Lost Treasures of Rome - Season 2

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.