Empire Games - Season 1

Rome's first dynasty, founded by Julius Caesar, ruled the Empire for 100 years. From Caesar's murder on the floor of the Senate to the mad emperors Caligula and Nero, this chapter in the Roman Empire offers enough intrigue, betrayal, perversion and murder for an entire series!

In the fifth century BC an obscure people banded together to repel an invasion by the most powerful army in the world. The Greeks incredible victory over Persia launched their quest for Empire. Along the way they laid the foundations of Western thought and literature. These revolutionary ideas were spread to the ends of the Earth by the most feared military commander of the ancient world... Alexander the Great!

For almost 3000 years, Egypt was the dominant civilization in the Mediterranean world. From the Great Pyramids to the cruel Social Pyramid - Ancient Egyptian pharaohs, nobility, and priests enjoyed lavish lives of wealth and comfort while farmers and slaves struggled to survive under their ruthless reigns. Tyrants ruled in the face of violent uprisings, assassinations and religious revolutions.

China is the longest continuous civilization on Earth, spanning 7,000 years of history. The Imperial past is filled with dramatic stories of tyrannical courts of emperors and eunuchs along with great philosophers, impressive inventors and merciless warriors. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that gave the Emperor of China direct control of vast territories and led to tumultuous in-fighting, jealousy and political intrigue.

At their height of power the Celtic Empire stretched over the ancient world from Ireland and Britain to Turkey and Czechoslovakia, from Belgium and Gaul to Spain and Italy. They sacked Rome, invaded Greece, and even attempted to conquer the Pharaohs of Egypt. Yet theirs was an empire without an emperor, a civilization that encompassed the continent but had no central government. The religion of the Celts, led by a priesthood known as the Druids, was described by ancient writers as crude and violent. Druids served as priests and religious leaders, but also as judges and sacrificers. Celts had a reputation as headhunters as they saw the human head as the center of the emotions as well as of life itself.

The mighty Pre Columbian empires of the Maya, Aztecs and Inca, were advanced civilizations with an organized social structure that flourished in art, mathematics, astronomy, and perhaps most notably, architecture and engineering. Their god-kings acted as mediators between mortals and the supernatural realm. They lead through skillful political alliances, strategic marriages, human sacrifice and murder. Ancient enmity with their vassal states led to devastating betrayal. Then, the Spanish - those strange bearded men in steel clothes astride huge four-legged beasts - cleverly played tribe against tribe in destroying these great empires.