Ancient Empires
This seven-hour miniseries explores the foundations of the greatest empires of all time and the incredible stories of the three iconic rulers who amassed unbelievable power and transformed the world. Night one kicks off with Alexander the Great, followed by Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
- 2023-2023
- 1 season
- History Channel
- Documentary
This seven-hour miniseries explores the foundations of the greatest empires of all time and the incredible stories of the three iconic rulers who amassed unbelievable power and transformed the world. Night one kicks off with Alexander the Great, followed by Julius Caesar and Cleopatra.
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2023
Episode 1
Alexander The Great
Mon, Sep 4, 2023 108 mins
The greatest conqueror and general in history, Alexander the Great of Macedon built one of the largest empires ever seen in just 13 years. But as he continues to push east, Alexander not only has to contend with an increasingly powerful enemy, but also the loyalty of his men, and his own growing dark side.
Episode 2
Julius Caesar
Tue, Sep 5, 2023 108 mins
Ambitious Caius Julius Caesar was a poor relative of popular leaders Marius and Cinna, hence proscripted under Sulla (+78 BC), pardoned and works first as lawyer, then becomes military tribune, starring as general against the Spartacus rebellion under mega-rich Crassus, the rival of Pompey the Great. At wife Cornelia's funeral, he illegally displays dead masks of his family's proscripted leader of the Populares ('left') party, bitterly opposed by orator Cato's conservative Optimates. Caesar run huge debts to climb the ladder of magistratures, thus a senator and ultimately, funded by Crassus, consul and initiator of the first triumvirate, allying both rivals, wedding his daughter Julia to Pompey. After one year as consul in 60 BC, he got the proconsular governorship with garrison in Cisalpine Gaul, and seized the first tribal rivalry pretext to invade wild Gaul (first the Helvetic southeast), conquering the Celts and pillaging a huge fortune, overcoming Vercingetorix's confederation building a double siege ring around Alesia, writing his own History of the Gallic War. The deaths of Julia and Crassus ended the triumvirate, so when Cato calls to have him condemned at return and gets Pompey to raise an army, he risks crossing the Rubicon and wins this civil war, pursues his Optimates enemy to Greece, defeats them at Pharsalus, and pursues escaped general Pompey to Egypt, where boy king Ptolemy XIII Theos presents his severed head, only to be deposed in favor of half-sister Cleopatra, who bares his bastard son Caesarion. Back in Rome, he's declared dictator for life and attempts to reform the republic as an empire, but is fatally stabbed by 60 senators, including presumed bastard son Brutus.
Episode 3
Cleopatra
Wed, Sep 6, 2023 87 mins
The enigmatic Egyptian Queen's untold true story is one of a ruthless genius, doing anything necessary to cling onto power in the face of an aggressively expanding Roman Empire. But as Cleopatra increases her influence across the Mediterranean, her ambitions grow-and new enemies rise up against her.
