Modern scientific research in the arctic shows that 81 out of 89 cores display evidence of Roman mining pollution when it was at its most harmful. Lead works, pottery kilns, smelting plants and slag heaps characterised the landscape of the Roman empire. Millions of tons of trees were cut down for buildings, fortresses and burned for heat and industry and everything went up into our atmosphere and in and out of the lungs of the millions of Roman slaves.

Later in the same film, when Kirk Douglas tries to buy a fleet of pirate ships to take his army of slaves away from Italy, have we ever thought just how many trees, iron nails, textiles for sails and ropes were needed to build just one Roman galley ?

In a new book on the Roman impact on southern France - 'Gallia Narbonensis: The Roman conquest and Governance of Southern France' author and historian Philip Kay-Bujak assesses the legacy of the Roman world and how we are not the only generations responsible for global warming. The retreating ice in the French Alps has allowed the most recent 2017 scientific study to establish that the levels of lead toxicity in the Roman period equalled that of emissions from petrol cars between 1950 and 1985. Although Spartacus did not use it in his battle cry in the film, he could just as easily have rebelled against Lawrence Olivier and the impact of the Romans were having on climate change - as he did about slavery. Philip Kay-Bujak's book is a travel guide for the Roman remains of southern France and will be published by Pen & Sword Books in November.  Join us for 'An Evening with Philip Kay-Bujak' on Wednesday 27 November, and get your signed copy on our special editions page.