Up next in 10
The Roman Empire - Episode 1 - The Rise of the Roman Empire (History Documentary)
529 views
Jun 4, 2025
Two thousand years ago, one civilisation held the entire Western world in its grasp. From Northern Europe to Africa and the Middle East. It imposed laws, ideas and a single language. Rome was the super power of the ancient world. Indeed later super powers never stopped learning the lessons of her spectacular rise and fall. Rome truly was a colossal empire. During the rise of the Roman Empire, it was not always easy to separate virtue from vice, or hero from villain. Indeed, all too often, they were one and the same. Rome was still an adolescent discovering who it wanted to be, and its dream of greatness was a prelude to a nightmare. It was not for another 100 years that the state would mature and commit to one enduring view of itself. It would be the army, more than any other force that was destined to shape Rome's lasting identity.
View Video Transcript
0:00
Over a thousand years after Rome's fall
0:07
the armies of the French Emperor Napoleon descend on the city. Napoleon's forces have already battled their way through Europe
0:19
To take Rome seems an afterthought. By this time, it's a backwater
0:26
but for Napoleon it has an almost religious significance. He claims he's the spiritual descendant of the Roman emperors
0:37
He has himself painted wearing the Roman crown of laurels as if Rome still rules the world
0:47
His troops march unopposed into the city. It's like walking into a ghost town
1:02
They find the frightened Romans huddling among the ruins of the ancient city
1:07
Crumbling palaces and arches still seem to echo the magnificent triumphs they were built to celebrate
1:25
Goats and cattle graze where thousands once thronged the streets. In 70 AD, when the emperor Vespasian started building the massive Colosseum
1:40
Rome was ten times larger than the city Napoleon found. Vespasian wanted a great theater for the gory spectacles Romans so loved
1:50
The scale of the Roman games, like the scale of Rome itself, was staggering
2:04
The Colosseum had seating for 45,000 and standing room for 20,000 more
2:19
In a series of games, 5,000 people and 11,000 animals were slaughtered
2:27
Nothing in Hollywood could compare with this gruesome splatterfest. The blood and brutality were all too real, and the Romans were addicted to it
2:41
When he saw the blood, rather than turn away, he fixed his eyes on the scene and took in all its frenzy
2:58
He reveled in the wickedness of the fighting and grew intoxicated with the bloodshed
3:04
When he left the arena, he took with him a sick mind
3:08
which left him no peace until he came back again. St. Augustine
3:16
They did get excited watching gladiators kill one another. I'm not denying that
3:24
But you know what? So do we. I think, for example, of the brouhaha over Mike Tyson
3:30
Right. What Mike Tyson did when he bit, was it Evander Holyfield's ear
3:36
that would have been applauded in the roman arena that's great that's what you're supposed
3:42
to do in fact you're supposed to rip the ear off and and march around the arena with it in your
3:47
mouth that's what you're supposed to do rome's savagery was matched by its size when the coliseum was built rome was a city of a million
4:05
people and growing. Not until London of the 19th century would a city approach this size again
4:20
What I think you'd notice if a time traveler went back would be the smell, the noise, the dirt
4:27
the crowdedness. I think there'd be lots of beggars, lots of signs of sickness, disease
4:32
lots of small children, rather like Calcutta or Rio, crowded modern town, very poor
4:40
with these monumental buildings in the centre expressing the wealth and power of the empire
4:46
Traffic was terrible. Julius Caesar forbade wheeled traffic during the day so people could move around
4:53
which meant that at night all these carts started going on these stone streets
4:58
and it was so noisy that you couldn't sleep. To manage the problems of organizing such a huge concentration of people
5:13
the Romans invented the science of urban planning. They invented cement, built gigantic public storehouses
5:24
and installed citywide sewage systems. But their greatest achievement was the water supply
5:32
The aqueducts of Rome reached 60 and 70 miles into the hills
5:37
to guarantee a continual flow of fresh water into the city. That flow of fresh water provided enough water
5:46
gallons per person per day, that was not equaled by the city of Rome until the 1950s
5:56
Along with millions of gallons of water, Romans consumed a staggering 8,000 tons of grain weekly
6:03
Super tankers, each carrying 1,000 tons of grain, crisscrossed the Mediterranean. They were the largest ships built
6:11
until the Atlantic steamers of the 19th century. The city of Rome was the heart of an empire
6:22
that stretched from Scotland to Syria. Never has the Western world been better organized or more united
6:43
In the year 100 AD, you could travel from Egypt to France on paved roads with only one currency and one passport in your pocket
6:58
And this vast, well-organized empire would muster the largest army the world had ever
7:11
seen, over half a million soldiers. Rome was the superpower of the ancient world Later superpowers never stopped learning the lessons of its spectacular rise and fall
7:38
Napoleon was not alone in his obsession with Rome. Twenty years before Napoleon marched into Rome, on the other side of the Atlantic
7:49
a group of men were designing a political system for their new country
7:55
In designing the Constitution of these United States of America, we have at various times sought precedent in the history of that ancient republic
8:09
and endeavored to draw lessons both from its leading ideas and from the tumult and factions which finally brought it low
8:17
Thomas Jefferson. the american founding fathers spent most of their childhood and much of their adulthood
8:29
reading the latin classics to the founders the past was not something that was dead it was
8:36
something that was alive especially the roman past it was alive with personal and social meaning
8:42
This was crucial, I think, to the American Revolution because they were doing something really unprecedented in this revolution
8:51
and yet they were able to feel that they were not the first
8:56
The basis of our political system, I think, lies in Rome. The Western world grew up in Rome's shadow
9:12
its legends, its laws, its institutions, and its language. Napoleon said, the story of Rome is the story of the world
9:29
It's a story of great commanders and politicians. Men like Caesar, Augustus, Hadrian, and Constantine
9:38
but it's also a story of the poor who bore the brunt of their leader's ambitions
9:45
it's a story of vast idealism and an equally vast greed for power
9:55
and finally it's the story of Rome's spectacular fall and the chaos that followed
10:02
But behind all that are the stories of Rome's beginnings
10:15
almost 3,000 years ago in the lush hills of central Italy. When the Mediterranean sailors of ancient Greece and Egypt looked west toward Italy
10:36
they stared into a great unknown. It was 800 years before the birth of Christ, and Rome still didn't exist
10:45
but stories were told of mysterious peoples with strange exotic customs and untold riches
10:54
The tales were irresistible. Setting off from the great civilized cities of the east
11:06
like Athens and Tyre, adventurous Greek traders sailed west into uncharted seas
11:15
Navigating by the stars without instruments
11:30
they began to explore a remote and little-known peninsula of the western Mediterranean
11:37
They called it Hesperia, the land of the evening sun. In the 8th century BC, time of westward expansion
11:49
Phoenicians going west, Greeks going west, founding colonies. When the Greeks sailed into Italy
11:54
they found something they didn't expect, an advanced civilization already there. Here in the hills of Tuscany, there were already walled cities
12:09
There were kings and high priests, There were skillful craftsmen who created a tender and sensuous art like no other in
12:20
the Mediterranean. And there were traders ready to barter the finest gold and iron work the ancient world
12:27
had ever seen. Before Rome, there were the Etruscans
12:37
They taught the Romans everything, but left no written records. Incredible
12:48
The Etruscans were some of the most amazing artisans that the West has ever seen
12:54
They worked in metal for sculpture. They worked in terracotta and life-size statues with these amazing, inviting expressions
13:05
very warm. They're not cold and distant, but they are people that you want to meet
13:16
The Etruscans lived in the fertile hills of Tuscany, but their real wealth lay underground
13:24
the richest deposits of iron ore, copper, and tin in the central Mediterranean
13:35
As early as 700 BC, they created shafts, tunnels, subterranean galleries
13:51
smelters and slag heaps so vast that 2,500 years later, Mussolini reprocessed them to produce weapons for World War II
14:05
Etruscans traded their metalwork as far afield as Syria, Portugal and even Sweden
14:14
But above all, the Etruscans were famous for their open displays of affection between men and women
14:22
It shocked the ancient world. The Greeks, who knew the Etruscans from very early on
14:32
before Rome was anything, before Rome was, saw that the Etruscan people gave a position to women
14:41
that the Greeks certainly wouldn't. Not only were women part of the entire house
14:48
women reclined at banquets with men, which for a Greek was absolutely unthinkable Unthinkable It is no shame for the Etruscans to be seen having sexual experiences for this too is
15:07
normal there. It seems to be the local custom. Posidonius. And they show no shame in sensuous acts
15:19
While the torches are still lit, servants bring in courtesans, sometimes even their own wives
15:25
And they all engage in lovemaking, publicly. Theopompus. The Greeks and later the Romans loved to embroider scandalous stories about the decadence of the Etruscans
15:40
They were almost certainly untrue. But it is true that the Etruscans created memorable portraits of sensual pleasure
15:49
After the Etruscans, the idea of portraying such intimacy between men and women disappeared
15:59
from Western art for almost 2,000 years. The change began with the Romans, who grew up in their shadow
16:19
The first Romans were primitive, tough backwoodsmen
16:31
They resented the Etruscans, but had everything to learn from them, including the darker sides of civilization
16:43
Like all ancient people, the Etruscans were rigidly divided by class, brutal rituals enforced the power and prestige of the nobility
16:53
Etruscans staged games at the funerals of important men. The losers were killed
17:00
Their blood celebrated the prestige of the dead man and was an offering to his spirit
17:14
The wrestlers were slaves captured in warfare. Their lives were worth nothing
17:20
Only their deaths were significant. The practice of human sacrifice was common in the ancient world
17:28
The Etruscans were no exception. The blood of slaves and captives watered the ground
17:35
at state rituals throughout the Mediterranean. Romans inherited the Etruscan taste for sacrificial blood
17:44
Gladiatorial combat was the Roman equivalent of these gory celebrations of power
18:04
Rome took everything from the Etruscans. Etruscan engineers showed them how to drain the marshes
18:11
where Rome now stands and channel the water into underground sewers. Etruscan architects and builders laid out the Roman Forum
18:22
as a public square in the 7th century B.C. Though Romans owed everything to the Etruscans
18:34
they would one day turn on them, crush their beautiful cities and defame their memory
18:38
It would be the first step on Rome's path to empire. Most of what we know about the birth of Rome
18:59
comes from the work of one man, one of Rome's greatest historians, Livy
19:05
He lived in the reign of the Emperor Augustus, over 700 years after the city was founded
19:18
The glory of Rome was at its height, but Romans were already haunted by the specter
19:23
of decline. The empire was emerging from decades of civil war. bitterness and political intrigue were rampant
19:41
Decadence, greed and profiteering were the order of the day. To men like Livy, raised on the Roman stoic virtues of valor, loyalty and self-sacrifice
19:56
it seemed the spirit of Rome was rotting. I feel that indulgence has brought us, through every form of sensual excess
20:07
to be morbidly attracted to death in all its forms. Rome is at the dark dawning of an age in which we can neither endure our vices
20:17
nor face the remedies needed to cure them. Living. A cure was what Emperor Augustus was looking for
20:26
he cracked down on dissent and passed laws to punish immorality he was determined to reform the empire and force a return to roman family values
20:44
bawdy poets like ovid who wrote the art of love were banished to the asian steps
20:51
When his own daughter Julia was rumored to have slept with half the senate, Augustus banished her as well
21:06
Livy saw in Augustus or in Octavian a chance for the world to finally settle down and get back to business
21:18
what made Rome great to begin with. You've got to go back and look
21:24
Who were the heroes of the past that made Rome the city she was
21:31
I hope that history may be the best cure for a sick mind
21:35
At least it can remind us of what we once were and show us the depths to which we are now sinking
21:41
Livy set out to write a brief history of early Rome, celebrating its glories and virtues
21:51
propaganda for the reforms of Augustus. What he had to go on were stories handed down over the centuries
22:02
They were a mixture of fact and legend. I, for one, am looking forward to absorbing myself in antiquity
22:12
because I am so deeply tired of the modern world and all the troubles which torment it
22:18
Livy. He believed Rome mythological beginnings would reveal the stories of heroism and nobility
22:35
Romans needed to hear. But the stories of Rome's origins were short on Stoic virtues and long on murder, rape
22:51
mayhem and fratricide. To his dismay, Livy discovered they echoed the cruel realities of the Roman world of his own day
23:08
Legends told that Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, twins who were cast into the wilderness to die
23:16
But the boys were said to be saved by a she-wolf who suckled them
23:20
They grew up like savages in the woods. When they returned to found the city of Rome
23:31
they were filled with the simple, ferocious spirit of their wolf mother
23:42
According to legend, Romulus and Remus then led their people to the bend in the river Tiber, where she found them
23:50
There, Rome was born. The year was 753 BC. But hardly had they founded the city
23:59
than the two brothers quarreled over who should be king. It was left to the augurs to decide
24:13
Augurs were the priests of early Rome who divined the will of the gods
24:18
They studied the movements of birds, the weather, the entrails of sheep, before making their pronouncements
24:25
known as the auguries. The augurs placed each brother on a hilltop, then waited
24:46
When birds flocked over Romulus, they knew he would be the first king of Rome
24:52
But Remus refused the augury and the brothers fought
25:23
The first king of Rome, suckled by a wolf, bathed in his brother's blood, walked away
25:35
furious and triumphant. It was a fitting augury for the bloodshed and strife that lay ahead
25:53
The story about Romulus killing his twin brother at the moment of the founding of the city is a very old story
25:58
It's very, very remarkable that in the late Republic, the Romans were fighting civil wars
26:03
and of course, it didn't escape their notice that this seemed to be prefigured in the myth with Romulus killing his brother
26:12
They actually thought this was a sort of curse on them, that they were fated to destroy each other
26:18
Well, the whole Roman psyche was based on violence. If you look at the foundation legends of Romulus and Remus, that's based on fratricide, right
26:34
One brother kills another to found a city. And from that point, it just escalates
26:41
The violence of the early Romans, in fact and fiction, was born of desperation
26:50
In real life, shunned by neighboring tribes, Rome was forced to welcome outcasts, vagrants and fugitives
26:58
And they lured their neighbors, the Sabines, to a ritual of peacemaking
27:04
And they're all pretty desperate a lot. And Rome, the earliest community that is organized in that way
27:11
of course, is a place where no woman wants to go. So they haven't got any women, that's the first problem
27:16
And so the Romans, Romulus in particular, got an idea. New religious festival, let's invite the neighbors
27:23
Bring your wife and kids, especially the daughters. The Sabines were wary but accepted
27:36
As the festivities went on into the night, the Sabines relaxed their guard
27:54
It was what the Romans were waiting for. Romulus gave the sign and they attacked
28:00
They grabbed the women and drove off the Sabine men, the ones they didn't kill
28:06
When painters of a later age portrayed the rape of the Sabine women
28:15
they imagined a classical city. They were wrong. The early Romans were primitive people struggling desperately to survive
28:27
The grim stories of the first Romans were as surprising to Livy as they are to us
28:33
they certainly didn't provide the role models he was looking for. His little book turned into one of the most monumental histories ever written
28:56
By the time he died in 17 AD, it had grown to 142 volumes
29:02
all written laboriously in wax. It had absorbed his entire life. Livy's Chronicle was the best seller of its day
29:15
It was more successful than he could ever have hoped, but had no effect whatsoever on the moral chaos of empire
29:24
even 142 books were no match for the influence of so much power
29:31
by now rome was a juggernaut whose momentum was unstoppable its course set by its mythic beginnings
29:40
whether fact or fiction As it approached the 5th century BC, Rome was emerging from the
29:59
its legendary past into the real world of recorded history. It was now a thriving province of the Etruscan world
30:12
ruled by Etruscan kings. Primitive mud and thatch huts of Rome's early days
30:21
had given way to a city of brick. Rome was absorbing people from surrounding lands and growing fast
30:34
Etruscan and Greek traders met in its busy streets. Phoenician boats from Sicily and North Africa sailed the Tiber
30:46
Wine, olives and gold flooded into Italy. But Rome was still no different from many other prosperous cities of the Mediterranean
31:03
What first set it apart was not its capacity for trade or engineering or even warfare
31:09
but its ability to organize itself. The man who reshaped Roman society was an Etruscan king called Servius Tullius
31:23
There are no statues of him. We have no idea what he looked like
31:32
He never became as famous as later rulers of Rome, but his mark on history may be even greater
31:41
And yet, all Servius Tullius did was carry out history's first census
31:49
Now, the census, the Roman census, a very important institution. They would count the Roman citizens, all right, and list them
31:57
and then distribute them in their appropriate classes and political units and so on
32:04
The census was a kind of way of grading Roman citizens according to their status and prestige
32:13
In the 6th century BC, the census detailed every Roman's obligations to the city
32:20
to obey its laws, pay taxes and do military service. But much more important, it also gave them rights
32:34
This was the great innovation of Servius. In proportion to their contribution
32:41
Romans were given a say in how their city was run. Servius sowed the seeds of representational government
32:52
He organized an assembly to govern the city and gave it a name, the Senate
33:09
Finally, the census decreed that each of the city's social classes should contribute a group of soldiers for Rome's defense
33:17
They were called the legions, the fighting force that was going to put Rome's destiny back in its own hands
33:24
and one day give it the world. The census didn't create equality or democracy
33:40
Rome remained a society governed by kings and nobles. Women had few rights
33:46
But it created a level of organization unheard of in the ancient world
33:54
No man did more for Rome than the Etruscan king Servius. His reforms laid the foundations for Rome's greatest achievement
34:04
the creation of the Republic. But like so many Roman rulers, he was brought down by treachery and intrigue
34:16
The king's own daughter wanted her husband Tarquin on the throne. Her henchmen knew how to get him there
34:26
And after they murdered the great king, power and paranoia went hand in hand in Rome
34:36
For almost two centuries, Rome had been ruled by Etruscan kings and Etruscan nobility
34:49
Under Servius, things had gone well. Under Tarquin, his successor, brutality and decadence flourished
35:00
While he and his relatives devoted themselves to pleasure, their henchmen carried out campaigns of political murder to remove any and all opposition Romans were beginning to hate everything the Etruscans stood for
35:18
Resentment smoldered. A woman called Lucretia was the spark that would set it on fire
35:29
She was well loved and highly regarded for her kindness, beauty and loyalty
35:40
She represented everything Romans felt they had and the Etruscans didn't. Honor, virtue, bravery
35:47
One day, the king's son and some of his Etruscan nobles were on a journey away from Rome
36:01
Drunk, they decided to creep back into the city and spy on the most beautiful women to see what they were up to
36:13
They found their own wives, as expected, partying. They found Lucretia hard at work
36:35
Because this was an indication of good, virtuous, matronly behavior. This is how Roman women should behave
36:46
They should not be sleeping with 300 members of the Senate, like Augustus' daughter allegedly did
36:54
They're not supposed to be poisoning members of their family, as Livia allegedly did
37:02
They're supposed to be producing cloth. The next night, when he knew Lucretia's husband was away
37:11
King Tarquin's son crept back to her house alone. With a knife at her throat, he raped her and swore that if she breathed the word of it, he'd kill her
37:30
That would be unnecessary. The next day, too proud to live with her dishonor, Lucretia killed herself
37:38
Romans went wild mobs tore through the streets and attacked Etruscans wherever they found them
37:50
a stern nobleman named Brutus organized a furious attack
38:01
on the Etruscan king and his courtiers they were overwhelmed and fled for their lives
38:10
Romans were finally free of their Etruscan overlords Lucretia's legacy to Rome was its freedom
38:25
Romans vowed they would never again live under a king so how exactly were they going to live
38:33
How would they govern themselves? Their solution was momentous. They declared that the affairs of Rome would belong to the people
38:48
that citizens would vote, and that Rome would be a res publica
38:52
a public affair, a republic. Government would no longer be the business of kings
38:59
Rome would be ruled by laws and elected officials. The first two elected leaders, called consuls
39:08
were Brutus and Lucretia's widowed husband. And so a king was replaced with first two praetors
39:17
eventually two consuls, with two, both of them in agreement on everything
39:24
elected annually, so that no one person ever had very much power for very long at all
39:32
This paranoia about kings continues all the way through Roman history. In ways he never could have imagined, Servius' census had borne fruit
39:48
The new republic would be organized according to the voting categories and classes
39:53
he put in place 40 years earlier. The birth of the Republic
40:00
staked Rome's claim to a place in history. SPQR was the Republic's banner
40:09
Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and people of Rome It was the ancient world first representational government It paved the way for Rome glories and all democracies to come
40:35
Romans set themselves free from the Etruscans in 510 BC. Next, they needed to be sure they stayed free
40:45
So they set about building the fiercest fighting machine the world had ever seen
40:52
And now, it had its old masters to practice against. For over a hundred years after Rome declared its independence
41:07
it was at war with the Etruscans who fought desperately to regain their old possession
41:13
They failed. They were no match for the highly disciplined Roman legions
41:21
who'd fight to the death to defend Rome's liberty. As Roman soldiers fought for the Republic
41:30
a man named Publius codified its leading ideas. This legal system set a remarkable precedent for republics of the future
41:44
Two thousand years later, when the founding fathers of the United States needed to defend their constitution
41:51
they too wrote under the name of Publius. I think the American Revolution was an exciting period for the Founding Fathers
42:05
They were excited by the opportunity to match their ancient heroes' struggles against tyranny
42:12
in a sense to rival the noble deeds they had spent their youth reading about
42:17
and they were thrilled by this idea, by this thought, that they were beginning anew the work of the ancient republicans
42:28
only this time with an unprecedented chance of success. Throughout the 5th century BC, the struggle for the republic went on
42:39
Rome and the nearest Etruscan city, Veyi, faced each other across the Tiber in an endless stalemate of attack and counterattack
42:55
Finally, after decades of bitter skirmishing, a Roman army battled its way toward the Etruscan city
43:02
The year was 392 B.C. Their goal was to take Vehi by storm
43:09
and once and for all bring to an end the Etruscan threat to Rome's survival
43:17
The Etruscan soldiers fought furiously at the city walls. Priests prayed to their gods to save them from destruction
43:25
They'd no avail. The Romans smashed through the Etruscan defenses and laid waste to the city
43:36
They slaughtered the men and made slaves of the women. It was Rome's first great victory
43:49
There would be many more, each celebrated by the building of a triumphal arch
43:55
a monument to the glory of victory and the humiliation of the defeated
44:06
Rome now piled victory upon victory all across Italy, as one by one her neighbors fell to the legions
44:16
Rome's rise was gathering momentum, and by now seemed unstoppable. But she suffered one setback, which haunted the empire forever
44:36
The year was 386 BC. From beyond the Alps, horsemen appeared and thundered toward Rome
44:49
The Romans called them barbarians. They were Celts from Gaul, present-day France
44:57
The Gauls were a warlike people, but this time they weren't looking for battle
45:02
Wars with their neighbors had pushed them out of their own territory
45:10
Now, they needed a new home. Rome dominated central Italy, so the Gauls asked them for territory
45:23
Roman envoys refused point Who did these barbarians think they were to presume upon Rome in this way
45:36
They'd insulted the Gauls, which was a mistake. The Gauls descended on Rome in a fury
45:43
What they weren't given, they would take. Romans were fierce warriors, but had no idea
45:49
how to fight these people, who charged into battle a suicidal frenzy
45:56
Their savagery, even by Roman standards, was terrifying. Taken by surprise, the Romans barricaded themselves
46:08
inside their city and hoped these terrifying wild men would go away
46:14
They didn't. The Gauls smashed their way into the city and ransacked it
46:22
The Romans only escaped being slaughtered by paying the Gauls everything they had to move on and leave them in peace
46:36
Rome's humiliation was complete. The words of the Gallic chieftain as he exacted his crushing payment would ring in Roman ears for centuries to come
46:49
Woe to the vanquished. Rome rose from this devastation stronger, better organized, and more determined than ever
47:11
It forged an iron spirit and a civilized code of honor, the stoic virtues of valor, discipline, and self-sacrifice
47:22
That code produced soldiers and commanders with an unflinching dedication to duty
47:29
One of the most famous was Cincinnatus. Cincinnatus was a Roman who came to embody the classic virtues like no other
47:40
Although a nobleman, he liked to work his fields with his own hands
47:44
one day as he worked a messenger arrived with news that rome was being attacked
47:52
and in such an emergency situation as this the roman constitution called for the appointment of
48:00
a dictator somebody who would be elected by the people but then once elected would have absolute
48:07
power life and death power over all citizens but only for a maximum of six months
48:12
he dropped his plow hurried to the city took up command of the army
48:18
and was named dictator he quickly won a great victory and returned to the city in triumph
48:26
now he could have stayed on and he could have used his power as he wished
48:30
but the very day that he returned to the city we're told he immediately resigned
48:35
to the office of dictator walked back to his farm outside the city and continued to plow his farm
48:40
and the Romans loved to tell that story because here was a man who was totally selfless
48:46
who cared nothing for his own livelihood, for his own life, but merely to serve, wished to serve
48:55
And so it's no accident that one of the most famous sculptures in American history is that of George Washington as a Cincinnatus
49:05
George Washington knew that many people compared him with Cincinnatus and he liked that and he consciously worked to encourage that image
49:15
And so, for instance, during the darkest periods of the war when some thought maybe he should resign
49:21
he held off that resignation because he wanted to do like Cincinnati did
49:27
wait until the enemy was defeated and then in a big show lay down his power
49:33
which he did and he retired to his own plow at Mount Vernon
49:39
Cincinnati became the role model for the Roman politician commanders Napoleon so admired
49:50
He embodied the code of conduct that powered Rome's rise and extended Rome's dominion over the entire Western world
49:57
Rome's battles abroad would highlight the conflict within its own soul
50:11
The struggle to resist the corrupting influence of so much power. It would haunt the empire for centuries to come
50:21
But first, Rome's era of power and glory was about to begin. ¶Â
#Education
#Historical Sites & Buildings