World Famous Comics: The History Channel Presents Julius Caesar's Rome
The History Channel Presents Julius Caesar's Rome
Starring: Julius Caesar's Rome Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: A&E Home Video Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: July 26, 2005 Running Time: 322 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2005
Description: Throughout history, civilizations have come and gone, but few have altered the world as immensely as the Roman Empire. From its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus to its magnificent takeover of the Mediterranean to its eventual fall amidst the rise of Christianity, the many lasting influences of the Roman civilization remain with us today. Experience documentary history at its best and bear witness to the rise and fall of an empire with THE HISTORY CHANNEL® PRESENTS: ANCIENT ROME.
Two disc set I was very interested while watching the first DVD. The second is not about Julius Caesar. The cover is a bit misleading. The history is good though.
Better than expected, but not a PBS-like scholarly documentary This DVD set is far better than what some reviewers led me to believe specially when compared to "Rome: Power & Glory" set.
Let me explain why should one own this video:
- It visually communicates the history of the entire Ancient Roman civilization and in a typical History Channel's highly digestable fashion of populistic presentation of history subjects.(i.e. "Popular Science" for History) It very nicely outlines the sequence of events that led to Roman Republic, ascension into an Empire and to an eventual decline.
- It is broken up into logical episodes that allow for viewing over time. Material is long so it would be hard for many to watch it one sitting.
- Events are presented through reanactments, real footages of the locations, statues or objects, and through explanations by historians (and some citations from Roman writers or philosophers).
Issues to keep in mind:
- This is not a PBS documentary (like marvelous PBS "The Greeks" from "Empires" PBS series). Do not expect scholary, highly intelectual presentation and the elegance that I expect to see from PBS.
- DVDs are unfortunatelly reversed. DVD 2 gives you a historical overview of the Ancient Rome where DVD 1 covers the biographies. I absolutely recommend watching DVD 2 first.
- I could live without some re-enactments
In summary, if you are interested in educating your family, friends or generally non-well initiated students to Ancient Rome this is a very good DVD. If you are scholar looking from some high quality video material you may need to look further - this one is too populistic.
I do absolutely recommend this video over Rome: Power & Glory.
Some Details Please! This documentary is scandalously bad.
There is little to no detail about the events, people, and time period presented. Furthermore, the detail that is presented is very debatable in its accuracy. All too often, the lascivious and lurid accounts of Roman Historians are taken at face value. Perhaps this makes for nice drama, but it makes for shoddy scholarship, and poor education.
I was hoping to get insight into Caesar the man, and the tumultuous time period in which he lived. However, I was sadly dissapointed. I would give this hunk of Hollywood garbage one star if not for its one redeeming factor: being on location. At least I got to see what Rome looks like.
For anyone who has only a passing knowledge of the period, I would watch this documentary with five pounds of salt on hand. Do not, I repeat, do not take anything the narrator or 'scholars' say at face value.
It is a shame, because the period of Late Republican Rome is one of the most well documented periods in classical history. To ignore 95% of the source material in favor of the lurid 5% is criminal.
To think, this is how younger people are learning about Roman History!!!
Highschool level of scholarship I watch anything I can find on Rome, to break up the monotony of reading about it. That said, the research that went into this documentary is what I would expect from bright highschool student. Many things are simplified to the point of being misleading, and there are a variety of rather important innaccuracies and ommissions.
They spend very little time pointing out the history of many of the events mentioned in the first disc. The second disc, a supposed overall history of rome, doesn't even mention the Punic wars (that'd be like talking about the history of America and skipping over WW1 and WW2).
Anyhow, if you know next to nothing about Roman history, this will fill you in on the highlights and some widespread misconceptions (i.e. it will teach you some wrong ideas that are held by many people, which is good in some ways).
I think its portrayal of Julius Caesar the man is one sided for simplicity's sake. Portraying him as a power hungry ruthless killer was easier than explaining details like many of those who stabbed him in Pompey's Theater (the documentary states he was killed in the Senate House) had been spared by Caesar earlier after they had led armies against him, lost, been captured, and were released. That Pompey and Crassus used Caesar, and that the primary problem the Senator's had (other than Cato's hurt pride at being thrown in prison for a few days) was that he catered to the people. One would think in a democratic society like ours, we would side more with the populist Caesar, than the nobly born aristocratic senate (most of our ancient sources come from this source).
Also, there is no talk what-so-ever of sources, so one might think Suetonius to be an unbiased source. But that might well be beyond the scope of a "History Channel" documentary (which, in my opinion, suck all the way around). BBC over History Channel any day.
I think the HBO/BBC series on Julius Caesar is a more accurate and more entertaining account of the period.
Good for high school students I purchased this DVD in order to have some videos on ancient Rome to show to my high school Latin classes, for which I am the teacher.
First off, there are 5 hours worth of video, with segments covering the Roman Republic, Empire, notable figures such as Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, etc. So it's a good value for the price.
The facts in videos themselves are accurate and well elaborated. Visual aids are accordingly approriate.
Also, delicate topics such as sex or violence are tastefully and scholastically presented.
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