The Heritage of the Roman Empire (6/21)

The Heritage of the Roman Empire (6/21)

The Roman Empire is still fascinating: it was vast, it lasted longer than any other Empire and it moulded the world we live in today. The Romans left more than monumental buildings and statues: they wrote the "software" that still guides our everyday life - for the alphabet we use is the Roman one. The Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian languages all have their origins in Latin. Our legal system is based on that of the Romans, our main roads were constructed on the Roman model. Architecture, painting, sculpture - they would all look quite different without the Romans. Starting in Limes, Dieter Moor's journey takes us all around the Mediterranean: Bosra in Syria with its open-air theatre was the capital of the province of Arabia. Leptis Magna in present-day Libya was a kind of tax haven of Antiquity, and the Colosseum in El Djem, Tunisia, is redolent of gladiator fights and animal hunts. A further stopover is the Pont du Gard in the South of France which, with its three tiers and 64 round arches, is one of the masterpieces of Antique architecture. Dieter Moor reports not only on the architectonic heritage of the Romans, but also tells of the expansive Roman mythology, which incorporated foreign ideas successfully and productively: the Romans took over not only the economy of a subjected state but also its knowledge and its faith. In the city of Baalbek in Lebanon is a temple whose size and splendour were unique in the Roman Empire: the Jupiter Temple. Here the Syrians once worshipped their god Baal, later Alexander the Great dedicated it to the sun god Helios. In his film Dieter Moor also takes a  look at modern archaeology and its attempts to discover further secrets of Roman culture. For some time now this has not been restricted merely to excavations: today methods are also used which resemble those of forensic scientists examining crime scenes or murder weapons.