From Byzantium to Constantinople • 2013 • episode "Part 1" • Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities

58:58

Alastair Sooke follows in the footsteps of Rome's mad, bad and dangerous emperors in the second part of his celebration of Roman art. He dons a wetsuit to explore the underwater remains of the Emperor Claudius's pleasure palace and ventures into the cave where Tiberius held wild parties. He finds their taste in art chimes perfectly with their obsession with sex and violence. The other side of the coin was the bombastic art the Romans are best remembered for - monumental arches and columns that boast about their conquests. Trajan's Column in Rome reads like the storyboard of a modern-day propaganda film. Sooke concludes with the remarkable legacy of the Emperor Hadrian. He gave the world the magnificent Pantheon in Rome - the eternal image of his lover Antinous, the most beautiful boy in the history of art - and a villa in Tivoli where he created one of the most ambitious art collections ever created.

2/3 • The Treasures of Ancient Rome • 2012 • History

43:59

In the conclusion, the winds finally change and Duke William leads his vast invasion fleet across the Channel. But King Harold is 300 miles away in the north having defeated the Vikings.

3/3 • Europe's Last Warrior Kings • 2018 • History

87:23

In these two 2-hour specials, HISTORY channel digs deep beneath the surface of our collective understanding of the Third Reich to unearth what we don't know about the individuals who comprised one of the most fascinating and complex regimes of recent history. Part 1: The Rise A unique perspective on the rise of Nazi Germany and how millions of people were so vulnerable to fascism, told through rare and never-before-seen amateur films shot by the Germans who were there.

1/2 • Third Reich: The Rise and Fall • 2010 • History

44:39

After examining the evidence presented in the series, it seems clear the dates given by traditional Egyptology don t fit. Carefully considering cycles of time through gold, silver, bronze and iron ages of Plato's Great Year, a new chronology emerges that illuminates Ancient Egypt.

5/5 • The Pyramid Code • 2010 • History

58:59

Why, and how, did the Roman Empire fall? Surveying the massive walls and fortifications of Britain and Germany, she discovers an empire under pressure, struggling to control its borders.

4/4 • Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit • 2016 • History

58:41

Alastair unpicks the reasons behind the dazzling revolution that gave birth to classical Greek art, asking how the Greeks got so good so quickly. He travels to the beautiful Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, and to the island of Mozia to see the astonishing charioteer found there in 1979, and marvels at the athletic bodies of the warriors dragged from the seabed - the Riace Bronzes. It was a creative explosion that covered architecture, sculpting in marble, casting in bronze, even painting on vases. Perhaps the most powerful factor was also its greatest legacy - a fascination with the naked human body.

2/3 • Treasures of Ancient Greece • 2015 • History