Summary
Barbarians is a TV documentary of four parts by Terry Jones. It was broadcasted in the year 2006 on BBC 2. The fourth episode of this TV series is “The End of the World”. In this episode, there are two baby barbarians born in the year 400 AD. One of them would grow up to be Attila the Hun that is more feared of all and the other one is Geiseric who led the destroyers of Vandals. This whole scenario claims that the history of Rome ended not by an invasion of tribes but because of the loss in the tax base of Africa. The Roman truth version was popularized by Roman Catholic Church that presented a common view of barbarians and Rome.
This part focus on the Huns who attacked the dying empire of Roman from both sides of South and North. This was done in mid of the fifth century where there is not a lot of positive data to present about Huns other than their ability to fight and extorting gold. Vandals were different in terms that they were Christians but were not regarded as the part of Catholic churches of Rome. The people of Gaiseric moved from the central area of Europe to destroy Rome in the year 455 AD. The Vandals are shown really sophisticated, less corrupt and tolerant as compared to Romans[1].
The achievements of Celtic society are shows clearly, which underestimate the militaristic tendencies of Celts. There is a lot of fascinating material shared in this series that will be helpful to share in class especially from the perspective of history. The main point of this documentary is to show the prominent role of Roman Empire and the role it plays in the creation of the modern world. This is evident that barbarians were forward thinking and progressive people of that time.
Lost Kingdoms of Africa: Nubia
Summary
This is a mini TV series that was produced in 2010 and aired on BBC. This series had four parts and the first of them is named as Nubia. The continent of Africa has a huge population but there is not much information available about it. There is great cultural diversity in this area. In past few years, there has been a lot of research carried out to know about this area. The story of this series revolves around the African stories that are still preserved in ancient buildings, treasures, and statues. The first episode focus on Nubia, now known as Sudan that is a kingdom dominated by the areas of eastern Sahara for centuries. The people living in this area are known as mercenaries and barbarians; still, this place is full of many great monuments around the world.
The origin of this amazing kingdom is tracked down back to the time of 10,000 BC. The development of this area is explored and the things that happened to this place and its people. The discovery of this movie shows that the king once ruled Egypt. The outcome is that this place was not destroyed because of its rivals but by the environment.
The Nubians living in the ancient city were soldiers but they were weakened because of the changes in climate. Other than their pyramidal architectural masterpieces, Nubia also failed to change the system of writing and pottery with new standards. This became the reason behind the failure of their agricultural age as well as the unique mode of wrestling used by them. This documentary will be helpful to know about the doom of Nubian society that was destroyed because of their environment and climate. There is a big lesson to be taken from this documentary movie.
End Notes
- “Terry Jones’ Barbarians – The End Of The World – Video Dailymotion”. 2018. Dailymotion. Accessed April 21, 2018. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x42v7ip.
- “Terry Jones’ Barbarians – The End Of The World – Video Dailymotion”. 2018. Dailymotion. Accessed April 21, 2018. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x42v7ip. ↑
