The Minoans
Episode: 1x01 | Airdate: Oct 23, 2004 (102 min)
Historian Bettany Hughes explores Crete, once home to the mighty Minoan civilisation whose sophisticated society changed the whole of Greece.
Episodes
When the Moors Ruled in Europe
Episode: 1x02 | Airdate: Nov 5, 2005 (102 min)
Historian Bettany Hughes looks at the influence of the Moorish invasion of Spain in 711 AD, and the lasting cultural and scientific legacy they created.
Athens: The Truth about Democracy (Part 1)
Episode: 1x03 | Airdate: Jul 21, 2007 (49 min)
This first episode charts the epic story of Athens' victory in one of the greatest sea battles of the ancient world, when the Athenian triremes defeat Xerxes' mighty Persian fleet at Salamis.
Athens: The Truth about Democracy (Part 2)
Episode: 1x04 | Airdate: Jul 28, 2007 (48 min)
Bettany Hughes digs beneath the surface of Golden Age Athens to explore the bloody but exhilarating truth about the world's first democracy.
Engineering Ancient Egypt
Episode: 1x05 | Airdate: Dec 31, 2008 (103 min)
A special one-off documentary exploring how Egypt's two greatest pharaohs, Khufu and Ramesses II, built their way to immortality.
Alexandria: The Greatest City
Episode: 1x06 | Airdate: Mar 24, 2010 (50 min)
Historian Bettany Hughes reveals the story of Alexander the Great's city, built in the North African desert and designed from the outset to be the world's first centre of culture.
Helen of Troy
Episode: 1x07 | Airdate: Apr 14, 2010 (105 min)
Bettany Hughes embarks on an epic journey across the Mediterranean to disentangle myth from reality and find out the truth about the most beautiful woman on earth.
The Spartans
Episode: 1x08 | Airdate: Apr 21, 2010 (158 min)
Bettany Hughes reveals the secrets and complexities of the Spartan martial way of life and its bloody rivalry with Athens.