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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Noise: A Human History: Babble

David Hendy listens to the babble of ancient Rome.

Rome wasn't just the largest city in the ancient world - it was also the loudest. David Hendy listens to its babble and reveals where rich Romans went to get some peace.

Episode eight of a thirty-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

As the Roman empire grew, the city at its heart sucked in exotic goods, tastes, smells, colours, and - of course - sounds from all around the world. Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex asks what we would have heard if we'd visited the city in its heyday and walked its streets - passageways so narrow it was possible for upstairs dwellers to reach out and touch their neighbour opposite.

Bellowing animals, street-hawkers, the babble of a dozen languages, many now dead. Some inhabitants loved this sensory overload, but others ran from it. Where could a rich Roman go to get some peace?


Series producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4.

Babble

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Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Noise: A Human History

Documentaries

Factual: History

Prof David Hendy on the role of sound and listening in 100,000 years of human history.

Prof David Hendy presents a 30-part series exploring the role of sound, and listening, in the past 100,000 years of human history.

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Noise: A Human History, Babble

Rome was the largest - and loudest city in the ancient world. David Hendy listens to its babble and reveals where rich Romans went to get some peace.

As the Roman empire grew, the city at its heart sucked in exotic goods, tastes, smells, colours, and - of course - sounds from all around the world. Professor David Hendy of the University of Sussex asks what we would have heard if we'd visited the city in its heyday and walked its streets - passageways so narrow it was possible for upstairs dwellers to reach out and touch their neighbour opposite.

Bellowing animals, street-hawkers, the babble of a dozen languages, many now dead. Some inhabitants loved this sensory overload, but others ran from it. Where could a rich Roman go to get some peace?

30-part series made in collaboration with the British Library Sound Archive.

Producer: Matt Thompson.
A Rockethouse production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.

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Noise: A Human History

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