Neglected Roman History Discussion

 Yeah that really bugs me, the history channel is the worst culprit, what few programmes it has on Roman history are about Caeser i'd say about 80% of the time.

 There is not one programme that I have seen EVER on Byzantium in its own right, there was one programme called "I Caeser" which was 6 parts long 1 hour each, showing the lives of Caeser, Augustus, Nero, Hadrian Constantine and then Justinian. The first time ever I have seen anything talking about Byzantium and even then it was constantly referring back to Julius Caeser and Augustus.

 Never though anything about the history of Byzantium in its own right.

 I suppose the History Channel doesnt like comprimising its schedule of 15 WW2 related programmes a day for something abit different or shock-horror interesting.

 There just never seems to be anything on about the beginning of Rome, the Punic wars, Romes expansion in the east against the Diodochi for example, the crisis of the 3rd century, an in-depth look at the decline of the empire throughout its history, the barbarian migrations/invasions, the divisions of the empire, the rise of the east and fall of the west and then the history of Byzantium etc.

 I mean  its excludes some of the most important and interesting periods in Roman and European history for the sake of yet another programme on Julius frickin Caeser.  I'm sick to death of it.

Watching the new BBC/HBO Rome series on TV it got me wondering.

The movie Gladiator was about Commodus, so was The Fall of the Roman Empire, there's occasionally a Discovery Channel documentary about him. Caligula get a couple of movies too, and so does Nero, they both warrant regular Terrestrial TV programs about them. Caesar.... Well he's in about 50% of anything Roman. Tiberius gets the occaisional documentary and Claudius his own TV drama series.

And there we have it 1200 hundred years of Roman history (2200 if you include Byzantium)..... No kings, no republic, 1 wouldbe dictator, and 5 emperors.  

So I was wondering apart from the times mentioned above, did the Romans spend the rest of their history sitting in a dimly lit room holding hands and watching paint dry.... or did something worth mentioning happen?

Perhaps we could have a chat about (other) times in Roman history.