Original subtitles

♪ ♪

male narrator: This week, on "Ancient Top 10,"

the killer of Romans and scourge of Europe.

- Armies fled in his wake. Rivers ran with blood.

narrator: The greatest general of all time.

- He's really the incarnation

of what it is to be a megalomaniac.

narrator: The queen who held the world in her hands.

- We think our rulers today have power,

but it was nothing compared to what she had.

narrator: And the most murderous dictator in history.

- He was a great ruler, a military genius,

and truth be told, a bloodthirsty tyrant.

narrator: The baddest in the ancient world.

Where will they be ranked in the only top ten list

thousands of years in the making?

♪ ♪

The ancient world was ruled by ruthless dictators.

Wanton brutality was the order of the day.

There was killing on a massive scale,

and all for the sake of absolute power.

This week's "Ancient Top 10."

Total dictators of the ancient world,

ranked by experts according to the impact they made,

and their evil deeds.

[all shouting]

At number ten...

psychotic, unpredictable,

a terrifying dictator murdered

after only four years of rule.

- The most power crazy of the emperors? Caligula.

He was determined to show off his god-like powers

by being the most extravagant

and the most outrageous.

narrator: He was born Gaius Germanicus

into one of Rome's most distinguished families.

His great-great-grandfather was Julius Caesar.

- Caligula was actually a nickname.

It means "little boots,"

and it was a name that was given to Caligula

when he was just a boy.

His father took him on military campaign.

It was almost like he was a kind of mascot.

So he was dressed up

as the perfect mini Roman soldier,

right down to his little boots.

He hated this name.

He thought it was very disrespectful,

and it almost seems to have fueled

a kind of psychopathic rage inside him.

narrator: Caligula had other reasons to be disturbed.

His own adoptive grandfather, the emperor Tiberius,

wiped out his whole family.

- His father, killed by the emperor.

His mother, put into prison,

exiled and then starved to death.

♪ ♪

His siblings died in prison,

and he's then adopted by the same emperor

responsible for it all.

If this were a TV series.

it would just be considered unbelievable.

♪ ♪

- I think it's safe to say this guy had issues.

He loved watching torture and gruesome executions.

He spent his nights in wild orgies.

He was even thought to have committed incest

with his sisters, and all this before he became emperor.

narrator: He was just 24 when he rose to power in 37 AD.

At first he was popular.

He abolished taxes and put on lavish entertainment

for his people, like the gladiatorial games.

But his extravagance almost bankrupted Rome.

He squandered the equivalent of $4 billion

in the first year of his reign alone.

During this year he also suffered a serious illness.

Although he recovered, many believe

it turned him into a megalomaniac.

- We're told this story that he was sacrificing

a bull in a temple.

and he was just about to strike the animal with a mallet

when he turned around and whacked the priest instead.

♪ ♪

This man was lying bleeding to death on the ground,

and Caligula just laughed,

hugely entertained by this deadly prank.

narrator: His behavior knew no bounds.

Even in public at the Colosseum,

Caligula displayed his psychotic side.

- When he got bored during the intermission

of the gladiatorial fights, Caligula had his guards

grab dozens of people from the crowd

and throw them into the arena,

just to watch them be eaten by wild animals.

"Twisted" doesn't even begin to describe this guy.

narrator: And it wasn't just extreme violence.

- Caligula was so out there, there's even a story

that he made his beloved horse a Roman advisor.

[horse neighing]

narrator: He was even more insane

when it came to his own self-image.

♪ ♪

- Caligula was so deluded,

he didn't think he was like a god,

he seems to have thought he was a god himself.

♪ ♪

We're told that he dressed up as gods

and even goddesses sometimes out in public,

and he'd remove the heads of sculptures of gods,

he'd decapitate them,

and replace them with a sculpture

of his own image.

♪ ♪

This isn't just power crazed,

this is an example of power corrupting absolutely.

♪ ♪

- After a four-year reign of terror,

his people had had enough, so they got rid of him,

by stabbing him over 30 times.

[men struggling]

- Caligula was so hated

that after his death, the Senate tried

to erase him from history by destroying his monuments,

but his behavior was so extreme

that he's remembered to this day

as one of the most crazy of Roman rulers.

narrator: Dealing with a legacy of violence and despotism,

the Senate hoped for more peaceful times.

But instead someone far worse was to come.

♪ ♪

At number nine, another mad emperor--

Nero.

♪ ♪

- Nero was one of the most infamous emperors of Rome.

The stories of his brutality are absolutely legendary,

and it's for this reason why he's got to be in my top ten.

narrator: Emperor of Rome from the age of just 17--

from 54 to 68 AD--

famous for fiddling while Rome burned.

♪ ♪

He wandered the streets, murdering at random,

because he could.

- When we look at the horrific acts

attributed to Nero, it looks like he's reading

right out of the playbook of Caligula.

narrator: It's said that Nero was envious

of the extravagance of his uncle Caligula.

He may even have been trying to emulate him.

When Nero came to power,

his mother had planned to rule jointly with him,

but he had other ideas.

He built a ship for her to travel in

and designed it so that as she slept,

the roof would collapse, killing her,

but it would look like an accident.

She survived this attempt on her life,

but Nero wasn't giving up.

- He sends a guard to go and attack her

in her own bedroom,

and the guard bludgeons and stabs her to death.

[man grunts]

[woman screams]

narrator: Nero's first wife met a similar end.

- After he's had her exiled and put to death,

he has her head delivered to his new wife.

narrator: And her luck was no better.

- She's pregnant with child and she dares to complain

that he's spending too much time at the games.

He kicks his pregnant wife to death.

narrator: He then tried something new.

He had taken a shine to a young man,

so he had him castrated and made him his new wife.

[man screams]

- He could do that.

He was, in the history books of Rome,

a total tyrant and a horrible monster.

- There are even stories that he'd dress up in animal skins,

have young men and women tethered to posts

and then ravage them, roaring like a beast,

even biting off their genitals.

♪ ♪

narrator: A fire during Nero's reign

caused devastation on a scale

Rome had never seen before.

Half of the city burnt to the ground.

In true dictator fashion,

as the fire was still smoldering,

Nero laid claim to vast areas of land in order to build

an extravagant palace for himself.

This brought accusations that Nero had

deliberately started the blaze,

so he created a scapegoat.

He rounded up Christians and had them publicly executed.

- Nero was incredibly brutal.

One of the most famous stories about him

is how he used to light Christians on fire

and use them as torches for his dinner parties.

[people screaming]

narrator: No one was safe from him.

Nero had his own senators whipped,

branded with irons, and tortured.

If he liked a woman, he had her husband murdered.

His brutality was endless.

On top of this, his extravagant spending

nearly bankrupted Rome's treasury.

- Towards the end of Nero's life,

his excesses became quite extraordinary.

When his wife died, he bought

what would be the equivalent

of half a billion dollars' worth of frankincense.

Rome at this point was on its knees financially,

it was crippled by debt,

and I think that, combined with his depravity,

meant that the people of Rome had just had enough.

♪ ♪

The Senate voted Nero an enemy of the state

and he was encouraged to commit suicide.

narrator: Nero left behind him a legacy of murder,

debauchery, and Christian persecution.

It made him yet another ruler

the Senate wanted to wipe from their records.

This time they actually passed a law

saying that Nero never existed.

From Nero to zero.

- This man was so extreme--

he was so sick, he was so perverse--

that he has never been forgotten by history,

and we're still talking about him

and his dreadful deeds today.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is "Ancient Top 10's"

list of total dictators--

The tyrants of the ancient world,

causing destruction on a mass scale,

stamping their bloody footprint on history.

Next on our list is a ruler

who challenged the mighty Roman empire

and set its generals against each other.

In at number eight...

♪ ♪

Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt.

A temptress of the Nile who used sexuality

to maintain her grip on the throne,

she would ultimately destroy the empire

she sought to protect.

- Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt

and the most famous woman of ancient times.

We think our rulers today have power,

but it was nothing compared to what she had.

She was literally a god walking on earth.

narrator: She's best known as a beautiful seductress,

but there was a lot more to her than that.

- Egyptian royal families were a hotbed of scheming,

plotting, murder, and incest.

Cleopatra did very well indeed

even to make it to adulthood alive,

and then she secured her position as pharaoh

by murdering her brother.

She would stop at nothing.

♪ ♪

narrator: She was calculating,

and she was also extremely bright and well educated.

In fact, it's said that she spoke nine languages.

- She was a very learned woman, educated in mathematics,

in geometry.

- Cleopatra, we think of her

as this sexy femme fatale,

this Elizabeth Taylor-like figure,

and we forget that she was incredibly brilliant.

narrator: Not only did her talents and beauty

attract attention, but also her country's wealth.

The Romans were threatening to invade.

The Egyptian army was not strong enough to take them on,

so Cleopatra turned to other means

to keep her kingdom safe.

- She realized that Egypt needed Rome's allegiance,

and so she decides to set her sights

on the most powerful man of the time, Julius Caesar.

She seduces and beds him.

♪ ♪

- There's a story she had herself rolled into a carpet

and smuggled into the royal palace

of Julius Caesar just to meet him,

and she not only met him, but apparently bedded him

and then the two went on to become

this immense powerful couple.

narrator: They formed a political alliance

over the course of four years,

even having a child together,

but Caesar's relationship with the Queen of the Nile

angered Rome, and in 44 BC,

it came to a bloody end.

He was murdered by the Senate.

After Caesar's death, the Roman general Mark Antony

was sent in to assert Rome's control.

What happened? She bedded him too.

- We're told that in order to demonstrate

Egypt's incredible wealth,

when she was seducing Mark Antony,

Cleopatra took a big, fat pearl.

Now, this thing was the most precious,

the most expensive jewel in the known world.

narrator: It's estimated that this pearl would be worth

around $30 million today.

- She dissolved it in a cup of wine vinegar

and then drank that down.

It was the most brilliantly theatrical act of seduction.

narrator: Cleopatra and Mark Antony

became lovers and allies,

but, just like her previous relationship with Caesar,

their union was seen as a threat to Rome.

Antony's political rival, Octavian, declared war.

He defeated Antony in 31 BC,

forcing him to flee with Cleopatra.

Antony committed suicide

after being surrounded by his enemies.

In one final act of defiance,

Cleopatra did the same.

She either allowed herself to be bitten

by a poisonous snake,

or took a fatal overdose of narcotics.

- Cleopatra had tremendous pride,

and so she would rather die

than suffer the indignity of being paraded

through the streets of Rome as a prisoner.

narrator: Cleopatra's ultimate success

lay in her seduction of Rome's most powerful men.

- What we have to remember about Cleopatra is that

she wasn't just a kind of beautiful pin-up

bathing in ass's milk,

this was a feisty, smart woman,

and critically, she was able

to control the men around her,

and that's why she deserves to be in this top 10.

narrator: But Cleopatra's appetite for power

was nothing compared to our next total dictator.

The most powerful pharaoh ever to rule Egypt,

who fought the largest chariot battle known to man.

At number seven...

Ramesses II.

- When we think of Egyptian Pharaohs,

Ramesses II is the name that inspires awe.

narrator: Ramesses expertly used propaganda

to portray himself as the greatest warrior

of the Egyptian empire.

He presided over Egypt at the height of its powers.

He ruled for 67 years in the 13th century BC.

It was the longest fully documented reign

in Egyptian history,

and he kept himself busy.

- Ramesses II had 200 wives and concubines,

96 sons, 60 daughters.

How could this guy not be in the top ten?

♪ ♪

- Ramesses II lived to 93 years old.

This is in a period where most people die

by the age of 40.

It was almost impossible to picture Egypt

without Ramesses II leading it.

narrator: In true dictator fashion,

he commanded his people to build

huge statues of himself, all for his own glory.

- All rulers built monuments,

but Ramesses II outbuilt them all.

narrator: His greatest of all is this,

Abu Simbel-- a true reflection

of Ramesses' self-promotion.

- Ramesses built more temples, obelisks,

and huge monuments than any other pharaoh,

and the biggest Egyptian statue ever was of himself.

♪ ♪

He was a true megalomaniac.

narrator: He was also battle-hungry

and wanted to re-claim territories

lost by past pharaohs.

At just 22, he embarked on and won

numerous military campaigns.

His arch enemy was the Hittites,

a people that lived in what is now modern Turkey and Syria.

- Ramesses' most famous fight was the Battle of Kadesh,

which took place against the Hittites in 1274 BC.

♪ ♪

- It was the largest chariot battle in history,

and 6,000 thundered across the battlefield.

It was absolute carnage.

narrator: It was to be the end of a conflict

that had lasted for two centuries

over control of the lands of the eastern Mediterranean.

The battle is believed to have been a draw,

but Ramesses claimed victory.

- He was a great propagandist because he didn't win that war.

He didn't win that battle.

They didn't take the city of Kadesh,

but he went back to Egypt and erected

these huge monuments celebrating his victory.

narrator: The final outcome of the Battle of Kadesh

was the signing of the world's first peace treaty,

in 1258 BC.

A copy of the treaty now hangs

on the wall of the United Nations.

♪ ♪

Ironically, Ramesses' greatest monument

was a symbol of peace.

narrator: We're counting down

the top 10 total dictators of the ancient world.

The most powerful, the most brutal,

and the most devastating,

changing the course of history forever.

Next in our countdown is a great military dictator.

At number six...

♪ ♪

the man famous for leading elephants across the Alps--

Hannibal.

- He is one of the greatest generals of all time,

which means he deserves a place in our top ten list.

narrator: In the 3rd Century BC,

the north African Republic of Carthage,

what is modern day Tunisia, was at war with Rome.

Hannibal's father was a general in the Carthaginian army.

He had fought the Romans for 40 years,

but eventually suffered defeat.

This humiliation fueled an obsession for revenge

in Hannibal.

When his time to command the army came,

he made it his mission to wipe out Rome for good.

He planned an audacious attack.

His army included 90,000 infantry,

12,000 cavalry, and even 40 war elephants.

- Hannibal was the master of surprise.

He built giant rafts on the river Rhone

to carry his famous elephants,

and he did the unthinkable.

He marched into Italy over the Alps,

elephants and all, totally surprising the Romans.

narrator: Leading his army over the mountains

was an astonishing achievement,

but it was his victories on the battlefield,

once in Italy, that made him such a great commander.

In the first two clashes he routed the Romans.

[men shouting]

And he used his war elephants to do it.

[elephant trumpeting]

- Two battles, two bloodbaths.

In each case, Rome loses 3/4 of her army.

This has never happened

to the world's leading superpower.

narrator: Rome's response?

It raised its biggest army ever--

90,000 fighting men.

The next battle would be a monumental clash--

The Battle of Cannae.

- In this battle Hannibal lost about 4,000 men.

The Romans, up to 70,000.

This was one of the bloodiest battles in history.

narrator: The Romans should have crushed Hannibal,

but he used one of the greatest

battlefield maneuvers in history,

called the pincer movement,

simultaneously attacking both sides of the enemy.

This strategy was to define Hannibal

as one of the greatest tacticians of all time.

- This was the worst defeat the Romans had ever had.

We've got to look forward 2,000 years later

to the battlefields of World War I

to even see that level of carnage,

and remember, this wasn't guns,

this was slashing, stabbing,

bloody hand-to-hand combat.

narrator: Hannibal went on to occupy much of Italy

for 15 years,

but failed to take the biggest prize of all,

the city of Rome.

He had won the battles, but ultimately lost the war.

- In the end, like Cleopatra, Hannibal poisoned himself

rather than face Roman capture.

He had no intention of giving the Romans

one inch of satisfaction.

narrator: Hannibal's victory at Cannae had

far-reaching effects.

Rome lost its status as a fighting power.

But ultimately it led to the Roman military

being transformed into a professional force.

And they even adopted Hannibal's strategies

for their own.

- Hannibal defeated the Romans in their own backyard.

His tactics were so good that they're still being studied

in military academies around the world.

I can't think of a better endorsement for a combat leader.

narrator: Hannibal was one of Rome's

most feared adversaries, but he wasn't

the only tormentor to threaten its authority.

Our next total dictator had such power

that he had the fate of the Empire

resting entirely in his hands.

Riding in at number five...

♪ ♪

Attila the Hun.

Just the mention of his name strikes terror into the soul.

This barbaric dictator murdered his brother

so that at only 28 he became the leader of the Huns,

a nomadic tribe in Fifth Century AD,

Eastern Europe.

- There are few historical figures

who inspire the terror of Attila the Hun.

Armies fled in his wake.

Rivers ran with blood.

narrator: Attila expanded his rule

by attacking the Roman Empire.

He did it by rampaging through cities,

torturing entire towns, raping and killing.

He was so ruthless, it's said

that if you were a citizen in Rome

and begged for mercy, he would still kill you.

- It cemented his reputation

as one of the world's most brutal dictators.

narrator: Attila had the advantage

of commanding an army that was vast,

bolstered by warriors from different tribes.

- He was able to unite the Germanic tribes

against the Roman Empire.

He was a just and fair ruler,

unless you were Roman.

narrator: The Huns were expert riders and under Attila,

they became famous for their rapid movement,

catching the enemy off guard.

They would swoop in, then disappear just as suddenly.

- The key to Attila the Hun's success was the composite bow.

Compact, powerful,

and you can use it from horseback.

Mobile firepower. Deadly.

- In less than ten years, from virtually nothing,

Attila the Hun built an empire

that stretched all the way from central Asia

to modern day France.

Attila's reputation struck such fear into his enemies,

he wasn't just the scourge of Rome.

They called him the Scourge of God.

narrator: After causing wide-scale destruction

across Italy, he set his eyes on Rome itself,

but was prevented by the most unlikely of sources.

- He could have actually gone on to destroy Rome,

but he stopped, not because he didn't have

the military means, but apparently

because the pope came to see him,

unarmed and in person,

and somehow convinced him not to.

narrator: Soon after that, Attila died

in rather undignified circumstances

on his wedding night, after heavy drinking.

- When Attila the Hun died, his entire army was devastated,

and his elite horsemen smeared their faces with blood

and rode around in a circle slowly

around the tent where his body lay.

It would have been a powerful, emotional sight.

♪ ♪

narrator: It's argued that the impact of Attila's reign

was so great, he was ultimately responsible

for the collapse of the Roman Empire

in the West.

Today he is still remembered

as a vicious, unstoppable force.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is the "Ancient Top 10" list

of total dictators,

ranked according to their impact on history.

At number ten,

we saw the crazy Roman emperor, Caligula.

Number nine, madder still was Nero.

Number eight was manipulative Cleopatra.

At number seven, the greatest pharaoh,

Ramesses II.

At number six was the mighty general Hannibal,

and at number five, the terrifying Attila the Hun.

Next in our countdown,

the most famous Roman of them all.

At number four, all hail Julius Caesar.

♪ ♪

General, brilliant politician.

Born in 100 BC, Caesar created

a new chapter in Roman history.

He made his name conquering Gaul,

what is now France,

in the first of many brilliant campaigns

that would give him a reputation

as one of Rome's all-time great leaders.

[men shouting]

But this infamy came at a bloody cost.

- Caesar himself claimed that he killed a million Gauls

and enslaved another million.

♪ ♪

- Caesar nearly doubled the size

of the Roman empire, and under him,

the focus was pushing into northern Europe,

away from the heartland of the Mediterranean world.

narrator: His enemies feared him,

but to his men he was a hero.

He was never known to have lost a battle.

- Julius Caesar has three qualities that makes him

absolutely unstoppable.

One, he fights on the frontline

with his soldiers so they respect him.

Two, he never gives up, and three,

he has the most capable armies in the world

and he knows exactly how to exploit them.

- He's bold and audacious and thinking the unthinkable.

[men shouting]

narrator: But Caesar had political enemies.

The Roman Senate ordered him to step down from his command

and return to Rome.

They were afraid of his power.

He went, but took his army.

- And when he marched into Rome,

people flocked to him.

They treated him like a returning god.

narrator: With the support of the people behind him,

he took over leadership of the city.

He was made dictator for life,

giving him extra powers,

which he used to rule like a king.

- He didn't get to his position by being born into it

like many other leaders on the list.

He won it, through determination,

through his dynamic personality.

narrator: His impact on Rome was immense.

He built magnificent new buildings and temples.

He taxed the rich and helped the poor.

He was responsible for the rise of the Roman Empire.

- Julius Caesar had become the new state.

The Roman Republic was no more.

It had been replaced by one total dictator.

narrator: At the height of its empire,

Rome is thought to have been the largest city on the planet,

with a population of more than a million.

But Caesar's endless ambition created enemies.

He was eventually killed by his own men

on the floor of the Senate.

The legacy of his dictatorship?

Roman culture spreading further than ever before.

We still live by some of Caesar's principles.

The 365-day calendar and many of Europe's laws today

are based on those introduced by Caesar himself.

- The thing about Caesar is that he had

the greatest historical impact of any Roman leader ever.

♪ ♪

narrator: While Julius Caesar fought

for domination of Europe,

on the other side of the world

an even greater evolution had taken place.

It created the world's most enduring empire,

and it's all thanks to our number three.

♪ ♪

The emperor Qin of China.

He created one of the seven wonders of the world

and an army of clay soldiers.

He was the first emperor

of one of the oldest civilizations in the world.

- China. 200 BC. The Emperor Qin.

♪ ♪

Before this time, all was disunification,

warring states everywhere.

[men shouting]

- And in just nine short years,

Emperor Qin takes over one million square miles

and becomes emperor to 27 million people.

♪ ♪

The scale of this is unbelievable.

narrator: In the third century BC,

no man on earth could rival Qin.

He came to power at the age of 39,

and did more than any other ancient dictator

to build a legacy.

He carried out a series of reforms

that would unify the country and build a lasting empire.

- Emperor Qin created a dynasty,

created a system of standardized measures,

scripts, language, roads.

narrator: And he began the building

of the Great Wall of China,

the most ambitious engineering project

in all history.

But in order to build and keep control

of his incredible empire, Qin was a merciless dictator.

Enemies were hunted down and enslaved.

- The emperor Qin created a police state

in ancient China.

He persecuted Confucians, he enslaved people,

he castrated prisoners,

he basically allowed no private citizens

to have their own weapons.

This was ultimate dictatorial control.

narrator: He even had a plan to rule in the afterlife.

It gave us one of the most extraordinary

archaeological finds of all time,

and it's coming up on "Ancient Top 10."

♪ ♪

narrator: This is "Ancient Top 10's" list

of total dictators,

ranked according to their impact on history.

Brutal, cruel, power-hungry rulers

who would stop at nothing to grow their empires.

At number three on our list...

♪ ♪

The Emperor Qin, the first emperor of China.

- Emperor Qin was obsessed with immortality.

He had his alchemists working on an elixir of life.

Now some of these elixirs contained mercury,

which ironically, rather than extend his life,

probably did the exact opposite

and hastened his death.

narrator: Even so, death posed no obstacle

and he wanted to do whatever was necessary

to rule in the afterlife as well as this one.

- Qin had over 700,000 workers build his tomb,

and the construction took place over his entire life.

♪ ♪

- After his death, Qin's entire court was buried with him.

Hundreds of slaves, servants, concubines, wives, musicians,

even his favorite horse and chariot,

buried alive.

♪ ♪

narrator: Qin believed that he would also need

protection in the afterlife,

so he built forces in his tomb to guard him.

- The one problem with being a violent tyrant

who comes to power by slaying everybody

who stands in your way is you make a few enemies.

When you're alive, it's not a problem.

You've got bodyguards,

you can keep 'em out of the way.

But when you're dead,

they're waiting for you in the afterlife,

and they carry a serious grudge.

♪ ♪

narrator: Qin would create an entire army

to look after him when he died,

to be buried alongside him.

♪ ♪

- This is where we find the famous Terracotta Army.

♪ ♪

8,000 soldiers, horses, and chariots,

all designed to protect him in the afterlife.

♪ ♪

- Emperor Qin's tomb was also protected

by booby traps and a great mercury lake.

Even today archaeologists have yet to uncover

the full mysteries of the tomb.

♪ ♪

- Emperor Qin.

He built the Great Wall,

he left us the Terracotta Army,

and he gave his name to China.

This guy left a serious legacy.

narrator: Qin united a country to create his empire,

but our next total dictator was intent

on dividing and conquering to build his,

reaching across several continents,

just missing out on the top spot...

♪ ♪

At number two, Alexander the Great,

military commander and king of ancient Greece--

a man whose very name is a tribute

to the vast territory he conquered.

The story of Alexander is a mix of myth and fact.

He was a pupil of Aristotle, the great philosopher,

and then became ruler of the Macedonian Empire

in the fourth century BC.

Some saw him as a tyrant, an alcoholic and a thief,

whilst others painted him as a saint and a hero.

- Alexander was certainly charismatic.

The son of a king,

he even washed his hair in saffron

to make it shiny.

Today he would be a movie star.

♪ ♪

It's easy to romanticize him though.

Don't forget, he was a cold-blooded killer.

♪ ♪

- Alexander became very successful very quickly.

When he was just 16,

he was left in charge of Macedonia,

and by the age of 19 he'd been declared king.

[men shouting]

- A couple years after that he had vanquished

the Greeks' greatest enemy, Persia,

from within which he ruled over 2 million square miles.

There had never been an empire that big before.

narrator: Alexander was a brilliant commander

and expert tactician.

- Throughout history, military leaders have looked

to Alexander the Great for inspiration.

Bold maneuvers, surprise attacks,

being at the right place at the right time

to deliver the perfect killing blow

exactly when it was needed.

This guy is as good as it gets.

♪ ♪

- Alexander the Great was a brilliant general,

but he suffered from these bouts of rage and paranoia.

He's really the incarnation

of what it is to be a megalomaniac.

He is brilliant, but he also had his demons.

narrator: As many of the other dictators

on our list have shown, sometimes power

can bring about debauched behavior.

- Alexander the Great had quite the complicated love life.

He had three wives, one mistress,

a lifelong male lover,

and a sexual relationship with a eunuch,

and who knows how many others on the side.

- And like most soldiers,

Alexander the Great was kind of a party animal.

His drinking was legendary.

Once, when drunk, he killed

one of his best friends with a spear,

and another time, after a drinking contest,

42 of his buddies lay around him

dead with alcohol poisoning.

This guy was a pro.

[men shouting]

narrator: After 15 years of battling

across half of the known world,

Alexander died at just 32, possibly of malaria.

- In all his years of conquests,

Alexander the Great never lost a single campaign.

He's definitely one of the greatest military minds

that ever lived.

[men shouting]

- Alexander's drive for immortality was responsible

for the deaths of 1/4 million people.

That's more than anyone up until that time.

He was a great general, but he was brutal--

really, really brutal.

♪ ♪

- Love him or hate him,

Alexander was one exceptional guy.

narrator: Alexander fought for honor and glory,

and a result was the spread of Greek culture

across several continents.

He will always be remembered as an all-conquering dictator.

♪ ♪

narrator: This is "Ancient Top 10's" list

of total dictators,

violent rulers of the ancient world,

ranked according to the impact they had.

♪ ♪

At number ten was power-crazed Caligula.

♪ ♪

Number nine, the demented Nero.

♪ ♪

Number eight, the last Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra.

♪ ♪

And number seven,

the mighty pharaoh, Ramesses II.

♪ ♪

Number six was the brilliant general Hannibal.

And number five, brutal Attila the Hun.

At four, Rome's ultimate dictator,

Julius Caesar,

and at number three,

the first emperor of China, the emperor Qin.

Just missing the top spot at number two,

the immense Alexander the Great.

♪ ♪

But who do our experts consider

to be the number-one ancient total dictator?

Was he Roman?

Chinese?

Egyptian?

No. Springing upon the world in a blaze of glory,

this evil warlord was a Mongolian warrior

who would turn most of Asia into a bloodbath.

At Number one...

♪ ♪

Genghis Khan.

He left terror and destruction in his wake,

annihilated tens of millions of people,

and created the biggest empire in antiquity.

He was the greatest dictator the world has ever seen.

- Genghis Khan was a great ruler,

a military genius,

and truth be told, a bloodthirsty tyrant.

narrator: Mongolia in the 12th century AD,

a land of feuding tribes, raiding and marauding.

- Genghis Khan's father was murdered.

He rose from poverty,

he escaped from slavery and exile,

and he then rose to the top and united

the warring Mongol tribes underneath him.

It's the ultimate example of coming from nothing

and then staying at the top against all odds.

narrator: By 1206 AD,

Khan had turned the individual tribes

into one single political and military force

known as the Mongols.

He then led them into war against their arch-enemy.

With 90,000 men, Khan invaded China.

It had the largest army in the world--

over a million men-- and he destroyed them.

- [groans]

narrator: When the Mongols took Zhongdu,

the capital of China,

they massacred over 100,000 people.

It's said that the earth was greasy with human fat.

But he didn't destroy everything.

- Genghis Khan was incredibly violent,

but he was smart, so you know, he went through China,

but he took from China paper and printing,

guns, gunpowder,

and brought them with him to the rest of the world

and used them well.

narrator: Then he turned West

and wiped out around 3/4 of what is now Iran.

- In 25 years, Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes

managed to conquer an area

bigger than the Romans managed to in four centuries.

narrator: It was the largest land empire

in the ancient world.

It went on to cover over 12 million square miles,

more than three times the size of the United States.

- No army has moved as far or as fast until World War II,

and they did it all on horseback.

narrator: For its citizens, being part of the Mongol Empire

had a great many advantages.

It was one of the most ethnically

and culturally diverse in history.

But as for rival leaders, if they didn't surrender,

they suffered the consequences.

- Now, we can't know exactly how many people died

as a result of Genghis Khan's conquest,

but a rough estimate is a staggering 40 million.

That's at least as much as Stalin,

and more than Hitler.

[men shouting]

- So many lives were extinguished

under Genghis Khan's rule

that the amount of carbon in the atmosphere

caused by people breathing was reduced

by a staggering 700 million tons.

- This is incredible on two levels.

One, he was able to murder

11% of the global population at the time,

and two, this led to climate change.

narrator: Khan's impact was immediate and devastating,

but he also brought law and civilization.

His conquest was so solid,

there was a century of peace afterwards.

- This guy wasn't just brutal, he was brilliant,

so, for example, he saw that the Chinese

had amazing law codes and codes for commerce

and medicine and these kinds of things,

and he left them in place.

He said, "These people are doing it right.

I'll rule as an overlord and leave things as they are."

narrator: Trading routes opened

and cultural and technological exchanges took place.

Explorers like Marco Polo

were able to travel freely across the land.

This unification was key in building a strong empire.

But individually, Khan believed a man's strength

was in the children he left behind,

and he had a harem of women that numbered in the thousands.

- Now, believe it or not, due to Genghis Khan's

great success in raiding and pillaging

over such a huge area,

1 in 200 men on planet Earth today

can trace their DNA directly back to him.

I would call that success.

♪ ♪

- No one knows where Genghis Khan is buried.

The witnesses to his burial were killed,

and his grave is hidden somewhere.

But to this day in Mongolia, he remains a national symbol.

♪ ♪

narrator: As well as modern day Mongolia,

Genghis Khan's empire included most of China,

spreading throughout Asia,

the Middle East, and even Russia.

♪ ♪

- No one else in history has ever come close.

Genghis Khan is the ultimate dictator.

♪ ♪

narrator: There have been dictators throughout history,

but for sheer ruthlessness, nothing can match the ancients.

With their ambition, determination,

and relentless brutality,

they forged empires and changed the world forever.

These were the ancient total dictators.