BBC The Rise and Fall of an Empire

[Gaius Colletti]

Did you think the clothing/armor/sets were accurate?

It has been sometime since I watched the full series, so I've skimmed through a few episodes to answer you.

Overall I think they did a pretty good job, especially on a budget for a documentary/drama mini series. They really did try to make the armor look the part of what we as historians would like, I see hamata with a doubler, muscle armor does not look bad, for the Caesar part many troops are wearing a sort of Montefortino helmet, for the Constantine part many troops are wearing Intersicta(sp) helmets, although many are wearing a sort of Attic helmet. In the Titus/Vespasian video legionaries are wearing segmentata and gallic style helmets, although admitidly they are "trooper" helmets, scutum are the appropriate shape for a 1st century legionary.

This documentary does and excellent job portraying many aspects of Roman equipment for a documentary/drama. You can certainly get the right idea of what the legionaries looked like, though some details are off, the overall depiction is correct