User Reviews

Although one must congratulate the makers for the width of subjects covered and the cooperation of so many resounding names, this series is of decidedly less quality than other history documentary series I know. Especially since the views offered on the various events in the history of the Roman empire never go beyond the conventional views and, moreover, portray the non-Roman peoples almost exclusively from the point of view of Roman writers. Who, as we know, were heavily biased towards Rome and less than honest about those whom they saw as barbarians and thus inferior. For instance, the episode about the conquest of Britain painted a picture of the Britons which I can only call a caricature. If we are to believe the images in this episode, Britons in the first century AD were indeed the primitive savages that the Romans asserted they were. While we know from the research done by various British archaeologists and historians that Brittannia at the time of the Roman conquest actually harboured an advanced civilisation. (By the way - how on earth can an ancient Briton like Caradog/Caratacus carry about such a huge mediaeval sword of a kind that didn't come along until the high Middle Ages?) Furthermore, the episode about Constantine the Great painted him as a full-fledged Christian convert after the battle of the Milvian Bridge, while in reality this was a much longer process. Constantine actually dedicated his Milvian Bridge victory to Sol Invictus, so he was still pretty much a pagan at that moment. And then we see him receiving the Eucharist, while he did not get baptised until he lay on his death bed - and back then it was simply unthinkable for a non-baptised person to receive the Eucharist, be he emperor or no. In brief: kudos for the extensive scope of the series, but the implementation leaves much to be desired.

This video set focuses on the Roman history we rarely see any information about. The focus of this set is the Roman interaction with the Germanic wars, Britannia, Dracons and other barbarian tribes and territories. This set is centered on the campaigns & battles with the barbarian tribes and little known Roman emperors... so if you are wanting to focus on the flashy or romanticized figures of Roman history such as Nero or Caligula or Octavian or Cleopatra... this is not the set to buy. Nor does it include any engineering or building of temples. The video does have Julius Caesar and Marcus Aurelius, but only those events of their lives which were associated with the barbarian tribes.

Your family can watch this series. This set is not filled with p0rn like the HBO Rome XXX soap opera.

If you are interested in the rarely covered barbarian wars and campaigns... then this video is for you. These barbarian campaigns and battles are what eventually broke the back of the Roman Empire. It is not the actual battles which are important… rather the cause of the battles which were the issues.

Every time the Romans bartered a deal with the barbarians, promising land or money or other truces… time after time, from one emperor to the next, the Romans consistently failed to follow through on their promises. The integrity of someone's word or promises was the most important issue for the barbarians. This would set off the barbarians into a murderous, unrelenting rage of vengeance against the Romans which eventually destroyed Rome. The Romans never learned. Thus, "those who fail to learn from the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them."

This History channel documentary series is well presented with their usual quality of information and visual recreation of the events, stories, costumes and locations as they provide narration and historical details. This series also covers a lot of information on several plagues and mass starvation's which struck Rome that have rarely been mentioned by any other documentary.

This video covers little known or rarely mentioned Roman emperors and the regions which started to break away from Rome. Decius, Aurelian, Phillip, Constantine and many, many more are included in this series. Rarely seen information on leaders like Queen Zenobia has been brought to life in their historical roles.

It never ceases to amaze me is how these "experts" have not yet figured out that the Roman army did not march hundreds of miles wearing full helmets and armor. They only wore those into battle. When they were just moving troops, they stored their gear on wagons which traveled with their regiments.

However, there was one irritant with this video. Despite the PhD's, Chairs, or books of Thomas R Martin, his speech is so grossly overly exaggerated, he nearly gags himself while speaking. Just the simple word "food" nearly has him strangling on his tongue. It honestly reminds me of the guttural noises Jim Carey makes. It drops Martin's perceived IQ level by 50 points per word. Remember how Jim Carey and Morgan Freeman said, "It's gooood" in an exaggerated way on "Bruce Almighty?" That's the way this guy talks on this video. He nearly gags on the words with "oo" or "ew" sounds. This guy's problem is from sheer habitual laziness not an impediment. People tend to judge by someone's actions or speaking skills and not their resume. His input was quite laughable and annoying whenever he appeared on the video because of his extremely exaggerated speech quirks.

When someone sounds as absurd as this guy does, it is so distracting you don't hear a word he says. Even some of his students claimed he is unorganized... while others commented that he was funny and kept them awake (no doubt, after hearing him sound like a clown on the video, I'm sure he's a laugh a minute but it isn't funny on a documentary.)

Then there is the issue that anytime a documentary selects a consultant from a theological college to be a commentator, it is going to constrain the information they provide. A professor or employee would have to limit their comments within the confines of the policies and beliefs of that institution, no matter what the denomination. This isn't a disparagement. It is a fact. Employees are understandably not going to speak outside of the confines of institutional policies or make negative statements about their particular denomination. They would be unemployed the next day… just the same as if I went on TV and made disparaging remarks about my employer. You can't expect someone to make negative comments concerning the policies of their employer as a commentator on a documentary. It makes no sense to put someone in that position in the first place. It is just common sense. When dealing with historical issues on a documentary, there are going to be negatives in the development of any civilization or religion. A documentary has to be unbiased to provide historic facts about these events which are not driven from any particular theological viewpoint.

It was also a bit much to hear some of these commentators using modern terms like WMD or National security or 911 to make references to ancient Rome. These modern phrases and terms meant absolutely nothing to ancient civilizations. I also got tired of hearing the term "Usurper" repeated throughout the video hundreds of times. It seems that someone needs to buy the narrative scriptwriter a copy of Roget's Thesaurus.

Aside from the minor issues with the production, overall, the basic information and presentation (other than the one commentator) was quite refreshing. All of the historic information was fresh and unique from other videos on Rome and presented with full recreation of events.

I liked this series a lot. The series does not try to cover the entire history of the Empire continuously. Rather, each episode covers a specific critical episode or period for the Empire, concentrating on Rome's contentious relations with the various barbarian tribes from Marius' wars with invading Gauls to the fall of Rome. In some episodes, the story deviates to civil conflict or conflict with eastern civilizations, but the emphasis is mostly on the barbarians.

While the series does cover some of the better known periods like Spartacus, the Rise and Fall of Julius Caesar, Marcus Aurelius' barbarian wars, and Attila the Hun, the series also covers a lot of history that is far less covered in media, such as Marius wars against tribes invading Italy and the subsequent strife between Marius and the nobles, Trajan's conquest of Dacia, Stilicho's attempts to save the Empire, Rome's conflicts with the Gauls, the Vandal's conquest of Africa, etc. I would have liked to see them cover even more, like the Punic Wars, early Italian wars, maybe follow up the story of Marius with the story of Cornelius Sulla, and cover the period of barracks Emperors better. But, the Roman Empire lasted a very long time (until 1453 if you count the Eastern 'Byzantine' period). And, budgets for series like this are only so big. I doubt there will ever be a truly comprehensive television documentary.

Of course, the series isn't perfect. The dramatizations seem to use a lot of generic "Roman" and "barbarian" wardrobe and props without too much concern about being correct for the period or tribe. Sometimes what is well-supported conjecture is presented as known fact. But, overall they did a very good job on this series.