If you want to learn about life in ancient Rome, then I recommend Mary Beard's two brilliant series, which are very exciting, interesting and inspiring. Mary Beard's passion and deep knowledge of the subject is truly contageous.
Here, instead, we get Bettany Hughes who spends eight episodes constantly expressing her personal feminist persuasions and attacking and denigrating the Roman civilization for not having suffiently lived up to those persuasions 2000 years ago. The fact that most viewers may not be at all interested in her political viewpoints and shallow rants is apparently not a thought that has struck her. Neither, apparently, has the futility in applying the morals and customs of England in 2017 on people who lived in an ancient society in a completely different time and world. As a sidepoint, I also don't understand why Hughes and her production team thought it was a good idea for her to show her cleavage in almost every single scene. Though I suppose that too could be yet another feminist statement of some sort.
So, if you want to watch a shallow and patronizing feminist rant, whine and moralize about the lack of modern day feminist values in ancient Rome, then this is the series for you. By contrast, if you want to learn things about ancient Rome and the Romans, then skip this and watch something else. For example by Mary Beard.
Here, instead, we get Bettany Hughes who spends eight episodes constantly expressing her personal feminist persuasions and attacking and denigrating the Roman civilization for not having suffiently lived up to those persuasions 2000 years ago. The fact that most viewers may not be at all interested in her political viewpoints and shallow rants is apparently not a thought that has struck her. Neither, apparently, has the futility in applying the morals and customs of England in 2017 on people who lived in an ancient society in a completely different time and world. As a sidepoint, I also don't understand why Hughes and her production team thought it was a good idea for her to show her cleavage in almost every single scene. Though I suppose that too could be yet another feminist statement of some sort.
So, if you want to watch a shallow and patronizing feminist rant, whine and moralize about the lack of modern day feminist values in ancient Rome, then this is the series for you. By contrast, if you want to learn things about ancient Rome and the Romans, then skip this and watch something else. For example by Mary Beard.