Documentaries / non-fiction about Ancient Rome & archeology?

Funny you should ask, Sandancisco, as I've very recently started this video:
"Drain the Oceans"; National Geographic. "The secrets of the survival of the Roman empire are unearthed from beneath the waves of the Mediterranean and the soil of the Italian peninsula."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKPjD8urG4

. Meet the Romans, a BBC series by Mary Beard, looks at Ancient Rome through the lives of ordinary citizens. Empire Without Limits looks at the whole Roman Empire. She is a British classicist and her enthusiasm for her subject comes through. She also has published many books, see Wikipedia for her bibliography. She is a wonderful presenter and rides around Rome on a bike (brave woman!) looking at both major sites and the smaller traces that can be found. Empire without limits covers the expansion and impact of the Roman world, really wide-ranging and interesting. There was a recent series on PBS about the current excavations at Pompeii, can’t recall the name. Time Team, a long-running British show, often have done mini-excavations at Roman Sites throughout Britain.

Thanks Kate, I've seen some of those National Geographic shows, but not that one, most appreciated!

Lesley, Thanks, I will take another look at Mary Beard, it's been awhile so I'm sure there are many we haven't seen! I haven't read any of her books - Do you recommend one to get started?

There was a recent series on PBS about the current excavations at Pompeii, can’t recall the name. - That's probably The New Dig, which is seriously amazing!!

If you can track it down I can recommend the recent UK Channel 4 program Roman Empire by Train with Alice Roberts.
She starts at Pompeii and travels through Italy, France and Spain visiting a lot of lesser known sites as well as the ‘usual suspects’.

For totally biased reasons I also recommend the first episode of her series ‘ Britain’s Most Historic Towns’ where she visited Chester, described as Britain’s Most Roman City

YouTube has History Channel videos in a series "Engineering an Empire" and they're all quite interesting.

This is a series about Roman architecture by a Yale professor. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBCB3059E45654BCE. You can also find this series on Coursera, but it now costs a little bit of money on Coursera.

Also the Kanopy app which you might be able to get access to free depending upon your public library has a lot of Great Courses video series about the Roman Empire.

The website Ancient Rome Live https://ancientromelive.org/. Also has quite a few videos about the Roman history, archaeology, etc. It is run by an archaeologist.

Rick Steves interviewed Mary Beard on the most recent RS Radio Show (April 18). Go to the "Watch, Read, Listen" tab and scroll down to near the end for the link.

Mary Beard's book about Pompeii, which is variously titled The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found or Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town, is an excellent place to start with her work; it would complement Zuchtriegel's book, which is also good.

Guy De la Bédoyère is another scholar of ancient history who writes well (I have particularly enjoyed his books about ancient Egypt). His book Populus: Living and Dying in Ancient Rome is a good choice.

Thanks Emma, that's a great suggestion & we've already watched some of the first episode, there are so many other videos in that series that interest us as well!

We found the first of Alice Roberts “Roman Empire by Train - Pompeii’. We can’t get into Channel 4 UK even with a VPN so if anyone knows of other ways to access more episodes, it would be great to hear! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfNq1kcDTg&t=1s

Thanks pbscd, we will definitely check out Engineering an Empire.

Traveltravel - We will take a look at Kanopy, it’s been awhile, great reminder! Sorry forgot to mention Ancient Rome live, it is a wonderful resource, he introduced us to our favorite museum of all time. https://ancientromelive.org/palazzo-massimo-museo-nazionale-romano/. We saw only a few people during a 3-hour visit.

Den - Thanks for the interview idea, I had never heard an RS podcast before, It was very well done. I just listened to Potsdam at the beginning and onto Mary Beard, she’s amazing! And I didn't really know much about Potsdam either…
PS, I did listen to the Mary Beard podcast, AND then found 2 recent ones where Rick speaks with Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the Director of Pompeii about Pompeii in general. (Program 824: Pre-Columbian Mexico City; Unearthing Pompeii; Shortest History of France) And (Program 809: Women of Pompeii; Lesser-Known Greek Isles; Weird Ireland) about the recent exhibit 'On Being a Woman', which we actually saw in December.

NYC Librarian, Appreciate the book recommendations. I might start reading Guy De la Bédoyère’s book 'Populus' first, we tend to know more about the emperors than common people of the times.

Hi Sandancisco

Alexander Armstrong on BBC has an interesting 3 part series titled Italy's Invisible Cities. Using very high-tech scanning equipment the ancient foundations of Naples, Florence & Venice are discovered.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0881gfb

If you have a subscription to BBC this can be found int heir documentaries section.

Thanks, DianeSLA, I found it on Youtube! https://youtu.be/GvGNgv0Vwlk?si=FFuqqOydsuIbG2vt
My list of books to read and documentaries to watch has skyrocketed in 24 hours.

The new exhibit on Etruscan art opens to the public in two weeks at the Legion of Honor:

https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/etruscans-heart-ancient-italy

It has a lot of items not previously shown in North America (outside of our archives here at the Phoebe Hearst Museum).

You can get an appetizer at the cabinets in the Brown gallery/hallway of Doe Library -- not worth a trip to campus on its own, but combined with other doings well worth a look.
https://update.lib.berkeley.edu/2026/02/18/brown-gallery-exhibit-the-etruscans-uncovered-the-phoebe-a-hearst-collection-at-uc-berkeley/

The Getty curator for Etruria has a new catalog in press, should be released before the end of the year.

Check the publications list at ASOR, the American Society of Overseas Research

https://www.asor.org/asor-publications/

Have you already connected with the relevant local clubs for the AIA and their SPQR Society?

https://www.archaeological.org/society/san-francisco/

avirosemail, Thank you for all the info, very kind of you! I was aware of the Etruscan exhibit but not the details. I think I will buy the catalogue, I'm sure it will help to do some reading ahead of time. The Getty has been on our short list to visit as well.

I had not thought about N American ancient history organizations, I'm looking through it today, (That archaeological trip to Cyprus in June looks amazing!)

I thought of you when I saw this dig in Italy. Wed June 3 - June 27 2026 Only $450, seems very inexpensive. - https://ancientromelive.org/digs/cardito-vecchio-archaeological-project-italy/.
https://youtu.be/r4xdxy181Po?si=MXJlfSge2Lik3dZS

Have you already connected with the relevant local clubs for the AIA and their SPQR Society? No, so that's next on my list! Thanks again, very useful!

NYC Librarian - I just downloaded Populus: Living and Dying in Ancient Rome after reading an excerpt, he writes SO well and I'm intrigued by the focus on ordinary people rather than the elite. Thanks!