Rome, 23rd of August in the year 410 A.D... Tomorrow Alaric the Goth will sack Rome. It will be one of the most traumatic moments in history. The whole of the western world will be shaken to its core. Blood and violence! Rape and slaughter! Death and destruction! The cradle of civilization burned to the ground and left in ruins!

Well, not really. It was all much more extraordinary than that.

-Terry Jones' Barbarians

The series is broken down into four episodes, each of which looks at a different barbarian race. The first thing that Jones makes clear is that according to the Romans, a barbarian is simply anyone who isn't Roman. The xenophobia that the Romans felt is clearly visible in their writings about other races, all of which are described as inferior and uncivilized. But was that really the case? Probably not.

As the old saying goes, history is written by the winners, and that is doubly true when the losers have not form of written language. Most of what we know of the Goths, Vandals, and Celts comes from Roman texts, a decidedly one-sided look at things.

Jones, who wrote the series, travels the world and visits the locations of famous battles. He's an entertainer first and a scholar second, and that makes the show very enjoyable. Jones has a knack for getting to the entertaining part of the story quickly without making the show seem sensational. During his travels Jones presents Roman history while looking at things from the perspective of the 'barbarians' themselves, many of whom were more civilized and advanced that the Romans themselves.

Of course this isn't what we're taught in history class, so it takes some convincing. Jones does a pretty good job of it too, questioning some of the standard beliefs with logic and other contemporary accounts of the events in question. The latest archeological discoveries are also mentioned and many people who have devoted their lives to the study of this time period are interviewed.

A good example of his method is when he's discussing the Greek scholar Archimedes. If the Romans were the pinnacle of knowledge in ancient times, can you name a famous Roman mathematician? No, of course not. There were none. When Rome tried to capture the city state of Syracuse the defenses that Archimedes created stymied and terrified the invaders, according Roman accounts, and even afterwards they didn't seem to prize pure research.

There are sections on Julius Ceasar's conquest of Gaul, the savage German Goths (whom the Romans never did conquer), the Persians, Attila the Hun, and many others. Constantly entertaining as well as educational, this is a very fascinating look at the time when all roads led to Rome.

The only real flaw with the series is that it is a bit too anti-Roman. Jones points out how barbaric the games in the coliseum were in every episode, and seems to have a double standard at times. When Attila the Hun and his men invade the empire it's the work of a brilliant leader who is offering the citizens an alternative to Roman rule. When Julius Caesar invades Gaul, it's the work of an ambitious megalomaniac who is willing to slaughter people to advance his own standing.

The main flaw in Jones' premise that the 'barbarians' were just as civilized and advanced as Rome, is that it doesn't explain the Dark Ages. If the rest of the western world was nearly as advanced as Rome, why did that city's fall bring civilization's advance to a screeching halt?

He also doesn't give Rome credit where credit is due. Though he admits that the Hun army fell apart "15 minutes" after Attila's death, and he touts the fact that the Vandals regime in Northern Africa lasted nearly 100 years, but makes no mention of the centuries and centuries that the Roman Republic and Empire lasted. No, they weren't perfect, but where other prominent groups would rise to power under the leadership of one charismatic person, only to fade away after that leader died, the Romans established a form of rule that, flawed though it was, outlasted all others of the time. They should be given credit for that.

The four shows that make up this series run about 50 minutes each and are presented on two DVDs which come in a single width case with a page to hold the extra disc.

Audio:

The show has a stereo soundtrack that fits it well. There is some use made of the soundstage, but since most of the show is narration it isn't very prominent.

Video:

The 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced image is acceptable but not outstanding. There are a lot of compression artifacts visible in the backgrounds. Aliasing, blocking, and posterization are all present at various times. When the camera pans across a scene, it's particularly bad. The level of detail is pretty good, but the image is a bit soft in places. Overall an average looking disc.

Extras:

Unfortunately there were no extras included.

Final Thoughts:

This is a very good series. There's a lot of information related in an engaging and lively manner, about the Roman Empire and the people they fought. Terry Jones presents a very convincing argument that the 'barbarian hordes' that would periodically attack the Roman Empire were not nearly as uncivilized as we've been lead to believe. While the show's anti-roman stance goes a bit too far, they never give credit for the good things the Romans accomplished, this is an eye-opening documentary series that is well worth watching. A strong Recommendation.