All language subtitles for Emperor Rise and Fall of a Dynasty S01E02 1080p HDTV H264-DARKFLiX_track3_[eng]

Rome... the greatest empire
the world has ever seen.

With our grip on the Mediterranean,
we conquer all.

Deep into Africa
and as far north as Britannia.

And all under the ultimate control
of one man, the Emperor.

Or so it seems.

HORSE NEIGHS

Let emperors strut the world stage.

And let us,
the humble women in the wings,

build our dynasties.

For the first time,

we are seeing women altering
the history of the western world.

Julia.

Messalina.

Agrippina,

and of course, me, Livia.

All women who can shape the world,
changing it forever.

The empresses are the ones

that actually push the emperors
into position.

Driven by sex, power and violence.

But if you slip for even an instant,
you're going to be torn to shreds.

My name is Livia Drusilla.

I nurture
the first great imperial dynasty.

Augustus,

Tiberius,

Caligula,

Claudius, and Nero.

One way or another,
they are all men under my control.

Without Livia pulling the strings,

would any of them have reached
the heights that they did?

There's nothing she won't do
to protect her dynasty.

This is the strangest,

baddest family
that history has ever known.

It may take a Caesar
to lead an empire,

but it takes a woman
to make it work.

Everyone thinks they know
the true story of Rome,

but nobody knows it like me
because I lived it.

And it was I who ruled Rome.

When I was young,
I was so beautiful.

I was the greatest prize in Rome.

But I was just
a humble senator's daughter.

Yet I still became the most powerful
woman in the world.

Forget what you think
you already know.

I am about to tell you
the real story

of the world's greatest,
bloodiest dynasty.

It's time for my son Tiberius

to become the second emperor
of Rome.

Under my guiding hand, of course.

But he's about to slip the reins
and drag the Imperial Court

into an age of depravity
that shocks our world.

But then his successor, my wicked,
entitled grandson Caligula,

will put all of Tiberius' successes
in the shade,

threatening to ruin
the Empire itself.

I am only 15
when our beloved Republic

sees its first great dictator,
Julius Caesar, murdered.

Years of bloodshed
and civil war follow.

50 years on, and my beloved husband
Augustus rules undisputed.

The first true emperor of Rome.

With me by his side at every step.

Now, tragedy.

No sooner have I charmed Augustus
to make my son Tiberius his heir

than Augustus dies.

Poison is to blame,

someone very close, the poisoner.

Who? My lips are sealed.

Tiberius knows that he owes
his power to his mother.

Livia knows this as well,
and because of that,

Livia is determined
to help Tiberius on his way

as he learns the ropes
of being a new emperor.

Ancl initially,
this seems to work quite well.

My dear Tiberius woos the public
as only a great soldier can.

He wages war against the unruly,

unwashed Germanic tribes
who humiliated Augustus.

He crushes them, bringing home

the priceless eagle standards
they stole from Augustus.

Morale is riding high.

The people adore him.

He's a great general.
He's a successful soldier.

But that's very different
from being a politician.

Ancl above all,
he didn't play the games

that were needed politically
to maintain power,

which Augustus played perfectly.

Tiberius was the opposite
of Augustus.

Tiberius' reign starts off
quite well.

He seems to make an effort
to treat the Senate

with as much respect as possible,

but quite quickly,
things start to degenerate.

Tiberius becomes
increasingly tyrannical,

increasingly paranoid.

You start to see cracks
in that relationship

between Tiberius and Livia.

They are not
a completely solid force,

because one of the early acts
the Senate wants to do

is to honour Livia by giving her
the title of Mother of the Nation.

And Tiberius says no,
he doesn't allow that honour.

He basically vetoes it.

The ingratitude, the paranoia,
the foolishness.

Fear not. I won't go quietly.

But other women are less resilient
to his cruelty.

Within a year of coming to power,
he's settling scores.

And the first target
is his wanton ex-wife, Julia,

who humiliated him
with her promiscuous ways

and now lives in exile,
banished from men and wine.

The only punishment
that could truly hurt her.

He actually worsens
Julia's situation in exile.

He cuts off the allowance
that Augustus had allowed her.

He cuts off even her supply of food.

Ancl lets her starve to death.

Julia is just the start.

My son's mission is to destroy
all his enemies,

both real and imagined.

It's here that things turn
really dark.

There are a lot of infamous stories
of Tiberius' reign,

but one that goes down in
the history books is his introducing

of the so-called Treason Trials.

Tiberius now makes it treason
for people to speak against him.

He could pull you in and murder you
for any charges.

It becomes quite quickly
a reign of terror.

Executions are a daily occurrence,

even on sacred days
like New Year's Day.

No-one was spared,
even women and children.

They were dragged with hooks

from the Stairs of Mourning
right to the Tiber,

and thrown away as if they were
nothing more than trash.

No-one in Rome felt safe.

The age of Augustus
seemed like a distant memory.

Tiberius sees enemies everywhere

until there is only one person
whom he really trusts, Drusus,

his 29-year-old son
from his first marriage.

Sadly, Drusus,
who has his father's temper,

makes a mortal enemy
of Tiberius' right-hand man,

the conniving, ruthless Sejanus.

Sejanus decides to do away
with Drusus.

He does so by seducing Drusus' wife,

and together they slowly poison him.

So it looks like Drusus dies
of a natural death.

Dies of illness
over a period of time.

His beloved son,
his priceless blood heir, murdered.

Tiberius' reign descends into
full-blown, rage-filled tyranny.

I think the death of Drusus

was the last bit of humanity
left in Tiberius.

The loss of his son,
the loss of power for someone

who was used to being in power
and in control,

I think absolutely broke him.

Ancl he goes on to become one of
the worst figures in Roman history.

My whole life,
I worked to make him Emperor.

And now my wretched son
is throwing it all away...

...dragging my dynasty into
a nightmare of torture,

paedophilia and murder.

You see some
of the most horrific rumours

emerging from
the whole of this period.

LIVIA: For 12 years,
Rome is in the iron grip of my son,

the second Emperor Tiberius.

When he spills German blood,
the people cheer.

He restores our pride
and secures our peace.

Then he ignores
the hard won love of his people.

Paranoid, he slaughters
the innocent and guilty alike.

Worst, he turns his back on me.

And without a woman to guide him,
there really are enemies everywhere.

Tiberius is in his 60s now.

He's had enough of Rome.

Either he's paranoid
of being assassinated,

or he's just fed up
of being in the public eye.

Ancl he wants a retreat
to a quiet life, to seclusion.

Tiberius' popularity
begins to crumble.

His mood darkens, and he becomes
tired of running the empire.

He retires to Capri.

Capri, I never cared for the place.

A dreary island full of wasps,

much like the Senate
Tiberius was desperate to escape.

But so distant from his duties,

a man's mind can wander
into darkness.

Once he's vacated Rome,

he has this additional
layer of freedom

that he wouldn't have
when he's being looked upon

by this very
sort of crowded population.

So on the island of Capri,

he really gives full rein
to his desires.

He gets to Capri, and it's like
there's a kind of Pandora's box

of perversion is opened
and something flies out.

Give him credit where credit is due,

Tiberius does his self-imposed exile
in style.

His Villa ofjupiter is spectacular,

perched high on the cliff tops.

Free from prying eyes,
no excess is spared.

Tiberius' life on Capri
is rich material

for scandal-mongering historians.

He didn't have an attachment

to physical or material luxury
in Rome.

He was much more serious minded.

Ancl if we believe
the ancient record,

then Tiberius nevertheless gave in
to a life of incredible licence.

Ancl that situation
is the perfect environment

for... for rumours to start to grow.

People are like,

"Why is Tiberius not at Rome?
What is he hiding from us?"

The stories very quickly circulate
that he's gone to Capri.

Not because he doesn't like
being involved in politics,

it's to hide the depravity
that's going on.

On Capri,
he tries to gain this isolation,

this seclusion
from the rest of the world.

Ancl straight away,

you see some of the most
horrific rumours emerging

from the whole of this period.

The Villa ofjupiter on Capri

has these incredibly steep cliffs
going right down to the sea.

Ancl so Tiberius can take people
that he is suspicious of

for nice little cliff-side walks,
and then throw them off.

There's a 297 metre tall cliff

in which he would just
push them off, get rid of them,

and then get on with his day
as if nothing had happened.

The Tiberius leap will be the moment
when transgressors will die,

but only after an intensely painful
period of punishment,

which would frequently involve,
we're told, some element of torture.

Capri is a den of iniquity,

and my son Tiberius
is at the centre of it all.

And don't just take my word for it.

Even that pedant of a historian,
Suetonius, cannot turn a blind eye.

Suetonius is the one
who has the great line about it,

where he says about Tiberius,

"His criminal obscenities
are almost too vile to discuss,

"let alone believe."

"Almost" being the key word here,
cos Suetonius then goes

and lists them all,
one by one by one.

There are young children,
young boys and young girls,

who are brought to the villa
for Tiberius' sexual pleasure.

He has abused these small boys.

He has a team
of what he calls his minnows.

As he swam, they swam below him
and nibbled his genitals.

These minnows...

...peasant boys, most likely,
and hardly missed, I suppose.

But there are limits
even an emperor cannot break.

And Tiberius has crossed that line.

These stories that, you know,
he interrupted a religious ceremony

because he took a fancy
to the boys taking part in it.

He rapes the boys,

and when they complained,
he has their legs broken.

Even being friends with Tiberius
comes with its own problems.

My son has a very dark
sense of humour.

Tiberius tricked male guests

into drinking enormous quantities
of wine.

When they were drunk beyond reason,

he then tied their penises tightly
with string

so that they couldn't possibly pee.

The pain was excruciating.
They writhed on the floor.

They begged for release,
and Tiberius laughed.

It's three years
since Tiberius leaves Rome

and his Imperial
responsibilities behind.

But in an age of prosperity
and peace, the people barely notice,

and the Senate manage the Empire
in his absence,

under the watchful eye
of the leader of the Imperial Guard.

Thankfully, I,
as mother of the Emperor,

remain in Rome to maintain
a sense of Imperial control.

Tiberius becomes quite resentful
of his mother's political status,

but more so,
he becomes resentful of the notion

that somehow him becoming Emperor
is her doing and not divine right.

Ancl so, eventually,

this relationship
really breaks down.

Livia's power and influence
over Tiberius declines.

He sidelines her politically.

The gods are loosening my grip
on my deviant son's rule.

I sacrifice everything
to secure his throne.

And now my 86 years
are weighing heavy.

Livia suffered a fall
in her old age.

Her death was certainly
protracted enough for Tiberius

to have returned to Rome
to see her before she cited.

And she wafted. And she wafted.

But he didn't come.

Tiberius doesn't leave Capri,

doesn't go to her deathbed
to be with her in her last moments.

Is it too much to ask
that my ungrateful swine of a son,

who I made Emperor,
respects his mother with a visit?

She then died at the age of 86.

Everyone awaited
for the Emperor's presence,

but Tiberius cared so little
that he kept them waiting,

to the point
that the body had decayed

and had to be buried
out of necessity

rather than out of funeral rites.

When Livia died,

the Senate agreed to build
an arch in her honour.

Ancl Livia would have been
the first woman in Rome

to receive such an honour,

but Tiberius ensured
that this arch was never built.

Tiberius flat out refuses.

This is not what Tiberius wants.

He does not want his mother
getting further honours

even after she's dead.

Turning his back on me,

Tiberius now has no mother, wife,
or goddess to guide him,

and no son to claim his throne.

The fool needs to name a successor

if our dynasty is not to die
with him.

There is a big problem for Tiberius

in that, if he doesn't have
any sort of heir at all,

then what's to stop
another senator from saying,

"Well, look, the Emperor
is nearly dead. He's very old.

"He's going to go away soon,
one way or the other.

"Nature will do it.
Why don't I get in first?"

Tiberius invites,
under conditions of utmost secrecy,

a member of his family to share
his self-imposed exile with him.

A teenage boy called Caligula.

An odd choice,
but he has good blood.

After all, he is my great-grandson.

Unfortunately, Tiberius,

thinking Caligula's parents
are plotting against him,

has them killed,

and his brothers too
for good measure.

Leaving poor little Caligula
the last man standing

and the very last choice
as a successor to Tiberius.

Tiberius takes in Caligula
because he doesn't have a son,

and he's aware that he,

like Augustus before him,
is going to need a successor.

The mind of a tyrant
is always hard to understand.

To everyone's surprise,

Caligula was taken
under Tiberius' wing,

probably because he needed company,

but most importantly
because he needed an accomplice.

So Caligula goes to Capri,

and he basically now has to stay
with the man

who has ordered the executions
of several members of his family,

and just stay there
and basically be emotionless,

to not fight Tiberius,
to be his heir,

and to just kind of
be there passively

and watch what Tiberius is doing.

He was a teenager,

and it's said that Caligula,
actually, there,

is witnessing things
he'd never seen before in Rome.

Increasingly depraved way of life
for both men.

The decision to bring
Caligula to Capri

would turn out to be
one of Tiberius' worst.

Tiberius needs Caligula

because he needs someone to say
there's a future,

and Caligula is all that's left now.

Ancl I think witnessing the murder
of his family members,

and then being brought up

in this incredibly
strange environment

by the uncle that had murdered them,

maybe contributes to Caligula
not being...

the most well-adjusted man.

That's bound to make you look around
pretty nervously and think,

"Well, I've got to tow the line
very, very carefully."

The saying "keep your friends close
and your enemies closer"

is usually good advice.

Tiberius is about to realise
that keeping his family close

is probably the worst advice
that anyone could give him.

Tiberius, he's a very old man.

Hardly anybody has seen him
for a long, long time.

And it shouldn't really
surprise anybody when he falls ill.

Least surprised
is cunning little Caligula,

watching from the wings.

As my son's grip on power falters,

this is a golden opportunity
to seize the crown.

Tiberius appears to die,

and the people around him
rush to acclaim Caligula

as the next Emperor.

Ancl everyone is excited
because Caligula,

he's seen as young blood,
a fresh face.

This is the dawn of a new era.

The old, boring, pretty infamous
Emperor Tiberius is dead.

Ancl then it turns out
that Tiberius isn't dead after all.

Rather than let this word spread,

as they're already celebrating
the accession of Caligula,

the head of the Praetorian Guard,
a man called Macro,

he gets a pillow
and he smothers Tiberius in his bed

just to make sure that he's dead
and to avoid any embarrassment.

There's a rumour
that he's actually been smothered

on the orders of Caligula.

And by doing so,
Caligula got rid of, first of all,

somebody who had tortured
his family, tortured his life,

but also the only person

standing in the way
of ultimate power.

Caligula, to give him credit,
is our first emperor to show

that absolute power
corrupts absolutely.

But when he loses
his last female anchor,

a deranged torrent
of vengeance consumes Rome.

LIVIA: The dynasty I founded
as the first Roman empress

continues with
my great-grandson, Caligula,

the youngest and dumbest emperor
Rome has yet known.

Tiberius may introduce tyranny
to the Imperial Court,

but he is at least prudent
with the Empire's wealth.

Caligula? Not so much.

When Tiberius dies,

he leaves the treasury
in a really good position.

There is tonnes of money because
he's been really careful with it.

Ancl with him dies
an accomplished bureaucrat,

a man of extraordinary
military record, senatorial record.

Ancl he's replaced by somebody who,

in terms of training
in the way Rome works,

is effectively a child.

After 22 years
of Tiberius' miserly rule,

Rome is desperate for change.

Caligula, unknown, untested,
is their great new hope?

Oh, dear.

A 24-year-old boy
by the name of Caligula

becomes the most powerful man
in the world.

He hasn't had a career.

He hasn't clone anything
by Roman standards.

This is a new chapter.

Caligula leaves Capri
and he returns to Rome.

He is young, he is energetic.

People line the streets

and they celebrate
Caligula's arrival.

He gives money out
to people in Rome. He feasts them.

He declares public games
on a lavish scale.

People are initially very excited
when Caligula becomes Emperor,

and the initial signs
are very promising.

So people are encouraged.

My great-grandson
loves to put on a show,

no matter the cost.

An expensive, cheap trick

pioneered by Caesar
to win over the masses.

But it works. All they need
is a little blood, bread and wine,

and they'll be eating
out of your hand.

It was an almost sure-fire way

of garnering at least
short-term public support

to stage an elaborate spectacular.

DOGS BARKING
He's a showman at heart.

He just has this urge
to put on this spectacle,

to make everything bigger
and gaudier and more colourful.

My dear great-grandson plunders
the Empire for lions and tigers

to fight his gladiators.

Feeding them
is an expensive business.

But Caligula, always ingenious,

cuts his costs by feeding them
on Rome's undesirables.

It's win-win.

He loved gladiators.

It just wasn't bloody enough
for him.

Cos, contrary to belief,

there are rules involved
in gladiator fights.

He threw all those away.

He wanted more bloodshed.

It's more exotic,
it's more spectacular.

It's more lethal.

But it's also... It's a time when,

in most cases, he can go there
and the crowd is loving him

because he's giving them
just what they want.

There's no doubt the young buck
knows how to play a crowd.

But fate has other plans.

People are excited about
Caligula's reign at the start,

but things start to go downhill
very quickly. He gets ill.

It does seem to be
a very serious illness,

to the fact that many people
believe that he won't survive.

It's a wake-up call to Caligula.

He's become Emperor
and everyone's cheered him,

and he's gone
and spent all his money

and everybody's cheered him.

But then he's looked as if
he was going to die,

and everyone's thinking,

"Well, OK, he's not gonna
to be here anymore.

"So what's next?

"How do I make sure that I'm
doing well under the next regime?"

When he gets better,
what he realises, first of all,

is the falsity
of everyone around him.

All those who, until that point,
had worshipped him,

had said how wonderful he was.

Suddenly, we're thinking
he was going to die,

and they were already
looking at replacing him.

Caligula is openly autocratic,
openly tyrannical,

and he wants to put that power
on display.

So when a senator,
during his illness,

sycophantically says, you know,

"I would give my life so Caligula
could survive this illness,"

Caligula makes him follow through
on that when he survives,

and he forces the Senator
to kill himself.

Poor, orphaned Caligula

has no mother's influence
to calm his cruel outbursts.

But make no mistake,

there are women
pulling his strings - his sisters.

Caligula, he had three sisters -
Drusilla, Livilla, and Agrippina.

He makes them very central
to his rule.

Believe me, they are very close.

So close, most believe he sleeps
with all three.

I'm all for keeping it
in the family,

but there are limits.

Yet Drusilla is his true soulmate.

His desperate need
to satisfy her whims

is the only thing
that's keeping him sane.

He gives her his ring when he's ill.

Kind of indicates that she
is the heir of his power.

He gives her unprecedented honours.

Caligula was very, very close
to his sisters,

particularly Drusilla,

who sadly will die
not long into Caligula's reign.

Ancl this is seen as another
turning point in Caligula's story.

That this kind of drives him
over the edge even more.

When Drusilla dies,
Caligula's reaction is very extreme.

He completely falls to pieces.

He's absolutely devastated.

He barely functions,

and it just destroys him kind of
emotionally and kind of mentally.

His sister Drusilla
kept Caligula in check.

Now that she's dead,

he's consumed by anger
at the ruling class

that manage the Empire.

Maybe Caligula starts to realise
that these senators are sycophants.

They are saying
what he wants to hear.

But in fact, those are the figures
who ratified the order

for his mother to be exiled
and killed,

for his elder brothers to be killed.

His attitude towards the Senate
is dismissive, contemptuous.

He intends to inspire fear.
He successfully inspires fear.

Ancl so the power that he has
is absolute.

He ruled by fear.

In fact, his motto
was "oderint dum metuant" -

let them hate
so long as they fear me.

He grows this insatiable desire
to humiliate them, to deride them.

He wants to show
how much he can get away with,

almost because he is the man
in charge.

So he dresses in clothing

that wasn't appropriate
for a Roman emperor.

What they would class as effeminate.

He's wearing lots of silk
and women's gowns.

There are even stories of him
dressing up as Venus, as a goddess.

Time and again, Caligula is a man

who is using sex
as an expression of power,

and I think, very definitely,

a way of expressing contempt
towards the Roman senate.

His favourite trick was inviting
senators and their wives to dinner.

He would walk around the couches,
take the wives off,

have sex with them,
return them to their husbands,

and then give the husbands
a detailed report

of how bad they were in bed,

which is just like
an added humiliation for them.

So much in the Roman world
is about sex,

except sex.

Sex is about power.

Ancl there's no denying
that Caligula had a lot of power.

For Caligula,
sleeping with the senators' wives

helped him to feel great
about himself,

but he also knew that,
for the senators,

it would help them to understand
that they were powerless.

And he was powerful.

True, he is using sex
to belittle his senators,

but the wives can now speak
to the Emperor

in ways their husbands never can.

This twisted pillow talk
is the only way

the egomaniac is persuaded
to settle down and produce an heir.

He marries a woman who is already

significantly pregnant
with his child,

and they have a daughter together.

Ancl Caligula is completely enamoured
of his child,

and he names her Drusilla
after his beloved dead sister.

When the baby was born,
he took it as good evidence

that he really was the father
of this little girl,

because this little girl
started scratching people's faces,

and he said, "That is a sure sign
that I am the father."

A daughter can melt the hardest
of hearts, but not Caligula's.

His contempt for the Senate
grows stronger by the day.

There's a story that's always
associated with Caligula

and this claim that he made
his favourite horse a consort.

Ancl it's used as...
as an indication that,

you know, he's really lost the plot
and he's going mad.

It's saying to the Senate,

you've got about as much brains
as my four-legged friend,

and I don't care
because all the important decisions

I will make anyway.

He's saying,
"I have so little respect for you

"that I think that my horse
could do a better job than you are."

Who can blame him for needling those
impotent, self-important senators?

The Empire's middle managers,

always with their heads
in the trough.

But his ego is blinding him.

And now he picks a fight
with our magnificent army.

A bad mistake.

These soldiers are the Empire,
and they can easily break it.

Caligula is aware he's never won
any military victories for himself,

so he decides that he's going to go
campaigning in Germany and Gaul,

potentially even eyeing up
a conquest of Britain.

Caligula heads north
with his legions,

and they go through
what is now northern France.

Ancl they prepare the ships
and the provisions

for an invasion of Britain.

They're going to cross the Channel.

This feared waterway to Britain,
which is still quite mysterious.

But then you have this odd story.

He gets his soldiers to attack
the sea.

Parades them on the beach,
and they attack Neptune.

Ancl then he tells them
to go and pick up seashells

on the shore in their helmets.

Ancl he claims
that this is the bounty

that the sea
owes to the glory of Rome.

Some people say that this is a sign
of Caligula's madness.

I think it may well be a sign
of Caligula

once again wanting
to humiliate more people.

He's clone it with the Senate.

Now he's got these battle-hardened
soldiers in front of him.

But Caligula knows
that he's the man with the power,

and so he decides
to humiliate them, in what way?

Than by making them as if they were
children collecting seashells.

If only this moment on the beach
were a one-off moment of madness.

But no. Caligula's behaviour
is spiralling out of control.

In 39AD, Caligula embarked
on what might seem to us today

an extraordinary folly.

Which is the bridge to nowhere.

He is going to put his power on
more theatrical display

than he has ever done before.

So what he decides he's going to do

is create a bridge
over the Bay of Naples,

and he does it
by kind of finding all these boats,

tying them together,

and then having a dirt road
built on top of these boats.

It is incredibly expensive

and extravagant,
and ultimately pointless.

We know how helpful it could be
to any Roman leader

to give a display of power.

Here, effectively, we have somebody
riding across water,

and that absolutely fits
with Caligula's idea of himself

as somebody who is more than human.

He's wearing what he claims to be

the breastplate
of Alexander the Great,

and then he rides
in this exceptional procession,

in which he forces the Senate
to kind of take part,

across this bridge
that he has created

purely for this reason.

Ancl this is just the ultimate
visualisation of Caligula's power.

There's also an element
of brutality in the whole thing,

which seems typical
of Caligula's short reign,

because, of course, crowds of
spectators gather on the cliffs.

We hear instances of spectators
who plunge to their deaths

when they fall from the cliffs,
straining to get a view of this.

Ancl I can't imagine that Caligula
was anything but flattered

by that level of interest,

and not unduly concerned
by the outcomes.

Emperor or not, Caligula must pay
for his outrageous lusts.

They launch an attack
that is so savage

that people claim that they'd seen
people eat parts of Caligula's body.

LIVIA: My impetuous great-grandson,
Caligula, parties his way

into the public's affection
as their third Emperor.

He pays with money
that my son Tiberius

so carefully saved for Rome.

Time for the boy emperor to grow up
before he cripples our fortunes.

When Tiberius died,

he left a surplus of what
we consider billions of dollars.

Within a year,
Caligula had used them all up.

He led a very lavish,
extravagant lifestyle.

He loved gemstones,
he loved parties.

The problem is,
where's the money coming from?

So he resorts
to the most terrible thing.

He turns the palace into a brothel.

Not any old brothel.

A unique brothel,
unique to the palace,

in that the prostitutes you could
sleep with were freeborn women.

Ancl not just freeborn women,
elite freeborn women.

It's a humiliation for the Senate

because it's their wives
and their daughters

who are forced into prostitution
to make money for Caligula.

They take us to an absolute extreme
of this sense

that emperors
are becoming debauched,

that they have lost their grasp
on morality,

and they've also lost
what should distinguish them

from the sort
of ignoble common people.

This is how
a debauched tyrant behaves.

It certainly shouldn't be
happening publicly.

But again,
when you're actually there,

do you say to the man
who's got the power

of life and death over you,

"Oh, look, this is shameful.
You shouldn't be doing that?"

Of course you don't.

Who wouldn't be seduced
by all that power and wealth?

But Caligula is taking his role
as first among equals too far.

The fool.

As you'd expect,
the inevitable happens,

and Caligula proclaims himself
a god.

The problem is,
it doesn't really mean much

when it's you doing it
and not the people.

That is not a way to win
people's affection in Rome.

Romans are religious people.
They cultivate their gods.

For an emperor to claim to be a god
in their own lifetime

is just not the clone thing.

Perhaps, at this point,
he truly believed he was a god,

that he could make any decision
he wanted without ramifications.

But, unfortunately,
he was completely wrong.

Believe me, megalomania has its own
unstoppable momentum.

But how many enemies can you make?

How crazy can your decisions be
before the people snap?

Emperor Caligula
is about to find out.

Personally, I don't believe
that Caligula was mad

so much as he had moments
of madness.

He was very clever,
he was very astute,

but he was also very brutal,
very cruel,

and he was prone
to making insane decisions,

no more so than when he decides
that the capital of Rome

should no longer be Rome,
but Alexandria.

Throughout Caligula's short reign,
we've seen this contempt for Rome,

and the ultimate expression
of contempt

comes with Caligula's apparent plan

to shift the centre of power
from Rome to Alexandria.

That move,
that move away from Rome,

that rejection of Rome
and Romanness,

that embracing
of something Hellenic,

something foreign, something exotic,

which all Romans would regard
with deep suspicion, is a catalyst.

Ancl at that point,
Caligula has to go.

There's a poetic irony that
the last day of Caligula's life

is centred around one
of his passions - blood sports.

Unfortunately for Caligula,
on this particular day,

the blood wasn't going to be
anyone else's but his.

Sadly, the boy doesn't realise

there are greater expectations
of an emperor

than cruelty and ridicule.

If you push men too far,
they will turn against you.

I should know.

There is a certain member
of the Praetorian Guard,

a man called Cassius Chaerea,
who Caligula mocks unforgivingly.

Because Chaerea,
he is a little bit past it,

and Caligula mocks him
for having a slightly high voice,

and in his eyes,
an effeminate voice.

Ancl ultimately, Chaerea snaps.

Ancl him and a few other officers
decide enough is enough.

We are going
to assassinate Caligula.

It's from this bloody
and violent arena

that Caligula begins
his final journey.

He leaves the games,
and you've got this tunnel

that takes you from the palace
to the games and back.

One of the guards asked Caligula
for the password of that clay.

He responds in a contemptuous way...

...and the guard's response
is to raise his sword

and strike Caligula
with all his might.

Chaerea lands the first blow.

As it happens,
he misses the Emperor's heart,

strikes him on the shoulder,

and the Emperor's response
is to cry out, "I live. I live."

And then
a great slaughter fest erupts.

Blows rain down upon him.

They launch an attack
that is so savage

that people claim that they'd seen
people eat parts of Caligula's body.

That's just testament
to how brutal an attack this is.

The way that Caligula was murdered

shows you the amount of scorn
that the upper class,

the politicians had for him.

There is chaos throughout
the palace and throughout the city.

Some people say that he's alive.
Some people say that he's dead.

No-one knows what's going on.

His bodyguard are going insane.

This is the end of Caligula,

but it isn't the end
of the bloodbath,

because the guards recognise

that there can be
no future Caligula.

Ancl so, next to be killed

are Caligula's wife
and his young daughter.

Husband, wife, baby. All are dead.

And then they've got a problem
of what next?

Because there isn't an heir.

As news slowly seeps through,

the Praetorians realise
what's happening,

and they start searching
around the palace,

trying to figure out
what's going to happen next.

In the palace
is the figure of Claudius.

Claudius is the uncle of Caligula
who'd always been pushed aside

because he had a couple
of disabilities.

He had a stammer and he had a limp.

A member of the Praetorian Guard
is going through the palace

and spots the feet of Claudius

pointing out from behind
the curtain.

He tears the curtain back...

"Spare me. Spare me!"
shouts the man in question.

The guard raises his sword,
drops his sword.

Realises that this
is Caligula's uncle,

and decides that this would be
a kind of a good candidate

to replace Caligula,
and so falls to his knees.

Hails the elderly man
as lmperator, Emperor,

Rome's fourth Emperor, Claudius.

Least likely leader
of the greatest empire on earth.

Caligula's depraved behaviour

sees him cut down
in just five years.

This is what happens
when an emperor doesn't have

an empress keeping him in line.

Next time,
from the bizarre to the ridiculous.

Now is the time
for my uninspiring grandson,

Claudius, to rule over Rome.

Two women guide his reign,

Messalina the whore empress,

and Agrippina,
whose lust for succession

not only dooms herself
and her own son Nero,

but also brings my precious dynasty
to a bitter end.