Channel 5’s “Emperor: The Rise & Fall of a Dynasty” returns this Saturday with a look at two infamous Roman rulers, Tiberius and Caligula, whose reigns were cocktails of tyranny, madness, and a dash of rumored incest. If you’re looking for a lighthearted romp through ancient history, best look elsewhere.
The episode picks up with Tiberius, son of Livia, Rome’s first empress. Initially burdened by the weight of his predecessor, Augustus, Tiberius’s paranoia soon blossoms into a full-blown reign of terror. Forget “Et tu, Brute?” – Tiberius was more likely to whisper “Off with your head!” to anyone who dared breathe a word against him. The episode even ventures into Tiberius’s creepy private life on Capri, a secluded island haven where he indulged his…eccentric tastes. Among the casualties of his rule is his own ex-wife, Julia, whose demise highlights the emperor’s penchant for revenge.
Enter Caligula, who bursts onto the scene with a burst of popularity that quickly fizzles like a cheap firework. His antics, ranging from the merely bizarre to the truly depraved, give new meaning to the term “imperial excess.” Whispers of incest and violent whims swirl around him, transforming his reign into a grotesque spectacle that ends predictably, and deservedly, in assassination. Those gladiatorial games? Let’s just say they were more about bloodlust than sport under Caligula’s watch.
Amidst all this chaos, someone had to pick up the pieces. Enter Claudius, Caligula’s uncle, whose surprising survival and ascension to the throne makes you wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a little divine intervention at play in ancient Rome.
“Emperor” continues to make Roman history less about dusty textbooks and more about the shockingly human drama of power, ambition, and the sheer absurdity of absolute rule. Narrated by Sian Phillips, who played Livia in the BBC’s iconic 1970’s series I, Claudius, the episode is guaranteed to leave viewers aghast but also craving more ancient Roman mayhem.
“Emperor: The Rise & Fall of a Dynasty” airs Saturday, November 30th at 9:15pm on Channel 5.
