Being Roman with Mary Beard

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From a slave to an emperor, Mary Beard reveals the real people of the Roman Empire.

Beneath the starched togas and the pungent fug of gladiator sweat there are real Romans waiting to be discovered. Mary Beard uncovers fascinating untold stories from the Empire.

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Being Roman with Mary Beard: 4. What We Lost in the Fire

6: Love in the Borderlands

4. What We Lost in the Fire

BBC Radio 4 - Being Roman with Mary Beard, 4. What We Lost in the Fire

Join the greatest doctor of his age as Rome's great fire threatens his life's work.

From official team doctor to the gladiators to personal GP to emperors, Galen had a talent for medicine and social climbing. But could his life's work be wiped out by fire?

For an aspiring medic it was a dream assignment- official team doctor to the gladiators of Pergamon.  The top names in the arena were worth a lot of money and it was up to young Galen to keep them alive.  Slash and stab wounds had to be closed quickly and cleanly and diets devised to maintain the perfect balance of fat and muscle for the finest fighters.  It gave Galen unrivalled insight into the workings of the human body, knowledge he would use as he went on to treat emperors and write the textbooks that would guide doctors for hundreds of years.

Mary Beard traces the career of Rome's greatest medic from its highs to its lowest of lows- the moment when a great fire swept through Rome, threatening to wipe out his life's work.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Expert Contributors: Helen King, Open University and Matthew Nicholls, Oxford University

Special thanks to the British Museum and the Parco Archeolgico del Colosseo, Roma

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Being Roman with Mary Beard

4. What We Lost in the Fire

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