The Rebirth of Rome
After more than a century of steady Roman decline, one man restores order to the disintegrating empire, setting it on a new course with Christianity at its heart. Host Bettany Hughes examines the life of Constantine the Great--the last emperor to rule over a united empire--and the day he was baptized in May 337 A.D. Explore ancient Constantinople, the city he founded that would shape the dynamics of the known world, and examine recently discovered traces of Constantine's imperial palace.
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More from this season
S1 E2
The Spartacus Revolt
Bettany Hughes relates the events of 73BC when a Thracian gladiator started a slave revolt that so panicked the Roman elite that they offered power to a single man.
S1 E3
Crossing the Rubicon
Rome had defeated her great rival Carthage and overcame a slave revolt led by Spartacus, but these victories came at a price. Army generals who could deliver foreign conquests accumulated enormous amounts of power. Julius Caesar, seeking glory, would challenge the very existence of the republic. Join historian Bettany Hughes in an exploration of the momentous day in 49 B.C. when Caesar crossed the Rubicon River, violated Roman law, and heralded the transformation of the Roman Republic into an empire ruled by a single man.
S1 E4
Rome's First Emperor
Upon Julius Caesar's death, his 18-year-old great nephew stepped into the delicate balance of power and became Rome's first emperor and a ruthless political operator. The 44-year reign of Octavian, also known as Augustus, was vast and far-reaching, but it may never have happened if it weren't for one critical moment in 32 B.C. Host Bettany Hughes examines the day Octavian ordered the theft of the private will of his archrival Mark Antony and read its contents to Rome's Senate, a massive gamble that would have world-altering ramifications.
S1 E5
Boudica's Revenge
It's 60 A.D. Seventeen years after the invasion of Britannia, Roman forces march into the settlement of the Iceni tribe, flog its queen, and abused her daughters. The attack sparked a retaliatory revolt that came perilously close to ending the Roman occupation of Britain. Host Bettany Hughes retraces the events that led to Boudica's war of annihilation, an onslaught of fire and fury that burnt cities to the ground, left thousands of Romans and native Britons dead, and earned the queen a place in history.