A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
Three people's fates are interwoven in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 A.D., during which Germanic warriors halt the spread of the Roman Empire.
Acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. Set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the Roman emperors - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius.
The struggle between the Roman Empire and its rebellious conquest Judaea, and two best friends caught in a terrible moment in history.
As Conqueror Julius Caesar is drawing his last breath, he swears Tyrannus—Rome's finest warrior—to an oath to protect his successor, Octavius, his 18-year-old nephew. Tyrannus and Octavius are forced into exile to protect the young man from those who want to sever Caesar's bloodline once and for all.
The Caesars is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1968. Made in black-and-white and written and produced by Philip Mackie, it covered similar dramatic territory to the later BBC adaptation of I, Claudius, dealing with the lives of the early emperors of Ancient Rome, but differed in its less sensationalist depictions of historical characters and their motives.
This stylish mix of documentary and historical epic chronicles the reign of Commodus, the emperor whose rule marked the beginning of Rome's fall.
As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.
A story of eternal romance and inevitable disaster recounting the tale of this once majestic city.
Forbidden love blossoms in the city of Pompeii, which until the eruption of volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD, is one of the empire's most powerful cities.
This seven-hour British-Italian adaptation of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 epic, set against the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and previously filmed in 1935, and in 1960 was a vehicle for muscleman Steve Reeves, was trashed by the critics as the campiest of sword and sandal sagas to emerge in years. This despite its reported $19-million price tag, the nobility of its cast that includes Laurence Olivier, Siobhan McKenna and Anthony Quayle, and its rather unspectacular special effects. The central figures are Nicholas Clay as Glaucus, the noble Athenian; Olivia Hussey as the high-born Ione, his love, who is seduced by the Egyptian, Arbaces (Franco Nero), a religious fanatic; Duncan Regehr as Lydon, the champion gladiator; and Linda Purl as the blind slave Nydia, who is torn between Glaucus and Lydon.
The extraordinary rise of Livia Drusilla, who overcame adversity to become the most powerful woman in the world. Follow Livia’s journey from a naïve young girl whose world crumbles in the wake of Julius Caesar’s assassination, to Rome’s most powerful and influential Empress.
Twenty year-old Julius Caesar flees Rome for his life during the reign of Sulla but through skill and ambition rises four decades later to become Rome's supreme dictator.
Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment.
Cleopatra, the famed Egyptian Queen born in 69 B.C., is shown to have been brought by Roman ruler Julius Caesar at age 18. Caesar becomes sexually obsessed by the 18 year old queen, beds her, and eventually has a son by her. However, his Roman followers and his wife are not pleased by the union. In fact, as Caesar has only a daughter by his wife, he had picked Octavian as his successor.
Within the spectacular, complex and corrupt world of gladiatorial sports in Ancient Rome, follow an ensemble of diverse characters across the many layers of Roman society where sports, politics and business intersect and collide.
Cestvs enters his first match at the slave gladiator training school. Though he's bewildered to discover that his opponent is his best friend, he wins the match, and his opponent is killed on the spot. According to his instructor Zafar, losers have no future. "Every time you win, your opponent will die. You're practically a murderer!" With all his sorrow and rage clenched in his fists, Cestvs survives, as one after another powerful opponents stand in his way, as well as the shadow of Nero, fifth emperor of the Roman Empire. With no other way to secure his freedom, can Cestvs seize his future?!
As Egypt's last pharaoh, Cleopatra fights to protect her throne, family and legacy in this docuseries featuring reenactments and expert interviews.
Bettany Hughes relives eight pivotal days that defined the Roman Empire and made it the world's first superpower.
Up Pompeii! is a British television comedy series broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the Carry On films, and the second series by Rothwell and Sid Colin. Two later specials were transmitted in 1975 and 1991.