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A period of history · Age · in the Roman Empire
Shelfmark Liber XCVI
Classical World
9 titles · in the order the archive depicts them. A series counts once, regardless of however many of its episodes carry the tag. 6 titles here come through the periods inside this one rather than its own tag, and are counted only because they are set inside these boundaries.
The events and themes the archive follows through Pax Romana, in the order they happened, each with the titles that depict it. Press a name to read about it in the threads below.
The pivotal naval engagement between the forces of Octavian and the combined navy of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII off the coast of Actium in Greece.
I, ClaudiusMore properly known as the Roman Legio IX Hispana, the Ninth was a Roman legion from the late decades BCE until the early second century.
The EagleThe periods the archive counts as part of Pax Romana. Their titles are gathered on this page where they are set inside its boundaries. The number represents how many titles in these sub-periods are also directly attached to this period and how many are just inherited rather being directly tagged with Pax Romana.
Every title set during Pax Romana, by the decade it came out. A series is placed on the chart by its first season and counts as one title entity.
FilmsSerieseach bar is the titles released that decade
The historical people the archive’s titles put on screen in this period, grouped by what they are known for. The number is how many titles set here they appear in.
A thread follows one event or historical theme across the archive, wherever and whenever it appears. Pick a tab to read one; they are in the order they are filed on the timeline. Pulling a thread opens up a narrowed timeline view filtered to every year that thread touches.
Process
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filed under 49 BCE
Its parts, pulled with it:
Also runs throughCrisis of the Roman Republic5 titlesHellenistic Period4 titlesGallic Wars
Event · Part of Fall of the Roman Republic
The pivotal naval engagement between the forces of Octavian and the combined navy of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII off the coast of Actium in Greece. After suffering badly at the hands of a surrounding Roman force, Antony's forces were routed, fleeing to Egypt where they were ultimately defeated at Alexandria, spurring Antony and Cleopatra to take their own lives and paving the way for Octavian's ascendance as Augustus, first Emperor of the Roman Empire.
filed under 31 BCE
Also runs throughCrisis of the Roman Republic3 titlesHellenistic Period2 titles
Process
This thread has no description written yet.
4 titles set here · filed under 33
Also runs throughLife of Christ4 titlesLate Antiquity
Event
This thread has no description written yet.
filed under 79
Event
More properly known as the Roman Legio IX Hispana, the Ninth was a Roman legion from the late decades BCE until the early second century. Following its stationing in Roman Britain in the early second century, no reputable record remains of the legion's ultimate fate, resulting in the nickname of the "Lost Legion".
filed under 140
Every place the archive’s titles set in this period name, with each one nested under the larger place it sits inside where that place is here too. The number is how many titles set here name it.
How the titles fall, 1 (faithful) to 5 (a work of imagination). A period average alone would read the same for one the record is bent evenly across and one with a single wild outlier. A series is placed by its own average, rounded.
8 titles in the archive have no score yet and are left out of the average above — unrated is not a verdict of accurate.
33%3 of the 9 titles the archive sets between 27 BCE and 180 carry the Pax Romana tag.
100%With its sub-periods: 9 of the same 9 titles carry Pax Romana or one of Life of Christ and Marcomannic Wars.
This measure can help illustrate cinematic hotspots within a time period by comparing which years of the overarching, actual historical time period are backed up by a cinematic release.
13 years on the timeline fall inside the boundaries, 3 of them with nothing set there yet. The dark part of each bar is the share carrying this period; the lighter part beside it, the share carrying one of its sub-periods instead.
Films only. Co-directors are counted individually, so a director’s solo work and their collaborations are grouped together. Average saltiness ignores any title still unsalted.
Series only, counted once each however many episodes carry the period. Average saltiness ignores any title still unsalted.
2 claims answered for, across 1 title set during Pax Romana. A citation is attached to a specific assertion inside a review rather than to the review as a whole, so each line below is one thing the archive says a title got wrong or right, and what answers for it. Following a claim lands on it in that review’s own sources.
The Praetorian Guard did not wear purple cloaks, nor black armor. In fact, within the boundaries of the city of Rome, the guard would often be more likely to just carry their sword and wear a toga than don armor.
Gregory S. Aldrete, Graham Sumner, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen: Myth Versus Reality (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2023).
GladiatorFilm · 2000
The Roman cavalry are all depicted in the film as using stirrups, a technology that would not have been available at this time in the Roman World.
Gregory S. Aldrete, Graham Sumner, Ancient Rome on the Silver Screen: Myth Versus Reality (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2023).
GladiatorFilm · 2000
Gathered from the titles set during this period that the archive has tagged with a myth, whether they repeat it or reject it.
The record: Armies from antiquity until past the Napoleonic period fought in formation because individual soldiers are vulnerable. Battles were usually contests between blocks of men holding together, and the side whose formation broke first usually lost. Further, maintaining clear formations was essential to maintaining battlefield operations and communication, both for commanders to be able to give orders to their subordinate officers as well as for individual soldiers to know where to rally and position themselves.
Repeated by 1 title: Gladiator
Methods and Tactics
Part of and part of it are declared by the archive: one period counted as belonging to another, whatever their dates. Periods overlap freely so concurrent means the two spans share years, and the shared stretch is named. Bounded means it lies wholly inside this one, beginning and ending more than 10 years within its boundaries. Before and after are the nearest periods lying outside this one, with the gap in years shown instead. A shared thread is what the two have in common besides the calendar, and a period lying wholly outside this one can still share one.
| Relation | Period | Runs | Shared years | Shared threads | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of it | Life of Christ | 4 BCE–33 | 4 BCE–33 | none shared | 4 titles in the archive |
| Part of it | Marcomannic Wars | 166–180 | 166–180 | none shared | 2 titles in the archive |
| Before | Crisis of the Roman Republic | 133 BCE–27 BCE | 27 BCE | Battle of ActiumFall of the Roman Republic | 5 titles in the archive |
| After | Three Kingdoms | 184–280 | 4 years later | none shared | 2 titles in the archive |
