Some of faces look like someone I knew in High School.

I think the faces are quite accurate (not that we can know for sure how they looked precisely) and it's amazing how for the first we can look into the true eyes of those who lived long, long ago. It makes me feel more interested in their lived

These aren't exact, it is as if the reconstruction has been purposely changed slightly to hide the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

It was a masterpiece wasn’t it. 👵👵👵🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

I Claudius - a fabulous series, indeed a masterpiece!

Brilliant series. Huge fan of Derek Jacobi. I remember Patrick Stewart as Sejanus. He had a little bit more hair then.

We watched the series religiously each Sunday night on PBS during high school years..

Yes, I fondly remember that BBC series I, Claudius. It was excellent. I would imagine it holds up even now so many years later. Good Art does that!

correcto

"Do you find it risible, when I say the naaame...Bigus Dickus?"

Suetonius description of Nero was written to please the Senate in later years. Sadly Suetonius and other records of Neros reign written after his depth were probably all written to discredit him. Not that he was a paragon of virtue but he was probably not nearly as ghastly as his "reputation" would lead us to believe.

Thank you kindly!

Feels like keeping it in the family creates doppelgängers

Well, their grandmothers were sisters, so it's no surprise :)

They were pretty closely related so there'd be a family resemblance. They also both were pretty ruthless

@@karenwoith8032 nympho incest. So Roman.

Another fun fact: Agripppina and her husband, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus (Nero's father), were first cousins once removed. And Gnaeus was also Messalina's uncle :)

I second that notion.The Persians have been under rated in the West rather like Byzantium (now Instanbul)

No different to the rulers of today sadly

Generally people aren't born that way, the environment they are brought up in makes them that way. A world of wolves and sheep. The sheep won't survive for long, the wolf might. If these women had for example been brought up in the middle class of Roman society they most likely wouldn't have turned out this way. If they had been lower class they just might. Hunger and hunger for power are the same type of motivator for people in the "right" circumstances.

When Messalina died, she was 18 y.o.

@@claudiobovier7173 28, but you're not wrong about that still being appalling. Throughout most of what her father subjected her to she wasn't adult.

Almost as unfortunate as poor Lucrezia Borgia...

@@rudra7387 She survived her father and brother, but died at 39, but she had 10 children.

Actually not. Maybe there were fabrications as well but both Messalina and Agrippina wholy deserved their reputation. So many other women were wives of Emperors and even unpopular Emperors and yet they never gathered any attention to the point that we hardly know their names. Messalina and Agrippina were truly monstrous women. Their only reason for being there was rather the Julio-Claudian family's will to keep it in the family and play it Ptolemey-style, well that didn't work did it? If anyone got a bad name quite unfairly that was Nero. Yes, he got mad and killed his mother and wife (also a nutcase) but who can blame him given the type of women these were? You have to understand that e.g. exiling these women would not be enough since they had high connections and could always instigate an assassination - and yes, these were the type of women that could assassinate their own son. Nero was not that bad, he wanted to rejuvenate an Empire which though still young had its issues. He believed it had to be done through cultural advancement and him, akin to the arts, wanted to give the example. Of course he was mocked as a "circus actor" and considered as unfit for Emperor. He was also unfairly accused of starting the fire in Rome and singing over it, but then him too unfairly dropped the blame to Christians. Romans!

There's more than enough time to read it. I can, and I m not a native English reader/speaker.

Augustus died of old age and supposedly not poisoned

@@karenwoith8032 Well, at least he wasn’t killed by his own guards. The Praetorians are the worst guards ever. It’s one thing to fail to stop an assassination attempt. It’s another thing when the body guards are also the assassins.

@@karenwoith8032 Livia was 88 and apparently died of natural causes via illness and old age.

Seres abominables?? Estos son rostros legendarios, son los rostros de los padres de la civilización occidental, de la cultura Europea occidental, estas son personas legendarias, no "seres abominables"

K.A Hosack, IWU, can one believe the ancient sources that describe messolina? Has another take. Ancient historians are notoriously using politics and their own agendas..even if for funnies...to slander those they didn't know. Suetoniusdidnt have access to historical records by the time he took on messalina.......

The ancient Patrician class of Romans taught they were the descendants of Ennius.. who was a refugee from the Trojan War…. but that is mythology. But this was the initial “Patrician” (founding Father) and Plebians.. But no…. up until Augustus only Romans were considered to have lived in the City of Roman… except for citizenship… Augustus made all Italians citizens… ….in regards to Hair color.. Even by the time of the Caesars the coloring was a variable as most of Europe today. You MIGhT be thinking of the Early Middle Ages when Lombards and Vandals (Germans) invaded the Italian peninsula and established Germanic Kingdoms.

Never understood why ancient Romans have to be "germanized" ... They were italians like today italians. Genetic tests proved that very little has changed in 2000 years. Of course there were fair.skinned, light haired or eyed "Romans", but the vast majority of the population looked like today's Italian. MESSALINA was probably similar to ...."Maria Grazia Cucinotta" and Claudius was.similar to a "Marcello Mastroianni" probably....

@@Ekphrasys However, it is also a misunderstanding that today's Italians are mostly black- haired and with dark eyes and skin. A large part of the population has these features, but blondish and blue/green eyed people are not that uncommon in Italy. My mother (Italian) for instance has the same "colour scheme" as the Roman women in this video. But when it comes to ancient Rome we can only rely on the contemporary sources, which sometimes did not bother to be overly specific in the descriptions or tended to focus more on aspects that they could connect more to virtue or lack of thereof.

@@Ekphrasys do you know how much water has flowed from the river after 2000 years? Italy has always been a country where everyone came and everyone went, especially in the last 5-600 years. however, 2000 years ago, ethnically no country in Europe was as we see it now.

@@paxetamor8276 well don't tell me. Ask biologists who made tests from random dnas taken all over Italy. The most part were very similar to an average italian of the xxi century...

@@Ekphrasys when I talk about people, I also and above all talk about DNA. According to scholars, the appearance of Homo sapiens in the Italian geographical region can be dated to the Upper Paleolithic, a period that extends between 40,000 years and 10,000 years ago. these were native Italians, now consider that Italy has always been a kind of corridor, where people from all over Europe, Asia and Africa have had a presence, with the Roman Empire Italy has become the first multicultural country in Europe, now it would be funny to talk about its own Italian DNA, when in reality there are cribs from all over the world. to do an in-depth research on who the first Italians are and how they were, it is impossible to do it, because it would be necessary to go back to who has been truly Italian for over 1000 or 2000 years, perhaps not even Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Marcello Mastroianni are truly Italian from beyond 1000 years. the same is true for other European countries as well. one thing is certain, we are all human beings.

Apparently they took some "artistic" license there. All the historical record says is she placed a dagger against her throat and chest and then a tribune ran the dagger through her abdomen. After she died, her body was then given to her mother.

@@AgentWD40x Good point. This was a great series though. My favorite part was when Claudius caught the wolf pup on his lap when two eagles fought over the pup. The symbolism was obvious.

So numerous they were that the images couldn't be eliminated all.

Thanks God I don't look like Nero

@@Numischannel 😅😅😅

You are welcome!

He made the decision to be second in command to octavius all his life and that is why he does not get the recognition he deserves

I would die for her

She would have lead you to perdition...