Good Morning! Mary Beard is back in episode two of Meet the Romans. This time, she is looking at the ancient slums. She starts off the episode looking at a model of Roman. The model may hint at the size of Rome, but does not answer the basic questions about ordinary people. What was it like to live in the city? What was it like for kids in the city? Where did you go to the bathroom? Where did you go for medical attention? Mary Beard hopes to answer these questions.
Beard looks at the tombstones of the Ancient Romans. These tombstones tell individual stories. Both the rich and the poor were represented in these tombstones. Beard reads a tombstone from a poor member of Roman Society. The man’s tombstone speaks of his relief that he no longer has to starve and no longer has to worry about rent. He is going to enjoy the afterlife. The man’s wife and daughter erected the tombstone and his daughter noted that her father spoiled her. This man’s tombstone highlights the plight of the Roman poor and the fear of the rent collector. Next, Beard looks at the remnants of the ancient Roman high-rise apartment blog. These apartments would house the poorest people. She explores the remains of the apartments. On the first floor, there would be shops and then above the stores, there would be apartments. The second level would be bigger flats for the shopkeepers. The farther up you went, the apartments grew smaller and the light would disappear. Six people could be occupying those apartments at once. The apartments were a tight fit. The Roman attitude was to pack them in and pack them high. The higher you went up, the worse the apartments were. Beard quips “it was social climbing backward.” Beard then explores a communal tomb. Everyone could be buried here and there were hundreds of tombs. It was a place where you could find every occupation. There was a bodyguard, a barber, a midwife, and others. All of Roman life was there. Not only did Romans live stacked up, but they were also buried stacked up. These tombs give a glimpse of ordinary Roman life. A Roman map was discovered and Mary Beard explores this map. This map shows how the city was laid out. A few remnants survive on the map and at the time it was a huge map. The map shows the streets and apartment blocks. It showed where the ordinary people lived. There was no city plan and Roman grew up chaotically. The streets were narrow and places where you did not want to get caught in at night. It was joked that no one should walk on the street without making a will. A thirteen-year-old tourist was killed by a piece of flying roof tile! Apartments were mainly used for sleeping. You had to go out for the basic necessities. Nothing could be done at home due to the size of the apartment. Life was done in the outdoors. Everything else could be done in public. The people used public toilets. There were public baths. Going to the bathroom and going to the baths were social activities. One man noted that going to the baths was “a great privilege of life.” The baths were the center of life. They were noisy places where people met. This was an excellent documentary that looked into how the Romans lived with a focus on the slums. It was an education on how crowded Ancient Rome was. This would be a good episode to mine for clips, especially the discussion on the public baths.
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Mary Beard is back and this time she is introducing the world to the Romans. She explores the lives of everyday Romans. Both the living and the dead are explored, from the poorest to the richest. Beard seeks out the ordinary voices. They were determined that they would be remembered. Their tombstones did not just leave behind the birth and dates of the Roman, but their thoughts and feelings. How did ordinary Romans think? Tune into this documentary to find out.
In the first episode, Mary Beard looks at Imperial Rome. Imperial Rome was a place that where people came from everyone to live. New arrivals would have found themselves in a new type of city. Rome was the capital of a vast empire. People from three continents came together here and lived. So who were the ordinary people who called Rome home? Mary Beard kicks off the episode by going to a triumph. Emperor Vespasian had returned to Rome, a victorious general. Everyone had the day off to greet the conquering hero. What would it have been like for the ordinary Romans to take in the site? First, they would have seen the spoils of war, models of fighting, trees, and maps of the conquering territory. What would have been on the minds of ordinary Romans? Perhaps a viewer would have picked up a girl while watching the spectacle before them. Beard looks at the plaques everyone left behind. These plaques highlight where the people came from. These plaques tell the story of ordinary Romans and tell the story of where the people came from. The Appian Way highlights additional stories of the Romans. Beard comes across a stone with the names of three Jewish men. How did these men get to Rome? Were they part of the Judean rebellion? Were they brought as slaves? Roman conquests may have brought slaves, but they also brought new citizens. The Greeks thought that the Romans were strange for freeing so many slaves. Being a slave was just a part of life. Oftentimes, the slave learned Latin and learned a trade. Eventually, the master would free them and the slave would be a Roman citizen. A Roman was a Roman because they came from something else. There was no guarantee that you would survive. With a high death rate, the city needed immigration to maintain its size. Roman was a place that consumed people, however, it was also a city for the opportunity. How do you keep the people alive? Beard takes us to a hill outside of Roman. This particular hill was made up of broken amphora. The amphora was used to store olive oil. The present-day locals call it “broken pot mountain” and it was a giant rubbish dump. Normally, amphora could be recycled. However, olive oil seeped into the jars and made the jars rancid. They were broken up and stacked in the rubbish dump. Rome ran on olive oil. It was used for cooking and fuel. Mary then reveals that there were fifty mosaics discovered, and these mosaics advertised goods from around the world. Roman had imported basic supplies to fee the city and to support a large population. Farms in Sicily and Egypt had to produce grain. The empire kept feeding the people. A staple of the Roman diet was bread. Here Mary gets her hands dirty kneading bread. If you lived in Roman, you got a free ration from the state and it could make enough bread to last a month. To continue to learn more about the Romans watch this documentary. This would be a good series for a high school history class. Mary Beard is a delightful narrator. She lays out what it means to be a Roman in this first episode of Meet the Romans. What caused the Viking Age to end? Did the Vikings stop sailing? Were they so ingrained in the political life in Europe, there was no point in conquest? This episode answers the question: Why did the Viking Age end? It is 1066 and there is a power struggle for the throne of England.
It is 1066, and Edward the Confessor has died. He had ruled England for twenty-two years. His death would lead to a power struggle for the throne of England. Upon hearing about his death, William, Duke of Normandy is making plans to become king. William was Edward’s cousin. Edward's mother, was Emma of Normandy, sister to Richard of Normandy who was William’s grandfather. William was also a direct descendant of Rollo of Normandy. William felt that these connections entitled him to the English Throne. On top of these connections, during the 1050s Edward, the Confessor promised William the throne. However, Harold Godwinson was also promised the throne. He had been helping Edward the Confessor rule England towards the end of Edward’s life. Harold was the son of the Earl of Wessex. Both men were distant relatives to Edward so the blood connection led them to believe that they were entitled to the throne of England. Another complication was that Harold Godwinson swore an oath of fealty to William while Harold was a hostage in Normandy. Through visits between William and Harold, they became friends. Despite this, Harold Godwinson seized the English crown. The Anglo-Saxon Nobility supported Harold Godwinson’s claim to the throne. A third claimant to the English throne emerged. He was promised the throne by one of Edward the Confessor’s predecessors. So who would become King of England? Would Harold be able to keep his throne? Or would William, Duke of Normandy seize it? Everyone held their breath as they watched events unfold in England. William, Duke of Normandy prepares for the invasion of England. He was going to seize the throne of England by conquest. Even before William landed, there was an event in the sky that made the people nervous. Haley’s Comet passed over the earth and everyone saw that it was the sign of trouble. Even with this knowledge, Harold moves his arm south to try to block William’s invasion force. However, another man was claiming the English throne. He was the King of Norway and was called Harald Hardrada. He is working with Harold Godwinson’s brother. Together, they start heading towards York. They wanted tribute and a foothold in England. Anglo-Saxon forces try to stop him but fail. Harald conquers York. Harold Godwinson marches his forces to intercept the Norwegian King. They fight at Stamford Bridge, Harald Haldrada was killed, and Harold emerged victoriously. While Harold was in the North, William Duke of Normandy invades the south. Harold has no choice but to head south to stop William’s invasion. The men under Harold were tired, but they had no choice but to stop William’s invasion? What if Harald Haldrada did not invade at the same time William was planning his invasion? The forces finally met together at the Battle of Hastings. William brings a calvary into the battle. The Normans rode to the battleground and fought on their horses. While the Anglo-Saxons rode to the battle site and then dismounted to fight on the ground. William planned to use the calvary as an effective tool against Harold’s foot soldiers. Did Norman’s Calvary tactics give them the advantage? This final episode would be an excellent episode to show in a history class, especially for an English history class. The discussion about the events that led up to the Battle of Hastings was excellent because it provided additional context to the fight for the English Throne. Then I would pair this episode with the Time Team episode about the Battle of Hastings. |
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |