# Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire (2008)

> A documentary survey of the Roman Empire's battles with barbarian tribes and the little known emperors and generals who shaped its decline.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/76464

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 14
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, history
- Network: History
- TMDB rating: 7.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1221224/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: sober, measured, informative, grave, reflective

## Synopsis

Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire (2008) is a American documentary history series broadcast on History, produced by Gardner Films. Its fourteen episodes of roughly forty-two minutes each follow the long campaigns between imperial Rome and the Germanic and Britannic tribes whose wars pressed on the frontiers and gradually weakened the state. Rather than dramatized scenes, the series builds each episode around expert-style narration, battlefield reconstruction and close examinations of the reigns of emperors and generals who rarely receive attention in popular history. The engine is a steady accounting of how military pressure, political instability and overextension combined over generations toward collapse. Each episode works as a self-contained study of a campaign or ruler while the season as a whole traces a single arc from expansion to decline. The tone is sober, measured and informative, with a grave sense of inevitability and an appreciation for the human scale of ancient warfare. Viewers drawn to ancient world docuseries, military history and Roman political intrigue will find the same pleasures as fans of Empires of the Sea and Rome (2005), with a focus on the frontier wars and the forgotten men who fought them.

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