Category: South & The Mediterranean

In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial criseswe can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 1 Dreams of Avarice - From Shylock's pound of flesh to the loan sharks of Glasgow, from the promises to pay on Babylonian clay tablets to the Medici banking system. Professor Ferguson explains the origins of credit and debt and why credit networks are indispensable to any civilization ...
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In 1564the year that gave England Shakespeare, Galileo was born in Piza, in Italy the cradle of the Renaissance. But Galileo was pre-destined for trouble. His father was as argumentative as Galileo was to become. The open minded and broad education that the young Galileo was given in music, literature, art, and science guaranteed that he could never hold his tongue and suffer in silence. Most of his childhood went unrecorded but as a young boy his fascination with mechanics showed that his was an enquiring unfettered mind. It was this attitude that was to lead later to triumph and catastrophe ...
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Napoleon tells the story of the emperor who was also soldier lover and statesman a towering historical figure riddled with contradictions. The mini series is framed by the grand sweep of history woven from intimate accounts of and by the man himself a story of ambition pride conquest and eventually exile and loss. Episode 4 The End - describes Napoleons downfall including the invasion and subsequent retreat from Russia and his final battles in which all of Europe is arrayed against him. Exiled to Elba he returns to France after just ten months only to be defeated for the last time at Waterloo. Napoleon spends his final days exiled on an island far out in the Atlantic where he writes his memoirs and reinvents his legend ...
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In 2009a team of marine archaeologists carrying out a sonar survey of the seabed around the Italian island of Ventotene made an astonishing discovery. The wrecks of five ancient Roman ships were found in pristine condition. Remarkably, much of the cargo remained exactly as the ancient Roman crews had loaded it. What happened to these ancient ships? What were they carrying and why had they traveled to this remote, rocky island in the first place? Lost Ships of Rome follows the team as they explore the sites in detail, salvage artifacts and piece together the history of the ships and why they were lost at Ventotene two thousand years ago ...
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This series of programs consists of 16 episodes which profile 16 evil men and women throughout history who have used their power to torturekill, maim and eradicate millions of people ...
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A look at the making of the Gladiator and the historical aspects presented within the film. Interviews with castcrew and historical professors about certain locations and characters that were in the movie. Originally aired on Discovery Channel as a promotion for the 2000 film. Interviews with cast, crew and historical professors tell us a little bit more about certain locations and characters than what was in the movie ...
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In The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson traces the evolution of money and demonstrates that financial history is the essential back story behind all history. By learning how societies have continually created and survived financial criseswe can find solid solutions to today's worldwide economic emergency. As he traverses historic financial hot spots around the world, Ferguson illuminates fundamental economic concepts and speaks with leading experts in the financial world. Episode 2 Human Bondage - How did finance become the realm of the masters of the universe? Through the rise of the bond market in Renaissance Italy. With the advent of bonds, war finance was transformed and spread to north west Europe and across the Atlantic. It was the bond market that made the Rothschilds the richest and most powerful family of the 19th century ...
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This Documentary describes Pythagoras. It was produced as part of a series on Geniuses in 1996. Pythagoras530 BC must have been one of the world's greatest men, but he wrote nothing, and it is hard to say how much of the doctrine we know as Pythagorean is due to the founder of the society and how much is later development. It is also hard to say how much of what we are told about the life of Pythagoras is trustworthy, for a mass of legend gathered around his name at an early date. Sometimes he is represented as a man of science, and sometimes as a preacher of mystic doctrines, and we might be tempted to regard one or other of those characters as alone historical ...
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This series follows local man Francis Campbell in his role as the UK's ambassador to the Vatican. Delving beneath the ceremonial dutieswe get an unique glimpse into the real life of a diplomat operating within the hidden world of the Vatican. Episode 1 - This episode sees Francis hear the Pope's new year address to the diplomatic corps, and he also deals with news of a hastily arranged visit by the prime minister to the Vatican ...
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Arminius was born as the son of a Cheruscanabducted as a pawn of the Romans, and raised as a soldier, he returns to subdued Germania under Emperor Augustus. He makes himself the leader of the revolt against Rome, resulting in the destruction of the legions of Varus' in the year 9 A.D. On the side of Arminius', the audience will experience the clash of cultures between the Romans and Germania. In a memorable television eventwe accompany him from the simple mud hut of his father to ancient Rome, from the plains of Pannonia to battlefields in the gorges of the Teutoburg Forest. Original German title Arminius: Enemy of Rome. Episode 1 A Province Too Far - The first part deals with the search for Arminius identity. Coming from a simple village of the Cherusci settlement and the dense forests of Germania, the Romans kidnap him under a treaty made in ...
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Professor Robert Bartlett embarks on an ambitious journey deep into the hearts and minds of a band of warriors who transformed medieval Europe. He draws on Anglo-Saxon chronicles medieval manuscripts and some of the most powerful examples of Norman architecture in an epic sweep of the period of Norman supremacy. And he reveals how the Norman legacy lives on in our culture and politics to this day. Episode 3 Normans of the South - Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Normans on southern Europe and the Middle East. The Normans spread south in the 11th century, winning control of southern Italy and the island of Sicily. There they created their most prosperous kingdom, where Christianity and Islam coexisted in relative harmony and mutual tolerance. It became a great centre of medieval culture and learning. But events in the Middle East provoked the more aggressive side of the Norman ...
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AthensGreece is a city alive with commerce and culture. It is also a city of faith, Greek Orthodox faith, part of the great eastern arm of Christianity. But there was another world here, one of which only tantelizing fragments remain. Those who reach back through time, both above ground and below, go in search of a world that was equally alive and equally devout. The world of the ancient Greeks. It still speaks to us today through one of it's legacies Greek Mythology. It was populated by many gods and godesses. Each with certain powers in the world and each with a story of their own. For tens of thousands of years predating biblical times stories of the gods and their doings was passed down by storytellers ...
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Ten thought provoking episodes bring a fresh perspective to Scotland's past and challenges many of the perceived notions of Scottish history. Using the very latest in historical research A History of Scotland is a sweeping and insightful chronicle of an often turbulent but continuingly fascinating nation. Episode 1 - At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England. In the first episode Oliver reveals the mystery of how the Gaelic Scottish Kingdom Alba was born, and why its role in one of the greatest battles ever fought on British soil defined the shape of Britain in the modern era ...
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They were the dreaded forces on the fringes of civilizationthe bloodthirsty warriors who defied the Roman legions and terrorized the people of Europe. They were the Barbarians, and their names still evoke images of cruelty and chaos. But what do we really know of these legendary warriors? From the frigid North Sea to the Russian steppes, this ambitious series tells the fascinating stories of the most fabled groups of fighters in history, tracing 1,000 years of conquest and adventure through inspired scholarship and some of the most extensive reenactments ever filmed. Franks Witness the birth of a barbarian empire as the Franks, led by Merovich the legendary warrior said to be half-man, half-monster descend upon Gaul, cutting a swath of devastation and conquering both the Roman and Visigoth armies ...
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Luxury isn't always a question of the expensive and beautiful for the rich and powerful it's always been much more and more important than that. The story of luxury is about an idea that touches on democracy and patriotism on social harmony and epic courage and even on the divine. Because it is so important there has always been more than one definition of what luxury actually is. One thing all can agree on is that luxury is a rare thing, it divides society into the haves and have nots. Host Cambridge University academic Dr Michael Scott asks the question Do we love luxury or hate it or both? He presents the view that the best way to understand today's anxious response toward luxury is to think about how it operated in the past and to understand how that past continues to impact society today. Episode Luxury in Ancient Greece ...
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