Documentaries - Ancient History (dvd)

Over six hour-long programs, Michael Wood marshals the disparate strands of evidence to present as fully rounded a portrait as possible of both the historical and the legendary city of Troy, its central place in Western culture, and the Mycenaean Age itself. From Schliemann's initial cavalier bulldozing of the mound at Hisarlik, to Homer's epics, the Hittite Empire, and the role of slave women, Wood journeys back and forth across the Aegean and elsewhere, from a pre-unification Berlin to Liverpool, to illuminate the dawn of Western literature, myth, and history. Did the Trojan war ever happen, or was the city destroyed by natural causes? Wood doesn't claim to find a definitive answer, of course, but for the viewer it's rewarding enough simply to accompany him on this fascinating journey.

"Last Stand of the 300" is a 2007 special that tells the tale of when in 480 BCE, a small number of Greeks stood against the might of the Persian empire at Thermopylae.

A docu-drama covering the rise and the fall of the Roman world, including the establishment of strong individual rule by Julius Caesar and the rebuilding of Rome under Nero.