Ancient Rome: the Rise and Fall of an Empire

[Robert Vermaat]

This actor was miscast for the part of Constantine. Look how haggard he looks hock:

He reminded me very much of Tom Baker, one of the actors who played Doctor Who in the 1970s…

I thought this episode on Constantine was incomplete. Too much was left out like : the founding of Constantinople (it wasn't even mentioned), and his successful wars across the Danube.

Well, I understand it if they had to cut out something. I mean, the show would have lasted all evening! But I agree with you they left out important parts. I for one would have liked to see more of the York episode and later wars.

I agree with Mithras about the actor chosen to play Constantine. He was too haggard to play the role. A robust-looking, thirty-something year old should've been cast instead. Besides appearances, I think Mithras is right about him playing a bit of a madhatter. Constantine was first and foremost a military man, the best general of his day.

They should have chosen a confident man, arrogant even. This was a religious zealot.

So, in the end I think we got a somewhat distorted view of what he was like. But it was my favourite episode as well. The first three were very well done, IMO. I think they should've skipped Nero and done one of the five "great" emperors instead so that there isn't a two hundred year gap.

Yes, it was my favourite too, better at least than the last one, which was disappointing.
They always seem to go for the drama instead of the history. But it was the same thing when the BBC did a series on the emperors a few years ago: several of the early ones, then Constantine, then Justinian.

his mother Helena who made an Imperial pilgrimage to the Holy Land in part to atone for Constantine's execution of his wife and son (his son wasn't mentioned at all !)

That’s what a successful campaign of damnatio memoriae does to you! D