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- [00:00]
Dan Snow
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- [00:33]
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- [01:03]
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- [01:38]
Dan Snow
It's 480 BC. The calm waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea are a royal blue, with the Italian coast visible in the distance. A small ship sails north, carried by a favorable wind and keeping close to the shoreline. It's a trading ship full of fancy vases. The helmsman and his crew had come from Athens. They were sailing north to trade with the great power that dominated Italy at that time, the Etruscans, who had developed quite a love for Greek art over the past few weeks. They had been sailing around the Italian coastline, passing numerous cities along the way. Tarentum, Croton, Rhegium, Elea valued havens in a world where sailing at night was avoided. Now they could see the next port city on the horizon, situated in a great fertile plain with mountains rising up behind. Impressive stone walls surround it and beyond. Protruding above this defence, the tops of the great monuments that defined this city were visible. Two large temples side by side, one bigger and grander than the other, shouting out a clear Greeks live here. A warm bed, wine and music awaited the helmsman that night. Familiar Greek comforts in a foreign land. He thanked Poseidon for the ship's safe journey so far. He vowed to make an offering to the terrifying deity as soon as he landed, lest his luck change. It was the least he could do. He was entering the God's namesake city, after all. Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the Ancients. Now, last year I had the privilege of visiting what I will unashamedly say is my favorite ancient site in Italy. Not Pompeii, not the Colosseum, but Paestum, home to some of the best surviving ancient Greek temples outside of Greece and so much more. Why is it my favorite site? Well, I love the story of the ancient Greeks who went west and settled in southern Italy and the interactions they had with various Italian peoples, including the Romans. Sometimes peaceful, sometimes not. We were there at Paestum to create a documentary all about this ancient city. A tale of three cities, which you can go and watch now on History Hit. We'll put a link in the description. In this episode, we'll be walking you through this stunning site. We'll shine a light on some of its greatest treasures. How this city has legacies left by Greeks, Etruscans, Lucanians and Romans, and why this site should be on any ancient history enthusiast's bucket list of places to visit.
- [04:36]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
If we're looking at Pistom as say, a visitor walking into the city, it would have been a walled city with quite imposing monumental gates. It would have had the new temple which was visible from the sea. So if you were arriving by sea, that's pretty much the first thing you would have seen.
- [04:52]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
You must remember that the city in the 4th century BC did not just have a Lucanian population. The Greeks were there. And the connection, the inter interaction between the Greeks, the Lucanians and other populations, it was crucial to then define this new language.
- [05:09]
Dan Snow
Along the way, I'll be helped by two leading experts on Paestum and the wider story of the ancient Greeks in Italy. Dr. Catherine Lomas, an honorary research fellow at Durham University, and Dr. Tiziana D', Angelo, Director of the Archaeological park of Paestum and Velia. One last There are several ways people say Paestum today. Others might say Paestum, others still pystem. But rest assured, we are always talking about the same place. Let's get into it. Paestum lies in southern Italy, about a kilometer from the coast and 90 kilometers southeast of Naples. Founded by the Greeks at the turn of the 6th century BC, it was originally called Poseidonia, after the city's divine protector, the Greek God of the sea, Poseidon, an appropriate deity for a city joined to the rest of the Greek world by its proximity to the sea.
- [06:21]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
It's on the Gulf of Salerno and it's about two to three kilometers inland. So we're talking coastal plain with a low plateau which is where the city actually is.
- [06:30]
Dan Snow
That's Dr. Catherine Lomas, honorary research fellow at Durham University and the editor of the new book the World of the Western Greeks.
- [06:40]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Basically, we're talking about somewhere which is quite close to the coast. It's about 10 km south of the River Selle, which is one of the major waterways of southern Italy. So it's got very good maritime connections and a good way of bringing goods in, shipping goods out, keeping connections, which obviously is important because land transport is slow and expensive at this date. Basically, it's got the Apennines sort of inland and also the Calabrian mountains to the south, with passes leading southwards, which may have been significant in why the site was chosen. The area is quite prone to flooding and waterlogging, which is significant in its later history, so that's quite important. But also it controls a very large territory of very fertile land. So it's got really good resources and good connections with the wider world, both Greek and non Greek.
- [07:30]
Dan Snow
Paestum was one of numerous settlements that the Greeks founded across the ancient Mediterranean. These stretched from Crimea to North Africa to Sicily and southern Italy. These settlers brought their Greek culture with them to these distant shores and they maintained close links between their new home and the mother city that they came from, links that endured for generations.
- [07:56]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Magna Graecia, or Megale Helas, as it was known in Greek, literally means Greater Greece or Great Greece, and it's conventionally used to refer by scholars to the Greek settlements in Italy. These are conventionally termed colonies, but that's actually really contentious. Quite a lot of scholars reject that term in favour of something much more neutral, like migration. But the reason why the Greeks were there in the first place is that this is the culmination of a very long standing network of social and economic contacts between Greece and the western Mediterranean, stretching as far as Spain, which goes right back to the Bronze Age. So what we have is a very long standing trade route, which basically means that the Greeks of Greece are very familiar with the western Mediterranean. But eventually, at some point around about the 8th to the 7th centuries BC, that really seems to ramp up in intensity. And we find that we have a period of quite intensive and quite rapid permanent settlements growing up in southern Italy and also Sicily. The contributory factors to that seem to have been a combination of economic opportunism. These are areas with vast amounts of arable land compared with Greece. Familiarity with the area through these trade contacts which probably helped mediate this and civil strife in Greece itself. And quite a lot of the foundation legends that we have handed down through the ancient sources feature stories about individuals or small groups of people who were forced out of their home cities for various reasons. And in fact the foundation of Pistom itself is a case in point because civic discord in its founding city Sybaris, which is on the south coast of Italy, seems to have been a big factor in why Pisteom was founded.
- [09:39]
Dan Snow
Paestum was founded relatively late in the story of Greek settlements in southern Italy. As Catherine mentioned, it was founded by Greeks who came from Sybaris. Imagine Italy's boot like shape. Sybaris could be found right on its sole, positioned next to what is now the Bay of Taranto and looking east towards Corfu and northwest Greece. The city had been founded by mainland Greeks in in the 8th century BC. By around 600 BC, Sybaris had already become a wealthy city. But troubles within encouraged a group of people there to leave. They headed west, sailing around the toe of Italy in search of a new homeland. It was they who founded Poseidonia, we'll largely say Paestum from now on. To keep it simple, same place. Over the following decades, Paestum would grow and start to establish itself in the area. Its people built a harbour, taking advantage of the trade routes and farmed the abundant arable lands on this coastal plain. Word soon spread with more settlers arriving at Paestum over the course of the 6th century, keen for a fresh start in this fledgling city. Early on, Paestum's story was intertwined with Sybaris. But that all changed at the end of the 6th century when sybaris was destroyed. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, Sybaris had grown into a rich and powerful city. But its people grew arrogant and decadent. This is where we get the word Sybarite from. And this led to their swift downfall. In a war with Croton, a neighbouring Greek city and modern day Crotone, Sybaris was destroyed. The armies of Croton diverted the water from the nearby river, flooding Sybaris and forcing its people to flee. It's likely that many of these Sybarite refugees fled to Paestum. Paestum had outlived the mother city and its prominence would only increase by the middle of the 5th century BC. Paestum had many of the classic hallmarks of an ancient Greek city.
- [11:58]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
If we're looking at Pisteum as say, a visitor walking into the city, it would have been a walled city with quite imposing monumental gates. It would have had the new temple, which is currently under excavation, which was visible from the sea, right near the Porta Marina in the western end of the city. So if you were arriving by sea, that's pretty much the first thing you would have seen. And then you can walk down these long narrow streets of houses and workshops and shops. And when you got to the centre, you would have the agora, which was very big by Greek agora standards, probably somewhere around about 330 by 300 meters. And in the middle it's got a hero shrine, a hero on which may have been the cult of the founder, the oikist, as the Greeks call them. By the beginning of the 5th century, it's also acquired an ecclesiasterion, which is a circular building with stepped seats, a bit like a theatre, which is where political assemblies are held. And that again gives you some sort of insight into the size of the city, because at a guesstimate, that could have probably seated about 1500-1700 people. And if you take into account the fact that the Greek cities only allowed adult male citizens into places like an ecclesiasterion, therefore you've got a multiplier that you can add on for my wife's children, slaves, non citizens, that gives you a really quite substantial population of probably in the region of 10 to 12,000 people. So it's quite a substantial sized city.
- [13:34]
Dan Snow
Paestum was not just substantial, it was also incredibly striking, defined by three great temples that dominated the city. They were built between 550 and 450 BC, all made from local limestone. One of them was built at the northern end of the city, the Temple of Athena. The other two are situated in the south, right next to each other. The first is today known as the Basilica, so called because it was originally thought to be an ancient law court. But finds have since proven it was a temple to the goddess Hera. It's the oldest of the three temples built in the mid 6th century BC, just decades after Paestum was founded. Next to the Basilica, you have the grandest of Paestum's surviving temples, standing more than 10 meters tall. It's called the Temple of Neptune today. But of course, Neptune is the Roman equivalent of the Greek God Poseidon, lord of the sea and the divine patron of Paestum. Whether the temple was actually dedicated to Poseidon, however. Well, we'll address that in a moment, but first let's paint a clear picture of the temple of Neptune. It is one of the most spectacular surviving examples of ancient Greek temple architecture from anywhere in the world. In it is the pinnacle of a particular style known as the Doric order. It's called Doric after the long, almost 9 meter high fluted columns that surround the outside of the temple. 36 in total. They're called Doric columns. A small capital adorns the top of each column, supporting the top half of the temple. Directly above the columns on all four sides is a long, blank rectangular strip called the architrave. Above that is another rectangular strip. But this time the strip is intersected with regular patterns of three vertical lines. Now those three vertical lines are called triglyphs and the blank squarish spaces created between them are called metopes. Usually that would be where you would find carved reliefs, but none survive on this particular temple. Either the metopes were left empty or they were painted and the paint hasn't survived. Finally, right at the top, at each end of the temple, you have one of the most iconic parts of its design, the pediment, the triangular top. We usually picture pediments filled with statues posing in clever ways to take advantage of the diminishing space. But once again, no such decorations survive on this temple. But let that not take away anything from the majesty of this building. Visually, it is perfect. One of the best Doric temples in the world. Magnificent and awe inspiring. Stepping inside, you are dwarfed by the large Doric columns that fill its interior. And it's not just single tiered. If you look up, you notice that there is another level of columns in the center. The remains of limestone stairs confirm the fact this temple originally had multiple floors. It was here, within the grand ruins of the Temple of Neptune that I met Dr. Tiziana D', Angelo, Director of the Archaeological park of Paestum and Duvelia Tiziana. This does just blow me away. I'm so excited. And this was right at the heart. Was this the sacred center of the temple?
- [17:25]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yes. So right now we're in the naos, the cellar, and this would have been the space where the cult statue was placed. And you always have to remember that Greek temples are not like churches. They were very different. They were more like, you know, the house of the God. And worshippers would have had access to these buildings, but most of the sacred ritual would have taken place outside by the altar.
- [17:51]
Dan Snow
So this is Just the big house for the God. But do we know which God was worshipped here?
- [17:55]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
That is a very good question and one that we've been trying to answer. I mean, when the first archaeologists came to Paestum during the grand tour and they saw this monumental.
- [18:07]
Dan Snow
That's 18th century. Grand tour.
- [18:08]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
We're talking about 18th century, mid 18th century. That's when the site starts being rediscovered, as it were. And archaeologists thought that this temple was so monumental that it must have been the one dedicated to Poseidon, the God who protected the city of Poseidonia. But in fact, archaeological evidence shows that that is not the case. And this temple was more likely dedicated to the goddess Hera, or perhaps to.
- [18:34]
Dan Snow
The God Apollo, the queen of the gods. So Hera, she's the wife of Zeus, so she is one of the top gods of them all.
- [18:40]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yes. And we have several temples that were dedicated to her. I mean, we have just behind us the so called Basilica that was dedicated to Hera and also the spectacular temple of just 9 km north of Paestum at the mouth of the river Celle.
- [18:57]
Dan Snow
Being such a massive construction, not just one story, two storeys high. Do we know much about how they built this?
- [19:04]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yes. So this is a great example of Doric architecture and more specifically of the way in which Doric architecture developed here in Poseidonia. And it's a very mature expression of Doric architecture as well. I mean, with the other great temples that we have preserved here in Paestum, what we see is really the sort of stylistic development of these structures. So with the Temple of Hera, the so called basilica, so it's that one.
- [19:33]
Dan Snow
Right there behind us, that one right.
- [19:35]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Behind us, what we can see is one of the early examples of the Doric. So more sort of experimental. But with the Temple of Neptune, which was finished around the mid 5th century BC, we have probably the most mature expression of Doric architecture that is preserved here.
- [19:52]
Dan Snow
So interestingly, that one is almost. They're experimenting with Doric architecture and this is almost a finalized version of it. When they've almost got the style nailed out more to a T. Yeah.
- [20:04]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Even though, you know, it's not always as easy as that.
- [20:07]
Dan Snow
Of course. Absolutely.
- [20:08]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
With this temple in particular, the project must have changed along the way. So when they started building it, probably towards the end of the 6th century, they had an idea of what the temple would have looked like. And then the project. Project change. And that's why they probably finished it a bit later. And we see this change precisely between, you know, by looking at the Base of the temple, the podium of the temple and then the upper part of it, which are different.
- [20:34]
Dan Snow
And you mentioned there so the end of the 6th century BC. So that's within roughly 100 years of paestum, you know, ancient Posidonia being founded, it seems pretty quick. Was this almost a statement of power of the wealth of Paestum at that time, that within 100 years of it being founded, they could already build massive temples like this?
- [20:55]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
I mean the city was indeed very wealthy, just like its mother city in Calabria, Symbaris, but it also had very skilled architects and engineers. So in 510 BC, when the mother city of Poseidonia, Sybaris was destroyed, then what we see here in Paestum is almost like a process of monumentalization of this city which would have to some extent also, you know, replaced its mother city in terms of its power and control over western Greece.
- [21:30]
Dan Snow
So it's like the colony overtakes the mother city almost kind of the apprentice becomes the master in a weird kind of way.
- [21:36]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, I mean, in some ways, yes. And then you can imagine that probably, but again, this is also speculation, but probably you would have had some groups of people from Sybaris also coming here to Poseidonia after the destruction of the mother city.
- [21:52]
Dan Snow
And so how powerful and significant does Greek paestum does Poseidonia become?
- [21:58]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, if you think about its urban sanctuaries, so you know, here the so called temple of Neptune, the so called Basilica, then the temple of Athena. If you think about its 5km of city walls, if you about its huge agora, where an ecclesiasterion, where the ecclesiasterion is still preserved. If you think about the Heron, the tomb dedicated to the hero, founder of the city, then you realize that this was a powerful city in southern Italy. Magna Gabecha.
- [22:38]
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- [22:54]
Dan Snow
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- [23:06]
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- [23:08]
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- [23:39]
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- [24:24]
Dan Snow
Paestum was one of many ancient Greek cities in Magna Graecia that has become prosperous by the 5th century BC. Others included Syracuse and Akragas in Sicily, the latter famous for its own valley of temples at today's Agrigento There was also Rhegium at the toe of Italy, Tarentum at the heel, and of course Neapolis beneath Mount Vesuvius. We know it today as Naples. At the same time that famous Greek cities on the mainland like Athens and Sparta were were fighting off the Persians and reaching their zeniths, these Greeks in the west were enjoying their own golden age. Greek culture was thriving in southern Italy and during these centuries you would see a special development of Greek art in these cities, influenced by powerful Italian neighbours like the Etruscans, who at that time were still the dominant power in Italy. Rome at that time still paled in comparison. Visit somewhere like the National Museum of Archaeology in Naples today and you can see great examples of this Italiot Greek art, but the art from Paestum is particularly special. Paestum has treasures that are as rare and as beautiful as anything from ancient Greece, with one particular example temple standing out above all others. It was discovered 1 1/2 kilometers south of Paestum, not in a grand temple, but in a tomb. It's called the Tomb of the Diver, after one of the most stunning pieces of ancient Greek art in the world. A wall painting, rectangular in its design, that depicts a very unique and tranquil scene. A young man who has just jumped off a tall platform, caught in a perfect dive position, moments away from hitting a pool of water beneath him. Today, this painting has become a symbol of Paestum and the ancient Greeks in Italy, on display at Paestum's archaeological museum. I was lucky enough to see it up close with Tiziana as my expert guide. I mean, Tiziana, I have to say this is one of the most incredible wall paintings I've ever seen. The details that survive. I mean, it's astonishing.
- [26:52]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, this is a very unique example of ancient wall painting. It dates to the 5th century BC and we hear so much about, you know, Greek wall painting from literary sources, but actually, you know, pretty much nothing survives. But here in southern Italy, there you have, you know, an example that is still so well preserved of all places.
- [27:12]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
And this.
- [27:13]
Dan Snow
So this is roughly 2,500 years old. You wouldn't believe it at first when you see it. Because of how much it survived.
- [27:19]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Exactly. I mean, this was preserved so well because it was in a tomb. Right. So the context was sealed, and until 1968 when the tomb was discovered, when the tomb was excavated, you know, its colors just kind of stayed hidden below the ground.
- [27:37]
Dan Snow
What exactly can we see here? I'm guessing this figure right in the center, the main character. This is the diver.
- [27:42]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Exactly. This is the diver. This is a diving scene. But first of all, let's just try and imagine this tomb. This is the lid, and this is the interior side of the lid.
- [27:51]
Dan Snow
So this would be face down in the tomb?
- [27:53]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Exactly. The figure of the diver would have been right above the deceased's face. So the tomb was decorated on the inside. So its interior walls were decorated with frescoes. And this in particular was, as I said, the lid. So there you have the diver. This is a very special painting, and it's become, over the years, almost like an icon of the archaeological park of Paestum.
- [28:19]
Dan Snow
And what other things can we see here? So we've got this kind of this platform, like, image here. And is there water there? So what are these other details?
- [28:26]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yes. So here we have, as you said, you know, we've got this sort of tower, this platform, and the diver, you know, has just jumped of that platform. Exactly. And here what you have is water. It looks like a lake, maybe the sea. You know, we don't know. I mean, this scene is still so mysterious to us. And, you know, here we have some trees. And what makes it so interesting is the fact that it doesn't have so many comparisons, so many comparanda that we can look to in order to reconstruct what is going on? And there are so many interpretations that have been suggested that have been put forward for this scene. But in a way, you know, we're still thinking, we're still trying to figure out the diver.
- [29:10]
Dan Snow
We've got some interesting kind of floral patterns and trees either side. But what I also love, you can see the pupil of his eye, and you can also see, like, hair as well. So does that reveal more about the actual figure?
- [29:21]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, there's a lot of attention to anatomical details. I mean, you see a little bit of his beard, but not too much. And that tells us that, that this is a young man, you know, not a full beard that would qualify him as an adult man. But at the same time, this is not a child. So that also suggests that what we are dealing with is almost like, you know, potentially an age group ritual, potentially kind of, you know, coming of age moment. So, you know, this dive must have been a very special dive.
- [29:52]
Dan Snow
I mean, I haven't seen any other scene like this in any Greek wall painting or Roman wall painting or anything like it. But talking about paint itself, I mean, so how was this actually created? Do we know about that?
- [30:04]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yes, the technique that was used is the fresco technique, which means that the stone was coated with plaster, with a very thin layer of plaster. I mean, this is very high quality painting. And while the plaster was still wet, the artist applied the pigments, the painting. So this technique was widespread in the ancient Mediterranean from the archaic period onwards.
- [30:32]
Dan Snow
Okay, the big question. So we've got this beautiful scene here found in a tomb. What do we think this scene represents?
- [30:40]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, that is a very good question. I mean, the tomb was discovered in 1968, over half a century ago, and scholars are still debating about its interpretation. Some scholars have suggested that this might be a sort of metaphor of, you know, the dive as a passage from life to afterlife. But more recent interpretations have tried to look at it as a representation of daily life or, you know, the life of the deceased. As I said, you know, something that would refer to his passage from youth to adulthood.
- [31:18]
Dan Snow
But the diver was not the only image found in this tomb.
- [31:22]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
So, as I said, you know, the deceased was surrounded by these figural paintings, and all around him we have a banquet scene, or more precisely, a symposium that unfolded. So a banquet to which only men participated.
- [31:39]
Dan Snow
The symposium was the drinking party of ancient Greek culture. Guests would recline on couches, listen to music, discuss politics and philosophy, drink wine out of rounded cups called kylo cat. One of the men shown reclining at the banquet is engaged in a drinking game called kotobos, where you threw the dregs of wine out of your cup towards a target elsewhere in the room. Another figure plays the lyre, another is a cupbearer. Very rarely do we see humans depicted in Greek wall paintings. And these frescoes speak to an influence from the neighboring Etruscans, the most powerful Italian people, at the beginning of the 5th century BC.
- [32:26]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
At the same time, you know, in the early 5th century BC, wall painting was at its height in the Etruscan world. And there are similarities between this tomb and Etruscan painted tombs, which reminds us again of the importance of cultural contacts between the Greeks and other populations living nearby.
- [32:45]
Dan Snow
So this could actually be showing the meetings that the Greeks who were here in southern Italy were having with other Italian peoples at that time. That's extraordinary.
- [32:52]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
I mean, the Greek art here in Paestum is different from, you know, Greek art elsewhere in the Mediterranean. And the reason is precisely that the popular population here interacted and sometimes there were conflicts as well with different cultures. I mentioned the Etruscans, and then the Lucanians also lived nearby, and other Italic populations. They created a very different, a very specific type of art. And in the banquet scene, we can see elements of this multiculturality.
- [33:23]
Dan Snow
These stunning wall paintings from the Tomb of the Diver are some of the most beautiful from anywhere in the Greek world, showing just how prosperous Paestum had become by the 5th century BC, and how prominent a place it was. But nothing lasts forever. 200 years after its foundation, Paestum, this idyllic Greek city gradually came under threat, not from abroad, beyond the seas, but from closer to home, from inland.
- [33:56]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
The main question about Pietim's relationships with the indigenous Italians is really centred on the Lucanians, which are a group that speaks a language called Oscan, which is the common language of Apennine and large parts of southern Italy, and seems to be culturally related to the Samnites who live in the Apennines. But by this stage, they were migrating south and developing their own very distinct cultural and ethnic identity. As they went, quite a lot of them move into Pistom territory, settle there, may be brought in as mercenaries. They have quite a ferocious military reputation. So by this stage, what we've got is a situation that the fall of Sybaris has created a bit of a power vacuum. At the end of the sixth century, you've got Lucanians sort of migrating south in the fifth, and Pistium is becoming much more ethnically mixed as a result.
- [34:48]
Dan Snow
As the fifth century went on, Lucanian power only increased and they began to pressure Greek cities all across southern Italy, including Paestum. By 400 BC, the scales had tipped and Paestum fell into the hands of the Lucanians. It doesn't seem to have been a violent takeover. No destruction layer has been found in the archaeology. Instead, there appears to have been an ethnographic shift with the Lucanians now outnumbering the Greeks in the city. For the people of Paestum, a new age in their story had begun, an age where Lucanian overlords ran the show.
- [35:41]
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- [36:54]
Dan Snow
For haughty Greeks elsewhere Seeing Paestum fall into the hands of these so called barbarians led them to deride the city. They saw this as the beginning of a dark age in Paestum story where Greek culture was suppressed and barbarity reigned supreme. One person who held to this view was a philosopher called Aristoxenus who hailed from Tarentum which remained free of Italian control. Remarking on Paestem's Lucanian takeover, he bemoaned the tragedy of the Greeks that lived. What happened to them is that they were originally Greeks but have turned into barbarians and their language has changed longer. With all their other practices, they continue today to celebrate only one Greek festival in which they get together and imitate their ancient way of speaking and behaving. After they wail about them with one another and cry their hearts out, they go back home. In Aristoxenus view the Greeks that lived alongside Lucanians at Paestum had forgotten everything that made them Greek, that made them them civilized and rational human beings. It's a damning portrayal, but it's also fictional because, contrary to what Aristoxenus would have us believe, the Greeks did not forget their beliefs. Greek culture at Paestum was not suppressed. In fact, the archaeology is revealing quite the opposite. Inscriptions and dedications show how the Greek Greek language endured alongside Oscan, the language that the Lucanians spoke. Paestum's prestigious Greek sanctuaries, including those three great temples we mentioned earlier, continued in use, as did the Greek cemeteries, as did their public buildings in the Agora. Lucanian elites may now have ruled Paestum, but they made no attempts to suppress Greek culture. They admired it. Let's take pottery as an example. Under Lucanian overlordship, Paestum produced some of the most beautiful vases from the ancient Mediterranean, made in the classically Greek red figure style. More than 2,000 of these pestan vases have been discovered. Many depict scenes of Greek mythology. There's one that depicts the wondrous birth of Helen of Troy, who hatched from an egg after Helen's mother, Queen Leda of Sparta, had been seduced by Zeus, king of the gods, in the guise of a swan. Another shows the Phoenician Princess Europa being abducted from her homeland in the eastern Mediterranean by Zeus in the guise of a bull. We even have the names of vase makers surviving. Asata was one celebrity name, Python was another. Both left their signatures on their vases, ensuring their names have survived to the present day. The archaeology shows just how wrong Aristoxenus was. Greek culture was flourishing at Paestum. The Lucanian elites admired it. Many of these elaborate vases were found in Lucanian tombs. But the Lucanians also had their own rich culture with a big emphasis on the warrior. And it's at Paestum that we see a fascinating blend of the two in some stunning wall paintings. More than 400 wall paintings dating to the Lucanian period have been found from tombs around Paestum. Many are stored in the museum storerooms, a Sistine chapel of ancient Lucanian art.
- [40:38]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Welcome to our museum store rooms.
- [40:40]
Dan Snow
Whoa. No way. This is an archaeologist's dream, isn't it? Look at this.
- [40:48]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, it's a bit of a hidden treasure. Our storerooms are about 1400 square meters, and you see they're completely packed with these gems and these gems.
- [40:58]
Dan Snow
These are just more of these kind of these great slabs and wall paintings from Paestum's long history.
- [41:03]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, we've got hundreds of painted slabs that Come from cemeteries all around the city of Paestum. And most of them are so called Lucanian tombs. So they date to the 4th century BC.
- [41:17]
Dan Snow
Look at that. It's a weird creature there as well.
- [41:19]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
I know. That's a demon, right? It's one of these fantastic creatures that populate these, you know, very lively scenes.
- [41:27]
Dan Snow
Their imagination. Yeah. How many? So some 400, did you say?
- [41:30]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, around 400 slabs. Yeah. In addition to some chamber painted tombs as well.
- [41:38]
Dan Snow
As you walk past row after row of these wall paintings, you notice much more of a focus on fighting. Tiziana took me to two particularly interesting slabs. One showing two warriors fighting with swords, spears and shields. The other showing a rider, elegantly dressed and carrying a war trophy, a pole with a flag attached. So what's so interesting about this one? I mean, it is striking, but why?
- [42:07]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, when you look at both these slabs, what you can see is a very important feature of Lucanian culture, of the Lucanian people in particular. Here you realize how important it was for the Lucanian aristocracy, for Lucanian men to be celebrated as warriors, to be commemorated for their militaristic virtue.
- [42:28]
Dan Snow
So militaristic scene, I mean, and this straight away, it's so different to the tomb of the diver earlier in the type of scene that it's depicting, as you say, this is much more showing themselves in the heat of battle, fighting.
- [42:40]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah. So you go from a banquet scene, from a sympotic scene which really commemorates the role of the individual within the polis, within the community. What you're looking at here instead is how important it was for the Lucanians to commemorate their victories in battle. For example. So here you see, for example, two warriors fighting. Okay, great. But over there, what you have is a rider. You see he's coming back, he's on his horse and what he's holding is a spear and you see a trophy. So he's coming back from battle.
- [43:16]
Dan Snow
That flag, that little flag thing that he's carrying, very triumphant.
- [43:20]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Exactly. So he comes back and so that shows him as a victorious rider and in a way also overcoming not just the enemy, but also overcoming death.
- [43:30]
Dan Snow
And that scene right there. So he's upright on his horse and he's carrying that flag, standard trophy on the spear, as you say. And I've seen similar depictions on that on other wall paintings. So was that the common way that these people, they liked to portray themselves as triumphant victors returning from a war?
- [43:47]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, yes, These painted tombs, they had a set of recurring iconographies that you have over and over Again, in these tombs and the iconography of the Return of the Rider. That's how we refer to it.
- [44:00]
Dan Snow
Return of the Rider.
- [44:02]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, the Return of the Rider. Very mysterious. Right. But that's a very popular one, and it's popular for men. Then you have a completely different set of iconographies for women. So they're very much different in terms of gender.
- [44:14]
Dan Snow
And these two scenes. I'm guessing there were other types of scenes depicted in these tombs too?
- [44:19]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, our Lucanian painted tombs had a wide range of iconographies, very lively scenes, and I would like to show you a few of them.
- [44:28]
Dan Snow
Well, I'm not going to say no in this absolute archaeological treasure trove that you have here.
- [44:33]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
And I've got one in particular that I want to show you here. There we have it. Let me see if I can pull it out.
- [44:40]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Good luck.
- [44:41]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
There we go. Yeah.
- [44:42]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Wow.
- [44:43]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Now you're gonna have to tell me what you think about it.
- [44:46]
Dan Snow
Wow. Stunning. You know me, it's not bad. It's not bad. Not bad.
- [44:49]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
You know, I kind of expected a more, you know, enthusiastic reaction.
- [44:53]
Dan Snow
It's incredible. What Tiziana has just pulled out is a large rectangular slab depicting an ancient Lucanian chariot race. There are two chariots on opposite ends of the painting, each pulled by two horses. One set of horses have red manes, the others have yellow. The charioteers steer them with reins hunched over on very light chariots. A majestic Doric column is painted in the middle of the scene with both chariot teams racing towards it. So what can I see? So I can see chariots and a column in the centre too?
- [45:32]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Yeah.
- [45:33]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
What we have here is a chariot race, and that was another very common iconography and it was probably linked to funerary games. That's a very important topic in the context of these ancient tomb paintings. I mean, the funerary ceremony was crucial to understand the role that these paintings had.
- [45:53]
Dan Snow
So do we think many of the scenes, not just the chariots, but also, let's say, sometimes the warriors? I mean, all those things. Do we think many of the scenes that are depicted on these tombs do have a relevance to the funerary games that would have occurred, accompanied the burying of that individual?
- [46:06]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, you have to think that these tombs, and therefore the paintings would have been visible during the funerary ceremony? They would have been visible to the community and probably they were also made during the funerary ceremony.
- [46:20]
Dan Snow
So not in a workshop far away. These were made on site, basically. Do we think.
- [46:24]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Yeah, we have certain clues There are certain things that suggest that the paintings themselves were executed during the ceremony. So you would have had the artists, you know, inside the tomb painting them. So the painting is not just a decoration of the tomb, it's actually part of the funerary ceremony. It's part of funerary ideology.
- [46:44]
Dan Snow
Do we think this whole tradition of these beautifully colored wall paintings, do we think there is an influence from the Greeks here too? And then the Lucanians, they see it, but then they put their own twist on it with their own cultural ideas. I mean, what do we think? Do we think there is a link with the Greeks of Paestum here too?
- [47:01]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, yes. I mean, you must remember that the city in the 4th century BC did not just have a Lucanian population. The Greeks were there. And the connection, the interaction between the Greeks, the Lucanians and other populations, it was crucial to then define this new language, this new artistic language. So, yeah, definitely there was influence, but they still preserved specific features that speak, you know, this different Lucanian language.
- [47:30]
Dan Snow
I must admit, the Lucanians compared to other peoples, let's say, like the Romans, even the Etruscans. I mean, I haven't heard of them as much, I'm guessing. Are things like this invaluable for trying to learn more about this particular people who many of us haven't heard much of at all?
- [47:47]
Dr. Tiziana D'Angelo
Well, the Lucanians, unlike the Greeks or the Romans, have not left us any, you know, literary texts, for example, we have some inscriptions. But these, these tombs, these paintings are sort of visual book and they offer us some very important glimpses in the life and culture of the Lucanians. So, yes, the material culture is absolutely key to understand this population.
- [48:10]
Dan Snow
Too often we can think of ancient Italy as just being Roman. What coming to a place like Paestum makes you realise is just how many different cultures lived and interacted with each other on this peninsula throughout antiquity. At Paestum, you can see clear connections between the Greeks, the Lucanians and the Etruscans. Elsewhere in Magna Graecia, you can see Greek contact with other local Italian peoples. Samnites, Apulians, Brutians, Messapians, Campanians. Showing how there was a rich mosaic of different powers in southern Italy before the Romans took over. Speaking of which, the Lucanians ruled Paestum for just over a hundred years. But in the early third century bc, great change was coming to southern Italy. A new power had risen to the fore in central Italy and was now looking to expand. Yep, these were the Romans.
- [49:11]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
The history of the 4th century BC is really a seminal one. For Rome, it's the period in which Rome really starts its push to control the rest of Italy. So right at the beginning of the 4th century, Rome is really rather in the doldrums. It gets sacked by the Gauls, it has to rebuild. It's not in a very happy state. But by the middle of the century, it embarks on a whole series of wars in Italy, which ultimately end up by the early third century with it conquering the whole of Italy. Polybius famously says that it conquered the whole of Italy within a very short period of time. And this is a tremendous achievement of ancient sources theme, this as a series of coherent wars against the Samnites. Livy says rather grandly that, you know, this is going to determine whether Samnite or Roman shall rule Italy. It really does see it as a sort of complete showdown with the Samnites.
- [50:06]
Dan Snow
We're not going to get into the complexities of the Samnite wars. Now that's a topic for another podcast or several. But Rome's ultimate victory against the Samnites paved the way for their expansion into southern Italy. Now, this put them into conflict with the Greek cities led by Tarentum. Yet these cities lacked the strength to oppose the Romans on their own. In recent decades, they had grown used to requesting outside assistance. Warlords from mainland Greece keen to expand their power into rich and fertile Magna Graecia. The policy hadn't enjoyed the greatest success in the past, but in 281 BC, with the Romans knocking on their door, the Tarentines tried again. They looked to a new rising warlord on the Greek Pyrrhus, King of Molossia, leader of the Epirotes in northwest Greece. A relative of Alexander the Great and a charismatic, proven commander with a mighty army centred around professional pike phalanxes, shock cavalry and Indian war elephants. Pyrrhus crossed the small strait that divides Greece and Italy and led the resistance against the Romans. He gained early success winning a victory against the Romans at Heraclea, after which it's likely that Paestum joined his side. Samnites, Lucas, Lucanians and Greeks were united under Pyrrhus banner against Rome. Another victory followed for Pyrrhus the next year at Asculum, but this one was less clear cut. Pyrrhus lost a lot of his key troops with him supposedly remarking at the end of the day, another such victory and I am undone, effectively. Another victory that costly and I'll lose the war. This is where we get the phrase Pyrrhic victory from Pyrrhus would have expected the Romans to give in after two defeats. But the Romans had other ideas. Like the Hydra, they raised new forces to fight Pyrrhus and the tables started to turn. A few years and a disastrous Sicilian expedition later, Pyrrhus brought the Romans to battle once more in southern Italy, this time at a place called Beneventum. There, the Romans either defeated Pyrrhus or brought him to a stalemate. The result was the Pyrrhus, who many had likened to Alexander the Great, abandoned his Italian venture. With Pyrrhus gone, the writing was on the wall for cities like Paestum. The Romans took control of the city soon after, in around 273 BC, marking the beginning of the next stage in Paestum's story. The Romans established a colony at Paestum and were quick to leave their mark on the city. They built a forum as well as baths, law courts, a treasury, marketplaces and more, building over Paestum's original Greek heart of the city, its meeting place, its agra and main political building, its ecclesiasterion. In the process, like the Greeks and the Lucanians, the Romans realised that Pestum was a key city in the southern part of Italy, helping them solidify their control over this area. When the great Carthaginian general Hannibal came knocking in the late third century bc, during his decades long campaign in Italy, Paestum didn't switch sides. They remained a Roman ally. A wise decision in hindsight, given Rome's ultimate victory in that war. Over time, new, noticeably Roman buildings would be built at Paestum, including lavish townhouses and an amphitheatre for gladiatorial games. It remained an important city under Roman rule, famous for its sweet smelling roses that flower twice a year, according to the Roman poet Virgil. And its great temples remained in use. There was almost certainly for centuries a Greek population that remained at Paestum. But Paestum did ultimately decline. More than a millennia later. In the Middle Ages, flooding and climate shifts turned Paestum into a malarial swamp. The site was abandoned and its magnificent temples fell into obscurity for centuries, marking the spirit spot of a once mighty city. Only in the 18th century was Paestum's story revived. Since then, Paestum and its great temples have continued to inspire, from painters and young aristocrats on their grand tours in the Georgian period, to allied soldiers invading Italy in World War II, to filming the 1963 Sword and Sandal epic Jason and the Argonauts, to people visiting the site today.
- [55:03]
Dr. Catherine Lomas
Peacedom is very much a special site today. I mean, the reason why is, I think partly its visual impact. You know, it is in this very low lying area and as you approach it from the railway station or as you pass it on the train, you know, you see this vast plain with these three absolutely magnificent Doric temples and it is really quite eye popping. Now that it is visible again, it is this really very visually striking sight, One which gives you a tremendous sense of what these cities were and how important they were.
- [55:36]
Dan Snow
When you think of ancient Italy, you naturally think of Rome. But coming to a site like Pesta makes you realize that the Romans didn't live in a vacuum. They shared Italy with a huge range of extraordinary cultures. Etruscans, Samnites, Lucanians and of course the Greeks. And Paestum is the greatest place where you can see that today, thanks to the amazing work of experts like Catherine and Tiziana, we're still learning more about Paestum and the people who lived in this city. We're learning more about the Greeks of Magna Graecia full stop. Their interactions with the local peoples, their lasting impacts on the ancient Mediterranean world. Their incredible art and architecture that has stood the test of time, epitomised by Paestum's magnificent temples. I'll end this episode with a poem written by Cornish poet Nicholas Michel almost 200 years ago after he visited Paestum and laid eyes on its majestic ruins. But Paestum's giant temples lift thine eyes in all their stern and columned grandeur Rise. Pause, traveller, pause. Say, doth not wonder thrill thy creeping veins and o' er thy bosom fill Wrestling with time the hoary brethren stand Superbly graceful and severely grand Their style of rival countries seem seems to speak in strength Egyptian and in beauty Greek Built ere Minerva's shrine on Athens gazed Or by wild Tiber Rome's rude walls were raised. 3000 years these structures fail to bow. Massive when Christ was born and massive now. Gaze on the architrave's majestic length the deep ranged fluted pillars Titan strength, the low wide pediment the strong walled cell where altars burned and gods were wont to dwell and say no more in poor and narrow pride Art lives to day, but rather art hath died Confess that taste beholds on Pestum's plain what modern skill might strive to match in vain. Thank you for listening to this special Ancients episode, all about the ancient wonder that is Paestum. Hopefully this has inspired you to add the site to your ancient history. Site's buckets list and you won't be disappointed. If you want to see all the things we've talked about and so much more, then do go and check out my latest documentary on History Hit, which explores the story of the city and its people, from its Greek beginnings to its final takeover by the Romans. We'll put a link to the documentary in the show Notes. Thank you once again for listening. If you enjoyed this special episode, please remember to follow the Ancients on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Now. That really helps us and you'll be doing us a big favor if you'd also be kind enough to leave us a rating as well, where we'd really appreciate that. Don't forget, you can also sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my new documentary on Plestum with a new release every week. Simply sign up@historyhit.com subscribe. That's all from me. I'll see you in the next episode.
- [59:35]
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- [60:07]
Dan Snow
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