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>> The planet Earth, according to many scientists,
is roughly 4 billion years old.
Give or take a few million years.
By 200 million years ago, dinosaurs walked the surface
of the Earth, and by 65 million years ago,
they were extinct.
Two million years ago, man who walks upright was appearing
on the scene.
In the beginning, man was not much different
than any of the other animals who lived in constant fear,
hunted by the great predators of the time.
But about 2 million years ago, something special happened.
Man began making tools and weapons.
Then, as he learned how to cooperate within the tribe,
to organize the hunt and to defend his family
and plant crops, the first traces
of civilization began to appear.
In the Romans, part 1, we saw the little 7 hilltop villages
known as Rome, mature from something less than a city state
into the capital of an empire that ruled the known world.
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>> From 112 to 105 BCE, Rome waged a military campaign
to expand its holdings in Africa.
The general in charge of this expedition was
consul Caius Marius.
Under the laws of the Roman Republic,
a man was required to own land before he could serve
in the Roman army.
The African campaign, Marius reasoned, was going
to require a larger army than Rome then had in uniform.
In a move designed to increase the size of the army,
consul Marius dropped a requirement of land ownership.
In response, thousands of poorer Romans joined up
and in gratitude, they became fiercely loyal to Marius.
Until now, the wealthy men who comprised the membership
of the Senate had been the most powerful group in all of Rome.
They passed the laws, determined the foreign policy
of the empire, appointed the commanding generals,
and even enjoyed the total loyalty of the army.
But that was all about to change.
In 88 BCE, the Senate chose to relieve one
of its generals, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, of his command.
He refused to step down and he was branded an outlaw.
In anger, Sulla marched on Rome with his army
and massacred 10,000 of his opponents
and named himself dictator.
Sulla ruled Rome with an iron fist for 10 years.
Upon his death in 78 BCE, the Senate came back into power,
but it was now very clear that any general
with a loyal army could rule Rome.
In 63 BCE, three men formed a new kind
of secret political alliance called the Triumvirate
to oppose the power of the Senate.
The Triumvirate translates to board of three.
The three men who seized power, Crassus, Pompey,
and Julius Caesar, were able to do so because each
of the three men commanded their own legions.
In 59 BCE, Julius Caesar began his conquest of Gaul,
which was the territory that included modern day France,
Belgium, and parts of Germany.
It would take him eight years to conquer the entire area.
As he expanded the Roman Empire
with his brilliant campaigns, Caesar's popularity grew.
In 53 BCE, when Crassus was killed
in a military campaign in Asia Minor,
the Triumvirate fell apart.
Pompey attempted to seize total power, but when Caesar heard,
he returned from Gaul and when he crossed the Rubicon River
with his army and marched on Rome in 49 BCE,
the empire was plunged into a vast civil war.
Pompey fled to Greece where he prepared for battle
by gathering an army twice the size of Caesar's.
But when they met at the Battle of Farsalis in 48 BCE,
Caesar proved to be the superior general
and destroyed Pompey's entire force.
Pompey fled to Egypt but was murdered there
by people who wanted to please Caesar.
And so it was that the Republic ended
when Julius Caesar became dictator of all Rome.
Caesar was much loved by the people, but when he ignored matters
in Rome by spending excessive time in Egypt
with the legendary queen Cleopatra, his support weakened.
And when he had the Senate appoint him dictator for life
in February of 44 BCE, some senators decided he had gone too far.
On March 15th, 44 BCE, a day known as the Ides of March,
Caesar went to the Senate to receive a tribute.
But instead of an honor, he was stabbed to death
by a group of senators led by Cassius and Brutus,
who saw him as the destroyer of the Great Roman Republic.
In the turmoil that followed, Caesar's adopted son Octavian
and his chief lieutenant, Mark Antony, agreed to split the empire
in half. Mark Antony would live in Egypt and rule the east
with Queen Cleopatra, while Octavian would live in Rome
and rule the west.
This arrangement lasted for 10 years until Octavian decided
to unite the empire once again.
When he met and defeated the fleet of Antony and Cleopatra
at Actium off the coast of Greece in 31 BCE, Octavian became
the sole ruler of Rome.
When he was officially crowned the first emperor of Rome in 27 BCE,
Octavian was given the title Augustus,
which means a person to be respected.
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Caesar Augustus embarked on a major building program
in the city of Rome.
He once said, "I found it as a city of bricks
and left it as a city of marble."
Indeed, Roman engineers and architects excelled
at their crafts, and much of what they built
remained standing today.
Concrete is what made it all possible.
When it was discovered sometime around 200 BCE,
that certain volcanic ash and limestone mixtures would become
hard as rock when mixed with water,
construction rose to new heights.
Fresh water was prized as a Roman luxury of life.
It arrived at the cities via their incredible aqueducts.
Rome itself was served by 11 aqueducts that filled its baths
and fountains and was piped to private homes.
Some aqueducts were hundreds of miles long.
This one, upon de Garde near Neem in southern France,
still carries water to this day.
An extensive network of roads was another milestone
by which the spread of Roman influence was measured.
It was once said, "All roads lead to Rome."
And indeed, it was true.
Roman roads were made of stone and elevated with grains
so that they never became muddy or impassable.
Many are still in use today.
After decades of civil wars and ****** revolts,
the reign of Caesar Augustus was an era of internal peace
never before enjoyed in Rome.
Augustus died in 14 CE, or the Common Era,
and was succeeded by Tiberius.
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At the dawn of the age of empire, the quality of life in Rome
depended entirely on your social class.
For the patrician rich, splendid houses awash in mosaic art
and lush gardens were the settings
where slaves met their every need.
The lives of the middle class were almost as good.
Merchants and artisans enjoyed the fruits of their labors
and the security of being citizens of Rome.
And, of course, all free Roman citizens enjoyed afternoons
spent at the opulent public bathhouses,
the social centers of the city.
Slaves, on the other hand, lived miserable lives.
Slavery was so widespread in 100 CE,
it was estimated that 250,000 of Rome's 1 million inhabitants
were slaves.
Many of Rome's slaves, especially captured soldiers,
were forced to become gladiators and fight in the arena.
In Greece, people attended the theater and athletic contests
such as the Olympics for entertainment.
The Romans, however, preferred to watch highly skilled fighters
known as gladiators fight each other usually to the death
before cheering crowds in the arena.
Gladiator comes from gladiators, the Latin word for sword.
Across the Roman Empire, even the smallest of towns
had its arena where such fights were staged.
In 70 CE, Emperor Vespasian decreed that a grand amphitheater
be built in Rome.
Designed to seat 50,000 people, it took thousands of workers
eight years to complete.
The Flavian amphitheater, as it was originally named,
was considered by many to be the eighth wonder
of the ancient world.
It later became known simply as the Colosseum.
Seeding was by rank, the higher your station in life,
the closer you sat to the action.
Of course, the Emperor and his entourage had the best seats of all.
A day in the arena began in the morning with animal hunts.
Lions, tigers, leopards, and other exotic animals
were killed by men known as Venatorias.
Then at lunchtime, public executions of criminals were conducted.
One common method was to have them devoured by wild beasts.
Being a Christian was a crime punishable by death in Rome
and over a span of 200 years, thousands of Christians met their deaths
in the jaws of lions and tigers during the noontime executions.
Gladiators were the sports heroes and celebrities of their day,
and they fought in the prime time of the afternoon.
Fights were normally between pairs,
but occasionally larger displays were put on
that recreated famous battles.
If a defeated opponent still lived,
the victor would stand over him as he pleaded for his life.
If he fought well, the crowd might signal with thumbs up
to spare his life.
Thumbs down meant death, but the Emperor always had the final say.
In the beginning, the Colosseum was even flooded for sea battles,
but once two larger lakes were built for that purpose,
the floor of the arena was dug up and an elaborate maze of tunnels
and holding cells were installed.
Animals and gladiators now appeared as if by magic lifted
up by elevators through trap doors.
Emperor Commodus, who ruled from 180 to 192 CE,
fancied himself a gladiator and fought in the arena over 700 times.
His fights were, of course, fixed.
His opponents had swords which broke upon contact with his.
Chariot races were also a popular Roman sport.
They were held at the circus maximus which seeded 250,000 people.
When Emperor Hadrian came to power in 117 CE,
the Roman Empire encompassed its greatest area
and governed over 50 million people.
In a decision that defined the limits of the Empire,
Hadrian chose to consolidate rather than expand.
In Britannia, Hadrian built a wall to keep back the barbarian tribes
from what is now Scotland.
Sections of his wall may still be seen today.
Hadrian traveled widely to all parts of the Empire.
A lover of all things Greek, he lived in Athens for three years
and built a grand temple to the *** Zeus,
whom the Romans worshipped as Jupiter.
The Roman religion also worshipped the wife of Zeus, Hera,
but knew her as Juno, queen goddess of all female deities.
In the year 312, Emperor Constantine came to the throne
and began radically changing the face of the Empire.
Telling of a vision from ***, he ended the Roman persecution
of the Christians.
Then, in 330, he proclaimed Byzantium, a city in Asia Minor,
as the new capital of the Roman Empire.
The city was renamed Constantinople.
Upon Constantine's death in 337, the Empire was further weakened
when it was divided between his two sons.
At the beginning of the 5th century, Italy was invaded
by numerous barbarian tribes.
Its legions were recalled from across the Empire
to defend the city, but to no avail.
In 410 CE, King Alaric and his Visigoth warriors successfully
breached the walls of Rome in an assault
from which Rome never fully recovered.
And finally, in 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire fell
to the Huns, an Asian people that ravaged all
of Europe in the 5th century.
The fall marked the beginning of that era known
in Europe as the Dark Ages.
The Eastern Roman Empire endured for almost another 1,000 years.
Known as the Byzantine culture, it was more Greek than Roman.
It finally fell in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks.
From its beginning in 753 BCE to its bitter end in 1453,
the Roman culture lasted over 2,000 years.
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Known today as the Republic of Italia, the country of Italy has
a population of nearly 60 million people.
The eternal city of Rome is still one of the premier capitals
of Europe, and millions of visitors flock to it every year
to marvel at the remains of the greatest empire
of the ancient world.
The Colosseum yet stands as a tribute to the skill
of early Rome's architects and engineers.
The ruins of Emperor Hadrian's country villa at Tivoli speaks
to the splendor and opulence that was Rome.
The alluring city of Venice is located on the coast
of the Adriatic Sea in northern Italy.
Famous for its watery streets and gondolas, Venice is a treasure
trove of art from the Italian Renaissance period,
from the 14th to the 17th century, which marked the end
of Europe's dark ages.
The city of Naples is the jewel of the Italian West Coast,
and if you ever wanted to step back into Rome's ancient past,
the nearby city of Pompeii awaits you.
An eruption of volcanic Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE completely
buried Pompeii under a layer of ash up to 65 feet deep.
When the city was uncovered 1700 years later, its citizens
and all that was theirs were found, literally frozen in time.
Their luxurious homes and incredible mosaic art transport us
back to the days when Rome ruled the world,
and Pompeii was their seaside playground.
The legacy of Rome also endures all across its once vast
empire.
Still standing in Europe, Africa and Asia are the buildings,
arenas, aqueducts and temples that in their day bore witness
to a people and a culture that defined the word imperial.
The Romans had a reputation for incredibly lavish dinners
that lasted through the night, and modern day Italian food
is loved the world over.
The influence of Rome can still be seen in the style
of our governmental buildings and heard in our language today.
Latin is the basis of many modern languages,
including Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian.
They're called the romance languages after the language
of Rome.
Why you speak Latin words almost every day
and might not even realize it.
Governor, candidate, Congress and Senate are Latin.
Court, judge, jury and verdict are Latin,
and in education, campus, college and library
are also Latin words.
The Romans were conquerors who molded the world
to their likeness, and they will not soon be forgotten.
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