Traditionally, Roman society was extremely rigid. By the first century, however, the need for capable men to run Rome’s vast empire was slowly eroding the old social barriers. The social ...

touch on historical facts but also speak to a long-running trend in depictions of the Roman Imperial family that have long since existed in film: the unrestrained debauchery of the empire's leaders.

Silver fueled the rise of the Roman Empire as its coin-based currency accelerated trade, filled tax coffers and funded military conquests. But the empire’s mining and extracting of silver was ...