Across the series we explore eight key days that she believes define the Roman Empire and help us to understand its remarkable success. Constantine was one of the last great Roman emperors to rule over a united empire, giving it a new capital - Constantinople, today known as Istanbul - a city which would one day eclipse Rome as the greatest city on Earth. It took Rome a while to recover, but under Scipio, who had survived Cannae, the Romans eventually built enough strength to, in effect, challenge Hannibal to a winner-take-all rematch. The outrage provoked the Iceni queen to lead a revolt that came perilously close to ending the Roman occupation of Britannia. This was a decisive moment, setting Rome on the path to greatness and exemplifying the military muscle and supreme ambition on which its empire would be built.
Most people are familiar with the Spartacus revolt and the attack on Boudica, for example. We have this amazing archaeological find of gold and jewellery among all of these flash dried figs and mustard seeds. It was a huge part of their culture and it was part of what it meant to be Roman. Constantine was one of the last great Roman emperors to rule over a united empire, giving it a new capital - Constantinople, today known as Istanbul - a city which would one day eclipse Rome as the greatest city on Earth. Something that I hope the people will take from the series is a sense of the sheer physical expanse of the Roman empire. It seems such a human moment. So, although they did things differently to us, they also had the sophistication to question themselves.
What event did you find particularly interesting? One of our three trips to Rome ran into the full blast of a heatwave, with temperatures reaching 45°C. Bettany travels across the Roman world in a bid to find answers. Who built them, how were they built and why? In episode three, we focus on Julius Caesar and try to analyse him in a new light. To help us get the maximum from our limited shoot days, we collaborated with some of the best stunt co-ordinators, performers and horse-riders in Bulgaria. It primarily features close-ups of armed soldiers swinging weapons at each other, often to indeterminate ends.
Should we be looking for days that were significant, but that also gave us a great window into important, broader themes in Roman history? Airdate: Sunday 6 January 2019 at 9. The next major battle would take place on the unforgiving deserts of North Africa on October 19, 202 B. They understood the constraints of our budget and were forever forthcoming with creative ideas, proposing clever ways to wring the most from our resources to make the drama as impactful and spectacular as possible. Meanwhile, through the story of Boudicca, we explore what Rome looked like from the outside violent, rapacious and hyper-aggressive, for the most part. The final episode looks at the day Constantine, close to death, was finally baptised as a Christian.
They did operate in a different way and lived in a very different kind of world. Bettany Hughes recalls eight pivotal days that defined the Roman Empire and its establishment as the world's first superpower. Each programme works as a stand-alone, as strong in its own right as part of a series and reveals a Rome relevant to us today, with its noblest and darkest instincts still resonating in the world around us. This allowed our cast to arrive in Bulgaria motivated and prepared, ready to hit the ground running, with ideas and goals firmly set. Through these and other adversities, Bettany soldiered on with tireless professionalism and charm.
Now the archaeology is being taken a stage further with new technology. I think people are fascinated by how ordinary people lived. Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian and broadcaster. Little moments like that seem to really collapse the years between now and 2,000 years ago. For new emperor Titus, the spectacular games and events were an opportunity to win over the people and secure his place on the imperial throne, but why did the Romans - cultured and civilised in so many ways - enjoy witnessing such brutality and bloodletting? The fact that they buried Vestal Virgins alive.
. Recent discoveries show how the pyramids evolved from a mound of rocks and sand to flat, rectangular mastabas, to the pyramid shape, so famously exhibited in the Great pyramid of Khufu and beyond. Bettany travels across the Roman world in a bid to find answers. We examine exactly why it was built — because it was part of this fledgling dynasty who were trying to establish themselves. Throw in the additional requirements of a historical series costumes, props, animals, specialist locations and so on and the scale of the challenge quickly grows. What counts as a misuse or an abuse of power? With the aid of the most recent archaeological finds and theories, she examines Caesar's character, his dealings with Crassus, Pompey the Great and Cicero, and how his quest for absolute power effectively sounded the death knell for the Roman Republic and paved the way for dictatorial rule. They operated a slave economy, and had these massive sites in which they slaughtered both humans and animals, but they also debated their actions.
He shows how one of many independent societies became a commanding empire - not through force, but by using subtle methods of persuasion. Catch up with Joseph's Spartacus the Revolt episode on my5. One theory poses that King Sneferu's Bent Pyramid was not a mistake. You need to be an expert to successfully explain complex history in a simple way. Each programme works as a stand-alone, as strong in its own right as part of a series and reveals a Rome relevant to us today, with its noblest and darkest instincts still resonating in the world around us. We wanted people to realise that the empire starts somewhere, and is not just born great. His death ended the empire's first dynasty and ushered in an age of anarchy and civil war.
On matters of external rather than internal policy, the Romans returned to Carthage less than 60 years after the battle of Zama and leveled the city, slaughtering almost all its citizens. Venturing from the coast to the clouds, he reveals how the Inca transformed one of the most challenging landscapes in the world to ward off the worst effects of the climate, and created sophisticated systems of communication. An has been shared on the Broadcast website, along with this great photo of Joseph Millson behind the scenes. Join host Bettany Hughes as she examines the archaeological sites and remarkable finds associated with this seminal day in Rome's rise. Were we looking for the eight most important days in Roman history? While it may have been another 171 years before Rome formally became an empire, the pieces were now in place. If you had to pick one, which of these figures is most interesting to you? Ultimately, it was an evidence-based decision: I chose particular moments where I knew that we had a new archaeological discovery to share with the public. Our first challenge was to pick eight days that the production team, our presenter Bettany Hughes and C5 could all enthusiastically get behind.
This single day of combat set Rome on the path to greatness and exemplified the military muscle and ambition of the emerging empire. Before then, Carthage had been the city with an empire, which stretched across North Africa from Lebanon to the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea and had expanded north from there to incorporate most what is now Spain. It was here he made a final declaration of the spiritual allegiance that had a profound importance not just for the Empire, but for the future of the world. Rome had been interested in the empire idea for a while, but 16 years earlier, Hannibal had made his famous march across the Alps and crushed the Roman army in the Battle of Cannae. They had an incredibly strong military ethos, which we can see in the stories and myths that they tell about themselves. Are there any misconceptions we have about Rome? From underground burial chambers they developed into soaring structures that revolutionized architecture. In the series, however, we talk to an archaeologist working on the site of one of these communities.