hi, there are lots of good docos on the classics; i won't give exact titles but you should be able to find them online; i'm listing them as they come to mind, so the ones at the top of the list are my most preferred; i have others but these are the ones i've shown/lent to other people who've really liked them. my view is that although a doco can't replace a more detailed book it shouldn't be disparaged by people studying the classics as it can give you the mental framework and background to make getting through a book on the topic much more likely rather than sitting endlessly on the bookshelf with a bookmark permanently parked in between pgs 2 and 3, and it can also help showto people who aren't obsessed by the classics some of the things that interest you:
(a) documentaries by michael wood, described by someone as "the thinking woman's crumpet": see (1) his history of the trojan war (about 6 episodes), which is also a history of archaeology, oral poetry, the homeric qn, etc. – and (2) in the footsteps of alexander the great, where he travels the journey taken by alexander and discovers lots of things that an armchair historian might not have realised without seeing the geography and people on the way.
(b) documentaries by terry jones – my favourites are (1) one called something like hidden history of rome, where he goes to pompeii and herculaneum and tries to uncover the life of an ordinary non-aristocratic person and (2) the barbarians series (4 episodes) where he pushes a message that rome's superiority over its conquered neighbours was roman propaganda rather than fact, and he looks at four "barbarian" peoples to show how unbarbaric they were
(c) something that was called (at least in australia) the empires series – the classics ones (both worth seeing) are (1) fifth century greece narrated by liam neeson (covers in 3 episodes, themistocles and the persian wars, pericles and the peloponnesian wars, socrates and other things like tragedy in fifth century athens) – although one of my friends didn't like this one so much, it's one of the rare ones on greece so definitely recommended – and (2) one starting from augustus and talking a bit about ovid's life in particular which is great, narrated by sigourney weaver. (incidentally the "medici: godfathers of the renaissance" doco in this empires series is one of the docos that lots of my friends like the most of all the docos they've seen)
(d) there is one (don't know its name) but it is really good, a bbc doco on 6 key romans – caesar, nero, the gracchi (my favourite episode) etc.
(e) in the same kind of style there is an about movie-length dramatised doco reconstruction of hannibal's life done by the BBC in about 2006 with alexander siddig
(f) watch the HBO rome series on DVD and turn on the historical notes.
(g) buy copies of the DVDs for books 1 and 2 of the cambridge latin series – these are full of short and really good documentaries on all aspects of roman life.
(h) there is one called something like rome, the power and the glory. it is very US-comparison focused but from memory it goes all the way through from the beginnings to the end of the roman empire. definitely worth seeing.
(i) perhaps not really a documentary, but see the DVD reconstructed performance in latin of cicero's pro archia by jon hall, in between the sections of the speech he gives background explanations on rhetoric
(j) before you go to pompeii or herculaneum have a quick watch of this Yale lecture on the layout of roman houses:
http://academicearth.org/lectures/pompe ... chitecture (k) I bought here in paris a documentary in french where several young champion or up-and-coming european athletes reconstructed competing in the ancient olympic games, including living conditions etc., this is worth watching although i don't know if it's been dubbed in english or with subtitles etc.
cheers, chad
by paulusnb » Sat Oct 15, 2011 11:42 am 
The Today Show would be interviewing my mother and asking her at what point she knew things were just not right. 
, and I really liked it. But now the sober me is tired of these sexy MTV re-imaginings of the ancient world. A young person might think, after watching Rome or Tudors or Borgia, that pederasty and threesomes are the reason the world turns. Granted, you can read some raunchy stuff about the Romans, but I just do not know how Julius Caesar had the time to rule the world if he were always hiding away with little boys in broom closets. I barely have time to make the beast with two backs, and I have the help of modern technology.