When Rome Ruled: War Machine

blog post photo
Written by Martin Pupp (Associate Producer)

To start the filming of this episode we’ve decided to begin at Kalkriese, site of the famous Varus Battle where the Germans slaughtered three entire Roman Legions in 9 AD.  It may seem odd to start an episode about the powerful Roman army at the site of one of its worst ever defeats, but if we see how shocking this upset was we can understand how mighty the Roman Legion really was.

Spending the day at the park and museum in Kalkriese is extraordinary.  Walking through the woods and along the reconstructed ramparts you really get an idea of what it would have been like for the Roman soldiers marching to their summer camp.  The forest is dense, the ground is wet and uneven, and the bugs are horrendous.

At one point we decided to go deep into the boggy woods to get some extra footage and we practically got eaten alive by mosquitoes and horse flies.  Then suddenly the beautiful sunny sky was covered with dark clouds and before we could run for cover we were attacked by one of the most intense thunder showers I’ve ever seen.  Now we could really understand what it must have been like walking through semi-swamps and being attacked by relentless hoards.

When Rome Ruled: War Machine tells the story of the power that made Rome great. The most disciplined and deadly force in the ancient world, the legion army. Though history remembers the names of emperors and generals it’s these ordinary men who carved and kept an empire. They trained, they fought, and they marched thousands of miles on roads that they themselves had built. Using the ancient records and scientific research and extraordinary archaeological finds we trace their journey as invaders, killers, peacekeepers, colonists from the furthest frontiers back to the city for which they killed and died. These are the men of the Roman military machine.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9P et/pt. Here’s a sneak peek from tonight’s new episode:


  1. cythara
    July 19, 2011, 5:23 am

    I am getting fed up with bible ‘history’ continually passed of as ‘real history’. The Old Testament has been exposed as a complete latter day fabrication (probably) by returning Judean exiles in 536 BC to re-establish their rule of Judean and Samaritan peasants. NOTHING of the Old testament, prior to 925 BC jives with the actual history known of the time. It was clearly ‘all made up’ and rather late in history; Rome was already a city when these political con artists first dreamed up of people like Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon.

    In the same way, Christianity has been continually portrayed as if ‘the New Testament’ was really true, when clearly even within the texts, fishing things are swimming around. One day, I would like to see HONEST historians, instead of biblical shills with either Jewish or Christian agendas, do a real historical survey of the religion.

    Personally, I think the real origins of Christianity will be found in Persia, not Palestine and the Jesus and John the Baptist, were real people, but not the originators of the religion, but simply its first teachers in Palestine. The religion they taught was then ‘repackaged for foreign consumption as originating among the Jews to give the same Jewish elite in the Temple at Jerusalem an insertion point into the Roman Empire at large to try and subvert and control them. That would be (and probably is) the True Story of Christianity.

    In the same way,

  2. cythara
    July 19, 2011, 5:32 am

    I might add one thing here. The true Christianity (the one before Judeo-Christianity) would then be early versions of what came to be known as Gnostic Christianity. Judeo-Christianity and Gnostic Christianity (mostly Judeo-Christianity) waged a 4 century war for control of Christianity. Earliest Gnostic Christianity was simply called ‘Truth Seeking’ and was clearly imbued with a lot of Zoroastrian theology (like Holy Spirit) refined by Greek philosophy (Neo-Platonism). If you want to find the earliest Christianity, search there and dump every reference to Judaism. That was added later and violently warred to subvert and control the other. The story would be the most fascinating lesson in history one can read. The master plan of the Jewish Temple elite was overturned by Greeks who saw Christianity as a means to establish power within the Roman Empire, so they stole the Jews’ idea and then excluded the Jews early on (1st century AD). The Greeks who did this were the very disciples of Paul, and maybe even Paul, himself, in his latter days.

  3. mputrakusuma
    July 24, 2011, 6:41 pm

    Please no War in the world