The history of the peplum genre, known as sword-and-sandal cinema, set in Antiquity, from the silent film era to the present day.
Octavio secretly sent his consul Curridio to Alexandria in a final attempt to reach peace. In the city, he meets Berenice, a mysterious and beautiful dancer who falls in love. Actually, the dancer is the queen Cleopatra who leads a double life using this name.
Recently widowed Persian King Ahasuerus wants to marry the beautiful Esther. But Esther is a Jewess, and Haman, the king's evil minister, is spreading hatred against the Jews.
In ancient Rome a love story blossoms between Fabiola, daughter of a senator, and Rhual, a Gallic gladiator. After Fabiola's father is killed, the Romans blame the Christians and the persecution begins. Rhual confesses to being a Christian, is accused of the murder and sentenced to fight to the death in the arena.
The peaceful countryside village of Solmen is savagely assaulted by wild Ungats led by bloodthirsty Magen. In the midst of battle, two baby boys are miraculously saved by a tribe of Amazon warriors known as the Kuniats. The warriors nurture and train the boys for future struggles. The stronger of the two is named , Gunan The Invincible. It is up to Gunan to avenge the annihilation of his people. Gunan stages a spectacular one man war of vengeance against his enemy the Ungats, but they prove to be a formidable enemy, and much bloodshed ensues.
A Roman noble, Cethegus, tries to start a war, setting the Ostrogoths and their Queen, Amalasuntha, against the Byzantine Emperor Justinian; Cethegus wants to swoop in after they have destroyed each other and create a new Roman Empire from their combined kingdoms; however, he does not factor into his plans the vagaries of love and the personal integrity of the people in both kingdoms.
Angry at his wife and defeated in battle, the king of Judea is taken prisoner. After being spared by the Romans, King Herod comes to believe he's been a victim of court plotting.
In a tyrannical kingdom there is an evil ruler and a queen who lusts after Hercules who is attracted to a handmaiden. A rebellion overthrows the ruler.
In the first century A.D. Carthago Nova is a splendid city of the Roman Empire. The Albino prosperous family is obliged to enter into competition with the mighty Lucio Andro to achieve the award of works. A conflict that will last for several years and that will worsen with the economic decline of the city and the popular revival of gladiatorial games.
Hercules, after sailing global waters is eventually shipwrecked in South America. After losing his Greek shipmates, Hercules is enlisted to overthrow a tyrannical king int he land of the Incas. Featuring scenic views of the mountains of the Andes.
In Pompeii in the year 79, Lycias and Helen fall in love. Helen's guardian, the high priest of Isis, wants to separate them. To do so, he tries to make Lycias drink a love potion, but a young slave threatens to reveal everything. The high priest, unable to silence her, kills her and arranges to have Lycias accused...
Directed by Bob McNaught. King Saul of Israel is jealous of the fame and adoration of David, who long ago slew Goliath and brought victory to Saul's armies. Now Saul, egged on by his Edomite counselor Doeg, attempts to have David killed. Saul's son, and David's best friend, Jonathan, conspires to help David, who is reluctant to fight back against his own people the Israelites.
Revak is an Iberian prince from Penda, a small island where the Carthagian fleet ransacked and enslaved the surviving native men, including him. After an eventful passage aboard a galley, Revak becomes an elephant driver in Carthage city, and could become the favorite of mighty women, but has only one thirst: bloody revenge, at all cost, so the barbarian makes common cause with the attacking Romans, Carthage's historical enemy and rival for Mediterranean hegemony, scorning love...
Messalina was the Roman noblewoman who inveigled ageing emperor Claudio into marriage. Once ensconced on the throne, Messalina launched a reign of terror that shook the empire to its very foundations. The subject of countless film treatments, Rome's most villified empress is herein played by British actress Belinda Lee.
A hero saves a beautiful young princess from a forced marriage to an evil villain.
Fleeing Troy in the wake of its destruction, fair-faced Helen and her faithful protector Arion run into the pharaoh Ramses, who sets his sights on Helen -- and is subsequently murdered. Now it's up to Arion to save Helen from those who wish her dead.
In 54 B.C. Julius Caesar seeks to solidify his position in Rome by putting down a rebellion in Gaul led by a tribal chieftain named Vercingetorix. Vercingetorix has rallied many tribes to his cause, including one led by the beautiful Queen Asterid and others who'd once pledged allegiance to Rome.
Attalus, a war prisoner by Rome, proves his valor in the arena, becomes a gladiator trainer, conquers the women's hearts and the men's envy, and saves Rome from a political plot to a usurper to occupy the throne.
King's swordsman Captain Buridan, hero of the Flanders campaign, returns to Paris to find it in a grip of fear -a "vampire/witch" in the "Tower of Sin" is luring young men to their deaths by offering them a night of sexual ecstasy followed by savage slaughter. Buridan is holding secrets of his own and his battle to save France from an evil Chancellor, an impotent King and a lascivious, wanton Queen make the battlefields of war seem like child's play.
Gordon Scott plays Glaucus, the prince of Tiryns, a powerful warrior who goes undercover in Mycenae to infiltrate the evil cult of Moloch, which is exacting tribute from neighboring kingdoms in the form of attractive young hostages, both male and female. Calling himself "Hercules," Glaucus defeats Mycenae's champions and gains the favor of the voluptuous Queen Demetra (Rosalba Neri) whose son, covered in a dog's head mask, has been raised as the living embodiment of the dark god Moloch and receives sacrifices in his sprawling underground grotto.