Original subtitles

- [Male Narrator] Our history is no more

than a series of incredible events.

Every one of us can influence its course.

(dramatic music)

The most infinitesimal of our decisions

can influence the future of humanity.

To know the past is to foresee the future.

2018, Rome, restoration site of the Temple of Jupiter.

Consecrated in 509 BC,

this monument is among the world's

oldest places of worship still active.

Soon, the inhabitants of Italy would be able to pray

to their great god, Jupiter.

Upon the death of Julius Caesar,

nobody could manage the necessary reforms

in order to turn the Roman republic into an empire.

Deprived of its tremendous influence,

Christianity has remained confined to the Middle East

and has not succeeded in asserting itself.

Nowadays, Jupiter is the official religion of Italy.

Jupiter Optimus Maximus is worshiped

by more than 100 million believers,

but none of that ever happened.

In 45 BC, a small grain of sand will allow Augustus

to exceed to power and to turn the republic into an empire.

January 11th in the year 49 BC,

at the head of the 13th Legion,

Caesar illegally enters Italy before marching on Rome.

Five years later, the will of the late Julius Caesar

designates his great nephew, a certain Octavian,

as his legitimate heir.

September 2nd in the year 31 BC, the war fleet of Octavian

defeats Mark Antony's at the naval battle of Actium.

These three events are key moments

that mark the transformation of the republic

into the Roman empire.

September 27th in the year 52 BC.

The night was long.

Yesterday, the Gallic armies

rushed at the Roman fortified camp.

At the last minute,

the legions of Julius Caesar drove them back.

Today, the Roman proconsul lays waiting

for the surrender of their leader, Vercingetorix.

The Roman republic is about to conquer Gaul.

Rome has come a long way,

and today, there's nothing left of the small town

founded by the legendary Romulus 700 years ago.

With its armed forces, Rome has conquered all of Italy,

then this city was led

in new wars of conquest by ambitious generals.

After its victory in the city of Carthage,

its great rival, Macedonia, Greece, Asia Minor and Syria

have each become Roman provinces.

Endless victories have showered the victorious generals

with gold and populated Rome with slaves.

But an empire is not led the same way a town is,

and the republic is overtaken

by the dazzling success of its legions.

This tremendous expansion has drastically changed

the balance of the original city state.

The administration of the new provinces,

sometimes thousands of kilometers apart

from one another, is complicated

and threatens the old republican organization.

Indeed, its institutions have barely evolved

since their origins.

Power is still in the hands

of a handful of big aristocratic families,

using their wealth to rally partisans.

The more partisans a family possesses,

the more influence on political

and military decisions it has.

It is the system of clientelism.

But in the first century BC,

the balance of powers is undergoing massive changes.

The economy is disrupted.

Inequalities gain ground.

The people's dissatisfaction

degenerates into violent revolts.

The republic lives in a near continuous atmosphere

of civil war.

For ambitious and charismatic men,

it is the opportunity to free themselves

from the grip of great aristocratic families

and to climb the rungs of power.

The people of Rome now seem ready to follow the leader

who will promise them civil peace, stability and order,

a man like Julius Caesar.

In 58 BC, then proconsul, he gets a military command

outside Italy, at the gates of Gaul,

an excellent occasion to earn the military prestige he lacks

and to accumulate a tremendous war treasure.

In less than eight years,

Caesar conquers the numerous Gallic tribes,

crushes Vercingetorix's uprising,

and imposes Roman law on Gaul.

In Rome, some begin to worry about this ambitious general.

As soon as both the war and his mandate are over,

he is commanded by the senate to return his legions

and to come back to Rome as an ordinary citizen.

If he obeys, he might be kept in the background.

If he refuses, he makes himself an outlaw.

On January 11 in the year 49 BC, he faces the Rubicon.

This river marks a symbolic frontier.

Beyond it is the sacred land of Italy.

No general has the right

to cross the Rubicon with his armies.

Caesar faces his fate.

He decides to break the law

and advances on Rome at the head of his legions.

The die is cast.

- [Female Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

Every historical event, regardless of how small,

is recorded and connected.

You only need to change one to upset all the others.

Here, we are able to control time,

analyze and compare billions of events

in order to rewrite history in infinite ways.

In Latin, res publica means public affair.

It doesn't necessarily refer to a democratic system.

Indeed, Rome is lead by a narrow aristocratic class.

It is, therefore, an oligarchy.

For the Romans, the term libertas for freedom

explain their government system a lot better.

In the soul of the republic, the libertas is embodied

by the union of the senate and all the citizens,

summed up by the phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus,

the famous SPQR.

Senators are chosen according to their prestige and dignity.

They are looked upon as the guardians of ancestral customs.

They promulgate laws and manage the financial field.

The representatives of the population

elect the magistrates in charge of executive power.

These senior officials are endowed

with specific powers for a determined period.

The consuls, the most powerful of them, are invested

with the imperium, the civil and military command power.

However, like every magistrate, the consuls must get rid

of their power once their mandate has ended.

If they refuse to do so, they are condemned by the senate,

the one and only guarantor for legitimacy.

It is Caesar's choice.

He breaks the law and becomes,

by this very fact, an enemy of the republic.

- [Male Narrator] For Caesar, it is the moment of truth.

After he hunted down the republican armies

across the whole Mediterranean, it is here

on these Spanish slopes that everything will be settled.

(dramatic music) (men screaming)

On March 17 in the year 45 BC in Munda,

Julius Caesar defeats the republican army

and puts an end to a dreadful civil war,

Caesareans against republicans, legions against legions.

- [Man] Caesar!

- [Male Narrator] He won his bet

and goes back to Rome as a conquering hero,

proclaiming himself the true defender of the republic.

But the outcome is not as yet certain.

Now, he must legitimize his power.

Always abiding by the law,

he will search for the slightest flaws

and exploit them to his advantage.

In the year 49 BC,

he had already appointed himself dictator,

a position endowed with exceptional powers

normally used to deal with emergency situations.

Caesar ignores the six-month term of office

and makes his rule permanent, but he doesn't stop there.

He also gets the right to appoint the other magistrates,

governors, consuls and tribunes,

as well as the army command.

Caesar has all the powers and dominates political life.

He commands dozens and thousands of veteran legionaries

entirely devoted to him, appoints his nearest relatives

to key position, is loved and respected

by the common people, and above all, owns a huge wealth.

The senate under control can do nothing

but notice the situation.

For the ancient senatorial families, holders of power

since the beginnings of Rome, Caesar is a real danger.

In the restricted circles of the Roman aristocracy,

some people begin to envisage assassination.

That day of March in the year 44 BC,

while Caesar was on his way to the Curia,

where the senate stands,

the ruler of Rome is at the peak of his power.

Caesar seems invincible.

- [Female Narrator] Rome wasn't built in a day.

Originally a monarchy, it became a real republic

at the time of the eviction of its last king,

Tarquin the Proud.

Romans have kept a very traumatic,

almost mythical memory from this period,

as well as a deep projection of every form of monarchy.

Very attached to the notion of libertas,

people have found new heroes like Lucius Cincinnatus,

this citizen who is said to have left his field

to lead the armies and save the homeland from a great peril.

Endowed with the extraordinary and almost unlimited powers

of the dictatorship, he is said to have defeated

the enemies of Rome then given back his powers

to the senate before returning to the plowing of his field

as a modest citizen.

With the passing centuries, he has become

a semi-legendary paragon of virtue and humility,

an example of devotion to the public good.

Numerous Roman politicians will later claim

to be followers of this man.

As for Caesar, he does precisely the opposite.

He becomes an enemy of the republic by advancing on Rome,

subjugating the senate,

then seizing the power for his own use.

For many people, the ghost of Tarquin the Proud

and of the monarchy threatens again their beloved republic.

- [Male Narrator] Stabbed to death 23 times,

Caesar lies on the ground of the Curia,

assassinated in the senate by 20 conspirators.

All the other senators have fled,

afraid they might be suspected of complicity.

Among conspirators,

there was a strong evidence of indecision.

They first think about getting rid of the corpse

in the Tiber, then give up the idea.

Surprisingly, nobody seems to have planned

what to do once the dictator is dead.

Mark Antony, Caesar's loyal lieutenant and a veteran

of all his campaigns, jumps at the opportunity.

At Caesar's funeral, he delivers a moving funeral oration

that galvanizes the masses.

Mad with rage and thirsting for revenge,

the inhabitants of Rome are getting increasingly angry.

Caesar's assassins find themselves forced to flee.

From now on, Mark Antony is free to do as he pleases

and cleverly acts as Caesar's successor.

But the assassinated ruler has written a will.

In this rigorously legal document, it is stipulated

that he adopts Gaius Octavius, his great nephew,

and that he bequeaths his wealth to him.

A little known 18-year-old young man

becomes the legatee of the prestigious name of Caesar.

Mark Antony gets the military prestige

and the people's favor.

Octavian inherits Caesar's name and wealth,

at least on paper.

Indeed, the young Octavian is, in fact,

deprived of his legacy by Mark Antony.

Between the two successors, conflict is inevitable.

During this time, Caesar's assassins take advantage

of the situation to raise a large army in the east

in the name of the republic.

In the face of danger,

Octavian and Mark Antony are forced to forego their conflict

and seal a treaty of alliance.

Rome lapses into civil war again.

(men scream)

During the dreadful Battle of Philippi in 42 BC,

Mark Antony proves that he is indeed

Caesar's worthy military heir.

Once again, the republicans are wiped out

and Caesar's assassins are forced to commit suicide.

Two years later, in Rome,

Mark Antony and Octavian's common ovation

gives the impression that both men get along.

Obviously, it is an illusion.

An agreement gives the east to Mark Antony,

who lives a royal lifestyle there with Queen Cleopatra.

Octavian, the ruler of the west,

sets up a smear campaign to ruin his rival's reputation.

It is thus said that Mark Antony would disown

his lawful wife for the beautiful Egyptian queen.

Bewitched, the general, weakened by Cleopatra's charisma,

would have deserted Rome and behaved like a monarch.

In front of a horrified senate,

Octavian reads Mark Antony's will,

which was seized illegally.

The entire west sides with him.

But Octavian is a cautious man

and he doesn't openly attack Caesar's former lieutenant.

He claims to be the defender of Rome

and declares war only on Cleopatra.

Hostilities are reopened.

- [Female Narrator] We are now at a point of divergence.

A point of divergence is a key moment

across roads in our history where our world can swing

from one side or the other.

In his will, Caesar decides to adopt his great nephew

and to bequeath his name,

his prestige and his wealth to him.

The dictator has probably detected in Octavian

the necessary competence and intelligence to take over.

Without this will, Mark Antony,

who already had a very strong popular support,

wouldn't have had a serious rival.

However, as brilliant as he was,

there's a strong chance that the republic

wouldn't have turned into an empire under his authority.

It might have stagnated then declined.

Yet the empire has constantly spread its Greco-Latin culture

and its laws, but also the Christian faith,

which is permanently adopted during the fourth century.

From that moment on,

Christianity has become the great religion of the west,

to the detriment of the polytheistic pagan worship

nowadays almost entirely extinct.

It is very likely that the Christian faith

would have been restricted to the Middle East.

Today, the western world would still be deeply polytheist.

In Rome, Jupiter and Venus,

and not Jesus Christ, would be worshiped.

- [Male Narrator] September 2nd in the year 31 BC,

Western Greece, near the town of Actium.

The two strong fleets confront each other

in a huge fratricidal battle.

Mark Antony and Cleopatra

face the tactical genius of Agrippa,

Octavian's brilliant general,

the final great battle of civil wars.

On the evening of an indecisive confrontation,

it seems that Mark Antony, who has lost a big part

of his fleet and of his legions, has failed for good.

One year later, in Alexandria, abandoned by all,

he has no other choice than committing suicide.

The war is over.

Octavian won.

He restored order and civil peace

in the republic plagued by disturbances during 18 years.

However, he knows that he can still lose everything

and end up like his great uncle.

Octavian is not Caesar.

A cautious man, he keeps on wearing his breastplate

during the sessions of the senate.

He knows that even if Romans are fiercely opposed

to the very idea of monarchy, they would support

a strong leader regaining control of the senate

and ending the chaos of civil wars.

He cleverly gives back his extraordinary powers

to the senate during an eloquent speech,

obvious proof of his complete respect

towards the republican institutions

and of his love for the sacrosanct libertas.

The bet was won.

The senate, seeing in him the man it needs,

the new Cincinnatus, begs him to keep on

serving the republic and offers him a 10-year imperium.

The senators even bestowed the title of Augustus,

the one whose word is sacred on him.

It is more than a simple name.

From now on, Octavian embodies the auctoritas,

the moral authority which makes of him

a greater human being.

He becomes the guardian of the imperium,

the first among the citizens, the Princeps.

To the rapturous applause of the crowd

Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus

becomes the undisputed master of Rome

at the senate's request.

Every institution is retained.

People keep on voting.

The senate continues to gather.

The republic remains in power.

The old magistratures, now all under Augustus's authority,

are all carefully maintained.

That's how the republic has died out,

without any official proclamation

and has handed over power to the empire.

- [Female Narrator] Augustus has managed an amazing feat.

Even though he cloaked himself

in the role of the republic's shield,

he succeeded in depriving the latter of its substance.

If he had failed to do so,

he would have been remembered as a tyrant or a usurper.

A similar situation is to be found in the medieval Japan

at the turn of the 17th century.

At that time, the country had been plagued

by decades of dreadful civil wars.

Ieyasu from the clan Tokugawa decides to rebel,

officially to defend the emperor's interest,

but in fact, to seize power.

Having won the Sekigahara battle an extremist,

he becomes shogun and seizes the power for his dynasty.

It is the beginning

of a long period of civil peace, the Edo era.

Ieyasu and his entire clan came very close to infamy.

Both Caesar and Ieyasu have risked their future

on a throw of the dice.

As for Augustus, he hasn't left anything to chance.

- [Male Narrator] Rome in the year 14 AD.

In his palace, the 75-year-old emperor

is living his last hours.

Even though his long 40-year-old reign

began with violent civil wars,

it also witnessed art, sciences and architecture booming.

The eternal city, capital of the empire

has been largely rebuilt

and enriched with prestigious buildings.

Augustus inherited a brick town,

which he turned into a marble city.

The borders of the empire have been pushed back

thanks to new conquests.

Augustus's legions, subjected to an iron discipline

and equipped with the best weapons,

have won great victories, but also encountered a few defeats

such as the one of Teutoburg

in the distant and dark forests of Germania.

After the beginning of a reign

which was tainted with violence and brutality,

Augustus gave a new image of himself,

the portrait of a thoughtful, fair and stable emperor.

His motto, festina lente, translated into make haste slowly,

reveals his true nature.

He was clever enough to surround himself with worthy people

such as the General Agrippa or the well-known Maecenas

who devoted a big amount of his wealth

to the promotion of men of letters.

Despite the deep aversion of Romans

to the monarchy, Augustus even succeeded

in gradually imposing the idea of a successor.

The empire seems eternal.

In fact, it is only the beginning.

At its peak in the second century AD,

its territory will stretch

to five million square kilometers,

where more than 60 million inhabitants

will live in peace under the Pax Romana.

Two centuries later, waves of barbarians

coming from the north of Europe

will flood over the imperial borders.

Overcome by force of numbers, undermined by bribery,

budget deficit and conflicts of succession,

the empire will totter, but that is another story.

- [Female Narrator] Augustus has never been an emperor

as we understand this title nowadays.

He contented himself with controlling every key position,

gathering all the powers.

It is as if in our present day democracies,

only one man could be president for life,

could appoint the Prime Minister,

the director of finance in the central bank,

the military chief of staff,

the first secretary of the syndicates,

and the chief of religious affairs.

A clever man, Augustus has succeeded in offering Rome

security and stability in exchange for supreme power.

Augustus's great gift was using every tool at his disposal

to consolidate his power,

war, political action,

but also plot and manipulation of public opinion.

He has even often showed himself

implacable, cruel and merciless.

However, after the came to power after decades of civil war,

he has constantly sought peace by all possible means.

He hasn't simply seized power for his own use,

but also, he strove for Rome's greatness,

adopting the utmost strictness and an austere way of life.

He gave the Pax Romana, a common future,

and a tremendous empire to the peoples of the Mediterranean,

a 1,000-year-old empire, the Roman empire.

(dramatic music)