Pompeii

Pompeii: Life in the City – 5

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There was a disappointing lack of reference to Caecilius, and I could have managed without either the silly CGI imagery or being informed that Romans didn’t have electric lights, HR departments and pasta; but this was quite interesting in its way.  That was despite the presenters’ rather juvenile obsession with “garlic farts” and toilets.   They went on at great length about how the Pompeiian cleaning services used urine for bleaching and dumped pots outside their premises for people to use, and how the Emperor Vespasian even imposed a tax on urine.  (No-one suggest this to Rachel from Accounts, please.)   When they weren’t talking about that, they were mostly talking about brothels.

In between the brothels and the pots, we heard about how the Romans had no weekends but got 100 days per year off for games.  And how they went to bed for a few hours, then got up and did some work, then went back to bed, then got up again.  Sounds quite sensible to me, especially considering how hot it gets in Campania.   We also heard about the aqueducts, and how many of them still work today.  Romans were so good at that sort of thing!   I bet they’d soon have sorted out all the potholes round here, whereas all that the stupid council have done is put up notices saying that they’re sorting out the roads.  Which they’re not.  Oh, and apparently Pompeii had a one way system, because you can’t put horses into reverse.  And the nouveaux riches had fountains in their gardens.

It was a bit disjointed, and it tried so hard not to be stuffy that it went too far the other way; but, still, this was worth watching.  Very put out that they didn’t mention Caecilius, though.

 

Lost Treasures of Rome – Channel 4

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Back in the day, when we “did” Pompeii at school via the Cambridge Latin Course, we had to draw pencil-and-ruler diagrams showing the layout of the Stabian baths.  Kids today, however, have got programmes like this, which use computer generated images of Romans wandering round the bathing complex (er, suitably covered to preserve their modesty 😄) and using strigils.  How much cooler is that than a boring old diagram?!  Also, the Cambridge Latin Course made it sound as if the baths were mainly for men, whereas this programme told us that there were hot tubs (well, hot baths) where groups of women would sit and gossip.

Don’t get me wrong: I have fond memories of the Cambridge Latin Course.  But my 11-year-old self would have loved all the CGI Romans wandering across the screen during this programme 😄.  And I’m sure that the Roman Life sections of the textbooks never mentioned the ladies’ spa.

There was an awful lot of digital reconstruction in this programme, of everything from funerals to slave markets to animal sacrifices.  There was even CGI food.  But there was a lot of proper archaeology as well, with cavers being brought in to assist … and we learned that, when they weren’t in the hot tubs or using the strigils, Pompeiians spent a lot of time eating street food, going to sporting or musical events and drinking locally-produced wine.  It sounds like some sort of paradise 😄!

Amazingly, around a third of Pompeii still hasn’t been uncovered, even after all these years of work – and there’s so much there that archaeologists are able to try to piece together individual life stories, such as that of a slave who obtained his freedom and became a wealthy man.   The technology used by the Pompeiians themselves was impressive, too, especially when it came to heating the baths.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an archaeological programme use so much CGI before!   It seemed a bit odd seeing all these cartoon-ish type characters trotting around in the middle of a serious documentary, but it was certainly entertaining, and I hope that this series makes its way into schools because I think it’ll really bring things to life for pupils studying either Latin, ancient history or classical civilisation, especially younger kids.   CGI Romans – whatever next?!