Hello my friend,
Welcome to humorously dull history for sleepers.
My name is Stephen Dalton.
And it is my hope that as I tell you lots of different facts about particular periods in history tonight,
You find me so incredibly boring that you fall asleep very quickly.
And maybe.
.
.
Even with a smile upon your face.
It is humorous history after all.
Tonight I'll tell you.
The humorously dull history.
Of ancient Rome.
Ancient Rome.
Which famously was not built in a day.
Experts agree it took closer to a thousand years.
And that nobody noticed when it was finished.
As it was a Tuesday.
And most of Rome was at the Colosseum.
So,
Just before we get started,
Allow yourself to settle into this moment.
Leave the day that was behind.
Feel the support.
Of whatever you lie upon.
If your eyes aren't closed yet.
Allow them to close.
Whatever has been.
Has been.
It's history now.
Whatever will be.
Will be.
All you have is this moment.
And my voice.
So allow your curiosity to be a part of this pleasant experience as I tell you the humorously dull history of ancient Rome.
Part 1 in which the Roman Empire Has not yet got round.
To existing.
If you've arrived expecting ancient Rome,
I'm afraid you've come much too early.
The marble isn't ready.
The emperors haven't turned up yet.
The legions are still several centuries away.
Julius Caesar hasn't even had the decency to be born yet.
Instead you have several hills.
A few huts.
Quite a lot of mud.
And a growing feeling that somebody.
.
.
Really ought to organise things a little better.
It is difficult to imagine.
That one day this place will rule much of the known world.
At the moment,
It would struggle to rule a damp field.
The year is somewhere around 900 B.
C.
Nobody knows the exact date.
Because.
Nobody has thought to write it down yet.
This is one of the recurring inconveniences of ancient history.
The people who were actually there really appreciate how useful a few detailed notes might become three thousand years later.
Had somebody scratched into a piece of wood.
Tuesday,
Weather pleasant.
Goat escaped again.
Modern historians would have embraced them as a giant of historical record-keeping.
Instead.
We have archaeology.
Archaeology is a magnificent discipline.
Largely involving very intelligent people.
Becoming extremely excited.
About things the rest of us would accidentally step over.
A broken pot.
A burnt seed.
Half a spoon.
And unusually interesting.
And occasionally,
If everyone has been especially well behaved.
A hole where somebody once placed a wooden post.
Don't those post holes matter?
Because they tell us where.
Houses once stood.
One of the greatest cities ever built.
Begins.
Rather humbly.
As a series of carefully positioned holes in the ground.
There is something rather comforting about that.
Human civilization.
Likes to imagine itself.
Arriving with trumpets.
More often.
It arrives with someone saying.
.
.
I think this beam goes here.
The houses themselves are small.
Timber frames support walls.
Made from woven branches.
Covered in clay.
Roofs are thatched with reeds gathered nearby.
They keep out most of the rain.
Which,
As every homeowner throughout history eventually discovers,
Is sometimes the highest compliment a roof can reasonably expect.
Inside.
Life is simple.
One room.
One fire.
Smoke finding its own route towards the roof with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
There is no separate dining room.
No study.
No guest bedroom.
No utility room where things mysteriously accumulate.
Because nobody wishes to throw them away.
Everything happens in the same space.
Meals are cooked there.
Children sleep there.
Tools are repaired there.
Conversations take place there.
Arguments continue there.
Long after they should have ended.
If somebody snores.
The entire household becomes an expert on the subject.
Privacy.
Has not yet been invented.
Nor in fairness.
As the mortgage.
Outside.
The settlement wakes with the sunrise.
Because there is very little advantage in remaining asleep once daylight has arrived.
Nobody owns blackout curtains.
The birds have absolutely no respect for weekends.
Chickens begin discussing their opinions with impressive confidence.
Long before anybody has asked for them.
Breakfast is practical.
Nobody is photographing it.
There is no.
.
.
Artisan sourdough with rosemary.
No carefully arranged avocado.
Mostly bread,
Porridge.
Cheese when available.
Perhaps olives in later periods.
Depending on trade and circumstance.
It is fuel.
Not content.
The day's work begins almost immediately.
Fields need attention.
Animals require feeding.
Fences require repairing.
Fences incidentally.
Are among history's least appreciated inventions.
Nobody writes poems about a particularly dependable fence.
Nobody erects statues to commemorate one.
Yet remove every fence from early Italy for a week.
And civilization begins speaking rather loudly.
Goats are not naturally respectful of property.
A goat sees a carefully cultivated vegetable patch,
Much as a modern tourist sees an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The ownership is treated equally.
As an interesting local custom.
Pigs are equally confident.
A pig.
Walking through a settlement.
Possesses the unmistakable air of an animal convinced that everyone else is overreacting.
Dogs,
By contrast.
Are useful.
They guard homes.
They watch livestock.
They bark at unfamiliar visitors.
They also bark at familiar visitors.
Occasionally.
They bark at absolutely nothing anyone else can identify.
This becomes another long-standing partnership.
Between humans and dogs.
Cuts incidentally.
Are beginning to appear in Italy by this time through trade.
Although they are still comparatively uncommon compared with later centuries.
For the moment,
However.
If something small has entered your grain store uninvited.
Your principal defence remains hoping somebody notices.
Before the grain does.
The people living on these hills do not think of themselves as founders of an empire.
This is perhaps the most important thing to understand.
History gives ordinary people magnificent titles.
They never claimed for themselves.
The founders of Rome.
It sounds wonderfully dramatic.
They would probably have preferred the people trying to stop the roof leaking before winter.
History is forever promoting people after they have died.
The settlements sit beside the river Tiber.
The river brings opportunity.
It also brings in convenience.
Sometimes on the same afternoon.
Waterways encourage trade.
But they also flood.
Modern cities solve this.
By employing engineers.
Early villagers saw of it.
By saying things like I told you not to leave it there.
The marshy valley below the hills.
Regularly fills with water.
One day this low ground.
Will become the Roman Forum.
Where senators debate war.
Low.
Taxation.
And the future of an empire.
Today.
If you stand there too long.
Your feet become wet.
It is remarkable how many famous places begin by being slightly annoying.
People trade constantly.
Salt arrives.
Pottery arrives.
Metal tools arrived.
News arrives.
News has always travelled much faster than accuracy.
Someone from another settlement mentions that a neighbouring village has acquired better cattle.
Within a week.
The story has become that they possess the finest herd in Italy.
Within a month.
Someone is claiming the animals are almost certainly descended from the gods.
Human beings have been improving stories for as long as stories have existed.
Trade.
Also brings the Etruscans.
The Etruscans possess larger settlements.
Skilled metalworkers.
And considerably more experience organizing complicated societies.
The future Romans observe all this.
With quiet admiration.
One of the characteristics that will eventually make Rome Astonishingly successful.
Is its complete lack of embarrassment.
About learning from other people.
Some civilizations become defensive when confronted by better ideas.
The Romans tend to say.
That bridge is excellent.
We'll build one.
Those roads seem useful.
We'll have those as well.
Your alphabet.
Don't mind if we do.
There is something refreshingly practical about this approach.
Pride is all very well.
A working bridge.
Is usually better.
The little communities gradually begin cooperating more closely.
Not because they have.
Red inspiring political philosophy.
Not because.
Someone has delivered an unforgettable speech.
Because somebody's cheating.
Have wandered onto somebody else's land again.
Shared problems create shared conversations.
Shared conversations.
Become shared decisions.
Shared decisions.
Eventually requires someone to remember what was decided.
Without realising it.
These villagers are beginning the long Roman love affair.
With administration.
Nobody yet calls it administration.
At this stage,
It is simply the oldest sentence in organized society.
Now.
Who was supposed to be doing that?
Part two.
In which room is founded by two brothers.
And very quickly requires only one.
The Romans would probably object.
To the way we have begun their history.
We have discussed Hath.
Post holes.
Goats with boundary issues.
All of this is supported by archaeology.
And therefore extremely useful.
But it lacks the dignity.
Expected by a civilization.
That will eventually place enormous statues of itself.
Almost everywhere.
But the Romans prefer to better obey.
Their version begins with kings.
Betrayal.
Divine intervention,
Abandoned infants.
A flooded river,
And a she-wolf.
Who becomes involved in childcare.
Without having applied for the position.
This is more like it.
According to Roman tradition.
The story begins in Alba Longa.
An ancient city in the hills southeast of the future Rome.
Its king is Numetur.
Who has the misfortune to possess a younger brother with ambition and a flexible attitude towards family loyalty.
The brother.
Aemulius.
Amulius decides that Numitor has been king for long enough.
Numitor has.
Well,
He's not agreed to this.
In royal politics.
Agreement is often treated as a pleasant extra.
Amulius seizes the throne and removes his brother from power.
He then considers the remaining members of Numator's family.
Particularly Numetor's daughter.
Rhea Silvia Rhea Silvia could one day have sons.
Sons could grow into men.
Men could develop opinions.
About who ought to be king.
Amulius therefore forces her to become a vestal virgin.
One of the priestesses of Vesta,
Who were expected to remain unmarried and celibate during their years of service.
From his point of view?
The matter is settled.
There will be no descendants.
No rival claim.
No future difficulty.
Amulius has completed the paperwork.
And would now like history to behave itself.
History.
Declines.
Rhea Silvia gives birth to twin boys.
She says their father is Mars,
The god of war.
This is an impressive claim.
And one that makes ordinary explanations seem underprepared.
Aemulius now has precisely the problem he had designed the entire arrangement.
To prevent.
This happens often in government.
A complicated system is introduced.
To eliminate one specific difficulty.
The difficulty waits quietly until the system is complete,
Then returns with a brother.
The twins are Romulus and Remus.
Amulius orders that they be killed.
The person given this task cannot bring himself to do it.
And instead.
Places them in a basket.
Beside the flooded river Tiber.
Ancient stories contain many baskets.
A basket allows a baby to be abundant.
Without the storyteller having to explain.
Where the baby immediately sank.
It is the emergency transport system of legend.
The river carries the twins.
Towards the future site of Rome.
Where the basket is caught among reeds.
Near the Palatine Hill.
There.
They are discovered by a she-wolf.
She feeds them.
Protects them.
And begins one of history's most successful examples of an animal being assigned additional duties.
Without consultation.
The wolf had presumably begun the day with ordinary plans.
Walk through the trees,
Find food.
Avoid shepherds.
She ends it by nursing the future founders of Rome.
Very few afternoons deteriorate into this level of responsibility.
The image of the wolf with the twins.
Will become one of Rome's great symbols.
It will appear on coins.
Monuments and works of art for centuries.
Roman children will grow up knowing it.
Later rulers will use it.
Modern visitors will buy versions of it in gift shops.
Becomes famous.
Her own name is never recorded.
This seems unfair.
Romulus and Remus receive a city,
A date.
And several books of history.
Receives the permanent title of The Wolf.
Childcare has always struggled with professional recognition.
There is also a complication.
The Latin word lupa can mean a she-wolf,
But it could also be used as a term for a prostitute.
Some later writers and modern scholars.
I've wondered whether the twins were originally cared for by a woman.
Whether the animal entered the story through wordplay or legend.
It is possible.
The trouble is that the wolf has now been in the row for more than 2,
000 years.
Replacing her at this stage would cause unnecessary confusion.
Eventually,
A shepherd named Faustulus.
Finds the twins.
And takes them home to his wife.
Acca Laurentia.
One imagines that he enters carrying two infants and attempts to present the situation as a reasonable development.
I found them.
And near the river.
Whose are they?
A wolf was looking after them.
There are moments in marriage when further questions only lengths in the evening.
Those to listen to.
Acca Laurentia.
Raise the boys as their own.
Romulus and Remus grew into strong young men.
Because ancient heroes rarely develop into.
.
.
Cautious accountants with excellent handwriting.
Day hunt.
They lead groups of shepherds.
They fight local troublemakers.
They become known for courage and energy.
They do not appear to spend much time.
Sitting quietly and.
.
.
Thinking mutters through.
This will matter later.
During a dispute between shepherds.
Remus is captured and taken before Numitor.
The details vary depending on which Roman writer is telling the story.
But the family truth gradually emerges.
Numitor recognizes.
That the young man may be his grandsons.
Faustulus.
Reveals what he knows.
The abandoned twins discover that their grandfather has been removed from power by their great uncle.
This is a great deal of information to receive at once.
Most men discovering a complicated family history.
Might require time alone.
Romulus and Remus.
Organize an uprising.
Amulius is overthrown.
And killed.
Numitor is restored to the throne of Alba Longa.
The twins have rescued their grandfather.
Defeated a usurper.
And discover it.
That they are descended from kings.
And according to their mother.
A god.
Confidence is unlikely to be a problem from this point onward.
They decide to found a city.
Near the place where they had been rescued.
The landscape is familiar.
The hills are defensible.
The river crossing is useful.
The area is connected to trade routes.
These are sensible reasons.
The brothers then spoil this promising beginning.
By disagreeing over which hill should receive the city.
Romulus chooses the Palatine.
Remus prefers the eventine.
They have survived attempted murder.
Exposure a royal conspiracy.
And an unusual feeding arrangement.
They are defeated.
By planning permission.
To settle the question,
They use augury.
The interpretation of Signs from birds.
Roman religion took such signs seriously.
Trained officials later observed the flight,
Number,
And behavior of birds before major public decisions.
The gods were believed to communicate their approval through nature.
Nature was rarely asked whether it wished to become involved.
Remus sees six vultures Romulus.
XII.
This ought to settle the matter.
It does not.
Remus argues that he saw the birds first.
Romulus argues that he saw more.
Both believe the gods have clearly supported them.
The guards have apparently issued two announcements with incompatible terms.
This is an early example of official communication.
The dispute grows worse.
Ancient writers give different versions of what follows.
In one.
Remus mocks Romulus by jumping over the low wall or boundary being built around the new settlement.
In another.
A follower of Romulus attacks him.
In some accounts.
Romulus himself kills his brother.
However it happens.
Remus dies.
The first family at the centre of Roman history has lasted only slightly longer than the First Boundary War.
Romulus is said to have declared that the same fate would meet anyone else who crossed his walls.
This is a strong response to criticism.
It also establishes that Roman building regulations will be taken seriously.
The traditional date of Rome's foundation.
Is the 21st of April.
753 BC.
Roman scholars later calculated this date.
And it became an important part of the city's identity.
The Romans marked the anniversary with a festival called the Parilia,
Originally connected with shepherds and flocks.
Modern historians do not believe that Rome appeared fully formed on one particular morning.
The archaeological evidence shows settlements developing and joining together.
Over time.
Rome was a process.
The Romans preferred a birthday.
A process is difficult to celebrate.
It does not fit neatly on a cake.
Romulus becomes the city's first king.
He has a city.
A hill.
A defensive boundary.
And the population.
The last item requires attention.
The early settlement attracts men from surrounding areas.
Including refugees.
Exiles.
And people who may have found life elsewhere becoming administratively uncomfortable.
According to tradition.
Romulus establishes an asylum.
On the Capitoline Hill.
We're outsiders.
Can seek protection.
And join the new community.
Rome is therefore populated.
At least in legend.
By ambitious newcomers.
Displaced people and men whose previous neighbours may have been relieved to see them leave.
This is not necessarily a poor foundation for a city.
It does create a demographic problem.
There are many men.
There are not enough women.
A city that intends to continue beyond one generation.
Must eventually take an interest in this.
Romulus sends a request.
To nearby communities.
Asking for marriages.
The nearby communities refuse.
They have inspected the new settlement.
And concluded that handing over their daughters to a collection of armed strangers with uncertain backgrounds.
Requires further consideration.
This is See ya!
Romulus responds by organising a religious festival.
And inviting neighbouring peoples.
Including the seabines.
And to avoid too much detail.
Let's just say that.
.
.
After a bit of back and forth between the Sabines and the Romans.
They eventually come to cash on.
In a way.
And eventually unite.
The Sabine King.
Titus Tatius.
Rules jointly with Romulus for a time.
The city grows through a pattern.
Rome will repeat again and again.
Conflict negotiation.
Absorption.
And a later insistence that's the final arrangement.
Had been the plan all along.
Romulus is also credited with creating early Roman institutions.
Tradition says he divides the population into groups.
Organizes the army.
And establishes a council of leading men.
This council becomes the Senate.
The word comes from Senex.
Meaning an old man.
The earliest senate was therefore quite literally.
A gathering of older gentlemen invited to give advice.
Human government has returned to this model with impressive loyalty.
The senators are set to number 100 at first.
They are the heads of important families.
And become known as the Fathers,
Or Patres.
Romulus rules for many years.
Then he disappears.
Again,
The accounts vary.
One version says he is reviewing the army.
When a violent storm gathers.
Darkness and wind surround the assembly.
When the weather clears.
Romulus is gone.
A senator explains that Romulus has been taken up to the gods.
The people accept this.
And later worship him under the name.
Your Highness.
Another version suggests that the senators killed him.
And quietly divided his body beneath their robes.
This is a less uplifting explanation.
It is also the sort of rumour that circulates whenever a ruler vanishes during a meeting attended by powerful men.
The official account offers thunder,
Clouds,
And divine promotion.
The alternative involves senior management.
Both have remained available.
After Romulus,
Rome chooses a second king.
Pneuma Pompilius.
Numa is a Sabine.
And is remembered as peaceful,
Religious and thoughtful.
This makes him an unusual successor.
To a man raised by a wolf.
Roman tradition.
Credits NUMA with organizing religious offices.
Establishing rituals.
And reforming the calendar.
He is said to have created or developed priestly colleges.
And to have strengthened the worship of important gods.
The Romans believed that correct ritual helped maintain good relations with the divine.
A prayer.
Had to be spoken correctly.
A ceremony.
Had to follow the proper form.
An error could require the whole thing to begin again.
Religion,
Therefore,
Involved devotion,
Tradition.
And the ever-present possibility that somebody had mispronounced line four.
Numa is also connected with the temple of Janus.
Whose doors were said to remain open.
During war.
And closed during peace.
Under Numa,
They remained closed.
Later Roman history will provide fewer opportunities for this.
The door has become less a feature of architecture.
And more a national mood indicator.
After NUMA.
Comes.
Tunis,
Hostelius.
Who is remembered as warlike.
The contrast is almost suspiciously neat.
Romulus founds.
Numa prays.
Talos attacks.
Roman tradition arranges its early kings as though assigning each man one clear department.
Tullis fights our belonger.
Rome's legendary mother city.
Rather than sending the entire armies into battle.
The conflict is famously decided.
By two sets of triplet brothers.
The Roman Horatii.
And the albin Curiaceae.
This is presented as a way to limit bloodshed.
Six men fight.
So that thousands do not have to.
It is one of history's rare attempts at efficiency in warfare.
Naturally.
The result creates further complications.
Rome wins.
Albulunga is later destroyed.
And its population is moved.
To room.
But the city grows again by absorbing the people it has defeated.
Rome does not merely conquer neighbours.
It collects them.
The Forest King.
Angus Marcius is remembered as combining numerous religious care with Tullus's military ability.
This is a useful combination.
A king may declare war.
But there are forms to observe.
Anchus is credited with expanding Roman territory.
Strengthening control of the tiber.
And founding the port of Ostia.
Near the river's mouth.
Ostia gives Rome better access to sea trade.
And to the salt pans near the coast.
The settlement on the hills is becoming a proper city.
It as institutions.
Religious officers.
An army.
A poor.
The Senate.
Several conquered neighbors.
And a foundation story involving enough uncertainty.
To occupy historians indefinitely.
Three later kings are traditionally linked with Etruscan influence.
Tarquinius Priscus.
Servius Tullius and Tarquinius Superbus.
Under these kings,
Rome becomes larger.
Wealthier.
And more urban.
Major drainage works help transform the low,
Wet ground.
Between the hills.
Fluorocarbon Maxima.
Rome's great sewer.
Is traditionally associated with this period.
Though it developed over time.
The valley that had once been marshland.
Could now become the Forum.
This is a considerable improvement.
The political center of Rome.
It depends upon drainage.
Before laws,
Speeches and elections can flourish.
Somebody must persuade the water to leave.
The Etruscan kings are also connected with major building projects.
Tempos.
And public works.
Rome is changing from a collection of communities.
Into a city with streets Monument.
And organised public space.
It is no longer struggling.
To rule a damp field.
It has drained the field.
And opened government offices upon it.
Is progress.
It is also.
A warning.
Part three.
In which an ordinary Roman,
Attempts to get through the day without being delayed by the entire Republic.
Now that Rome has been founded.
Governed by kings.
Relieved of its kings and supplied with enough political officers to make the removal of one king feel almost straightforward.
We can finally see what the place is like.
For somebody who actually lives there.
Let us arrive.
Around the year 200 BC.
Rome is a republic.
Which means there is no emperor yet.
Although several men are already developing the posture.
The city has recently survived the long war against Hannibal.
Whose army crossed the Alps with elephants.
And then remained in Italy for so many years.
That an entire generation of Romans grew up.
Assuming there would always be a Carthaginian general somewhere nearby causing concern.
Hannibal has now been defeated at Zama.
In 202 BC.
Rome controls Italy.
And is becoming a major Mediterranean power.
This is magnificent news for the Republic.
For an ordinary Roman.
Waking before sunrise.
It mainly means taxes.
Military service.
And a greater selection of imported olives.
We shall follow a citizen named.
Gaius not because one particular Gaius has left us a diary.
But because Rome contained so many men called Gaius.
That choosing the name is statistically cautious.
He is neither rich nor destitute.
He owned a small workshop near the forum.
And lives with his wife.
To children.
And an elderly relative,
Whose precise contribution to the household is remembering when everything was better.
Their rooms are rented on an upper floor of an insula.
One of Rome's apartment buildings the accommodation is close to work.
Reasonably priced by Roman standards.
And supported by several walls.
That the landlord describes as dependable.
One of them has a crack running from the window to the ceiling.
The landlord has inspected it.
And concluded that the building is settling.
Gaius has lived there for six years.
The building has shown remarkable dedication to the process.
The family wakes early because Roman life follows daylight.
And because somebody in the room below begins moving amphorae before dawn.
An amphora.
Is a large pottery container used for wine,
Oil.
And other goods.
When placed gently upon a floor,
It makes a solid sound.
When placed gently upon another amphora.
It informs the entire building that commerce has resumed.
Gaius rises from a simple bed of wooden framework.
Straps.
And bedding.
As children sleep nearby.
His elderly uncle is already awake.
And wishes everyone to know that people used to rise earlier.
No evidence is offered.
Age has relieved him of documentation.
Breakfast is the Yentaculum.
Usually a modest meal of bread.
Cheese.
Or whatever remains from the previous evening.
Gaius dips yesterday's bread.
In wine mixed with water to soften it.
Roman wine is commonly diluted.
Partly from custom.
And partly because some of it benefits from having its confidence reduced.
His younger child asks for honey.
There is no honey.
The child asks again.
Having correctly understood that.
Household supplies sometimes improve if.
.
.
Questioned repeatedly.
Gaius's wife explains that Honey costs money.
The child considers this a personal decision.
Made by adults.
Gaius dresses in a tunic.
The ordinary garment for Roman men.
It is far more practical than the toga.
Which he will need later.
Because he has business in the forum.
And must attend the morning greeting of his patron.
The toga is a large,
Semi-circular piece of woolen cloth.
Arranged around the body in folds.
Roman citizens regard it as dignified.
But the garment itself appears to regard the human body.
As an inconvenient frame.
Upon which to demonstrate fabric.
Gaius requires help putting it on.
His wife arranges one section over his shoulder.
Draws another around his body.
And attempts to produce the correct fall of cloth,
Without trapping either arm completely.
He stands still while she works.
Their son runs beneath the hanging wool.
And emerges on the other side.
For several moments.
The guise resembles a public monument.
Being occupied by children.
Once stressed.
He must leave without sitting down.
Bending sharply.
Or remembering anything upstairs.
He remembers his purse.
Halfway down the steps.
The toga has to be arranged again formal clothing has successfully created.
The formal morning.
Outside.
Rome is already moving.
The street is narrow.
Shaded by tall buildings.
And busy with people carrying baskets,
Tools.
And expressions,
Suggesting they should have left earlier.
Shopfronts open directly onto the road.
Bakers display round loaves marked into sections.
Sellers call attention to vegetables.
Cheese and fish.
A man carrying a stack of pottery turns sideways.
To pass another man carrying timber.
Both stop.
Neither can reverse easily.
Several citizens become involved.
Despite having no useful suggestion.
Roman engineering will eventually span valleys.
And carry water across miles.
Two men remain unable to pass in an alley.
Waste and dirty water.
May be thrown into the street.
Though Roman regulations and local habits vary.
The pedestrian therefore watches both the ground and the windows.
This gives Roman walking.
Its characteristic combination of purpose and mild suspicion.
Stepping stones allow people to cross wetter sections of the road.
Without descending fully.
Into whatever this street has recently become.
Gaius lifts his toga.
And chooses his path carefully.
A mule comes steadily through the street.
Carrying two heavy sacks and showing no interest in the constitutional development of Rome.
Pedestrians flatten themselves against walls.
Gaius lifts the lower edge of his toga.
A boy ducks beneath a basket.
The mule continues at exactly the same speed.
Having correctly concluded that every other citizen can make the necessary arrangements.
It has been working since dawn.
And possesses none of the nervous concern for public approval.
Displayed by the men in the forum.
Responsibility has settled upon it very well.
Gaius eventually reaches the house of his patron for the morning salutatio.
Several other clients are already waiting outside.
Each pretending not to calculate his position in the queue.
One man arrived first,
But knows that a wealthier client will be admitted before him.
Roman society has many ranks.
Titles and privileges.
But one principle remains particularly clear.
Arriving early is useful only.
Until a more important person arrives late.
The patron-client relationship is central to Roman life.
A powerful man offers legal help.
Introductions.
Influence.
And occasional financial support.
His clients offer loyalty.
Attendance.
And the valuable public impression that he knows a large number of people.
The patron therefore begins each morning by receiving men who need something from him.
While giving the impression.
That their arrival has been the one event for which he woke.
This requires stamina.
It is difficult to appear delighted.
By thirty-seven separate people.
Before the sun is properly up.
When Gaius is admitted.
The patron stands in a bright reception room,
With a servant positioned discreetly behind him.
The servant is a.
No men,
Kletor.
Whose job is to supply the names of approaching visitors.
The patron sees a familiar face.
Feels nothing familiar occur in his memory.
Guys.
The servant murmurs.
Gaius.
Cries the patron,
Suddenly restored to lifelong affection.
He places a hand upon Gaius's shoulder.
And asks after the family.
Gaius says they are well.
This is the ideal answer.
A client who begins explaining that his uncle's cough has returned.
May discover the limits of political friendship rather quickly.
Influence enjoys the personal touch.
It prefers it brief.
Around the room,
Other clients present requests.
One wants assistance in a dispute over a war.
Another hopes his son might be introduced to a magistrate.
A third has no immediate request.
But believes it wise to remain visible.
In the same way that it is.
Shoekeeper keeps a sign outside.
Even when nobody is buying anything.
Favors pass back and forth through Roman society.
And may be remembered for years.
A man who helps you today does not necessarily mention repayment tomorrow.
You may wait until you have almost convinced yourself.
He is forgotten.
Good manners require patience.
When the patron finally leaves for the forum.
His clients fall in behind him.
Nobody has issued an instruction.
But everyone understands the arrangement.
The most important men.
Work closest.
The less important men.
Follow at a respectful distance.
While attempting to look as though distance was their own idea.
Gaius finds himself somewhere in the middle.
Behind a man whose toga has begun slipping from one shoulder.
And in front of another who is still chewing breakfast.
From across the street.
The procession looks impressive.
Seen from within.
It is several dozen men trying to maintain the same walking speed.
Were wrapped in wool.
Authority benefits from distance.
The patron moves slowly.
Because influential Romans are expected to greet people.
A shopkeeper calls his name.
A former soldier stops him.
A man who appears to have been waiting beside a fountain.
Suddenly remembers an urgent matter concerning his cousin.
The patron listens.
Knots.
And promises that something will be considered.
His clients wait behind him.
Gradually spreading across the street.
And forcing everyone else around a fruit stool.
A woman carrying onions.
Attempts to pass between them.
And discovers that Roman political influence has no opening down the middle.
She goes around without expressing admiration.
At the edge of the forum.
The patron pauses to speak with another senator.
Both men adopt the grave expression used when discussing the future of Rome.
Though Gaius is close enough to hear that the subject is a dinner invitation.
The Senator cannot attend on Thursday.
The patron suggests,
Friday.
Friday is unsuitable.
Because a relative is expected from Campania.
The two men continued with lowered voices and serious faces.
While their entourages wait.
To anyone watching.
The Republic may be in danger.
It is Friday.
The forum itself is crowded with magistrates.
Merchant.
Lawyers,
Priests,
Clients,
Petitioners,
And people who came merely to see why everyone else had gathered.
Temples and public buildings.
Rise around the open space.
But much of Roman government.
Takes place.
Wherever enough men have stopped walking.
Gaius has three tusks.
Pay his leather supplier.
Ask whether the hearing concerning his workshop release has been postponed.
And buy onions on the way home.
He repeats them quietly to himself.
Room.
As other plans.
A speaker is already addressing a crowd from the Rostra.
The public speaking platform.
Is subject is the allocation of land.
But within a few sentences.
He has introduced the ancestors,
The gods.
Military honour.
And the possible destruction of Roman liberty.
Roman oratory.
Is capable of taking a disputed field.
And placing the survival of civilization directly upon it.
The field remains unaware of the promotion.
Gaius attempts to pass behind the crowd.
At that moment.
The speaker raises one arm.
And asks whether honest citizens will remain silent.
Several honest citizens turn around.
To see who has remained.
Gaius finds himself facing them.
He stops moving and arranges his expressions.
Into concern.
A man beside him.
Asks whether he supports the proposal.
Gaius has heard only the words.
Our fathers.
Disgrace.
He says the matter deserves careful consideration.
The man agrees completely.
Two Roman citizens have now reached a firm understanding.
Without identifying the subject.
The crowd applauds.
Gaius approach half a second later having waited to establish whether the speech has ended.
Were merely reached an emotional hill.
The speaker continues.
This happens twice more.
Public life requires judgment.
Eventually Gaius escapes along the side of a temple.
And immediately encounters a candidate for office.
The candidate's toga has been whitened with chalk.
Until it appears almost brighter than the man inside it.
The candidate recognises Gaius.
And asks after the workshop.
Gaius says it continues to do business.
The candidate declares that craftsmen are the strength of Rome.
And that men who work with their hands must never be overlooked.
Gaius finally reaches the leather merchant.
The merchant is standing behind several hides.
Wearing the calm expression of a man who possesses what other people require.
Gaius asks the price.
The merchant names a figure high enough to produce a brief silence.
Gaius asks whether the leather has been carried personally from Carthage by Hannibal.
The merchant explains that demand has increased The army needs Santos.
Transport is expensive.
Good hides are difficult to obtain.
Rome has recently defeated Carthage.
Secured its position in the Western Mediterranean.
And emerged as the most powerful state in the region.
None of this has made three pieces of leather cheaper.
Gaius points out that the same goods cost less last week.
Last week was different.
Says the merchant.
In what way?
The merchant to consider as this.
It was last week.
This answer contains no useful information.
But it is delivered with the confidence of established facts.
Commerce often rests upon tone.
They begin bargaining.
Gaius says the price will ruin him.
The merchant says he is already ruined.
Both men remain standing in functioning businesses,
Surrounded by stock.
Ruin is apparently a condition compatible with regular opening hours.
The merchant lowers the price slightly.
Gaius shakes his head and begins to leave.
You walk slowly enough to remain available for further discussion.
The merchant goes him back.
Gaius returns with the expression of a man.
Reluctantly preventing another person from making a terrible mistake.
The price is finally agreed.
Guys pays.
The merchant looks wounded.
Gaius looks betrayed.
Each privately believes the outcome acceptable.
A successful Roman transaction requires both parties to leave.
As though justice has narrowly failed.
By midday.
Gaius is hungry.
He buys bread.
And a hot portion of beans from a street stall.
The seller serves the beans into a small bowl.
And adds a spoonful of sauce.
Gaius asks what is in it.
The cellar gives the name of the source rather than its ingredients.
This is all the information available.
He's standing near a column,
While watching the forum continue around him.
A legal case has attracted spectators.
Two men are arguing about a property boundary.
Their advocates have expanded the matter.
Until it now concerns honour.
Inheritance.
And the sacred rights of Roman citizens.
Somewhere behind them.
The original boundary stone remains exactly where it was.
Having caused an impressive amount of language without moving.
A boy squeezes through the crowd selling small cakes.
One advocate raises his voice.
A dog lies asleep beneath the steps.
Three senators pass in conversation.
A man carrying a basket.
Stops to listen.
And forgets that the basket is tilting.
Several cakes slide onto the ground.
The dog wakes immediately.
Roman law has produced a clear beneficiary.
Gaius returns to his workshop with the leather.
His apprentice is waiting beside a customer.
Holding a pair of sandals.
The customer explains that one soul has worn down more quickly than the other.
And believes this indicates poor workmanship.
Gaius examines the sandals.
They are 8 months old.
The left soul contains a small stone.
Two fragments of grit.
And the flattened remains of something that may once have been a fig.
Gaius points this out.
The customer says none of those things were present when the sandals were purchased.
This is correct.
It does not improve the argument.
Gaius explains that Footwear wears according to distance.
Road surface.
And the manner in which a person walks.
The customer insists that he walks normally.
He demonstrates.
The moment he becomes aware of being watched.
His arms stiffened.
His steps shorten.
And one foot begins turning outwards.
In a way neither man has seen before.
He crosses the workshop twice.
Attempting to recover a natural movement that has abandoned him under professional observation.
Walking is an old skill.
Demonstrating it is another matter.
The customer stops and asks what Gaius noticed.
Gaius says the soul can be repaired.
A reduced price is agreed.
Gaius could continue defending the original work.
But the customer has begun describing the slope outside his house.
There are cases a man wins.
Only by surrendering first.
The afternoon settles into work.
Gaius cuts leather.
Punches holes and fastens soles.
While his apprentice prepares straps.
Customers enter with requests.
One wants his sandal made wider,
But not larger.
Another says the last pair was comfortable until it rained.
A third describes his feet as unusual.
Gaius has handled hundreds of feet.
Most have observed this standard arrangement.
News passes along the street.
The Senate is debating a military matter.
One man says it concerns Macedonia.
Another says Spain.
A third is certain it involves Sicily.
Because his brother knows someone who unloads ships.
The three accounts share no details.
But each is presented as the corrected version of the other two.
A man enters the workshop and announces that Rome may be at war again.
With whom?
Gaius asks.
The man pauses.
He has not reached that part of the news.
Rome's influence is expanding across the Mediterranean.
Generals return with captured wealth.
Merchants bring foreign goods.
New territories supply taxes,
Grain,
And complications.
For guys.
The growth of Roman power.
Appears mainly as higher leather prices.
And men entering his shop with incomplete information.
Empire rarely arrives in ordinary life wearing armor.
More often.
It alters the bill.
New sunset.
Gaius closes the workshop.
He remembers the onions and stops at a stool.
The seller names a price.
Gaius asks why onions have become expensive.
Military demand.
Says the Senate.
Gaius looks at the onions.
The setter looks back calmly.
Soldiers must die.
The army has now entered vegetable pricing.
Gaius buys fewer onions.
He climbs the stairs home with the leather payment completed.
Is lunch digested?
And his toga carrying visible evidence of the day.
The careful folds arranged that morning have slipped into a tired collection of wool.
One side hangs lower.
The shoulder has twisted.
And a pale mark near the hem.
Records his encounter with the street.
He still looks like a Roman citizen.
The one whose citizenship has been in continuous use.
His wife asks whether the hearing about the workshop lease has been postponed.
Gaius stops on the final step.
He has followed his patron through the city.
Being trapped inside a speech.
Befriended by a candidate.
Negotiated the consequences of foreign policy.
Repair this sandal.
And purchased onions on behalf of the army.
He has forgotten to ask.
The Republic has occupied the entire day without completing his only official task.
Rome is becoming master of the Mediterranean.
Gaius We'll have to go back tomorrow.
Part four.
In which the Romans remove their clothes.
Enter a public building.
And call it an afternoon.
By the time Rome becomes a great Mediterranean power.
Its citizens have developed a reliable method of recovering from the strain of governing it.
They go to the baths.
Public bathhouses exist during the Republic Era.
But under the emperors they become larger.
Grander.
And more elaborate.
By the 2nd century AD.
A Roman living under Emperor Hadrian.
Might visit one containing heated rooms,
Cold pools,
Exercise yard.
Gardens.
Libraries and enough marble to make washing oneself.
I feel like a matter of state.
The entrance fee is usually modest.
Some emperors or wealthy citizens subsidize it.
Allowing ordinary people to spend an afternoon in surroundings far finer than their homes.
A man who sleeps in a cramped apartment.
With a leaking roof.
May therefore finish work and enter a building filled with columns,
Mosaics,
Fountains and warm water.
Rome does not provide him with a better ceiling.
It does,
However.
Provides several impressive places.
In which to complain about it.
The baths are not merely for washing.
They are social clubs.
Exercise centres.
Meeting places.
And unofficial offices.
Friends gather there.
Business is discussed.
Favors are requested.
News is exchanged.
A Roman may enter intending to clean himself.
And leave having agreed to lend money to his cousin.
Personal hygiene has always carried risks.
Our visitor begins in the changing room.
Apodyterium.
Where he removes his clothing and leaves it on a shelf.
Or with an attendant.
The arrangement depends heavily upon trust.
Roman bathhouses are known for theft,
Particularly of clothing and sandals.
Curse tablets have been found,
In which victims ask the gods to punish whoever took their property.
A man may therefore spend an hour improving his body.
Calming his mind.
And wondering whether his tunic is still where he left it.
Relaxation is easiest.
When guarded.
He might begin with exercise in the head.
Cholesterol.
An open courtyard used for wrestling,
Ball games and general physical activity.
Roman men lift weights.
Wrestle.
And throw balls while naked.
Or lightly dressed.
Some exercise seriously.
Others remain near the edge.
Stretching one arm.
And speaking at length about what they used to be able to do.
This group has survived every civilization.
One popular ball game involves several men throwing a small ball rapidly between them.
While another attempts to intercept it.
The rules are not perfectly clear to us now.
Though this may also have been true of the participants.
A man misses the ball.
He blames the sun.
The game continues.
After exercising.
The bather may have oil rubbed onto his skin.
Dirt,
Sweat and oil are then scraped away with a curved metal tool called a strigil.
The process is effective.
Though it lacks the gentle reassurance of soap.
A servant or attendant may perform this graping.
The bathers stand still.
While another man removes the afternoon from his shoulders.
In long,
Determined strokes.
Roman civilization has conquered large territories.
Aqueduct.
And developed a sophisticated legal system.
It is now being applied directly to the back.
The bather then moves through rooms of different temperatures.
The Tepidarium.
Is warm and prepares the body for greater heat.
Caldarium is hot and steamy.
With heated floors.
And basins of hot water.
The floors are warmed using a system called the Hypochord.
Hot air from furnaces.
Circulates beneath raised floors.
And sometimes through hollow spaces in the walls.
It is an extraordinary piece of engineering.
It is maintained by workers in the furnace rooms.
Who experience the bathhouse rather differently.
Above them.
Romans recline in warm air.
And discuss the burdens of public life.
Below them.
Somebody adds more fuel.
Comfort usually has a lower floor.
The hot room is crowded.
Menses.
And continue conversations begun elsewhere.
The senator discusses grain imports.
A merchant describes a shipment delayed at Ostia.
An elderly man explains that the room was hotter.
Under the previous emperor Nobody is asked.
Age has mistaken survival for consultancy.
Voices echo against stone.
Water splashes.
Attendants move between bathers.
One man has brought a reader to recite poetry while he bathes.
The poet begins.
Several people discover that the cold pool suddenly seems attractive.
The frigidarium contains cold water.
After the heat.
The bather lowers himself into it carefully.
Usually in stages.
The first foot enters confidently.
The second follows with less conviction.
The rest of the body begins negotiations.
A man who crossed the room describing himself as refreshing.
May reach the water and become briefly devoted to Caution Courage is often temperature specific.
The great imperial birth complexes.
Can accommodate thousands of people.
They may include gardens,
Shops and rooms.
For reading or conversation.
At the baths of Caracalla.
Completed in the early 3rd century.
A visitor can spend much of the day moving through a vast complex designed around the simple human wish.
To sit somewhere warm.
The Romans have taken bathing.
And supplied architecture,
Engineering,
Public funding.
And several acres of additional activity.
No civilisation leaves relaxation alone for long.
Eventually.
Our bather returns to the changing room.
His tunic is still there.
His son does.
Are not.
He searches the floor.
Checks beneath the benches.
And asks the attendant.
The attendant has seen nothing.
A nearby man is putting on a pair that looks remarkably familiar.
But insists they belong to him.
The sandals are plain leather.
Every pair looks familiar when missing.
Our Roman leaves the baths in borrowed footwear.
Cleaner than when he entered,
And considerably less satisfied.
He has exercised.
Bathe,
Heard political gossip.
Avoid the poem.
And lost a pair of sandals.
The afternoon has been ended.
Restorative.
Part 5 In which the Roman Empire arrives for dinner.
And brings half the known world.
By the 2nd century AD.
Rome is no longer merely a city.
It is the center of an empire.
Stretching from Britain to Egypt.
From the Atlantic Ocean.
To the borders of Mesopotamia.
Emperors come and go.
Legions guard distant frontiers.
Ships cross the Mediterranean,
Carrying grain,
Wine.
Marble.
Class.
All over world.
And enough paperwork to convince several officials.
That civilization is proceeding correctly.
Remarkably.
Much of this eventually becomes somebody's dinner.
An ordinary Roman.
Hardly thinks about the empire while buying bread It is simply there.
Quietly arranging itself in the background.
The olive oil may have come from Spain.
The pepper has travelled farther than most Romans ever will.
The wine may have begun life in gore.
The grain.
Keeping the city alive.
Arrives in astonishing quantities from Egypt.
An empire is,
In many respects,
An extremely complicated method of ensuring that somebody has enough bread on a Tuesday.
The Emperor understands this.
The people.
Understands this.
Enjoys unusually broad political support.
For wealthier Romans.
Dinner has become a performance.
Almost as carefully organized as a military campaign.
The invitations are sent.
Guests arrive dressed appropriately.
Seizing is decided.
Well before anyone pretends not to mind where they have been placed.
A host smiles warmly.
Guests recline on couches in the attic.
Triclinium.
Resting on one elbow.
Were servants.
Or slaves.
Bring course after course.
From a distance the arrangement appears wonderfully relaxed.
Closer inspection reveals.
Several adults attempting to look comfortable.
In a position the human body abandoned.
Shortly after infancy.
A guest reaches for an olive.
Nothing else moves.
This is considered success.
The host takes great pride in serving foods from across the empire.
This oil comes from.
España.
This wine from Gaul.
These dates from Syria.
Nobody mentions that the cabbage is from just outside Rome.
This has travelled only 6 miles.
Its contribution is nevertheless appreciated.
Roman authors occasionally make fun of wealthy hosts.
Who become rather too enthusiastic about exotic ingredients.
The more distant the province.
The gracer of the prestige.
One suspects there were men who would happily eat an average fish,
Provided it had first completed an impressive journey.
Distance has always improved flavour.
Not every guest is equally important.
One receives the finest portion.
Another receives something almost as good.
A third discovers that his fish appears to have made several poor decisions before arriving on the plate.
The Romans.
Even had a phrase for this sort of thing.
Hospitality.
Justice.
Could be distributed.
Unevenly.
A wealthy host might employ numerous enslaved servants throughout the meal.
One pours wine.
And other clear plates.
And other renouncers courses.
Another stands nearby.
In case somebody develops an unexpected need.
For a fresh napkin.
The truly luxurious dinner.
Involves enough servants that the guests gradually lose confidence.
But who is actually attending the party.
The conversation wanders from politics.
To philosophy.
From poetry.
To military victories.
A senator explains how the frontier in Dacia has become more secure And merchant says.
.
.
Business has never been better.
An elderly guest interrupts to explain that figs possessed considerably more character under Trajan.
No supporting evidence is presented.
Memory has always been an excellent gardener.
Wine continues to circulate.
Sensible Romans dilute it with water.
Less sensible Romans.
Gradually dilute the conversation instead.
One guest begins confidently explaining the geography of Britain.
He has never been there.
Another corrects him.
He has not been there either.
By the third cup the island has moved twice.
Meanwhile,
Beyond the grand houses,
The overwhelming majority of Romans are eating much simpler meals.
The family shares bread,
Beans,
Onions.
And perhaps a little cheese.
A labourer buys hot stew from a street store.
Because climbing four flights of stairs carrying dinner seemed less attractive than eating it immediately.
Children continue insisting they preferred yesterday's meal.
Despite having complained about yesterday's meal while it was happening.
Some traditions require no empire.
Rome itself consumes extraordinary quantities of food every day.
Ancient writers.
Estimated that hundreds of thousands of people depended upon imported grain.
Fleets arrived continually.
Especially from Egypt.
Because a city of this size.
.
.
Develops the awkward habit.
Of expecting breakfast every morning.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of grain.
Generals win victories.
Emperors build monuments.
Grain prevents riots.
History has a habit of celebrating the first two.
While quietly depending upon the search.
As darkness falls.
Lumps begin to appear in windows across the city.
Some Romans are still feasting.
Others are washing bowls.
The Baker.
Is already preparing tomorrow's bread.
Dock workers unload another shipment by torchlight.
Somewhere an imperial official is counting sacks of grain.
Somewhere else,
A mouse has reached them first The Empire is magnificent.
The mouse remains unimpressed.
And perhaps that is Rome at its most recognisable.
It can build roads across continents.
Raise aqueducts that defy belief.
And govern millions of people.
Yet every evening.
Just as in every civilization before and since.
Somebody is still asking.
Is there any more bread?
Part 6 in which Rome discovers that watching other people work very hard is surprisingly relaxing.
By the second century A.
D.
Rome is running rather well.
The roads work.
The aqueducts work.
The army works.
The tax collectors work.
With such enthusiasm that many citizens wish they would briefly explore other interests.
The entire empire appears to function.
Through discipline.
Planning.
And remarkable organization.
So naturally.
The Romans decide to spend the afternoon watching other people exhaust themselves.
The Colosseum dominates the city.
Completed under the Flavian emperors in A.
C.
A.
D.
It is one of the greatest engineering achievements.
Of the ancient world.
Around 50,
000 spectators can enter.
Find their seats.
And leave again with astonishing efficiency.
The building performs magnificently.
The people remain experimental.
A family arrives early because.
.
.
The father insisted that if they left before sunrise they would avoid the crowds.
The crowds had reached exactly the same conclusion.
Half of Rome is already there.
A steward points them towards the correct entrance.
The father studies the number carved into the stone.
It wasn't this entrance last time.
Nobody argues.
The family has learned that facts occasionally require a peaceful life.
Inside.
Spectators shuffle sideways.
Along narrow roads.
Every third person apologizes.
Every fourth person does not.
One gentleman insists on passing with a basket of food,
Balanced on one arm.
And a jug of wine balanced on the other.
He reaches his seat successfully.
The man beside him does not.
The Romans invented concrete.
Central heating.
And some of the finest engineering the ancient world had ever seen.
Sitting down,
Continued to rely heavily upon optimism.
The crowd settles.
Almost settles.
One late arrival.
Now requires an entire row to stand up again He smiles gratefully as thirty people rise for the second time in five minutes.
Confidence has always been easier to carry than embarrassment.
Vendors move constantly through the audience.
Bread,
Olives,
Honey cakes.
Watered wine.
Hot sausages.
A young boy announces that He is starving.
His mother reminds him that he finished breakfast less than an hour ago.
Yes.
He says.
But I wasn't hungry at home.
Location has always been an important ingredient The games begin with music.
Ceremony.
And processions.
The gladiators enter.
Modern films often imagine them as wild men roaring at the crowd.
The reality is rather different.
Most are highly trained professionals.
They belong to expensive schools.
They have instructors.
Doctors.
And carefully planned diet.
A successful gladiator.
Represents a considerable investment.
His owner would prefer him not to become an unsuccessful investment banker.
The crowd.
Immediately begins offering advice.
You should use the shield.
You should stay back.
He always moves too early.
The speaker has never held a sword.
He has,
However,
Watched three previous afternoons with complete confidence.
Expertise is wonderfully economical.
When somebody else is taking the risks.
Nearby.
Another spectator explains every fighter's strengths to his wife.
She asks how he knows.
I can tell.
He cannot.
He has simply developed a deep emotional attachment.
To guessing.
They're our favourites.
There are rivalries.
There are spectators absolutely convinced the officials are showing bias.
Spores reached maturity remarkably early.
The contests themselves are dramatic.
But what fascinates our Roman family.
Almost as much.
Is everyone around them.
The senator applauds politely.
A baker shouts loud enough to improve the performance.
A little girl spends several minutes.
.
.
Watching a pigeon instead.
One suspects the pigeon is having the calmer afternoon.
By the time the family leaves the Colosseum,
Rome appears to be emptying itself into the streets all at once.
Everyone walks in the same direction.
Nobody walks at the same speed.
One man stopped suddenly to greet a friend.
23 strangers become part of the reunion.
Urban planning has its limits.
Meanwhile.
.
.
Several hundred miles away.
The Roman legion is ending a very different sort of day.
There are no marble seats.
Nobody's selling honey cakes.
No one has applauded for several weeks.
A Roman legionary has marched perhaps twenty miles,
Carrying armor,
Weapons,
Tools,
Cooking equipment,
Spare clothing,
And enough personal belongings to make him resemble a determined wardrobe.
The army eventually earned the nickname.
Marius's mules.
The soldiers are not consulted.
They probably recognise the comparison immediately.
The mule carries everything it owns.
It also complains less publicly.
The young recruit imagines that after such a march the men will finally rest.
Instead.
An officer calmly announces that camp will now be built.
A ditch must be dug.
A bank of earth raised.
A wooden palisade erected roads marked out.
Tents assembled.
Only when all this is complete.
May the soldiers begin preparing dinner.
Rome conquered much of Europe through remarkable military discipline.
It also conquered it.
With men who reacted to the words,
Let's stop here for the night,
With quiet suspicion.
Every evening,
The camp appears in almost exactly the same layout.
The streets run straight.
The tents occupy familiar positions.
The headquarters stands in the center.
Everything has its proper place.
A soldier arriving drunk.
Would still know where his tent was.
Arriving drunk was another matter The Roman army's true genius is organization.
An experienced legionary can unpack his equipment in darkness,
Cook a meal,
Repair his sandal.
Sharpen his tools.
And fall asleep.
Almost anywhere.
Letters that have been found from forts such as Vindolunda,
Near Hadrian's Wall.
Reveal wonderfully ordinary concerns.
Soldiers ask for warmer socks.
They request better beer.
They invite friends to birthday celebrations.
The greatest military machine in the Western world.
Occasionally pauses.
Because somebody still hasn't sent this up.
History tends to remember the emperors.
The empire itself is quietly held together by men hoping tomorrow's boots are dry.
As evening falls,
Our Roman family finishes telling neighbours about the games.
The legionaries finished digging.
One group discusses their favorite gladiator.
The other discusses whether the ground was softer yesterday.
Both conversations.
Are held with complete seriousness.
Rome is a civilization of astonishing ambition.
It reaches across continents.
It builds monuments that survive for 2,
000 years.
And at the end of another successful day.
Somewhere inside that vast empire One man is still sane.
I told you we should have left earlier.
Part seven.
In which even the greatest empire eventually misplaces its keys.
Nothing lasts forever.
The Romans would probably have objected to that sentence.
They had rose.
Stretching across continents.
City is filled with marble.
Armies that could appear almost anywhere.
And an administration capable of counting taxes from places most citizens could not have found on a map.
Forever seemed a perfectly reasonable ambition.
It simply turned out to be rather longer than history was prepared to offer.
By the 4th and 5th centuries AD.
The Western Roman Empire.
Is beginning to change.
Emperors come and go with increasing speed.
Frontiers become harder to defend.
The army becomes more expensive Trade grows less certain.
Some cities flourish.
While others slowly shrink.
Remarkably ordinary Romans still have to buy bread History enjoys announcing dramatic turning points.
Daily life.
Rarely receives the message.
The baker still wakes before dawn.
A child still complains about vegetables.
A neighbor still insists the weather was better twenty years ago.
Empires may rise and fall.
Certain conversations survive untouched.
Visitors arriving in Rome notice that some great public buildings are no longer as carefully maintained The fountain that once sparkled now drips patiently into its basin.
A paving stone has worked itself loose.
Everyone notices.
Everyone assumes somebody else is responsible.
Civilisation is often measured by the distance between those two thoughts.
Merchants still arrive.
Though not always as regularly.
A shopkeeper begins saying the shipment should have been here last week He repeats this for three months.
Eventually it becomes less a prediction than part of his personality.
The legions continue guarding the frontiers.
But there are fewer of them and they are asked to defend an enormous world.
With resources that seem to become slightly smaller every year.
An experienced soldier looks around the fort and quietly observes that three roofs now leak instead of one.
Nobody calls this the fall of the Roman Empire.
They call it Thursday.
In 410 A.
D.
,
The Visigoths under Alaric.
Enter and sack the city of Rome.
For the first time in nearly 800 years.
The Eternal City has fallen to a foreign enemy.
The news shocks the Roman world.
Many people fear.
That everything has changed overnight.
It has.
And it hasn't.
The baker still bakes.
The shoemaker still repairs sandals.
The Fellow Selling Onions still believes they were cheaper yesterday.
History has made a dramatic entrance.
Life politely continues sweeping the floor.
Finally.
And 476 A.
D.
The last Western Roman Emperor.
Romulus Augustulus.
Is removed from power.
Historians often use this date.
As the end of the Western Roman Empire.
The people living through it,
However.
Do not wake up this morning saying,
Well.
.
.
There goes the Roman Empire.
They wake.
Because the neighbour's donkey has started again.
The empire does not vanish in a single afternoon.
It quietly becomes something else.
The Eastern Roman Empire continues for nearly another thousand years from Constantinople.
Roman law survives.
Roman engineering survives.
Roman Rhodes survived.
The Latin language survives in new forms.
Even today,
If you drive through Europe,
Read a legal principle.
Admiring aqueducts.
Or complain that a public building ought to have been maintained better.
You are,
In small ways,
Still keeping the Romans company.
Perhaps that is the strangest thing about Rome.
Its emperors disappeared.
Its legions marched away.
Its great arenas fell silent.
Yet its habits lingered.
Some for centuries.
Some forever.
And somewhere.
If history has any real sense of humour at all.
There is still an elderly Roman.
Explaining to anybody willing to listen.
That the baths were warmer in his youth.
The bread was better before Hadrian.
And people simply knew how to build roads properly.
No explanation.
Has ever been included.
As to how he remembers all of this.
Some traditions.
It seems.
Outlive Empires.
