ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

IN WAKE OF 'TREASURES OF ANCIENT ROME'

BBC SETS MORE HISTORY DOCUMENTARIES

FOLLOWING the resounding success of "The Treasures of Ancient Rome" on BBC4 which featured Antinous, the BBC has ordered several more documentaries that will explore some of the great empires and their leaders.

"The Treasures of Ancient Rome," hosted by art historian Alastair Sooke (BBC4 promotional photo above), examined the give of art that Rome gave to the world. In one segment, the three-part documentary focused on the artistic legacy Emperor Hadrian and Antinous.

One of our own MODERN PRIESTS OF ANTINOUS was interviewed on camera by Sooke in the documentary, which has aired in Britain and currently is being syndicated throughout the world.

On the heels of that success, BBC Two has commissioned a three-part exploration of Napoleon Bonaparte, a portrait of Roman emperor Caligula and an in-depth look at recently found catacombs in Rome.

"These thoughtful, dramatic, highly colored views of our past offer great stories, great arguments and great characters," said Martin Davidson, commissioning editor, history and business. "Each of these programs takes audiences on a fascinating journey and along the way they’ll shed a new light on periods of history we think we know so well."

BBC Two said that the three-hour series "Napoleon" will look to "shed new light on the emperor as an extraordinary, gifted military commander and a mesmeric leader whose private life was littered with disappointments and betrayals."

The show will see historian Andrew Roberts visit former battlefields of Europe and discuss events that helped shape European history.

"The series also paints a controversial portrait of Napoleon, a man demonized as a dictator as ruthless as Hitler," BBC Two said. "But rather than be remembered as the demon of history and a man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, Napoleon was also the man responsible for securing the success of the French Revolution and who put in place many of the features of the modern state."

Napoleon is a SAINT OF ANTINOUS for precisely that reason and because he decriminalized homosexuality in France.

Meanwhile, the hour-long "Caligula" will explore myths and realities of the life of an emperor who ruled Rome for only four years before being assassinated at age 29.

"He was said to have made his horse a consul, proclaimed himself a living God and indulged in scandalous orgies - and not to mention his construction of vast bridges across land and sea, prostituting senators’ wives and killing half the Roman elite seemingly on a whim," BBC Two said.

The network has also ordered the hour-long "The Mystery of Rome’s X Tombs," which will explore  tombs recently discovered in one of Rome’s catacombs. The tombs contained more than 2,000 skeletons, more than usual burial places, and were marked as "X" in the Vatican's underground mapping system.

The show will explore who the dead were, with theories pointing to a wealthy immigrant community or members of Ancient Rome's elite.