BBC Radio 4 Extra

Noise: A Human History: Babble

Babble

Noise: A Human History

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

David Hendy listens to the babble of ancient Rome.

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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