All language subtitles for Colosseum.S01E05.720p.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV Eng

[somber music]

- Though I walk through

The valley
of the shadow of death...

I will fear no evil.

[animal snarls]
- pull it!

[crowd cheers]

- Your servant.

[lion snarling]

[dramatic musical buildup]

♪ ♪

[woman vocalizing]

♪ ♪

- The colosseum
is the roman empire

Distilled to
its most basic assets.

♪ ♪

- It is a symbol of conquest.

It's a symbol of dominance.

It's a symbol
of imperial power

Radiating throughout
the roman world.

- Now.

- Any emperor had the
colosseum at his disposal

To use as a tool to reassert
his power and authority.

- The message to
the roman people

Is that life is a combat.

- It was also
a judicial warning.

"do not test
the power of rome."

It was a death penalty
offense.

- If you live by the sword...

You die by the sword.

- It demonstrates
the power of the colosseum.

It made slaves into heroes,

Upending
the power structure of rome.

- The colosseum
will come to symbolize

The rise and fall of rome.

[epic music]

- It's all there,
the blood, the glory,

The magnificence, and the flaws

That made rome
the greatest empire

That europe has ever seen.

♪ ♪

[triumphal music]

[crowd cheers]

- In 107 a.D.,

Emperor trajan celebrates
an extended series of games.

♪ ♪

- When trajan succeeds
the roman empire,

Rome is at its greatest.

It's vast, it's successful,
it's rich,

And trajan really
personifies that--

The energy, the success,

And the sophistication of this
extraordinary institution.

- Under his leadership,

The roman empire reaches its

Greatest territorial extent--

2 million square miles.

- Stretching from
britannia in the west

To syria in the east,

The 50 million subjects
of rome

Believe in a wide array of
different religions and gods.

But one underground spiritual
movement in particular

Is gaining momentum.

- The number of christians
is growing.

And what started
as a very small movement

Based around jerusalem

Has now spread across
the empire.

- Dear lord,
protect our brother ignatius

From those who would
do evil to him.

Amen.

- Christians.

- When they see a few of their
high priests eaten by lions,

They'll turn to our gods.

♪ ♪

- The romans see christianity
as a threat

Because of its promise

To undermine roman conceptions

Of how power and authority
were supposed to work.

- A prominent christian leader
is brought to rome

To be killed, most likely
in the city's amphitheater.

[crowd chanting]

- Ignatius of antioch,

He is clearly the target
of trajan's anger,

Because he is arrested and
brought to rome to be executed

By being fed to lions,
probably in the colosseum.

- If these people show
disrespect to the emperor,

And the roman state.

That's sedition.

And for that,
they should be killed.

- Public executions were
supposed to teach a lesson

To those who witnessed them.

The fate of christians
who persisted in their belief

Was a capital offense.

It was a death penalty offense.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- But this will be
no ordinary execution.

♪ ♪

- Ignatius is convinced that
he's going to die violently,

And this is okay with him,

Because ignatius wants
to follow the model of christ.

Ignatius is willing to do this,

To die, just like jesus,
to be martyred.

[scattered boos]

While ignatius
is on his way to rome,

He is able to write
seven letters.

And it's because of these
letters that we know who he is.

- These are
first person accounts

Of what happened to him,
how he feels about it,

Why he thinks it matters
or might make a difference.

[crowd cheering]

- His long journey to rome

Starts 1,800 miles east

In the third largest city
of the empire.

- Well, the city of antioch
had a jewish population

For a very long time.

And when the message
of jesus comes,

That is one of the places
where that message takes root.

The term "christian" is first
used in the city of antioch.

Before that, they were called
the followers of the way.

Ignatius is living around

80 years
after the death of christ.

- I baptize thee.
Go and serve the lord.

- At this point, ignatius has
become the bishop of antioch.

And rome was noticing
this tiny new religion.

[dramatic music]

- The romans were beginning

To see the christians
as troublemakers.

Why? Because when groups
start to assemble together,

They start to grow,
they start to spread new ideas.

And rome doesn't want
any new ideas.

They don't want anybody
challenging

The roman power structure,
the roman ethic.

♪ ♪

- They have strange rituals
which are,

To the romans' point of view,

Akin to human sacrifice.

They eat the body
and drink the blood

Of this jesus christ.

They have the audacity to say
that this same jesus christ

Is the son of god.

♪ ♪

- The roman religion,
just like the greek religion,

Was based around
a pantheon of gods.

- The romans were very happy
to worship multiple gods

And don't see any problem
with that.

The romans had a god for almost
every imaginable thing.

The goddess of childbed,
the gods of trade,

The household gods.

So they were intimately
interwoven with daily life.

- The problem with
christianity

Is that it was quite militant.

There was one god, and if
you didn't believe in him,

You were going to hell.

- If you had a group
within society

That was actively disrupting
the proper rituals,

The proper forms of behavior
and honoring the gods,

Then they were a threat
to the literal well-being

Of your--of your empire.

♪ ♪

- As this radical new
religion continues spreading,

It reaches the capital.

- It's not implausible
to estimate

The population
of christians in rome

At around this time
in the thousands.

Mostly it's foreigners
and the low born

Who don't go out of their way
to advertise their presence.

- But emperor trajan's
advisors

Are on high alert
to spot them.

[dramatic chords]

♪ ♪

- Guards, have him flogged.
- No.

- One of the symbols of
the ancient church was a fish.

It was an acronym.
It stood for jesus christ,

The son of god,
the savior in greek.

The christians used that
as a symbol for who they were

And how they could not
be known to the authorities.

- Tell me.
What is it in your beliefs

That my friend here
finds so offensive?

♪ ♪

- We only believe in love,
caesar.

That is all.

- You object to love, sura?

- Of course not.

- God's love, caesar.

- Am I not divine, barber?

♪ ♪

- Of course.

- So shave your divine emperor.

- Yes, sir.

- The emperor himself
demands homage

And in some cases worship.

And christians
refuse this as well.

This is a form of treason.

- Trajan didn't just wanna go
round them all up,

Because that would bring
even more attention

To the christian movement.

He demanded that they make
a profession of faith,

Of loyalty to rome
and to the roman gods.

♪ ♪

- Trajan's attitude
to christians

Is like "don't ask, don't-tell"
sort of attitude,

A sort of tolerance.

If they show disrespect
to the emperor

And to the roman state,

By all means arrest them,
torture them, execute them.

But otherwise, if they keep
themselves to themselves,

Leave them alone.

- Then a catastrophic event

Brings christians
unwelcome attention.

[rumbling]
[people yelling]

- Around this time, there's a
massive earthquake in antioch.

"well, maybe it was
these christians

"who are not behaving
properly towards the gods

And caused this chaos."

♪ ♪

- When some natural calamity
occurred,

The romans choose
as a scapegoat

This troublesome,
revolutionary sect.

- Especially targeted
are the leaders,

Like ignatius.

- After a series of
earthquakes strike antioch

In the early 2nd century,
authorities blame christians.

- At times of disaster,

Christians who claimed that
the roman gods did not exist

Represented a threat
that could call down disaster

Upon the roman world.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Ignatius is arrested

And brought before
the governor of the province.

- We have this really
interesting correspondence

Between trajan,
who is the emperor,

And pliny,
one of his governors.

Pliny writes to trajan,
and he says,

"what do I do
with these christians?"

Trajan writes back,
and he says,

"well, don't go
seeking them out.

"but if they do come
to your attention,

"make them curse
the name of christ.

"and if they won't do that,

"then you'll know
that they are christians,

And you should act accordingly
putting them to death."

- Make your mark,
and you're free to go.

♪ ♪

- Ignatius, he's one
of the first people

To be confronted
with that decision.

"will you bow the knee
to the gods of rome,

Or will you stand firm in
the convictions that you have?"

[soft, uneasy music]

♪ ♪

- I cannot sign this, governor.
I'm sorry.

I cannot swear loyalty
to the emperor above my god.

- You understand you leave me
no choice.

♪ ♪

- We know from early
christian trial documents

Concerning martyrs
that roman administrators

Gave christians
every chance to recant.

"honor the roman empire
and you can go free."

But ignatius wasn't interested
in doing this,

Knowing full well
that it will lead

To his violent death
in the colosseum in rome.

♪ ♪

- Placed in chains
and escorted by armed guards,

Ignatius begins his
1,800-mile journey to rome.

♪ ♪

- Why go through all
the trouble of moving ignatius

All the way up to rome?

Why wasn't ignatius
put to death in antioch?

One theory could be that the
roman empire seized on this

As an opportunity
to kind of showcase ignatius

As a senior figure
in the church.

That would serve as
a really powerful example.

- Ignatius' arrest
coincides

With trajan's recent
conquest of dacia,

An ancient kingdom in what
is now modern-day romania.

- To celebrate his
victorious campaign in dacia,

Trajan inaugurated

123 days of celebratory games.

♪ ♪

Trajan intends to put on the
most magnificent set of games

That have ever been held
in the colosseum.

He intends to outdo
all of his predecessors,

Including the hundred days
of games from titus

That had inaugurated
the colosseum at the beginning.

- Trajan's games
will feature combat

Between over 9,000 gladiators,

Including a fight to the death
between a free roman woman

And dacian prisoners.

But the games
will also feature

Run-of-the mill entertainment,

The slaughter of criminals
and christian rebels.

- Capital criminals
are being gathered

From throughout the empire.

Trajan basically says,

"let's do away with all of them
in a big show."

- To reach
their final destination,

The captives must March
20 miles a day

Across rome's
incredible system of roads.

- Ignatius would have traveled

Along a major
east-west thoroughfare

Which is known now
as the via egnatia,

And that connected the cities

In the eastern half
of the empire with rome.

- The via egnatia
is one of 372 major roads,

A network totaling
250,000 miles

That connect the empire's
40 provinces to rome.

- The famous saying,
"all roads lead to rome,"

Was absolutely true
in the literal sense.

Roman roads are the nervous
system of the empire.

It allows the legions
and the traders,

The politicians to travel to
the four corners of the empire.

But at the same time,
it brings the people

And the ideas back to rome.

- Ironically, it was
this very system of roads

That allowed ignatius
to write letters ahead

That actually helped
the spread of christianity.

So in one way, the romans
and their road system

Actually paved the way
for the spread of christianity.

- Helping him is
a servant and scribe, burrhus.

♪ ♪

- I'm glad you're with me,
burrhus.

- It's an honor
to accompany you.

- That seems strange that
somebody who's been arrested

As a criminal could travel
with their scribe.

Slaves were not people.
They were things.

So if you were
a very high status citizen

And you were arrested
as a criminal,

You could have your slave
with you on that trip.

- Burrhus was provided to him
by the church,

And his job
was to take dictation,

To write down the things
that ignatius said.

♪ ♪

- Ignatius says, "I am chained
up by ten soldiers,"

Then he says, "ten leopards,
because they're so fierce.

They mistreat me.
I'm in chains."

So he treats the soldiers

As if they are fierce
wild beasts,

No doubt thinking about
the wild beasts

That he will face
in the colosseum.

This is a real man
contemplating his own death

And asking god to give him the
strength to go through with it.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

As he comes into each town,

The local christians there
come out to meet him.

He does become a little bit
of a christian celebrity,

You might say.

- Our lord has a plan
for all of us.

Yours...Is to help
spread my story.

[somber music]

- Poor men and women

Are especially drawn
to the christian message.

- Christians are famous

For calling each other
brother and sister.

And by doing this,

They're building
for themselves a new society,

One that stands apart
from roman patriarchy.

If you were poor, if you were
disaffected or disenfranchised,

And that was, let's face it,

The majority of
the population of rome,

Then christianity
offered you opportunities

Which you would not have
had otherwise in society.

♪ ♪

- One of the founding

And enticing principles
of christianity

Is that the meek
shall inherit the earth--

A message that would have
resonated with the slaves

And lowborn within rome.

But to the romans themselves,
the idea that the meek

Somehow would inherit
the earth is ridiculous.

- Hey, what's going on
over here?

Who are these women?

- It's the strong and the bold
who are in power.

- Huh?
- They were just leaving.

- Ignatius' message
of equality

Could turn that power
on its head,

Even if it was going to
cost him his life.

- Making him
a much bigger threat

Than romans can possibly
anticipate.

♪ ♪

- After 60 days,

Ignatius is over
halfway to rome.

He reaches
the port of dyrrhachium

In modern-day albania.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- No.

I choose to go to rome.

These chains...
They're my choice.

[heavy music]

♪ ♪

- Ignatius seemed determined

To go through with
this plan to die in rome,

And nothing
in his letters indicates

That he was looking
for a way out.

Ignatius knows that there's
tremendous power in martyrdom.

We know that along the way,
there were certain christians

Who tried to put together
an escape plan.

But ignatius
doesn't take this opportunity.

He knows that
there's far more power

In spreading the gospel

In going to rome and dying.

- [exhales]

♪ ♪

- The idea of martyrdom,

The very public deaths

Of these early christian
victims of roman law,

Was one that
the christians embraced

When christians started
to be executed publicly.

♪ ♪

And of course,
it came from the origin.

The death of christ itself was
a sacrifice of god's own son.

And so all martyrs
in a sense are tributes

Or echoes of the death
of christ himself.

[dramatic music]

- Ignatius' letters
tell us about a man

Who's on
a spiritual pilgrimage,

And that pilgrimage
doesn't just mean

Spreading the gospel
while you're alive.

It means using your very death

To be a martyr for christ.

- Three months
after leaving antioch,

Ignatius
finally arrives in rome.

- Halt.

- Over a million people

Populate the thriving city

Recently transformed
by the emperor.

♪ ♪

- Trajan is one of the great
emperors of rome.

He's all about investing
as much money

Into the public as possible.

This is through the creation
of aqueducts,

Of roads, of public edifices.

He believes in that ideology.

You know, being roman
is almost like today

You could say it's the
american dream of its time.

They believed that rome
truly was the light,

And trajan perpetuated
that dream and believed in it.

- Trajan's conquests

Meant that there was
a massive delivery

To the roman people
of slaves, of spoils,

Of new buildings,
of new baths, of new temples,

And, of course, games
in the colosseum.

♪ ♪

Every roman emperor wanted
to show off their conquests

With an arch or a column.

Titus famously put up an arch

Showing the conquest
of jerusalem.

And now trajan
puts up this massive column

Showing his conquest,
showing his conquests of dacia,

And basically
advertising himself

As an amazing conqueror.

- It's delicately carved

With these incredibly
detailed reliefs

Depicting prisoners
coming back

From trajan's wars in dacia.

It literally freezes it
in stone forever,

Reminding romans of what trajan
has accomplished.

♪ ♪

- This is where we must part,
bishop.

- It's up to you now.

Spread the word in rome
as quickly as possible.

Tell every christian
what I intend to do.

♪ ♪

- Ignatius writes
his seventh

And final letter in rome

To be delivered to
the christian community

In secret by burrhus.

♪ ♪

- He also makes it very clear:
Do not stop this process.

Do not rescue me.

Do not send in other people
to spirit me away.

This is my destiny,

And if you're going
to be good christians,

You're gonna watch
this happen.

- If you sought martyrdom,

If you sought this
very public self-sacrifice,

This act of devotion,
to inspire others,

What better place to do it
than in the colosseum...

[crowd cheering]

In front of 50,000 people?

- It's a fate ignatius
will face all too soon.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- By the summer of 107 a.D.,

Trajan's 123 days of games
are underway...

- Aah!

♪ ♪

As ignatius
spends his final days

In an underground chamber
of the colosseum.

- Ignatius would have been
kept in a cell

In the hypogeum...

Awaiting his appearance
on the arena floor.

The hypogeum
is an incredibly complicated

And confusing area.

♪ ♪

- The network
of underground tunnels

Was built 25 years earlier
by emperor domitian.

- The hypogeum
was the entire area

Of the floor of the colosseum
to a depth of 20 feet.

It was an entire labyrinth
beneath the colosseum

And an enormous space

With which to produce
these great shows.

- Hypogeum literally
means "under the earth."

Among those substructures are
all kinds of accommodations

For moving personnel
and props and sets

Onto the level
of the performance space

So that lions or scenery
could suddenly pop up

And surprise the spectators.

"ooh. Ah!
What is going on now?"

- Although ignatius' mind
is on heaven,

The hypogeum
is hell on earth.

[percussive music]

♪ ♪

The cheers of the crowd above,

Darkness and heat below.

♪ ♪

One couldn't think
of a worse place to be.

- There would have
been hundreds

If not a thousand people

Along with
all of these animals

Cramped together
in the hypogeum.

♪ ♪

You can imagine what this
would have been like

For ignatius.

- Though I walk through
the valley

Of the shadow of death...

I will fear no evil.

- He's gotta ask himself,
is he going to die with grace,

Or is he going to end up

Some grisly carcass
on the colosseum floor?

♪ ♪

- Trajan's fourth months

Of nonstop entertainment

Begin with beast hunts
in the morning...

[snarling]

[dramatic music]

Followed by a grisly
halftime show--

Public executions.

- Citizens of rome...

Marvel at the worst criminals

As they experience...

The true power of the empire.

♪ ♪

- The roman judicial system
was class-driven.

If you were very,
very high status,

You would be allowed
to do it in some way

That was quick and easy
and relatively painless.

If, however,
you were of a lower class

Or you were a slave,

Then you were going
to be killed fairly brutally.

- But the most popular
with the colosseum crowd

Was damnatio ad bestias...

Or condemned
to the wild beasts.

- So we have the expression
in english,

"being thrown to the lions."

We use it sort of
metaphorically, right?

But it was very literal
in the roman empire.

People actually were
thrown to the lions.

♪ ♪

- The executions of criminals
using wild beasts

Was almost as old
as rome itself.

Watching them gore
unfortunate criminals to death,

This was part
of the roman experience.

♪ ♪

- Damnatio ad bestias

Dates back
to the 2nd century b.C.,

Originally
a military punishment

For desertion.

By the early 1st century,
its use was widespread.

♪ ♪

- The north african
christian writer tertullian

Is actually the first person
to talk about christians

Being thrown to the lions.

But we also have
abundant mosaics

From all across the empire
showing this happening,

Showing criminals
tied to little trolleys

While panthers or tigers
lunged at their throats

And ripped them apart.

- It was a horrific way
to die,

And it was really reserved
for extreme criminals.

We have instances of someone

Who was a serial rapist
and murderer

Who was tied to a post and
a bear shredded him to bits.

♪ ♪

If you killed your father,

You were sewn into a bag
with a rat,

With a wolf, with snakes.

Imagine what the animals
are doing.

It's not just
a nightmare come true.

It's absolutely humiliating.

That is exactly the purpose
of this punishment.

If you rebelled against
the roman laws,

Then you would meet a vengeance
unlike any other.

- However much we talk about
civilization and baths

And all the things that
we think of as rather roman,

The fact is, it was the sword,

It was fear,
it was blood that conquered

The roman empire
and kept it under control.

[dark chords]

- It's difficult to imagine
how the roman audience

Would have viewed
this wholesale murder

Of fellow humans
and smiled and laughed.

[whooping, applause]

I think part of the secret
is that they

Compartmentalized
the victims

As subhuman

Because they were a threat
to roman society.

The romans think,
"this is just

Human garbage
to be gotten rid of."

[tearing sound, thud]

[crowd cheers]

♪ ♪

- With death
lying inevitably ahead,

Some choose a different path.

♪ ♪

- [choking]

- No, no, no, no.

No! No! No!

[crowd cheering, chanting]

[dark music]

♪ ♪

- Ignatius and his
fellow condemned prisoners

Await their final terrifying
moments in the colosseum.

- [choking]

- No, no, no, no.

No! No! No!

[intense music]

- They kill themselves
in very imaginative ways.

One slave commits suicide
in the toilet.

He takes a toilet sponge,

Which was a sponge
at the end of the stick,

Which was essentially
roman toilet paper,

And he shoves it
down his throat.

I mean, these are really
extreme ways to kill yourself,

But it's also a comment

On how extreme
what they were facing was

And the limits that
they pushed themselves through

To end their life
rather than face

What the romans
regarded as justice.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- From the roman perspective,
ignatius is gonna get

Exactly what he deserves
at the colosseum.

But in reality, what they're
doing is giving him a platform

And an audience.

They can't see it.

[crowd chanting]

♪ ♪

- Dear lord,
protect our brother ignatius

From those who would
do evil to him.

Amen.

- Ignatius is saying,

"the bigger the audience I have
for my spectacular death,

The more I'll be able
to broadcast the message."

- Christians.

- When they see a few of their
high priests eaten by lions,

They'll turn to our gods.

[animal snarling]

- So we have ignatius' own
words because of his letters,

And they can really help us
to get into his mind.

[crowd cheers]

[animal growls, snarls]

♪ ♪

- Bring on the fires,

The cross,

The hordes of wild beasts.

♪ ♪

- The whole phenomenon
of christian martyrdom

Is absolutely
a massive enigma,

And the roman mind
cannot understand it,

Just as they cannot understand
the sort of joy that they see

In the faces of the martyrs
in the amphitheaters.

- This would've confused
trajan.

Trajan wants to see a battle.

And here's a man who's just

Standing there awaiting death.

Who does that?

- Only let me attain
jesus christ.

- The end goal for him
is something different.

It's something
bigger and greater,

And that is eternity,
eternal life with his lord.

- Christianity if you were
a good person, when you die,

You will go to a place

Of blessed contentment,
heaven.

There is no poverty, no pain.

There is no sadness.

And everyone,

Anyone can achieve that.

The roman view

Of what happened
after death was bleak.

It's a shadowy underworld

And then a place sort of
like christian hell.

They did not want to die,

Because there was
nothing for them.

- The hideous tortures
of the devil.

- He's saying things like
he wants to be torn apart

By the wild beasts.

He wants to be ground
like bread

Between the teeth of the lion.

The language in it

Is extraordinarily
strong and severe.

Real sense of wanting to die,
wanting to suffer.

- The wrenching of my bones.

The dicing of my limbs.

♪ ♪

- He knows that dying
as a martyr

Is actually
going to do far more

In spreading the gospel

Than just standing there
and preaching.

And so when they see
this martyr just stand there

And die gracefully,
willingly,

They're gonna ask,
"what does he believe?"

And when they find out,
oh, man,

Christianity is going
to begin to spread.

♪ ♪

- Ignatius' actions
are a provocation to rome,

One that must be stopped.

- Now.

[animal snarls]

[intense music]

♪ ♪

[crowd chanting]

[lion snarling]

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Ignatius,
a christian bishop,

Embraces death
in the colosseum.

♪ ♪

- The romans plan to make
an example of ignatius,

But this was about
to completely backfire.

[intense music]

♪ ♪

- It's not touching him!

♪ ♪

- There are great stories
of christians being

Thrown before the beasts,
before the lions,

And instead of the lions
devouring them,

The lions lie down
at their feet.

- Our lord is protecting him.

♪ ♪

- Who doesn't like that idea
of a lion

Who's supposed
to tear you apart

Instead rolling over
to get a belly rub

Instead of eating you?

[crowd cheering,
lion snarling]

♪ ♪

- He held to his beliefs

And died for it.

Why?

For something he believed in,

And that must've been...
Astounding to the romans.

♪ ♪

- Well, I think our point
was made clear enough.

- I'm not sure.

I'm not sure at all.

[haunting vocalization]

♪ ♪

- With his death,
ignatius is able to subvert

The symbolism
of the colosseum,

The pagan symbolism,

And in a sense replace it

With the heroism
of the christian

Who is the victim
in a roman game

But actually the victor
in the long run.

♪ ♪

- Let us go.

- The case of ignatius is just
one of the early examples

Of a long line
of christian martyrs.

One would beget more, because
the power and the attraction

Of these kind of displays
of devotion

Really convinced
many other people...

- Wait.

- To convert to christianity.

I mean,
what greater mark

Of devotion,
of the rightness of a faith

Is that someone
is willing to die for it?

♪ ♪

- Leave.

[percussive music]

♪ ♪

- At the time
that ignatius dies,

Nobody would
expect christianity

To become what it is today.

In that moment, it would seem
that he's defeated.

But in fact,
the victory was his,

Because it was his belief
system that would prevail.

Little by little,
these figures like ignatius

Were the pieces that were
building a mighty wall,

Something that was going
to take over the empire.

- Shortly after
the time of ignatius,

There are an estimated 40,000
christians in the empire.

There are about 6 million
150 years later

When the emperor himself,
constantine,

Converts in 312 a.D.

[sweeping music]

- The colosseum,
it made slaves into heroes.

And ironically christianity
did the same thing,

Upending the power structure
of rome

And taking marginalized people

And turning them
into immortals.