Mehmed moves his ships overland to the Golden Horn in a daring, visionary feat. In the shadow of betrayal, Giustiniani attacks the Ottoman fleet.
After claiming the Ottoman throne, Mehmed II sends an unmistakable signal to Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. Enter Genoese mercenaries.
2020 • History
Mehmed launches an ambitious siege to break through the walls of Constantinople, but Giustiniani's mercenaries manage to forestall the Janissaries.
2020 • History
Mehmed's men dig underground tunnels in an attempt to shatter city walls. The tides turn against the Ottomans when a naval blockade founders.
2020 • History
Mehmed moves his ships overland to the Golden Horn in a daring, visionary feat. In the shadow of betrayal, Giustiniani attacks the Ottoman fleet.
2020 • History
Amid a spiral of brutality and low morale, Mehmed makes Giustiniani an enticing offer. The grand vizier urges Mehmed to seek a truce with his rival.
2020 • History
Ottoman cannons reduce the city walls to rubble, and Venetian reinforcements arrive too late. Mehmed ushers in a new era for the Ottoman Empire.
2020 • History
Mehmed the Conquerer must defend his empire and protect his plans for western expansion against a new challenger...Vlad the Impaler of Wallachia.
2022 • History
Mehmed sends Maria to coax Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus into an alliance. An epic battle along the Danube River looms, and Vlad has the upper hand.
2022 • History
Mehmed's troops advance into Wallachia, and Vlad employs guerrilla tactics to weaken his rival. A threat lurks in the imperial palace.
2022 • History
As the war drags on and resources dwindle, Vlad wages biological warfare on Mehmed's army. Radu closes in on Vlad's castle to take Anastasia hostage.
2022 • History
Mehmed prepares to strike a fatal blow to Vlad's army. A spy is found in Mehmed's camp. Vlad launches a nighttime attack, but a surprise awaits.
2022 • History
Putting the Orient Express – also called „the train of trains“ – on its tracks called for considerable stamina. Several times, the ambitious project of Georges Nagelmackers was on the brink of failure as the Belgian entrepreneur was facing the bankruptcy of his sleeping car company.
S1E10 • History By The Numbers • 2021 • History
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 • Treasures of Ancient Rome • 2012 • History
The Romans were brilliant engineers and soldiers, but what isn't as well known is that they also gave us wonderful artistic treasures. In this three-part series, Alastair Sooke argues that the old-fashioned view that the Romans didn't do art is nonsense. He traces how the Romans during the Republic went from being art thieves and copycats to pioneering a new artistic style - warts 'n' all realism. Roman portraits reveal what the great names from history, men like Julius Caesar and Cicero, actually looked like. Modern-day artists demonstrate the ingenious techniques used to create these true to life masterpieces in marble, bronze and paint. We can step back into the Roman world thanks to their invention of the documentary-style marble relief and to a volcano called Vesuvius. Sooke explores the remarkable artistic legacy of Pompeii before showing how Rome's first emperor, Augustus, used the power of art to help forge an empire.
1/3 • The Treasures of Ancient Rome • 2012 • History
This episode counts down from 101 to 89 events that marketed the last century. From the discovery of king tut in the valley of the kings, to the evacuation of Dunkirk
1/8 • 101 Events that Made the 20th Century • 2018 • History
The opening episode tells the story of the outbreak of war in 1914. In the decades since the last European War the world changed.
S01E01 • The Great War in Numbers • 2017 • History
Alastair explores the surprising roots of Greek art, beginning his journey in Crete at the palace of Knossos, legendary home of the Minotaur. He travels to Santorini to the 'Greek Pompeii', and finds gold in the fabled stronghold of Mycenae and dazzling remains from Greece's Dark Ages. Alastair discovers the beginnings of a defining spirit in Greek art, embracing mythology, a passion for symmetry, and an obsession with the human body.
1/3 • Treasures of Ancient Greece • 2015 • History