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The Birth of European Civilization | Full Documentary — Transcript

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0:43[narrator] I'm Christopher Clark, Cambridge historian.
0:45I was born in Australia.
0:47For Europeans, that's practically the other end of the world.
0:51But the European continent and its incredible diversity
0:55always fascinated me.
0:57Even in the far-off country where I grew up,
0:59I was always aware that so much of our world
1:02has its roots in Europe.
1:04And modern Europe
1:05is one of the greatest achievements in human history.
1:08I want to share the grand saga of this continent,
1:12and in the process, I hope to rediscover its wonders for myself.
1:22Where does Europe start? And where does it stop?
1:25I'm at the southwestern-most point of the continent.
1:28From here on, there's just water. Next stop: America.
1:33Luís de Camões, the national poet of Portugal,
1:36described this cape in the 16th century in these words:
1:40"Aqui onde a terra se acaba e o mar começa."
1:43"Where the earth ends and the ocean begins."
1:46In fact, most of Europe is surrounded by water.
1:49Europe is a continent in name only.
1:51In reality it's a peninsula,
1:53and its history is deeply shaped by this fact.
1:56That history begins 135 million years ago.
2:04Actually, Europe as we know it isn't really all that old,
2:08in a geological sense.
2:12In the beginning, all the continents are one.
2:14Then the world is set in motion.
2:16Land masses break off, drift apart and reunite,
2:19creating mountains and rivers in the process.
2:22Bit by bit, the continent as we know it today
2:25begins to take shape.
2:30Ice masses form fjords, mountains unfold.
2:34The lava flows we can still see today give us an inkling
2:37of Earth's incredible power to create and reshape.
2:41And at some point, these elementary forces
2:44will produce a denser array of unique cultures and peoples
2:48than anywhere else on the planet.
2:51How did it all begin?
2:53Asia, to which this rather small continent is a kind of appendix,
2:57has always been the gateway to Europe,
3:00also for the first humans to arrive here.
3:03But who were the first Europeans? And where were they from?
3:09It's during an ice age that the first people leave Africa
3:13to conquer the rest of the world.
3:15A sheet of ice, kilometers thick, covers the continent
3:18where, today, we find cities like London, Berlin and Warsaw.
3:23But Homo sapiens will not be deterred.
3:25From what we know today,
3:27it seems that they traveled to the continent
3:29via the Middle East, the Levant and Romania.
3:32And slowly, it begins to grow warmer in Europe.
3:35The Ice Age is coming to an end.
3:40This is where the first migrants come into contact with the Neanderthals
3:45and begin to mix with them.
3:46Even today, all Europeans have a bit of Neanderthal in them.
3:50By 30,000 years ago, the Neanderthals have died out,
3:54and the Homo sapiens, the "wise human," has taken over.
3:59They hunt and gather, live in groups of varying sizes
4:03and spread out across massive swaths of territory,
4:06often in rocky areas with caves,
4:08such as southern France and northern Spain.
4:15It's around this time
4:16that the intellectual world of the early Europeans
4:19actually begins to take shape.
4:22The depths of the caves are sacred places for these early peoples,
4:26prehistoric cathedrals where they feel the presence of the supernatural world.
4:31But above all, the caves offer protection and warmth,
4:35absolute necessities that allow these early Europeans to survive.
4:40Here, we can see the first evidence of the ancient Europeans.
4:44I'm in the Chauvet Cave in southern France,
4:46and I can hardly believe
4:48that people painted something like this 30,000 years ago.
4:54The talent and precision of these early European artists
4:57are staggering.
5:01When Pablo Picasso first saw the cave paintings of Stone-Age humans,
5:06he was shocked:
5:07"We've learned nothing since then," he said.
5:10The people of the Ardèche Valley in modern-day France
5:13created these first European works of art nearly 40,000 years ago,
5:18and they did it for eternity, probably without realizing it.
5:22How could they know that we would one day admire
5:25the woolly rhinoceroses, cave lions, mammoths and bison
5:29that they drew with such energy and elegance?
5:33A quantum leap in human history, Homo sapiens became a cultural being.
5:39Humans reflected on their own existence, observed and recorded their environment
5:44and invented a new form of communication.
5:47A bison with eight legs, like a time-lapse image.
5:52We can't know for sure,
5:53but they were probably supposed to suggest movement:
5:57a kind of Stone-Age cinema.
6:07These works are among the oldest expressions of human creativity
6:12anywhere on Earth.
6:13A kind of cultural big bang.
6:16We have no idea what brought it about.
6:18All human societies have produced art,
6:21and there have always been moments in which something new emerged.
6:25What was special about Europe
6:27was the tension between memory and renewal,
6:30between continuity and rupture.
6:33Michelangelo may have imitated the Greeks, but he also created something new,
6:38something that had never been seen.
6:40Landscapes, objects and people came to be seen in new ways.
6:45Art rebelled against tradition without escaping from its authority.
6:49Images and objects from Asia and Africa enriched the visual repertoire.
6:55Boundaries were tested and breached.
6:58Freed from the obligation to depict anything real,
7:01paintings took on a life of their own.
7:04And these astonishing moments of creativity
7:06would have been unthinkable
7:08without the diversity of the cultures on this continent
7:11and the cultural competition between them.
7:20It would be difficult to underestimate the spiritual effect these caves had
7:25on the people of that era.
7:27We're now fairly certain that some caves were used specifically for rituals.
7:33Humans already lived in groups at this point,
7:35and they divided up their work among themselves.
7:38It's easy to imagine that during the winter,
7:41when the opportunities for hunting and gathering were limited,
7:45they would have honed their cultural skills.
7:48And that's how we get the Lion Man,
7:51carved from a mammoth tusk 35,000 years ago.
7:56Half man, half lion. Perhaps even a demigod.
8:03It began in caves but soon spread into the world beyond:
8:07the first outdoor venues of collective worship
8:11sprang up in multiple locations across Europe
8:14around 5,000 years ago.
8:17The first settled peoples positioned enormous boulders in circles,
8:22creating sites like Stonehenge.
8:24They were aligned with the course of the sun
8:26and primarily served as observatories.
8:29Transporting and setting up the stones
8:32must have been an incredibly challenging task
8:35for the people of that era.
8:37They had to be highly organized
8:38and must have developed specialized skills and technologies for the job.
8:44Ancestor worship played an important role here.
8:46They wanted to immortalize the world of their forbears
8:50in stone for all eternity.
8:52Cults and strictly defined rituals
8:55seem to have been the glue that held these early societies together.
8:59Of course, we need to see this in perspective.
9:01While the Europeans were positioning boulders,
9:04the Egyptians were building pyramids.
9:08Stone monuments sprang up from Spain to Sweden and Poland to France.
9:12For the first time, these megaliths mark a visible commonality
9:16among the various peoples of Europe.
9:18But at the same time,
9:19the first cities are already appearing in modern-day Iraq and Syria.
9:24Europe is still a developing country.
9:26In the eastern Mediterranean, on the other hand,
9:29things are starting to get interesting.
9:31Myths and legends are being woven.
9:36Why is Europe called "Europe"? Well, the answer lies here in Greece.
9:40A myth relates that Zeus, father of the gods,
9:43fell in love with beautiful Europa,
9:46daughter of the Phoenician king of Sidon, in today's Lebanon.
9:50Europa immediately fell in love with the bull, or rather Zeus,
9:54and climbed onto his back.
9:56Together, they swam to Crete.
9:58There, the bull took human form
10:00and asked the beautiful maiden to be his queen.
10:03The part of the world where she lived would forever bear her name.
10:08It's a myth, of course,
10:10but, like all myths, it contains a kernel of truth
10:13because the origins of Europe really did lie outside this continent,
10:17in Asia Minor, the Levant and Africa.
10:20From the very beginning,
10:22Europe was a place where cultures met and mixed,
10:25and this would be one of the keys to its power and creativity.
10:30It all started on Crete.
10:33The islanders were gifted seafarers and traders.
10:36Crete became Europe's first commercial power,
10:39crafting an impressive trade network
10:42that stretched across the entire Mediterranean
10:44to Egypt and Mesopotamia.
10:46The Cretans grew olives
10:48and exported the valuable oil to places like Egypt.
10:56King Minos, who, according to legend, was the son of Zeus and Europa,
11:00commissioned the construction of a magnificent palace in Knossos,
11:04over 3,000 years ago.
11:06Today, it still bears witness
11:08to the golden age of both the island and the Minoans,
11:12the first advanced civilization in Europe.
11:16Europe's first kingdom emerges here.
11:19But there are many indications that the Minoans
11:21aren't particularly interested in personally exercising power.
11:25From everything we know about this mysterious culture,
11:28it appears that leaders and heroes didn't play an especially eminent role.
11:34The first European laws and courts have their roots in Minoan society.
11:39Their legal codes governed everything from family law to criminal law,
11:43literally letter by letter.
11:45The Minoans were the first Europeans who could read and write.
11:50They adopted their writing system from the Phoenicians.
11:53This Middle Eastern alphabet
11:55is the mother of all European writing systems.
11:58The Minoans even stamped these symbols in clay on the famous Phaistos Disk,
12:03nearly 3,000 years before Johannes Gutenberg
12:06invented modern printing.
12:09The meaning of the ancient symbols may have been forgotten over time,
12:12but the Greeks ultimately based their own alphabet
12:15on the Minoan writing system.
12:17And both our Latin alphabet and the Cyrillic eastern European alphabet
12:22have their origins in Greek.
12:25For centuries to come, Europe's path would be shaped
12:29by the legacy of ancient Greece.
12:39What was so special about Greece?
12:41Well, partly it was a question of geography.
12:43The Greeks were scattered in some 1,500 cities, the "poleis,"
12:48around the shores of the eastern Mediterranean
12:50and the Black Sea.
12:52The terrain of the Greek mainland, crisscrossed by mountains and ravines,
12:56favored small communities
12:58but also obliged them to trade and negotiate with each other.
13:02Not all of the cities were democracies.
13:04Some were ruled by oligarchs or by tyrants.
13:07But one city established a system of government
13:10that would leave a deep imprint on world history.
13:17Nothing compares to Athens in its golden age.
13:21Many of the traits that define modern Europe
13:23can be found here.
13:25The Greeks' world consists of numerous gods,
13:28to whom they dedicate the temples they build,
13:30but also of brilliant thinkers,
13:32who spend their days investigating earthly concerns.
13:39The grand Parthenon temple on the Acropolis
13:42is the most beautiful representation
13:44of what the streets and squares of ancient Athens
13:46brought forth into the world:
13:48architecture, science, philosophy, art, literature and also political thought.
13:58Athens isn't ruled by a king but by the people,
14:02for the first time in the continent's history.
14:06All men share responsibility for the decisions that affect everyone.
14:10Women don't yet play a political role, but it's a start.
14:14Democracy is born.
14:16Calm down! All opposed to the proposal, raise your hands!
14:23And, all in favor, raise your hand now!
14:35[Clark] Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from the ancient Athenians.
14:39They used a voting machine known as a "kleroterion"
14:42to fill political offices.
14:44Men were elected by lottery
14:46so there was no opportunity for corruption or for lobbying.
14:51Leonidas Linos, you are elected.
14:56[Clark] But all of this didn't happen overnight.
14:58Democracy in Athens developed slowly, step-by-step,
15:02and it was repeatedly reformed.
15:05The Athenian democracy possessed three institutions that remain crucial
15:10to the political organization of any free society:
15:13a basic law, or constitution, dating back to the fifth century B.C.;
15:18a parliament, the "ecclesia,"
15:20where matters of state were discussed by the citizenry;
15:23and a system of independent courts.
15:25And these performed their tasks in magnificent public buildings
15:29located at the heart of the city.
15:31The climate must have helped
15:33because a lot of the public life of this culture took place outdoors.
15:37The Athenian democracy was not invincible.
15:39Just two centuries after its inception,
15:42it was terminated by the rising power of the Macedonian kingdom.
15:46But the fact that the democracy of Athens
15:49ultimately failed to hold out against a military dictatorship
15:52does nothing to diminish its world-historical importance.
15:58What was it Winston Churchill told the British parliament?
16:01"Democracy is the worst form of Government
16:04except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
16:12In that sense, it's easy to understand why Greek architecture is still reflected
16:16in so many parliament buildings in Europe today.
16:21Symbols representing the power of the people,
16:24even if the Athenian form of government
16:26has little in common with our modern representative democracy.
16:30This is where things come full circle.
16:33The idea of democracy, the balance of power,
16:36is supposed to be reflected in the golden ratio of the buildings.
16:40It all traces back to the Greeks' pursuit of perfection.
16:43Democracy would later become
16:45one of the founding principles of modern Europe
16:47and the cornerstone of this community of nations.
16:54Of course, we shouldn't idealize Athenian democracy.
16:58Only free, male Athenians held citizenship.
17:02Women and slaves had no political rights at all.
17:05And this democracy, like all democracies, was an untidy and open-ended affair.
17:11The nobility were always trying to expand their privileges
17:14and even, on occasion, to overturn the system.
17:17The power of money was another problem:
17:19when the wealthiest citizens used their cash to secure power,
17:23plutocracy loomed.
17:25And then there was the power of the public word.
17:28Demagogues - the literal translation means "leader of the people" -
17:32was the name the Greeks gave to those gifted orators
17:35who sought to sway the masses in their decisions.
17:39This didn't have to be a bad thing.
17:40When demagogues placed themselves in the service of the political system,
17:44they could do great good.
17:45But as soon as they placed their own interests,
17:48or those of a particular faction, above those of the city,
17:51they became a threat to the general good.
17:54And today, in an ever-more complex world,
17:57the demagogues are prospering once again in Europe.
18:05The marathon is the most democratic sporting event of all time.
18:10Young, old, fat, thin. Anyone can join in the run.
18:14Millions of people around the world catch marathon fever every year.
18:18This long-distance run is named after a small town in Greece.
18:24The first marathon runner of history was completely alone.
18:29His name was Philippides and he ran the approximately 40 kilometers
18:32from the town of Marathon to the marketplace in Athens
18:35in order to announce the victory of the Greeks
18:38over a much larger Persian army in a decisive battle.
18:41It's said that he then collapsed dead on the ground,
18:44but not before warning the Athenians that the remaining Persian forces
18:49were swiftly approaching the city.
18:55And so, 490 years before the Christian era,
18:59Athenian soldiers move into position.
19:03Here's the story.
19:04The global superpower of the time, the expansive Persian Empire,
19:09feels threatened by the rival cities of Corinth, Sparta and Athens.
19:15The Greeks are united by this common enemy,
19:18and they react together, with a preemptive strike.
19:22For the first time, they feel like Europeans,
19:26and even call their homeland "Europe."
19:28It is an identity born of a shared fate.
19:32Athens defeats the Persians. The war continues.
19:36But the future of the continent is decided in the dust of Marathon.
19:45The victory at Marathon
19:46was a defining moment for the Greek democracy,
19:49a sign of what could be achieved through unity and self-confidence.
19:54Then, as so often in its history,
19:56the destiny of democracy was tied up with war.
20:00Above all, the victory at Marathon
20:02showed that deeper popular participation in political life
20:06can actually heighten the striking power of a state.
20:09And the gods, too, were granted their share:
20:11in its gratitude for the victory, the city sacrificed 500 goats every year
20:17until the number of slaughtered goats matched the number of Persian dead.
20:24The story of that victory is classic Hollywood blockbuster material.
20:28Back then, it was immediately adapted for the stage.
20:32That's right:
20:33Athens is also the birthplace of the entertainment industry.
20:37The Greeks have loved heroic tales since the days of Homer,
20:40and the story of the Persian Wars is no exception.
20:43Actors step into the role of their old enemy
20:46and relive a victory that all Greeks are proud of.
20:51Be stern and remember: chin up and chest out!
20:55[Clark] Aeschylus, a veteran of the Battle of Marathon,
20:58is the author of this thrilling work.
21:00[man] It's your turn now.
21:02[Clark] With support from the young politician Pericles,
21:05the playwright hopes to win the theater competition
21:08that the Athenians hold every year in honor of Dionysus,
21:11the god of wine and mirth.
21:16Aeschylus himself hadn't exactly
21:18covered himself in glory on the battlefield,
21:20but this play would immortalize his name.
21:23The playwright portrays the senselessness of war,
21:26which leads to nothing but horror, despair, death and grief.
21:31He tells the story from the perspective of the losing side,
21:34without denigrating the Persians for their loss.
21:37In this way, he hopes to educate his audience.
21:39[crowd cheering enthusiastically]
21:41And the Athenians understand his message.
21:44The Persians won first prize.
21:47It's the oldest surviving theatrical work in the world.
21:50From tragedy to comedy,
21:52the Greeks showed the world the meaning of good entertainment.
21:56The narrative forms established then have survived the test of time.
22:01And the play commemorating the event that gave rise to the idea of Europe,
22:05the Persian Wars,
22:06is still regularly performed on stage even today.
22:10Art, architecture, political thought:
22:13society in ancient Greece was open and sophisticated,
22:16and over the centuries Europe has drawn again and again
22:19from this cultural wellspring.
22:21So, this is where the roots of our European civilization lie.
22:25But outside of Hellas, no one else yet identified themselves as European.
22:30So how did the ancient Greeks disseminate their culture?
22:33And how did Greek culture become European culture?
22:38In the fourth century before the birth of Christ,
22:41Macedonian king Alexander, later known as Alexander the Great,
22:45conquers all the Greek city-states, with the exception of Sparta.
22:49He wants to spread Greek culture around the world.
22:52He creates a global empire in Asia,
22:56which he feels is more promising terrain than the European continent.
23:00The Greeks, on the other hand,
23:01establish colonies around the Mediterranean,
23:04including Massalia, today known as Marseille.
23:07This is where explorer Pytheas sets sail in the fourth century before Christ.
23:13A contemporary of Alexander the Great, Pytheas wants to explore northern Europe,
23:17and his discoveries will revolutionize the Greeks' view of the world.
23:21Up to that point, they had believed that the best and most intelligent people
23:25could only be found in the Mediterranean.
23:28Then, Pytheas met the Celts, and a new power appeared on the scene.
23:34The Celts are not a unified people, and they don't have an empire.
23:37Instead, they live in numerous, different tribal groups,
23:41but they have shared customs,
23:43and when they feel threatened, they close ranks.
23:46That sounds almost European, you might say.
23:48And in fact, in the first century B.C.,
23:50the Celts expand their tribal territory
23:53from central Europe to Anatolia and Britannia.
23:57Their culture continues to grow and develop.
24:05The north is full of nothing but backward barbarians, the Greeks think.
24:09They believe that the cold and fog of the north has made the people sluggish.
24:14Still, they give the northerners a flattering name:
24:17"the Celts" or "the brave ones."
24:22The Greeks are also interested in doing business.
24:25They have olives and wine to trade with the Celts for amber and tin.
24:30But first, they need to introduce the Celts to Greek culture.
24:34A few gifts, mainly gold, help to solidify their friendship.
24:39Pytheas, the explorer from Marseille, knows how important this is.
24:44He was the first Greek
24:45to reach the northern edge of the known world at the time.
24:57The Celts are more than just strong warriors.
25:00They are also gifted metalworkers,
25:03and slowly, they develop a taste for the Mediterranean lifestyle,
25:07especially for wine.
25:08This vessel, as tall as an adult, came from Greece
25:12and was found in the tomb of a Celtic chieftainess.
25:15Ubiquitous drinking horns
25:17are further evidence of the Celts' unquenchable thirst.
25:24The Celts were the ones who built the first cities north of the Alps.
25:28Around 150 of them, in fact.
25:31One of the most famous is the Heuneburg,
25:34located in modern-day southern Germany.
25:37It's the oldest known Celtic settlement north of the Alps
25:42to be mentioned in literature.
25:44Even Greek historian Herodotus was interested in this city.
25:49Built in 600 B.C.,
25:50the Heuneburg was the residence of Celtic chieftains,
25:54with clever fortifications to fend off enemies.
25:57The Celts carefully organized their lives behind the high walls.
26:02They had their own coins and a system for the division of labor.
26:07Up to 10,000 people lived in this form of ancient city.
26:12From here, the Celts increasingly traded with the Greeks
26:15and with Pytheas's hometown, Marseille.
26:26The Celts weren't exactly methodical when it came to occupation and conquest.
26:31But in 387 B.C., they briefly conquered Rome:
26:35a traumatic experience
26:37that remained a vivid memory for the city's ensuing generations.
26:50The "Imperium Romanum," the Roman Empire, isn't an exact model
26:55for our modern concept of Europe, of course.
26:57But today's Europe certainly has many of its roots in Rome.
27:01The idea of the republic, the laws, the architecture.
27:04In many areas,
27:05the Romans were able to build on what the Greeks had created.
27:11The Pantheon is a good example here:
27:13behind the Greek-style facade is one of the oldest and largest domes in Europe,
27:19and it's made of cement.
27:21Both of those things Roman inventions.
27:24In all areas of life,
27:25the Romans looked to the Greeks for inspiration.
27:28But they wanted to improve on things, as well.
27:33The ambitious Gaius Julius Caesar is no exception.
27:38He sees a bright future for himself.
27:41He dreams of being a conqueror, like Alexander the Great.
27:44But before he can make history, he has to tread the career path
27:48of a Roman civil servant - a long, hard slog.
27:53He spares no expense or effort in pursuit of his ambitions,
27:56spending enormous sums on bribes,
27:58and by the time he becomes consul, Caesar has racked up considerable debts.
28:04What he needs now is a war: a campaign of plunder
28:07to burnish his reputation and fill his empty coffers.
28:14But Caesar has a problem: there's not much left to plunder.
28:19His predecessors have already quashed competition around the Mediterranean.
28:24His only remaining option is the wild north of Europe,
28:29the land of the Celts, or the "Gauls" as the Romans call them.
28:38Caesar plans to show these barbarians who's boss,
28:42300 years after the Celts themselves had plundered Rome.
28:46Better late than never.
28:57Which brings us to the bane of every Latin student's existence:
29:01the Commentarii de bello Gallico, or Caesar's account of the Gallic Wars.
29:07In the region today known as France,
29:09Celtic chieftain Vercingetorix
29:11attempts to block the path of Caesar's legions,
29:14barricading himself into the city of Alesia.
29:17Caesar and 50,000 of his legionaries surround the city
29:21with two layers of circular fortifications,
29:24secured with guard towers, moats and traps.
29:29Caesar describes the brutality of this war without betraying a hint of emotion.
29:34Vercingetorix sends all the women, children and elderly out of the city,
29:40but they are trapped by the Roman fortifications.
29:42Caesar refuses to help them. The wall remains closed.
29:48Then, Vercingetorix attacks.
29:51The battle lasts four days.
29:53More than once, the Gauls are close to surmounting the Roman walls,
29:56but they are beaten back and suffer major losses each time.
30:05Finally, the Roman commander himself takes to the front lines of his cavalry,
30:09bolstering the wavering ranks of his legionaries.
30:13They capture such a large number of prisoners
30:15that each legionary receives one as a slave.
30:21After six years of fighting, Vercingetorix surrenders.
30:26His people, the Gauls, are absorbed into the Roman Empire.
30:30With this victory,
30:31Caesar successfully expands the Roman Empire far into the west.
30:41In the 19th century, the Gaulish Vercingetorix becomes French.
30:47In modern France,
30:48he is still considered a national hero deserving of a monument
30:52as a symbol of their unity as a nation.
30:58The world of the Celts shrinks after the Battle of Alesia.
31:03First, they disappear north of the Alps,
31:05and then Caesar conquers Gaul and incorporates it into the Roman Empire.
31:10In the end, only the Celts on the British Isles remain.
31:18Caesar's path is drenched in blood.
31:21By his own account,
31:23he had over one million lives on his conscience.
31:26Look behind you and remember that you are but a man.
31:31[Clark] This good advice is drowned out by the cheers of the masses.
31:35With the praise heaped upon Caesar, he rises to the status of demigod -
31:40and he knows it.
31:41Megalomania becomes his constant companion.
31:46After his victory over the Gauls, Caesar calls for a victory parade,
31:50the likes of which have never been seen before.
31:53It's an unparalleled show of strength.
31:56He dresses as Jupiter, the chief deity in the Roman pantheon.
32:01No false modesty here!
32:03And Caesar presents his most important trophy:
32:06Vercingetorix.
32:07He keeps him alive just for this performance.
32:11Caesar, conqueror of the barbarians.
32:14The message comes across loud and clear.
32:21With Caesar, a new idea takes hold in Europe:
32:24the concept of empire.
32:26Rome had been a republic up to that point, ruled by the nobility.
32:31But the senators transfer full control to Caesar,
32:34naming him dictator for life.
32:36The Roman Republic becomes the "Imperium Romanum,"
32:40incorporating broad swaths of Europe.
32:43So, ironically, Europeans have one of the world's greatest egomaniacs
32:48to thank for the first political union.
32:51European emperors and dictators invoke Caesar's name
32:55from Roman times up until the 20th century.
32:59His successors, the "Caesars," became "Kaisers" and "Czars."
33:07Charlemagne,
33:09Ivan the Terrible,
33:13Napoleon Bonaparte,
33:17Emperor Wilhelm II
33:22and Benito Mussolini.
33:30Caesar's adopted son and heir, Augustus,
33:33is the first to truly and firmly establish the idea of empire.
33:37And it's under his rule
33:38that people become aware of what it means to govern a continent.
33:44And this included perfect communication with his subjects across Europe.
33:48Augustus, who built this forum, was a master of public relations.
33:53He really understood the marketing of power.
33:56And here, as you can see, he is depicted on a coin.
33:59This is how, for the first time in European history,
34:02the image of a ruler traveled, a million times over.
34:06Augustus preempted Andy Warhol's 20th-century axiom: "Expose yourself!"
34:11Take your picture, big yourself up and send your image around the world.
34:15Facebook, Instagram - nothing new there, then.
34:19As his power increased, Augustus's picture changed.
34:22At the beginning,
34:24his face was still folded in the worry lines of a politician
34:27preoccupied by the "res publica," the affairs of state.
34:31Later the lines fell away.
34:33The face depicted in pictures and on coins is completely smooth -
34:37timeless and godlike.
34:40The image minted here
34:41was meticulously designed and thought through
34:44by Augustus and his spin doctors.
34:46And the message was:
34:47You can be proud, Romans, that you reign over the world.
34:51This is your calling.
34:54The comforts offered by the Roman way of civilization
34:58are one of the primary factors driving the success
35:01of Greco-Roman civilization.
35:03The Romans establish colonies everywhere:
35:06from southern France and Trier in Germany to Bath in Britain,
35:10from the Atlantic to the Balkans.
35:16And the dense network of roads they construct in the lands they conquer
35:21make it easy for legionaries, traders and travelers to cross the continent.
35:33Roman roads crisscross thousands of kilometers throughout Europe.
35:38The Romans organize an entire continent.
35:41They connect Europe with their empire and their language,
35:45and they unite Europe with their laws.
35:47Soon, Roman law would apply everywhere in Europe,
35:50governing the daily lives of its peoples,
35:53and stipulating the means of resolving all disputes.
36:02The Romans have a criminal law and a defined code of criminal procedure,
36:07which would form the basis for everything that came afterwards.
36:16Roman citizenship, in particular, had a tremendous power to integrate:
36:20it was granted to all inhabitants of the Roman Empire in the year 212.
36:25Slaves were the only exception.
36:27Emperor Caracalla ensured that there was equality before the law.
36:30And he also looked to the pleasure of the Romans,
36:33ordering that the system of aqueducts be extended
36:36and that gigantic thermal baths be built.
36:39Whether dressed for the public baths or standing before a court of law,
36:43everyone was equal
36:44and possessed, in principle at least, the same opportunities for advancement.
36:49Theoretically, anyone could assume public office.
36:52And the Romans never forced a citizen to give up his own culture.
36:56Many of those who fell under Rome's sway wanted in any case to be like the Romans
37:00and so voluntarily assimilated themselves to the Roman norm.
37:04And so, the "Pax Romana" came about:
37:07internal peace in this huge empire,
37:10and with it a loose community that one might describe as proto-European.
37:16But not all Europeans
37:18are prepared to trade their freedom for a bath at a Roman spa.
37:22The peoples of the regions today known as Germany and Scotland
37:26offer stubborn, assertive resistance.
37:33Rather than subduing the unruly barbarians,
37:36the Romans seal themselves off
37:38with Hadrian's Wall,
37:40today on the border between England and Scotland.
37:42It was named for the Roman emperor who commissioned its construction.
37:46They also set up a border defense system
37:49against the Germanic tribes along the Rhine and Danube Rivers:
37:52the "limes," a 550-kilometer cultural border
37:57that cuts right through Europe.
38:02On one side are the cities of the Roman empire,
38:05where civilization flourishes.
38:10There are magnificent buildings here, spas and bustling marketplaces.
38:16When Augustus reigned,
38:17many millions of people lived in these cities.
38:21Germania, which is not occupied by the Romans,
38:24is thinly populated.
38:25It looks a bit like a gigantic nature reserve.
38:31East of the Rhine
38:32live numerous Germanic and Slavic tribes in far-flung villages.
38:36It's a completely different world, an archaic world.
38:43A handful of travel reports,
38:44full of stories about the barbarians to the north,
38:47were circulating in Rome.
38:49They were likely the basis for the work of Publius Cornelius Tacitus,
38:53whose most famous publication bears the succinct title Germania.
38:58The senator and historian
39:00apparently never traveled to the wild north of Europe himself,
39:04but that didn't stop him from writing 46 chapters
39:07about these backward barbarian tribes in the year 98 A.D.
39:13He describes them as slovenly dressers,
39:15and he makes mention of their simple foods and their unusually intoxicating drink,
39:20something called "beer," which was unknown in Rome at the time.
39:25Tacitus praises the hospitality of the Germanic tribes,
39:28their modesty and their bravery.
39:30But in fact, his aim is to hold a mirror up to Roman society.
39:34He is particularly impressed
39:36with the marital fidelity of the northerners,
39:39but he also mentions their tendency to drink to excess
39:42and to gamble on games of dice.
39:45Of course, what else can they be expected to do
39:48in such barren, wooded country? Tacitus wonders.
39:51He puts all these musings to paper
39:54as he continues to marvel at these exotic Teutons.
39:59There is brisk trade between the Romans
40:02and the Germanic tribes in the border regions
40:04via gates in the limes.
40:06On the whole, the European neighbors seem to have come to an arrangement.
40:11Only occasionally do the "numeri," a Roman rapid-response force,
40:15need to step in.
40:16Like border police, they take action against the frequent raids
40:19plotted by Germanic hordes
40:21against the wealthy Romans on the other side of the wall.
40:28But walls and fences aren't a permanent solution,
40:32and the Romans learn that the hard way.
40:34When nomadic Asian tribes invade Europe in the fourth century,
40:38the old order crumbles.
40:40Roman officer and historian Ammianus Marcellinus
40:43describes the arrival of the "Hun peoples,"
40:47saying that they were "excited by an unrestrained desire
40:50of plundering the possessions of others,"
40:53and that they "went on ravaging and slaughtering
40:55all the nations in their neighborhood."
41:07After more than 300 years,
41:10the "Pax Romana," the peace within the Roman empire,
41:13comes to an end.
41:15Germanic tribes descend on the empire, as refugees and as conquerors.
41:20The Goths are the first to seek refuge in the empire:
41:23they cross the Danube in 376.
41:27Other Germanic tribes would follow.
41:39Ammianus Marcellinus observes this mass migration
41:42and reports on large numbers of unfamiliar barbarian tribes
41:46"composed of various nations, now, with all their families,
41:50wandering about in different directions on the banks of the river Danube."
41:55"At first, this intelligence was lightly treated by our people,"
41:59he writes.
42:00And in fact, the Romans gradually lose control,
42:04first over their borders, and then over their empire.
42:11The empire is finally divided in the year 395
42:15into a Western and an Eastern Roman Empire.
42:18This migration period upsets the balance of ancient Europe,
42:22but at the same time, Europe as we know it begins to take shape.
42:27Germanic kingdoms arise in the territory of Western Rome,
42:30including the powerful Franconia
42:32in the region that is today Germany and France.
42:37I've traveled to the Angles and Saxons in England
42:40or, to be more specific, to Cambridge.
42:52Europe has always been about movement.
42:54Peoples and nations came and went. Everything got mixed up.
42:57And the record of this long history of more or less constant movement
43:01over thousands of years
43:03is recorded in the genetic material of the Europeans.
43:06And with the modern methods of gene technology, we can read it.
43:10Every individual can find out
43:12what kind of a mix he or she is made up of.
43:15And that's interesting.
43:16I, for example, would very much like to know
43:19how much of Europe is inside me as an Australian
43:22and what paths my ancestors followed on the old continent.
43:26With some patience and a little bit of saliva
43:28I can find it out.
43:30I am going to send this sample to a laboratory in the United States.
43:34My genetic material will be deciphered,
43:38and I am looking forward to getting the result.
43:41By the way, all of this is only possible because Francis Crick and James Watson
43:47discovered here in Cambridge how our genetic material is constructed.
43:51And it was in this pub
43:53that they first informed the public of their discoveries in 1953.
44:03Pop this into the postbox. Let's see what they say.
44:08I'm eagerly awaiting my results. And two weeks later, they arrive.
44:12[computer alert]
44:15Ah! The results of my gene test are in.
44:19And...
44:22here we have it.
44:2478.5 percent of me is British or Irish. That's hardly surprising.
44:29At least 5.1 percent is French or German.
44:32Apparently, you can't distinguish between French and German genes.
44:362.5 percent is Scandinavian and 11 percent of my genes
44:41come from the North European and Baltic sea region.
44:44That must be the Viking in me.
44:46But I am also 0.7 percent Sardinian.
44:50I'm particularly proud of that element of my genetic heritage.
44:55And then there are the Neanderthal genes, which, apparently, we all have,
44:58and the DNA from North Africa -
45:00apparently, that too is universal - and from the Middle East:
45:04all the result of migratory movement to and within Europe.
45:09History has been mixing Europe together since the Stone Age,
45:13and even I, as an Australian, am part of that story.
45:17It's this extraordinary diversity, this blend of languages and cultures,
45:23that has always triggered movement in Europe.
45:26Just as it did in the Roman era, when the "Imperium Romanum" collapsed.
45:31It was a gradual process.
45:33The supposed decadence of late Roman culture
45:36wasn't the only thing that led to its downfall.
45:40What does an empire look like as it disintegrates?
45:44The continuous civil war and declining economy of Western Rome
45:48means that that part of the empire has essentially already dissolved.
45:53Child emperor Romulus Augustulus sits on the imperial throne.
45:57The influence of the Germanic tribes has grown significantly.
46:02Now, they seize complete control of Western Europe.
46:05The story of the Roman Empire in the West ends after 503 years,
46:11with the dethronement of the child emperor
46:13by Germanic leader Odoacer in the year 476.
46:22Take the imperial mantle to Byzantium.
46:27Tell the emperor of East Rome... that we no longer need it.
46:33Not here.
46:36From now on, I'll have a new title:
46:40"Rex Italiae." King of Italy.
46:50[Clark] This fountain in the middle of Rome,
46:52right in front of the Pantheon,
46:54tells a typically European story.
46:56The Roman emperors loved obelisks
46:58because, as the ancient Egyptians already knew,
47:01obelisks are a kind of antenna to the gods.
47:04So, they caused them -
47:05this one, for example, dates from the time of Ramses II -
47:08to be brought to the Eternal City.
47:11A thousand years later, Pope Clement XI had it erected here,
47:15and added another antenna, in the form of a cross, on top.
47:19And here you can see his coat of arms.
47:22The dolphins were added later during the Baroque
47:24and represent Christ, the Redeemer of Souls.
47:27And then there's the water in the fountain itself:
47:29the worship of river gods and spring nymphs
47:32was of course a widespread practice among the Greeks.
47:35And for Plato, the philosopher,
47:37water always performed an allegorical function.
47:40Plato compared the ideal state to a body of clear waters
47:44into which all springs and brooks flow and merge.
47:47And one could compare this fountain with Europe itself.
47:51What was there in its past is constantly mingling with something new.
47:56From this dynamic mixture, great things can grow.
48:02So, what remains?
48:05For me, Rome's most beautiful building is the Pantheon, with its massive dome.
48:10It's a place that reflects the highs and lows of European history
48:14like no other.
48:16I want to go back there one more time.
48:36[Clark singing three musical notes] [sound reverberating]
48:40[singing three further notes] [sound reverberating]
48:45[singing three further notes] [sound reverberating]
48:50The resonance of this place conveys something of its immensity.
48:53This really is a breathtaking temple.
48:56When Michelangelo first clapped eyes on the Pantheon in Rome,
49:00he thought that such an architectural wonder
49:03could scarcely have been created by mortal hands
49:05but must have been the work of angels.
49:08And perhaps he was right
49:10because that would explain why the Pantheon survived
49:12the devastating destructions of the Teutons in Rome,
49:15as well as a couple of earthquakes.
49:17At any rate, the seizure of power by the Teutons
49:21turned out not to be the end of European history.
49:24On the contrary, it further enriched the unique mix
49:27on whose foundations European civilization rests until this day.
49:32Because, instead of destroying the ancient culture
49:34of the Greeks and Romans,
49:36the Germanic warriors cultivated this legacy.
49:39A further ingredient was still to come: Christianity.
49:43What will bind the Europeans together but also bitterly divide them
49:47is their faith.

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