s3276169 Firstly this is not, let me repeat this not, in my estimation, an accurate historical documentary. There's license taken with some of the historical facts in order, I suspect to fit the flow of the story line(s) crafted for this short series. Casting that not inconsiderable fact aside, what this series does do and does well, is bring a general facsimile of ancient Western history alive. This is a positive in so much as it that may encourage the interest of those who have no academic background in the subject. What assists Barbarians Rising immensely, is a quality, mostly British cast. There are some well known faces here who breathe life, in a convincingly down to earth way, into key historical players from the period. As a note I'd add some have criticized this series because of its title. Its true many of the civilizations the Roman's labelled "Barbarian" were sophisticated. Some more so than Rome itself. What this refers to is the Roman "attitude" towards other civilizations. This is clearly defined at the beginning of each episode and indeed, does accurately reflect Romes general attitudes, to anyone not Roman or classically Greek.All in all, as is often the case where historical truth meets the commercial imperative to entertain, some license has been taken but there is still enough on offer here, to say this series does have some general educational value too. 7/10 from me.

Dinin Do Urden Ok... So... As other reviews pointed out, some facts are just plain wrong and important elements totally omitted.However, the worse thing about this documentary is the INSANE political position it takes... I mean... It is worse than Good US and Evil Russians or Germans. Each "Barbarian" (some of which not being Barbarians... Hannibal or Spartacus for instance) is depicted as a Freedom Fighter versus the Roman Empire, the most EEEEEVIIIIIIL empire exiting on Earth.I'm not saying Roman Empire was good and gentle and yes they oppressed various cultures, yes they had slaves (as everybody had during those times... Athens did, Sparta did, Persian Empire did and most of the Barbaric factions), and yes, like any army (even US one) they committed atrocities, but Goddammit! This is supposed to be a historical documentary not a Marvel movie...And Ok, it's focused on the Barbarians, not on the Roman Empire. So I can get there is no reason to mention the insane development the Roman Empire provided to the entire occidental Europe. No need to say that it took almost a millenia for Europe to recover from the fall and get back to the same levels of health, safety, stable governments etc. Ok. It's not the focus and it's not what is driving me insane. No, what drives me crazy is that you can be prepared to ear like 10000 times: "Romans oppressed and raped and killed and raped and oppressed, and raped". "In their arrogance, Roman Empire..." all this in a very dramatic way, always highlighting how bad and evil Romans were..And then: "Boudicca killed 10,000 Civilians". This is a f****g War Crime level of evilness. But no... They say this like just a simple normal fact.. Like, "but yeah. It's OK you know? It's normal, it's again the Roman Empire, so that's fine". No mention of torture for the Barbarians? No rape? No genocide?Give me a break.... Too cringy... Way too cringy...What's the ptoblem? Is the producer / director jealous his country never shine in such a way for so long or what?

ktpatrol Spoiler alert!!! I won't give too much away. This series had me very interested as I'm a huge fan of ancient history,and Roman history. It's well acted but they get basic details wrong from the start.Episode one made me cringe. Hannibal is portrayed as a black man,which he was definitely not. Carthage is not given it's due as a contemporary rival to Rome but portrayed as "barbarians" looking for freedom.the commentary includes prominent African Americans, leading the viewer to surmise that the conflict is somehow relevant to modern American race relations when it was in reality a war for trade and domination of the Mediterranean Sea. Hannibals military achievements are largely missed altogether other than the march through the alps. If you have even a basic knowledge of ancient history you will probably be disappointed. The acting is good, the history is definitely modern post apologetic and why Jesse Jackson is a commentator is a mystery.the production by itself is worth watching imho but historical accuracy is not up to a channel that calls itself the history channel.history is not always pretty or one sided, this mockumentory attempts to give a modern take on complex issues in a modern pussified snowflake sensitivity kind of way

Guylasorsa56 I was very excited when I heard about this series,as there isn't much out there on Roman history. I enjoyed the 2 other documentaries on the rise and fall of the roman empire. I a big fan of the show Rome and spartacus,though they are not historically accurate ,but are TV series. A documentary should do its best to create an enjoyable story and be historically accurate. Barbarians rising did none of these. I totally agree with the above reviews on Hannibal. Scipios son not being mentioned is a huge blunder Heck how hard would it have been to give him his eye patch, from losing his eye in battle.I did enjoy the the second story on Veriatus. Perhaps because I don't know much about his story. Spartacus,they butchered as bad as they did Hannibals story. They had him winning at Vesuvius and one other small battle. He fought several battles and won. Spartacus was tricked by some pirates who were suppose to bring him across the waters to Sicily. There's nothing in history that says Marcus Crassus paid the pirates off,as they said in this episode. It didn't say how Spartacus had to battle uphill in their last attempt to escape the tip and defeat Crassus. Not a mention of right in the battle he killed his own horse,to rally his men