Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome – Empire Without Limit
DVD (IMC Vision, £11.99)
We all think we know the story of the Romans, at least in the broadest terms. It goes something like this: republic, conquest and empire, decline and fall. Watch about, oh, five minutes of Professor Mary Beard’s four-part series on Rome, first aired on BBC Two in the spring, and the limitations of having such smidgens of knowledge soon become clear.
That’s because, from the moment she tackles Rome’s founding myths in the first episode, it’s clear Beard isn’t just out to tell us what we ought to know about the Romans, their history and how they lived – but to do this and then to ask pointed, pertinent supplementary questions.
She’s a restless presenter, constantly worrying at…
