When Rome Ruled (2010 - 2011)

Follow Julius Caesars meteoric rise to power and his historic murder. His life was marked by tyranny and treachery, grand public gestures and secret double dealings, but his genius, ego and ambitions changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world.

Rome was the largest empire, the mightiest military force, the most advanced civilization on earth. But most of all, it was a place: a city. Though only traces remain, and most of its ruins lie buried beneath modern streets. Written here, in stone, is the story of the ancient Romans. Using new finds and new thinking the fragments are being pieced back together. These people took a swamp, and drained it. They perfected concrete the most versatile construction material on earth They quarried thousands of tons marble; They used it all to build the imperial capital; Centuries of innovation, endurance, and ambition. This is the story of the greatest city on earth.

This is the story of how a city ruled the world. For 500 years, across 2 million square miles, Rome fought, And reigned and got rich. Today, experts are still trying to understand how. In the ruins of its port. In the mountain of evidence its people left behind and on the furthest borders of its empire. They find the secrets of the Romans success. They see ambition, innovation, and a genius for organisation. Diplomacy, brutality, and insatiable greed, while many remember its decadence and decline, this is the roman miracle: 5 centuries, as the greatest power on earth.

Mighty. Brutal. Feared. It was the most disciplined and deadly force in the ancient world. Though history remembers the names of emperors and generals, it was the ordinary men of the Roman military machine that carved out and kept an empire. They trained, fought and marched thousands of miles on roads that they built. Using ancient records and scientific research and recent archaeological finds, we'll trace their journey as invaders, peacekeepers and colonists from the furthest frontiers back.

Christianity conquered the Roman Empire. It catapulted from a persecuted mystery cult, viewed as a threat to the pagan ritualistic pantheon, to a turning point of victories over Rome's traditional religion. NGC unravels how the Christians infiltrated, endured and overran Rome. From the earliest martyrs to the first Christian empire, we'll see how they spread their message.