Original subtitles

Thousands of years ago, ancient powers ruled our world.

Egypt.

China.

India.

Greece.

And Rome.

Players in a high stakes game of strategy and luck.

Success will bring them wealth and immortality.

failure, oblivion, and death.

In their battle for survival, each civilization will face the same

How they respond will shape their destiny.

In this episode, the end game.

Our ancient powers have endured for centuries but destruction is

close at hand.

What will cause their downfall?

And who will create a lasting legacy?

Over centuries, our ancient powers have forged successful civilizations.

They've built iconic monuments, fought wars, and devised

new ways to rule their people.

Now, they face their final challenge.

And in the Mediterranean, things are looking up.

The mighty empire of Alexander the Great is poised to take over the world.

At home, his city -states are unified and at peace.

But Alexander is rampaging across the Middle East, conquering the

territories of his archenemy, the Persians.

He's even absorbed another ancient power into his massive empire

Egypt

in that time was under Persian rule and they were not very happy about it

So they worked on him and also crowned Alexander as the king of Egypt.

Egypt is the jewel in the crown of Alexander's new empire.

And to make sure everyone knows who owns it, he founds a new city on its

Mediterranean coast and calls it Alexandria.

It's just one of almost 20 cities he names after himself, stamping his

across the ancient world.

Now he rules a territory of over 5 million square kilometers,

and is at the peak of his powers.

But even this isn't enough.

Alexander wants... The world.

And the next step in his plan for global domination is India.

Alexander reached the Himalayan border, but his campaign started from the

Balkans and reached the Indian River in only 13 years.

And at this point, his troops felt tired and wanted to go back and stop.

this campaign.

So far, his army has done everything he's asked. But now, miles from home,

they threaten mutiny.

He makes his first and only retreat.

Alexander has to go back to Mesopotamia to manage some issues with his journal.

And he held a huge banquet when a lot of wine was served.

What happens next will change the course of history.

Maybe he got poisoned, or maybe he got malaria, but he got

very ill, then died in three days.

Alexander the Great is just 32 years old.

And the death of this mighty warrior causes his empire to fracture and fall

apart.

Greece, as an ancient power, is finished.

Without a strong leader's charisma, Greece implodes.

And as this empire collapses, the fallout threatens an even older

ancient power.

After Alexander's death, his newly conquered Egyptian lands are claimed by

of his generals, Ptolemy Soter.

He becomes the first in a new line of pharaohs who all take his name,

the Ptolemies.

But how can these Greeks secure their rule in Egypt?

and ensure the allegiance of its people, they embark

on a massive building campaign.

This place was very important to the Ptolemies by commissioning temples here.

You can extend your authority to the southernmost reaches of your kingdom.

Philae was par excellence the temple of Isis.

It was her main cult center, the jewel of the Nile.

as we Egyptians call it today.

A thousand kilometers south of Alexandria, this temple is a calculated

of propaganda.

By doing this, you're living up to the expectation of what an ancient Egyptian

pharaoh was supposed to do. With all the symbolism, the hieroglyphs, the

figures, he was saying, I may be of Greek origin.

But I am Pharaoh.

At first, the strategy works.

But the Ptolemies are greedy.

They paid little attention to Egypt itself. To them, Egypt was to be

By displaying extravagance and luxury, you're showing the rest of the world how

your kingdom is much better than theirs.

Yours is the richest.

The Ptolemies live extravagant lives, all funded by ever -increasing taxes

paid by the Egyptian people who are not

happy about it.

In 206 BCE, it all comes to a head.

Up here we have two decrees from the reign of Ptolemy V that talks about

revolt across Egypt.

How for 20 years people were very tired of Ptolemaic rule.

We hear about farmers completely leaving their tools and leaving their land and

going off just to run away from taxes.

Exploitation was way too much.

And ultimately, a king who does not take care of his people, it's only a matter

of time until it goes into decline.

Things are no better for the Ptolemies themselves, who make a habit of being

theft.

This leads to bloody disputes over succession.

The Ptolemaic family already was sort of intermarrying, but it gets more and

more complicated with each passing generation, such that you get into

situations. Perhaps the most horrible example is Ptolemy VIII.

He marries his full sister, and on their wedding day, he actually has her son

from Ptolemy VI killed in her arms.

That's how bad it gets.

The Ptolemies cling to power for almost two more centuries.

But weakened by infighting and revolts, they seek out allies across the

Mediterranean in Rome.

Here, they get mixed up in bloody civil wars.

And in 30 BCE, the most famous Ptolemy of all, Cleopatra,

finds herself on the losing side.

Facing defeat, she takes her own life.

Her death ends a 3 ,000 -year -old line of pharaohs.

It is the end for this ancient power.

As the sun sets on Egypt,

the reach of their aggressive

northern occupiers, the Romans, is still growing.

Rome is a military superstate.

And more than a thousand years since its foundation, it's at the peak of its

powers.

Controlling and defending its massive territory demands a vast army.

But there aren't enough homegrown recruits to fill its ranks.

Franks. Gauls, Goths, and Celts are just some

of the tribes drafted into the imperial army.

You could be anything, but you were always at the heart of it, Rome.

The glue that kept the Roman Empire together.

But this is a risky strategy for the emperors back in the capital.

What happens eventually is that Rome is making its own enemies, because on one

side you need these people to help you protect the empire, you need to hire

these mercenaries, but on the other side you're training people who might one

day turn against you.

In 260 CE, Frankish and Germanic tribes rebel and

spread chaos.

A decade later...

The vandals tear through Roman territory, threatening the capital.

Now, Rome needs to protect itself.

Rome has not needed wall for almost 700 years.

It's been safe.

Rome had been protected by her legions.

No need for any kind of fortifications.

Suddenly, they need wall. And they start throwing them up. And in five years,

they build a circuit of 19 kilometers.

In their desperate rush, the Romans build these walls with anything that

to hand.

You can see it here, a piece of a decorative architrave of some noble

monument that was ripped down and built into the walls because there was no time

to waste.

Despite their haphazard construction,

These walls are a protective shield.

Ten meters high and four meters thick, they stave off attacks from rampaging

barbarians.

But in 408, a once loyal Germanic tribe arrive at the gates.

The Visigoths.

The city's walls now face their ultimate test.

Visigoths can smell a weakness and smell an opportunity. And the wealth of Rome

is obviously one of the most amazing draws.

If you can invade Rome and sack Rome, you've done something that no one else

done. It's the greatest prize in the ancient world.

For two years, the Visigoths repeatedly laid siege to the city.

For a while, Rome could hold out.

But gradually, the pressure rose on the inside.

There were famines, there were plagues, there were corpses lying in the streets.

It was desperate times.

Finally, on the 24th of August, 410,

the barbarians breached the gates.

Fires raged.

And they loot the city for three days.

Rome has fallen.

Until 410, Rome, although embattled, was still invincible, was still intact.

The walls had protected the city from all invaders.

And suddenly the myth of Rome is broken.

The inviolable city.

The heart of the empire is taken by a foreign enemy, a barbarian enemy.

Now Rome's enemies know it can be defeated.

It signals the end of this ancient power.

Rome falls victim to the rebellion of foreign tribes.

To the east another ancient power faces internal conflicts that threaten

to boil over.

The Han are a rich and successful dynasty.

They rule over 60 million people and have conquered a vast

territory stretching from modern -day Korea in the east to Uzbekistan in the

west.

But now, they face a problem that's been festering since the start of their

reign.

Han emperors have always had many wives, whose families pushed their own claims

to power.

But there's also another player in this game of Throne.

There were a lot of Taoyong here.

We found that there were more than 10 ,000 Taoyong.

There were a lot of Taoyong here.

There were a lot of Taoyong here.

There were a lot of Taoyong here. There were a lot of Taoyong here. There were a

lot of Taoyong here.

These terracotta figures are all imperial servants.

There are male officials and female attendants, but also another

type of courtier.

These eunuchs act as attendants and confidants for the imperial families and

this gives them sway, especially over younger emperors.

About half of them are more than ten years old, even younger emperors.

Because the emperor is young, plus the environment in which he grew up,

he mainly lived in the palace.

The most he met was the eunuchs, the eunuchs who took care of him every day.

The relationship was good.

As they grow up with the emperor, the eunuchs gain titles, influence, and

demanding power.

No one is in

complete control.

Not only that, the royal coffers are running empty.

So the government raises taxes.

In northern China, starving peasants revolt.

With the imperial court distracted by infighting, the rebellion spreads and

rages on for the next two decades.

The weakened Han dynasty fall from power.

After more than 400 years of rule, it is over.

In China, the long -lived Han are undone by court politics and revolution.

To the south, in India, no dynasty expects to last long.

At the end of the 4th century CE, the great Samudra Gupta, who led India

into a prosperous golden age, dies.

He leaves a flourishing empire that covers northern India.

But the Guptas know from history that keeping hold of this territory will be a

challenge.

Empire in India was always a slightly more complex at that.

You'd have almost a revolving door of emperors coming and going, coming and

going, leaving their traces, leaving their monuments.

But nothing ultimately was permanent.

Part of the problem for the Guptas is communication with their diverse

population.

Because their subjects speak many different languages.

Even if you go to India now, almost every state has its own language.

Dialects vary sometimes from village to village, district to district.

Without easy communication, it's made empire necessarily more challenging.

This diversity means the Guptas are never in complete control of their

territory.

There were vast areas which were towards the peripheries of the empire where the

emperor wasn't necessarily in complete charge. He depended on vassals, he

depended on subordinate governors, hereditary governors, little kings to

great king. And all of these people negotiated power with him. So the

some ways had to share power.

After the great Samudra Gupta's death, a series of weaker emperors begin to lose

their grip on power.

Emperors in India always faced this problem, that you always had the threat

your subordinates wanting to not just topple you, but replace you as a future

imperial power.

Which meant that if one particular emperor weren't up to the mark, suddenly

whole thing would start unravelling because others would exploit it. And the

Guptas are a prime example of this.

Slowly, the Gupta kingdom starts to break apart.

Nomadic invaders from the north take advantage and rip into this once mighty

empire.

The last great dynasty of ancient India is over.

Whether through the death of a great leader, debauched rulers, rebellious

uprisings, court politics, or simply invasion,

our ancient powers have all fallen.

But they're not forgotten.

Because they've all left a mark on our modern world.

After Rome was burnt and sacked by invading barbarians, it was left broken.

But this mighty ancient power left physical reminders of its glory days

right across its fallen empire.

The fact that Rome is called the Eternal City is so apt because ancient Rome

over the centuries has remained embedded in the fabric of modern Rome.

We are in front of the best preserved monument of ancient Rome, which was one

the glories of the ancient city.

This ancient temple's roof is over 43 meters wide and remains

the world's largest unsupported concrete dome.

A brilliant testament to Roman construction.

It is massively, massively over -engineered. There's a certain aiming

posterity, aiming for when you are no more.

Another link to Rome's past springs out in one of its most recognizable places.

Here we have the Trevi Fountain.

Roman water pouring through Roman pipes along a Roman aqueduct, which was built

2 ,000 years ago and still in operation.

Roman water still pervades the city.

It still refreshes the city.

The Romans built this system to last.

All across the capital and throughout this ancient empire, Roman

buildings still stand.

Visible testimony to the engineering prowess and military might of this

ancient power.

After the death of Cleopatra, the last of the pharaohs, Egyptian culture slowly

began to fade.

Even its writing.

The hieroglyphic inscription reads, Before Mendoulis, the son of Horus, by

hand of Esmet Ahem, the son of Smet, the second priest of

Isis. Forever and ever.

What we're looking at here wasn't done by a professional sculptor. This was

carved by inexpert hands.

It's almost as if he knew that he was part of this dying tradition.

And in fact, this is the very last one known ever.

Carved in 394.

These hieroglyphs were the last act of an ancient power that had endured for

almost three and a half thousand years.

In the centuries that followed, tombs were plundered, statues were smashed,

and cities were lost to the sand.

and the meaning of hieroglyphs slipped out of memory.

Once knowledge was lost of how to read and write hieroglyphs, it's almost as if

Egypt just goes dark.

People were left wondering what these cryptic symbols meant.

The names of pharaohs and gods, their stories and secrets were lost.

Ancient Egypt became the stuff of myth and legend.

But in 1799, a chance discovery unlocked the glory of

Egypt's past.

The Rosetta Stone translates a royal decree into three different scripts.

Thanks to the trilingual inscription that you can see on the Rosetta Stone,

were able to decode how hieroglyphs were to be read. And thanks to that, we can

finally read what the ancient Egyptians had to say in their own words.

This civilization's names, stories, beliefs and deeds were all

deciphered.

The ancient Egyptians were brought back to life.

And today, tourists from all over the world flock to marvel

at Egypt's wonders.

Greece's ancient past is also clearly visible in its modern landscape.

Its architectural styles are a byword for beauty and sophistication.

Adopted everywhere, from the Roman Empire to the New World.

But to the south of Athens,

Beyond the silver mines, which were the foundation of the city's wealth, are the

ruins of a structure that was central to Greek society.

A magnificent theater, possibly the first ever constructed.

One of many built across their empire.

A place that directly connects ancient Greece to the modern world.

In my opinion, the legacy of classical Greece is, of course, art, architecture,

philosophy, all these wealth of ideas.

But it's something more than these.

These theatres were not just home to plays and performances.

They were also central to something even more transformative.

Politics.

These are not just stones in the dust.

They are not just relics of the past.

They are transferring an essential message from that past.

That here we have art, we have drama, but also participation of the citizens

deciding about their own fate.

So this was an area where the citizens would gather and decide for themselves

to... Make democracy happen in these ruins.

It's the foundation of our world today.

These public spaces were the cornerstone of the world's first known democracy.

A form of government that underpins half of the world's countries today.

It's a radical legacy.

from this great ancient power.

Echoes of China's ancient past are present in the everyday.

And there's one cultural artifact that stretches back three and a half thousand

years to one of their earliest ancient dynasties.

The Shang Dynasty was China's first stable ancient power.

But its people lived in the world where the weather and its impact on crops was

a matter of life or death.

So, they tried to predict the future.

To answer these questions, the Shang used an extraordinary technique.

Priests took turtle shells and ox bones and burned holes in

them.

This created cracks, and the patterns made were used to divine the future.

But they also carved their questions onto the bones and shells.

Today, these carved symbols are called...

Oracle Bone Script.

These oracle bones may not have foretold the future, predicted poor

harvests, or the coming rains, but they have created.

This ancient character for crops and the character for horse are

pictographs. But over the centuries, they slowly transformed.

They were adopted by every successive dynasty and developed into modern

Today, one in six people across the globe use this writing system,

making it one of the oldest continuously used forms of writing in the world,

an everyday reminder of China's ancient power.

The rich diversity of the Indian subcontinent stopped any one empire from

holding on to power for too long.

But this also sowed the seed for a lasting heritage.

Emperors and kings would come and go.

But one thing that was always present in most people's lives was the legends and

mythology of our God.

Everything was woven in with the religion and it wasn't just about the

now.

This ancient Buddhist monument attracts worshippers from far and wide.

It's one of the largest stupas in the world.

But it celebrates more than just one religion.

There's a segment here where if you enter, you'll see Ganesha carved into a

niche. And Ganesha is considered a Hindu god.

What is he doing in a Buddhist site?

The answer lies in the way sites like this were regarded by successive

generations.

Sacred spots retained a certain value across large swathes of time.

The gods in them might rotate and revolve and you could have Shiva,

the Buddha.

In a later period, some other god might eclipse the original god. But the

sanctity of the spot itself remained.

So I think if we were to look for what remains from that period, we would more

often than not gravitate to sacred spots, because that's something that

all these shifting sands across different centuries.

And this coexistence of religions, side by side, has left a lasting imprint.

Just looking around us, there's people of so many religious backgrounds, so

ethnicities, clearly of such diversity. It holds meaning for many people of many

backgrounds and many cultures.

And that is the magic of the place. It belongs to everybody.

This monument is an heirloom of the past, an echo of ancient

India in its present.

That's just the way the Indian subcontinent has evolved over time.

And this is perhaps the longest standing tradition of the Indian subcontinent.

Pure diversity and the very idea that there are multiple paths to the same

destination.