Battles B.C.

[sgsandor]

All I can say is that, yes i was very very very disappointed. Like it was said i thought it was the history channel not Frank Miller Tv

[Lysimachos]

It's ridiculous. Have you read under "upcoming episodes"? They have an episode about David, obviously based on what is written in the bible, although it's not certain if he even existed! And may I quote from the description of the episode "Joshua: Epic Slaughter":

Joshua's special operations forces secretly infiltrate and destroy Jericho from the inside out

His special operations forces?!

[Dutchhoplite]

I hope they give Hannibal those rhinosaurs from 300 or it will a real disappointment!

His special operations forces?!

His secret ramshorn unit

[Hax]

On March 9th, Hannibal Rises!

<insert obvious Silence of the Lambs joke here>

Hannibal's merciless attacks on Roman soil dealt a near fatal blow to the soon-to-be Empire.

Yes.."Empire". I think they might be confused about 200 years now

[Dutchhoplite]

Trivialities!

Amuse the people, that's what i say!

[Africanvs]

I don't know, I love history so much I'll watch anything there is to see on the topic, even ridiculous thinks like 300 or the new Battles B.C. I'm happy I have a fully functional brain and can tell what is silly and what is history. It's kind of the same as watching war movies after you've been to war. All the nonsense stands out so much more than it ever did. Focusing on Battles for a moment though, it was about as historically accurate as 300 was. Some things it got right, some not so much, some never mentioned. I found it funny that the Carthaginian forces were described as tribal warriors from all uncivilized parts of the world, and naked gauls, yet, they never mentioned the African troops. Then throw Hannibal on an elephant half naked and let him cross the Alps. He would have frozen his teets off if he wasn't such a bad ass. There is so much to say, I'm laughing as I talk about it. I guess I can't really blame the history channel though. They have to sell advertising like everyone else and Axemen, Iceroad Truckers, and roid-munching half-naked Hannibals seems to be what the general public wants to see.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

Wow - what a huge step backwards. This is clearly an enormous pile of steaming shit. The people they get to comment on it certainly are third or fourth tier "experts" also - I'd bet the usuals were way too afraid to let their names be associated with something this awful.

[Ibrahim]

Wow - what a huge step backwards. This is clearly an enormous pile of steaming shit. The people they get to comment on it certainly are third or fourth tier "experts" also - I'd bet the usuals were way too afraid to let their names be associated with something this awful.

that is an understatement I am afraid.

[the tokai]

THIS. IS. CARTHAGE!!!

Also, why did they have an anthropologist commenting on the battle of Cannae and what the hell is Hasdrubals cowvalry?

[SwissBarbar]

THIS. IS. CARTHAGE!!!

Also, why did they have an anthropologist commenting on the battle of Cannae and what the hell is Hasdrubals cowvalry?

great

Positive effect: It may arise people's interest in history (yes, I know, to me too it's hard to believe, that there are some few, who are not interested in history )

Negative points: Monster-Hannibal? Romans at cannae all wearing muscular-cuirass? Nooooo

[Cyrus]

Man that stunk!!!!!!!!!! Worse than wet dog.
Oh and I would like to add that many people here (including me) if not for EB would have noticed only half of the many things wrong in that "documentary" (so thank you very much EBteam), and that is thanks to paying attention in history class. But there is one thing that puzzles me, why the screming hannibal? They could have just as well made him someone in the back looking and enjoiyng the fighting, or even a silent killer if we want to get out ov historical perspective. I doubt many generals would get theyr hands that dirty, especially a future sophet......
Oh and did anyone notice the resemblance to the Star Wars 3 scene? When Anykin slits Duku?
The only difference between those two characters seems to be the lightsabers.........
Edit oh and i didn't mean to offend anyone by "many people here"

[Aemilius Paulus]

Positive effect: It may arise people's interest in history

Oh yeah? What kind of history? Vanilla RTW and more History Channel?? That is the path of 99% of the History Channel's viewers.

Television does not seem like the best place to get anyone interested in anything. My interest in history began when my father gave me a history book, an illustrated encyclopaedia on the history of the world from Medieval times to 1914. It was quite a thick book, and it also happened to be the first book I have read on my own. Then, I received three more books of the same series. One was on geography and the other two were on general science and physics. The two were very complicated actually, not surprising I suppose, given that it was my uncle, an astrophysicist, who gave them to me.

But all that aside, those books shaped my interests for life. I like history, science, geography, psychology, and economics. If every parent did the same, this world would be a much better place. Children should start out with books and not television.

[Hax]

Oh yeah? What kind of history? Vanilla RTW and more History Channel??

Name another game that included Hastati, Principes and Triarii.

[Cyrus]

None AFAIK.
So some credit is due to CA......

[Aurgelmir]

Name another game that included Hastati, Principes and Triarii.

Grand Ages:Rome..?



I must say that the footage doesn't look bad...from a technical point of view.But that is the only (good) thing about it.

Imagine that there where no names involved,so no hannibal or cannea(is this correct spelling?)
And people had to guess...lol it looked like fantasy persians against fantasy greeks

10 years ago i wanted that docu's get good special effects,rather then c-acting barbarians vs (my gladius got stuck/my helmet falls off)romans

Now finally they have the shit what they need to do it.....and they fukk it up.Some historians should sew there asses for implanting false info to the young ones/unknowing olders

[mlc82]

Name another game that included Hastati, Principes and Triarii.

The truly awesome yet barely remember "Great Battles of Hannibal" wargame. I've yet to find any other game that crashes so constantly on WinXP, along with the other excellent two in the series, Great Battles of Alexander and Caesar. I want to get a Win98 PC to play these and "Age of Rifles" again in their full glory.

Only ancient era games I've ever seen that give any sense of the real scale of some of those battles...

[SwissBarbar]

Oh yeah? What kind of history? Vanilla RTW and more History Channel?? That is the path of 99% of the History Channel's viewers.

Television does not seem like the best place to get anyone interested in anything. My interest in history began when my father gave me a history book, an illustrated encyclopaedia on the history of the world from Medieval times to 1914. It was quite a thick book, and it also happened to be the first book I have read on my own. Then, I received three more books of the same series. One was on geography and the other two were on general science and physics. The two were very complicated actually, not surprising I suppose, given that it was my uncle, an astrophysicist, who gave them to me.

But all that aside, those books shaped my interests for life. I like history, science, geography, psychology, and economics. If every parent did the same, this world would be a much better place. Children should start out with books and not television.

And because it happened to you, it has to happen so for everyone? For example my interest in ancient history began when I was a child, reading fictional Asterix-Comics. Another person may see a good - or at least impressive film - and inform himself about the history the film was about on wikipedia - then in another fictional book - may visit a museum - and if he's getting more and more excited, in the end he will even read accurate sources. No one starts with reading Cicero or Herodot! Consider yourself lucky that you got such an uncle, not everyone has, you know?

[Owen Glyndwr]

Oh yeah? What kind of history? Vanilla RTW and more History Channel?? That is the path of 99% of the History Channel's viewers.

Television does not seem like the best place to get anyone interested in anything. My interest in history began when my father gave me a history book, an illustrated encyclopaedia on the history of the world from Medieval times to 1914. It was quite a thick book, and it also happened to be the first book I have read on my own. Then, I received three more books of the same series. One was on geography and the other two were on general science and physics. The two were very complicated actually, not surprising I suppose, given that it was my uncle, an astrophysicist, who gave them to me.

But all that aside, those books shaped my interests for life. I like history, science, geography, psychology, and economics. If every parent did the same, this world would be a much better place. Children should start out with books and not television.

Oh yeah? Me too.

My interest in history started initially when my Dad read me a biography on Alexander the Great every night when I was about 6. I do agree that not everyone learns in the same way, but I think that by starting with reading, good things are bound to happen.

[Βελισάριος]

THIS. IS. CARTHAGE!!!

Baaaahahaha-cough-cough ROFLMAOTICOAPAD.
For those of you not yet initiated in the refined at of internet abbreviations that means: rolling on the floor, laughing my ass off till I choke on a pretzel and die.

I wanted to say that, but you were faster.

Seriously, though. Depending on how you look at it, it's not that bad.
Sure, it's beyond ridiculous from a historical perspective, but you have to see the bright side. At least this way History (sic) Channel can make enough money to sponsor more historical shows... if they do decide to do that, eventually- which I hope they will.

Also, this way some of those pimpled teenagers who think Leonidas was "kewl" in 300 might actually take a keen interest in (the real) history and study it... eventually ending up enslaved in the EB (II) world like some of the rest of us.

So... it's all good.

And, personally, I loved 300. Amazing on all counts. Frank Miller deserves my respect (though that's mostly for his Batman comics), but even 300. The graphic novel was a little more historical than the movie. But my point here is that Miller was one of the few "mainstream" producers and graphic-novelists who understood what a "hero" was supposed to be, all Jerry Bruckenheimer movies notwithstanding.
Of course the movie was going to be "artistic", what did you expect? And a bit of Hollywood was -sadly- unavoidable, but overall it was great... and much more historically accurate than I expected it to be (although, admittedly, my expectations were considerably low... I honestly thought that, apart from 300 Spartans and some Persians there would've been nothing of history in there). Even the famous "This is Sparta!" was fairly accurate (and great)... although the "punch line" for that one was supposed to be "there are plenty of earth and water down there [the well]" when Leonidas kills the Persian emissary, but hey... they had to add something of their own, right?

But Hannibal looking like some blood-thirsty barbarian out of a D&D video-game/God of War is just... LL

[Ibrahim]

And, personally, I loved 300. Amazing on all counts. Frank Miller deserves my respect (though that's mostly for his Batman comics). The graphic novel was a little more historical than the movie. But my point here is that Miller was one of the few "mainstream" producers and graphic-novelists who understood what a "hero" was supposed to be, all Jerry Bruckenheimer movies notwithstanding.
Of course the movie was going to be "artistic", what did you expect?

I beg to differ on a point:

1-the batman series did start out cool, but the remainder was worthy of an allmighty panning..you noticed that he gets worse over time? for example, I still cannot get over that "I'm the Goddamn Batman" part from the second issue...Batman should never say this-he just...doesn't sound right... and the whole comic was a microcosm of either a mental degeneration, or a showcase of Wahnsinn...



for all you who are confused:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=limH...eature=related

check it out.

check out the dialogue under the video too.

[Gabeed]

I've largely stopped watching the History Channel. I'm tired of hearing about the Freemasons, secret societies, and reports of Atlantis near Japan. I loathe it when they have some show called "The True Dragon Emperor," just because The Mummy 3 came out. I have no interest in the history of cheese, or any of that other mundane crap, often about American Industrialization. This Battles BC show looks awful. Honestly, the best part of the History Channel might be the WWII crap that they've beaten us over the head with since the beginning of time.
But my final realization is that the History Channel is not reserved for historians at all. Once in awhile, I'll tune in to a show about the Battle of Qadesh or an Egyptian tomb which is fantastic for any historian, but most shows are clearly for the common layman who just wants to watch something briefly, muse "that's interesting," and forget about it.

[Macilrille]

AP, you need to get out more ;-)

Or perhaps it is just us Danes who see nothing wrong in depicting that part of history/life as it is. Sex is one of the most important themes in any person's life, surpassed by love- but there is lots of that in Rome too, mostly tainted by politics and hatred though and not much ending happily, but it is there. There is hatred, another powerful motivator, and if you know the factors that killed the Res Publica Romana it is truly excellent, for it depicts them all.