All language subtitles for Colosseum.S01E08.720p.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV Eng

[dramatic music]

[crowd cheering]

♪ ♪

- In the name
of the one true god.

In the name
of the one true god.

In the name of the one
true god.

[all shouting]

♪ ♪

- What is he doing?

♪ ♪

Stop him!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[crowd cheering]

- The colosseum
is the roman empire

Distilled to its most
basic essence.

♪ ♪

[tiger growling]

- It is a symbol of conquest.

It is a symbol of dominance.

[crowd cheering]

It's a symbol
of imperial power

Radiating throughout
the roman world.

[ropes creaking]

- Now.

[lion roaring]

- Any emperor had the
colosseum at his disposal

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

[crowd cheering]

- The message
to the roman people

Is that life is a combat.

♪ ♪

- It was also
a judicial warning.

- Ahh!

- Do not test
the power of rome.

It was a death penalty
offense.

- Augh!

[all shouting]

- If you live by the sword...

♪ ♪

You die by the sword.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

- It demonstrates
the power of the colosseum.

It made slaves into heroes

Upending the power structure
of rome.

- [grunting]

- The colosseum
would come to symbolize

The rise and fall of rome.

♪ ♪

- It's all there,

The blood, the glory,
the magnificence,

And the flaws
that made rome

The greatest empire that europe
has ever seen.

♪ ♪

[crowd cheering]

- 401 a.D.

It's now more than 300 years
since the inaugural games

Were held at the colosseum.

Both rome and the arena
have changed.

[crowd cheering]

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

- At this point,
the colosseum would have been

A somewhat sad reminder

Of a more glorious
earlier age.

In a way, this is a reflection
of what was happening

In rome's empire itself.

- This is now a new era
of roman history.

Rome is no longer what it was.

Rome is in decline.

♪ ♪

- The empire was beset
on all sides

By barbarian invaders
who sensed rome's weakness.

There were saxons
in the north.

There were goths
along the danube frontier,

Franks along the rhine,
persians in the east.

Rome was under threat.

♪ ♪

- The once invincible
roman army

Struggles to hold back
the tide

Of enemies on multiple fronts.

In 395 a.D., the empire itself
is split into halves,

Neither centered in rome.

- It was simply too big for
any one person to handle.

So each half
of the roman empire is ruled

By one of the sons
of theodosius,

The last man to rule
a united roman empire.

The 16-year-old arcadius
rules from constantinople

In the east,
and the 15-year-old honorius

Rules from milan in the west.

- They are very young.

They're very inexperienced.

And they're clearly not up
to the job.

- Neither of them
ever visits rome.

This means that the city
that is the

Ideological and spiritual heart
of the empire

Is something of a backwater.

♪ ♪

- But one man
wants to revive rome

By holding the most lavish
games seen in the colosseum

For many years.

His name is symmachus.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

[all shouting]

- This is all for you.

- You're amazing, father.

- [grunting]

[all shouting]

- This is a man who was
highly literate,

Who produced a lot of writing
over his lifetime,

And so we have a good record
of who he was.

Through the letters
that have survived,

Which have been collated
by his son memmius,

Who was devoted to his father,

We get a real window
into the life of this man

Who was desperately trying
to preserve ancient rome.

- Symmachus is a leader
of the senate.

And in the absence
of the emperor in rome,

He's one of the most powerful
people in the city.

- Symmachus in many ways
is a throwback,

Someone who is bound
by tradition.

He wants to maintain
the old order

And the reverence
for the old gods.

But there's a new god
on the rise.

- [grunting]

[all shouting]

- By the end
of the 4th century c.E.,

We think possibly as many
as 50% of the population

Had become christian.

- Even both roman emperors
are now christian.

For symmachus
and his supporters,

Hosting games
in the arena provides

The perfect opportunity
to push back

At this new religion.

- Symmachus
and people like him

Would have seen the colosseum

And the games within them
as absolutely essential

To roman life, to the greatness
of rome as a city.

- [grunting]

[all shouting]

- For symmachus,
religion was transaction.

So when you refuse to hold
games that honored the gods

And bad things happened
to the roman empire,

It was easy for traditionalists
like symmachus to say,

"if we want rome to be
successful again,

Then we need to return
to these old ways."

- [grunting]

- But curbing the influence
of christianity gets harder

As many powerful
roman senators convert.

- Christians were not only
occupying the throne,

But an increasing number
of high-level aristocrats,

Including roman senators,

Were being drawn in its train.

- And soon symmachus
will face a threat

From a far more
unpredictable christian power.

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

Symmachus' journey
to this moment

Began six years earlier
in his villa

Just outside the city of rome.

♪ ♪

- Where did you find this,
memmius?

In this house?

- Any news from the war?

♪ ♪

- Which one?

It's hard to keep up.

- What times we live in.

- There's another figure
by the name of olybrius

Who's younger than symmachus

But also comes
from one of these

Leading aristocratic families.

His family decides
to convert to christianity.

♪ ♪

- We must accept the world
as it is, olybrius.

- Then take your own advice.

Act like a good christian.

Say you're one of us.

Nobody cares if you actually
believe it or not.

♪ ♪

I know you have high hopes
for your son,

But what chance does he have
with christians

On the imperial throne
and packing the senate?

What you believe in your heart
is your business.

- [scoffs]

So I should follow
your example?

- [scoffs]

It's the best solution
for everybody.

- The number of christians
is growing,

And the number of people who
are able to kind of hold out

Are shrinking daily.

- I will not betray
who I am just to fit in.

♪ ♪

- Symmachus could have
converted to christianity,

And with most of the emperors
that he was dealing with

Belonging to that faith,
it would have helped him.

It would have gotten him ahead.

However, he resists that,
because he seems to be

Genuinely committed
to the gods of the past.

- The commitment becomes more
dangerous as christians grow

More stridently anti-pagan.

- We moved from a situation

In which the christians
had been persecuted

Towards a situation in which

The christian emperors
moved with greater

And greater certainty
and strength against paganism.

- Under the emperor theodosius

There's a whole set
of anti-pagan legislation

That gets set into place,

The shutting down
of pagan religious

Rituals and holidays,
the banning of sacrifice,

And closure of pagan temples
and the withdrawal

Of their funding.

♪ ♪

[crowd shouting]

♪ ♪

- Soon christian fanatics
go to destructive extremes.

[crowd shouting]

- You'd have seen the changes
on the streets.

People were taking down

Pagan monuments,

Which were now regarded
as idolatrous.

Statues, for example, of gods,

Or men who were regarded
as gods,

Were being taken down,
were being disfigured,

Were being dismantled.

- The city of rome
is filled with statues.

They decorate the entire front
of the colosseum.

And to christians these statues
present a huge affront,

Because they violate two
of the commandments,

Thou shalt make
no graven images,

And thou shalt have no gods
aside from me.

♪ ♪

- The destruction
of those statues was a way

Of remaking the landscape
of the city itself

To reflect their beliefs.

The colosseum,
as much as we think of it

As a space for entertainment,
was also to some extent

A religious space.

[all shouting]

- For the christians
I think this is

A very high-stakes battle.

They're acting like fanatics
at this point.

They're really extremists,

And they get sort of
this mania

For tearing down statues.

♪ ♪

- Don't! Don't! Stop!

Stop!

Stop!

♪ ♪

[all cheering]

- For somebody like symmachus,
watching a christian mob

Destroy a statue,

That was a tremendous affront,

And it was deeply offensive to
this traditionalist worldview.

- [grunts]
- [grunting]

- As tensions continue
to rise,

Symmachus can no longer sit
idly by.

- No!

- Symmachus fights to protect
rome's pagan monuments

From fanatical christians.

- No!

Back! Go on! Get back!

♪ ♪

- These christians were coming
from the lower social classes,

And they're thinking
that finally

They have their moment.

[dog barking]

♪ ♪

- It would have been
horrifying for figures

Such as symmachus to see this,

Because he had seen, in fact,

The roman state religion
as the guarantor

Of rome's security and safety.

[dog barking]

- But more than statues
are at risk.

- The colosseum sits empty
and unused

For about 90% of the year.

It's a shell of what
it had been.

♪ ♪

- What are we doing
in this old place?

We should leave.
- This old place

Was once
the beating heart of rome.

♪ ♪

If we are to restore
the city we love,

It has to be here.

♪ ♪

- In 399 a.D. He finds
the perfect opportunity.

- Symmachus' son memmius
is appointed

To the praetorship,
a highly prestigious post

Within the city of rome.

- Holding celebratory games
at the colosseum

Is now a privilege held
by rome's senators,

But few are rich enough
to afford them.

- Symmachus is
an incredibly wealthy person,

Wealthy in a way
that's difficult

For us to understand.

He owns agricultural estates
in sicily and north africa.

He owns villas in Italy
around the bay of naples.

Symmachus' estimated
annual income

Was 288,000 gold solidi.

That's about 1.5 tons
of gold per year.

- [laughs]

- But this is his chance.

No expense will be spared here
to celebrate

His son and his heir.

- Symmachus has a year
to get everything ready

For the games,
but he faces obstacles

Unlike anyone before him.

He needs to get three
things in place,

The venue,
the human performers,

And the wild beasts necessary
to make this a success.

But unlike the heyday
of the colosseum,

He'll find each of these
increasingly more difficult

To come by.

♪ ♪

- We are talking about
a huge logistical undertaking.

The infrastructure
that supported the games

In centuries past
has mostly crumbled

By the time symmachus
is trying to put his games on.

We're talking about
much greater difficulty

In acquiring the kinds
of entertainments

That are going to keep
the people of rome

On the edges of their seats.

Those are much harder to get
in 400 a.D.

Than they were at commodus'
time two centuries earlier.

- Even more challenging,
in 399 a.D.,

Western emperor honorius

Shutters all gladiator
training schools.

- The closing
of the gladiatorial schools

Had long been an ambition

Of christian bishops

Throughout
the western mediterranean,

Who saw blood sport
as a blight on the culture.

- While closing
the gladiatorial schools

Is a blow,
there's nobody who's better

Equipped to work around that.

If there's a way to find
entertainments that are still

Going to appeal
to the people of rome,

Symmachus is going
to find them.

- He starts with
the commander in chief

Of the roman army,
stilicho.

[both grunting]

- He's half barbarian.

His father was a vandal
cavalry officer,

But he's also extremely
well-connected.

He's married
to the emperor's niece,

And as such he is absolutely
at the heart of court life,

To such an extent
that he is made guardian

Of the young emperor honorius.

- Stilicho, he's also
extraordinarily successful

On the battlefield

And recognized
as a brilliant general.

And he is literally the man
in charge of holding

The western empire together.

♪ ♪

[crowd cheering]

Symmachus' friendship
with him

Is a doorway
through which symmachus

Can ask all sorts of things.

[crowd shouting]

♪ ♪

- Still have
your fighting touch, I see.

- If you don't keep
your hand in, you lose it.

- [grunting]

[coughing]

- But you're not here
to scout me for your games.

♪ ♪

- The emperor, in his wisdom,

Or someone close to him,

Has closed
all the gladiatorial schools.

- Any strong man
I can lay my hands on

I'll be taking north with me.

- You know I wouldn't ask for
your fighting men, stilicho.

- But prisoners?

With our resources stretched,
we're not taking many lately.

♪ ♪

I'll see what I can do.

- Thank you, my old friend.

- We know this because we have
the letters that symmachus

Wrote to stilicho in which
he puts in requests to have

Prisoners of war sent to him
to fight and die

For the entertainment
of the crowd.

Essentially, symmachus
was pulling every string

That he had available to him

In order to pull
these games off.

♪ ♪

- Stilicho soon marches
his forces north

To confront
a visigothic army

Under the warlord alaric
that is pressing the border

Of the italian homeland.

Meanwhile, in rome,
another enemy arrives, famine.

[all shouting]

- The resources of the
roman empire are stretched

Defending the borders
against hordes

Of marauding barbarians.

Any disruption
to the food supply

Was a huge threat to the very
survival of the city of rome.

You were talking about
potentially tens of thousands

Of people
who could starve to death.

- With war raging throughout
the mediterranean

Famines in the city of rome
are now a fact of life.

- And when people starve,
obviously they get angry.

They get upset.

They're looking for people
to blame.

[all shouting]

- Symmachus' immense
investment

In putting on the great games
at a time when the empire

Was under pressure
from all sides

And hunger stalked the land,

It seems like an odd sort of
set of priorities

To spend your money for that
rather than feeding the romans.

[all shouting]

- There's nothing like
the absence of food

To highlight the inequalities
between the haves

And the have-nots.

And things start to shift
and become

Very much like a tinderbox.

[all shouting]

- Symmachus is at one point
singled out

By the mob in the city.

This is because
he's a prominent citizen,

But it's also probably because
he remains a pagan

In an increasingly
christian city.

[all shouting]

- For symmachus,
it's starting to feel ugly.

♪ ♪

- With his standing
under threat,

Symmachus must remind
rome's citizens

That he's on their side
before it's too late.

[all shouting]

♪ ♪

- Despite the unrest in rome,

On the front line
general stilicho

Is working to find
suitable captives

To fight for symmachus
in the arena.

♪ ♪

- Sword.

♪ ♪

- Prisoners of war
belonged to the general

Who had ultimately
captured them.

Sometimes they were executed
on the spot.

Often they were sold as slaves.

- Rise.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

[both grunting]

♪ ♪

- But sometimes prisoners
of war could be sent back

To rome to fight and die
in the colosseum.

- Good.

You can fight.

♪ ♪

Rise.

- We know from the letters
that symmachus manages

To procure a group
of saxon prisoners of war

To serve as the gladiators
at his games.

- Rise.

- Saxons are renowned fighters,
and he thinks,

"ooh, this is fantastic.

"we'll bring them in,
and they can be

My elite fighting force."

- Send the ones I selected
back to rome.

Make sure senator symmachus
receives them.

- He has great hopes
for these warriors.

- Execute the rest.

- In addition to gladiators,

Symmachus also needs animals
for the beast hunts,

But sourcing them
is going to be a challenge.

- They're running out
of wild animals.

The habitats have disappeared.

They've been hunted
to near extinction.

And they've become
incredibly costly.

For example, we know that
a single lion could cost

Up to 600,000 sesterces,

Which is well north
of a million dollars

In today's terms.

Even though symmachus
is a very rich man,

We're talking
astronomical sums.

- He writes to his contacts
requesting wolfhounds

From britain,
bears from the balkans,

Crocodiles from the nile,
horses from Spain,

And from africa, antelopes,
gazelles, leopards, and lions.

- It's pretty clear
from symmachus' letters

That he's trying to leverage
the resources--

Such as they existed--
of the entire empire.

- He writes to all kinds
of influential people,

Statesmen, local governors,

And if they don't answer,
he just keeps on writing.

♪ ♪

- To help close the deal,

Symmachus showers his
fellow senators with gifts.

- People living at
that echelon of roman society

Were expected to be very
generous with their wealth.

They were expected to
make gifts, to make donations.

It was part of the job.

- Gifts never went awry
in trying to convince people

To do the thing that symmachus
wanted them to do.

So we have to imagine him
pulling on

All of these strings
of his network,

Asking for favors,
cajoling, bribing,

Sending gifts trying to get
people to provide the things

That he needs
to put these games on.

- Symmachus has to spend
a fortune.

They are figures
that are absolutely

Shocking to contemporaries
that he'd spend

This much money for the games.

♪ ♪

- He may have spent
something like a ton of gold,

Perhaps in today's dollars

$40 million to throw a party.

- It's enough to feed
20,000 families for a year.

For symmachus this is
an all-or-nothing gamble.

- Even for someone
as wealthy as him

It was going to be
an enormous chunk of change.

Symmachus had seen in the last
really 25 years

His political influence
waning.

And he felt that his own
personal power and influence

Was slipping away,
and so this was a very,

Very big gamble on his part.

He was going to use these games
not just to remind the romans

Of their own past but also
to assert

His own personal
family preeminence.

So symmachus really
needs these games

To succeed,
especially if he wants to have

A political future in rome.

♪ ♪

- Do you really believe
it will work?

- My son, a great set of games
will revive this whole city

And bring the family
who presented them immortality.

- Even if it works,

Is it worth losing
our family's fortune?

♪ ♪

- The final task is restoring
the colosseum itself.

An earthquake and a fire
in the 3rd century

Followed by decades of neglect
have all taken their toll.

- It was also, as a result of
the movement of the emperors

From the city of rome
to northern Italy,

No longer the object
of the kind of wealth

And patronage that the emperors
were capable

Of bringing to bear upon it.

It was becoming derelict
and certainly underused.

- Rome at this period
is almost completely

Unrecognizable from the way
that it was in its heyday.

They simply don't have
the money

To replace
the civic infrastructure,

And it's a pretty dark time.

A lot of things
have been torn away.

A lot of the stones and rocks
have been carried away

To build buildings elsewhere.

So he has to do a lot of
renovations of the colosseum

Before he can even hope
to stage any games there,

And it's a massive undertaking.

It's a huge building.

♪ ♪

- For symmachus, the colosseum
is still a powerful symbol.

So keeping the colosseum
intact was an important way

For symmachus
and the other patricians

To maintain the image of rome.

♪ ♪

- We have a problem.

♪ ♪

- Now just weeks from
the first day of his games,

Symmachus faces
a devastating setback.

♪ ♪

- They say they wouldn't eat
on the journey here.

♪ ♪

- Egyptian crocodiles
starved to death.

♪ ♪

- And the bears?

The 300 bears?

- We have three, all cubs.

♪ ♪

- There's an entire
infrastructure necessary

To put on these games,
procure these animals,

Transport them to rome,

Keep them alive

Under the stresses of the
fourth and fifth century

Have just fallen away.

♪ ♪

- But somehow symmachus
procures enough wild animals

To proceed with his games.

The captured saxon prisoners
of war also finally arrive.

- Well, symmachus looking
at these saxon warriors

Is thinking, "these are perfect
colosseum fodder for my games."

They're like wild beasts.
They're like objects.

These are all
of the building blocks

That he requires for a
dramatic games in the arena.

♪ ♪

- But the prisoners refuse
to act as symmachus expects.

- What's going on here?

On your feet now.

I said on your feet.

♪ ♪

Fight.

♪ ♪

Fight!

♪ ♪

- Why are they not fighting?

- Maybe they don't see
the point.

- Symmachus needs
these saxons,

People with this
fearsome reputation,

Prisoners of war,

Who could meet his demand
for people to fight

And die for the entertainment
of the crowd.

- If you all fight for me,

I promise
you will all be rewarded...

♪ ♪

Handsomely.

- Come up.

♪ ♪

- Despite challenges,
the day symmachus

Has yearned for approaches.

But not everyone in rome
is excited.

♪ ♪

- The radical christians
really wanted to eradicate

And do away with
the gladiatorial games,

Not only because those things
were full of religion

That they didn't agree with,
but also because

They were a glorification
of violence.

- These men have long felt
that blood sport,

That death for entertainment

Was a blight
on the religious health

Of the people and an affront
to christian values.

♪ ♪

But the games also remained
popular with the people,

With everyday christians

Sometimes attending church

Before going to the games
in the afternoon.

♪ ♪

- For symmachus, the day
of the opening of the games

Is the culmination
of everything

That he's worked for
for a really long time.

This is for him his attempt
to turn back the clock,

To honor the gods in the way
that he's capable of doing,

And return some of rome's
previous prosperity too.

♪ ♪

[crowd shouting]

- People of rome,

It is my honor to introduce
our greatest prefect of rome,

Symmachus memmius!

[crowd cheering]

♪ ♪

- All this is for you.

- You're amazing, father.

♪ ♪

- On opening day,
when symmachus looked around,

There was more than
a bit of excitement.

In some respects the colosseum
would have looked like

The rome of old.

♪ ♪

- I can imagine him
sitting there

With a sense of pride
at what he had accomplished,

But inside nagging at him,
always aware

At his consciousness is,

This is a world
that is coming to an end.

♪ ♪

[crowd cheering]

- Those fears
soon prove justified.

♪ ♪

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

- Things go very wrong
with the saxon fighters.

♪ ♪

- Symmachus' games
are finally underway.

♪ ♪

- [shouting]

[crowd cheering]

But as they proceed, his
prized saxon warriors decide

To choose their own fate.

♪ ♪

- These saxon fighters,
nobody's really watching them,

And they take advantage
of this moment.

♪ ♪

- Rather than submit
to the indignity and terror

Of fighting
in gladiatorial games,

These saxons kill each other.

- Ahh!

[crowd cheering]

♪ ♪

- Symmachus
is absolutely furious.

He's lost his elite
fighting force.

♪ ♪

- Symmachus had nothing
but contempt for the saxons,

Called them, "this bunch
of slaves more worthless

Than spartacus," which is,
from the perspective

Of an elite roman,
about the most

Damning thing you can say.

♪ ♪

- So this moment is really kind
of emblematic of where we are

At this point in the empire.

♪ ♪

- It's nothing.

- If you can't even
force prisoners of war

To fight and die
for you anymore,

Then what is the roman empire?

This is something they've
been doing for centuries.

To not be able to force
this group

To fight and die in the arena
says a lot about how far

Roman power had fallen.

- [grunting]

- Despite this loss of the
saxons the games do not stop.

Even christian senators
attend.

- The simple idea
of staging games

Was an unsettling one
to christian senators,

But it wasn't necessarily
something that they absolutely

Thought could not happen.

- [grunts]

- There's no question
that christian senators

Would have attended
symmachus' games,

Because more than
anything else,

This is a huge social event
for rome's elite.

And even though some members
of rome's elite

Remained pagan,
others had converted

To christianity,
what tied them together

Far more than faith
was the fact that they were

Members of rome's elite.

- But then there's a second
unwelcome surprise.

His name is telemachus,
a fanatical monk

Fiercely opposed
to rome's old ways.

- He is an eastern
ascetic monk,

Someone who has renounced all
worldly pleasure

In his search
for christian god.

- He comes to rome
from the east,

And because of that
looks with terrible eyes

Upon the things that were
happening in the colosseum.

He's a man who wants to see
that world view

Come to an end.

- [grunting]

[crowd cheering]

- He's the exact opposite
of a roman pleasure-seeker.

- In the name
of the one true god.

- He was on a collision course

With the powers that be
in rome,

And his beliefs
are at complete odds

With pagan beliefs.

- In the name
of the one true god.

[all shouting]

♪ ♪

- What is he doing?

- As far as he's concerned,

What's happening
in the amphitheater

Had to be stopped.

♪ ♪

- Stop him!

- [grunting]

♪ ♪

- He wants to end these games.

- In the name of our true god,
stop, stop.

♪ ♪

This is against
god's teachings.

[crowd booing]

- Take him from here now!

- Leave.
Leave now, or face his wrath.

- What telemachus did
was unprecedented

And was shocking.

It really was the first time
in close to 600 years

That anyone had tried to stop
a gladiatorial fight.

[crowd booing]

♪ ♪

- At any event where there's
going to be bloodshed,

The crowd has
an expectation of violence.

The bloodshed
pulled the crowd in

And kind of enraptured them.

The people of rome
were always capable

Of exploding into violence.

- The crowd became so outraged

At having
its entertainment interrupted

That they threw stones
at telemachus.

- Our lord,
the one true god protects me.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

- After years of preparation,

Symmachus faces disaster.

His lavish games
are disrupted by a christian,

Who is then stoned to death.

[crowd shouting]

- So to have a christian monk
come in and disrupt the game,

It's like stepping right
into the cultural fault line

That's dividing people
right at the heart of rome.

[all shouting]

- If symmachus
was trying to revive

The traditional values of rome,
then it's a complete failure.

Roman society had moved on.

- Word of telemachus' death
in the colosseum

Reaches the emperor in milan.

Horrified by the violence,
he orders

A total ban on gladiatorial
combat throughout the empire.

- Things were never
going to be the same.

Nobody was ever going to
spend the amount of money

That symmachus did.

Nobody was ever going
to go back in time

And make rome the center
of the universe again.

[all shouting]

♪ ♪

[birds chirping]

- Crushed by the failure
of his games,

Symmachus retires
to his villa...

♪ ♪

And in the winter of 402 a.D.
Falls ill.

♪ ♪

- Father, you should rest.

- Memmius, I'm fine.

Get on with your work, my son.

This is my legacy.

[laughs]

- Symmachus is the last
of his kind,

The last of his breed.

He's a little bit of a
tragic figure for those of us

Who have some sympathies
for the glory that was rome.

♪ ♪

- Symmachus died less than
a year after his games.

His last letter
is to stilicho and complains

That he has not recovered
from an illness.

Perhaps he died a broken man.

- The battles that he fights
over the course of his life

On behalf of rome's
pagan past symbolize

The turning of the guard,
the changing of an era.

- Soon after, the borders
of rome's western empire

Collapse,
and in 408 a.D.

Stilicho is beheaded
on emperor honorius' orders

During a bloody purge
of the army.

Two years later, rome itself
is sacked by visigothic armies

Commanded by his nemesis,
alaric.

[all grunting]

♪ ♪

- Finally, in 476,

The last western roman emperor
is deposed.

- A century after
symmachus' games,

The city of rome
would have shrunk

To a tenth
of its former size.

Maybe 100,000 people living
there instead of a million.

The city would have been filled
with crumbling buildings,

With weeds growing
in the streets.

It was a shell
of its former self.

- You can't have a colosseum
without an empire

To sustain it,
to bring in the wealth,

And the network of supplies
to make it work.

When all those things are gone
there's no real rationale

For the colosseum.

The great christian scholar
the venerable bede said,

"as long as the colosseum
stands, rome shall stand.

"when the colosseum falls,
rome will fall.

And when rome falls,
the whole world will fall."

- The colosseum is abandoned.

It becomes a ruin, and later
on it becomes a quarry.

In the medieval period,
when they're trying to build

A christian rome,
they take its stone

And use it for buildings such
as st. Peter's in the vatican.

It's ironic that this place
which had always been

So anti-christian
should end up at the heart

Of the christian faith.

- To come face-to-face
with the colosseum today

Is to confront some of
our most complex emotions

About ancient empire.

On the one hand, it is in fact
exquisitely beautiful.

But then you remember
what they did there.

♪ ♪

- Built on the backs
of slaves,

It represents the blood lust,

The decadence, the violence,
the glory, and depravity

Of the roman empire.

- Ahh!

- The colosseum is the place
where romans became romans.

When they saw foreign
prisoners of war,

When they saw criminals
executed,

When they saw exotic beasts,

When they saw gladiators
fighting on their behalf,

It defined them as a people

In terms of blood
and violence and power.

All of these things
were at the heart

Of how the roman empire
was built

And how it sustained itself.

- The colosseum tells us
a lot about the romans.

It tells us about
the importance of a monument

Of prestige, of magnificence.

It tells us about their
love of scale, the vision.

And all of these things
are represented

In this magnificent building
that still stands today.

♪ ♪