Meet the Romans: Citizens of the Empire

Mary takes the Appian Way, one of the earliest and most important roads of the Roman republic, to the heart of the ancient epicenter of the Roman Empire. Here, she shows us the daily lives of ordinary citizens in imperial times.

Mary heads into the streets to discover the dirt, crime, sex, and slum conditions in the world's first high-rise city. Oddly enough, the poorer you were, the higher you lived, with little space, light, or sanitation.

To learn about Roman family life, Mary looks at thousands of tombstones of ordinary Romans, their children, and their slaves. Each has a story waiting to be told.