Product Description

Two thousand years ago, at the dawn of the first century, the ancient world was ruled by Rome. Through the experiences, memories and writings of the people who lived it, this series tells the story off that time -- the emperors and slaves, poets and plebians, who wrested order from choas, built the most cosmopolitian society the world had ever seen and shaped the Roman empire in the first century A.D.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87130 in DVD
• Brand: Roman
• Released on: 2005-04-05
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 219 minutes

Amazon.com
The compelling PBS Empires series explores the first hundred years of the Roman Empire in this fascinating documentary. The story begins with the ascent of Augustus, who almost single-handedly rescued Rome from the chaos of civil war and forged a collection of colonies into an empire. Augustus was a shrewd statesman, and his manipulation of the common people allowed him to begin a dynasty that would eventually endanger everything he had created. After the death of Augustus in A.D. 14 the Roman Empire continued to expand even as the imperial family fell into turmoil. Augustus's successor was Tiberius, who was then followed by the notorious Caligula, but it fell to Claudius, who came reluctantly to power after Caligula's murder, to further Augustus's imperial ambitions. Under Claudius Rome finally occupied the distant island of Britain, and letters from the period offer fascinating glimpses into everyday life at the edge of the world. Claudius was followed by Nero, who brought the empire to the point of collapse. His death, which ended the Augustan dynasty, was followed by years of infighting between rival factions. The final episode of this film shows how the empire survived political chaos and natural disasters like the destruction of Pompeii to end the first century in a position of strength.

The Roman Empire in the First Century is filled with information about everyday life in the Roman Empire, and interviews with historians are supported with eyewitness accounts by dozens of Romans, from the poet Ovid to unknown soldiers in the forests of Germania. This gives great depth to the story of imperial ambition, which forms the backbone of the documentary, to make this the most successful installment in the Empires series. --Simon Leake

Customer Reviews

A Superficial Look At First Century Rome
Unfortunately, television history tends to overlook and oversimplify events. That is what happens with "The Roman Empire in the First Century." The writers have managed to make the dramatic events that shaped Rome appear boring, and are treated with little care for facts in many cases. The emperor Nero is hardly explored as to his personality (the greatest detail given over to the murder of his mother)and Claudius is skirted over as if his only purpose was to place Nero in the succession.

Granted, it is difficult to put 100 years of such important events into a four hour program but I find it difficult to understand how such a pivotal year as 69 CE is reduced to a footnote with the empire going with little pause from Nero to Vespasian! It is as if Galba, Otho and Vitellius had never existed let alone been emperors of the Roman Empire. The program focuses on the views of Seneca and Pliny the Younger but does not provide much about their motives for cooperating with tyrants or much on their backgrounds. We are informed that Seneca was exiled at the whim of a tyrant (Claudius) but not told that he was probably involved in a conspiracy with Claudius's niece, Julia. Similarly, Pliny prospered under Domitian but after he was assassinated he turned to blackening his character.

The experts who are interviewed for the program are certainly qualified to discuss their subjects but I have always wondered why someone like Barbara Levick, who as the author of biographies of Claudius and Vespasian, (or especially Michael Grant)would be invaluable. Sygorney Weaver, a great actress, reads the script at a monotonous pace.

In short, if you want to understand The Roman Empire in the first century, buy books at Amazon and not this video.

Another perspective
I couldn't help but notice the negative attention surrounding this video. I saw this on PBS and eventually got a copy for myself. It is one of my favorite documentaries on Rome at present.
The Hail Caesar collection, by A&E, had always been my favorite but after seeing this PBS series several times I came to have a greater appreciation for it. The narration may seem monotone but I find it blends well with the atmosphere of the film. A documentary relies on images, and stills very heavily and this one is no different. It is because of this fact that the slow and methodical tone Ms. Weaver uses allows you to slip back into the past and enjoy a perspective that may be different than you'd expect.
I am a student of Roman history and I think that what PBS created here is excellent. And especially since they are writing for a broad audience and not just specialized historians who already know all of the events covered in the documentary.
Given the fact that this is put on PUBLIC television and it is not a required coure for Roman History I believe it deserves at least 4 stars. I give it 5 because of the harsh criticism it has received to this point.
I recommend this video/DVD to anyone with an interest in history, politics, poetry or just simple novel story telling. It is a fun journey that can be enjoyed many times over. I have personally seen it in its entirety at least 6 times.

This could have been much better.
I watched this on PBS. This could have been much, much better than it was. The documentary was at its best when reading from contemporary texts like the letters of Ovid or Pliny. It was at its worst during the narration. Sigourney Weaver narrated in a slow, utterly unvarying monotone, as though reading her lines for the first time and trying not to mispronounce any of the words. It is hard to blame her, since the script that she read from sounded like it was lifted directly from an uninspired junior-high history textbook. It would have been so much better had the narration consisted of reading at length from Tacitus or Suetonius, both of which exist in extremely entertaining English translations.

The pictures were good, and the selections from Ovid, Pliny, and Seneca were very fine. The title is a little deceptive, as it covers the period only to the death of Vespasian, the year 79, other than a brief mention of the ascension of Trajan. This wasn't bad, but really could have been much better.