Title: ROME: Engineering An
Empire
Narrated By: Michael Carroll
Writer: Christopher Cassel
Producer and Director:
Christopher Cassel
Executive Producers: Bill
Hunt, Vincent Kralyevich, and Kristine Sabat
Running Time: 90 minutes
without commercials
Media: The History Channel
Original Documentary (NTSC DVD Screener)
Premiere Monday, September 5,
2005, at 9pm (ET/PT)/8pm (CT)
Network: The History Channel
(Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV Rating: Not Available At
Time Of Review
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
For more than 500 years Rome was the most powerful and advanced civilization the world had ever known. In the face of a brutal ever expanding empire that enslaved the nations it conquered before incorporating them into their society and taking their technological know how and adapting it to serve Rome, often improving upon it in the process, the Roman Empire’s history is written on the very ruins of the great architectural triumphs they achieved that still inspire modern builders today. The Romans created roads and bridges to the ever-expanding metropolises of the empire where before one would have had to travel through the wilderness or by boat to go from one location to another. The Roman built great aqueducts that gave its citizens fresh running water as well as indoor plumbing and sewers to discard wastes. Her citizens and her enemies felt the might of Rome psychologically simply by the great structures that dwarfed the world around it. An example of this is illustrated early in the documentary with the building of Julius Cesar’s bridge across the Rhine River. Built in a mere ten days, this 1000-foot long wooden passageway allowed thousands of troops to enter Germany and freely explore the other side of the land across the river unopposed. The German warriors were so dumbfounded by the creation of the bridge that they fled to higher ground.
After patrolling the area with no resistance, Julius Cesar ordered his troops back across the bridge from where they came and then had the bridge torn down. The message had been delivered without a single drop of blood being spilled. Rome could do whatever she wanted and the Germans were powerless to compete against her will once it was set. The history of the Roman Empire is riddled with civil wars followed by times of peace and expansion and then more civil wars. The myth of Romulus who killed his brother Remus to control the empire was a metaphor for the politics that ran the Republic turned Empire for centuries. The Roman Aqueduct system provided 2000 million gallons of water per day into Rome. This is as much if not more water that has been funneled into New York City as recently as 1985. The documentary details with the use of computer-aided animation the architectural triumphs that would require modern technology to be reproduced today. Casting aside all the darkness within the world of Rome, one has to be amazed at what human beings can accomplish when it comes to redesigning their environment.
Among the many topics covered in this excellent educational and entertaining documentary are the building of Vespasian’s Roman Coliseum, Trajan’s Roman Forum, Hadrian’s Wall and his Pantheon and Caracalla’s baths. Among the various experts interviewed in the documentary, Actor Peter Weller appears representing Syracuse University and proving that like his famous cult character “Buckaroo Banzai,” Weller is truly a real life Renaissance man.
“ROME: Engineering An
Empire” is one of the best History Channel Documentaries I have had the
pleasure of screening yet. Watch it and if you can’t be there in person then
set your DVRs, VCRs, DVD-Rs, and TIVOs to record this awesome documentary
special. “ROME: Engineering An Empire” will premiere on The History Channel
on Monday, September 5, 2005, at 9pm (ET/PT)/ 8pm (CT).
© Copyright 2005 By
Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.