Pompeii's Secret Underworld (2025)

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NARRATOR: Pompeii.

A city at the heart of the Roman Empire.

Frozen in time by a devastating volcanic eruption.

[eruption roars]

Painstakingly excavated,

we can now see the city for what it was.

Filled with paved streets,

monumental buildings, and luxurious villas.

This is the heart of an empire.

There is imperial wealth

coming from all directions into Pompeii.

NARRATOR: The ruins hint at a city of sophistication and wealth.

But how complete is this picture?

Today, archaeologists uncover evidence

that reveals a more complex story

behind this ,-year-old city.

These were people often in chains.

They had no hope to survive.

NARRATOR: A world of extremes,

where prosperity and poverty exist side by side.

[crowd cheering]

Brutal m*rder is paid entertainment.

And for those who fall out of line, public execution.

DARIUS ARYA: Everyone would have seen those rotting corpses.

And it's a reminder to everybody,

"This is what Rome can do."

NARRATOR: Using the latest technology,

archaeologists unearth ancient artifacts...

REBECCA BENEFIEL: This main entrance is heavily fortified.

There was extra layers of security to make sure

that no one could get in.

[crowd yelling]

NARRATOR: ...exposing a world where brutality,

crime, and class warfare

lay simmering beneath a refined veneer...

...to uncover the real story of life

in one of the most opulent cities

in the ancient Roman Empire.

♪

"Pompeii's Secret Underworld."

Right now, on "NOVA."

♪

NARRATOR: In Southern Italy

lies one of the greatest treasures of the Roman world.

miles south of Rome,

near the Bay of Naples,

is the ancient city of Pompeii.

Here, archaeologists are carrying out

the largest excavation project

in over years.

JEANNETTE PLUMMER SIRES: There are so many areas of Pompeii

that have still been unexcavated.

It is a very exciting place

that continues to answer questions

about life in the Roman world.

NARRATOR: Although Pompeii has undergone regular excavation

since its rediscovery in the th century,

over a third of the buried city remains hidden.

♪

SIRES: New archaeological techniques have a huge role to play

in what further stories we can tell about Pompeii.

There are things that we can investigate now

that would have been absolute science fiction years ago.

NARRATOR: Now the latest science is revealing new finds...

...illuminating discoveries overlooked by history...

♪

...and rewriting our understanding of the city,

taking us back in time to the day

everything changed in Pompeii.

[wind blowing]

On an autumn day in the year , a long-dormant volcano,

Mount Vesuvius, violently explodes into life.

Discharging . million tons

of volcanic material into the atmosphere every second,

the eruption is one of the deadliest

human civilization has ever seen.

SIRES: About three meters of ash covered the city.

It would have been absolutely apocalyptic.

NARRATOR: The catastrophic event wreaks untold damage

and claims thousands of lives.

But the volcano also does something else.

It effectively stops the clock.

Everything the ash buries becomes frozen in time,

allowing archaeologists, more than , years later,

to explore a first-century Roman city.

SIRES: The initial excavations

revealed that this was a highly sophisticated Roman city.

It showed an elaborate and affluent Roman society

that had been lost to time.

NARRATOR: Beneath the ash and volcanic debris,

archaeologists discovered a dense, grid-like metropolis

over acres in size

with an elaborate urban infrastructure,

huge houses decorated with beautiful frescos

and filled with exquisite marble statues,

and architectural wonders--

from monumental buildings

to a huge central forum for trade and social gatherings.

The ruins of Pompeii

suggest a highly cultured and civilized society.

But is that the whole story?

The historian Tacitus describes an event

that occurred at the city's amphitheater.

SIRES: Pompeii's amphitheater

is one of the oldest stone-built amphitheaters

in the Roman world.

It had a ,-spectator capacity.

Gladiatorial games were an essential part of Roman life.

[crowd cheering]

The amphitheater was not just meant to hold spectacles

for the Pompeians,

but it also attracted spectators from the neighboring towns.

NARRATOR: But in the year ,

the violence isn't limited to the arena.

[people yelling]

Tacitus recounts how tensions

between Pompeians and a nearby rival settlement called Nuceria

led to a brutal fight that broke out in the stands.

[people yelling]

Roman historian Darius Arya revisits the scene of the riot.

ARYA: What happens is that taunts lead to stone-throwing,

and ultimately people start drawing the swords,

and they're fighting in the stands,

and there's bloodshed-- there's slaughter.

[crowd shouting]

NARRATOR: At the National Archaeological Museum of Naples,

a ,-year-old fresco

provides a contemporary account of the event...

...revealing that the clash between the fans

escalated into a citywide riot.

[people yelling]

ARYA: The relatives of the deceased go to Rome itself

and beseech the emperor to intervene.

He turns it over to the Senate.

And the consuls then get involved and say,

"No more gladiatorial games

in this venue for ten years."

NARRATOR: For Rome to intervene suggests a serious disturbance.

Could it mean that this civil unrest

was not just a one-time event?

[people yelling]

Or was this just the latest outbreak

in a city where violence and unrest

were perpetually simmering?

[people talking in background]

Archaeologist Rebecca Benefiel

is studying some of the ancient graffiti

near the commercial heart of Pompeii.

♪

Over , years, the messages have become too faint to read

with the naked eye.

And so you can see maybe just little hints of red,

little traces of red paint in there.

NARRATOR: To bring the ancient messages to life,

Rebecca takes a series of photos

and uses software to enhance the traces of paint.

When we have even infinitesimalamounts

of pigment left,

it can enhance that

so that we can see what was there.

So, here's an A, P, E, R,

I, I, T, "taberna."

♪

BENEFIEL: And so it says a bronze pot "pereit,"

has perished, has gone missing,

"de taberna," from this shop.

And it continues and says,

" sesterces will be given

as a reward."

NARRATOR: The reward for the return of the bronze vessel was enormous.

Historical records indicate it was the equivalent

of nearly three weeks' wages for an average Roman worker.

And then it also says, "If you bring back the thief..."

The inscription is a little messy,

but a few letters that suggest that he'll be beaten.

NARRATOR: In cities like Pompeii, there was no official police force.

So the inscription reveals how one resident, at least,

the pot owner, was prepared to dish out punishment themselves.

♪

So how common was this kind of lawlessness?

Are there other signs of crime

that might hint at a more widespread problem?

One home in a middle-class neighborhood shows just how far

Pompeii's residents went to protect themselves.

BENEFIEL: This main entrance is heavily fortified.

There was extra layers of security

to make sure that no one could get in.

NARRATOR: A plaster cast taken from a cavity has revealed

a ,-year-old door with a robust locking mechanism.

BENEFIEL: So you can see that we have double doors.

There would be a lock across here.

But in this house, they felt like they needed

to be extra secure, and so they added

this additional beam across, to hold it closed,

and then this huge stretch of wood

that they jammed into place

to make sure there was no way to open these doors.

[dog barking in distance]

NARRATOR: Violent clashes, rough justice,

and a homeowner's defense against robbery.

What was driving these tensions?

Answering that question requires a better understanding

of what life was like for those who lived and died here.

♪

A stone's throw from Pompeii's main southern gate,

the Porta Stabia,

lies a tomb in one of the burial sites of the city's elite.

MASSIMO OSANNA: The tomb is special-- it's special

because there are a lot ofdetails

about history, economy,

and also the society of Pompeii.

NARRATOR: Massimo Osanna is Italy's director general of museums

and former director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

When his team first stumbled across the tomb in ,

they immediately knew it was something special.

OSANNA: The marble is not local.

It's not the normal, local stone of the other tombs.

So, the material says

that the owner was a very, very rich person.

A V.I.P. of the antiquity.

NARRATOR: But a key piece of information is missing.

OSANNA: The eruption destroy all the upper part of the tombs,

and we lose, with the upper part of tombs,

the name of the owner.

[birds chirping]

NARRATOR: Massimo believes clues to the owner's identity

can be found nearby.

♪

Just a few yards away lies the family plot of the Allei.

OSANNA: The Allei were a very important family in Pompeii.

And in my opinion,

also this tomb belong to one of these Allei.

♪

We can consider, I think, only one person:

Nigidius Alleius Maius.

NARRATOR: Nigidius Alleius Maius

was a highly influential politician

and organizer of gladiatorial spectacles in Pompeii.

A -foot-long inscription across seven lines

praises the life of the deceased and his achievements.

But the epitaph also mentions something else:

an extraordinary coming-of-age party,

when the tomb's occupant entered adulthood.

[people laughing]

OSANNA: "In epulum."

"Epulum" is a banquet-- this is normal.

Not so normal is the invited to this epulum,

was all the people in Pompeii, "populo pompeiano."

Of course, not everybody.

Just the adult male citizen of Pompeii.

[crowd cheering]

NARRATOR: If the inscription is to be believed,

for entertainment,

gladiators battle it out in the city's amphitheater.

And to ensure his guests' comfort,

three-sided sofas, called triclinia,

were arranged for the grand banquet.

♪

OSANNA: But here also specify how many person in each triclinium:

"Ita ut in triclinis quinideni homines discumberent."

In each triclinio, there are person.

NARRATOR: Almost , people were invited to the coming-of-age party,

an extravagant display of wealth.

It's perhaps no surprise, then,

that the inscription also reveals

this wealthy Pompeian

had connections all the way to the top.

To the emperor himself.

So how close was the relationship

between Pompeii and Rome?

In the sixth century BCE,

hundreds of years before this coming-of-age party,

there was no Roman Empire.

What's now Italy was made up of provincial cities, like Pompeii,

bound by alliances with Rome,

which was just a small city-state

but a significant regional power.

Through a combination of military strength

and economic expansion, over years,

Rome's territory grew,

absorbing parts of Spain,

North Africa, Greece, and modern-day Turkey.

♪

SIRES: Rome was the undisputed ruler of the Western Mediterranean.

This was a time of conflict.

They were constantly expanding.

[men shouting]

♪

NARRATOR: But by the beginning of the first century BCE,

the relationship between Rome

and its provincial cities had reached a breaking point.

MIKO FLOHR: One problem that is facing Rome

is that they become incrediblywealthy,

but that wealth is being divided

in ways which may not have been entirely fair.

And that creates a lot of tensions.

♪

NARRATOR: In BCE,

those tensions reach a boiling point,

and w*r breaks out across the Italian Peninsula

between Rome and some of its allies.

[men shouting]

Over two years, Rome crushes the revolt,

which has spread to Pompeii,

and the city is declared a Roman colony.

♪

Now subdued,

Pompeii becomes a playground for rich Romans,

attracted by the cool Mediterranean climate

and stunning vistas.

That in turn supercharges Pompeii's economy,

turning it into a prosperous urban center.

FLOHR: Rich Roman families start building luxury villas.

That is where they spend the money that they made

all over the empire.

So, for Pompeii, that means

that the city gets completely transformed.

NARRATOR: As Rome expands its dominion over the Mediterranean basin,

merchandise from its conquests

filters in through the Bay of Naples and Pompeii,

making traders here very wealthy.

FLOHR: This is the heart of an empire.

There is imperial wealth coming from all directions.

And that is what explains what you see in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: But that wealth is heavily reliant

on another common and brutal feature of Roman society.

♪

In the early first century BCE,

the street now known as Via dell'Abbondanza

was a hive of activity.

Running through the center of the city,

it was one of Pompeii's busiest roads,

lined with shops, bars, and houses.

Here, archaeologists uncovered the house of a rich baker.

Today, it's known as the House of the Chaste Lovers,

thanks to a fresco showing a couple stealing a gentle kiss.

GABRIEL ZUCHTRIEGEL: If you're standing outside, you just see the huge windows

and the great doors.

You can imagine the ancient splendor of this house.

NARRATOR: Director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Gabriel Zuchtriegel explores the site.

Only if you go inside and really go

to the rear of the house,

then you'll discover the other side of Pompeii

and the hidden aspects of the ancient society.

♪

NARRATOR: Here, in the commercial section of the building,

is where bread was baked using grain ground into flour

with four huge millstones.

Close by, archaeologists discover a small stable

with the skeletons of five mules

used to keep flour production running /.

♪

But a mule wouldn't turn a millstone on its own.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: It would be moved

by one mule and one sl*ve,

who had to control the animal and push.

There were holes on the sides,

and you could insert wooden bars.

And you have to imagine the mule and the sl*ve

going around the mill all day long.

NARRATOR: In places like this, the hard labor was performed

by the enslaved.

Two mules can't pass by here

at the same time.

So, it's almost like a clockwork,

where they had to organize the movements

of several people and animals.

NARRATOR: Conditions here would have been brutal.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: We have descriptions from antiquity which are terrible.

These were people often in chains.

[exhales heavily]

ZUCHTRIEGEL: They rarely saw the daylight.

They rarely could breathe fresh air.

These were amongst the heaviest

and most difficult conditions for enslaved workers.

♪

NARRATOR: But was this the experience of all enslaved people?

A new find in the same building

hints at ancient Rome's complex relationship with the enslaved.

Scratched on the walls of a courtyard

is a stick figure scene

next to a charcoal outline of a child's handprint.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: So here we see the gladiators--

helmet, shield, maybe a sword or a spear.

And here the, the two guys

with long spears hunting animals.

We can imagine children running around here,

and what we see is,

some of them must have been in the amphitheater.

NARRATOR: But behind the innocent picture lies a darker truth.

ARYA: The people that are fighting in the arenas,

they are, by and large, enslaved people.

[grunting]

ARYA: They're at the bottom of the social scale.

But at the same time,

these guys here in the arena, they could be superstars.

They could become celebrities.

So, there's a lot of complexities involved

in the idea of sl*very in the ancient world.

♪

NARRATOR: Pompeii's amphitheater was not only a place of entertainment,

but a cornerstone of the city's economy.

[crowd cheering, fighters grunting]

ARYA: Of course, you've got the high and mighty officials

that are financing the games.

You got people that are here selling their wares.

So, on every level of society, people are going to benefit

from the games in the amphitheater.

NARRATOR: From manual labor

to gladiatorial combat, over the years,

Pompeii's economy increasingly relied

on the labor of enslaved people.

[people talking, goats bleating in background]

FLOHR: Many more people were held as sl*ves in Pompeii

in the early first century BCE

than there had been a century before.

And they were also much more a central part

of the urban experience.

They made the urban experience.

So, in many parts of the economy,

enslaved persons would be present, if not dominant.

NARRATOR: It's a sign of the inequality across the city.

But what did that inequality actually look like?

And can it be measured?

FLOHR: In Pompeii, inequality is not some abstract

documentary category,

but you can see it in the urban landscape,

so you can see it in the architecture.

You can see it as you walk through the city.

And that was not only true in antiquity,

but it also is true nowadays.

NARRATOR: Historian Miko Flohr's pioneering work

has illuminated how the level of social inequality

in Pompeii can be deciphered

by examining the intricacies of its houses.

FLOHR: So, I use house size

and house complexity as a starting point.

And in this graph,

I use yellow to indicate the larger houses.

And the redder it gets, the smaller the houses are.

So, if you look at the entire city,

you see a lot of red houses in some parts

and fewer red houses in other parts.

NARRATOR: By mapping the distribution of house size, building materials,

and even what was found in them, from large complexes

to simpler dwellings across the city,

Flohr can see the spatial segregation of social classes.

♪

FLOHR:But what you see is something that closely resembles zoning.

So, there's wealthy people on the west side of the city,

and relatively poorer people

living in medium-sized houses in the eastern half of the city.

NARRATOR: Plotting the data on a graph

provides a different perspective.

FLOHR: What you then see

is a graph that starts with a smaller house.

And then in the end, there is a sharp peak.

And that sharp peak that includes, say,

the top five percent of households.

So, this is what we would call the elite.

In terms of the number of households,

that elite is fairly small.

NARRATOR: Flohr's results indicate a society

with enormous economic inequality.

FLOHR: There is an extremely large divide

between the richest people and the poorest people.

These larger houses,

they reflect the adaptation of domestic architecture

to mass enslavement as a phenomenon.

NARRATOR: Flohr believes Pompeii reflects

the Roman Empire's expansion and growth.

♪

FLOHR: Pompeii is not the average Roman city.

It is a very specific Roman city,

which was massively transformed

by being at the heart of the empire,

and therefore massively unequal, much more unequal

than many other Roman cities all over the empire.

NARRATOR: During the first century BCE,

with Rome moving resources

from its conquered territories to its center,

Pompeii saw the ancient equivalent

of the Industrial Revolution.

FLOHR: So, becoming wealthy in Pompeii means

that a few people profit

and a large group of people, actually, is worse off.

And I think that's really important to keep in mind

when looking at Pompeii.

So, they were built on the wealth of a few people

and on the poverty of many people.

♪

NARRATOR: The constant mass mobilization of citizens

for Rome's wars led to an increasing need

for enslaved persons

to keep basic economic functions going at home.

[men shouting]

But warfare was also the primary source

for this free workforce: prisoners of w*r.

[men shouting]

This put Rome on a path

to becoming what was by some measures

the world's largest sl*ve society in history.

♪

Experts estimate, by the first century,

over , enslaved children were born

in ancient Italy every year.

♪

FLOHR: Some people have argued that at least

% to % of people in Pompeii

were held as sl*ves or had been held as sl*ves

at some point in their lives.

Even for Roman standards, that is an extremely large number.

NARRATOR: Unsurprisingly, not all enslaved people

accepted their lot unquestioningly.

On the walls of an ordinary Pompeian house,

buried beneath layers of paint,

are the faint traces of an intriguing sketch

of two men fighting on horseback.

We have this really fantastically preserved fresco.

We can see these two figures engaging.

The shields are lifted.

They're battling to the death.

And here's a name that's preserved.

It's written "Spartaks."

So Spartaks: Spartacus.

♪

NARRATOR: The events of Spartacus's life

come from the contemporary writers

Plutarch and Appian.

The infamous rebel Spartacus trained at a gladiator school

just miles from Pompeii.

♪

In BCE,

Spartacus escaped with other gladiators

and assembled just outside Pompeii,

on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

♪

ARYA: For Spartacus, it's a city

like Pompeii that's going to represent

everything against what they stood for.

Because what is the Pompeian society all about?

Well, it works because you have sl*ves.

It works because you have entertainment.

And who are the gladiators in the amphitheater of Pompeii?

Enslaved peoples from all over the empire.

[men shouting]

NARRATOR: Gradually, more and more escaped sl*ves

joined Spartacus's ranks.

His rebellious army roamed across the peninsula,

gathering up to , followers

and raiding with impunity.

♪

[men shouting]

ARYA: With Spartacus' success,

he's forming truly a legitimate army.

And he has all the trappings

of a successful general, and we know

that he even makes some of the captured prisoners

fight as gladiators, so the tables are truly turned.

NARRATOR: Spartacus's revolt poses

a significant threat to Rome until he is k*lled

in a violent battle and , of his men captured.

♪

What follows is horrific punishment for the survivors.

ARYA: Now Rome makes a statement, and it's brutal.

Lining the Via Appia,

portion of which I'm even walking on today,

from Capua all the way to Rome, they crucify , men.

And you can imagine, every feet,

there's going to be a rotting corpse

from that grand revolt once led by Spartacus.

♪

NARRATOR: The Appian Way is ancient Rome's vital lifeline,

stretching from Rome to Brindisi in Southeast Italy.

It serves both as a military and economic artery.

ARYA: Everyone would have seen those rotting corpses.

And it's a reminder to everybody,

of every level of society,

"This is what Rome can do."

NARRATOR: Rome relied on violence to maintain civil order.

But what about within the households

of wealthy enslavers?

In a villa not far beyond the walls of ancient Pompeii,

in the ruins of Civita Giuliana, lies a clue

to how the enslaved were controlled.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: This was a total surprise, to find this huge villa here.

NARRATOR: Here, archaeologists discover a series

of opulent reception rooms, with exquisite stone floors.

But it wasn't the opulence of the villa

that caught their attention.

It was what lay beneath.

The quarters of the enslaved.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: This is the largest room we know so far

from the sl*ves' quarters, and it's the stable.

And what we can see is

one of the famous Pompeian plaster casts.

So the horse was dead in the moment

of the arrival of the ash cloud

at the time, the eruption.

The body disintegrated

and left a void, a negative in the soil

that became hard and solid.

NARRATOR: To create the casts,

archaeologists pour plaster into the voids.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: So, what we see is actually the original form of the animal

regained through the negative

that was preserved inside the underground, in the soil.

NARRATOR: In a corner of the villa,

Zuchtriegel's team uncovers a series

of cramped living spaces with telltale voids.

♪

After filling them with plaster,

they discover several wooden beds.

The lack of decoration and personal items provides clues

to the status of its occupants.

We have the unique opportunity in Pompeii

to see what's almost like

a photograph of an ancient sl*ve room.

NARRATOR: But there's a mystery:

there's no evidence of chains or bars.

So what would stop the enslaved from escaping?

ZUCHTRIEGEL: Ancient sl*ve owners were always concerned

about sl*ves trying to escape.

Sometimes they would use chains

and maybe iron bars before the windows.

We found examples of this in Pompeii,

but it's not the case here.

So, there must have been

a different kind of control.

♪

NARRATOR: Gabriel believes clues can be found in the furniture.

One of the beds is more luxurious than the others.

It's bigger, more comfortable, and the frame and headboard

were decorated with intricate patterns,

suggesting status.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: The people who lived here,

especially this person here,

had some kind of special role inside the sl*ve community.

And through promises

and little privileges,

the masters could rely on these people

in controlling the others.

And so, we can see how sl*ve owners try to assure,

through the organization of the sl*ve community,

that there was no rebellion and escape.

[man yelps]

NARRATOR: Levels of status within the enslaved community

may have helped enslavers maintain their authority.

But might a recently discovered tomb at a burial site

close to Pompeii's main eastern gate

reveal yet another way the social order was maintained?

Archaeologist Llorenç Alapont

leads the team that made the discovery.

ALAPONT: Our research is about archaeology of death.

We study the rituals, we study the architecture of these tombs,

and in particular in Pompeii,

we have all this information intact.

They've remain intact after , years.

NARRATOR: An inscription at the entrance of the tomb

not only provides a wealth of intriguing details

about the life of the deceased,

but also his name:

Marcus Venerius Secundio.

ALAPONT: So we know that he was a public sl*ve,

but he was a particular public sl*ve.

He was the guardian of the Temple of Venus.

The Temple of Venus was the most popular temple in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: As an enslaved person in public service,

Marcus Venerius, like many others in Roman society,

was owned by the whole city, rather than an individual.

The inscription on the tomb reveals he was granted freedom

and became an Augustalis, a high-status priest.

And it suggests that Marcus Venerius

may have met the highest authority in Rome at the time:

Emperor Nero.

ALAPONT: The wife of Nero was from Pompeii,

and we know that Nero visit Pompeii, as well,

and when Nero visit the Temple of Venus,

the guardian was Marcus Venerius.

And for sure, they meet each other.

NARRATOR: But what was the background

of this former enslaved individual who rose to power?

When the archaeologists opened the tomb,

they made a startling discovery:

partially mummified remains.

ALAPONT: We never expect to find one embalm body.

So, of course, we were shocked.

He is the best-preserve individual in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: In ancient Roman funerary customs,

cremation was the norm.

So, finding hair, skin, and bones is unusual.

ALAPONT: This is a key question,

why he decide to be buried and not cremated

like the rest people in Pompeii and in the Roman Empire?

NARRATOR: To find answers,

the archaeologists collect the remains and send a specimen

to a lab in Florence for analysis.

♪

Here, the scientists hope to extract DNA

from a premolar tooth to learn more

about Marcus Venerius's ancestral origins.

So, Llorenç, here is the genome of Marcus Venerius Secundo.

And this is the first time that we see this genome, okay?

♪

NARRATOR: The study reveals not only

Marcus Venerius's genetic traits, but also his ethnicity.

His DNA is added to a data bank

and compared to the genetic makeup

of other ancient populations.

CARAMELLI: This is Southern European population,

this is Mediterranean population,

this is African, North African population,

and this is the Caucasian population.

So Marcus Venerius Secundo

fall in the Caucas population.

NARRATOR: The analysis places Marcus Venerius's origins

in the Caucasus,

a region wedged between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

This was a place right on the edge of the Roman Empire.

The results could explain why he chose to be buried

and not cremated.

ALAPONT: His tomb is completely different than the other tombs in Pompeii.

So probably he bring his custom,

his culture, to Pompeii, as well.

♪

NARRATOR: While Marcus Venerius's story

is the exception, rather than the rule,

it hints at the complexity of Pompeian society.

BENEFIEL: In Pompeii, we see a number of examples

of freed people who were showing off their wealth.

They're showing their status,

that they have achieved, that they have really made it.

[birds chirping]

They have achieved a level of status and of wealth

that was probably inspiring to others,

and that changed the hopes and possibilities for the enslaved.

NARRATOR: The enslaved lived in hope of freedom.

And this might have helped the wealthy maintain control.

BENEFIEL: If you're one of the better-trained sl*ves,

you're gonna be given additional tasks,

you'll be given much greater independence.

They'll count on you.

And if you show yourself as very capable,

you might have a chance to buy your freedom.

NARRATOR: By the time of Marcus Venerius's death

in the second half of the first century,

experts estimate about , people were set free

in ancient Italy every year.

How might this have impacted Pompeian society?

Researchers can never know for sure,

because just a few years later, in the year ,

Vesuvius strikes.

[eruption echoes]

ZUCHTRIEGEL: We know it started around noon,

with a huge column

of volcanic material rising from Mount Vesuvius,

which was a total surprise for the people living in Pompeii.

NARRATOR: The expl*si*n is visible over miles away.

Roman writer Pliny the Younger

witnessed the event from a nearby town

across the Bay of Naples.

Pliny says it's like a pine tree.

And it started raining little stones

of lava that came out of the volcano.

♪

This continued until the morning of the next day.

And eventually, you get almost three meters of deposits

of these lapilli, small stones.

And you have to imagine people panicking.

They didn't know what had happened.

♪

SIRES: The people of Pompeii didn't know

that Mount Vesuvius was anything other than a mountain.

They were used to tremors,

they were used to earthquakes, but this notion

of fire raining down from the skies

would have just been horrifying.

♪

NARRATOR: But how did the rest of the day unfold for the inhabitants?

ALAPONT: Not everyone in Pompeii died in the same way,

and not everyone in Pompeii died at the same moment.

NARRATOR: Archaeologist Llorenç Alapont focuses on how those caught

frozen in time by the volcano died.

Using an X-ray,

Llorenç and his team examine the bones hidden

in Pompeii's plaster casts.

The scan of one individual reveals striation on the knee,

indicating the person suffered from osteoarthritis.

ALAPONT: What we found is that people who had difficulties

stay in their houses.

People who has disability

or family who has children.

So, we can see in Pompeii many casts of children, as well.

NARRATOR: The scans taken by Llorenç and his team

reveal the facial expressions of the victims

with incredible detail.

♪

It provides a clue as to how this individual perished.

When I see this individual,

how they, we found them,

they remind me the victims

who die in the mountains, like Everest.

When they die exhausted

because they couldn't breathe,

and they look exactly the same.

It suggests that he died exhausted by asphyxiation.

NARRATOR: While many people died in collapsed buildings

due to the deluge of volcanic material

and violent earthquakes that shook the city,

in later phases of the eruption, others succumbed to asphyxiation

by the toxic gases that engulfed Pompeii.

♪

This begins when the ash column collapses under its own weight,

triggering a series of pyroclastic flows.

This mixture of hot gases and volcanic debris

runs down the slopes of Vesuvius,

incinerating everything in its path

and burying Pompeii.

[debris rumbling, people yelling]

[people screaming]

The archaeological evidence paints a tragic picture

of confusion, fear, and desperation

as the people of Pompeii tried to escape

the catastrophic eruption.

Since its rediscovery,

over , bodies have been uncovered at Pompeii.

While it's believed many victims remain buried,

this would be just a fraction of Pompeii's estimated population.

Suggesting that a significant number of people

escaped the initial fury of the volcano.

♪

Today, the ruins of Pompeii provide

a fascinating window into a city of extremes,

where social inequality and economic disparity

were woven into the fabric of daily life.

FLOHR: I think what you see in Pompeii

is that there's a limited number of families

that become exceptionally rich.

So, the way in which you can see social differences

and social inequality in Pompeii

offer a microcosm of social inequality in the Roman Empire

in its extreme form.

♪

NARRATOR: From the opulent villas of the elite

to the brutal life in the city's bakeries,

Pompeii's urban landscape

mirrored the stark divisions in Roman society.

ZUCHTRIEGEL: Pompeii shows us the underworld, the other side

of the story, which is really

what's lacking in this perspective of elite history,

but also for us as archaeologists.

NARRATOR: With every new building brought into the light

after , years of darkness,

Pompeii is slowly giving up its secrets

house by house, street by street,

revealing a city with a dark past,

struck down and frozen in time

in a shocking moment of terror.

♪