Lost Treasures of Rome

Experts unearth new truths about Hadrian's wall and Nero's palace, discover underground frescos, underwater mosaics, and recover part of a warship.

To understand who the gladiators were and discover the secret of their appeal, archaeologists scale the façade of Rome's famous Colosseum for restoration, decipher warrior tombstones in Ephesus, and unearth an extraordinary lost amphitheater in ancient Mastaura in western Turkey.

In 79 AD, the nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii in millions of tonnes of ash and debris. Now, archaeologists work to uncover the dark side of this idyllic Roman city by finding the room of an enslaved person. They excavate in the city block Insula 12, the villa Civita Giuliana, the House of the Vettii, and the Chaste Lovers Insula. Discoveries are painting an extraordinary picture of Pompeii, a place of social mobility where enslaved people can gain their freedom and move up in society.

Archaeologists reveal the stunning new discovery of a Nero megastructure once thought to only exist in ancient texts and legend. The Theatre of Nero was his private theatre erected in Rome between AD 53 and AD 68.

New discoveries uncover how the Romans ruled the seas for four centuries. Archeologists dive a small cargo ship wrecked off Sukosan, Croatia, from the 1st Century CE; test two replica small river patrol boats in Gunzenhausen, Germany, from the 2nd and 4th Centuries CE; and explore the Roman harbor at Puteoli, Italy, the largest transit port for Rome at the beginning of the 1st Century CE. 

Archaeologists shed new light on how Rome conquered the East by excavating Capitolias, a buried Roman city in Beyt Ras, Jordan; diving a sunken Nabatean temple in the Roman harbor of Puteoli in Italy; and exploring Petra, the ancient Nabatean capital city annexed by Rome in modern Jordan. 

Archaeologists are excavating the vast frontier of the Roman Empire, investigating the battle to keep it safe at Vindolanda along Hadrian's Wall in northern England, Carnuntum in Austria along the River Danube, and Gunzenhausen in southern Germany. 

Archaeologists embark on new digs in Pompeii to unravel the stories of the people that lived and died here. The team races against the clock to unearth a sacrificial skull, uncover clues from a tomb, examine the mummified body of a curiously wealthy freed slave, and venture into stiflingly narrow tunnels beneath the central bathhouse.  

How did Rome rise to dominate so much of the ancient world? Off the coast of Sicily, investigators discover traces of a crucial naval battle. They haul a long-lost battleship relic to the surface using divers, an underwater robot, and a crane. In Terracina, south of Rome, archaeologists dig inside an ancient mountaintop temple. In Carthage, Tunisia, clues reveal how one deadly rivalry tilted the scales of power in favor of Rome.

How did the Colosseum - an arena for bloody gladiatorial battles - become the greatest symbol of the Roman Empire? Archaeologists venture into the Colosseum's ruins and launch digs across the Empire to hunt for clues. As teams descend into hidden tunnels and unearth long-lost amphitheaters in Tuscany and Britain, they piece together the surprising truth about Rome's iconic Colosseum.

Buried beneath Rome lies a forgotten treasure: the Golden House - a vast palace built in the first century AD. It was the most extravagant construction in the history of Rome. Why was it buried? And what can its fate reveal about its builder – Rome's most notorious emperor – Nero? As experts race to save the remains of the Golden House, archaeologists uncover new clues to its fate and its connection to Nero's reputation.

Hadrian's Wall is the biggest structure the Romans ever built. Stretching 73 miles across Britain, it once defined the northern edge of the greatest empire the world had seen. Now experts investigate the Wall, its forts, gatehouses, and garrison towns to reveal how civilization and culture grew on Rome's wild frontier. Their surprising discoveries show what life – and death - were like on the dynamic and ever-changing edge of the empire.

The deadly volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii in AD79 also claimed another victim: Herculaneum. Positioned closer to the Vesuvius crater, this seaside town was covered in ash five times as thick as Pompeii yet miraculously preserved even better. Now, the discovery of an intact skeleton here, the first excavated in 25 years, helps investigators piece together the final hours of Herculaneum and unravel why Vesuvius stuck so violently here.