Thanks to stunning reconstitutions with computer-generated images, this documentary retraces the manufacturing secrets of the largest and most exceptional city of Antiquity: Rome, the capital of the Mediterranean world. Three of its most emblematic monuments come to life. The Pantheon and its majestic dome, the sumptuous palace of Nero which covered a quarter of the city, and finally the legendary Colosseum, the largest Roman amphitheater ever built.

In the fifth episode of the series, lavish imperial games at the Colosseum are highlighted by the emperor's bloody victories, but his paranoid abuses of power lead to a final betrayal.

In the last episode of the series, lavish imperial games at the Colosseum are highlighted by the emperor's bloody victories, but his paranoid abuses of power lead to a final betrayal.

Professor Mary Beard looks beyond the stories of emperors, armies, guts and gore to meet the everyday people at the heart of Ancient Rome's vast empire. In this programme, Mary asks not what the Romans did for us, but what the empire did for Rome. She rides the Via Appia, climbs up to the top seats of the Colosseum, takes a boat to Rome's port Ostia and takes us into the bowels of Monte Testaccio. She also meets some extraordinary Romans: Eurysaces, an eccentric baker, who made a fortune out of the grain trade and built his tomb in the shape of a giant bread oven; Baricha, Zabda and Achiba, three prisoners of war who became Roman citizens; and Pupius Amicus, the purple dye seller making imperial dye from shellfish imported from Tunisia. This is Rome from the bottom up.