S1 • E4 Jul 1, 2010
In a mountainous land, at the limit of its influence, the world's only superpower gets bogged down in an asymmetric war against a deadly insurgency. It sounds like a familiar story, but this is history from almost 2,000 years ago. Brought to life with animated sequences based on contemporary Roman sources, this is the extraordinary story of a very bloody foreigner: the little-known Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, an African who seized Rome's Imperial throne in a vicious civil war and then fought a brutal campaign in Britain, transforming the country in his wake. In 207AD, Britain was just a far outpost of the mighty Roman Empire with the north holding out. With a vast army, Severus marched over Hadrian's Wall. Using guerrilla tactics, the Britons attacked isolated Roman patrols, and then melted into the mountains.
