10 Best Roman Series to Watch, Ranked

A Roman series can offer palace intrigue, battlefield treachery or a man making catastrophic decisions in an excellent cloak. The best give us characters worth following through all that trouble. Expensive marble helps, but someone still has to make the next episode irresistible.

Our countdown brings together ten modern series, from imperial dramas and frontier adventures to comedy and documentary reconstructions. We have weighed performances, atmosphere and sheer watchability, with audience ratings informing the shortlist. The final order is our own: entertainment deserves a little conviction.

There is room here for different evenings and different appetites. Some entries reward close attention to family politics; others deliver racing, rebellion or glorious social embarrassment. We begin at number ten and work towards the Roman series we would recommend above all the others.

10. Roman Empire: a crash course with a dramatic streak

Netflix’s Roman Empire combines documentary commentary with dramatic reconstructions, making it an accessible choice for anyone who enjoys a story and wants some explanation along the way. Its three seasons take on Commodus, Julius Caesar and Caligula, each offering a different route into the hazards of supreme power.

The Commodus season is particularly easy to settle into, following the pressures around an emperor whose story moves towards the arena. The format keeps the central personalities in view while commentary connects the events. You can follow the intrigue without keeping a family tree beside the remote.

We place it tenth because its explanatory approach offers less sustained character drama than the entries above it. Still, as an introduction to Roman personalities with an appetite for spectacle, it earns its place. Choose it when curiosity and entertainment need to share the sofa.

9. Britannia: the wonderfully strange invasion

Britannia sends Rome into a Britain of fierce resistance, druids and unsettling visions. David Morrissey’s Aulus Plautius leads the invading army, while Kelly Reilly’s Kerra gives the opposing world a formidable presence. The military campaign quickly acquires some distinctly unconventional complications.

Its appeal is the willingness to make ancient-world drama strange. Nikolaj Lie Kaas’s druid Divis belongs to a setting where belief and supernatural menace shape the action as much as weapons do. The mood is unruly, sometimes gloriously so, and the fantasy is part of the bargain.

That eccentricity earns our affection, although it makes this a more particular taste than the dramas higher up. If your Roman watchlist has become one long succession meeting, Britannia is a welcome disturbance. Bring an appetite for atmosphere and abandon any expectation of orderly proceedings.

8. Colosseum: the arena gets its own series

History’s 2022 Colosseum gives Rome’s most recognisable arena eight episodes of attention. Dramatic reconstructions sit alongside expert interviews, with each instalment approaching the building’s world through an individual story. The structure gives the spectacle a human scale.

The series moves across the amphitheatre’s history, taking in the people who built, performed in and wielded power around it. That range is its strongest attraction: the arena becomes a workplace, a political stage and a place of terrifying personal stakes.

We prefer it to a routine parade of imperial biographies because the building holds the different stories together. It is our pick for viewers who want documentary explanation with dramatic momentum. The next time an arena appears in another series, you may find yourself watching the machinery around the action.

7. Barbarians: divided loyalties, dangerous company

Netflix’s Barbarians makes Rome look very different from the frontier. Laurence Rupp plays Arminius, a Roman officer pulled towards his tribal origins, with Jeanne Goursaud’s Thusnelda and David Schütter’s Folkwin drawing the conflict into friendship, love and personal loyalty.

The first season builds towards the Teutoburg Forest confrontation, but the divided allegiances supply the real tension. Arminius has to navigate people who believe they know where he belongs. That predicament gives the approaching violence a more compelling centre than battle preparations alone.

We like its intensity and the change of perspective from the capital’s ruling households. The German and Latin dialogue also gives the opposing worlds a distinctive texture. Choose it when you want Roman power challenged from the edges, with personal relationships making every decision harder.

6. Plebs: very small ambitions in a very large empire

Plebs understands that living in ancient Rome need not mean having an opinion about the succession. Sometimes you simply want a better job, a date and fewer humiliations. Tom Rosenthal’s Marcus and Ryan Sampson’s Grumio make those modest ambitions remarkably difficult.

The sitcom’s sexual jokes, strong language and embarrassing schemes are cheerfully adult. Its five-series run also leads into the 2022 feature-length finale, Plebs: Soldiers of Rome, which sends the characters into military life. Their prospects for dignity remain uncertain.

We put it this high because comedy earns its place beside all that earnest swordsmanship. It gives the watchlist a different rhythm and an enjoyable street-level perspective. Our look at Roman apartment buildings and rental life makes a fitting companion to its domestic frustrations.

5. Domina: power runs through the household

Domina gives Livia Drusilla the leading role, with Kasia Smutniak playing her as an adult. It is a persuasive change of emphasis: the women of the ruling family have ambitions, alliances and strategies that deserve the centre of the frame.

The drama follows Livia through the upheaval after Caesar’s assassination and into the household of Gaius, the future Augustus. Marriage, survival and the prospects of her sons become instruments of political struggle. Family conversations carry consequences far beyond the room.

Our recommendation rests on that concentration of personal and political stakes. Smutniak gives the series a strong centre, and the household becomes an absorbing arena of its own. Choose it for the manoeuvring: an apparently civil exchange can be considerably more entertaining than another clash of shields.

4. Romulus: Rome before the marble

Matteo Rovere’s Romulus takes us into the imagined world surrounding Rome’s foundation, where survival, belief and violence shape the emerging story. The Italian series has a raw atmosphere that makes a refreshing change from established emperors and furnished palaces.

Andrea Arcangeli, Francesco Di Napoli and Marianna Fontana play Yemos, Wiros and Ilia. Reconstructed Proto-Latin dialogue deepens the unfamiliarity, asking viewers to enter this world on its own terms. The subtitles are part of an unusually absorbing experience.

We rank it fourth for that ambition and distinctive sense of place. Its meeting of history and legend feels like a substantial creative choice, with Rome’s foundation legends offering useful company afterwards. This is the entry for anyone who wants the ancient world to feel distant.

3. Spartacus: a magnificent lead, with the gloves off

Andy Whitfield is magnificent in Spartacus: Blood and Sand, bringing force and vulnerability to the enslaved fighter. He gives the stylised violence an emotional centre. This is emphatically mature viewing: abundant nudity, explicit sex and enough gore to keep the clean-up crew permanently employed.

His illness makes that performance especially poignant. Starz announced Whitfield’s lymphoma diagnosis in March 2010, while season one was airing and he was preparing for season two; production was postponed for treatment. Liam McIntyre later inherited the role. Whitfield’s extraordinary work remains a powerful reason to begin here, and will always be remembered.

Follow release order: Blood and Sand, the prequel Gods of the Arena, then Vengeance and War of the Damned. The franchise also includes House of Ashur. Our account of Spartacus’s liberties with Roman history accompanies a series whose ferocious dramatic commitment earns our third place. Do not expect historical accuracy; you have been warned.

2. Those About to Die: imperial talent, spectacular racing

Those About to Die is our enthusiastic runner-up, and Anthony Hopkins is a major reason. He is brilliant as Vespasian, bringing an emperor’s authority to the drama without needing to compete with its spectacle. Our account of Vespasian’s rise from soldier to emperor adds a rewarding historical companion to the performance.

Jojo Macari is excellent as Domitian, making the younger son’s ambition and resentment compelling viewing opposite Tom Hughes’s Titus. He gives the imperial rivalry a wonderfully sharp edge. Readers drawn to that performance can continue with our examination of Domitian’s contested reputation as emperor.

Then there is Dimitri Leonidas’s Scorpus: charismatic, competitive and a delight to follow into the chariot-racing world. Our account of the real Scorpus and his racing fame is an essential follow-up. Alongside Iwan Rheon’s resourceful Tenax, these performances give the lavish games and gambling their personality. The result is hugely enjoyable Roman entertainment, with enough momentum to make bedtime negotiable.

1. Rome: the series we keep coming back to

HBO’s Rome takes our first place because its political upheavals have such a memorable human centre. Kevin McKidd’s Lucius Vorenus and Ray Stevenson’s Titus Pullo are superbly contrasting companions: their friendship makes the grand events feel personal and their next decisions worth worrying about.

Ciarán Hinds gives Julius Caesar imposing authority, while James Purefoy’s Mark Antony brings formidable charisma. Around them, elite ambitions reach into households, friendships and loyalties. The city feels crowded with people pursuing interests of their own, which gives its power struggles satisfying weight.

Across two seasons, Rome combines substantial drama, vivid performances and a convincing sense of everyday life with its larger political story. That balance makes it our favourite. Come for the fall of the Republic; stay because Vorenus and Pullo have made the next episode feel necessary, and witness one of HBO's masterpieces, alongside the magnificent Band of Brothers, and Chernobyl.