Original subtitles

♪♪

Narrator: ancient rome...

Home to a breathtaking Lost palace --

The domus aurea.

This magnificent building is The vision of a cruel emperor,

Nero.

Does he start The great fire of rome

To build it?

No one had known A fire on this scale before.

Narrator: today, Investigators must solve

The riddle of the fire

To discover the truth Behind the palace

And rome's notorious ruler.

To unearth this mystery,

We'll deconstruct Nero's golden palace

Stone by stone,

Dive beneath Spectacular ancient remains

And reveal what Really burns down

The greatest city Of the ancient world.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

Rome, 64 ad --

A devastating inferno

Breaks out in the heart Of this ancient city.

It burns for nine days,

Destroying most of the capital.

♪♪

A new imperial palace

Rises from the ashes,

Nero's domus aurea,

Or "Golden house."

Archaeologists believe

It once covers A quarter of the city.

Today, little remains Of nero's spectacular home,

But its reputation lives on

In infamy.

New discoveries suggest

That this is a residence

Of unimaginable luxury.

♪♪

Hidden beneath modern rome

Lie the traces Of this ancient mega palace.

Roman writers Describe a building

With hundreds of rooms,

Surrounded by lush gardens

And covered with gold, jewels And mother-of-pearl.

Alongside, A private boating lake,

Bigger than 10 olympic swimming pools.

And at the entrance, The crowning glory --

A giant bronze statue Of the emperor nero himself,

Towering 120 feet tall.

The domus aurea is

One of the largest Palace complexes in the world,

But does it hide a dark secret?

♪♪

Nero is rome's fifth emperor.

His reign begins well,

But ancient writers say

It descends into Cruelty and tyranny.

People had a lot of hope In nero,

But they started to change Their opinion of him.

He murdered his mother.

Narrator: nero sends soldiers

To stab his mother to death,

Convinced she is plotting Against him.

She is the first Of many victims.

Higgins: and then He also started

These very self-indulgent

Building projects.

Narrator: ancient writers Accuse the emperor

Of burning down rome To build a gleaming new city.

Are the stories true?

Archaeologist valerie higgins

Investigates how The great fire starts.

She thinks a clue lies Inside this vast structure,

The circus maximus,

Ancient rome's famous Chariot-racing track.

♪♪

Down at the far end,

There were the starting gates,

And so the horses Would charge out,

Race up this side of the track.

♪♪

Narrator: this mighty stadium is One of nero's favorite haunts.

It also plays a key role

In the fire that gives Birth to his palace.

According to the ancient Historian tacitus,

The fire started in this corner Of the racetrack.

The circus maximus is A magnificent stone structure.

25-foot-tall arches Tower three stories high,

But inside lies a timber frame

That stretches over a mile Around the stadium,

Supporting thousands Of wooden benches,

And, at the base,

Dozens of shops encircle The entire stadium.

In the early hours Of july 19, 64 ad,

One spark starts A chain reaction.

Flames spread rapidly,

Consuming the entire stadium.

Is that initial spark Simply an accident

Or a deliberate act of arson?

♪♪

Valerie assesses the conditions

Leading up to the fire.

♪♪

Higgins: on the night Of the fire,

Conditions here were perfect, Really, for a fire taking hold.

It was summertime.

It was a big race meeting.

All of the vendors would've had Open fires to cook food on.

♪♪

Narrator: ancient writers report That the fire spreads quickly

To neighboring apartment blocks.

♪♪

Higgins: the tenement blocks,

Which were Outside the circus maximus,

Were areas of dense housing,

Where everybody Was crammed together.

Narrator: valerie thinks these Long-lost apartment blocks

Could help explain the fire's Rapid spread across rome...

So she heads out into the city To search for more clues.

♪♪

Just as at the circus maximus,

There were shops On the ground floor,

And then above that,

There's residential Accommodation.

Narrator: built deep Into the capitoline hillside,

This 2nd-century apartment block Rises five stories high.

♪♪

Valerie has special permission

To examine these rare remains

That are off-limits To the public.

♪♪

Higgins: this is one Of the upper stories...

♪♪

...And these are the walls Demarcating one room.

♪♪

This space is so small,

It's really hard to imagine

More than one person in it,

But it is quite probable

That a family would Have lived in here.

♪♪

Narrator: the design Of this building

Is almost identical to One from nero's reign,

But there's one Important difference.

In nero's day,

The buildings are Made from wood.

♪♪

Higgins: the apartment blocks At the time of nero

Were all destroyed in the fire.

This is a 2nd-century apartment.

It's built of concrete and brick

And fire-resistant stone,

And it's very much more robust.

♪♪

Narrator: in 64 ad, Many of the apartment blocks

Are shoddily built from Flimsy timber frames

Filled with mud and bricks,

Reaching up to six stories.

Multiple apartment blocks Crammed together

To form residential islands.

Narrow streets, Sometimes only 6 feet wide,

Crisscross around them.

Tens of thousands Of these tenements

Are interspersed Across the entire city.

♪♪

These ramshackle Residential buildings

Easily catch fire.

♪♪

The blaze rapidly spreads From block to block,

Quickly engulfing Most of the city.

♪♪

Two thousand years ago,

Ancient rome is A giant tinderbox

Waiting to go up in flames.

♪♪

Higgins: no one had known A fire on this scale before.

The sense of panic

Must have been Absolutely indescribable.

Narrator: But there's a mystery.

Ancient writers say this inferno

Doesn't behave Like a normal fire.

♪♪

After six days of chaos,

The blaze dies down,

Only to suddenly Flare up again.

♪♪

Higgins: but that this fire Started again

On the property Of an official of nero

Fueled the suspicion That perhaps it was nero

Who was behind this fire.

Is the emperor to blame

For rome's great inferno?

Do the clues lie hidden

In his golden palace?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Nearly 2,000 years ago,

A terrible fire destroys

The heart of ancient rome.

Contemporary writers Blame the emperor, nero.

They say he starts the inferno To build a new city,

One with an extravagant New palace --

The domus aurea.

♪♪

Archaeologist antonio ferrandes

Hunts for evidence of the fire.

Narrator: today, central rome Is a maze of ancient ruins.

This is where nero builds

The heart of his new palace.

Beneath these later ruins,

Antonio's team makes An extraordinary discovery.

♪♪

16 feet down, They discover the foundations

Of a 1st-century Aristocratic house

That appears to be Burnt to the ground.

Surrounding the stones, A layer of ash and debris.

Buried inside it,

Scorched pottery And mangled copper pots...

♪♪

...Bronze coins melted Like chocolate...

♪♪

...And a twisted piece of iron,

The remains of a grate,

Melted from extreme heat.

Could this incinerated building

Be rare evidence Of the great fire?

♪♪

Antonio analyzes The fire-damaged remains

In his laboratory at rome's Sapienza university.

♪♪

He wants to find out If this really is

Proof of the great fire.

His first step is to measure

The intensity of the damage.

Narrator: the fire burns some Metallic objects from the house

Beyond recognition.

It's so hot, It fuses them together.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The mangled remains reveal

That the fire inside the house

Tops 1,100 degrees fahrenheit,

♪♪

But are these remarkable objects

From the time of the great fire?

Antonio believes the answer May lie with a fragile oil lamp.

He dates the lamp To nero's reign.

♪♪

Narrator: antonio's discovery

Proves a raging inferno Sweeps through rome

2,000 years ago, At the end of nero's rule.

♪♪

It's not just The intensity of the fire

Which is remarkable.

The extent of the devastation

Is huge and curious.

Antonio heads up Rome's ancient palatine hill.

He uses modern satellite imagery

To reconstruct rome Just before the fire.

Ancient writers claim

That nero wants all Of this prime real estate.

Intriguingly, The footprint of the palace

Matches vast swaths Of the destroyed areas.

♪♪

In 64 ad,

The fire starts At the circus maximus.

It rages for nine days

And destroys Over 60% of the city.

It leaves a blank canvas

For nero's audacious rebuild.

On the charred hill where The roman elite once lived,

Nero builds the domus aurea

With hundreds of rooms For entertaining...

And in the valley where once lay Houses for the lower classes,

He erects a network Of opulent palaces

And fills the gardens With wild animals.

♪♪

Nero turns A bustling city center

Into a 200-acre Luxury country retreat

Right in the heart of rome.

♪♪

The evidence is circumstantial

But highly suspicious.

So, could the ancient authors Be right?

Is the emperor capable Of committing such a deadly act?

♪♪

Nero's grand vision Is magnificent,

But is it worth sacrificing An entire city for?

♪♪

The answer could lie With an astonishing discovery

Buried deep in This roman hillside.

♪♪

Narrator: in 64 ad, A catastrophic fire devastates

The ancient city of rome.

Contemporary writers Claim that nero sings

While watching The metropolis burn...

♪♪

...But does nero Really torch his capital

To build a new city With an extravagant residence,

The domus aurea?

Is all this worth Destroying old rome?

♪♪

500 feet from the colosseum

Lies the only surviving Section of palace.

♪♪

Archaeologist Alessandro d'alessio

Investigates this Astonishing structure.

♪♪

Alessandro believes This section of palace

Built on top of Incinerated roman homes

Is used to entertain guests.

♪♪

There are more than 150 rooms inside.

Faded mosaics and frescoes

Cover almost every surface.

♪♪

Legend says The heart of the palace

Hides an astonishing wonder...

♪♪

...A banquet room

That supposedly Rotates day and night.

♪♪

For years, archaeologists think That this octagonal chamber

Is the rotating room of legend.

Hidden windows Give the impression

Of the sun moving around it.

♪♪

♪♪

At first, historians believe

An actual revolving room Is just a myth...

♪♪

But a new discovery in This section of nero's palace

On the palatine hill

Reveals that truth Is stranger than fiction.

Buried beneath this canopy

Are the ruins Of an incredible mechanism.

Two crumbling arches Are all that remain

Of a grand branching structure

Over 65 feet tall.

On the top, Archaeologists discover

Strange holes Arranged in a ring.

♪♪

Inside them is a soft clay,

Possibly a lubricant,

A clue that they could've once Held bronze ball bearings...

20 of them spinning in unison,

Revolving the floor Of the legendary dining hall.

♪♪

The ambition behind Nero's palace is clear,

But what does it take to build

Such a magnificent structure?

♪♪

Today, the remains are buried Deep behind these walls.

Archaeologist Francoise villedieu

Tries to work out what The dining room itself

Looks like.

She heads down to The base of the walls

To investigate.

The upper floor of The revolving room

Is missing.

Francoise thinks that a coin Minted during nero's reign

Could reveal What it looks like.

Around the edge of the image, The letters "Mac aug."

They could also mean Machina auguste,

Or machine of the emperor.

Nero is a ruler Who will stop at nothing

To get whatever he desires.

This room is one of the most Sophisticated machines

In the ancient world,

But how do his engineers Power it?

♪♪

This nearby aqueduct Could be a clue.

♪♪

The remains of the aqueduct

Lie close to nero's palace.

Nero can divert its water

To the base of his Rotating dining room.

The water feeds A huge waterwheel

Two stories high.

It turns night and day

With the constant flow.

Connected to the wheel are

A series of cogs and gears.

These transmit the force Of the water up,

Towards the rotating floor.

♪♪

The dining room Perpetually rotates,

Allowing banqueters Panoramic views of the city

Both day and night.

♪♪

This revolving masterpiece

Is every bit as lavish

As the contemporary Writers describe.

So, are they also Telling the truth

When they blame the emperor For the great fire?

♪♪

Nero is one of rome's Cruelest emperors.

He murders his two wives

And numerous friends And advisors.

Does his desire for Beautiful architecture

Push him over the edge Into arson and mass murder?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The great fire of 64 ad

Spells disaster For the ancient city of rome.

Ancient writers describe

How shadowy figures

Throw burning torches

Into undamaged buildings.

Are these nero's men,

Or is this ancient propaganda

Designed to discredit The emperor?

♪♪

Archaeologist antonio ferrandes

Is on a mission to investigate.

These luxurious Hilltop houses are built

From much stronger materials

Than the flammable timber homes Of the poor.

After the fire, It's here that nero

Builds one section Of his palace.

It contains the incredible Rotating dining room

With views overlooking His private lake.

Is the destruction here A coincidence,

Or a deliberate act of arson?

♪♪

On this site in 64 ad

Stand upper-class homes Built to last.

Travertine stone blocks Form the doorway,

And the concrete walls

Are reinforced with bricks.

Marble slabs and mosaic tiles

Make up the floor,

And tucked at the back,

Stone pillars surround A cloistered garden.

♪♪

Above them, heavy tiles Form a solid roof.

But these solid houses also Burned down in the great fire.

♪♪

Is this evidence of arson?

♪♪

In scotland's Edinburgh university,

Luke bisby Is a structural engineer

And fire-investigation Specialist.

He's going to examine If arson is to blame

For the destruction Of these homes.

In an urban fire, Different materials

Are going to respond In different ways,

Mostly depending On whether or not

They're combustible,

And this depends fundamentally On their chemistry.

♪♪

Narrator: luke will use This high-tech heat machine

To test the materials found

In ancient roman buildings.

He wants to figure out How intense heat affects them.

He starts with a piece of timber Used in the construction

Of the homes in The poorer districts.

So what we're doing here is, We're simulating the conditions

That we would expect as a fire Approaches a building.

♪♪

Okay, nicolai. Fire it up.

Narrator: this custom-built rig Acts like a giant heat lamp.

It uses special heating panels

To warm up the surface Of the timber sample.

Bisby: we're not Going to see flames

Shooting from the machine.

We're just gonna see radiation

Impacting on the sample To heat its surface.

Narrator: it's estimated that A large nearby building fire

Could radiate temperatures

Of over 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let's go to 20 kilowatts Per meter squared.

Luke inches the machine forward

To increase the level Of heat radiation

Affecting the sample.

♪♪

We're starting to see some Surface charring of the timber.

It's starting to smoke.

Narrator: at this distance, The surface of the timber

Is around 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

♪♪

Okay, nicolai. Let's go to 40.

♪♪

Suddenly...

The timber bursts into flames.

♪♪

So, what this test has shown Is that you don't actually

Need a naked flame in order For the timber to ignite,

Provided that the severity Of heating is high enough.

Narrator: the test proves That rome's wooden buildings

Can ignite when subjected To around 1,200 degrees of heat.

♪♪

So how much hotter Does a fire have to be

To destroy the stone villas In the wealthier districts?

Bisby: so in these more Affluent buildings,

Many elements will have been Made from roman concrete

Or other types of stone.

The stronger Structural elements,

Things like columns And lintel elements,

Will have been made From travertine.

Narrator: travertine rock Is extremely strong.

Roman builders use it As a load-bearing material,

But it's also very expensive,

So luke uses a block Of ordinary limestone,

Which has similar properties.

Alright. So let's start The test, nicolai.

Narrator: first, He raises the temperature

To around 1,200 degrees,

The same temperature range That sets light to the timber.

This test is a first for luke.

He wants to examine What effect the heat will have

On the limestone.

Bisby: and we can see that The limestone block

Is just sitting there Blinking at us.

Narrator: the stone Easily resists the heat,

So luke moves the panels closer.

♪♪

He increases the temperature to Over 1,400 degrees fahrenheit.

♪♪

Bisby: this is more Representative

Of the conditions That you would have next to,

Really, a very large, Raging inferno.

Narrator: As the machine edges closer,

A crack on the surface Begins to appear.

♪♪

Bisby: just having a look, And I start to see maybe

A bit of surface disintegration,

And there's definitely A large crack

That's growing on the surface Of this block.

Here we are now, Testing at 1,500

To 1,800 degrees fahrenheit, And this is certainly

Representative Of the extreme temperatures

That we would expect In the great fire of rome.

It just popped way out.

Narrator: With the crack expanding

And fears the stone Could shatter,

They stop the test.

♪♪

Once cool,

Luke examines the damage.

♪♪

Yeah.

You can see that It's completely disintegrated

To some depth.

♪♪

On this basis, We can see pretty clearly

That this block is no longer Structurally sound

And would have a very hard time Holding up a building.

Narrator: luke's test proves That it doesn't require arson

To destroy these buildings.

♪♪

The intense heat From the giant inferno

Raging all around is enough To bring them down.

♪♪

Bisby: we would see This process repeated

One building after another As the fire progresses,

Eventually to destroy The entire city.

♪♪

In 64 ad,

Rome is unprepared for A fire of this magnitude.

♪♪

The city has an army Of 7,000 firefighters,

Called vigiles,

But they're only used To tackling small fires.

♪♪

At first, They create firebreaks.

They use ropes to pull down Burning apartment blocks

To save public buildings.

♪♪

They carry water from The city's public fountains

And feed it to a hydraulic pump

That shoots the water in the air To douse the flames...

♪♪

...But in the hot summer Of 64 ad,

The cisterns run dry.

With no water to fight the fire,

The vigiles can only watch While rome burns.

♪♪

Bisby: I would think that An ancient team of firefighters

Would have had A very difficult time

Fighting one of these fires.

It would be almost impossible

To have any hope of even slowing A fire of this magnitude.

♪♪

Confusion and fear could explain

The stories of shadowy figures

Setting fire To undamaged houses.

But there are still many Unanswered questions.

Why do new fires spring up

In different places Across the city

In an unnatural pattern?

Could the answer Finally exonerate nero

Or prove his guilt?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: investigators Hunt for the truth

Behind the great fire of rome.

Roman writers claim The emperor nero

Orders the inferno To clear space

For a new more beautiful Capital.

♪♪

Nero is certainly capable Of unspeakable cruelty,

But archaeologist Antonio ferrandes

Believes he also wants To improve his city.

In the years before the fire,

Nero longs to rebuild And beautify rome.

He even has a new name For his new city --

Neropolis.

♪♪

During the inferno, Other fires ignite at random

In different parts of the city Away from the main blaze.

Is this unnatural spread

Finally proof that arson, Not accident,

Is behind the destruction?

♪♪

In scotland, Fire investigator rory hadden

Is going to examine if arson Is the only explanation

For this seemingly unnatural Spread of fire.

Just so that When we slide it under here

To put the fire out...

Rory believes flaming embers Play a key role

In the fire's Pattern of behavior.

I just want to examine The effect that wind has

On ember dispersal.

So we have a fan here

That's going to generate Some wind for us.

Then in front, We've positioned

Some materials that will Generate some firebrands,

And down here, The straw is a combustible base.

If you want to go ahead And light the fire?

♪♪

Narrator: as the wood ignites And begins to char,

It will produce a small number Of fiery embers.

♪♪

I'm going to turn On the wind now

And see what happens With these embers.

♪♪

The fan blows On the burning wood.

Small embers peel off And float through the air.

♪♪

As soon as the embers Hit the straw,

It begins to smolder.

Small fires spring up Wherever one lands.

Hadden: the firebrands generated From the pieces of wood

Were randomly dispersed On the combustible material,

And now, we have A flaming fire.

♪♪

Narrator: this random Dispersal of embers

Reveals how new fires Can sporadically start,

Seemingly out of nowhere.

What we saw here was the result Of two small pieces of wood.

If you imagine scaling that Up to a citywide fire,

We'd be generating Millions of embers,

And it'd be being transported By the wind

And landing all over the place.

To the everyday ancient roman,

This would very much Have the appearance

Of random fires starting All across the city.

♪♪

Narrator: Rory's experiment reveals

How wind plays a key role

In the strange Spread of the fire.

♪♪

At the height of the inferno,

A strong wind sweeps Through the city.

It pushes the blaze up The palatine hill

Like wildfire...

But the fire also moves south,

Against the wind.

Some believe that The inferno becomes so big

It takes on a life of its own.

Hadden: with our current Understanding of large fires,

We know that big fires Will generate their own wind,

So the wind generated By the fire is

Potentially large enough To overcome the natural wind

And therefore distribute embers Throughout the city.

♪♪

The fire's behavior Is disturbing

But perfectly natural To an investigator like rory,

But it can easily Look like arson

To an ancient roman.

Hadden: so, whilst we can't Definitively rule out arson,

What we've seen today is a Much more plausible explanation

For why the fire would've Appeared to spread

Randomly and widely Across the city.

Narrator: these modern tests Are powerful new evidence

For nero's innocence.

After the fire, The emperor even rushes

To the aid of his people.

He throws open his private Grounds for shelter

And lowers the price of corn, But, despite this,

Why do his own citizens insist

He is to blame for the fire?

Could the answer lie

With the destruction Of his golden palace?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: after the great Fire of rome burns out,

Nero quickly begins building The domus aurea.

He seizes vast swaths Of the gutted city

To build his dream project --

Neropolis.

The emperor embarks On a colossal building spree.

Nero sources white marble From the north

And volcanic sand for concrete From the south

And gold and rare gems From every corner of his realm.

Slaves and free workers

Construct the palace Over four years,

Building cutting-edge Concrete domes

And miles of marble pillars.

The emperor also begins An ambitious plan

To transform The rest of the city.

Archaeologist valerie higgins

Believes that The scale of the fire

Genuinely shocks nero.

Afterwards, The emperor introduces

Some of the world's first Building regulations.

Higgins: perhaps ironically, The fire of nero actually

Improved the safety features

Of future buildings in rome.

Narrator: he orders that New buildings across the city

Are built to withstand fires.

Most significantly, The roads were made wider

So that the fire could Not jump so easily

From building to building.

It also was required To have balconies,

Which made it easier To fight fires on upper stories

So that people who lived

In tenement blocks, Such as this,

Would have a better Chance of escape.

Narrator: these actions Are not the mark

Of a cold-blooded arsonist,

But if nero cares so much About his city,

Why do generations Of romans insist

He is to blame for the fire?

A clue could lie In the eventual fate

Of the domus aurea.

♪♪

Nero's palace is A mighty statement

Of wealth and excess.

The buildings shine with Gold and mother-of-pearl...

♪♪

...And his statue Towers over the city.

♪♪

But after four years Of construction,

Romans ransack the palace,

Stripping off the precious Jewels and gold leaf.

They drain the lake

And bury the palace.

On top, they build An enormous structure --

The colosseum,

A symbol of a city to be Shared by all romans.

♪♪

Archaeologist Alessandro d'alessio

Believes the sheer scale Of the palace

Is the reason For nero's unpopularity.

But, instead, The people send him a message.

After four years Of construction,

Nero is overthrown,

And rome's hated emperor Commits suicide.

His ultimate successor, Vespasian,

Knocks down the domus aurea

And builds the colosseum

As a huge theater Of gladiatorial spectacle

And entertainment,

Open to the people,

Not just for one emperor.

♪♪

Nero commits many Unspeakable atrocities,

But new investigations reveal

He is likely innocent

Of his greatest crime.

♪♪

Nero's obsession With the domus aurea

Seals his reputation.

I don't think nero Started the fire of rome,

But what is significant Is that the people of rome

Actually thought He might be capable of it.

Narrator: archaeologists Continue to unearth fragments

Of nero's selfish palace.

They're uncovering The true scale

Of this astonishing building

And new insights Into the tyrannical nero.

♪♪

The great fire of 64 ad

Remains one of the most Devastating catastrophes

Of the ancient world --

A disaster forever connected To rome's notorious ruler.

♪♪

♪♪

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