Colosseum (2022–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - The Beastmaster - full transcript

Welcome, one and all,

to the greatest games
ever witnessed.

A spectacle
unlike any seen before.

A lone warrior will fight

In mortal combat

Not one fearsome beast...

Not five or ten...

But 20 of the fiercest beasts.

The greatest beast master
in the empire,

Carpophorus.

The Colosseum
is the Roman empire



distilled
to its most basic essence.

It is a symbol of conquest.

It's a symbol of dominance.

It's a symbol
of imperial power

radiating throughout
the Roman world.

Now.

Any emperor
had the Colosseum

at his disposal
to use as a tool

to reassert his power
and authority.

The message
to the Roman people

is that life is a combat.

It was also
a judicial warning.

Do not test the power of Rome.

It was a death penalty offense.



If you live by the sword,

you die by the sword.

It demonstrates the power
of the Colosseum.

It made slaves into heroes,

Upending the power structure
of Rome.

The Colosseum
would come to symbolize

The rise and fall of Rome.

It's all there:

The blood, the glory,
the magnificence,

and the flaws

That made Rome
the greatest empire

that Europe has ever seen.

83 A.D., the opening day
of a new series of games

that emperor domitian promises
will be dazzling.

The headline: "the most
extravagant beast hunt

Rome has ever seen."

The beast hunts
were much more

than just fighting animals.

It was a way
to demonstrate Roman control

over the entire world,

Both the human world
and also the natural world.

Domitian really wanted
to demonstrate

that he, in fact, was master
of all.

Domitian is a real contrast
to his brother and father.

While his father, vespasian,

had been a bluff man
of the people

And Titus had been charming
and suave,

domitian was all harsh edges.

From domitian's perspective,

to follow his father,
vespasian,

and his elder brother, Titus,

that was a difficult act...

In terms of military prowess

and in terms
of their popularity.

So domitian had to strike out
in a different direction

to win the goodwill
of the Roman people.

He decides to use the power
of the Colosseum

By putting on
the greatest show

that anyone had ever seen.

At the center
of this deadly spectacle,

one man, a famed beast master,
or bestiarius,

charged
with facing 20 wild beasts

One after the other.

Most of 'em weren't
successful long enough

for us to learn their name,

but there was one beast master

that the poet martial
mentions.

His name is carpophorus.

To have caught the attention
of a poet of martial's caliber,

the fight
must've been incredible.

Beast masters
were enslaved people.

And so therefore,
they were also a display

of Roman domination
over the people

subjected by the Roman empire.

The animals carpophorus faces

come from all over
the Roman world.

You had bears and wolves
and boars from the north lands.

You had crocodiles
and ostriches from Egypt,

the big cats
from north Africa,

Tigers from Asia.

The range of animals
that appeared in the arena

were, in a sense, a showcase
of the power and the extent

Of the empire.

We can estimate
perhaps a million animals

were killed in the Colosseum,

Many of whom were slaughtered

with the hands
of beast masters.

Just as the Romans
brought wild animals

from all over the empire,

so the beast masters
were drawn

from wherever
the Romans could find slaves

With the talent to kill.

The Romans' favorite
hunting ground for animals

was its prized territories
in north Africa.

The ancient kingdom of numidia

in what is now Algeria
and Tunisia

1s hugely significant.

Numidia and north Africa
were extremely important

for Rome.

They supplied luxury goods,

like marble,

and they were the breadbasket
for Rome

and the rest of the empire.

Without Northern Africa,

Rome could not have fed itself.

Numidia was also

an extremely important
resource

for wild animals.

It was also most likely

where carpophorus lived.

At the time
of domitian's reign,

North Africa had been
under Roman control

for over 200 years,

so the Romans
were no strangers

to these local hunters.

Even more cages.

Soon there'll be no more
animals left in the mountains.

There was a part
of the Roman military

that was specifically assigned
with the task

of gaining the beasts
for the beast hunts.

But also,
the emperor will have employed

a series of hunters.

There would be locals
of that particular area

who had a knowledge
of the animals,

who had a knowledge
of how to capture them.

An average Roman soldier
will have no idea

where to find a lion
or how to hunt a lion,

but the locals will.

Coming from the foothills
of the aurès mountains,

Carpophorus would have been
absolutely integral

to Roman efforts
from a very young age.

A lion.

The construction
of the Colosseum

creates a great demand
for wild beasts.

Anything that the Romans
could get their hands on

that they thought would be
dangerous and interesting

to watch it die
in the Colosseum,

that's what they were
looking for.

A lot of what we knew
about the hunting and capture

of wild animals from the arena
comes from a mosaic in sicily,

in a place
called piazza armerina.

It shows
this enormous operation

in very great detail.

We see in the mosaic
that they employed dogs

to round up bisons and deer.

It shows
that leopards were captured

in cage-like structures.

We see that
to capture big cats,

they would use live bait
and lure them into pits.

Another technique
was to use nets

that were disguised as bushes
and get that animal

to be ensnared into the bush
and be captured.

They show the capture
of bison, lions,

Elephants, rhinos, lynxes.

Unfortunately,
the Roman thirst

for wild beasts for the arena
has a disastrous impact

on the wildlife
of north Africa.

The result is,
the considerable number

of major species
of animals were eliminated,

simply eliminated.

The north African elephant
appears to have disappeared

completely as the result

of Roman appetite for animals
to kill for sport.

One Roman poet said,
"no longer shall

The furthest wilds of Libya
echo with the roar of lions."

The ancient world is a place
where might is right,

So the Romans thought
that they had the right

To exploit a territory,
to exploit a people.

There is an appalling truth
about the ancient world

That there is constant
and sustained

And systematic enslavement
of subject peoples,

What they describe
as human Booty.

We take them both to Rome.

- Both?
- The lion and your son.

You can't.

Take him away.

There's no sentiment
attached.

Both the beast masters
and the wild animals

are seen as commodities.

And in terms of the Colosseum,

they're simply there
for the entertainment

of the masses.

Carpophorus now faces

The long and dangerous journey
to Rome...

As a slave.

Within days of his capture

in his homeland of Numidia,

Carpophorus boards a boat
headed to Rome.

He's thrust
into a vast network

of enslaved people
spanning the mediterranean.

You have the unfree
from Africa,

from Asia, from Europe,

and the outposts
of the Roman world.

We're told that on one
particular Greek island

called delos,
10,000 slaves a day

would be traded
across the Roman empire.

But carpophorus
is bound for the capital.

Every day, there are
hundreds of ships

crisscrossing
the mediterranean to Ostia,

the port of Rome.

And Ostia means
literally "mouth."

It was the mouth
which fed the city of Rome.

Rome was a consumer city.

Everything is being imported.

Everything is coming
through Ostia.

You're getting
imported luxury items

from all over the empire,
jewelry,

and of course you're getting
imported animals.

The Romans had
an insatiable taste

for exotic animals.

Thousands and thousands
and thousands

were being shipped in.

It shows the importance
of the games in Roman life

that the emperors thought,
"this is part of my job.

"This is part of what binds

the people of the city of Rome
to me."

This was what it took
to sate their demands,

to meet their bloodlust.

An endless supply
of enslaved people

serves that bloodlust.

The process of enslavement
involved a kind of alienation.

Wait!

Entering the slave system
of the ancient mediterranean

entailed the leaving behind
of one's former identity.

That meant that one was
assigned a new name.

From now on, your name is...

Carpophorus.

Carpophorus means
"fruit bearer,"

someone who's bringing
some of the resources

of the Roman imperial world
to offer to the spectators.

The slave name is a shorthand
for someone who is subhuman.

Someone who is more an animal
than a person.

Removing someone's given name
is an exercise in power

and control.

We have no friends here.

You and I.

Carpophorus' final destination

Is 13 miles
from the port of Ostia,

The colossal city of Rome.

Founded
in the eighth century B.C.,

Rome was situated
on the river Tiber,

allowing easy access
of supplies from the sea.

Surrounded by seven hills,

providing defense
and protection,

what began as a small
collection of villages,

by the first century a.D.,
had grown

into the world's
first megacity.

Rome had a population
of a million people.

That is the largest population
in any city

Anywhere in the world
for 1,500 years.

The next city
to be that sized population

is victorian London.

Of those million people
in Rome,

over 300,000 of them
were slaves.

Carpophorus is coming
into a city

that's tightly packed.

It's surrounded
with just an absolute babble

of voices speaking languages
that he's never heard before.

There would've
been Egyptians

and alexandrians and africans,

Numidians and other Berbers,

and there would've been
Arabs there.

There would've been Europeans
and Germans

and people from Britannia.

And that would've been one
of the excitements of a city.

The city
is this enormous vacuum

sucking up people
from all over the empire,

so carpophorus would not have
been at all out of place

in the city of Rome.

Skin color
was not a determination

of status, of class.

It's not what you look like.

It's not even
where you were born.

It's whether you are
a Roman citizen or not.

Carpophorus will one day fight

as a beast master
in his new city.

But first,
he must learn his craft.

Carpophorus would not,
of course, have been brought

directly into the Colosseum
and put before the people.

He would've first been brought

to the Ludus matutinus,

the newly established
training ground

for beast hunters
in the shadow

of the Colosseum.

Domitian was
very, very conscious

of the fact that his father
and his brother

sort of owned the Colosseum,

and he felt
that he had to go one further

to show he was really
committed to Roman sport

and to the Roman people.

The way that domitian decided
to strike out

and impress his own personality
on the roman people

was to build
a specialized school

devoted to beast fighting,
the Ludus matutinus.

The name means
"morning schools"

because the traditional time
within the gladiatorial display

For beast hunting
was in the morning.

The very, very large,
expensive facility

was an effort
to establish a direct link

between himself
and the populace

of the city of Rome

as their benefactor
and entertainer.

Welcome.

Now you belong to me.

It is a very militarized,

very severe environment.

- Out!
- These are brutal academies

For the violent arts.

You can't escape.

You'll have to learn
to run faster than that.

The only way most of us leave
is as dust.

After arriving in Rome,

Carpophorus begins
his training

At a special school
called a Ludus.

If you're a beast master
in a Ludus,

effectively, you're a slave.

It's no better than being
in a military barracks

or probably a prison.

We know
that the training grounds

were not comfortable
athletic facilities.

These were harsh facilities

designed to produce hard men.

We have now been able
to excavate training grounds,

in particular at Pompeii,

showing that the places
in which they slept were small.

There were undoubtedly
several men

crammed into a room at a time
and it's very, very,

overwhelmingly likely
they were locked in

whenever
they were not training.

The Ludus was closed off

from the surrounding
neighborhood with walls.

Access was strictly controlled.

The beast masters are
in the Ludus to do one thing,

and that is to train
for the games.

The training itself
is exceptionally tough.

They were being trained
in how to use a net,

how to use a spear,
how to use a bow.

It really depends
on what animal

they're going to be fighting.

Different techniques involved

in fighting different animals.

Almost everything
that we know

about beast masters,

from the weapons they used,

the style of fighting
that they used,

or even the clothes
that they wore,

come directly from Roman art,

so mosaics and frescos.

There are some
beautiful mosaics,

horrifying mosaics,
that give us details

of various aspects
of the process.

We see them in action

at heightened moments
especially.

Often the death blow
for the animal.

There is an active
self-identification there.

This person is carrying out
the will of the Roman people.

This person is
a representative

of our greatness as a society.

They were symbols
of masculine virility.

They were sex symbols.

They were exceptional athletes.

They were the superheroes
of the empire.

In the same way
that you might put up posters

of famous actors,

That's how you would have
beast masters painted

on the walls of houses.

When carpophorus
is in the Ludus,

he's having to learn
a whole variety of skills.

He's having to learn
hunting skills.

He's also having to learn
to look after the animals

to make sure
they stay healthy.

He's learning how
to prepare them for the arena.

He may want to train them
in certain tricks,

as it were.

All of this made
the beast masters' occupation

somewhere between a zookeeper
and a professional fighter.

It involved a bunch
of different skill sets.

It was extremely difficult,

and it was also,
as you can imagine,

extremely dangerous.

On the other hand, we do
have these interesting stories

about animal memory
and animal friendship

that are striking.

Don't get too close,
cCarpophorus.

These animals are here
for one reason.

One reason only.

Remember that.

Thinking about someone
like Carpophorus,

He has been uprooted
from his homeland

and brought to fight
in the capitol.

So were many of his victims,
so were many of the animals

That were brought
from his homeland,

so there might have been
a strange sort of symbiosis

or a strange sort
of camaraderie

between killer and killed.

There's the animals
from his homeland

who, in a certain sense,
shared his fate.

But the spectacle was not
just about killing the animals.

Sometimes it was just
to watch them.

The Romans really reveled
in them.

Sometimes
for the Roman audience

in the Colosseum,
just seeing crocodiles

lying in a dish full of water

or seeing leopards run
in a straight line

without the blood
was a very entertaining,

amusing spectacle.

Roman historians report
that this line of leopards

running by caused people
to just fall down laughing.

The average Roman
is not going to leave Rome.

For them to be able to go
to the Colosseum was like

bringing the farthest reaches
of the known world

to Rome itself.

It's an opportunity to see

what were to the Romans aliens.

Imagine seeing a rhino
for the first time.

We have sources
talking about giraffes,

how terrified people were
of giraffes,

an animal
with its neck so long,

spots like a leopard,

A ferocious creature
that could reach

into the highest
Roman apartment

and eat your children.

The poet martial writes
about an incident

in which an elephant bowed
in front of the emperor.

Of course,
it's trained to bow,

but the Romans
don't know that.

They just see this creature,

this monster, this alien,
bowing before the emperor,

and it shows his majesty,
his divinity.

But witnessing circus tricks

isn't enough for Rome's
bloodthirsty crowds.

To please them,
beast masters need to do more.

That's good. Good.

Good. Come on. Come here.

Beast fights
were entertainment.

There would have had
to be a showmanship

from the beast masters.

That would have had
its own sort of routine

and its own climax
and storytelling.

So they had to learn
all these skills

in order to please
not just the crowd

but the emperor.

You are ready.

While carpophorus is training,

the emperor domitian returns
from germania,

where he has been fighting
barbarian tribes.

He decides
to celebrate his victory

at the Colosseum and begins
planning a series of games.

Domitian still has things
to prove.

He still has this insecurity,
and holding magnificent games

is one way
of working around that.

Meanwhile,
carpophorus fights his way

across the empire
in smaller arenas,

earning a reputation and fans.

Ah!

Each victory brought
carpophorus more fame.

Made the crowd
more interested in seeing him.

And that meant a ticket

to the final destination:

Fighting in front
of the emperor himself.

As a winning beast master,

it's likely that carpophorus
would be given small perks.

Money talks in ancient Rome.

I mean, every aspect of Roman
sports involves money,

whether you're a charioteer,
whether you're a gladiator.

You know,
think of an average Roman.

He's earning 9,000 sesterce
a year.

Some gladiators could earn

15,000 sesterce
in a single bout.

They became
incredibly wealthy people.

You would imagine
that a beast master

would be paid the same

As a chariot racer
or a gladiator,

but this wasn't the case.

These fighters of animals
that could kill a man,

they worked for tips.

You earned it.

We do not hear
of beast masters

growing tremendously wealthy.

However, one thing that
beast masters might hope for

is to get their freedom
through their fighting.

The possibility of freedom,
it's there,

but you have to rise
to the top.

You have to be
somebody truly great.

Like gladiators,

Beast masters compete
to be featured performers,

no matter how dangerous.

These games
will be bigger, bolder,

and better than anything
Rome has ever witnessed.

The emperor has requested
one beast master

to be the main event
of the morning opening,

A fight with 20 beasts,

one after another.

The man Rome demands is...

Carpophorus.

There was rivalry
between opposing beast masters.

After all,
there was glory, fame,

and potential freedom
at stake.

We have evidence of this

in curse tablets
that were found

in the amphitheater
in carthage.

The curse tablets contain
spells and magical symbols

that were meant
to evoke the help of demons

to harm rival beast masters.

"Kill, destroy,
and wound gallicus

at his hour in the ring
of the amphitheater."

It's a very
cutthroat industry,

and obviously, everybody's
vying for that one spot.

It's a very narcissistic sport,
and what we know

is that they really hated
each other at certain moments,

entreating the gods
to do nasty things

to other beast hunters.

"Bind gallicus,
the son of prima.

Let the bear crush him
and wound him."

I'm sorry, my friend.

The gods will decide
our fate now.

In 83 a.D.,
it's finally opening day,

and domitian's great games
are ready to begin.

The commencement
of the games

was a major deal
for the city of Rome.

These took place on holidays.

A great portion
of the population

would have the day off.

I think it's impossible
to overstate

the kind of excitement
and energy of a crowd

that's been pent up
to see blood.

The buzz would've been
building for months

by the time
at least 50,000 people

made their way to the Colosseum
and packed themselves in.

You can imagine
for someone like carpophorus,

beneath the floor
of the amphitheater

and waiting for his turn
to go up

And fight these 20 beasts...

This is an opportunity
of a lifetime.

We can imagine
the stink of fear,

the smell of wild animals.

Everything is ready to go.

You can hear the buzz
of the crowd above.

Eventually, the emperor
would take his place

and would be watched
by everyone in the vicinity.

I have no doubt
that domitian was well aware

of what could happen
to an emperor

who failed to put on
spectacular games

for the people in attendance.

So this matters for him
as a way of shoring up

what seems to have been an
unsteady political reputation.

Part of the spectacle

of putting on a proper
beast fight in the Colosseum

was making sure that

the animals were
properly prepared.

That meant starving them.

So beast masters are faced

with fighting apex predators...

That are hungry,
that are scared,

that are nervous,
that are being thrust up

through the bowels
of the Colosseum

into the daylight,
surrounded by screaming fans,

and then
you've gotta go fight them.

That is a tremendously
frightening prospect.

One man against one animal?

That's a show.

A single man will fight

20 of the fiercest beasts

from the furthest reaches
of our empire.

One man against 20

was a feat
that had never been undertaken

and would not be undertaken
ever again.

There's every chance that
carpophorus would not survive.

On the opening day
of domitian's great games,

Carpophorus must
survive fights

with 20 of the fiercest beasts
in the empire,

One after another.

And now, the hyena.

Carpophorus' feat
was immortalized

by the imperial poet martial.

Martial was fascinated
with the games.

He was a sort of aficionado
of all human nature.

And of course,
nothing was more fascinating

than what happened
in the Colosseum.

"If former ages
had borne carpophorus,

"marathon would not have
feared the bull,

"nor leafy nemea the lion,

"nor the arcadians
the maenalian boar.

"However many were the
glorious deeds of Hercules,

"it is far greater
to have subdued

20 savage beasts all at once."

Ah!

I think it's clear
that what domitian

is trying to do
is draw an analogy,

That he's saying
carpophorus is like Hercules.

The story of Hercules

was one of Rome's most popular

and enduring
mythological tales.

Hercules has to carry out
12 labors,

Including the slaying
of monstrous beasts,

all to win the favor
of the god Apollo.

Sometimes,
the games were put on

with a mythological theme.

They would reenact scenes
of mythology.

These myths were a way
to teach the Romans

an important lesson.

But if you couldn't read,

the Colosseum was
an opportunity

for you to see them,
to experience them.

Here's a mere mortal, a slave,

the lowest of society.

He is parallel to Hercules.

Actually, you know what?
He's greater than Hercules.

Because Hercules only had
12 labors.

Carpophorus had 20.

Beast 12, the rhino!

He's worthy of a poem.

But martial's poem
is not designed

to praise
the beast master carpophorus.

His true subject watches
the combat unfold

from the imperial box.

By extolling the exploits
of carpophorus,

the poet martial is
shedding glory

on the emperor domitian himself

because domitian is
the sponsor of these games.

Beast number 19!

The emperor's
beast hunts also serve

another vital function
for Romans.

One of the most
remarkable aspects

of gladiatorial fighting
in ancient Rome

when it comes
to these exotic animals,

Whether it be giraffes
or rhinos

or lions or tigers
or the like,

is that the meat
from the dead animals

was given out
to the people of Rome,

and this seems to have been
a real crowd-pleaser,

but also seems
to have actually made

an impact on the nutrition
of the Roman people.

It was an important source
of protein

that they could count on.

You have been invited
by the emperor

to eat with him,
to drink with him,

to share in the games
with him.

You remember the emperor
that gave you lion burgers.

You'd never had that before.

Another reason
we know about this

is because they drained
one of the sewage systems

in the Colosseum,
and what they found in it

was bones of a bear,
of an ostrich,

of a wild boar, of horses.

So they obviously
would have cut the meat up,

and then the bones were just
thrown into the sewage system,

and they've survived
to this day.

On the sands of the arena,

only one final beast

stands between carpophorus

and freedom.

One final adversary!

They arrived together
from far Numidia,

but only one...
Only one can live.

The lion's
a fearsome opponent.

It is seven times stronger
than a human being

and can weigh
up to a half a ton.

It can run 50 miles an hour.

And the swipe of a lion's paw,

delivering 400 pounds,
was enough to decapitate

a human being.

For carpophorus,
facing this apex predator,

this was
a massive undertaking.

The famed
beast master carpophorus

has somehow managed to slay
19 fearsome beasts

and survive.

Now, he has one opponent left.

There's almost like
a religious aspect

to the lion.

He's this revered animal,

much as the eagle was
to the Romans.

He's the top predator.

He's the top of the food chain.

And that, for the Romans,

is a representation of Rome.

The lion has always been
a symbol

of strength and ferocity

in many ancient societies.

They appeared in the palaces
of Babylonian kings

and in the court
of Alexander the great.

But what the Romans do is,
they import lions

in their thousands.

So this is the Romans, as ever,

trying to go one step further

than the civilization
that went before them.

So they're saying, "it's not
just that we can kill lions.

"It's that we can
mass-slaughter

"the most ferocious
and powerful creature

that mother nature
has to offer."

For carpophorus,

it's an epic achievement
that, sure enough,

has made his name
live down in history.

Perhaps by his victory
and accomplishments,

Carpophorus actually challenged

the very foundations
of Roman society

here was an enslaved person

who actually elevated himself
as a hero

and, in victory,
became a symbol

to the Roman people
of success.

So perhaps
Carpophorus challenged

the very notion
of what it meant

to be a slave.

Well done, brother.

Carpophorus was
at the center of all

because his feats
in fighting exotic animals

really was the highlight
of domitian's games,

and domitian's games were meant
to impress the people.

The games are
a propaganda tool.

The collection
and systematic execution

of a bunch of exotic animals

was a very strong statement

about the sort of
superhuman power

of the emperor himself.

Domitian's games
were a great success.

The fact that they were
written about to that extent,

that people remembered them,

meant that he had been a hit
with the Roman people.

The games had served
their purpose.

Of course,
that didn't last forever.

In Rome, the love
of the people wasn't enough.

In 96 A.D.,
an increasingly paranoid

and tyrannical domitian

made enemies among the senate,

among Rome's elite,

and on their orders,
he was knifed to death.

We don't know what happens
to Carpophorus,

where he goes from here,

what profession he pursues.

Does he go elsewhere
in the Roman world?

Does he find peace somewhere?

If a beast master
were ever going to have

a chance for a life
after the Colosseum,

Carpophorus would be
a good candidate for that.

We don't have to assume
that coming to Rome,

whether willingly
or unwillingly,

was a one-way street.

I'd like to imagine
that carpophorus,

after this triumph,

has enough fame
and enough money

to buy his own freedom

and perhaps, one day,
to return to his homeland,

where he's not the stranger

and the exotic
professional hunter,

but someone who could live
at ease in his native soil.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.