All language subtitles for Drain.the.Oceans.S02E15.1080p.WEB.h264-TBS_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Where
emperors reign.

And gladiators entertain.

Site of luxury, excess and the
ever-present danger of the mob.

For five centuries, Rome
dominates the western world,

but the real secret of the
empire's power lies elsewhere,

beneath the seas
it once commanded.

JON: Without the sea and
without controlling the trade

routes of the sea, there
would have been no empire.

NARRATOR: Imagine if we
could empty the oceans,

letting the water drain away,

to reveal the secrets
of the seafloor.

Now, we can.

Using accurate data and
astonishing technology to

bring light once
again to a lost world.

This time, how does
a mysterious lake,

miles from the city,

explain Rome's mastery
of the Mediterranean.

PETER: It was built on a
scale unlike anything else,

only the Roman emperors
were this ambitious.

NARRATOR: What can a maritime
graveyard unearthed in an

Italian field tell us of
Rome's one great weakness?

And how does a lost marvel on
a distant Mediterranean shore

explain Rome's greatest
ever feat of engineering.

BEVERLY: The Romans
took technology to a
whole 'nother level.

[theme music plays],

NARRATOR: When the
great historian, Livy,

sets out to write the
story of his city,

he knows it all comes
down to location.

LIVY: Gods and men
together chose this place.

Hills with pure air.

A convenient river.

A sea, handy for our needs.

All these advantages
marked us out for glory.

NARRATOR: Rome is the
world's first superpower,

but it doesn't start that way.

Over the course of 500 years,

it grows from a
fortified settlement

to a powerful
republic and finally,

an empire.

Demanding the allegiance
of over 16 million people,

from Britain in the north,
down the coast of Africa

and into the Middle East.

Rome's power rests on the
unrivalled might of its army.

And engineering skills
that astonish its rivals.

But that's not all.

JON: So everyone thinks
they know the story of the

Roman Empire, it's a story
of legions and of roads and

of building massive structures.

But the key really was
control of the sea.

NARRATOR: Controlling
the seas is essential,

because Rome struggles
to feed its people.

By the first century AD, the
population of the capital

swells to one million.

The largest city the
world has ever seen.

And if those people
go hungry, they riot.

JON: What Rome
is dependent on,

obtaining about 150 to 300
million tons of grain annually

to keep the population fed,
if you were an emperor,

you wanted to be seen as
someone who was providing

for the population.

So really, without
that grain coming in,

they couldn't
hold on to power.

NARRATOR: How the
emperors managed this has
long puzzled historians.

But now, buried underground
and miles inland,

an extraordinary discovery
could unlock the mystery.

Rome's challenge isn't shipping
grain from the Empire.

It's getting it to
the city itself.

15 miles from the sea.

There must have been a huge
port somewhere on the coast,

or inland, up the River Tiber.

But its whereabouts
are a mystery.

Today, international teams are
trying to piece together the

puzzle of the lost port.

Archaeologist, Peter Campbell,
is determined to discovery how

Rome handled its
biggest problem.

PETER: Feeding nearly a
million people would have

been an incredible task.

The ability to get that
material from around the

Mediterranean up to the city
took just an incredible amount

of human willpower and labor.

SIMON: You need
anchorage space,

you need harbor facilities.

NARRATOR: Simon Kay
leads a group of experts

who are studying
the lost port.

SIMON: You need the
infrastructure to support them

and you need the
administrative framework

indeed, to enable
them to function.

NARRATOR: Clues, first
unearthed over a century ago,

are tantalizing.

SIMON: The early sources
are very very important.

They saw things,
they recorded them.

NARRATOR: Historical texts
refer to a port without equal.

Somewhere on the coast,
near the mouth of the Tiber.

Established by the
Emperor Claudius by 46 AD.

And extended by the Emperor
Trajan, over 60 years later.

The Romans call it Portus.

A single carved relief,

dating from the late
second century AD

hints at its magnificence.

But gives no sense of its
true scale, or how it worked.

Other sources speak of a
hexagonal basin at the center

of a vast complex, called
the Portus Traiani.

Could evidence of it still
survive, 2,000 years later?

Simon is convinced
that it does,

about 15 miles south of Rome,
where he's come to investigate

strange ruins and
a mysterious lake.

It has six clearly defined
sites and looks manmade.

It covers almost 80 acres,

as large as 13 Roman
coliseums joined together.

But there's a problem.

It's two miles from the
Mediterranean coast.

Could the heart of the legendary
Portus lie so far in land.

And where is the rest of it?

SIMON: So little is known about
the layout of the ancient port.

It's very, very hard
to understand how it
all fits together.

NARRATOR: Archaeologists
survey close to the lake.

MAN: Through here, then you
just get in the different

phases, running
down through there.

NARRATOR: Probing beneath
the surface for any evidence.

MAN: About a meter, a
meter and a half or so,

four meters you start
hitting the water table.

NARRATOR: Combining
discoveries made here during

past construction work.

And these new archaeological
investigations.

It's now possible to produce
a new window into the past.

The mud and silt of
2,000 years drains away.

And six feet
below the surface,

buried archaeological
treasure.

The remains, not of a port.

But something that
might have used it.

A boat.

From this field, two
miles from the coast,

four other vessels
emerge into the light.

It's an extraordinary
discovery.

The archaeologists
pour over the evidence.

And realize they are some
of the most complete

Roman vessels ever discovered.

It's even possible
to date one of them.

PETER: Based on the
construction features,

we can estimate that it dates
to the second century AD.

NARRATOR: In the
second century,

the Roman Empire
is at its height.

If it ever needed
a truly grand port,

this is the moment.

But if these
beautifully preserved
boats used this port,

why are they
so far inland?

Peter Campbell
finds more evidence.

Not far from the wooden boats,

the remains of what looks
like a long, low wall.

And it's definitely Roman.

More surveys reveal this is
just one section of an early

6,000 foot long structure.

Now, mostly hidden
beneath the ground.

Further archaeological work
unearths a second wall,

curling back
towards the first.

And deposits on the walls
give a further clue.

PETER: If you walk
along the structure,

you can actually see calcium
deposits at a certain level

and it creates this white line
along the length of it and

those are actually
marine concretions.

NARRATOR: Marine concretions
are sediments that cling to

structures at seawater
level, leaving a white mark.

This whole area, close
to the hexagonal basin,

was once under water.

It's another astonishing find.

In Roman days, this is
where the coast was.

And the curving structures make
up a huge protective harbor.

This must be Portus.

But one big question remains.

The city is 15 miles
further inland.

Connected to the sea by the
River Tiber and the mouth of

the river is nearly
two miles from Portus.

So how did food
ever get to Rome?

NARRATOR: The architects who
designed Portus faced one key

challenge, feeding Rome's
million strong population.

So how does the harbor connect
to the city, 15 miles away?

Moving huge volumes of
cargo by existing roads

would have been costly.

And the most obvious route
to Rome, the River Tiber,

is too shallow for
merchant vessels.

Studying the ancient
boats dug up nearby,

Peter Campbell finds
an important clue.

PETER: Rather than
having a V shape,

as you would have
with a seagoing ship,

this actually has a
relatively flat bottom,

which would have
allowed it to travel in
much shallower waters.

It was used within the
harbor and up the Tiber.

This vessel's an important
piece of the puzzle in the

network that connected
the ocean to the city.

NARRATOR: The harbor lies
more than a mile from the
banks of the Tiber.

How could a cargo carrying
vessel reach the river?

Peter consults the
archaeological surveys.

And spots a set of parallel
lines near the hexagonal basin.

They look like the remains
of a manmade channel.

The data reveals a major
canal system connected

Portus Harbor to the Tiber.

An astonishing feat
of Roman engineering.

PETER: If you look at the
landscape of the river today,

there's the main channel
that we're in right now.

But in the past, there would
have been multiple other

canals, and we've only
recently discovered those

others through geoarchaeology.

NARRATOR: The archaeologists
now understand the full scale

of the Portus complex and
how it connects to Rome.

But there is still a mystery.

At the heart of the port,
beyond the vast main harbor,

lies the huge enclosed
hexagonal basin.

Apparently, unique
in the ancient world.

But what was it for?

Today, from the surface, it
seems like an ordinary lake.

But by using the latest
computer visualization

techniques, we
can look deeper.

As the water seeps
away, it exposes,

not the muddy banks
of a natural lake,

but a crumbling brick wall.

Similar walls support the
other sides of the hexagon

and then something startling.

A white block, with a
hole through the center.

One of dozens protruding
from the brickwork.

Close by, the
remains of a column.

And just visible on it, Roman
symbols for the number 23.

Can ruins scattered nearby help
reveal the hexagon's purpose?

Simon Keay thinks so.

To his expert eye, they
are Roman and important.

SIMON: I'm currently standing
on one of the largest

surviving buildings
from Portus.

NARRATOR: The thick walls,
large enclosed space and a

wide opening all
point to one thing.

These are warehouses.

Warehouses designed to store
the most important commodity

in the Roman Empire, grain
for the people of Rome.

SIMON: They are the largest
place of grain storage in the

whole Portus complex,
making them the largest

grain warehouses in
the Roman Empire.

NARRATOR: It's now
clear what the drained
hexagonal lake is for.

Mooring rings for
ships to unload,

a broad quayside
surrounding the lake.

And the numbered
column docking station,

one of dozens in
the whole complex.

The hexagon is the
heart of Portus.

A purpose built facility
to manage dozens of
cargo ships at a time.

Decades of archaeological
work haven't simply found some

ancient docks and warehouse.

They've uncovered the secret
to the success of Rome itself,

allowing us to understand
exactly how the emperors

fed a million people.

Now, for the first time
in almost two millennia,

the true scale and brilliance
of Portus is revealed in full.

Approaching ships arrive
at the outer harbor.

Some moor here.

Others head further
into the port.

To dock at numbered
mooring rings.

The great basin can
hold over 100 vessels.

Surrounding them, another
engineering marvel and a hint

of the majesty of Rome.

Not only warehouses
and harbor offices,

but giant temples
and statues too.

The sheer volume of goods
passing through Portus is

beyond anything the
world has ever seen.

While a host of smaller barges
wait to ferry cargo through

the canals, to the river
Tiber and onto Rome.

The hexagonal basin at Portus
is the final crucial link in

the supply chain from the
Empire to Rome itself.

The ultimate symbol of
Rome's mastery of the seas.

JON: In Portus, we're seeing
the Roman Empire at its height,

we're seeing the first
and second centuries AD,

they're building
a massive port.

And it's the most advanced,
it's the most monumental,

it's the most spectacular port
and it's actually making a

statement about Rome.

NARRATOR: Vessels from
across the Empire flock

to this engineering marvel.

Can the surprising cargo of
one ship destined for Portus

explain how Rome survives one
of its greatest ever disasters?

NARRATOR: The Mediterranean,

superhighway of
the Roman Empire.

For five centuries, it's
crisscrossed by merchant

ships, many carrying
grain to Portus.

Very few have ever been found.

But off the coast of Spain,
near the city of Alicante,

an ancient shipwreck is
discovered by two amateur

divers, Jose Bou
and Antoine Ferrer.

Maritime archaeologists name
it after them, the Bou Ferrer.

When Carols De Juan
hears about it,

he sets out to discover more.

CARLOS: We have
seen everything,

so a sea break
from Roman period,

right underneath where
we are right now.

It is absolutely emotional.

Emotional moment.

And I felt that it was the
beginning of something.

NARRATOR: 80 feet
below the surface,

something rare and precious.

The bones of the Bou Ferrer
and the remains of her cargo.

Carlos thinks its
Roman, but is he right?

And what was she carrying?

The Mediterranean empties.

And light pours once again
onto this ancient and

mysterious ship.

Spread across the seafloor,
a mountain of amphorae,

many completely intact,
despite lying at the bottom of

the Mediterranean
for many centuries.

The storage jars are
used to carry food,

oil and wine in
the ancient world.

Clear evidence that
this is a Roman wreck.

The sheer number of amphorae
suggests she was an unusually

large cargo ship, but
little of her frame remains.

Just a few timbers from
the hull have survived
the ravages of time.

CARLOS: It is a great
opportunity for the

archaeology to learn more
about those big vessels,

those merchant vessels
of Roman period.

NARRATOR: The fully drained
remains reveal a shape that's

typical of a Roman
merchant ship,

but much bigger than most.

Pulling her skeleton together
from the bottom of the sea,

we can recreate the
Bou Ferrer as she was

on the day she sank.

30 feet wide and
almost 100 feet long,

she's larger than
a tennis court.

Capable of carrying
over 200 tons of cargo.

CARLOS: We have
other questions,

so we have to investigate
inside of the shipwreck.

NARRATOR: So little
remains of the ship.

Carlos must look to the
cargo, to learn more.

The team raise some of
the jars to the surface.

Each weighs nearly 140 pounds.

On land, they're handled
delicately and examined

in minute detail.

CARLOS: We have set to
discover some pottery

fragments that have a
waterproof resin inside.

NARRATOR: Waterproof
resin is a key clue.

It means the amphorae
carried liquid.

And in some of them, ancient
sediment from that liquid

reveals something else.

Fish bones.

The amphorae carry one of the
most popular products of the

Roman economy, the super
food of the ancient world.

Fish sauce, known as garum.

JON: Well, garum, or fish
sauce is basically a condiment

that you would add to food
to enhance its flavor,

as you would today, as you
would do with soy sauce,

or something like that.

And that's because Roman
food really was a bit bland.

NARRATOR: And this is
before they had tomatoes,

before they had pizza,
before they had, you know,

the things we think of
in terms of Italian food.

So the Bou Ferrer was
carrying fish sauce.

But where had it come from?

The shape of the amphorae
gives Carlos a clue.

CARLOS: We knew that that
kind of amphoras are related

to the fisheries from
the South of Spain.

NARRATOR: But where was
the Bou Ferrer taking them?

Returning to the drained wreck
and removing layers of the

amphorae reveals
further evidence.

A secret cargo
hidden for centuries.

On either side of the
keel, strange metal ingots.

The team prizes 22 of
them from the wreck.

Each weighs 140 pounds.

In the laboratory, careful
examination of the ingots

reveals something unexpected.

The hidden cargo is not
gold, or silver, it's lead.

And there's something else.

All the ingots found on
Bou Ferrer are stamped
with the letters, IMP.

It's the mark of
the Imperator,

the Latin word for emperor.

CARLOS: Those marks are
telling us that this ingots

belongs to the emperor
and that was like, "Wow."

That was just the moment
where the Bou Ferrer

changed from such a
large big Roman vessel,

to something
absolutely different.

A vessel that has been able
to link in the story of Rome.

NARRATOR: The Bou Ferrer
isn't just another cargo ship.

It's taking at least a ton of
metal to the most powerful man

in the world.

So which emperor could it be
destined for and why does he

need a boatload of lead?

NARRATOR: Off the
coast of Spain,

a remarkable Roman shipwreck,
called the Bou Ferrer,

conceals a secret cargo.

A fortune in lead,

possibly destined for the
emperor of Rome himself.

The drained wreck
holds clues that could
reveal which emperor.

Hidden amongst the amphorae
are two weathered coins.

The coins are made of bronze.

On one side, a faint image.

Almost invisible marks prove
the coins were stamped around

AD 66, during the reign of
one of the most infamous

emperors of them all.

Nero.

The information from the coins
allows Carlos to do something

even more remarkable.

Date the sinking of the Bou
Ferrer to the time of one of

Rome's greatest disasters.

In 64 AD, an inferno ravages
the city for six days.

According to legend,
Nero plays his fiddle,

while his capital burns.

Whether that's true or not,
the huge damage gives him the

chance to rebuild the
city in his own image.

JON: The great fire of Rome
destroyed about two thirds of

the city and there was a
massive rebuilding campaign

in the years that followed
and they obviously,

needed the raw
materials to do that.

Lead was a very
important part of that.

NARRATOR: Lead lines pipes, in
all kinds of Roman plumbing.

Like the luxurious bathhouses
enjoyed by the wealthy elite.

Carlos believes the emperor's
mark is evidence that this

cargo is destined for
Nero's very own palace,

the lavish Domus Aurea,
the Golden House.

This means the ingots
belonged to Nero himself.

And the Bou Ferrer is
sailing for Portus.

So she likely sinks before
Nero's death in 68AD.

But there's one
final question.

Why did the Bou Ferrer
and her imperial cargo

fail to make it to Portus?

The drained wreck
offers some clues.

The amphorae are off center,

they've shifted towards
the port side.

Such a heavy cargo would
never be loaded like this.

So what could cause some
5,000 amphorae to move?

Carlos believes that the Bou
Ferrer runs into a storm.

A large wave strikes the hull,
causing the cargo to shift,

the vessel to list
to her port side,

making her
impossible to steer.

And allowing more waves
to come over her decks

and slowly fill her hold.

CARLOS: And there you are
done, it's a matter of time,

maybe 20 minutes, maybe
one hour, but you are done.

NARRATOR: As Rome
masters the seas,

ships like Bou Ferrer are
the Empire's lifeblood,

carrying precious metals,
slaves and especially grain,

to and from Portus and harbors
all across the Mediterranean.

Spreading the power
and influence of Rome.

Including a strategic
base in modern day Israel,

what the Romans called Judea.

Its capital,
Caesarea Maritima,

stands at the crossroads
of Africa and Asia.

To the Romans, it's the
gateway to the riches of the

East, an important source
of grain and exotic spices.

Transporting these treasures
to Rome requires a harbor.

But there are major problems.

No natural inlets
protect from waves.

A sandy coastline offers no
solid footing for building and

there's a constant
threat of earthquakes.

But according to
historical records,

two decades before
the birth of Jesus,

Roman engineers
defy nature here.

They construct a
grand offshore harbor,

transforming Caesarea
into a wealthy trade hub.

It's a remarkable feat of
engineering, yet today,

it's nowhere to be seen.

For decades, investigators

like National Geographic
explorer Beverly Goodman,

have been trying
to find evidence.

BEVERLY: We have a pretty good
idea of what the harbor might

have looked like, because the
historian, Flavius Josephus,

left us a record.

The entrance of the harbor
had towers and statues.

You can kind of picture it
being this monumental harbor,

comparable to something
you would see in Rome.

NARRATOR: But over
the centuries,

the harbor disappears.

Only traces of this
great Roman outpost remain,

scattered on dry land.

As for what's
left of the harbor itself,

the focus of Beverly's
investigation must be offshore.

What she finds underwater is
promising, but far from clear.

BEVERLY: There's a lot of
uncertainty about which parts

of the harbor are natural
and which of them are the

artificial features.

NARRATOR: There are
shapes that could be
natural or manmade.

Meticulous investigation reveals
they're resting on sand.

There's no natural
bedrock underneath.

It's a sure sign they're
all manmade and could be

part of the lost harbor.

BEVERLY: Everything
that you look at,

you realize it was put there,
it was placed there and then

you start to think about that,
you start to really understand

the scale of what
this place was like.

NARRATOR: To work out the size
and orientation of the ancient

harbor, the team must first
create a comprehensive

sonar map of the seafloor.

BEVERLY: So this kind of
survey is getting our baseline

maps, our basic
information, that from that,

we can go and find targets.

NARRATOR: Combining years
of diving surveys with these

latest scans, it's possible
to drain the waters from the

Eastern Mediterranean and
expose what's left of the

ancient harbor of
Caesarea Maritima,

for the first time in
almost 2,000 years.

As the water recedes, it
lays bare a strangely shaped

structure on the seafloor.

This long jagged mass of rock
resembling a natural reef

stretches into
the empty basin.

Opposite, another
wider mass reaches out,

almost a third of a mile.

These are the remains of the
breakwaters of a massive port,

that spanned over 40 acres,

the harbor of
Caesarea Maritima.

So how did the Romans build
something so monumental on

nothing more than sand?

NARRATOR: Over 2,000
years ago in Judea,

Romans perform an engineering
miracle at a place called

Caesarea Maritima.

They construct the largest
artificial harbor in the

ancient world.

Revealed for the first
time in centuries,

the foundations of the huge
harbor walls had to be built

on shifting sand.

It seems an impossible task.

Beverly Goodman has
come to the site of
the ancient harbor,

to take samples from
its underwater remains.

The team insert a pipe
deep into the seafloor.

To draw up traces
from the past.

[mechanical clicking].

BEVERLY: So, we managed to
get a core in very deep.

Next up, is to open it,
see what we have inside,

see what surprises
wait for us.

Oh, good.

Alright, we got quite a few
changes we need to log here

and take a look at.

Wow, this is kind
of surprising,

I didn't think it was gonna
have quite so much variation.

On the upper part of the core,
we have this natural sediment.

We really have this period
where the site is nearly

abandoned for
many, many years.

Then as we go down the core
and we start to get periods

where there's actually
people around,

we start to see more pottery,
we start to see rubble,

we start to see changes that
relate to the fact that people

were there and they were
influencing the environment,

they were building.

NARRATOR: The sediment layer
from the time of the harbor

reveals a clue.

The rubble contains
an unusual mineral.

A particular type of volcanic
ash, called pozzolana.

It's not natural
to this region.

The source is over
1,000 miles to the west,

the slopes of Mount
Vesuvius in Italy.

Why bring pozzolana
all this way?

The reason still lies on the
seafloor of Caesarea Maritima.

Traces of a revolutionary
Roman invention.

A new kind of concrete.

BEVERLY: We could actually see
those elements of the concrete

and know that this is
the fingerprint of the

presence of the Romans.

NARRATOR: Historical records
reveal that Roman engineers

ferry tons of
pozzolana to Caesarea.

BEVERLY: To imagine that
they are shipping across the

Mediterranean 2,000 years ago,
essentially barges that have

volcanic ash
coming from Italy,

all the way across the
Mediterranean to the Eastern

Mediterranean is really
something phenomenal.

NARRATOR: The Romans use
concrete to build on land,

throughout their Empire, but
then they realize that by

adding the pozzolana ash
to their concrete mix,

they can use it
underwater too.

JON: So they're bringing
this volcanic ash in,

then mixing it with the stone
rubble and the lime to create

concrete, but it only hardens
when you pour water on it.

So if you take it into the
sea, once it hits the water,

it hardens.

NARRATOR: It's known
as hydraulic concrete.

And it's a huge milestone in
the history of construction.

For years, how the Romans used
this modern building material

to create this harbor
remains a mystery.

But finds on the
seabed provide a clue.

BEVERLY: So one of the
findings in Caesarea is

preserved wood, wood
from 2,000 years ago

that was used to create
the framework for them
to pour the concrete,

to create these large
structures of the harbor.

NARRATOR: 2,000 years ago,
the Romans work with concrete,

just like we do today.

They build wooden structures,
known as caissons, that hold

liquid concrete in place and
then drop them into the sea.

Flooded with seawater,
the mixture solidifies,

creating solid
concrete blocks.

Manmade bedrock, on which to
build the first artificial

harbor in the world.

We now know how Caesarea
Maritima was constructed.

But there's one mystery left.

Contemporary accounts suggest
the harbor disappears,

barely a century after
its construction.

Amongst the drained ruins,

there's a clue
to what happened.

All the elements of the
harbor still remain,

but they lie shattered
on the seafloor.

So what might have led to
the collapse of the harbor?

In the core samples,

layers of sediment from after
the construction of the harbor,

help build a picture of events.

BEVERLY: When we find these
layers and when we see it's

not like the deposits that
are above or below it,

so we can see that it's in
fact an isolated incident.

NARRATOR: These layers suggest
that something cataclysmic

churned up the sediment.

BEVERLY: There is a reference
that talks about a possible

tsunami in the year 115 AD.

Maybe that's the
event, maybe not,

it does coincide nicely with
the finds that we have and

the ages that we see.

NARRATOR: It seems likely that
this great artificial harbor

is reduced to a fraction
of its former glory,

just as Rome tightens its grip
on the Mediterranean world.

But Caesarea's part
in the history of the
Roman Empire is not over.

The Romans apply the power
of their wondrous concrete

everywhere, establishing
ports and harbors across the

Mediterranean
wherever they need.

JON: This is the first and
last time the Mediterranean

was under the
control of one power.

It wasn't a space
where wars were fought,

it was a place where trade
took place and that's why the

Romans have this kind of
relationship with the sea,

it's our sea, Mare Nostrum.

NARRATOR: 1,000 years will
pass before other nations,

Portugal and Spain,
come close to matching

what the Romans achieve.

Domination of the known world,
through an empire of the seas.

Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.