Building the Ancient City: Athens and Rome
Building the Ancient City: Athens and Rome is a two part documentary series hosted by Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, exploring how Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens and how the Romans made their megacity work.
The first city of a million was built two thousand years ago. But how did they make Ancient Athens and Rome work without petrol, gas or electricity? Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill takes us on a journey across stunning locations in Greece and Italy to find out
how Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens 2,500 years ago. And then he uncovers the secret of Rome's success - the planning still captured on pieces of an 1,800-year-old marble map of the city, a map which shows that astonishingly,
in many places, the street plan of Ancient Rome mirrors that of the city today in exact detail.
| Episode 1 - Athens |
Episode 1 - Athens
Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill takes us on a journey across stunning locations in Greece and Italy to find out how Athens gave birth to the idea of a city run by free citizens 2,500 years ago. Every aspect of daily life from defence to waste disposal was controlled not by a king, but by the Athenians themselves.
Episode 2 - Rome
Professor Wallace-Hadrill uncovers the secret of Rome's success - the planning still captured on pieces of an 1,800-year-old marble map of the city, a map which shows that astonishingly, in many places, the street plan of Ancient Rome mirrors that of the city today in exact detail.
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