him.

And then, written in another hand beneath:

"Ha! So says the jealous rival.

Eat your heart out."

MAN: You're bursting with jealousy!

I wish you wouldn't harass the handsomer man

the one who is the most noble.

MAN 2: I have said this to you and now I have written.

You love Iris who doesn't care for you.

WEAVER: Such rivalries would all be forgotten

on the afternoon of August 24.

On that day, Pliny the Younger, now 17 years old

was vacationing with his mother on the Bay of Naples

across the water from Pompeii.

His uncle had come down from Rome on naval business.

Suddenly, an unusual cloud appeared

in the sky above Mount Vesuvius.

PLINY THE YOUNGER: The cloud was shaped like an umbrella pine

with a long trunk that branched at the top.

It was so remarkable, my uncle wanted to study it closer.

He ordered a boat to be prepared.

Fearlessly, he headed across the bay

straight for danger, all the while making notes

of the movements and shapes of the clouds.

Soon, ashes were falling, hot and dense.

Next came pumice stones, black and scorched by fire.

He came ashore near his friend's villa

and hoping to calm him by his own composure

my uncle asked to bathe and rest.

Soon the courtyard outside his room filled with ash.

The buildings swayed with heavy tremors.

The sky turned blacker than night.

Then flames and sulfur fumes sent everyone into flight.

He asked for water, then stood up and suddenly collapsed

his breath choked by the thickening fog.

Daylight came three days later.

WEAVER: The young Pliny survived.

But his uncle, Pliny the Elder, felled by his own curiosity

was one of thousands who perished.

Pompeii and the nearby city of Herculaneum were buried

in a torrent of ash and mud

and lost to history for the next 1,600 years.

MAN: We hired a porter called Corax

who turned out to be more trouble than help.

He often dropped his load, complaining about the pace

and griping, "What do you think I am, a horse?

"I am no less free than you

even if my father left me a pauper."

Not content with cursing us, he lifted his foot

and filled the air with the noise and stench of his fart.

WEAVER: The people who toiled to earn their living

rarely wrote about their lives.

The vibrant mass of porters, cooks, builders and merchants

was mostly illiterate.

Even those who could write had little time to reflect.

Instead, we hear of them through the voices of their patrons--

men whose ancestral fortunes often freed them

from the need to work.

MAN: Some trades are too coarse and vulgar for a gentleman.

We disdain customs officers and moneylenders.

Also beneath us are all occupations

requiring labor alone without skill.

They are no better than slavery.

WEAVER: Even less vocal were the throngs of slaves

who kept the empire running.

They worked everywhere: in Roman mines, fields and households.

Many came as war captives.

Others were born into bondage.

And while the ancient institution festered

with the same abuses seen later in history

in the Roman Empire, it had a different complexion.

Slavery was not based on race.

In fact, it was what you could call

an equal-opportunity condition.

Anyone was liable to become a slave at any time.

And, in fact, the biggest difference

between ancient forms of slavery and modern forms of slavery

is this absence of a sharp color contrast.

WEAVER: Roman slaves merged so well into the population

that the Senate once considered a plan

to distinguish them by special dress.

The idea was rejected.

If slaves saw how numerous they were, the Senate decided

they might be emboldened to rebel.

Pliny the Younger was no stranger to slavery.

His family owned a large country estate, several homes

and, like most affluent Romans, many slaves.

While secure that full-scale revolts were rare

Pliny knew well that discontent simmered beneath the surface.

PLINY: I must tell you what has happened.

The atrocity Larcius Macedo suffered

at the hands of his slaves deserves public outrage.

He was washing in his bathhouse.

Suddenly, his servants surrounded him.

One grabbed his throat, others beat him

and, it sickens me to say, they even crushed his genitals.

You can see what danger of violence

what outrageous contempt we live under!

He was an arrogant and cruel master

but there is no security for anyone

not even those who are lenient and gentle.

For slaves kill not to bring justice to their master

but from their criminal nature.

WALLACE-HADRILL: For Pliny and for the ancients in general

slavery was just part of the natural order of things.

When it was rationalized

it could be rationalized quite simply

in terms of the natural superiority and inferiority

that's built into nature.

WEAVER: In such an ordered society

landed gentry such as the family of Pliny the Younger

had rich prospects.

At age 18, after inheriting his uncle's fortune

young Pliny set out to follow his elder's footsteps.

He launched a career in law and politics.

But while his uncle had flourished under a good emperor

the younger man would seek his fame and fortune

under very different circumstances.

In the year 81, Vespasian's youngest son ascended to power.

His name was Domitian

and as the biographer Suetonius recounts

he would prove to be as terrible a tyrant as any who came before.

SUETONIUS: Early in his rule, he would seclude himself for hours

catching flies and sticking them with sharpened pens

so that once when someone asked

whether anyone was inside with the emperor

a palace wit cleverly replied, "Not even a fly."

Domitian's savagery was unexpected.

He once called a steward into his bedroom to dine.

The next day the man was crucified.

WEAVER: Domitian indulged mercurial whims.

He launched treason trials

and executed or banished even his mildest critics.

He terrorized the Roman elite and presented Pliny the Younger

with the greatest challenge of his life:

how to navigate treacherous times

without compromising his values; how to maintain honor

while climbing the ranks of a despotic system.

Pliny admired, even befriended

those who balked at Domitian's rule

but the martyr's path was not for him.

Instead, Pliny staked his morality

on a ground of compromise, befitting his compromised times.

He was efficient and dutiful to friend and tyrant alike.

Even while serving the emperor, he brokered marriages

for the children of worthy exiles

promoted their careers, lent money.

And through it all, Pliny's career thrived.

But his success was tinged with remorse.

PLINY THE YOUNGER: I have avoided shame, but deserve no praise.

Admittedly, when Domitian expelled his critics from Rome

I visited one, even loaned him money

though this jeopardized my own position.

Seven of my friends had already been killed or exiled.

I was clearly standing amid a rain of thunderbolts

and there were signs that a similar end was in store for me.

BRADLEY: The fact remains that Pliny the Younger

was a very successful career politician

and he prospered under Domitian as did many of his social class.

And what I think we can see going on here is a recognition

on the part of upper-class individuals like Pliny

that it was perfectly possible

for them to collaborate with a political system

that provided good government

even if the emperor of the day was an absolute tyrant.

WEAVER: Pliny, like the empire itself

would outlast the troubling times.

In the year 96, Rome once again shed its despot.

Domitian was murdered by a group that included his own wife.

And once again, the army would command Rome's future.

From here events followed a remarkable new course.

For the first time

Roman generals cooperated to choose the next emperor

and they compelled him

to adopt an acceptable heir from outside his own family.

It was startlingly innovative

and the result was resoundingly successful

for the next major emperor to rule Rome

was a Spanish-born senator and general named Trajan.

His reign took Rome one more step toward universality.

Now educated and wealthy men from all over the empire

became eligible for the highest office.

Trajan expanded the Roman Empire to its greatest geographic size.

He extended prosperity to levels of society not before reached.

He launched public works, tax relief, a child welfare program

and among his most trusted aides was Pliny the Younger.

As the century turned

Pliny now reveled in the benefits of success

and publicly praised the new emperor, Trajan.

PLINY: We are suffering no longer.

There is no need to flatter him as a god.

We speak not about a tyrant, but a fellow citizen;

not a master, but a parent.

He is one of us and remembers

that though he rules over men, he is himself a man.

WEAVER: Trajan would close the door on the empire's defining epoch.

He would set the course for generations to come

and project the collective voice of the first century

across two millennia, where it resonates today.

Europe today draws on the power

of an image created by the Roman Empire.

Rome takes the cultural systems

developed initially in the eastern Mediterranean

and spreads them in a dramatic way, and lays the foundations

of a whole cultural zone that is our modern Europe.

The first century provided us with a powerful model

for a global society

consisting of people

from different ethnicities and different cultures

who were able to unite on certain fronts

and remain distinct and separate in others.

In the first century, we see

in the midst, in the very teeth

of the most powerful system of imperial domination

that the world had ever seen up to that time...

we see right in the midst of that

the florescence of a notion of human freedom

that grows up like a lotus

out of the mud pond of Roman domination.

PLINY: All around us, how much things have changed.

My work brought me success, then danger, then success again.

WEAVER: Towards the end of his life

Pliny the Younger prepared to enter history

as a spokesperson for his age.

Few had basked longer

in the might and majesty of imperial Rome.

Few knew better its darker side.

But Pliny's perspective was long

and like those who came before

he trusted that his better side would endure.

PLINY: Whether posterity will remember us I do not know.

But we certainly deserve distinction--

not for our genius, for this would sound arrogant

but for our dedication, labor and concern for the future.

We will continue on the road that we have taken

which, while it carries few into the full light of fame

leads many from the shadows of oblivion.

WEAVER: The Roman Empire would survive for centuries to come.

But the men and women of the first century

left a legacy for the ages

deserving forever "the full light of fame."

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org