Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire - Season 1

Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire - Season 1

Season 1

Network
Episodes13
DatesJul 21, 2008 - Dec 22, 2008

Episodes

The First Barbarian War
Season 1Episode 160 min

The First Barbarian War

It is 113 BC. Rome is a republic, a small empire clinging to the rim of the Mediterranean. Though it is a democracy in name and spirit, a man there still must be rich and from the noble class to hold the highest offices, both political and military. The system has worked well for three centuries. But now a barbarian horde known as the Cimbri smashes through the northern imperial border. One humiliating defeat follows another, with losses of hundreds of thousands of Roman legionaries. Terror grips Rome and drives her into the arms of General Marius. Though a commoner, Marius has a brilliant military mind. To defeat the Cimbri, he will transform the Roman army and shake the Republic's political foundations to the core. It is a turning point for the Republic. Faced with the savage Cimbri, Rome must decide between dictatorship and annihilation.

Jul 21, 2008
Spartacus
Season 1Episode 260 min

Spartacus

When Roman generals Pompey and Crassus, lead their mighty legions of soldiers and mercenaries into the lands surrounding Italy, neither could anticipate the turmoil caused by one bold mercenary: a Thracian warrior named Spartacus. Spartacus deserts the Roman army, but is captured and enslaved, forced to fight as a gladiator. Then in 73 BC, the untamable barbarian leads a slave revolt of 70,000 gladiators against the Roman Republic. Though the brutal and conniving Roman General Crassus is finally able to suppress the revolt, his rival, the more popular Pompey, takes all the credit, sparking a division within the Republic itself that will ultimately spell its demise.

Oct 6, 2008
Julius Caesar
Season 1Episode 360 min

Julius Caesar

It is 60 BC. Over-powerful generals and money corrupts the Roman Republic. The empire churns with civil war, and violence and murder run rampant in the streets. Julius Caesar, desperate for fame and honor, embarks on a brutal decade long campaign to annex Gaul and build his own reputation. His aristocratic rivals try to stop him, but he is an expert manipulator. His propaganda and extravagant victories against bloodthirsty barbarians thrill the public. In 49 BC, he crosses the Rubicon intending to claim his rightful place as the chief man of Rome. It sparks a new civil war that pits him against Pompey the Great and sounds the final death knell for the Republic.
Oct 13, 2008
The Forest of Death
Season 1Episode 460 min

The Forest of Death

As the Roman Empire expands its reaches into what is now Germany, its legions are faced with ferocious Germanic tribesmen. In 9 AD, their chieftain, Arminius, raised in Rome as a hostage of peace, uses his Roman military training to slaughter the Roman General Varus' army at Teutoburg Forest. This landmark battle establishes the Rhine River as the frontier between the Empire and its growing barbaric enemies. Six years later, when General Germanicus sets out across the Rhine for revenge, he finds heaps of bones and severed skulls nailed to trees - a reminder of the barbarians' victory. But at the Battle of the Weser River, he faces Arminius and wins. Germanicus captures Arminius' pregnant wife, Thusnelda, and parades her through the streets of Rome, as a symbol of his triumph.
Oct 20, 2008
The Invasion of Britain
Season 1Episode 560 min

The Invasion of Britain

It is 47 AD. The new emperor Claudius has lost the respect of those he seeks to rule. He can only hang onto his throne by waging a spectacular conquest. He chooses Britannia, a legendary land which fascinates and inspires fear in the Romans. Proud and warlike, the Britons use the island's treacherous terrain and dark forests to lure the legions to ruin. Led by magic wielding Druid priests and a charismatic warrior named Caratacus, the Britons resist in the face of the greatest military machine the world has ever known.
Oct 27, 2008
The Dacian Wars
Season 1Episode 660 min

The Dacian Wars

Despite the Empire's successes, the extensive military campaigns begin to take their toll on Rome's finances. When Dacian tribes ravage Roman lands, the unpopular Emperor Domitian is forced to raise taxes. He has never been on the front lines himself, but one of his generals, a young man named Trajan, soon proves to be a worthy leader while battling Germanic tribes on the Rhine. After Domitian's murder, Trajan is proclaimed emperor and sets out to rebuild the troubled Empire. He solves its financial problems by attacking the Dacian chieftain, Deceblas, uncovering his golden treasures, hidden in a river. In 106 AD, Deceblas flees, but Trajan's men hunt him down, only to find that he has killed himself to avoid the humiliation of defeat. Trajan's victory is immortalized in Trajan's Column in Rome, and under his reign, the Empire reaches its maximum extent of power.
Nov 3, 2008
Rebellion and Betrayal
Season 1Episode 760 min

Rebellion and Betrayal

In 162 AD, Marcus Aurelius inherited a rapidly growing Roman Empire, embroiled in a war on two fronts. But could he bring peace and prosperity back to the Empire?

Nov 10, 2008
Wrath of the Gods
Season 1Episode 860 min

Wrath of the Gods

In the beginning of the 3rd century, Rome is in crisis. Ravaged by civil war and foreign invasions, it now faces an even greater challenge in the new religion of Christianity.

Nov 17, 2008
The Soldier's Emperor
Season 1Episode 960 min

The Soldier's Emperor

Near the end of the third century, civil war has torn the empire apart and left its borders vulnerable to barbarian invasion. Romans living on the eastern and western frontiers, far from Rome, are left to defend themselves, which they do by building their own armies and naming their own emperors. As the Empire divides against itself, one extraordinary man rises from the rank of soldier to become emperor in Rome. His name is Aurelian, and with an unshakeable trust in the sun god, he fights back the barbarians who by now threaten Rome itself. Once he secures the great city, Aurelian pursues the rulers of the splinter empires: an eastern warrior queen and a proud western general. Defeating both, he reunites the empire in five short years, earning the title Restorer of the World. For a moment there is peace. But in 275 AD Aurelian is assassinated; his death is mourned by Romans across the empire, who know too well the scarcity of greatness in their rulers.
Nov 24, 2008
Constantine the Great
Season 1Episode 1060 min

Constantine the Great

As emperor of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, Constantine proves his strength against his barbarian enemies. But when the other Roman emperors begin to turn on each other again, Constantine determines to put an end to such rivalries once and for all. Defeating emperor after emperor, Constantine slowly gains control of the entire Roman Empire and establishes a new capital in the east. Along the way, he has a vision that will change the course of western civilization forever. Fighting under the cross of the Christian God, Constantine not only legitimizes the young religion, but seeks to use it as a unifying force in the empire.
Dec 1, 2008
The Barbarian General
Season 1Episode 1160 min

The Barbarian General

By the end of the 4th century, Romans and barbarians live together uneasily, a situation that often explodes into violence. When Emperor Theodosius enlists the Goths as mercenaries, he relies on his trusted general to lead.

Dec 8, 2008
The Puppet Master
Season 1Episode 1260 min

The Puppet Master

In 450 AD, Rome is a mere shadow of its former self. Gone is the superior civilisation and great expanses of land. Now, Roman rulers are at the mercy of their barbarian invaders, offering them power and territory in exchange for peace. In the midst of the Empire’s low decline, three comrades rise in the ranks of the Roman military: Ricimer, Aegidius and Majorian, all competing for Imperial control. Majorian is the first to be named emperor, and Aegidius is made his prime general, but Ricimer, a soldier of barbarian descent, is the real puppet master. Eventually, any man who threatens his own authority, including his friends, will meet their bloody end at the edge of his sword.
Dec 15, 2008
The Last Emperor
Season 1Episode 1360 min

The Last Emperor

In the middle of the fifth century, as the Empire fights a losing battle against its formidable barbarian opponents, one Roman named Orestes finds service in the court of Attila the Hun. Schooled in the strategy of his enemy, Orestes eventually makes his way back to Italy, determined to resurrect Rome. Naming his young son emperor, Orestes attempts to purify Rome of her barbarian influences. Yet he soon learns the sad truth, that without barbarians, there is no Rome. After hundreds of years of using the foreign invaders as mercenary soldiers, they outnumber the Romans, and the Empire can’t afford to dismiss them. Though Orestes fights valiantly, he meets his end at the hands of the leader of the barbarian mercenaries, Odacer, an event that spells the end of Rome in 476 AD. The last emperor, just a boy, is sent into exile, and Odacer proclaims there is no need for a new emperor, as the Roman Empire is no more.
Dec 22, 2008

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