Gladiators: Back from the Dead

Ben-Hur

November 1959 •English

In 26 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners.

Spartacus

October 1960 •English

The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.

The Roman Empire in the First Century

January 2001 •English

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 of that time - the emperors and slaves, poets and plebeians, who wrested order from chaos, built the most cosmopolitan society the world had ever seen and shaped the Roman empire in the first century A.D.

Palmyra: Rising from the Ashes

March 2017 •Italian

Documentary following a team of technicians in Italy as they reconstruct a number of historic Middle Eastern artifacts that were vandalized at the hands of Islamic State.

Quo Vadis

November 1951 •English

After fierce Roman commander Marcus Vinicius becomes infatuated with beautiful Christian hostage Lygia, he begins to question the tyrannical leadership of the despotic emperor Nero.

Terry Jones' Barbarians

May 2006 •English

Terry Jones' Barbarians is a 4-part TV documentary series first broadcast on BBC 2 in 2006. It was written and presented by Terry Jones, and it challenges the received Roman and Roman Catholic notion of the barbarian. Professor Barry Cunliffe of the University of Oxford acted as consultant for the series.

Titus

December 1999 •English

Titus Andronicus returns from the wars and sees his sons and daughters taken from him, one by one. Shakespeare's goriest and earliest tragedy.

Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons

August 2010 •English

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Revolt of the Praetorians

September 1964 •Italian

Rome chafes under the rule of the Emperor Domitian and his Egyptian mistress, Artamne. A mysterious champion arises to fight against the Emperor -- a masked man known as the Red Wolf. In fact, the Red Wolf is Valerius Rufus, one of the Emperor's trusted centurions who's aided by none other than the Emperor's court jester, the diminutive Elpidion. Rebels in league with Valerius kidnap Artamne, planning to exchange her for two of their imprisoned colleagues, but Artamne escapes and soon both Valerius, (now exposed as the Red Wolf), and his fiancee, Lucilla, are sentenced to be immersed in a cauldron of molten lead. Valerius's friends, however, rise up to rescue him and to liberate Rome.

The Nobles of Prehistory: Ladies and Princes of the Paleolithic

June 2021 •French

In 1872, in the cave of Cavillon in Monaco, archaeologist Émile Rivière (1835-1922) unearthed an apparently very old human skeleton, at least 24,000 years old, a discovery that changed the modern image of prehistoric men and women.

The Degenerates

March 1969 •Italian

A series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome. Like the more famous version made by Federico Fellini, an adaptation of Petronius' Satyricon.

The Robe

September 1953 •English

Drunk and disillusioned Roman, Marcellus Gallio, wins Jesus' robe in a dice game after the crucifixion. Marcellus has never been a man of faith like his slave, Demetrius, but when Demetrius escapes with the robe, Marcellus experiences disturbing visions and feels guilty for his actions. Convinced that destroying the robe will cure him, Marcellus sets out to find Demetrius — and discovers his Christian faith along the way.

Aku-Aku

January 1960 •English

Documentary following the 1955–1956 Norwegian Archaeological Expedition's investigations of Polynesian history and culture at Easter Island.

The Fall of Rome

February 1963 •Italian

After the death of Emperor Constantine in Rome, the persecutions of the Christians threaten the centurion Marco forced to become a gladiator.

The Mystery of the Rascar Capac Mummy

December 2019 •French

Rascar Capac, the sinister creature featured on Hergé's album The Seven Crystal Balls (1948), has left its mark on many generations of readers. To draw it, the Belgian cartoonist was probably inspired by a mummy exhibited in the first pre-Columbian exhibition organized by the Brussels Cinquantenaire Museum in 1923. Two intrepid archaeologists embark on a fascinating journey to reconstruct the story of the mysterious mummy.

The Neanderthals’ Dark Secret

January 2012 •English

49,000 year old Neanderthal bones have been discovered by chance in a remote, mountainous region of Northern Spain. The bones may help solve the biggest Neanderthal puzzle of all – why we are here today and Neanderthals are not. ‘The Neanderthals’ dark Secret’ revolves around ongoing investigations deep inside the forbidding subterranean cave system called El Sidrón. Here, Palaeontologist Antonio Rosas and Archaeologist Marco de la Rasilla are in their 11th year of excavation. Bones from at least 12 people and 400 stone tool fragments have been recovered. We’ll bring these people back from the past. Our haunting, hologram-like Neanderthal characters, will communicate to the scientists of today, as they unlock the secrets of El Sidrón. Many mysteries surround the site, foremost, how the bones and tools came to be here in the first place. The remains aren’t weathered nor do they show signs of scavenging from large animals.

The Immortal City

December 1954 •English

From the legendary times of Romulus and Remus to the present day, the compelling story of the eternal city's twenty-five centuries of civilization traces the rise of Christianity over paganism through studies of Vatican art treasures.

Caminos

December 2021 •Spanish

Caligula

August 1979 •Italian

After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.

Mystery of the Maya

January 1995 •English

Filmed in IMAX, a young Mayan boy who lives close to the ruins becomes acquainted with an archaeologist (Guerra) and asks her to tell him about his ancestors. The crew travelled to over 15 locations in Mexico and Guatemala, including Tulum and Chichén Itzá.