NARRATOR: Previously
on Barbarians Rising...
Rome grows from a city
state to an empire.
But its path to power
is furious and fatal.
[MEN SCREAMING]
As the barbarians rise against
them time and time again,
[GRUNTS]
Rome crushes each rebellion.
[YELLING]
The Empire relies
on total domination,
but now it faces a
traitor on the inside.
Arminius, a son of Germany,
surrendered to Rome,
emerges as the Empire's
greatest threat.
VARUS: The boy hostaged
by his tribe to Rome,
what an abomination.
NARRATOR: Sent to
destroy his own people,
he turns on Rome instead.
Rome is unbeatable. No, they'll bleed.
NARRATOR: Hatching
a secret plot...
ARMINIUS: They will
never suspect me.
I know their movements, how they fight.
NARRATOR: ...to drive
the Romans out...
If we can gather enough men, we
can beat Varus and his leaders.
NARRATOR: ...and
reclaim their freedom.
[MEN SCREAMING]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[BREATHES DEEPLY]
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
[HORSE SNORTING]
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
Arminius...
These are for you.
They were your father's.
NARRATOR: Arminius and his
army of Germanic warriors
wait as Governor Varus' legions
march directly into their ambush.
Go, go, go.
[BREATHES HEAVILY]
We can't strike until
the vanguard has passed.
We wait for Varus.
If we hit them too
soon, they'll regroup.
Do not let them get into formation.
[INHALES SHARPLY]
[EXHALES]
[GRUNTS]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[SOLDIERS SCREAMING]
[GROANS]
[ALL GRUNTING]
[GROANS]
[NEIGHING]
[YELLING]
[GROANING]
[YELLING]
[GROANS]
[YELLING]
[GRUNTS]
ARMINIUS: At last, no viper.
You cease to hiss.
[BIRD SQUAWKING]
NARRATOR: The Battle of Teutoburg
Forest rages for three days.
The bloodiest showdown between
Rome and the barbarians
since Hannibal's victory at
Cannae 200 years earlier.
The Empire loses nearly
all of its 20,000 men.
Arminius' victory is
utterly unprecedented.
It should never have happened.
For a bunch of untrained Germanic
tribesmen to hem in three legions
and basically wipe
the whole of them out,
this should never have happened.
The irony here is that Rome
created its own worst enemy.
NARRATOR: And Arminius sends a
message directly to the Emperor.
Rome is no longer invincible.
For Augustus, this is a betrayal of the greatest magnitu
NARRATOR: Augustus expels all Germans from the capital
and withdraws his
troops from Germania,
retreating south of the Rhine.
But the Emperor refuses
to accept defeat.
He attacks again two years later.
This time he doubles his force,
to 40,000, to destroy Arminius
and bring Germania
under the eagle.
PETER HEATHER: Rome never
forgives and it never forgets.
NARRATOR: The barbariansr tw,
while their leader,
Arminius, evades capture.
HEATHER: You can't win a
great victory in Germania
if the people don't want you to.
People are spread out,
there are trees everywhere,
you've gotta find your enemy
before you can defeat them.
People can fight a
great guerrilla warfare
against you, more
or less forever.
COLONEL FARRELL: For the Germans,
there is a larger cause
that motivates them.
That cause, that reason is freedom.
It was the barbarians who refused to succumb NARRATOR:
The Empire unleashes waves of violence against the tribes,
but fails to draw
Arminius out of hiding...
Until its legions
target his own family.
[DOG BARKING]
[FLIES BUZZING]
Is this the price of freedom?
Is this to be our lives now?
Hiding in the darkness,
watching our world get destroyed.
It will end.
Will it?
[HORSE APPROACHING]
It's Thusnelda. They have found her.
Her father struck a deal
with the Roman Commander.
[DOGS BARKING] [MAN GRUNTING]
[BABY CRYING]
It was your brother... Flavus.
No!
NARRATOR: Surrendered to Rome alongside
his brother Arminius 15 years earlier,
Flavus has proven
himself in battle,
and is now one of Rome's
most trusted commanders.
He's among those sent to
finally conquer Germania.
Capturing Arminius' wife and unborn
child achieves the desired result.
Arminius comes out of the shadows
with a response that is
swift and apocalyptic.
ERIC L. HANEY: If your opponent
has nothing left to lose
but their honor and
their sense of dignity,
he's utterly dangerous.
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
[MEN SCREAMING]
NARRATOR: When the
two sides meet,
Arminius commands an army of 20,000
warriors from tribes across Germania.
Rome's force of battle-hardened
troops numbers 40,000.
It's the first time in 200 years
that the barbarians face the
Empire on an open b*ttlefield.
DAVID FURLOW: When Arminius
emerged Brother. s
Where is she?
Rome has made you blind.
I can still see you're covered in filth,
some of it even your own.
If only you could see
my villas, my baths.
Even the sl*ves are magnificent.
What do you have to show
for your betrayal, brother?
A bed of straw and the
loyalty of a pack of beasts.
No, I have something
you have never known.
Freedom.
I'm nobody's magnificent sl*ve.
A golden cage is still a cage, Flavus.
The Empire has taken everything from us,
even our brotherhood.
But here you sit like
some b*stard son of Rome.
Where is she?
She's in Rome...
With your son.
Oh, you didn't know you had a son?
He'll be brought up as a good Roman.
I'll raise him as my own.
My own Roman sl*ve.
I will k*ll you for this.
I will k*ll you.
Then let us begin.
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[MEN SCREAMING]
[ALL YELLING]
[GROANS]
[GRUNTS]
[GROANING]
[GRUNTS]
Brother.
Your rebellion will fail.
FLAVUS: Yet here you are,
on your knees, before Rome.
I will never kneel before Rome.
[ARMINIUS GROANING]
Germany will never kneel before Rome.
Then you will die along
with Germany, my brother.
[GRUNTING]
[GRUNTS]
[THUNDER RUMBLES]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[GRUNTING]
[GRUNTS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[GRUNTS]
Remember who you are.
[STRUGGLING]
Cherusci, always.
Now, you crawl back to
Rome and you tell them
this soil is already
rich with Roman blood.
And if they come back,
they will bleed by my hand
and for generations to come.
[ARMINIUS GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS]
NARRATOR: For the first
time in nearly 300 years,
the barbarians are shifting the
balance of power against Rome.
Still determined to
conquer Germania,
the Empire launches a series of
attacks over the next eight years.
Arminius repels them all.
But he never reunites
with his family.
His son is raised as
a c*ptive in Rome.
His story lost to history.
Arminius is m*rder*d in 21 AD
by allies who fear he
has grown too powerful.
But he's forever
remembered as a liberator,
the first barbarian to expel
Rome from his homeland.
Arminius was, undoubtedly,
the liberator of Germania.
He fought the Romans when
their power was at its height
and decisively defeated them.
GENERAL WESLEY K. CLARK: Most
accepted their lot, the few don't.
They don't wanna be subjected
to somebody else's power over them,
and they fight back.
NARRATOR: Germania was to
be Rome's greatest prize,
instead, it's their
most crushing defeat.
The Empire abandons
its campaign in 21 AD,
forty years after
its first invasion.
Sets its borders at the Rhine,
and never again sets
foot in Germania.
But Rome must expand to survive.
Its strength comes from
conquering new lands,
resources and populations
to fuel evermore growth.
This underlying Roman
ambition to expand,
it affects everything.
The entire Roman
civilization is built upon it.
NARRATOR: Driven out of
Germania in the east,
Rome turns its eye north to one of the
last remaining barbarian strongholds,
Britannia. A place unlike
any Rome's conquered before.
The Romans viewed Britannia
as the land beyond ocean,
as the place beyond the end of the
civilized world that lured them forward.
It was a land of mists and mysticism,
where supernatural
spirits stalked the land.
STEVE KERSHAW: It was exotic,
it was wild, it was barbarous.
And on the other side, they
thought it was very rich.
It had gold and silver they thought.
Hunting dogs, sl*ves,
grain for the army.
The price of victory was a good one.
NARRATOR: Over the
last 100 years,
the Empire launches five
separate invasions of the island,
all of them fail, beaten
back by the Celts.
Ferocious pagan warriors who
ride chariots into battle
and fight naked or covered in w*r
paint designed to instill fear.
COLONEL FARRELL: For Rome, Britannia
represents something very different.
The people there are as alien
as any they've encountered.
They seem, literally,
to the Romans, insane.
And, of course, they're
also going after your head.
They won't be content to defeat you
until they've got your head.
So that's very frightening
to the opponent.
[SOLDIERS SCREAMING]
[GRUNTS]
NARRATOR: When Rome
invades again in 43 AD,
it makes a foothold
in the south-east.
Emperor Claudius sends 40,000
troops to take the island.
The Celts rise up once again,
but this time, they are no
match for the Roman w*r machine.
One by one the
tribes begin to fall.
Those not defeated in battle
are bribed into peace treaties.
Among them are the Iceni, who have
been at w*r with Rome for two decades.
Their leader, King Prasutagus,
accepts the Empire's peace terms.
ARYA: We've already seen this
kind of tactic in Germania,
it's just what the Romans do.
They offer up a treaty in
agreement with the tribe,
you sign it, you're a friend,
you're an ally of Rome.
You don't sign it, you'll be destroyed.
NARRATOR: But 10 years later,
Rome gets a new Emperor,
the infamous Nero, who demands
the total submission of the Celts.
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
Prasutagus, King of the Iceni,
we are gathered to speed your
passage to the other world.
You brought your people peace,
now you go to yours.
Your daughters will succeed you
at the head of this great tribe,
guided by your beloved Queen Boudica.
They will endure in this world
as you take your place
in the one beyond.
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
[GOAT BLEATING]
Guardians of the Sacred Mystery,
accept this sacrifice.
May this lifeblood ease
the journey of this king.
[INAUDIBLE]
The other world is his.
[BREATHING SHAKILY]
Sleep well, my king.
May the other world love you as I do.
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
Tell me.
VANESSA COLLINGRIDGE: The
death of Prasutagus
leaves the Iceni in a
very vulnerable position.
Nero would fully expect the
kingdom to be handed over to Rome.
Instead of that, he's left half
of his lands to his daughters.
Now, leaving your kingdom to two female
barbarian children is
utterly abhorrent to Rome.
[DOG BARKING]
[INDISTINCT CHATTERING]
[EGUS GRUNTING]
The King still burns.
Whatever you have come
for can wait, Decianus.
My husband, the King, made a deal!
Your husband, the King, lays dead.
What was his now belongs
to Rome, and so do you.
CATHBAD: You dare to insult the Queen!
You dare to break
Emperor Claudius' deal!
Claudius is dead.
I answer only to Nero.
The Empire is calling in
its loans, and they will pay.
My husband did what Rome asked.
He honored every promise.
If Rome betrays our alliance
now, know this, Decianus,
you will regret making enemies of us!
I doubt that, you filthy animal!
How dare you!
[ICENI MEN YELLING]
What are you doing with
our Queen? Let her go!
The mighty Queen of the Iceni,
a woman who thinks herself fit to rule.
What a joke!
I'll k*ll you!
Your v [GRUNTING]
We don't make deals with dogs.
Ah!
No!
Teach her some respect.
[SCREAMS]
[WHIP LASHING]
No!
[WHIP LASHES] [GRUNTS]
[WHIP LASHES] [GRUNTS]
[CONTINUES GRUNTING]
Mom!
Take her girls!
EGUS: Not the girls!
No!
No!
Not the girls!
[GIRLS SCREAMING]
No!
Not the girls!
[CRYING] No, no, no!
Do whatever you want with me,
but leave the children alone.
Show some mercy!
Mercy is for fools.
EGUS: Leave her alone!
Turn them into women!
[SCREAMING]
[WHIP LASHES] [GRUNTS]
[GROANING]
[WHIP LASHING CONTINUES]
Look after your sister.
Look after your sister. [SOBBING]
COLLINGRIDGE: The Romans
grossly misread the situation.
Boudica is not going to
take this lying down.
This is an insult to her tribe,
it's an insult to her god,
and it's an insult to
her and her status.
There is really only
one way out of this,
and that way is to meet
violence with violence.
[SCREAMING]
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
I promise, I will do
this with your sword.
We will destroy them all.
[EXHALES DEEPLY]
NARRATOR: The barbarians' uprising
against Rome reaches a turning point.
For the first time in 300 years,
they roll back the
Empire's gains,
driving it out of Germania.
But Rome's next
target is Britannia,
where it unleashes a wave of
violence to crush the Celts.
[SCREAMS]
Now, Boudica,
Queen of the Iceni seeks revenge
for Rome's savage betrayal.
You don't know you're a great leader
until really bad stuff happens to you.
And then you either rise
to the occasion or you die.
This I [HORSE WHINNYING]
NARRATOR: Boudica sets
out to amass an army.
The tribes critical to launching
a rebellion are the Trinovantes,
the fiercely anti-Roman
Silurians, and the Catuvellauni,
who turned back Julius Caesar's
invasion 100 years earlier.
KERSHAW: Boudica has a
lot of unique challenges.
She is untried, she's untested,
she has no track record.
The British tribes have a long
history of fighting one another,
so it's never going to be easy for her to
bring the tribes together under one banner.
NARRATOR: To bring the
Celts under control,
Rome escalates its w*r.
Emperor Nero installs
a new Governor,
General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.
Paulinus had a really good
record at putting down revolts.
He'd fought in North
Africa and done that there.
So now he came into Britain as the Governor
to a territory that was still unstable.
NARRATOR: Paulinus' first move is to
attack the heart of Celtic culture.
The Druids are the tribes'
religious and political advisors.
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
POWELL: The Druids have a very
special place in Celtic societies.
They manage the relationship
between the gods in Heaven
and the people on Earth.
The Druids would always feel a great
threat coming from the Roman Empire.
They'd been dominant in Gaul
but they'd been pushed out,
and now they were in Britannia.
So from the Druids' perspective,
the Romans were the big enemy.
NARRATOR: The island of Mona, deep in
Celtic territory, is home to the Druids.
In 60 AD, Paulinus launches
a campaign to destroy it.
But when he sets out
with 10,000 legionaries,
he leaves the Roman
settlements in the south,
virtually undefended and
vulnerable to attack.
This is Boudica's opportunity.
[DOG BARKING]
We need you here.
I am needed in Mona.
Egus and his warriors will
protect you if Decianus returns.
That won't be needed.
I'm not waiting for the ax to fall.
I'm already sharpening my own blade.
You don't know what you're doing.
I know what needs to be done!
Don't let revenge blind you.
If I need your advice,
Cathbad, I will ask for it.
And when you ask for it,
I will tell you this...
Know that the only
thing worth living for
is the only thing worth dying for.
[BIRDS SQUAWKING]
FURLOW: Boudica occupies
a special status as
the leading woman of the Iceni.
She'd been whipped, her
daughters had been r*ped,
she symbolized the worst
of the Roman conquest,
and therefore stood as a perfect person
to inspire the British
people to rise in rebellion.
POWELL: But on the oth
Meeting like this is suicide.
Not meeting like this is suicide.
Let her speak!
A great darkness has come,
and threatens to consume us all.
My people will never be cowed.
m the brutality thrust upon me
that none of us are
safe from the Empire.
Unless we stand now,
we will be the last generation
of Britons to have
known a taste of freedom!
We must drive out these
demons from our lands!
How?
Last time we fought
them, we were annihilated.
You know this.
Your Iceni tribe was
beaten into submission
'cause your King signed
the treaty with Rome.
From this day on, the
Iceni pays no more tribute
DREST: Your choices need not be ours.
It was not our children who were r*ped.
The two children r*ped
by the Roman animals
may have been born of this body,
but they belong to no-one.
They belong only to this!
Our island!
And now, now they send
Paulinus and his legions
to Mona to slaughter the Druids.
And you stand there
and talk of treaties!
What do you know of them
going after the Druids?
Cathbad told me.
The Empire rides west as we speak.
This may be our only
opportunity to strike!
Where?
At their heart.
Camulodunum.
We burn their capital to the ground.
And what of the people there?
We slaughter them all.
ARTHFAEL: I came out of
respect for your husband.
But I will not die alongside you,
and neither should anyone else.
My people will not die
for your personal vendetta.
This is personal for all of us.
Why should we die in w*r
when we can keep what we have in peace?
The Emperor Claudius used such
words to seduce our people.
But Rome... Rome has changed.
Emperor Nero is not
satisfied with deals.
Now is the time to act, not cower.
But let us not decide this alone.
Let us put this to the gods.
For the pagan Britons,
their beliefs in the gods
are like the air that they breathe.
So if she can tap into this
and make something of it,
maybe even manipulate
it to her advantage,
she's got something going
for her that's very powerful.
[CAWING]
BOUDICA: Behold the crow!
The spirit of our
mighty Goddess Andraste.
Let us ask her
if it is right to expel
the Roman magpie from our island.
Let us ask her, if together
we can emerge victorious.
MEN: [CHANTING] Ask, ask, ask.
[CAWS]
[CROW CAWING]
[GRUNTS]
[SOFTLY] Look at me, Andraste.
Look at me.
Look at me.
Look at me.
[GASPING]
Look at me, Andraste.
Look at me, Andraste.
Look at me, Andraste.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Look at me, Andraste.
[CAWING]
When does the k*lling begin?
NARRATOR: The barbarians' victory
in Germania Without the Catavell
forces the Empire to find
a new frontier to conquer.
In the north, Britannia promises
a wealth of silver,
gold and sl*ves.
But the Celts intend to
fight for their survival.
Queen Boudica of the
Iceni wants revenge,
and does whatever it takes to convince
the tribes to join in her fight.
HERJAVEC: Incredible sacrifice
is very difficult on
an individual level.
For a greater cause, people
will give up their life,
their money, their family,
everything for the cause.
COLLINGRIDGE: In ancient Britain,
entire communities would rise up
and they would all go
on to the battle site.
This means that if it goes wrong,
you're not just facing
the loss of a battle,
you're facing the loss of, potentially,
your entire people.
[DOGS BARKING]
The tribes are on the move.
We have tens of thousands all getting
into position outside Camulodunum.
We'll be ready to strike in two days.
The first k*ll is the hardest.
But like any warrior, you'll cross
that bridge when the time comes.
How could you?
How can you ask me that?
You tricked an army,
but you can't fool me.
[SHUSHING] Look, I have tricked no-one.
You want all their
blood on your hands, too?
What?
How many people do you have to destroy?
As many Romans as I can.
And how many Britonstay
at home? Need to Home?
Home is not a place, it is a privilege.
And unless we fight to keep it,
it will be taken from us.
And if you die?
Then I will wait for
you in the other world
with your father.
Okay, come, come, come.
Shh.
NARRATOR: Camulodunum is the
Roman capital in Britain,
one in a string of
settlements across
the south-east that keep the
Empire anchored on the island.
With Paulinus and his
legions heading to fight
the Druids in Mona
the town is nearly defenseless.
COLLINGRIDGE: Camulodunum
is the festering boil
for anyone with a
grudge against Rome.
Not only is it the
administrative heart
but it's filled with
retired Roman soldiers.
They're the ones who've
extracted the money from taxes,
they've insulted the gods,
they've violated the people.
TULSI GABBARD: The challenges
that face any leader are the same
whether you are a male or female.
What it really boils down to
when people look up to this person,
who is asking them to risk
their lives to go into combat,
is what is motivating that person.
And do they have my
best interest at heart?
Can I trust them to lead us?
Time to see how you fight.
[CLEARS THROAT]
BOUDICA: Listen here!
Lookouts and sentries first.
Cause as much terror as possible.
We want news of our wrath to reach Rome.
These leeches have gorged
on our blood long enough!
Tonight, they will choke on it!
[MEN YELLING]
[YELLING CONTINUES]
KERSHAW: Boudica goes into
Camulodunum to cause utter carnage.
She needs to send a
message of utter terror
to Roman Britain and
throughout the Roman Empire.
The Britons are on the rampage.
Rome, you have never seen
anything like this before.
[MEN SHOUTING]
[GRUNTING]
[MEN SHOUTING, GRUNTING]
[GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
[SCREAMS]
[GRUNTS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
Boudica.
[MEN SCREAMING]
Where's Decianus? I don't know.
Where is he? Where is he?
Rome. He's gone to Rome!
[GASPS, GRUNTS]
[GRUNTING]
[PANTING]
NARRATOR: The Roman Empire
controls the ancient world,
but 300 years of resistance
chips away at its power.
[SCREAMING]
Now Boudica's Celtic horde
strikes a violent blow
determined to fight
blood with blood. [GRUNTS]
[GRUNTS]
We've beheaded all
their high-ranking men
and slaughtered their women,
as they'd done with ours.
And where are the others?
Hiding in the temple they
built to honor Claudius.
KERSHAW: The Temple of Claudius
was a focus of emperor worship,
so in many ways a
really obvious target.
This was everything they hated
about the Romans in one place.
WOMAN: Please help us.
Please. [BABY CRYING]
[VOICE BREAKING] There
are children here.
Please, in the name of
the gods, let us out!
Boudica, the children.
WOMAN: My children!
Please!
Have you no mercy?
[WHIP LASHES]
Mercy is for fools. WOMAN: No!
No, no, no.
[WOMAN SOBBING]
[SCREAMING]
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
NARRATOR: Boudica's army slaughters tens
of thousands of civilians at Camulodunum.
They burn it to the ground.
A fire so devastating,
that 2,000 years later
archeologists discover a thick layer
of ash where the city once stood.
Boudica's beating
Rome at its own game
through a campaign
of shock and awe.
There's no way that Rome
is going to allow this act
to go unpunished,
and there's only going
to be one outcome.
She has in effect, mobilized all of Rome
against her and her allies.
NARRATOR: Rome gets word
of the attack within hours.
In response, it dispatches
troops from Londinium,
eighty miles away.
Roman legionaries.
A few thousand of them. No more
than a couple of hours away.
They're heading
straight for the caravan,
the carts and the children.
Head for the hills and cut them off.
And you?
I'll meet you there.
KERSHAW: The shift now between
attacking and destroying
a poorly-defended city
to take on a detachment of a
Roman Legion in proper combat,
that's escalating things
to another level entirely.
POWELL: This is th [SHOUTING]
Formation!
Formation!
[NEIGHING]
[SHOUTING]
[ALL SHOUTING]
[SCREAMING, GRUNTING]
[SCREAMING]
[GRUNTS]
[MEN SHOUTING]
[GRUNTING]
[NEIGHS]
[GRUNTS]
[SCREAMS]
[GROANS]
[GRUNTS]
[GRUNTING]
[GRUNTING]
[GRUNTS]
[SHOUTING]
[GROANS]
[ROMAN SOLDIER SCREAMING]
[MAN SCREAMING]
[SCREAMING]
[CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[GROANS]
[CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[GRUNTING]
[BOUDICA CONTINUES SCREAMING]
[GROANS]
[GRUNTS]
Goddess Andraste, grant us vengeance,
grant us victory.
[GRUNTS]
[GROANS]
NARRATOR: The barbarians'
is gaining momentum in Britannia.
Boudica's rebellion begins
with the bloody attack
that leaves tens of thousands
dead and the capital in flames.
[GRUNTS]
The Celts are using
guerrilla tactics
that the barbarians have
adapted to fight Rome.
But this rebellion
is an escalation,
targeting civilians,
including women and children,
the kind of cruelty usually
displayed by the Romans.
The capture and
destruction of Camulodunum
was highly symbolic for the Britons
because it was a major Roman center,
but it was also an
extremely soft target.
It was an easy conquest.
There were no walls.
The inhabitants were Roman
veteran soldiers by and large.
So now, they could and should expect the full
might of Rome to be deployed against them.
[BOUDICA CHUCKLES]
I knew nothing would happen.
[BOUDICA SIGHS]
You were right.
BOUDICA: They have attacked your people?
Worse.
Mona.
BOUDICA: Mona?
The Druids are no more.
[HORSE NEIGHS]
FURLOW: Paulinus' attack on
the island of Mona was brutal.
He turned loose the legionaries,
they slaughtered the women,
they went in and m*rder*d
the Druid priest.
It would be the equivalent
of an army marching into the Vatican,
murdering all the nuns,
k*lling all the priests
and then burning down St. Peter's.
The eradication of the Druids was absolutely
catastrophic for the people of Britain.
It had ripped the heart
out of their religion,
their politics, their leadership,
er, their communication with their gods.
It was... It was a true
apocalypse for them.
[EXHALES]
DREST: The gods have abandoned us.
We can't go on.
We must.
Without the Druids,
what hope do we have?
Without us, what hope
do these people have?
The Druids were slaughtered
to tear us apart.
If they succeed and our unity breaks,
it ends all opposition
against the Empire.
We have no choice but to go on.
We are the only ones who
can carry on this fight.
We must answer blood with blood!
She's right.
Look at what you have done here.
The fight has already begun.
Their troops lie dead,
their city destroyed.
If you continue, you can
drive them back into the sea.
If you give in,
Britannia will fall.
What is your plan?
We give their legions
nowhere to retreat to.
And then we tear them apart!
NARRATOR: The Roman
occupation depends on the belt
of fortified cities
it has established
across the Celts' territory.
Camulodunum, now in ruins, Verulamium and
Londinium, the center of Roman commerce.
Boudica plans to
destroy them all.
ARYA: This is the
ancient equivalent
of Sherman's March in
the American Civil w*r.
It's pretty much slash
and burn everything.
Burn it to the ground,
leave nothing behind,
no form of infrastructure is intact.
It's a really shrewd move now
for Boudica to attack Londinium.
It's a major port, it's
very strategically located,
so now she can drive a wedge
between Paulinus and the rest of Rome
and cut off his supplies.
NARRATOR: The Celts unleash
vengeance on Londinium.
KERSHAW: Boudica's troops
burned, they hanged,
they beheaded, they cut throats,
they cut the breasts of the
most noble and best-looking women
and stitched them over their mouths
to make them look like
they were eating them,
and then they impaled the women.
If you want to shoNARR s races to Londinium,
arriving in time to watch it burn.
NARRATOR: Six months
into their rebellion,
Boudica's Celts
have k*lled 70,000
and destroyed three Roman towns.
But they've yet to face
Paulinus in battle.
They'll have to fight his legions
in order to win the w*r.
Paulinus and his men
are returning from Mona.
Take another rider and find
them so we can end this.
[SIGHS]
Egus will find them.
In time?
We cannot wait much longer.
The people are starving.
Then seize more grain. We
have run out of places to raid.
The harvest is missed. What food
there was now rots in the soil.
Soon people will die.
You can be sure Roman
hunger bites just as hard.
They must be near, and
we will defeat them.
Soon we will be able to
plant again, eat again,
and live again.
BOUDICA: Goddess Andraste,
please come to me.
Come to me, guide me the way.
Please, help me.
[HORSE APPROACHING]
RIDER: Paulinus' scouts caught him.
The Romans are close, one day's ride.
[BOUDICA SOBBING]
Give that to my husband.
Tell him, tomorrow we will be free.
We must not let them dig in.
We leave at dawn.
NARRATOR: Rome is the most powerful
empire in the ancient world,
built on domination
through expansion.
And now, fighting to
conquer Britannia,
[w*r CRY] where Boudica is
beating them at their own game,
waging a guerrilla w*r
with Roman-style vengeance.
KERSHAW: We've had tens
of thousands of dead.
We've got three cities in flames.
Rome has never had to cope with
anything like this
before in its history.
NARRATOR: Boudica's Celtic Army
outnumbers Rome's forces three to one,
as the two sides prepare to
battle for the first time.
General Paulinus, a
master military tactician,
looks to even up the odds.
GENERAL CLARK: No
commander ever wants to go
on the b*ttlefield
for a fair fight.
Why would you ever want a fair fight?
You want an unfair fight with all
of the advantages on your side.
e.
Instead, he devises a plan forcing the
Celtic warriors into a narrow defile
where he can take
them out one by one.
For Boudica to stand
any chance of survival,
she must get her troops through
the defile as quickly as possible
so that they can then spread out
and use their tactics,
that have worked so well.
But speed is of the essence
if she has any hope
of winning this battle.
NARRATOR: Boudica is
attemptin Your men are ready?
Ready.
[EXHALES]
What would Father say?
He would say to you what he says to me.
I am with you, my love.
[WARRIORS SHOUTING]
[SHOUTING]
[SHOUTING STOPS]
Our enemy believes
we are a divided land,
a conquered people
who are easily made sl*ves.
But we have shown them
there is a greater truth in our hearts.
We are one battle away
from our freedom!
One battle away from our destiny!
We are one battle away from driving
these b*stards from our shores!
Forever!
[ALL SHOUTING]
To those who would oppress us,
welcome to your death!
[ALL SHOUTING]
[INAUDIBLE]
[GRUNTS]
[SOBBING]
[FEEBLY] Run.
Run!
[SCREAMING] Run!
Run! [SOBBING] Run!
Run.
[HORSE APPROACHING]
[EXHALES]
[STOPS BREATHING]
[CROW CAWS]
FURLOW: Boudica's final
battle was a catastrophe
for the British
rebellion against Rome.
Eighty thousand British rebels
died on that b*ttlefield that day.
After the battle, Roman forces
carried out a policy of annihilation,
virtually of genocide.
The Roman forces even used
famine against the Britons
to starve out those they did not k*ll
and did not forcibly subjugate.
She led the way she'd been taught
and she led with her heart,
and it worked for a while.
NARRATOR: Boudica's
rebellion ends in defeat,
but inspires more tribes
to rise up against Rome.
POWELL: She put a face on what
rebellion in Britain looked like.
It was a terrifying face.
It had taught the Romans that they
could never properly trust the Britons.
They always had to be on their guard.
That somewhere there
might be another Boudica
planning another rebellion.
NARRATOR: It takes another 60 years for
the Empire to finally conquer the island.
NARRATOR: The campaigns to take Britannia
and Germania come at such great cost
that the Empire can no longer afford
to keep fighting the barbarians.
Rome's age of expansion is over.
Rome stopped expanding
for a number of reasons.
One was military.
The resistance on the borders
was getting increasingly severe.
The other was bureaucratic.
The Romans couldn't maintain the
domains they'd already conquered
because they didn't have a
sophisticated enough government to do it.
NARRATOR: The Empire now builds
walls to keep the barbarians out.
In Scotland to the far north, along the
Rhine River in the west, and in the east,
the Danube becomes
the dividing line
between Empire and
eastern Europe.
For the first time
in four centuries,
barbarians living
on Rome's frontier
are free from its tyranny.
The barbarians were essentially
enjoying a kind of a peace dividend,
there were good opportunities
for trade with the Empire.
So generally speaking, being just outside
the borders was a really good thing for them.
NARRATOR: Among
them are the Goths,
a multi-ethnic people who settled
north of the Danube 200 years earlier.
O'CONNOR: The Goths
were a Germanic tribe
who had moved into
what is now Romania.
They were a settled agricultural society
but they were ruled by
a powerful warrior elite,
who were famous NARRATOR: The
Goths often skirmished with the Romans,
but managed to maintain an
uneasy truce along the border,
until a dark force rising in
the east shatters the peace,
[HORSE NEIGHS] Huns.
The Huns are a new
phenomenon when they appear
at the end of the 4th Century.
No-one's seen them before and
no-one knows how to deal with them.
They were a warrior race
who lived by plunder and w*r.
NARRATOR: With the
Roman Empire to the west
and the Huns to the east,
the Goths are caught
between two deadly threats.
[PEOPLE SPEAKING AT A DISTANCE]
Alaric,
more wood.
[GROANS] ALARIC: Father!
[GASPS]
[CLANKING]
[DOG BARKING] ALARIC'S MOTHER: Alaric!
[WOMAN SCREAMING] [HORSE NEIGHING]
[HORSES APPROACHING]
[PEOPLE SHOUTING, GROANING]
[SWORDS SWISHING]
AVINA: Mother!
is a vast superpower,
commanding 40 million people.
But as Rome's age of expansion
ends, a rising threat
emerges on its eastern border
and catches the Goths
in the crossfire.
[GROANS]
[CLANKING] They have no answer
for the Huns deadly raids.
[SCREAMING]
To save his people,
the Goths' leader,
Fritigern, is forced to make
a bargain with his enemy.
O'CONNOR: Fritigern
was a military leader
of one of the groups of Goths.
He certainly had been
involved in a number of wars.
NARRATOR: Fritigern asked Rome for asylum in
exchange for safe passage across the border
into the protection
of the Empire.
He agrees to provide
Emperor Valens
with an army of Goth mercenaries
to help fight the Huns.
KERSHAW: Fritigern didn't really
have much of an option here.
He was caught between a
rock and a hard place.
He had to get away from the Huns
and doing a deal with the devil,
in the person of Roman Emperor Valens,
was the only option he had really.
NARRATOR: Fritigern must gather
his tribes before it's too late.
[CROWS CAWING]
You're safe.
Come.
[AVINA GASPS]
GABBARSee if there's ink about
the s anyone left alive. ers
Take any grain, livestock.
And have them buried.
We don't have much time.
This was just a scouting party.
When the next wave comes,
the earth itself will tremble.
Take this.
You'll live.
NARRATOR: Alaric is just a young
man when he survives the Hun raids.
Fritigern takes him into his
protection as they head for Roman soil.
KERSHAW: One of the
effects that the Huns had
was to make people
flinch away from them,
and the direction
that people flinched
was towards the Roman Empire.
That's where security was.
So as all these barbarian
tribes moved away from the Huns,
it created an absolutely
massive refugee crisis,
a bit like we're seeing today.
We're gonna cross the
Danube, and start a new life.
Everything will change now.
The Romans will help us.
NARRATOR: The Goths descend on
the Danube like a tidal wave.
Fritigern's people
number around 50,000,
but thousands more
converge on the river.
Emperor Valens assigns his eastern
legions to organize a safe crossing,
but they fail to
follow his orders.
The Goths are walking
into a death trap.
[WATER SLOSHING]
[HORSE NEIGHING]
NARRATOR: On the Roman frontier,
the growing threat of the Huns
is throwing the barbarian
world into chaos,
driving the Goths into
the arms of their enemy.
But the Empire's promise of safe
haven across the Danube River
is over before it even begins.
The crossing of the
Danube was a disaster
from beginning to end.
The Romans were in no way
prepared for the number of Goths
who they eventually had to
transport over the river.
They wound up bringing them over
in rafts that were too small,
some of the capsized and went
into the river and people drowned.
[SLOSHING]
[HORSE NEIGHS]
[GRUNTS]
NARRATOR: Hundreds of
Goths die in the crossing.
Those who survive,
confront the harsh reality
[CRYING] of their so-called
alliance with the Empire.
MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: The Goths
are disarmed, so they have no way
to defend themselves.
And the Roman officers
begin to exploit them
the moment they cross the Danube.
Hey!
Hey!
[GROANS]
LUPICINIUS: Enough!
KERSHAW: They encounter this
renegade Roman Commander, Lupicinius.
He's just trying to make
money out of this process
so he treats them like the
vermin he thinks they are.
And you are?
I'm Fritigern.
So you're their leader.
You don't look like much.
And this is your spineless rabble.
There'll be no trouble here.
I will not tolerate it.
Raise your hand again
to one of my guards,
you'll hang.
You'll see that it grants
us the right to safe passage.
You are careless with
your Emperor's words.
We can't have barbarians just wandering
across the country causing mayhem.
We've come in peace.
Have you?
If any one of you is
concealing a weapon,
you'd better hand it over now.
My men have all complied.
And your women?
need food. My people are hungry.
LUPICINIUS: Do you have
payment for this food?
Or is it charity you want?
We have money.
[SNIFFLES]
They can start on that.
You think we're savages?
[SWORDS UNSHEATHING]
No.
No, the Huns are savages.
You are, what,
cowards, maybe.
Parasites.
If you don't like it,
you can go back across the
river and deal with the Huns,
like men.
LENSKI: Lupicinius was only
enacting the kinds of feelings
that had been inculcated in him
by a Roman system that said,
"Scorn all barbarians."
These people were, in
the Romans eyes, inferior,
and they deserved to be fleeced
and they deserved to be abused.
NARRATOR: The Empire settles
the Goths in a string of camps
along the riverbank,
under military guard.
I think is a combination of
The Roman soldof the Goths
straightforward logistic
problems and Roman ill-will.
They control food supplies, so they can
control the Goths by threatening starvation.
UNWEN: We have to send
a message to the Emperor.
I'm convinced he's ignorant
of what has happened here.
And how do we do that?
The last I heard, he was
fighting out in Persia.
[SIGHS] We could fight these
b*stards, but then what?
We'd be outlaws.
That's not what I brought us here for.
What did you bring us here for?
For a home,
as the Emperor promised,
so that you and your
sister could be safe.
And we will get that, it just...
It just may take time.
LENSKI: The Romans were more
than happy to abuse them,
and that began immediately.
It was partly because that there
weren't enough resources to go around.
They didn't have enough food to feed as
many refugees as came into the Empire.
But it was okay to abuse these
people and treat them as sl*ves
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
We've had 12 people
die today from hunger.
UNWEN: Parents are
selling their children.
Their selling their children?
For dog meat.
We can't hold out much longer.
[GUARD LAUGHING]
Avina? Avina!
[HUMMING]
Avina!
Avina!
AVINA: Alaric!
Alaric!
Alaric!
Avina!
Alaric!
Avina! Alar [GRUNTING]
What is it?
They've taken her! What?
[SOBBING] You lied!
You said we'd be safe.
You said we'd be safe.
[CLAMORING]
[INDISTINCT]
NARRATOR: Lupicinius' arrest
of their leader Fritigern,
[CLAMORING] provokes the already
restless Goths into action.
KERSHAW: Lupicinius has made
a terrible misjudgment here.
The Goths are in fact
not the weak, starving,
helpless people he thinks they are.
They're some of the mightiest
warriors in the ancient world.
So he's stirred up an
absolute hornets' nest.
[CLAMORING IN DISTANCE]
Your mob brays like a wounded donkey.
FRITIGERN: They fear for my well-being.
As they should.
You hit a guard.
That's a capital offense.
Is he dead?
I should have hit him harder. [SCOFFS]
You're a troublemaker.
We came in peace
and you've done everything
you can to make enemies of us.
My people are starving whilst
you enjoy good food and wine.
How will that taste when
they tear you limb from limb?
Are you threatening me?
Not I.
But I think it would be wise
to let me return to my people
so that their minds can be put at ease.
LENSKI: The Romans just
assume their own superiority
because that is what they'd been told since
they started their service in the Army,
in fact, since they were little infants.
They had, I think, no idea how powerful
these Gothic forces were going to be.
Now is the time.
JNARRATOR: SON: Fritigern has
secretly been stockpiling weapons
smuggled into camp or
stolen from Roman guards.
His people ready to revolt.
Like Boudica before
him, Fritigern realized
that the treaty sign
with Rome was worthless.
And it wasn't that he was just stuck
between a rock and a hard place,
he's literally starving.
So he has no choice but
to take the fight to Rome.
[WEAPON SWISHING] [SOLDIERS GROANING]
Stop them!
[On the eastern edge of
the Empire, NG]NARRATOR:
a 300-year period of relative peace
between Rome and the barbarian world
comes to an expl*sive end.
Now is the time.
NARRATOR: ...when Fritigern and
his horde of 15,000 Goth warriors
overthrow their military
guards and break free
inside Rome's borders.
[GOTHS SHOUTING]
FRITIGERN: We came in peace.
We came in friendship.
What idiot makes an enemy of me
when I come in peace?
We'll send a message to the Emperor.
Rome now has an absolutely
nightmare scenario
of its own making.
So not only do we have
the Huns outside the Empire
and all the terror
that they're instilling,
but now you've got a fully-fledged
rebellion inside the Empire, as well,
by warriors who could have
been used to fight the Huns.
LENSKI: Once Fritigern and his
forces had overcome Lupicinius,
all these other people came
flooding over the Danube,
joined the Goths, and they
took over all the territory
of what's today Northern Bulgaria.
[SWORDS SWISHING]
KERSHAW: Towns, villages, encampments,
farms, everything is being
burned, pillaged, destroyed.
NARRATOR: Occupied
fighting a w*r in Persia,
Rome fails to mount a defense
against the Goth raids.
Fritigern controls the
frontier for two years,
seizing territory and closing in
on the most important cities
in the eastern Empire,
the heavily fortified Adrianople
and the capital, Constantinople.
Emperor Valens sends
his men back from Persia
to stop the Goths' advance.
[HORSES NEIGHING] The
Saracen mercenaries [GRUNTS]
[SWORDS CLANKING]
[CROWS CAWING]
There.
Hello, boy!
You came back.
NARRATOR: If the Goths are
going to survive Rome's legions,
they need to change
their strategy.
KERSHAW: Fritigern can't
go on the rampage forever.
He didn't come into the Roman
Empire to go on to the rampage,
he came in there to settle.
Adrianople is there for the taking.
If we breach its walls, there's
enough food there for half a year.
All the supplies and weapons
we could ever need are waiting.
We lost good men yesterday.
All but one.
Alaric, join us.
We have a choice.
Risk everything and
attack Adrianople head-on,
or stick to the forests
and continue raiding,
make life as difficult
as we can for the Romans.
I saw what happened yesterday.
The Saracens can pick us off at will.
There's no safety amongst the trees.
I say we take Adrianople.
And so be it.
Kunimund, send out the raiding party.
If we're to take Adrianople,
we need to be supplied.
And send our cavalry men with them.
We can't afford to be
taken by surprise again.
That puts us at risk. Without
our horsemen, we're unprotected.
Can you see another way?
NARRATOR: Adrianople is
a large fortified city
that serves as a military
base for the eastern Empire.
O'CONNOR: Adrianople was
full of Roman wealth,
it had a large population.
It was strategically important
and it had strong walls.
So for all those reasons, it would
make a good base for the Goths.
NARRATOR: Fritigern's army numbers
a massive wagon train of
warriors and civilians.
But the Romans know he's coming.
Thirty thousand soldiers
stream out of Adrianople
to take on the Goths
before they reach the city.
Leading them is
Emperor Valens himself.
KERSHAW: Valens takes command
personally of the Roman forces,
and he will be the last
Roman Emperor to do that
for about 200 years.
NARRATOR: ink t Fritigern
improvises a plan
to circle the wagons as a defensive
line to protect the civilians.
Between them and the
oncoming Roman force,
he builds a chain of bonfires.
It's high summer, and
when the fires are lit,
the stifling heat of the sun, the flames and
the smoke will as*ault the Romans head-on.
Fritigern knows that the
Romans have been marching
for about eight hours
in the heat of a baking hot summer day.
They're exhausted,
they're without water.
The Romans feel like they're
just walking straight into hell.
NARRATOR: Struggling to
fight off the Roman legion,
the Goths are pushed all
the way back to the wagons.
They suffer heavy losses
trying to hold the line.
But reinforcements arrive
just in time.
[SWORDS CLANKING] [MEN SCREAMING]
As the cavalry turns
the tide of battle,
Emperor Valens flees
from the frontline,
running for shelter as his
men carry on the fight.
The Goths burn Valens alive.
Barbarians have k*lled
an Emperor of Rome.
The outcome of the battle was an
unmitigated disaster for the Roman Army.
They lost as much as two-thirds
of their entire force.
And to lose a Roman Emperor in battle
against barbarians on Roman soil
was unheard of.
NARRATOR: The victory is so devastating
that Rome has no choice but to surrender.
The Goths emerge from battle as a free
barbarian nation within the Empire.
But the fight against
Rome is not over.
In the struggle to come, a new leader
will rise to challenge the Empire
as no barbarian has done before.
His name is Alaric.
Next time on Barbarians Rising.
W'ere no longer the underdogs.
[SCREAMS]
W'ere the rising power.
[AHHHH]
[SCREAMS]
They don't need to respect me.
They need to fear me!
From today we cease
to do Rome's bidding.
Today,
We go to w*r with Rome.
[WARRIORS YELLING]
[HORSES NEIGHING]
This,
is treason!
Nothing can save you now.
[SWORDS CLINKING]
[EVIL LAUGH]
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01x03 - Revenge
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Series is told from the perspective of leaders of peoples that fought Rome, who were termed barbarians by the Romans.
Series is told from the perspective of leaders of peoples that fought Rome, who were termed barbarians by the Romans.