Smithsonian Channel

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Crossing the Rubicon

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP3 "Crossing the Rubicon"

Bettany Hughes revisits the iconic moment when Julius Caesar led his army across the River Rubicon, ignoring the orders of the Roman Senate and effectively declaring war on his rivals in Rome; Hughes analyzes Caesar's character and health.

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP4 "Rome's First Emperor"

Bettany Hughes tells the story of Octavian's rise to power by looking at the day he stole the will of political rival Marc Antony; evidence of Antony's devotion to Cleopatra undermines Antony's popularity and paves Octavian's path to power.

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP5 "Boudica's Revenge"

Bettany Hughes turns her focus to the day when Roman troops invaded Boudica's settlement in East Anglia, provoking the disgraced Iceni queen into a revolution that threatened the Roman occupation of Britannia.

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP6 "The Downfall of Nero"

Nero takes his own life as troops come to arrest him for crimes against the state; Bettany Hughes reveals how Nero's early reign was dominated by his mother, Agrippina, while exploring a new theory that his mood was undermined by a serious illness.

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP7 "Theatre of Death"

Bettany Hughes relives opening day at Rome's Colosseum in 80 AD; the lavish arena is a giant new landmark for the world's greatest city where people can revel in bloodthirsty entertainments.

8 Days That Made Rome

S1, EP8 "The Rebirth of Rome"

Bettany Hughes looks at the day which marked Rome's symbolic break with its 1,000-year pagan past, the moment in 337 AD when Emperor Constantine the Great was baptized as a Christian; Hughes shows monuments combining Christian and pagan imagery.

Air Disasters

S19, EP6 "Cockpit Catastrophe"

The cockpit window of an Airbus A319 explodes; pilots miraculously land the out-of-control plane; investigators must determine how the freshly serviced aircraft was released with a fatal flaw.

Air Disasters

S15, EP8 "No Warning"

Investigators must figure out why the safety systems of a turboprop plane failed to prevent a crash into an Indonesian mountain.

Disasters Engineered

S1, EP4 "Industrial Slides"

A 1966 landslide in Wales killed 116 children and 28 adults; a 2019 dam collapse killed 115 people in Brazil.

Air Disasters

S20, EP5 "Fuel Trouble"

History's most terrifying air disasters, and the investigations that followed, are revisited and reexamined.

Air Disasters

S3, EP4 "Impossible Landing"

A look at the fate of United Airlines Flight 232 which crashed into Sioux City's runway in 1989; it caused a subsequent explosion that left 111 people dead.

Air Disasters

S14, EP8 "Controversial Crashes"

Seeing how international investigative teams must overcome differences to solve controversial plane crashes.

Air Disasters

S18, EP4 "Dead Tired"

Investigating the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407; the plane stalls at low altitude and dives into a residential area near Buffalo, N.Y.

Air Disasters

S4, EP2 "Fire in the Hold"

Moments after takeoff, a plane sustains electrical failures and crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 110 people on board.

Air Disasters

S18, EP17 "Lost"

Investigators struggle to determine why a 757 strayed off course during its final approach to a Colombia airport and crashed into a mountain.

Air Disasters

S19, EP7 "Dream Flight Disaster"

When a British tycoon and his family die in a 2017 Australian seaplane crash, investigators spend over two years searching for the reason behind the tragedy.

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