The High Empire

Narrative history of the imperial centuries, told straight and told well. Five stars across nearly fifty reviews and it earns them; the political intrigue is handled like drama without the facts being bent to fit.

Dramatised scenes cut with real historians talking to camera. Season one is Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, and it is the one that made this format popular. Take the drama loosely and the talking heads seriously.

Marcus Aurelius dies, Commodus takes over, and everything Gladiator later borrowed happens here first, with better sets and a much better script about why an empire stops working.

Historically it is a wreck: Commodus did not die in the arena and Maximus never existed. It is on this list because it is why a large share of you are on this list, and because the opening battle and the first sight of the Colosseum are still unmatched.

The Ninth Legion vanishing into Caledonia, filmed as a survival chase. Nonsense as history, and the only film that makes the northern frontier feel as cold and hostile as the tombstones suggest.

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