Original subtitles

while Roman legions wage brutal wars to expand the empire.

At home, violence is a spectacle.

Gladiators battle for glory in lavish games staged by Rome's leaders

to enthrall and distract the masses.

Putting on gladiatorial fights is a way of impressing the ordinary people of

Rome.

A staging of Roman power.

And this was another way to exert control over the populace of Rome.

Now, a young and vain ruler, Emperor Nero takes the throne.

Quickly becoming obsessed, not only with the arena, but with one gladiator above

all,

Spiculus.

Spiculus was lavishly awarded by Nero.

If you manage to become the favorite of an emperor, he can give you anything in

his power, basically.

The emperor's fixation catapults Spiculus into fame, bringing wealth,

privilege, and celebrity.

But this newfound fortune depends entirely on the whims of a man who can

volatile and dangerous.

Gladiators have been entwined with politics long before Nero's rule.

Almost a century earlier, Rome was a republic governed by senators and an

aristocratic elite.

Among them, an ambitious politician, Julius Caesar.

In 65 BCE, Julius Caesar had a political position in Rome that meant part of his

responsibility was entertainment.

He'd really caught on to the fact that people had begun to really be interested

in the games.

And he realized, as being an ambitious person he was, and being such a good

marketer, that if he could put on the greatest show ever, that's going to

reflect on him politically.

Julia Caesar puts on the biggest gladiatorial fight that anyone's ever

and brings together 320 pairs of gladiators.

He adds little touches, like, for example, he makes the armour silver or

silver elements to it, so it really shines.

He's going to put on probably the greatest games that Rome has ever seen.

Over the next two decades, Caesar hosts increasingly lavish games, using their

spectacle to build popularity.

and political power.

His strategy worked.

By 44 BCE, he is named dictator for life, placing Rome firmly

under his control.

But Caesar's dominance sparks fear among rivals, who believe his power threatens

the Republic itself.

Determined to end his rule, a group of senators plot against him, leading to a

violent betrayal as Caesar is stabbed to death by people he once trusted.

The day that Julius Caesar gets assassinated was also, in some of our

material, meant to be a day of spectacle.

A little bit further down the road, gladiators are getting ready to put on a

spectacle.

And when they hear about the assassination of Julius Caesar, they

Caesar was a man of the people and the gladiators held him in high regard.

So Caesar's assassination is tied up in some respects in this really nice small

little way with what is going on with the gladiators because they wanted him

live.

After Caesar's death, power passes to his adopted heir, Augustus, who in

27 BCE becomes Rome's first emperor, transforming the Republic

into an imperial monarchy ruled by a single man.

This is the part which historians use to start referring to the period as the

Roman Empire.

He undertakes a spectacular rebuilding of Rome.

He famously said, I found a city of clay, I made it a city of marble.

And as part of that reinvention, he wants to show that he is giving the

people of Rome their fair share of the spoils of conquest.

And putting on dramatic games is a way that he can do that.

And he wants to make sure that he's putting on bigger and better games than

anyone has done beforehand.

to show that an emperor is a new kind of political power.

In 14 CE, Augustus dies at the age of 77, and he is

succeeded by his stepson Tiberius as the second Roman emperor, who in turn was

succeeded by Caligula, who was succeeded by Claudius, who was succeeded by Nero,

who becomes the very last of the Julio -Claudian emperors, as they are known.

In 54 CE, Nero ascends the throne.

He is young, inexperienced, and ill -prepared for the immense power he now

wields.

Soon his immaturity and vanity will reshape Rome's relationship with

gladiatorial combat in ways never before seen.

Nero is very young when he becomes emperor. He's 16 years old. He's the

emperor up until this point.

He's grown up in the imperial family. He's someone who might not necessarily

have expected to become emperor. His mother was not married to the previous

emperor when he was born, but he was still kind of very intimately connected.

his mother was the great -granddaughter of Augustus.

In terms of his character, he's interested in lots of pursuits and wider

activities that other emperors before him haven't necessarily been too focused

on.

As an emperor, your interest should be the entertainment of other people rather

than the entertainment of yourself.

Whereas I think Nero was quite interested in the entertainment of

Nero, driven by personal obsession.

assembles an elite troop of gladiators from the empire's finest warriors.

Emperors had close engagement with controlling how gladiators were schooled

trained and controlling the gladiatorial troops.

So in this case, this was a group of gladiators attached to Nero and the

imperial family.

Nero's troop have the abbreviation NER and the graffiti in Pompeii which would

have stood for Neronianus, a Neronian gladiator.

To be a Neronian meant that your fights were connected to the fame and glory of

Nero himself.

So the emperor was invested in your training and the outcome of your fight.

In a sense, the gladiators would have been beneath his notice as individuals.

They were enslaved persons, you don't know.

whether an emperor would have stooped to know his enslaved troop by name.

Yet within Nero's troop, one gladiator in particular captures his attention,

Spiculus.

One of the graffiti from Pompeii records a fight between a complete rookie,

Spiculus, who'd managed to defeat a guy called Aptonitus, who had fought and won

16 times.

It's pretty remarkable that he was defeated by a rookie.

I think that Nero was drawn to someone who he sees as having talent. That would

be what probably initially caught his attention.

We can only imagine that Spiculus has drawn Nero's gaze because he is dazzling

to watch.

At Gladiator School, the Empire's finest trainers forge him into one of the most

formidable fighters.

the arena has ever seen.

It doesn't surprise me that there would be a rookie performing in Nero's troupe.

If he had the right physique and the right mental attitude, I can imagine

he would have been trained up and would have had to start somewhere.

We only have a few mentions of Spiculus, but certainly he's someone that Nero

seems to have looked after personally and had a bit of a relationship with.

We know there were men who really desired gladiators and other athletes.

We might imagine that Nero is one of these men who admires the physique of

gladiators like Spiculus, their combat, their prowess, and perhaps even desires

to be like them.

Now, Nero is ready to put his gladiators on display.

He announces lavish games.

Grand spectacles designed to showcase his warriors and reinforce his own

glory.

Despite the games being performed under the name of Nero, he himself is not

going to oversee the ins and outs of putting on a spectacle of this size.

He will have an imperial administrative service that will do the work of making

sure that the games are put on.

And ultimately, it is a spectacle that is entertaining for both the audience

for the emperor himself.

They would have advertised them by hiring sign writers. And so they would

signs, particularly onto the major thoroughfares where lots of people would

been passing to tell you what day the gladiatorial games were going to be

thrown, who was throwing them, of course.

And they would also probably have programs which would perhaps list who

going to be paired against whom.

A famous gladiator were going to appear in the shows. That would have been

known, that would have been advertised.

Everyone in Rome would know that Nero was putting on games.

Emperors would put on games for a variety of reasons. It might be as part

triumph to celebrate a big military victory.

Generally, the different emperors would approach the games differently.

Nero himself had a...

Nero held game extravagantly and on many, many days throughout the year.

Nero knows that spectacle has power.

By feeding the public's appetite for blood and drama, he can keep attention

loyalty focused on the arena and not the growing tensions elsewhere in Rome.

The games that were put on by the emperor Nero in Rome had to be bigger

better than any other games.

The impetus would have been to put on things that are as novel as possible and

as large as possible and as impressive as possible.

For Nero's games, spiculous was clearly the star of the show.

Having a great fighter like spiculous is one of the great draws of these games.

Spiculous would be pitched against... Another good fighter.

I would imagine having an emperor intercede in your favor would mean that

would only get the match -ups that you were open to having.

Now, the Romans also liked to match equally skilled but opposite types of

equipment.

Gladiators usually fought somebody in a different style.

As the games went on, there was variations of the different types of

to make the games more exciting.

Each one is a variation, normally, of weapons and armor from the defeated

enemies of Rome.

You're taking weapons that the Romans would have encountered on the

you're bringing them to the arena, and because they're different weapons, they

have different styles to them.

It's a bit really like MMA. You've got all these different versions of combat,

of helmets and weapons.

Disciples like the Thracian, the Retiarius, who has the net and trident.

The Secular has a closed helmet with two small holes.

A Murmillo is very heavily armed, so he's going to be in a more heavily built

gladiator.

And the Diplomacus is a different variation of a Thracian.

Spiculus was a Murmillo. He would have had a big, heavy, rectangular shield and

a straight sword.

So he was well -protected, whereas he would fight an aftermath who was also

heavily armed and well -defended.

The Romans seemed to have liked to balance advantages and disadvantages on

sides.

They liked that kind of contrast of heavy, slow pondering versus light and

nimble, quick.

Spiculus is one of the most successful gladiators of his day.

And he's hugely popular with the crowd.

And this in itself makes him sort of attractive to the emperor.

And the emperor befriends him.

He's mentioned as receiving from Nero a wealth and estates worthy of a king.

To be a friend of the emperor, I mean, it's like being a friend of the American

president. It affords you great privileges.

It probably means you're going to live a good life.

Spiculus is a wealthy man with his own grand villa, and he's probably actually

enjoying something of the life of the wealthy elite.

For the Romans, it's very odd that a gladiator, who is one of the lowest of

low, is able to live this life of luxury.

There's a certain fascinating quality about the Romans.

They admire, they adore the gladiator.

But the gladiator himself is seen as a figure of scorn, as part of a group of

very low social status known as infamia.

Infamia is a legal punishment that lowers your status, and it's applied to

people who work in what elite Romans see as being...

Unacceptable activities, such as prostitution, fighting as a gladiator,

charioteer, all of these in elite eyes mean that you're no longer a sort of

human being who is worthy of having full rights of citizenship.

You are seen as one of the lowest members of society, but this is the

that Nero is rewarding.

Nero increasingly goes, off message and he gets used to the power that he has as

emperor and he wants to take advantage of it as the scale of nero's games grows

ever more extravagant concern among the senate is mounting that the emperor

is getting carried away we have sea battles where they built lakes

within the city so that they could reenact battles with ships manned by

prisoners of war They were great group combat that were very bloody affairs.

They'd be beast hunters.

These were individualised, highly specialised events and each would have

specialised combat fighters who would have been trained for the specifics of a

spectacle they would have been part of.

They would also put on stage shows and of course the regular favourite of the

chariot racing.

Chariot racing is certainly something that seems to predate gladiatorial

and it is an extremely popular spectacle to go and see.

Away from the arena, Nero's behavior turns even darker.

Behind palace walls, he starts ignoring his job as emperor, choosing instead to

indulge his own whims.

So Nero loved performing.

He becomes more interested in performance and more interested in

Nero sees himself as some kind of creative genius, I think. He plays the

famously. He appears on stage, which is unheard of for an emperor to do.

Which really put him in the realm of the actor, the musician, the gladiator. And

this was quite an odd position for an emperor to be in.

As an emperor, as someone who is supposed to have an administrative

responsibility over the empire, as someone who is supposed to conduct

in a particular way, it's certainly not ideal.

He gave far too much money that the state couldn't really afford to these

of things and individuals as well. So he rewards theatre actors. He gives

citizenship on the basis of their performance at his games.

And he gives far too much money or land to people who don't deserve it.

And spiculous is one of the examples of that. A gladiator that Nero is

particularly fond of and is given these huge rewards for doing his job well or

for being noticed by Nero.

Nero's behavior disturbs the Roman Senate, who can challenge his authority

goes too far.

Yet despite growing unease, Nero presses on, and in 57 CE, he

constructs a grand wooden amphitheater to throw even more extravagant

spectacles.

Nero wanted something that was a slightly bigger scale.

He tried to make it the amphitheater par excellence in Italy.

In fact, he suppressed local amphitheaters and made sure that the

quality fighting took place in Rome.

A year later, the amphitheater is complete.

Nero hosts lavish games with his prized fighter, Spiculus, at the center.

The crowds roar with excitement, but will the loyalty of the people be enough

hold the Senate at bay?

Nero throws games at his new amphitheater.

Crowds gather, anticipating a day of thrilling combat.

Walking up to the gladiator games, you had vendors selling all sorts of wares

from food and different souvenirs that had either gladiator statues, gladiator

statuettes, gladiator lamps.

Almost certainly there were bets taking place.

The kind of thing you would expect to see in a great entertainment spectacle

today.

These games captivate all of Rome.

Rich and poor flock to the amphitheater, swept up in the spectacle.

Walking into the arena, we know that sound, the way it hits you like a wave.

You were seated in the amphitheater according to your social status. The

senators had the best seats up front. The equestrian class had the next

rows around the arena.

And then the rest of the amphitheater, the people were divided up into various

groups. The emperor would have sat right in the front.

He probably had a nice little canopy over his head so that he wouldn't get

sunstroke.

The games start with a procession, a pompa as it's known, where all of the

performers, all of the gladiators and indeed the giver of the games would

process through the arena, giving everyone a chance to sort of see the

fighters that they're going to enjoy later on.

This is your chance to sort of interact, if you like, with your favourite.

Everybody comes out in the dress that they're going to wear later on, does

parade around.

and then you can start to feel the vibe building.

There's every indication that it helps create a bond between the fans and the

stars.

Gladiators are the sports stars of their day. They would be recognized whenever

they appeared in public.

They had their own fans.

They would put up graffiti where they would record their victories. They would

buy models of them.

We have a range of different types of fine glassware from France, which

spiculous alongside a series of famous gladiators.

Gladiators are the sexiest men in the whole empire. They're probably the most

desired men sexually. There's no one else who elicits the kind of sexual

that the gladiators do.

They're symbols of the best that manhood could attain.

Even though they were of low repute.

They were thought to embody things like virtue, courage, masculinity,

fearlessness, all things that Rome was meant to celebrate.

The procession ends and the gladiators retreat backstage.

The crowd roars with excitement.

Music swells, ushering in the next act of Nero's grand event.

With Spiculus being such a famous gladiator, you probably would have had

displays of combat coming on before Spiculus.

You would probably start off in the morning with something like a beast

a combat with wild beasts.

And then once you get to around noon, that's when you see the executions

happening. So that might be people who are criminals, who've been sentenced to

die, for example, by wild beasts.

And then in the afternoon, in that prime time slot, that is when you would see

the gladiators.

The progression is you start with the lesser -known guys, and you're basically

slowly building up to the title fight.

Everybody wants to see Spiculous.

That's going to be the closing fight of the games.

The Lesser Gladiators have fought, their combats are over, and eventually

Speculus will appear as the highlight of the show.

Gladiator like Speculus would have had attendants who would have ensured that

was in tip -top shape before every encounter.

He would have had his own masseuse, his own servants, his own doctor.

He would have had people who carried his armor.

Under the emperor Mero, the most theatrical of all Roman emperors, the

the equipment would have been similarly glittery. At his level, he's going to

have a choice about what he wears. Not every gladiator gets those

Piculus as Mamillo had a very high -quality version of Mamillo armor.

Perhaps the particularly iconic shield or helmet that marked him out from

of that type of gladiator class.

Ready for his contest, Spiculus strides into the amphitheater like a prize

-fighting boxer into the ring.

The announcer would have said, and here he comes, people's champion Spiculus.

Out as he walked, there would have been music to his actual entrance.

The crowd roars, his name is upon the lips of everybody.

When the emperor sees the crowd's adulation for this gladiator, well, he

drinks in the atmosphere.

Somebody like Spiculus is really going to lean in to the things that people

about him. They know he lives in an amazing house. They know he has the

Nero.

As if he's not going to parlay that into how he performs in the arena. He

definitely is.

The Speculoos, of course, has a lot riding on the fight, but Nero does as

because his job is to provide entertainment for the people.

After a long day of fighting at Nero's games, it is time.

for the main attraction.

Spiculus and his opponent emerge.

His rival is matched in strength and trained to kill.

But for Spiculus, this is more than a fight for survival.

It's a battle to remain Nero's favorite.

With the gladiators in the arena, the fight can start.

Nero looks down upon them, and the battle begins.

Spiculus would have been trying to parry with his opponent.

He would have been trying to dazzle the crowd with his moves.

We have references in our sources to gladiators being trained to deliver

with grace.

It's like two prized fighters taking an opportunity to demonstrate the height of

their skill level in front of a live audience.

We can imagine it would have been a display of extreme fear.

There could have been bloodshed involved.

Nero had been watching keenly, trying to see every little parry, every little

jab, trying to see who's being injured.

Spiculus shows once again why he's Nero's prized gladiator.

He is a skilled and brilliant fighter.

In the arena, Few can touch him.

If a gladiator were wounded in the fighting, he could signal submission by

holding up a finger.

And then the referee steps in, stops the fight, and separates the two

gladiators.

Spiculus has won. He's overcome his opponent.

And his opponent has asked for mercy.

At that point, it's up to Nero, the giver of the games, to consult with the

people and then decide what happens to that gladiator.

He holds your life in his hands. All he has to do is turn the thumb.

Nero may look around to the crowd and try and figure out what it is they want

him to do.

The crowd.

can directly communicate with powerful people in their society, including

like the Emperor Nero, and make their feelings known.

The crowd are shouting out, you know, either let him go or kill him.

We can imagine that the people want Spiculus' defeated opponent to be

And Nero gives it to them.

You can imagine there'll be a deathly quiet descend on the arena as everyone

focused on this sort of fate, this moment of death, this poor fallen

If he had a helmet, he was expected to take it off so that everyone could see

all of the emotion on his face.

The gladiator has been taught how to face death.

They were expected to expose their throat, to stare ahead blankly, to show

emotion, to be tough right until the final moment.

And then the victor would plunge his sword down and through the throat and

the heart.

When a gladiator appears to have died in a fight, A man dressed as Charon, god

of the underworld, comes on and actually checks that he's dead.

Charon hit the person with a hammer, and then his body was dragged out with a

hook and dragged out of the arena.

The victory strengthens Nero's bond with Spiculus, and the emperor is eager to

show his gratitude.

The winning gladiator would have been given gifts and prizes.

He will have been given a share of prize money.

And then he'll leave.

The games have dazzled the crowds.

But Nero has one final thrill, designed to capture the hearts of the people.

The emperors in Rome are supposed to be making sure that the people of the

empire have the things that they need.

but also to be seen as the person who gives it to them.

So the emperor is a gift giver.

One of the things the emperor would do for the crowd is known as a spartio. He

would actually throw out kind of lottery tickets and on it you would sort of be

given anything from perhaps some slaves or to some furniture or even a villa.

So it was a way that you could kind of get rich quick.

The people have enjoyed the games. They appreciate Nero for having given them a

day of entertainment that they love.

And they return home to their families. They return to the pub.

Even though Nero's games have inspired the people, have caused the people to

fall in love with Nero, his style of ruling will soon be his downfall.

While the crowds revel in Nero's games, the Senate sees a different picture.

Nero is distracted by spectacle, neglecting the serious business of

The nation is running out.

A big event happens in Rome that really has helped to shape the way we

understand Nero's reign.

And that's the fire.

So in the summer months, Rome does catch on fire a fair amount, but this is

huge. Our sources say a number of the districts in Rome are affected and some

are destroyed completely.

And burned down a big portion of Rome's most prestigious neighborhood, the

Palatine. And also a big chunk of Nero's own imperial palace.

Out of Rome's 14 districts, 10 are quite badly affected and 3 are completely

destroyed.

This is a huge conflagration. It destroys a massive chunk of the city.

Lots of people died in this fire.

The number of dwellings, small businesses, temples that must have been

destroyed, you can imagine the devastation this would have caused.

It displaced tens of thousands.

It's something that really kind of stands as a point in Nero's reign that

extremely significant both politically but also in terms of sort of his

relationship with the city.

How many people must have suffered so extremely?

And this generated huge resentment of the safety and luxury within which the

emperor was operating.

When the fire breaks out, Nero is not in Rome, he's in Antium.

Perhaps the best -known phrase associated with Nero is that he fiddled

Rome burned.

This is anachronistic in some ways because the fiddle wasn't invented, but

playing the lyre while Rome burned is something that our sources are a little

bit split on.

And Nero realizes that with almost all of Rome burned to nothing, he can start

again and he can build a huge palace that's far bigger than anyone else has

before.

This is the Domus Aurea, which is named the Golden House for the amount of

beautiful gold and other precious materials that are used in it.

The Domus Aurea, as impressive as it must have been, it surely caused a

revulsion of feeling.

At a time when so many of the citizens have been made homeless because of the

fire, he is there building himself this enormous great palace.

Honestly, I don't imagine people will all be terribly impressed.

with the building of a giant villa in the aftermath of a destructive fire.

It was clear to pretty much everyone, especially Rome's Senate, that he was

really losing his grip.

The rumour starts, well, he's taking such advantage of it, it must be because

started the fire so that he could do this.

A lot of our sources do say that it's his agent who sets the fire, not him

personally, obviously, that would be crazy.

However, Nero's actions afterwards, he does seem to be really concerned and he

does instantly set about trying to help as many people as possible.

It seems like Nero was trying to rebuild the city after the fire in a way that

would make that kind of event happening again less likely.

Nero chases pleasure and indulges in his personal amusement.

Nero's popularity is certainly taking a hit. He's not the kind of man that most

Romans would respect as their emperor.

And it's partly because of his over -the -top interest in things like chariot

races, identified for theatre.

They're not the kind of pursuits that you really want your emperor to have.

You want him to be more focusing on military conquest, for example, and what

happening politically.

He's too close to the people. He's not sort of paying enough attention to the

senators.

And that's the point where the Senate declare Nero as a public enemy.

With the Senate's condemnation, Nero's grip on power crumbles.

And showing loyalty to the fallen emperor is dangerous, even for

Nero, the most powerful man in Rome, has been denounced by the Senate.

He is unable to contain the storm around him.

Nero realises that the game is up.

Once Nero has been declared a public enemy, the options for him are very

limited.

All he has left is a few loyal attendants.

As he hears that the Praetorians are on their way to kill him, and he realises,

once he's been declared a public enemy, that the death is particularly brutal.

He'll be beaten and flogged and dragged through the city.

He realizes that really the only option is for him to take his own life.

There are so many instances of Romans, in defense of their honor, committing

suicide. And committing suicide with a sword, falling on their sword, or

stabbing themselves with a sword, is a horrifying way to die.

But he's too scared to kill himself, so he calls on Spiculus to do it for him.

The fact that Nero wanted to be killed by Spiculus, his favorite gladiator,

could suggest that he wanted to die quickly and well.

And perhaps there's also that sort of case of notoriety where the emperor of

Rome was killed by the most famous gladiator of the arena.

He needs to know someone he can trust, I think. So here's someone that he can

trust to do the job as efficiently as possible.

Spiculus, though, can't be found.

Whether he was sort of deliberately keeping out of harm's way, or whether he

really had just abandoned Nero like everyone else, we don't know.

Spiculus, his prized gladiator, is missing.

Nero turns to another member of his inner circle.

He leans on and relies on a freedman named Epaphroditus.

Then, with Epaphroditus' help, Nero commits suicide.

Nero is only 30 years old.

His death ends a 14 -year reign.

marked by self -indulgence and spectacle.

When Nero dies, there's very much a mixed reaction to his death.

Some of the individuals who partook in the entertainment mourn Nero's death.

When Nero dies, he is given a public funeral.

The ordinary people of Rome, they were there at his graveside. They didn't see

this as the good thing that the senators thought.

After Nero's death, There's a clear out, if you like, of Nero's supporters.

And Spiculus has been too close to Nero.

And it's reported that he's actually crushed beneath various statues of Nero

that are pulled down in the forum.

Nero's reign and its chaotic end is something of a cautionary tale about the

excesses of power.

He's also...

always sort of doomed to go down in history as an absolutely terrible

because he is the last of the Julio -Claudians.

And this makes him the last of the first dynasty of emperors in Rome.

When he dies, there is no heir. He has had children, but they haven't survived.

So after Nero's death, we have the year for emperors in which individuals rise

to claim the mantle of emperor.

Until Otmi will be left with Vespasian, the last man standing, who will initiate

the Flavian dynasty.

That dynasty, and Vespasian in particular, decides what he's going to

separate himself in every way that he can from Nero.

Vespasian, the new emperor, is determined to erase all traces of Nero's

Starting with the opulent palace.

built as a monument to Nero's ego in the ashes of the great fire of Rome.

Nero's golden palace becomes a symbol of everything that's wrong with his reign.

It's excessive, it's overly focused on Nero himself.

Vespasian wants to wipe the slate clean and build something that is a people's

palace, not just a palace for a single emperor.

Vespasian, take the opportunity.

to demolish large parts of the Domus Aurea.

And on the site, part of it, he starts to construct the Flavian amphitheater.

It was the most strident way, the most powerful way. He could say that we're

under a new regime, a new dynasty.

Vespasian decides to build Rome's first large -scale permanent amphitheater on

the site of Nero's gardens.

And that is the amphitheatre that we now know as the Coliseum.