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 civilisation will face the same challenges.

How they respond will shape their destiny.

**

In this episode, "Kill or Be Killed."

In a world where enemies watch for weakness,

our ancient powers must use all their strength and cunning

to defend their people and conquer new lands.

Who will rise to the challenge of the battlefield?

**

Our ancient powers have settled, built their cities,

exploited their natural resources...

...and they're getting rich through trade.

Now, each must protect their lands

from aggressive neighbours.

**

**

Greece is home to hundreds of independent city states.

They exist as competing alliances.

But collectively, they are becoming a distinctive culture.

It's a flourishing ancient power on the verge of a golden age.

But it's facing a crisis.

To the east is Persia, the region's dominant force.

It has already conquered nearly five million square kilometres

of land across the Mediterranean and Asia.

Now it is turning its attention to Greece.

The Persian army is a quarter of a million men strong.

And in the summer of 480 BCE,

they invade mainland Greece

to confront the Greek forces here.

**

Back then, the landscape was entirely different.

The coastline was up to the road as we see today.

**

The small Greek army is vastly outnumbered

and know they don't stand a chance.

They must retreat and regroup.

But how can they do this against such a formidable aggressor?

To buy them time, one unit must stay and fight.

These need to be the Greeks' fiercest warriors.

The obvious choice is the Spartans,

led by their king, Leonidas.

Sparta is one of the few Greek states with a standing army,

and for good reason.

They were in constant fear of slave revolt,

and their army was effectively a militarised police force

whose main objective was to control that slave population.

Every Spartan male is a highly skilled warrior.

They train constantly and start young.

Spartan children started training

when they were about 7 years of age.

And they had to forage for their own food.

That's why they had to sharpen their skills in stealth,

camouflage, and stealing objects.

They were punished because they were caught,

not because they stole.

And their training could be compared

to the modern special-forces courses.

The Spartans' courage and skills

are famous throughout the ancient world,

although one aspect of their modern reputation

isn't entirely true.

Legend had it that Spartans fought naked.

And this is reinforced by modern people

seeing the statue of Leonidas

that has the artistic concept of heroic nudity.

But that's false.

Fighting naked in hands and close combat,

it's not a smart thing to do.

Spartans were the most heavily armed infantry

of Greece at that time.

With their fearsome reputation,

the Spartans are Greece's best hope

of holding the Persians at bay.

But they aren't alone at Thermopylae.

Everyone thinks

because of how history is presented,

that there were only 300 Spartans here.

Actually, there was a group between 7,000 to 8,000 men

from various city states.

They all were under the command of the Spartans,

who were the best warriors of Greece.

King Leonidas positions his men

between the cliffs and the sea.

This is a good place to defend

because it was a very narrow spot

where a smaller army could contain a larger army,

and the larger army could not count on

its numerical advantage.

The Persians advance from the north,

and the bloody battle begins.

**

In the ancient world,

hand-to-hand combat was extremely horrific

and very brutal.

The men were tightly packed,

and they were shoving the enemy

and puncturing with their spears.

So a number of these men would be losing their balance,

go down,

and the rear ranks would use their spikes

to skewer their fallen enemies.

Despite overwhelming odds,

the Spartans hold off the Persian advance

for three days,

buying the main Greek army enough time to retreat.

But it can't last,

and eventually the last of them falls.

The Spartan suicide mission allows their Greek allies

to fight another day

and creates a fearsome military legend.

The Spartans are remembered in history

as the epitome of the disciplined warrior,

the warrior who stands his ground on the battlefield

no matter what, even if it cost him his life.

**

The Greeks defend their homeland

with the ultimate warriors.

**

In China, a new dynasty is turning to technology

in its fight for supremacy.

**

**

The Shang dynasty have ruled China for 500 years.

Their territory extends over 1.2 million square kilometres.

But to the west, rebellion is brewing.

The Zhou people, greedy for power, are mobilising.

But their army is outnumbered 10 to 1.

What can they do to even the odds?

**

The Zhou put their faith in new battlefield technology,

revealed in the giant tomb of a warrior king.

**

The Marquis Xian is buried surrounded

by all the things that made him great--

weapons, armour, and dozens of horses.

But pride of place is reserved for his fleet of war chariots.

**

The two rows in the north are 20 war chariots.

We can be certain

they are the earliest Chinese war chariots ever discovered

and the earliest armoured vehicles.

Around the chariot box is bronze armour,

like the armour worn by soldiers.

War chariots like these

are a revolutionary addition to the Zhous' army.

On the chariot, there are usually three people.

The middle one is called "Yurong", he drives the chariot.

To the right of Yurong, there is Rongyou.

Rongyou holds a long weapon, such as a dagger or spear.

What does the person to the left of Yurong do?

He carries a short weapon, bow and arrows,

so he can shoot at the enemy from a long distance.

The Zhous' bid for glory

comes to a head on the banks of the Yellow River.

Led by just 300 chariots,

they face down the vast Shang army.

**

The Zhou chariots lead the charge

and smash into the mass ranks of Shang infantry.

In the chaos, the Shang are easy pickings for the advancing Zhou,

who route the entire Shang army in a single day.

**

Victorious, the Zhou are now China's new leaders,

building a dynasty that will rule for almost eight centuries,

the longest ever in China's history.

**

For the Chinese,

news weapons technology is key in the battle for control.

In India, they turn to a very different weapon

to save themselves from destruction.

**

India is under threat.

The most aggressive fighters on Earth

are gathering on its northern borders--

the Macedonians.

They want India for their growing empire.

Few have withstood their attacks,

but one Indian kingdom has a secret weapon.

**

You cannot understand the history

of the Indian subcontinent

unless you understand the history of the elephant.

Indian societies, cultures, states, civilisation

would not exist if not for the elephant.

**

Sacred and revered,

elephants are worshipped as gods.

But can the Indians unleash this animal's dark side

to protect their land?

**

These enormous creatures

are capable of such gentleness.

But they're also, when provoked,

capable of absolutely terrifying acts of destruction.

Elephants seem perfectly designed for war,

capable of charging the enemy,

breaking their ranks, and instilling terror.

They are put to the test in a battle on the banks

of the Hydaspes River in modern-day Punjab.

**

200 elephants lead the charge,

petrifying the battle-hardened Macedonians.

But the advantage doesn't last long.

Poor training and inadequate armour

mean many of the elephants suffer crippling injuries.

Frightened and in pain, they go berserk,

trampling their own soldiers.

Defeat swiftly follows.

This leaves the Indians with a challenge.

They need a new way to unlock

the elephant's destructive potential.

These are highly intelligent,

highly sensitive, very social animals.

You can't treat them like a chariot.

You need to treat them like elite warriors,

like nobles, like kings, even.

All of them needs to be trained in unique ways.

All of them have different preferences

in terms of the kind of food that they might want to eat.

And these animals consume

hundreds of kilogrammes of food a day.

The key is training.

Both elephants and riders must learn the art of war.

They were taught how to attack dummies.

They were taught to charge on command,

move on the battlefield, attack in particular ways.

And they invested in this in an absolutely massive way.

The elephants were possibly the single biggest item

of expenditure for the army.

But there was a clear sense that even though an elephant

takes a lot of money to upkeep, they more than make up for it

with their enormous capabilities on the battlefield.

But training alone isn't enough.

To become effective weapons,

the elephants also need protection.

As time goes on,

we begin to see depictions of elephants

wearing armour of overlapping plates.

That would have allowed them a great deal of flexibility

and manoeuvrability in combat,

as well as providing protection from projectiles

and slashing weapons,

as well as piercing weapons like spears.

We also begin to see that they're provided

with infantry escorts and cavalry guards

to ensure that their advance 200 feet from the battlefield

is better covered.

The last piece in the jigsaw

is a turret on the elephant's back.

From these, archers can safely rain down arrows on the enemy.

India's super weapon is complete

and about to prove its worth.

In 322 BCE,

a new Indian power, the Mauryan Empire,

is on the rise.

**

The Mauryas assemble a force of elephants

that numbered at least 1,000, if not more.

Perhaps the single largest elephant army

the world had ever seen.

And it becomes fundamental to their success

as an ancient power.

The vast Mauryan elephant army

makes them almost invincible.

Over the next 90 years, they conquer an empire

which stretches from modern-day Bangladesh in the east

to Pakistan in the west.

And news of its terrifying new weapon spreads quickly.

There's a clear recognition

from the ancient powers that the elephants

are the tanks of the battlefield.

And they invest extraordinary amounts

in getting their hands on these priceless animals.

There's one particular Greek general

who trades his daughter's hand in marriage

for 500 war elephants.

The war elephant helps keep the Mauryans in power

for almost 140 years.

And while India thrives, its superweapon is adopted

across the Middle East and Europe.

They spread from the borders of Mauryan Empire

in Afghanistan, all the way through Iran,

into the battlefields of Iraq and Syria,

and into north Africa.

Eventually during the might of imperial Rome,

even reached the shores of Britain

and fight in battles near the Thames River.

And that is the ultimate resounding sign

of the elephants' success.

**

The Indians' control of their living weapon

helps them conquer an empire.

In Egypt, they will use battlefield technology

to defend their borders

and propaganda to create a legend.

**

Egypt is in its 19th dynasty.

Wealthy and prosperous,

it's blessed with an abundance of natural resources--

gold,

wheat...

...and stone.

And thanks to trade, it's getting richer.

But as a new young pharaoh, Rameses II, takes the throne,

Egyptian territory and trade routes

fall into enemy hands,

threatening his kingdom's wealth and security.

What can he do to win them back?

**

Rameses II is perhaps Egypt's most celebrated pharaoh

after Tutankhamun.

He was an extraordinary person--

taller than the average Egyptian by a lot,

and also a fantastic warrior.

But he had an ego,

so he really wanted to make his mark.

And the easiest way for a hothead

would be to go to battle.

Rameses' enemy is the new superpower,

the Hittites.

They control the land on Egypt's northern border.

The Hittites lived in Anatolia,

which is modern-day Turkey,

and they were quite warlike.

They were known for being brutal and also power hungry.

Equipped with a huge army,

they are Egypt's greatest threat.

If Rameses can beat them,

he'll kill two birds with one stone,

making his name as a warrior pharaoh

and taking back his valuable trade territories.

The two forces come face to face at the city of Kadesh

on the Egyptian-Hittite border.

There would have been about 20,000 people on each side,

which would have been phenomenally huge.

And this is the first military engagement

ever described properly in human history.

Rameses records details of the conflict here,

at his own temple, the Ramesseum.

He shows both armies are well-equipped

with infantry, horses, and chariots.

**

Chariots are amazing war machines,

because they give you speed, dexterity.

You can manoeuvre much more.

And you're also higher up when you're raining down arrows.

**

Rameses' Egyptian chariots

carry a charioteer and an archer,

and they're his first strike weapon in any battle...

...while the Hittite chariots are bigger and heavier

and carry up to three men.

They were much more cumbersome,

and you can see it in the images here.

So with that added weight,

you couldn't manoeuvre them as well,

they weren't as fast,

and they had a tendency to get bogged down.

Kadesh will be the biggest chariot battle in history,

with over 6,000 of them facing each other.

But will the lighter Egyptian chariots

give them the edge over their enemy?

**

As the Egyptian forces approach Kadesh,

Rameses is impatient to fight.

Young and headstrong, he races ahead of his army.

But the Hittites are lying in wait.

Rameses winds up in the thick of battle,

almost single-handedly hitting left and right.

He could easily have lost Kadesh and indeed his life.

If he hadn't been so stupid as to go ahead

of all of his troops,

he might not have put himself in such vital danger.

As the battle rages on,

the heavier Hittite chariots crash into each other.

The Egyptian military seems to have been

far better trained, and their chariots

could manoeuvre better over this terrain.

We can see the Egyptian chariots coming in,

cutting off Hittite chariots,

Hittite chariots attacking the Egyptians.

**

Rameses gains the upper hand,

slaughtering thousands.

**

People are under his wheels.

They're crying out for mercy.

The noise, the blood, the flies,

the screams as animals and men went down and were trampled--

it must have been horrific.

**

Rameses seizes his chance

and drives the Hittite army into a nearby river.

**

But while Rameses wins this battle,

he doesn't win the war,

failing to take back the city of Kadesh,

although this confident pharaoh

doesn't let detail get in the way of a good story.

When he comes back,

all of these temples that he builds and decorates

are all engraved with these extraordinary scenes

showing the battle of Kadesh

and his absolute victory over the Hittites.

For him, this was a great thing early on

in his reign as propaganda.

This is to say, "I am a great pharaoh.

Everyone before me, look at me and tremble."

**

Throughout Egypt, Rameses celebrates his victory

and massages his ego.

At Abu Simbel on Egypt's southern border,

he erects giant statues of himself--

a warning to any potential invaders

of who they are dealing with.

**

He reigns successfully for another 60 years,

his legend secured by the battle of Kadesh.

Rameses would have been

absolutely delighted with his legacy

because it worked out as he had wanted.

He is well known, his monuments stand,

people think of him as this extraordinary,

brave warrior.

Clearly Kadesh was a major turning point.

It epitomises who he was,

and it just set the tone and formula for his reign.

**

Egypt's chariots bring fame for its pharaoh,

warning off foreign invaders.

But the ancient Chinese must defend themselves

against the enemy within.

**

Nearly 600 years after the Zhous' victory

at the battle of Muye,

their power has dwindled and fragmented.

With rival warring states locked in perpetual civil war,

each one is aggressively vying to take control.

Armies are now made up of thousands of peasants.

But in their untrained hands,

the traditional weapon of choice

is no longer fit for purpose.

**

It takes a long time to train to use a bow and arrow.

So, it's not suitable for mass scale training.

In the Warring States period large numbers of commoners joined the army

and they needed a more powerful and easier to use weapon.

If one state is to win out,

they need a new, simpler weapon...

**

...and this is it.

A crossbow is made of a trigger slotted into a long wooden arm.

You place the bow on the arm, hook the string and shoot.

After 2000 years all the wooden parts have rotted away.

What we have left is the bronze mechanism.

This part is called xuan-dao, similar to a modern pistol trigger.

This triangular part is called ya and the string is hooked onto it.

This simple trigger mechanism is the key.

Now, even in untrained hands, a crossbow is deadly.

The advantages are, the string is held for a long time without effort,

which helps with accuracy.

The shooting distance is longer.

And when the crossbow is used on a mass scale

tens of thousands of arrows released at the same time

are lethal!

The crossbow is a major battlefield innovation,

one that won't be seen outside China for 1,000 years.

Capable of shooting arrows almost 200 metres,

its big test comes at one of the bloodiest confrontations

in history.

The battle of Changping rages on for over two years.

Over a million men from two of China's

strongest military powers, the Qin and the Zhao,

fight to the death.

450,000 are killed.

And it's the Qin who have the technological edge.

We have found crossbows of very good quality in the Terracotta Warrior burial pits.

They show the Qin's crossbows were very advanced

and a great military support in their large scale wars to unify China.

**

After 250 years of civil war,

the Qin are victorious.

They grant greater rights to their peasant population

who won them their power,

ushering in a new age of prosperity.

**

Thanks to new military technology,

China is now ruled by a single dynasty.

Far to the west, the Greeks will use their army

to punch far above their weight.

**

**

The Spartans held the Persians at bay at Thermopylae,

but since that heroic act, many Greek city states

have fallen to their Persian foes.

In the far north, one man is plotting revenge.

He is Philip II.

**

Desperate to take the fight to the Persians,

he creates an army like no other,

implementing stricter discipline,

improved training, swifter promotion,

and even bonuses for exceptional service.

It's a fearsome fighting force.

And Philip leads from the front.

This formidable warrior is protected by his helmet of iron,

his gold and ivory shield...

...and a leather-and-gold breast plate.

In his hand, he wields a leaf-shaped sword

called Xiphos,

perfect for slashing and thrusting.

And Philip isn't just protected by his armour.

He also believes the gods are on his side.

Golden Gorgons adorn his tunic.

These mythical beasts possess the power

to turn people to stone

and are a powerful symbol of protection.

The oak leaves and acorns on his crown go one better,

connecting him to Zeus, father of all gods and humans.

**

Philip goes on the march.

With his new model army and god-given charisma,

he unifies almost all the Greek city states in just 15 years.

**

But he wants more,

and he's ready to go head-to-head

with his archenemy to get it.

**

But in a twist of fate, Philip never gets the chance.

On the eve of the invasion...

...he's assassinated...

,,,brutally stabbed by his own bodyguard.

**

It's now down to his 20-year-old son

to take the fight to the Persians.

Alexander is a brilliant young general,

famed for his courage and intelligence.

Equipped with his father's formidable army...

...he rampages through Persian territories,

liberating occupied cities,

overcoming violent counter attacks...

...and stealing Egypt from their grasp.

With the Persians defeated, Alexander, aged just 32,

completes his father's work.

**

Charismatic leaders and well-trained troops

bring Greece victory.

**

But the Romans will take this to another level

to deliver total military domination.

**

Rome's republic has existed for 400 years.

It dominates the Italian mainland,

much of southern Europe, and parts of north Africa.

But holding all this land is a struggle.

Invasions and uprisings along its frontiers

stretch their army to its limits,

risking loss of territory.

The main problem is the army itself.

A small, part-time force,

it disbands after each campaign.

At that time, they had a militia army.

There was a requirement you had to be a landowner.

You had to provide Your own equipment.

So to be in the army really was a wealthy man's game.

What Rome needs is a larger,

stronger, and more permanent military force.

So it begins to recruit from the poorest in Roman society.

People who had absolutely nothing

suddenly have an opportunity at a profession,

which means regular pay, regular meals, shelter.

From an army that once disbanded at the end of the campaign

and lost all the experience,

now you have guys who are signed up for 16 years of service.

And that is really one of the key things

that makes Rome the military powerhouse of antiquity.

Equipment is changing, too.

In the past, soldiers had bought their own armour and weapons.

Now it's state-funded.

Helmets, chain mail, swords, and spears

are all standard issue.

They also make game-changing improvements

to the iron-plated armour.

It gives you a fantastic amount of flexibility,

covers the shoulders, covers the heart,

covers all the organs.

But the most significant change

is to the shields.

Out goes the old round design which offered little protection,

and in comes a long, rectangular shield called a scutum.

It's a revolutionary piece of kit.

It's a fantastic piece of defence.

It's covering the entire body.

You can hide behind it.

It gives you a little bit of visibility over the edge.

And when used with the might of the sword,

it's a deadly combination.

People forget that this is, in itself, a weapon.

If I'm facing my enemy such as this,

I can shoulder barge into one, strike the other.

**

Fully equipped and full-time,

Rome's first professional standing army is born.

**

But its real strength

comes from improved battlefield organisation.

Troops are divided into identical fighting units

of 80 men, called centuries.

Six of these make up a cohort, and multiple cohorts

combine to create the mighty legion.

Working together, it's an almost unbeatable force.

What they created was this impenetrable wall

of tanks, essentially.

And because they're all dressed in the uniform, this itself,

the image of the Roman soldier,

of the legion who struck fear into anybody who crossed them.

Locking shields, the centurions create

a unique defence known as the testudo,

or tortoise.

What you see here is like building a fortress.

They've got great vision,

but any arrows that are raining down,

sling shots-- they're well protected.

While the testudo is perfect for defence,

for attack, something else is needed.

This technique is where the Romans really show

how their discipline, their mentality,

their approach to being a soldier

and to war comes into perfect use.

This is the mutacho, so what you have is,

remember, you've got your line of soldiers right behind you.

He's holding my swordbelt, which means that

if I go too far forward, he brings me back.

At a certain point, the whistle is blown.

I'm thrown to the side.

He comes forward and protects me.

I go to the back of the line.

If I have any injuries, if I'm able to fight,

I get a little bit of food, little bit of water,

I start back at the end of the line.

Rome's new professional army

makes it almost invincible.

It secures and expands its territory.

By 107 CE, it's no longer a republic,

but an empire.

And it's new emperor, Trajan,

has total European domination in his sights.

Only the Dacians in modern Romania stand in his way.

Crossing the Danube ahead of a mighty army,

Trajan spends years laying siege to the Dacian capital.

Finally, his forces prevail when the king takes his own life

and the city falls.

**

To celebrate this military victory,

Trajan erects an intricately carved column

in the heart of Rome.

I think what you're looking at

is nothing less than the first example

of modern cinema.

**

If you look at it, physically it looks like a reel of film

wrapped around a pole, and cinema is a great tool,

because at the end of the day, most Romans are illiterate.

This is a chance for them to experience

what's happening on the frontier.

But it's also Trajan saying to people, "I did this."

**

Trajan's conquest extends Rome's borders

to its greatest extent--

a mighty empire of over 5 million square kilometres

with tens of millions of people under its yoke.

Rome is at its zenith

thanks to its powerful new army--

disciplined, regimented, and tactically perfect,

the most brutally efficient killing machine

in the ancient world.

**

For all the ancient powers,

it's kill or be killed.

But there are different routes to victory.

The Greeks use unrivalled bravery and charisma

to inspire their people to glory.

**

Egypt's pharaohs consolidate

their great triumphs with propaganda.

China pushes the boundaries of technology

to achieve total domination.

**

India embraces the value of training

to turn its elephants in living superweapons.

And Rome employs its legions to build an empire

almost unopposed.

**

But with their enemies subdued, the next challenge

is to ensure the obedience of their own people.

**