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.
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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.
2012 • 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.
2012 • History
Alastair Sooke charts the decline and fall of the Roman Empire through some of its hidden and most magical artistic treasures. He travels to Leptis Magna in Libya, shortly after the overthrow of Gaddafi, and finds one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world and the cradle of later Roman art. Sooke discovers glorious mosaics which have never been filmed before but also finds evidence of shocking neglect of Libya's Roman heritage by the Gaddafi regime. His artistic tour takes him to Egypt and the northern frontiers of the empire where he encounters stunning mummy paintings and exquisite silver and glassware. As Rome careered from one crisis to another, official art became more hard boiled and militaristic and an obscure cult called Christianity rose up to seize the mantle of Western art for centuries to come.
2012 • History
Two great revolutions entwine. The American Revolution inspires dreams of political and personal liberty. The Industrial Revolution replaces muscle power with machines, freeing Mankind from nature’s limits. But our oldest foe – disease – thrives in industrial cities. With the American Civil War, the two revolutions collide. The world’s first industrial war, it is a battle to define ‘freedom’.
10/12 • Mankind: The Story of All of Us • 2012 • History
When did World War II begin? This film answers that question in a way most audiences will find surprising. Americans might say December 7th 1941... The day the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For Europeans, it was September 1st 1939... When Nazi Germany invaded Poland. But in China, people will tell you a different date, August 13th 1937. That day, after a century of humiliation, and six years of repeated "Incidents" initiated by the Japanese military, China at last "stood up." This act of defiance took place in Shanghai, the most international city in Asia. It was headline news around the world. Today, the story is largely forgotten… except in China. The Battle of Shanghai has been described as the last battle of World War I, and the first battle of World War II. It was a warning to the world, a warning that was ignored. And it was the place where the destiny of modern China was set in motion.
2018 • History
Europe has never experienced such a long period of peace and prosperity as after the Second World War. When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, the dream of a Europe united in peace and freedom seemed to have finally to become a reality. But the clouds of nationalism have started to gather once again.
S1E6 • The Story of Europe • 2018 • History
The Teutonic Knights were one of the great chivalric orders that emerged from the Crusades, alongside the Hospitallers and Templars. The Teutonic Knights evolved out of a "fraternity" of German crusaders who took part in the siege of Acre during the Third Crusade. 'Help, defend, Heal' was the motto of the 'Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem', the Teutonic Order. It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals.
S1E2 • The Crusaders • 2019 • History
In this Episode discover the secret to the stability and cohesion of Ancient Egypt—religion. When people share a core set of beliefs, they are more likely to identify as one. That was true for the first civilizations and it's just as true today.
Part 2 • First Civilizations • 2018 • History
Documentary `resurrecting' the city buried under volcanic ash almost 2,000 years ago with the aid of CGI. Michael Buerk takes viewers through 24 hours in the area, from the commute to work in the morning, to brutal sports at noon and a plenitude of vices by night.
2016 • History