Terry Jones' Barbarians
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Terry Jones' Barbarians is a 4-part TV documentary series first broadcast on BBC 2 in 2006, presented and written by Terry Jones, challenging the received Roman notion of the barbarian. It could be compared to his earlier series Terry Jones' Medieval Lives in that it questions aspects of history that everyone takes for granted.
The series is scheduled for a North American DVD release by Koch Vision.
Contents |
[edit] Episodes
[edit] 1 The Primitive Celts
First broadcast 26th May 2006
Celtic Barbarians
- Caesar's Gallic Wars
[edit] 2 The Savage Goths
First broadcast 2nd June 2006
- Arminius
- Dacian Wars
- Alaric I's sack of Rome
[edit] 3 The Brainy Barbarians
First broadcast 9th June 2006
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In Greece and Iran, Jones argues that the ancient Greeks and Persians were far from the Roman view of being effeminate and addicted to luxury. The Greeks valued science and mathematics, while the Persians had initially allowed multi-culturalism among the different ethnic groups of its empire (until years of war with Rome).
[edit] 4 The End of the World
First broadcast 16th June 2006
Around 400 AD two Barbarian babies were born. One would grow up to become the most feared of all - Attila the Hun. The other, Geiseric, led the Vandals whom history has cast as destroyers. Jones finds out that Roman civilisation wasn't destroyed by the invasion of these tribes but by the loss of the North African tax base. He sees the common view of Rome and "Barbarians" as a result of the Roman Catholic Church popularizing the Roman version of the truth.
[edit] Press release
[1] So you think you know everything about the Romans? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the modern-day calendar. And of course they had to contend with barbarian hordes who continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire. Didn't they?
Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of the people written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire.
In his new book and the accompanying four-part BBC Two television series Terry Jones argues that we have been sold a false history of Rome that has twisted our entire understanding of our own history. Terry asks what did the Romans ever do for us?
This is the story of Roman history as seen by the Britons, Gauls, Germans, Greeks, Persians and Africans. The Vandals didn't vandalize - the Romans did. The Goths didn't sack Rome - the Romans did. Attila the Hun didn't go to Constantinople to destroy it, but because the Emperor's daughter wanted to marry him. And far from civilizing the societies they conquered the Romans often destroyed much of what they found.
Terry Jones travels round the geography of the Roman Empire and through 700 years of history - bringing wit, irreverence, passion and the very latest scholarship to transform our view of the legacy of the Roman Empire and the creation of the modern world.
Welcome to history from a different point of view...
