After the death of Augustus, the succeeding Julio Claudians kept the empire going until Emperor Nero's mismanagement of the state came to an end in 68 CE. After a full year of chaos, a new dynasty came to rule Rome: The Flavians. Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian, would rule Rome until almost the end of the first century, and they introduced such remarkable buildings as the great Flavian amphitheatre, the Colosseum. It was in the reign of Vespasian's son Titus that one of the greatest disasters befell the Roman empire, but it didn't come from war. >> Pompeii was a city of about 165 acres and a population of 10 to 20 thousand. That's small by modern standards, yet Pompeii had everything an ancient city needed. It had a forum, which was the downtown major civic square, which was a monumentalized urban space with a grand colonnade around it, a major temple at the north end, civic buildings around the south side, a sanctuary nearby, everything that you would want in terms of the religious, commercial and civic part of a Roman town. There were major streets coming into the forum. All the streets in the city were paved. There were two theaters, a large open one, a smaller covered theater. There was an amphitheatre and so Pompeii was an entertainment area, a place that attracted people from the areas around it. All the streets were paved and there were infrastructure systems that we recognize even in modern cities. There were traffic control arrangements that don't survive in any visual way but based on wear patterns that we see on the streets and the curbstones, we know that traffic moved in certain directions. There were infrastructural systems for water. Water was brought into the city by aqueduct. It arrived at a certain point. It was distributed throughout the city. You had fountains, water would enter the private end houses. And so there was a high level of sophistication. There were bathing establishments that received the water, and there were hygienic areas with public latrines and many houses had their own private toilets within them. So Pompeii was many things. It was a place where many wealthy people lived and had their political careers, but it was very much a commercial center. It was strategically located within the region of Campania so that it was at the intersection of trade routes, and from early on it exploited that position. So we should see Pompeii as a commercial center and an entertainment center or venue that attracted people from the areas around. [MUSIC] >> Already devastated by a series of earthquakes in 62 CE, Pompeii had not yet fully recovered when the main disaster struck. It fell victim to a volcanic eruption that covered the town with ash as thousands fled. The town, since its rediscovery in the 15th century has inspired novelists, historians and even makers of horror films. Volcanic fury of Vesuvius. From the ravaged city of Pompeii, across 2000 years, comes one of the strangest mysteries of all time. The Curse of the Faceless Man. [MUSIC] >> Aah!.