User Reviews

My biggest takeaway from s2ep1 is that it just isn't the same without Sean bean narrating. Good thing though they cut down on the length of the re-enactments.

Why must television shows and movies continue to depict falsehoods when the truth would serve them better? The life of Gaius Julius Caesar is ripe with gripping tales to tell, and yet this touches on none them. It has good production value and good visuals, though wildly inaccurate portrayals of Romans at war, so it is a shame that it was so horribly inaccurate.

Caesar didn't serve as a legionary. He was on the staff of the governor in Asia minor. Not only did they leave out how he defied Sulla and fled to Sabine territory, but left out how he won the corona civica, the second highest military award in Rome, during his first battle, the amphibious invasion of the island of Lesbos. The show fixates on Spartacus, of which there is no historical link to Caesar's participation, even though as an elected Military Tribune, it is quite possible he was involved. It leaves out his run in with pirates, one of the classic tales of Caesar's bravery and audacity.

The show completely leaves out that he was Qaestor and Praetor of Hispania. And, Julia didn't marry Pompey after Cornelia's death, it wasn't until 10 years later. Also, Julia wasn't even born until 76 BC. She would have been a child during the Spartacus uprising. I could go on for a while, but there is little point. There is nothing of historical value to be found in this episode.

I hope the rest of the episodes are not this bad, but I have little hope.

Sure, I get it. You cannot stick to exact timelines in a documentary meant to cover a period of more than twenty years. And ofcourse you have to shrink the universe to make for good video footage. But this is really too much. It starts out with a scene from a battle when Caesar was supposed to be 19 and nearly died. The voice over says that it was the first time Caesar came close to dying, which is untrue; it leaves out the death warrant from then dictator Sulla over defying to divorce his wife. Which is, by the way, a way more dramatic scene loaded with more emotion and depth than this one. It doesn't stop there. The documentary confuses facts, cause and effect of those facts and, more worryingly, screws up the whole story of Caesars rise to power. That leads to things like experts in the documentary saying the right things, but being cut in at the wrong moments. And sometimes when the facts are right, but the video footage is all wrong; the voice over says rebellious slaves were crucified alongside a Roman road, 100 feet apart, but the footage shows them close together in a field of grass. I could overlook all that, if it was dramatized in a convincing matter. There are a lot of very well made documentaries on Roman history, but this was a waste of my time.

After 2 minutes i had to shut off my laptop while listening to such an enormous load of false facts and gigantic inaccuracy....of course Cesar served as ordinary legionary in the legions when he was 19 and he rose to the top....WTF?!

this is not an american success story fantasy Will smith movie.....it´s a documentary. First get your facts right and please do not put authors of medioker books and assistant professors without any knowledge in there....

The language used to be Latin. So the name is Marcus Antonius and not Marc Antony. It is Gallia and not Gale. It is Pompeius and not Pompey. On the other hand the call Caesar Caesar and not Cese or Big C, Brutus is called Brutus and not Brute. This sucked so much I couldn't enjoy that documentary. Greetings to Amer, sorry, America.