Meet the Romans with Mary Beard

BBC Four

12:20 AM to 1:20 AM

Tuesday 12 November

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The classicist takes a look at the history of the ancient city, putting aside the bloody stories of emperors and armies to learn about the ordinary Roman on the street. Her travels take her from the Via Appia roadway, originally built in 312 BC, to the Colosseum and Monte Testaccio, an artificial hill made of broken crockery. Along the way, she tells the stories of a slave-turned-baker who made a fortune out of the grain trade, building his tomb in the shape of a giant bread-oven, three prisoners of war and a purple-dye seller whose raw material was imported from Tunisia