Ancient World (Documentaries)

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2004.
The Age of Pericles uses the career of the leading Athenian politician and general from c. 450-429 B.C. as a prism through which to view this brief but remarkable era, and to ask why that echo has persisted for so long. In the generation that followed Pericles's appearance on the public stage shortly after the Persian wars, Athens rapidly transformed the alliance of Greek states - an alliance first created as a defense against the Persians - into a true Aegean empire, dominated by the Athenians and their mighty navy. But this dramatic increase in military power, cultural influence, and prestige was also accompanied by something unique: the growth of full participatory democracy.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2000.
This series of lectures examines a crucial period in the history of the ancient world, the age ushered in by the extraordinary conquests of Alexander the Great. In all the annals of the ancient world, few stories are more gripping than that of the Hellenistic Age. Between the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of Rome, Greek culture became the heart of a world-historical civilization whose intellectual, spiritual, and artistic influence endures to this day.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2009.
Lecture 1. A meditation on empire -- Lecture 2. Lands, seas, and sources -- Lecture 3. Sargon and the dawn of empire -- Lecture 4. The Third Dynasty of Ur -- Lecture 5. The empire of Hammurabi -- Lecture 6. Mitanni and the Kassites -- Lecture 7. The rise of Hatti -- Lecture 8. The government of Hatti -- Lecture 9. Hatti at war -- Lecture 10. The climax and collapse of Hatti -- Lecture 11. The rise of the Egyptian empire -- Lecture 12. The Imperial Army and administration, etc.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 1998.
Clearly, the Greeks are a source of much that we esteem in our own culture: democracy, philosophy, tragedy, poetry both epic and lyric, history-writing, our aesthetic sensibilities and ideals of athletic competition, and more. Blazoned above the portal of Apollo's temple at Delphi were the words, "Know thyself." For us, this injunction to self-awareness also commands knowledge of the Greeks. With Professor Jeremy McInerney as your teacher, you'll come away with fresh knowledge on one of mankind's most golden ages.

Produced by the Biblical Archaeology Society.
74 minutes; released 2007.
A video journey through Jerusalem's archaeological past with Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2005.
Includes lectures on Homer's Iliad, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, the Bhagavad Gita, Gilgamesh, Aeschylus' Oresteia and Prometheus Bound, Euripides' Bacchae, Plato's Phaedo and Republic, Vergil's Aeneid, Pericles Oration, Confucius' The Analects, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Cicero's On Moral Duties.

Directed by Derek Towers.
208 minutes; released 1997.
A Learning Channel documentary on the Byzantine Empire, shot on location in nine countries.

Directed by Michael Gill et al.
30-minute programs; released 1969.
Art historian Sir Kenneth Clark examines the breadth of Western European culture, defining what he considers to be the crucial phases of its development. This lavish series was hailed as a masterpiece when it was broadcast in 1969.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2006.
In these 36 lectures, Dr. Hale guides the listener through 18th-century excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii, tours many important archaeological sites or discoveries, from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and takes a thematic approach in exploring what archaeology has contributed to knowledge of ancient diet, entertainment, engineering, slavery, religion, the role of women, and more.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2007.
This course is a series of biographic portraits from Augustus, Julius Caesar's grandnephew, to Constantine.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2009.
Thirty-six lectures on the visual nature of ancient Rome and how it was able to so successfully communicate its civic and cultural values, or project a knowledge of Roman power, to every corner of the realm. Learn how Rome communicated in visually symbolic ways, gain insight into how similar tools are used today, and hone your ability to see them at work in the visual symbols that are part of government, the military, religion, and just about every aspect of contemporary public or private life.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2001.
An introduction to Roman history focusing on the lives of great individuals. Examines lives from the Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.) through the Empire during the first and second centuries A.D.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2002.
Grasp History Over Thousands of Years and Vast Amounts of Territory From the latter stages of the Agricultural Revolution to the doorstep of the Scientific Revolution, your learning in this course will cover the period from roughly 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, when the "foundations" of the modern West come into view. Professor Noble's goal is to offer a history of what has been truly "foundational" across millennia in the West, that most unusual of world civilizations.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2004.
For most of its 5,000-year existence, China has been the largest, most populous, wealthiest, and mightiest nation on Earth. And for us as Westerners, it is essential to understand where China has been in order to anticipate its future. This course answers this need by delivering a comprehensive political and historical overview of one of the most fascinating and complex countries in world history.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2001.
Professor Kenneth W. Harl offers 24 lectures focused on a region that has been key to human history since the birth of agriculture. The peninsula of Asian Turkey, known to the Greeks as Anatolia and to the Romans as Asia Minor, covers about the same land area as Texas. Anatolia was the home to the first agricultural communities and the Bronze Age empire of the Hittites, and it was the site of the legendary Trojan War. Throughout history it has been the crossroads of empires. The lectures emphasize the continuity and change of the successive civilizations of Classical Greece, Imperial Rome, Christian Byzantium, and the Muslim states of the Seljuk and Ottoman sultanates.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2005.
A professor of classics and history at The Pennsylvania State University and the teacher of our immensely popular course, The History of Ancient Rome, Dr. Garrett G. Fagan has devoted extensive study to ancient warfare. In these 24 lectures he takes you into the thick of combat in some of the most notable battles fought in the Mediterranean region from prehistoric times to the 4th century A.D.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2008.
Most scholars are historians of either Greek or Roman history and perform research solely in that specific field, an approach that author and award-winning Professor Robert Garland considers questionable. "It's only by studying the two cultures in connection with each other that we can come to an understanding of that unique cultural entity that is 'Greco-Roman,'" he notes.

Directed by Cassian Harrison.
165 minutes; released 2001.
The story of ancient Greece's Golden Age as told through the lives of some of its most prominent figures, including Cleisthenes, Themistocles, Pericles, and Socrates. Narrated by Liam Neeson.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2002.
An introduction to the work of Herodotus, the first Greek historian. Considers Herodotus' work in its cultural context, both as history and as literature.

Directed by Clare Beavan et al.
900 minutes; released 2000.
Written and hosted by historian Simon Schama, this mini-series enlivens British history from its ancient beginnings to the 20th Century, highlighting the epic themes and towering figures that transformed an island "at the edge of the world" into an empire.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released by 1999.
Ancient Egyptian civilization is so monumental that it is sometimes difficult to grasp: it lasted 3,000 years, longer than any other on the planet. This course spans all of ancient Egyptian history, dividing it into three periods called Kingdoms: (1) In the Old Kingdom, Egypt was united under one supreme ruler, the pharaoh. During this period, the pyramids were built and the rules of Egyptian art were established that would govern for 3,000 years. (2) In the Middle Kingdom, the nation fought to regain its greatness after the Old Kingdom collapsed. (3) The glamorous New Kingdom was when all the stars - Hatshepsut, Tutankhamen, Ramses the Great, Cleopatra, and others - appeared. The lectures cover religious practices, magic, mummies, pyramid-building, and more.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 1999.
At its height, the Roman Empire, unified in politics and law, stretched from the sands of Syria to the moors of Scotland, and it stood for almost 700 years. Rome's influence is indelible. Europe and the world owe a huge cultural debt to Rome in so many fields of human endeavor, such as art, architecture, engineering, language, literature, law, and religion. In this course you see how a small village of shepherds and farmers rose to tower over the civilized world of its day and left an indelible mark on history. Rome's story is riveting. Professor Fagan draws on a wealth of primary and secondary sources to introduce the fascinating tale of Rome's rise and decline.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 1999.
This course makes it vividly clear why, after almost 3,000 years, the Iliad remains among the greatest adventure stories ever told, as well as one of the most compelling meditations on the human condition. These lectures provide careful, detailed examinations of the most important episodes in the Iliad. They also address various critical and interpretative issues and give background information on the cultural assumptions contained in Homer's epic.

Directed by David Wallace.
240 minutes; released 1998.
British journalist Michael Wood follows the path of Alexander the Great and his army from Macedonia to the Himalayas and beyond in the fourth century B.C.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2002.
An Introduction to Greek Philosophy beckons you to join this eternal discussion. For that is what this subject truly is: a conversation among thinkers that has continued through the centuries and remains accessible to us today. You find it constantly stimulating, sometimes controversial, and nearly always remarkably relevant.

Directed by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2008.
This course will explore the thought of three profoundly influential thinkers in the Western tradition, thinkers whose very names call to mind the spirit of philosophizing or the 'love of wisdom': Socrates (469-399 B.C.), Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.), and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). The three are most obviously linked by their historical epoch and their common devotion to the search for the truth. But they also share a more immediate bond, for Socrates was the teacher of Plato, and Plato in turn became the teacher of Aristotle. Taken together, then, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle constitute one of the most remarkable flowerings of the human mind, and this course will explore their path-breaking attempts to grasp the world as it is in truth of 'according to nature.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 1999.
For thousands of year, readers - and, before them, listeners - have thrilled to the tale of one of the greatest journeys in all of literature. This course offers a meticulous, insightful examination of the most important episodes in the Odyssey and explains the cultural assumptions that lie behind Homer's lines. Through these lectures, you will discover the story of how Odysseus, "the man of many twists and turns", returns home from the Trojan War by the most winding and adventurous route imaginable, battling gods and monsters and even visiting Hades in his quest to get back to Ithaca and set his lands and life in order.

Directed by Larry Klein.
57 minutes; released 1988.
An introduction to the Egyptian pyramid showing how it was constructed and used. Hosted by David Macaulay.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2004.
Tulane University's Professor Kenneth W. Harl organizes the course around two major themes: 1. The makeup of Roman society, politics, and military organization, particularly from the standpoint of how those institutions enabled the Romans not only to conquer those peoples, but assimilate them; 2. The role played by the most recent of Rome's barbarian foes - especially the Germans and the Persians - in bringing down the Roman Empire, including the question of what gave them the "military or political edge" to accomplish this.

Directed by Larry Klein.
60 minutes; released 1994.
The construction of a fictional but representative Roman city in Gaul, showing how the city acted as both a commercial and political unit. Hosted by David Macaulay.

Produced by the Teaching Company.
30-minute lectures; released 2001.
This course investigates the transition of Mediterranean power and culture from Rome to the eastern portion of the Roman Empire in the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D. Approaching the subject both chronologically and thematically, the lectures span nearly 1,000 years and detail the cycles of rise and fall in the Byzantine world, including the impact of Christianity, the resurgent reign of Emperor Justinian, the Byzantine Dark Ages, the cultural flowering of the epoch of the Macedonian emperors, and the impact of the Crusades. A key unifying theme is the role of Byzantium in the transmission of the Classical heritage to the medieval West and to Islam.