Barbarians (BBC)

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[edit] General Information

Culture, History, War Documentary narrated by Terry Jones and published by BBC in 2006 - English narration

[edit] Cover

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Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely unique approach to Roman history. No one nowadays would try to tell the story of the British Empire from the point of view of the British, but it's still the case that the story of the Roman Empire is always told from the perspective of Rome. Well, not any more!

This is the story of Roman history as seen by the Britons, Gauls, Germans, Hellenes, Persians and Africans. And suddenly the Romans don't look at all familiar. In place of the propaganda spectacles the Romans pushed on our noses, we'll see these people as they really were. The Vandals didn't vandalize - the Romans did. The Goths didn't sack Rome - the Romans did. Attlia the Hun didn't go to Constantinople to destroy it, but because the emperor's daughter wanted to marry him. Show an Asterix comic to an ancient Gaul and - surprise, surprise - he wouldn't realise that it was supposed to be about him. His life was more sophisticated than a Roman's, not more primitive.

Terry Jones travels round the geography of the Roman Empire - through Europe and Africa - bringing wit, irreverence, passion and the very latest scholarship to transform a history that seemed well past its sell-by date, and make it relevant to living with the new American world empire.

[edit] The Primitive Celts

In De Bellico Gallico, Julius Caesar wrote that he invaded Celtic Gaul in 58 BC to protect the Northern borders of the Empire from these volatile people. But Caesar's account was a smokescreen for a more sinister truth. The Celts, according to Rome, were a warring and illiterate people. Yet Terry Jones discovers that the Celts had culture, tradition and even mathematical know-how beyond that of Rome itself.

[edit] The Savage Goths

According to Rome, the barbarians from Germany were among the most brutal of all. But when it came to brutality, it was not the Germans but the Romans who were the masters.

[edit] The Brainy Barbarians

Terry Jones immerses himself in the world of the 'barbarians' of the East – the Greeks and the Persians – and discovers that it was they, and not the Romans, who were the real brains of the ancient world.

[edit] The End of the World

Around 400AD, two 'barbarian' babies were born. One would grow up to become the fiercest barbarian of them all: Attila the Hun – the scourge of God. The other, Geiseric, would become the leader of the greatest wreckers in history: the Vandals. The key to the success of the Romans' anti-barbarian propaganda is intimately wrapped up in the stories of the Huns and Vandals and the fall of the Western Empire.