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00:00On the shores of the Aegean Sea three and a half thousand years ago, a new civilisation emerged,
00:06one that more than any other laid the foundations of our own society.
00:10When you think of the ancient Greeks, you think of democracy, theatre, music, mathematics.
00:15But what appeals to me is their sheer ingenuity.
00:19Join me and the team as we bring ancient Greek technology back to life.
00:24Master craftsman Marty Jopson will be attempting to recreate the first ever robot.
00:29Quite a beast, this machine.
00:30We'll be trying out a 2,000-year-old death ray.
00:34And I'll be testing some other deadly weapons.
00:40And roving reporter Hermione Coburn will be off to Greece,
00:43visiting the very places where history was made.
00:47One of these bolts passes directly beneath the Temple of Apollo.
01:13By its height in the 5th century BC, the world of ancient Greece was based on hundreds of city-states
01:20scattered all around the Mediterranean.
01:22In the words of the philosopher Plato,
01:25like frogs around a pond, we Greeks have settled on the shores of this sea.
01:30And where they settled, they built temples and cities and carried out great feats of engineering.
01:36Hermione has gone in search of one of their most extraordinary achievements.
01:45My journey took me on a voyage across the Aegean to the island of Samos, just off the coast of
01:51Turkey.
01:55In 530 BC, this isolated little island was a Greek stronghold facing the hostile Persian Empire on the mainland.
02:05Just look how close it is to its neighbour, modern Turkey.
02:10The people of Samos were worried that if the Persians invaded,
02:14they'd be cut off from their water supply and would have to surrender or die of thirst.
02:23That's because, in ancient times, the spring which supplied the town's water
02:27was outside the city walls and vulnerable to attack.
02:32So the people of Samos decided to try to pipe the water into town as it is today.
02:37But there was one big problem.
02:39There was a mountain in the way.
02:43Mount Castro.
02:45240 metres high and 1,000 metres wide.
02:51There was only one thing for it.
02:53Either move the town or dig a tunnel through the mountain,
02:57which is what they decided to do.
02:59This is the entrance to the Eupelinus Tunnel,
03:02named after the engineer who built it.
03:05It's one of the greatest feats of engineering in the ancient world.
03:18The tunnel was only wide enough to allow two to dig at any one time.
03:23And remember, this was in a time before power tools.
03:26The only power was muscle.
03:28It was a really dangerous job because this part of the tunnel
03:31is actually going through an area of weaker rock
03:34and you can see how the whole thing has had to be reinforced.
03:38It was such an arduous undertaking.
03:40It's not surprising that they didn't proceed very quickly.
03:43It's estimated that they would have tunneled between 12 and 15 centimetres a day,
03:49which is only that far,
03:51which would have amounted to only 50 metres a year.
03:54And back in 550 BC, that was a luxury that they just couldn't afford.
03:59To have any chance of defending themselves against the Persians,
04:03the people of Samos needed to complete the tunnel as quickly as possible.
04:08There was nothing they could do from this end
04:10because using more labourers simply widens the tunnel.
04:14It doesn't actually make you proceed any quicker.
04:16But fortunately, Eupilinus was a very practical man.
04:22So he decided to start digging another tunnel
04:24from the other side of the mountain.
04:26And this is a stroke of genius.
04:31This is the point where the two tunnels meet in the middle of the mountain.
04:36Somehow, Eupilinus knew the tunnels would meet,
04:38which is amazing,
04:40given that he had no modern technology like lasers to guide him.
04:44The question is, how on earth did Eupilinus manage it?
04:48It's a very big mountain and a very small tunnel,
04:51and there was every chance of the teams missing completely in the middle.
04:54Well, we've decided to investigate,
04:55so I've got my own Mount Castro here, an enormous mountain.
05:00Unfortunately, we couldn't find any ancient Greek tunnellers,
05:03so we've chosen some ancient history students.
05:06Here's Marty with the girls' team.
05:08Yay!
05:09And over on the south side, we've got Tracey with the boys' team.
05:12Yay!
05:13Unfortunately, the mountain is too high for them to see one another,
05:16so they can't tell which way to tunnel,
05:18and we're going to have to find another way to do it.
05:20OK, you guys, start, get your pipe going in.
05:23Here, we've started a hole for you in the mountain,
05:25and if you'd like to tunnel straight through,
05:27you heard them roaring over the other side,
05:29go in that general direction.
05:31Now, you chaps,
05:32if you would also like to start tunnelling straight towards those girls,
05:36here you are, into this hole,
05:37see if you can meet them in the middle.
05:40The question is, can they do it by pure chance,
05:43or guesswork, or dead reckoning?
05:45Well, there was lots of chance to miss in the mountain,
05:48even when they started tunnelling.
05:49The question is, will they meet?
05:51We've got a door in our mountain,
05:53and I can find out.
05:54Have a look at this.
05:55Ah!
05:56They're completely hopeless.
05:58Look, miles apart.
05:59They could tunnel forever, and they'd never meet.
06:01OK, chaps, take your pipes out.
06:03What they need is geometry.
06:08The most important thing was to measure right angles,
06:12and to do it accurately.
06:13And this was the sort of equipment they used.
06:15A post which they would normally just stick in the ground,
06:18rather than having a base.
06:19And then, across on top, you see,
06:21four arms, wooden arms,
06:22with a string hanging from each end,
06:24and a weight.
06:25Now, you need to stop them swinging,
06:28and then line up.
06:29This is your first line,
06:31along which you want to measure a right angle.
06:33And then you know that that is a right angle.
06:37So you line up the next two strings,
06:39and there you've got an exact right angle,
06:41between here and here,
06:42simply because the lengths of these arms are the same.
06:46Right, now then.
06:49Starting from the first entrance,
06:51I'm going to work my way round the mountain,
06:54marking out right angles,
06:55until I reach the second entrance.
06:57OK, team, could you give me your pipe,
06:59and let me put it just into the mouth of the tunnel,
07:03which you have already...
07:05OK, stop.
07:05Already started digging.
07:07Marty has measured this angle for me, OK?
07:09The hypotenuse of the triangle along the pipe,
07:13along the line of the tunnel,
07:14and this touching here.
07:17It's the angle between the line of the tunnel
07:19and my first construction line.
07:22Now, all I have to do is measure angle A,
07:25where the tunnel enters the mountain,
07:26and then make sure that angle B,
07:28at the other entrance,
07:30is the same as A.
07:31And with luck,
07:32the tunnel should meet in the middle.
07:34So that's the angle we're measuring.
07:36Yes.
07:36Right.
07:37If you have that in,
07:37that should hold the angle level.
07:40OK, and try and keep your pipe horizontal.
07:43That's the tricky thing.
07:44OK, hold it, hold it.
07:45Don't do anything.
07:46I'll measure the other side.
07:49And now,
07:50go in,
07:52touching your peg,
07:53touching your peg on that side.
07:55What chances are we meeting in the middle?
07:57Tunnel faster.
07:59Tunnel faster.
07:59Ah, it's going close.
08:01It's close.
08:02Go on.
08:03Fantastic!
08:03It's almost a perfect match.
08:06I reckon we might even get water through there,
08:07without even connecting them or anything.
08:09I've never known anything amazing.
08:11Congratulations, boys.
08:12Congratulations, girls.
08:14Now, I can get my drink.
08:17And at last,
08:18water is flowing right through Mount Castro.
08:21How are we doing in the middle here?
08:23Oh, bit of a leak,
08:25but not too bad.
08:26Are we getting any out the other end?
08:28Not yet.
08:28Not yet.
08:29Poise.
08:30Tongues hanging out.
08:31Thirsty.
08:32More water.
08:34Hey!
08:35Hooray!
08:36Hey, we've got water.
08:38Fantastic.
08:39And that was how the people of Samos
08:41got their beautiful spring water
08:43from the other side of the mountain.
08:46One of Greece's most famous sons
08:48was born on Samos
08:49and helped to make the island famous,
08:51a lad called Pythagoras.
08:54He's remembered for his theorem
08:56that in any right-angled triangle,
08:58the square on the hypotenuse
09:00is equal to the sum of the squares
09:02on the other two sides.
09:04Pythagoras was a great lover of music.
09:06He probably invented
09:07the musical scale we use today.
09:09And he also invented the idea
09:11of the harmony of the spheres,
09:13the fact that the gaps
09:14between the planets
09:16roughly correspond to the gaps
09:18between the notes
09:18on the musical scale.
09:20Now, how did he come
09:21to this great love of music?
09:23Well, the story goes
09:24that one day he was wandering
09:26past a blacksmith shop
09:27and he heard the hammers
09:28ringing on the anvils
09:30as they made horseshoes
09:31or nails or whatever it was.
09:33And he noticed
09:34that there were different notes
09:36coming out.
09:39And at first he thought
09:40that was because
09:40some of the blacksmiths
09:41were stronger or bigger
09:42than the others.
09:43But he investigated
09:44and found it was actually
09:45to do with the sizes
09:46of the anvils.
09:47So he went off
09:48and did a whole lot more experiments,
09:50particularly with stretched strings.
09:52Now, I'm not pretending
09:54he had a guitar.
09:54I've just brought my own along
09:55because it's easier.
09:56Suppose I simply twang
09:57the bottom string
09:59and then I make it
10:00half the length
10:01by fretting it down there,
10:04I get a higher note.
10:06And in fact,
10:06those notes sound
10:07fairly similar
10:10even though they're
10:11very different.
10:12And it's because,
10:13actually,
10:13the higher note
10:15is twice the frequency.
10:16It's what we would call
10:17the octave of the lower note.
10:19And it was by doing
10:21these experiments
10:21that he set up
10:23the musical scale.
10:24And that was one
10:25of the great steps forward
10:27in the whole of the history
10:27of science
10:28because he was the first man
10:30to try and apply mathematics
10:32to the natural world.
10:37Believe it or not,
10:39the Greeks have been credited
10:40with the first ever use
10:42of compressed air,
10:43an invention which has
10:44hundreds of applications today,
10:46especially if you love diving
10:48like me.
10:50The story goes,
10:51it was the Greek love of music
10:52that led to its development.
10:55In the 3rd century BC,
10:57a young chap called Tisibios
10:58was helping out
10:59in his dad's barber shop
11:01in Alexandria.
11:02Now, his dad liked
11:03to hold up a mirror
11:04behind the customer's heads
11:05to show them
11:05how beautiful the haircut was,
11:06but it was a very heavy mirror
11:08and Tisibios had the bright idea
11:10of counterbalancing it.
11:11So he tied a bit of string
11:13to the mirror,
11:13took it over a pulley
11:14in the ceiling
11:15and brought it down
11:15to a lead weight.
11:16But then he had the problem
11:17of the lead weight
11:18swinging around,
11:19bashing customers on the head.
11:20So he hid it in a tube,
11:22and I've got a tube here
11:23and a weight,
11:23and he found that
11:24when he dropped the weight
11:25down the tube,
11:25it often made a funny noise.
11:27A bit like that.
11:29And that allegedly
11:30gave him the idea
11:31of inventing the organ.
11:33Tracy,
11:33do you think this is
11:34a likely story?
11:35Well, why not?
11:36He was a very clever
11:37and inventive young man.
11:38He came up with all sorts
11:39of devices in his lifetime,
11:40one of which,
11:41and it seems probably
11:42was an early one,
11:43is the organ,
11:43whereby you have pipes
11:45of different lengths
11:45that emit different notes
11:47and thereby you can make
11:48numerous sounds.
11:49OK, so you've just
11:50got to blow air
11:50through all these pipes.
11:52Yes, but it's kind of handy
11:53if you can have
11:54a continuous supply.
11:55OK, well,
11:56if you can give me
11:57a continuous supply of air,
11:58I'm not a great musician,
11:59but I'll have a go to tune.
12:01One, two, three, go.
12:07I'm sorry, Adam,
12:08I just can't...
12:08You're running out.
12:09I am running out of puff.
12:10So the big problem,
12:11then, is a continuous supply
12:12of air.
12:13Did he crack it?
12:13He certainly did.
12:14He invented a device
12:15to get over this problem.
12:16OK, well,
12:17I've asked Marty
12:18to reproduce it,
12:19so shall we see
12:20how he's getting on?
12:20Let's.
12:23Now, Marty,
12:24can you give us
12:25a continuous supply of air?
12:26I think so.
12:27How?
12:28Right, what I've got here
12:29is a device
12:30with three chambers, OK?
12:31OK.
12:32And they're all, what,
12:32two-thirds full of water,
12:34so that's the water level
12:34there at the moment.
12:35Now, the critical thing
12:36is this central chamber
12:37has a lid on it.
12:39Yeah.
12:39And in the top of the lid
12:40is this little hole there.
12:41And if you plug your tube
12:43into that hole
12:44and jam it in right down,
12:45that chamber there
12:46will take the place
12:47of Tracy's lungs, OK?
12:49Ah, so this is our air supply.
12:50This is your air supply,
12:51so we don't need
12:51your lungs anymore, Tracy.
12:53And the crucial thing is
12:54I start pumping air,
12:55it goes into the central chamber.
12:57Yes.
12:57And the air's coming
12:58from this foot pump
12:59up and over and down
13:00and round the bottom.
13:01And you can see
13:02as I pump the air in,
13:04the air in here,
13:05as this volume increases,
13:06it pushes down on the water,
13:08which pushes the water
13:10out through holes
13:11at the bottom
13:11and up into the side compartment.
13:12Ah, OK, right.
13:14OK.
13:15Now, what that means,
13:16of course,
13:16is that we have
13:16a height difference
13:18in water here.
13:19Yeah.
13:19And it's this extra lid
13:20of water here
13:21that's pushing down,
13:22which is pushing up,
13:23which is compressing...
13:24So what Tisibios had invented
13:26was an air compressor
13:27relying on the weight
13:28of water
13:28to put the air
13:29under pressure,
13:30hence the name
13:31the water organ.
13:32And you should be able
13:32to play the whole thing.
13:33OK, get pumping.
13:33So I'll get pumping.
13:34So he was a bright lab,
13:35Tisibios.
13:36He certainly was.
13:37He was one of the most
13:37inventive people
13:38from antiquity.
13:39He came up
13:39with a lot of devices.
13:40Such as?
13:41Such as the force pump,
13:43which is very similar
13:44to the machine
13:45that Marty is operating
13:46with a cylinder
13:47and a plunger.
13:47And that's what
13:48drove fire engines
13:49then, isn't it?
13:50It was indeed.
13:51That's what pumps the water
13:51out of a Roman fire engine.
13:53Hey, we're there.
13:53Air's bubbling out the sides.
13:55So now we've got
13:56compressed air supply.
13:57All this air
13:58ready for you to use
13:59to pump through here
14:00to play your tune.
14:00So this is now
14:01a water organ.
14:02Indeed.
14:03OK, can I play?
14:04Can you hold it down for me?
14:05Certainly.
14:06Ooh.
14:12Tisibios' water organ
14:13was also the world's
14:14first keyboard instrument.
14:26Delicate, isn't it?
14:27Very delicate.
14:28Wonderful.
14:29So that is the water organ
14:30courtesy of the
14:31brilliant Tisibios.
14:32Indeed.
14:33Yes, let's blow a blast to him.
14:40By the time of Tisibios,
14:42the Greek city-states
14:43stretched from Egypt
14:45in the east
14:45to Syracuse
14:47in the west.
14:47One of the ways
14:49they reinforced
14:50their common identity
14:51came through
14:52such shared events
14:53as the Olympic Games,
14:55drawing athletes
14:56and supporters
14:57from all over
14:58the Greek world.
15:03The Greeks were the first
15:05to recognise
15:05the value
15:06of physical exercise.
15:07Sport was highly esteemed.
15:10But this wasn't
15:11about looking good.
15:12it was a military strategy.
15:16The Olympic Games
15:17began in 776 BC
15:19and kept men
15:21at the peak of fitness.
15:22They were held
15:23in wonderful stadiums
15:25similar to this one
15:26at Nemea.
15:26Here, I was joined
15:28by 12 budding athletes
15:29I'd met at lunch
15:30to try out an experiment.
15:32The Greeks were obsessed
15:33with fairness
15:34and democratic principles.
15:37Touched every aspect
15:38of their life.
15:39Sport was no exception.
15:41But keeping the games fair
15:43was a lot easier
15:43said than done.
15:45So how do you make sure
15:46the right man wins?
15:51This is a really
15:52ingenious device.
15:53It's called a Hisplex
15:54and it's based
15:56on the same technology
15:57as a catapult
15:58and it ensures
15:59that the start
16:00of each race
16:00is fair.
16:11It uses a torsion technique
16:13to snap down these ropes
16:15and if you try to cheat
16:16it sends you flying.
16:18OK.
16:19If you could all line up please
16:21and then we can see
16:22how the Hisplex
16:22actually works.
16:23One foot in front
16:24and one foot back
16:26because these are
16:27these are the starting blocks
16:28that they would have used
16:29and then you curl your toes
16:31curl them round
16:32yep, really curl them
16:34round the stone
16:35thank you.
16:36Right, OK.
16:37We're all set there.
16:48Right.
16:49OK, if you'd like
16:50to start them please.
16:52Hey Timmy,
16:53up at the...
17:00Right, now in the name
17:01of historical accuracy
17:02I just need them
17:03to do it one more time.
17:06OK.
17:10That's great.
17:11If you could now
17:12just take your clothes off
17:13so this,
17:14take it off.
17:17Now the story goes
17:19that during a race
17:20that during a race
17:20an athlete tripped
17:21on his skirt
17:21and fell
17:22and was killed
17:23and ever after
17:24the games were carried out
17:25completely naked.
17:27Go on,
17:28take them off.
17:29I will if you will.
17:30Hang on, hang on.
17:31We'd better stop there.
17:32Ancient Greece
17:33was often a violent world
17:34but what would happen
17:35to an athlete or soldier
17:36who broke a leg?
17:37The answer was
17:38the Hippocratic bench.
17:40It was pretty tough
17:42being a soldier.
17:42You had to carry heavy weapons
17:44and armour
17:44and all sorts of stuff
17:45and the wives
17:46of the Spartans
17:47used to tell her husbands
17:48come back with your shield
17:49or on it
17:50because that was
17:51their idea of a stretcher.
17:53In fact,
17:53all the soldiers
17:54were divided,
17:54if you like,
17:55into the fit
17:55and the dead.
17:57Well,
17:57I happen to have
17:58broken my leg.
17:59I'm one of the lucky ones
17:59and we've got here
18:00this fabulous...
18:03Marty seems to have built
18:04something like
18:05a medieval torture rack.
18:08Luckily for me,
18:10expert Tracey Rill
18:11reminded him
18:12that what he should have made
18:14was a model
18:14of one of the most advanced
18:16medical treatments
18:17from ancient times.
18:18A medieval rack.
18:18Oh, well.
18:19It feels like a medieval rack too.
18:21Yeah.
18:22That's like that all for you.
18:23Oh, so,
18:24this is supposed to be
18:25a Hippocratic bench,
18:27named after Hippocrates
18:28who was one of the great doctors.
18:31He was, if you like,
18:32the father of all medicine.
18:33In fact,
18:34he was held in such esteem
18:35that an enormous collection
18:36of books
18:37was named after him
18:38even though he didn't write most.
18:39In fact,
18:39lots of them
18:40were written after his death
18:41but it was a collection
18:42of all the known medicine
18:44in the time
18:45of the ancient Greeks.
18:46And indeed,
18:47even today,
18:47doctors have to abide
18:49by what they call
18:50the Hippocratic Oath.
18:51They promise to work
18:53for the good of the patient
18:54and to be honest
18:55and discreet
18:56and above all
18:57not to do any harm.
18:58And speaking of doing no harm,
18:59Marty,
19:00how are you getting on?
19:00We're getting there.
19:01Can you just sit up
19:02and,
19:03Tracy,
19:04this around the top
19:05of the thigh?
19:07Yes,
19:07you want to strap
19:08around the thigh
19:08so that you're only
19:09applying the tension
19:11to the leg
19:13that is broken.
19:14That's the bit
19:14you want to extend.
19:15You don't want to stretch
19:16the rest of Adam
19:17unnecessarily.
19:18We're going to tension
19:19this one up.
19:20We've got to lean forward again.
19:21Lean forward a bit
19:22or get this tension.
19:24Ah,
19:25I get the idea.
19:26So you're just stretching
19:26the leg.
19:27You're just stretching
19:28the bit that needs treatment.
19:29That's right.
19:30So if you,
19:31your broken bones
19:32have now been...
19:33Well,
19:33when bones break,
19:35the muscles are sufficiently strong
19:36that they tend to cause
19:37the bones to override
19:38so that your leg
19:40would be shorter
19:40if it knitted
19:41in that position.
19:43Right,
19:43be walking in circles.
19:44Yes,
19:45that's right.
19:46So the idea of this device
19:47is to provide enough force
19:49to pull your leg apart
19:51until those bones
19:52are lined up again.
19:54Right.
19:54At which point
19:55we can apply the traction
19:56to keep it in that position
19:57permanently.
19:58This is where the rods come in.
19:59So we just move this leg
20:00a little bit.
20:02Pop that one in there.
20:04Like that.
20:04Ah,
20:05I'm beginning to understand.
20:06Right.
20:06And then I'll probably,
20:07I'll put this one in this side next.
20:09And these are just...
20:11How do you know they're the right length?
20:12We cut them,
20:13we sort of...
20:14Measure them.
20:15And a hippocrossing doctor
20:17would have several sets
20:18so that he could adjust the tension
20:19to switch your comfort.
20:20Oh, you could actually stretch the leg.
20:21See, there's a bit of tension
20:22going in there from the bend of the...
20:23That's really good.
20:25And that's...
20:25So it's actually stretching the leg
20:27all the time, continuously.
20:28To keep the bones in position
20:30while they knit.
20:31So arguably,
20:32this is...
20:32I can't reach that.
20:33Arguably,
20:33this is better than a plaster cast
20:35because it is holding them apart.
20:37Tension all the time.
20:38And of course,
20:39if you had an open wound,
20:40you could...
20:41You could slant it out.
20:41You could dress it.
20:42That's right.
20:42And it'll keep any bedclothes off.
20:44And the great thing about this
20:45is you can get in
20:46and scratch it.
20:47It doesn't matter so much
20:48if it itches.
20:49Anyway, Marty,
20:50do you think you could possibly
20:51untime it?
20:52Because I feel like I can
20:53hobble off now.
20:55Thanks very much.
20:56It was lucky that the Greeks
20:57had someone like Hippocrates
20:58to care for them
20:59because they were always
21:00getting into wars,
21:01especially with the Romans
21:03and their burgeoning new empire.
21:06Fortunately,
21:07the Greeks had another
21:07genius inventor
21:08who would help them
21:09fight back
21:10with a series
21:11of devastating weapons.
21:15It's 213 BC
21:17and Syracuse here in Sicily
21:19is a critical link
21:20in the chain
21:20of an embattled Greek empire.
21:23The Roman Empire
21:23is on the ascendant
21:24and Syracuse
21:25is their next stop.
21:27The Greeks built
21:28a number of city-states
21:29dotted around the Mediterranean
21:31and when Rome
21:32began to expand,
21:33Syracuse
21:34was right in the way.
21:36Unfortunately for the Romans,
21:37this was the home
21:38of the genius Archimedes.
21:40He fortified the city walls
21:42with such incredible
21:43military contraptions
21:44that he stopped
21:45the Roman war machine
21:46dead in its tracks.
21:47One of those contraptions
21:49was the claw,
21:50a kind of crane
21:51that reached out
21:52over the city walls,
21:53grabbed the enemy Roman ships
21:55and dashed them on the rocks.
21:59Archimedes was the greatest mathematician
22:02of the ancient world
22:03and probably the greatest
22:05mathematical genius
22:06until Isaac Newton.
22:07His inventions range
22:09from the famous Archimedes screw
22:11to water clocks,
22:12pulleys,
22:13winches
22:13and many more.
22:16When the Roman fleet
22:17approached Syracuse,
22:19legend tells us
22:20that Archimedes set fire
22:21to the enemy galleys
22:22with a new invention.
22:26But how did he do it?
22:29In a local school,
22:30there's a statue of Archimedes
22:31which holds a clue
22:33to this devastating invention.
22:34It's possible
22:36that this large dish
22:38was a highly polished
22:39bronze shield
22:40that harnessed
22:41the power of the sun.
22:44The mirror on my bathroom wall
22:46might double
22:46as an ancient bronze shield.
22:49OK, well, the Greek soldiers
22:50may have used their shields
22:51and then they could reflect the sun
22:55onto the boats
22:56a bit like that.
22:58So how would it feel
22:59to be an invading Roman
23:00on the receiving end
23:02of this new weapon?
23:02If the Greek soldiers
23:04had lined up
23:05along the harbour walls,
23:06the reflection of the sun
23:07off their polished bronze shields
23:09would have acted like mirrors
23:11concentrating the sun's energy
23:13onto the Roman ships.
23:14And the soldiers
23:15would have been
23:15completely dazzled
23:17with nothing else.
23:18I mean, they wouldn't have been able
23:19to see where they were going at all.
23:22What further damage
23:23could they do
23:23if the Greeks
23:24had hundreds of shields
23:25all reflecting the power
23:27of the Mediterranean sun
23:28at the hapless Romans?
23:29So, Marty,
23:30what have you got here?
23:31Well, I've got a few mirrors
23:32here.
23:34124, to be precise.
23:35Wow!
23:36124 hexagonal
23:37polished steel mirrors.
23:39And each one
23:40is held in the centre
23:42and individually
23:43adjustable.
23:44On the back
23:44are four screws
23:45for each mirror
23:46and that allows you
23:47to adjust it.
23:47Oh, you can steer them all?
23:48And I can steer each mirror
23:49and focus onto,
23:51well, there.
23:51A boat.
23:51Well, I happen to have
23:53a Roman boat in my hand.
23:54We'll see what we can do.
23:55You think you can set fire to this?
23:56Well, try.
23:57On the post.
23:58Pop it on the post.
23:59Okay, well, hang on a sec.
24:00Hang on a sec.
24:00Don't fire yet.
24:04There.
24:04Right, are you ready?
24:05Okay, do your worst.
24:07Here we go.
24:07Coming up.
24:09Oh, that's bright.
24:10That is very bright.
24:12I can't even look at that.
24:13I have to look at the back of it.
24:15There's smoke beginning
24:16to appear already.
24:17I can see the paint's blistering.
24:19Yes.
24:19There it is.
24:23No, I think that would be
24:24very bad news.
24:24And you couldn't possibly
24:25attack now
24:26with this blast
24:27of ray gun
24:28in your eyes.
24:31I think if I were
24:32a Roman sailor,
24:33I wouldn't fancy
24:34being in that boat
24:35very much.
24:37I have to say,
24:38Marty,
24:39that even though
24:40there aren't flames,
24:40you have burnt a hole
24:41in the side of this boat.
24:42I can see straight through
24:44from the inside.
24:45So that boat
24:46is now sinking.
24:47I've locked it off now,
24:48so let me come
24:49and have a quick look.
24:49Right.
24:50Well, don't get too close.
24:52Yeah, I see it's taken out
24:53the whole side.
24:53Ah, flames!
24:54Flames!
24:55Flames!
24:56Fantastic!
24:59That really is
25:00the end of that boat.
25:00There you go.
25:01Proof positive.
25:02Yes.
25:03And you only need
25:04124 mirrors.
25:05And this is in,
25:06you know,
25:07in southern Italian sun,
25:08I think you'd...
25:09It would be a lot quicker.
25:09It would be even better.
25:11That is spectacular.
25:12A funeral pyre
25:13to the Roman navy.
25:15And a triumph
25:15for Archimedes.
25:16Yeah, absolutely.
25:17Good for Archie.
25:18The pressure of war
25:20forced the Greeks
25:21to be inventive.
25:22They were at the cutting edge
25:24of weapon technology.
25:26Their military engineers
25:27made clever use
25:28of ratchets,
25:29winches
25:30and multiple pulleys.
25:32They set principles
25:33of design
25:34that lasted
25:34for a thousand years.
25:38Back in 400 BC,
25:40even the simple bow
25:41was improved
25:42by their inventiveness.
25:44This is David Sim,
25:46who is our ancient
25:46weapons expert,
25:47and this
25:48is a gastrophitis
25:49or belly bow.
25:51David, show me.
25:52Right.
25:53That slider
25:54pushes forward.
25:55OK.
25:55Look at that.
25:56How far?
25:57Keep going
25:58until the hook
25:59goes over the string.
26:00Oh, I see.
26:00Like that.
26:01That's it.
26:01Right.
26:01Now push the two
26:02brass pieces forward.
26:04These ones?
26:05Yep.
26:05Right.
26:06And pull the trigger
26:07lever round to the right.
26:09Oh, I see.
26:10So that locks
26:11that down
26:12onto the string.
26:13Yes.
26:14Gotcha.
26:14OK.
26:15Now, to load it...
26:17Right.
26:18This is really
26:18a castle wall,
26:19isn't it?
26:19Yes.
26:20So you shove it
26:21against the wall.
26:22You push it
26:22against the wall.
26:23Right.
26:23Put your belly
26:24against it
26:25and push.
26:26Like that.
26:27I see.
26:28And that cocks it.
26:29That's very cunning.
26:30OK.
26:30Now you put it
26:30back on the castle wall.
26:31Put it back
26:32onto the castle wall
26:33like that.
26:33Right.
26:35Take your arrow.
26:36And these are
26:37just ordinary arrows,
26:38yes?
26:40And notch it.
26:41Notch it.
26:42Right.
26:43And then happy fire.
26:44And you pull
26:45that lever
26:47and...
26:48Wow!
26:49Wow!
26:50Fantastic power.
26:51So you reckon
26:52that's twice as powerful
26:53as a normal bow?
26:53You can make a bow
26:54that's two or three times
26:55more powerful
26:56than a bow
26:57that a man can pull
26:58with his arms.
26:58Gosh.
26:59And all the strength
27:00is in pushing
27:01this forward.
27:02So you've got
27:03double the range.
27:04Yes.
27:04You can keep the enemy
27:04well out of bow shot.
27:06Yes.
27:06Fantastic.
27:07And you don't need
27:08to be a skilled archer
27:08to use it.
27:10That's extraordinary.
27:11This was probably
27:12the first ever
27:13mechanical weapon of war.
27:15It was a real step forward.
27:16Could I have a go?
27:17Yes.
27:18Great.
27:18OK.
27:19So wait a minute.
27:19Pull the thing...
27:20Push the thing forward.
27:20Push it forward.
27:21Push the slider forward.
27:22Oh, I've got to pull...
27:23Lift those over that way.
27:25Push the slider forward.
27:26Right.
27:27Until we get to the string.
27:29OK.
27:30Yep.
27:30Then...
27:30Push the brass pieces over.
27:32Forwards.
27:33And that lock that underneath.
27:34That's it.
27:34And I better take over,
27:35hadn't I?
27:36Put those under your arms.
27:37Lift it.
27:38Oh, I see.
27:38Like that.
27:39Yep.
27:40And then down against the ground
27:42or a castle wall
27:43if you've got one.
27:43Push.
27:45Right.
27:46That should do it.
27:47Back.
27:47Oh, it's quite heavy, isn't it?
27:49Rest it back on.
27:51OK.
27:51Now, which arrow doesn't hit that one?
27:54OK.
27:57Now, we have got a target there,
28:00a watermelon.
28:01Yes.
28:02I think the chances of my hitting it
28:03are almost zero.
28:04Point straight at it.
28:06Yep.
28:06And go slightly to the left.
28:08Slightly to the left.
28:10OK.
28:11I reckon about there.
28:12Yeah.
28:12One, two, three, go.
28:14Let's have another go.
28:18Oh!
28:19One more.
28:22Wow!
28:23Hey!
28:23Hey!
28:24I did it.
28:24You did it.
28:25You did it.
28:25Well done.
28:26Good shot.
28:30When you shoot an arrow from a bow,
28:32you rely on the energy
28:33put into the bending of the bow
28:35to hurl the arrow into the air.
28:37But the Greeks took a whole step forward
28:39and invented a new sort of weapon,
28:42the torsion weapon.
28:43Have a look at this.
28:44I've got a frame here
28:45with a twisted bit of string in the middle
28:47and a piece of wood through it.
28:48And if I pull this round and then let go,
28:50it snaps back
28:51because of the energy
28:52in this twisted string.
28:55Have a look at this huge machine here.
28:57This is a ballista
28:58as invented by the Greeks
28:59and then modified by the Romans.
29:01And you'll see we've got twisted ropes here.
29:03The rope goes up and down
29:04and up and down
29:04and up and down
29:05and then it's twisted
29:06and this arm is pushed
29:07against the twist of the ropes.
29:09And it's exactly the same
29:10with that arm over there.
29:12And when you pull this back,
29:13you're pulling against that twist.
29:15Simon and Tim,
29:16can you come in
29:16and wind it back for me?
29:20Now you can see
29:21that it takes two of them
29:22with this great winch mechanism
29:23to pull the string back.
29:25There's an enormous amount of energy
29:27in those twisted ropes.
29:28Out there,
29:29we've got the entire Roman fleet
29:31attacking Syracuse
29:32and we're going to bombard it with...
29:34What are we bombarding it with?
29:35They're firing onions today.
29:37Oh, that should worry them a bit.
29:39Certainly keep the vampires...
29:40Oh, no, that's garlic, isn't it?
29:41OK, ready?
29:42Three, two, one, fire!
29:45Well, dead on the line.
29:46Wow!
29:47Just over the top.
29:48You need to lower a bit
29:49or go a bit less hard or something.
29:51Oh, I see you've got to unwind
29:53in order to get the slider forward.
29:55And then the mechanism...
29:56Oh, you lock that down
29:57so that the ring can't slip.
29:59And just look,
30:00you can see the ropes being twisted
30:02just a little bit more,
30:03but that takes tremendous energy to do it.
30:05And the ratchet means
30:06that wherever you stop,
30:07it doesn't leap forward again.
30:08It'll stay there, yes.
30:09So you're going to fire
30:10a little less powerfully this time, yes?
30:12Yep.
30:12One notch less.
30:13OK, in with another onion.
30:15Three, two, one, fire!
30:20Ah, a bit short.
30:21Oh, dear.
30:22Somewhere in between.
30:24Shoot!
30:27Shoot!
30:30Shoot!
30:32Shoot!
30:37One more shot, OK?
30:38We'll do our best.
30:39This is it.
30:41Go to it.
30:44It's possible, of course,
30:46you've been using the wrong sort of onions.
30:47It is possible, yes.
30:48They could have been sabotaged by the enemy.
30:50They could be.
30:51They could have been, yes.
30:53And there is a bit of wind.
30:55Very slight disadvantage.
30:56Sorry about that.
30:58It's the onions.
31:00OK, load up.
31:02Last chance.
31:03Three, two, one, fire!
31:08Fantastic!
31:08Yay!
31:10Hey!
31:10I have to say, I'm impressed.
31:12You were deliberately missing, weren't you,
31:13just to build the tension.
31:15Of course, yeah.
31:15Even though it's a torsion weapon.
31:17Anyway, fantastic.
31:18You do need a lot of onions,
31:20but in the end,
31:20you can sink the Roman fleet.
31:23The Romans eventually overpowered Syracuse,
31:26and poor old Archimedes was killed during the sack of the city.
31:30This was a great loss,
31:32as his fertile mind had produced many ideas of true genius.
31:36He's my superhero,
31:38probably the greatest mathematician of the whole of the ancient world.
31:42For the Romans, the spoils of victory meant access to the technology
31:46that had made the Greeks such a powerful military force.
31:51Because the Greeks kept waging wars all over the place,
31:55from the Romans in the west to the Persians in the east,
31:58they needed secure communications,
32:01and they came up with ingenious systems.
32:04Marty's made one of their devices for sending messages
32:07based on a surprisingly simple idea.
32:10This is based on the Greek design,
32:12and what it is, is it's a, well, a bottle here with water in it.
32:16You can see the water dribbling out, actually.
32:17I've not sealed it perfectly.
32:18With a bung at the bottom in the hole.
32:20OK.
32:20Then we've got a float in this big orange thing,
32:22which floats, and a stick attached to it.
32:24OK.
32:25And on the stick are marks.
32:27Right.
32:27And each mark corresponds to a message.
32:30A pre-arranged message.
32:31A pre-arranged message.
32:32So the first mark is, send reinforcements.
32:34The second mark is, retreat.
32:36And the third mark is, I don't know what, time for lunch,
32:38something like that.
32:39So to send a message, all you have to do is un-bung the cork.
32:42Right.
32:43Like that.
32:44The water dribbles out.
32:45When it gets the message you want to say,
32:47let's say I want to send that message there,
32:49you stop it, and I've sent the message.
32:51But hang on a sec, if I'm on a hill two miles away,
32:53I can't even see the bottle.
32:55Ah, no, you see, that's the clever bit.
32:56But what we have is two identical bottles.
32:59You have one, and I have one, and you go off two miles away.
33:02And all I have to do is signal to you,
33:04wave, use a burning torch or something,
33:06so that you pull the cork out at exactly the same time
33:09I pull my cork out.
33:10Simul corkery.
33:11Indeed, yes.
33:12And then I signal to you again to put the bung back in.
33:16And because the bottles are identical...
33:18Right.
33:19..we both get to the same signal on our stick.
33:22So I know what you're saying.
33:22And I've sent the signal.
33:23That's dead cunning.
33:24But, no, look, there is a slight drawback.
33:26The Greeks did not have plastic bottles.
33:28So, let's make a genuine model and test it.
33:31Marty has built me a real one here,
33:33a lovely amphora full of water,
33:36with a float here and a cork in the bottom.
33:39And I can send him a message.
33:40He's over on the other tower over there,
33:42simply by pulling out this bung,
33:44letting the water run out,
33:45until we reach whichever of these prearranged messages
33:48we want to send.
33:50Now, first of all, I need to make sure
33:52that Marty is up and running.
33:54Now, Marty, are you there?
33:55OK, he's acknowledged that.
33:57So when I drop my arm, I'm going to pull out the cork.
33:59Three, two, one, go!
34:01Pull out the bung.
34:03And now you see it's dropping here.
34:04We've got alpha, beta, gamma, delta.
34:06I don't want to send him send reinforcements,
34:09and I don't really want to send him it's time for lunch.
34:11I know, I'm a bit thirsty.
34:13I think I'll send him zeta.
34:14So I'll get ready to stop it.
34:17One, two, three, stop!
34:19In the bung.
34:22Good.
34:27That's zeta,
34:28and zeta is send more wine.
34:31Typical.
34:32Now, signalling with an amphora was very efficient,
34:35but it was also rather limited,
34:36because you could only put ten messages on your list,
34:40and they had to be prearranged.
34:42So suppose the enemy surprised us by attacking on camels.
34:45There's no way I could signal that.
34:47There's no camel on my list.
34:49In the second century of BC,
34:51the historian Polybius recorded a much more flexible system,
34:54whereby they could send letters of the alphabet.
34:57And obviously, if you send letters,
34:58you can spell out any word you like.
35:00And it worked like this.
35:01Here are all the letters of the Greek alphabet
35:04on tablets, five tablets,
35:06going all the way from alpha to omega.
35:08And to send a particular letter,
35:11they used a flag, a system of flags.
35:13So, suppose I want to send the letter beta here.
35:16This is in tablet number one,
35:18so I have one flag in my left hand.
35:21And it's the second letter down,
35:22so I have two flags in my right hand.
35:25And now I'm ready to signal beta to the world.
35:27So, one, two, three, beta!
35:31Hermione, beta!
35:37B, A, C, R.
35:40Back to Athens.
35:42Adam wants me to investigate
35:44how the ancient Greeks established democracy in their cities.
35:48The day I arrived in Athens,
35:50the city was in a state of excitement.
35:52It was the week of their national elections
35:54and passions were running high.
35:59Democracy began here in 507 B.C.,
36:02when reforms gave the common man a say
36:05in the running of the city.
36:07It's a system that has changed the course of history.
36:10But it wasn't democracy as we know it.
36:12It didn't take place behind closed doors like it does today.
36:16It happened right out in the open,
36:18in the centre of the city.
36:19It was at the very heart of public life.
36:26It took place on a mammoth scale.
36:30Out of the 30,000-odd eligible voters,
36:325,000 regularly attended the popular assembly.
36:36Juries could be anywhere between 200 and 6,000 people.
36:42But how did they keep it fair?
36:44Surely there was bribery, sleaze and corruption as there is today.
36:48And with so many people in a jury, it must have been chaos.
36:52To try and get round this possibility of corruption,
36:55the Greeks, with their great ingenuity,
36:57invented a machine, the Klerotirion.
37:00And this is Marty's interpretation of what it may have looked like.
37:04It may even be that the great Aristotle wrote about this.
37:07You can see there's a stone top with a lot of slots in it,
37:10and it's sitting on a stone plinth.
37:13Now, suppose you came in in the morning
37:15and you volunteered for jury service.
37:18You took your identity tag, and this is mine,
37:20you see it says on it Adam, and you put it in a slot here.
37:25And all the members of one group, this is Marty's,
37:29would put their identity tags in the same column.
37:33Athens, you see, was divided into ten groups.
37:36That's Hermione.
37:37And it was possible that the same group
37:40would want to vote the same way.
37:42So they all put their tags in one column.
37:45The second group that came along
37:47put their tags in the second column,
37:49the third group in the third column,
37:51and so on and so forth.
37:52Then they selected the jurors horizontally,
37:55so they cut right across the groups.
37:57The way they did that was with balls.
38:00Here I've got an amphora
38:01with some black and white balls in it.
38:04And I put them in there and shaped them up
38:06so I have no idea what order they're in,
38:08and then I tip them into this hopper
38:10on top of the machine.
38:11And again, I don't know what order
38:14they're going in there.
38:16That's emptied up.
38:17I'll put that down, make sure they're all inside.
38:20I can't see, I have no order,
38:22no idea what's the order of the balls.
38:25And then the first ball that comes out of the bottom
38:27will decide whether or not this top row
38:29does jury service.
38:31So pull out the peg, a white ball.
38:33So there we are, I and all these people
38:35do jury service, which is great
38:37because I get paid for it, that's terrific.
38:39And the second one is black, so that's Marty.
38:42He's out, he can go to the beach,
38:44but he doesn't get paid.
38:45And the third ball here is white,
38:47and that means that the third row
38:49is doing jury service, and that includes Hermione.
38:52Ah, ah, no she isn't,
38:54because women didn't get any rights.
38:56She would never have been on jury service.
38:58In fact, she should never have had a tag in the first place.
39:00By working through the rows, ball after ball,
39:03the Greeks could select their huge numbers of jurors.
39:07So, by cutting across the groups,
39:10we greatly reduce the possibilities of corruption.
39:14The Greek word for city is polis,
39:16from which we get our modern word politics.
39:20The Greek idea of politics was much wider than our own,
39:23and it's not surprising to discover
39:25that one of the greatest celebrations
39:27of the political life of the city was in its theatre.
39:31The Greeks taught us everything we know about drama,
39:35and built amazing places to stage it.
39:38Public theatres were invented by the Greeks,
39:41and they held a lot of the public.
39:43This one at Pedasbros seats up to 14,000 people.
39:53Although it's massive,
39:56the acoustics are so sophisticated
39:58that even from where I am,
40:00about 40 metres from the stage,
40:01you can still hear every noise,
40:03even the striking of a match.
40:08Not only could you hear everything,
40:09but every seat in the house
40:11had an unobstructed view of the stage.
40:13From here in the back row,
40:15the actors would have only appeared
40:17about a couple of centimetres high,
40:18but the audience would have still been able
40:20to understand everything that was going on.
40:24They invented masks and costumes
40:26so the audience could tell who was who.
40:29Masks used in comedy and tragedy were quite different.
40:32Those used in comedy were ugly and deliberately distorted
40:35and used for political satire,
40:37just like spitting image.
40:41What about scenery?
40:43Of course, it was an ancient Greek invention.
40:46They also had the makane,
40:47a type of crane that was used
40:49for the entrance of the gods.
40:52Even in this modern theatre in Athens,
40:55the types of devices used in ancient Greek drama
40:58can still be seen.
40:59They also invented the revolving stage.
41:04So the Greeks gave us theatres,
41:06acoustics, costumes, scenery and special effects,
41:10but that's still not it.
41:13The ancient Greeks were one of the first
41:15to allow actors, who were always men,
41:17to speak and play individual parts.
41:19As soon as they had one character,
41:21they realised introducing a second and a third
41:24would make the story a lot more dramatic.
41:29With three actors,
41:30you have an infinite number of possibilities.
41:32Boy meets girl,
41:34boy loses girl,
41:35boy takes revenge for losing girl.
41:37What more do you need?
41:44The Greek concept of tragedy
41:46was the beginning of the sort of human drama
41:48we watch on our TVs all the time.
41:50But early Greek theatre
41:52didn't just rely on actors for dramatic effect.
41:54They even produced the first ever
41:57self-propelled machines or robots.
42:00This is a reconstruction
42:02of one of the miniature theatres
42:04that moved about all by themselves.
42:07In fact, they're all propelled
42:09by hidden moving weights
42:10and they were designed
42:12by a chap called Heron,
42:14Heron of Alexandria.
42:16I've challenged Marty to make me one.
42:23This is how it works.
42:24This is the driving force.
42:26It's a large weight.
42:27It's 30 kilos of weight there.
42:29And then this bit here,
42:30there's a whole load of chicken grain here,
42:32chicken feed.
42:32Chicken feed?
42:33You've got chickens in here.
42:34No, chickens, just chicken feed.
42:35And what you do,
42:36when I pull this bit of wood out here,
42:38open a hole at the bottom,
42:39the feed pours out
42:40and the weight drops slowly.
42:43And as it drops,
42:43it pulls these strings up.
42:45Right.
42:46And those strings are attached
42:47down here.
42:48To these axles here.
42:49And obviously,
42:50as that unwinds,
42:51it drives it forward.
42:52I don't believe it'll work.
42:52Go on then.
42:55Well, chicken feed,
42:56it's not moving.
42:57Give it a chuck.
42:58Give it a chuck.
42:58Here it goes.
42:59Oh, hey.
43:00And here it goes.
43:01Oh, I have to say,
43:01it does go quite well.
43:03And it just sort of
43:03trundles along quite slowly.
43:05Now, obviously,
43:06this drop controls
43:07how far we can go.
43:09Right.
43:09So it has, you know,
43:11So it's going to run out
43:11sort of right here somewhere.
43:12It's going to run out there,
43:12I predict.
43:14Yes.
43:14So it goes in a straight line.
43:15You claim it's programmable.
43:16Yes, we can.
43:17Can you make it
43:18do a slalom for me?
43:19We'll give it a go.
43:20OK.
43:21Well, if you'd like
43:21to reset it,
43:22I will challenge you.
43:26Some experts think
43:27Huron hoped
43:28to scale up his robot
43:29into a siege tower
43:31for attacking enemy cities.
43:32In fact,
43:33it never got further
43:34than a tabletop model.
43:36So, Marty,
43:37what do you reckon
43:37this thing's going to do?
43:38It's going to steer
43:39around this pillar.
43:39I'm going to put the pillar
43:42about there.
43:43Hang on a sec.
43:43One pillar
43:44doth not a slalom make.
43:46All right,
43:47how's it going to get round?
43:47Right,
43:48what it's going to do
43:48is it's going to steer
43:4945 degrees this way,
43:50along here a little bit,
43:5245 degrees,
43:52and then carry on
43:53in a straight line.
43:54Down there.
43:54Down there.
43:55A ways.
43:55You say.
43:56I'm going to make it
43:58slightly more of a challenge
43:59by putting one there
44:00and one there.
44:00I would like it to stop
44:02between those two.
44:02Well, we give it a try.
44:03Let me show you the gubbins,
44:05the clever bit.
44:06Now, what we've done here,
44:07rather than just wrapping it
44:08around the spindles down here,
44:10we've kind of zigzagged it
44:11between these pegs.
44:12OK.
44:12And what will happen,
44:13with this one first,
44:14at least,
44:15is as it begins to move,
44:16it'll pop off the pegs.
44:17Right.
44:17And it'll create,
44:18effectively, some slack.
44:19Then it won't work.
44:20Exactly.
44:20This wheel will stop turning.
44:22Right.
44:22But that wheel will continue turning.
44:23Oh, I see.
44:24That'll bring it round.
44:25Exactly.
44:25That's why we've got
44:26separately driving wheels.
44:27And then this one will come into play
44:29and it'll steer it back in.
44:30So it's just like having a loop
44:31of slack that's not going to...
44:32Exactly.
44:33Exactly that.
44:34I still don't believe it'll work.
44:35Shall we give it a try?
44:36Yes.
44:36One, two, three.
44:39All right, here we go.
44:40It's not working at all.
44:41Well, it always takes
44:41a little bit of a start.
44:43No, it's not working.
44:43Here it goes.
44:44See, look, they've come off.
44:45Oh, it's come off the pegs,
44:46I agree.
44:46Come on, steer, steer, steer.
44:48Here it goes.
44:49It's close.
44:49It's going to be a very...
44:50Oh, all right.
44:51There you go.
44:51It's going to miss that.
44:52All right, you missed your first peg.
44:53So it comes along.
44:54It's going to run into this one.
44:56Yep.
44:59Well, it's steering around it.
45:00There you go.
45:01You said it was a fence alarm.
45:02I said it wouldn't work.
45:04However, it did...
45:05It definitely went round the corner.
45:06It did one good turn.
45:07One good turn.
45:07It did one good turn,
45:08but it...
45:08Well, it deserves another.
45:12Hereon was a prolific inventor
45:14who worked on organs, pumps and surveying tools
45:17and even invented the first steam engine.
45:20Now, there's a heater in the bottom.
45:22There's a boiler here.
45:23We're going to make steam.
45:24It'll come up this stalk into this barrel, I hope,
45:27jet out of these jets,
45:29and the thing will spin round.
45:30Let's see if it's going to work.
45:34Give it a bit of welly.
45:38And now, I'm going to stand well back
45:40because I think there's going to be
45:41a lot of steam from this.
45:49Wow, look at that.
45:51Fantastic.
45:52It's going round with enormous speed.
45:54This was just a tabletop toy.
45:56It's been calculated that if they made it big enough
45:59to do the work of one man,
46:00it would take four blokes shoveling the coal
46:02to keep it running.
46:03But, but it was the first machine ever
46:05to turn heat into useful work.
46:08The priests really loved these toys.
46:10They found a natural home in the temples
46:12because they could really impress the worshippers
46:15and it would reinforce the priest's claims
46:17to be conduits to the gods.
46:21Huron's gadgets were amazing,
46:23but there's one that's one of my favourites,
46:25which we just take for granted,
46:26but it makes our lives a whole lot easier.
46:29Just look at these temple doors.
46:31They were arranged to open by magic,
46:34all on their own.
46:36What Huron had invented were the first automatic doors
46:39and Marty has worked out how they would have worked.
46:42So this is the sacred altar.
46:46This is the sacred altar
47:12on the top.
47:13Indeed, exactly.
47:14So the air can't get out.
47:15So as it begins to push down on the water,
47:17the water is then pushed out
47:18and along this pipe.
47:20And it's got to,
47:20we've got to shift all of this water
47:21to get the doors open from there to there.
47:23Wow.
47:24So it comes along this pipe.
47:25Okay.
47:26Along here,
47:27up here,
47:28and into here eventually.
47:29I don't think it's not quite started yet,
47:31but eventually it'll come trickling out
47:32of the bottom here.
47:33Okay.
47:34And then as this fills up here,
47:36this weight with water,
47:38Yes.
47:38Gradually it gets heavier.
47:39Yes.
47:39It'll overcome the counterbalance weight there.
47:42Right.
47:42And as it pulls down on here,
47:44the pulleys will turn
47:45and the doors should magically open.
47:46Can I try it?
47:47You can,
47:48although just a little bit
47:48because there's no cheating in this program.
47:50Okay.
47:51Oh yeah,
47:52it goes up,
47:52the door's open.
47:53That's fantastic.
47:54Once the far jug has filled up
47:56and becomes heavier,
47:57the idea is that it sinks down,
48:00the other jug rises
48:01and the doors open via a pulley system.
48:03But will it work?
48:05Okay.
48:06So we just have to wait
48:07while it heats up a bit more.
48:08Exactly.
48:08Let's see how the water's doing.
48:10Now look,
48:11we're almost there.
48:12Oh, it's close.
48:12Get in there.
48:12Very near.
48:13I reckon the doors
48:14must be ready to open
48:15about now.
48:18Oh.
48:19Well, yeah,
48:20there it goes.
48:20Not bad.
48:21Smooth as oil silk.
48:23And gentle, yes.
48:23And probably the first time
48:25in the history of the universe
48:26full-size temple doors
48:27have opened automatically.
48:29I'm delighted that Huron
48:30was sponsored
48:31by the local priests
48:32because they had loads of money.
48:34And without that money,
48:35we might never have had
48:36all those fabulous inventions.
48:39But high-tech stagecraft
48:40wasn't the only ceremonial element.
48:43The Greek religion
48:44was packed
48:45with an extraordinary array
48:47of rituals.
48:48They would study
48:49the entrails
48:50of sacrificed animals.
48:52They would look
48:53at the patterns
48:53of fallen oak leaves.
48:55And at Delphi,
48:57one of the greatest
48:58of the Greek temples.
48:59They had their own
49:00special way
49:01of communicating
49:02with the gods.
49:13The Greeks dedicated
49:15their most famous temple
49:16at Delphi
49:17to their god, Apollo.
49:19It was home
49:20to the oracle,
49:21a female priest
49:22called Apathea.
49:23And when she spoke,
49:25it was believed
49:26she was uttering
49:26the words
49:27of Apollo himself.
49:33Thousands journeyed here
49:34each year.
49:35They came from
49:36all walks of life,
49:37kings down to peasants,
49:39politicians,
49:39soldiers,
49:40philosophers.
49:41Peace treaties
49:42between warring states
49:43would often include
49:44a clause
49:45giving free access
49:46to the oracle.
49:47And on the advice
49:48that the oracle gave,
49:50commanders would decide
49:51whether or not
49:51to go to war.
49:52But also hundreds
49:53of ordinary men and women
49:54would decide
49:55who to marry
49:56or when to have children.
49:59After some rituals
50:00and sacrifices,
50:01the Apathea would enter
50:02into an inner sanctum.
50:03And it was here
50:05that she sat astride
50:06a tripod
50:07and began talking
50:08in a completely mysterious
50:10and incomprehensible language
50:11that only the priests
50:13could interpret.
50:16This led to some
50:17catastrophic misunderstandings,
50:19famously by the Lydian king,
50:21Crocius.
50:22If you attack the Persians,
50:23he was told,
50:24you will destroy
50:25a great empire.
50:26Well, he did,
50:27but it was his own.
50:29So the question is,
50:30was the oracle just a sham?
50:32Was the Pythia nothing more
50:34than an actress
50:35in league with the priests
50:36because there was a certain fee
50:38involved with every consultation?
50:40Well, I'm not so sure.
50:41A former priest of the temple
50:43wrote that before going
50:45into a trance,
50:46the Pythia would drink
50:47from a spring
50:48and inhale vapors
50:50from deep within the earth.
50:53Greece is one of the world's
50:55most actively seismic areas
50:56and it's incredibly prone
50:58to earthquakes.
50:59And here at Delphi,
51:00we're actually sitting on top
51:01of two crisscrossing faults.
51:04Now, what scientists
51:04have recently shown
51:05is that one of these faults
51:07passes directly beneath
51:08the temple of Apollo,
51:09right through that inner sanctum
51:11where the Pythia
51:12is thought to have sat.
51:13Now, these faults
51:15sometimes produce
51:16intoxicating gases
51:17and that's just what
51:19the Pythia would have needed
51:20to start seeing
51:20into the future.
51:26Well, recent surveys
51:28of this spring
51:28where the Oracle drank
51:29have found various gases
51:31and intriguingly,
51:34one of these is ethylene.
51:37In large doses,
51:39ethylene can induce euphoria,
51:41even delirium.
51:42So I think there's
51:43a strong chance
51:44that the Oracle
51:44wasn't uttering
51:45Apollo's words at all.
51:46A different sort of spirit
51:48was getting to her.
51:52Whatever it was
51:53that induced the Pythia
51:54into her spiritual trances,
51:56it's without question
51:57the gods were incredibly important
51:59to the ancient Greeks,
52:00as was the place they lived,
52:02the heavens.
52:04The Greeks named planets
52:05after their gods.
52:07Ares, we call him Mars,
52:09the god of war.
52:10Aphrodite, we call her Venus,
52:12the goddess of love.
52:14And Hermes,
52:15the messenger to the gods.
52:17Over 2,500 years ago,
52:20Greek scientists
52:20were beginning to develop
52:22some important
52:23astronomical ideas.
52:25Pythagoras argued
52:26that the Earth was round
52:27and he realised
52:28that the morning
52:29and the evening star
52:30were the same planet,
52:32Venus.
52:33In about 260 BC,
52:35Aristarchos understood
52:36that the then-known
52:37five planets
52:38revolved around the sun,
52:40not around the Earth.
52:41A few years later,
52:43Eratosthenes measured
52:45the circumference of the Earth
52:46and got the equivalent
52:47of 40,000 kilometres.
52:49He was spot on.
52:53There were good reasons
52:54why the ancients
52:55wanted to understand
52:56the movement
52:57of the sun and the stars.
52:59It was all about timekeeping.
53:01What was the best time
53:02to plant,
53:03to prune,
53:04to harvest?
53:04That could make the difference
53:06between life and death.
53:08But they were also fascinated
53:10by the weird wanderings
53:12of the planets
53:13and my favourite piece
53:14of Greek brilliance
53:15is all to do
53:16with predicting
53:17the peregrinations
53:18of the planets.
53:24Of all the Greek inventions,
53:26there's one
53:27that has perplexed
53:28the experts
53:28ever since it was discovered
53:30over 100 years ago
53:31by a group of sponge divers.
53:34Driven off course
53:35by a storm,
53:36they found a huge,
53:37unknown wreck
53:38near the island
53:39of Antikythera.
53:40During eight months
53:42of diving and excavation,
53:43tiny bronze fragments
53:45were found
53:46and complex
53:47miniature gear wheels.
53:49Astonishingly,
53:50it seemed as if
53:51an ancient computer
53:52had been unearthed.
53:54A huge row broke out.
53:56Exactly what was
53:57this Antikythera machine?
53:59One man believes
54:01he has the answer.
54:04Michael Wright
54:05has been working
54:06on ancient mechanisms
54:07for 20 years
54:08and probably knows
54:09more about them
54:10than anyone else
54:10in the world.
54:11Michael,
54:12what are you actually doing?
54:13I've just finished
54:14making a little gear wheel
54:15of 96 teeth.
54:1796 teeth?
54:18Wow!
54:19That is amazing.
54:22Beautiful thing.
54:23Is this your version
54:24of the Antikythera mechanism?
54:25This is my reconstruction
54:28of just,
54:29at the moment,
54:30the front half
54:31of the mechanism
54:31and the bits I'm making
54:33are for the back half
54:34that I've now worked out.
54:35But it's amazingly complicated.
54:37Yes.
54:37So explain it to me.
54:40My idea is
54:41that the Antikythera mechanism
54:42was a planetarium.
54:43So it showed
54:45the positions
54:46of Sun,
54:48Moon
54:48and the five known planets
54:50in the Zodiac.
54:51Right.
54:52When you look
54:53into the box here,
54:54Okay.
54:56Let me hold it.
54:58We've got
54:59this part
54:59that
55:01goes round
55:03one turn
55:04for a year
55:04and three little
55:06epicycles
55:06sitting on it.
55:07Right.
55:07That's for the Sun,
55:09that's for Mercury,
55:09that's for Venus.
55:11Oh wow!
55:11We can send them round
55:13like that.
55:13Oh hey!
55:14That is fascinating.
55:15And you see these levers
55:16are picking up
55:16the motion
55:17of the epicycles
55:18and they'll transmit it
55:19through the hands
55:20which we'll put on
55:21in a moment
55:22up to the dial
55:23on the top.
55:24So I'm running it backwards
55:25at the moment
55:25ready to put together.
55:27It's already ludicrously
55:28complicated.
55:29It's complicated enough
55:30but that is
55:33based very closely
55:35on what we find
55:35in the original bit.
55:36The rest has come
55:37out of my head
55:38because I say
55:39anyone who'd
55:40gone to the trouble
55:41of this much complication
55:42to show that
55:43the Sun and Moon
55:44and Mercury and Venus
55:45would want the other planets
55:46as well.
55:46The Antikythera mechanism
55:48is unique.
55:49No other machine
55:51of anything like
55:52this complexity
55:52has ever been found
55:54from the ancient world.
56:00But now
56:01with all the pieces
56:02carefully in place
56:03it's time
56:03for the moment of truth.
56:06From a tower
56:07in the castle
56:07Michael is going
56:08to check his machine
56:09against the position
56:10of Venus
56:11in the morning sky
56:12but will he get it right?
56:18There's the sun behind it.
56:19Fantastic view.
56:20And then
56:21it was only 543 steps.
56:26Right, Michael.
56:27We can see the Sun
56:29and
56:29oh, beautiful mechanism.
56:31So, what do you reckon
56:32the angle should be?
56:34Well,
56:34we've just got to make a
56:35check the adjustment
56:37for today's date.
56:38This sharp pointer
56:39is the date
56:40so we'll get that right.
56:41There's the sun behind it.
56:42OK.
56:43There's Venus round here
56:44and the angle between them
56:45is 42 degrees.
56:47You claim.
56:48I claim.
56:48OK.
56:48Let's see.
56:50So,
56:51this instrument's
56:52a dioptera
56:53which just means
56:54a thing to look through.
56:55It's got two sighting tubes.
56:56One for pointing at the sun
56:58and I'm not going to look
56:59through it at the sun
57:00which is much too bright.
57:01We're going to cast
57:02a pool of light through it.
57:03Right.
57:04Shade more down
57:05towards me.
57:06There.
57:06There.
57:07That's the sun.
57:08Now, we have to move
57:09reasonably fast
57:10because the sun
57:10is always moving.
57:11Right.
57:12We know we want
57:12to find Venus
57:13at about 42 degrees.
57:15You claim.
57:16I claim.
57:17So, that's the angle.
57:18Ah, so that's the angle
57:19between the two.
57:19That's the angle
57:20between the two tubes.
57:21Yes, gotcha.
57:21Now, we have to tilt this
57:22to get the elevation right.
57:23OK.
57:24And I have to go
57:24looking for Venus.
57:26I'm on Venus now.
57:27Right.
57:28OK.
57:28And the angle is?
57:3143 degrees.
57:33That's pretty amazing.
57:34So close.
57:35And this machine
57:36was constructed
57:37with the original
57:37constructed in 80 BC,
57:39was it?
57:39That's when it was lost
57:40in the shipwreck.
57:41Right.
57:41So, it was earlier than that.
57:42A little earlier.
57:43Amazing.
57:43Amazing.
57:44They were obviously
57:46incredibly ingenious
57:46with their hands
57:47as well as with their brains.
57:49This one object
57:50shows us
57:51that they were
57:52interested in gadgets.
57:54They liked having them around.
57:55They were quite capable
57:56of making them
57:56when they wanted them.
57:57Yes.
57:58Fantastic, isn't it?
57:59And the Greeks
57:59were an extraordinary people.
58:01They gave us so much
58:02of what we have today.
58:03They gave us the theatre,
58:05democracy,
58:06our ideas of ethics.
58:07They gave us music,
58:09mathematics,
58:10and most of all,
58:11they actually built
58:12a computer
58:13to encapsulate
58:14the greatest mystery
58:15of all,
58:16the working
58:17of the heavens.
58:21To receive a free
58:22Open University leaflet
58:24which accompanies
58:25this series
58:25and details
58:26of Open University
58:27programmes,
58:28telephone 0870 900 0352
58:31or go to
58:32bbc.co.uk
58:33slash history.
58:38Next time,
58:39we stay at home
58:39and look at what
58:40the ancient Britons
58:41did for us.
58:42From homemaking
58:43to bronzemaking,
58:44from sacred stones
58:46to superb fighting chariots,
58:48we were surprisingly capable
58:49before the Romans
58:50came and changed
58:51our way of life forever.
58:52We'll see you next time.
58:52Bye-bye.
58:53Bye-bye.