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Customer Reviews of Roman City

Good for kids, too simplistic for adults
While I liked the Mcaulay's narration and exploration of the Roman cities featured, I really was put off by the animated part of the movie. The story line was predictable and bland; I did not like the art at all, and I thought it trivialized the entire video to the degree that my husband and I (both in our 40ies) were close to turning it off. Kudos to Macaulay for his work, but I hope somebody will stop him from dummying down his videos in the future with annoying animation!

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A Clever Look At Roman City Building, And Don't Forget To Also Buy David Macaulay's Book
If cities largely define civilization, Western cities have been defined by the city planners and civic engineers of ancient Rome. As the empire expanded, these engineers planned and built cities throughout three continents that had logic, that had ample water by way of aqueducts, that had water distribution systems, sewers, paved streets with curbs and devices to slow traffic, public baths and public toilets, buildings devoted to culture and entertainment, warehouses, shops, homes and tenements. When the empire fell apart, it took 1,400 years for Western civilization to meet the challenges of urban living which the Romans had met. <
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>Roman City was a PBS production built around David Macaulay's illustrated book, City: A Story of Roman Planning and Engineering. Macaulay is a writer and illustrator who is fascinated by how things work. He also is a first-rate teacher, able to describe and show concepts and techniques so they are understandable and fascinating. Roman City, with Macaulay as narrator, opens up his book with location shots at several ancient Roman cities such as Pompeii, Herculaneum and Ostia, as well as with illustrations taken from the book and with animation. We get to see why Roman cities were laid out the way they were and how important arches and concrete were. As with the book, the program tells the story of the planning, building and growth of the fictional city of Verbonia in Gaul, beginning with the decision of Caesar Augustus to establish the city in 27 B.C. The cast of characters includes the animations of young Marcus Fabricius (voiced by Derek Jacobi), the engineer charged with designing and building the city; Gaius Verlius (voiced by Brian Blessed), the former general appointed by Caesar to run Verbonia; and Caesar Augustus himself (voiced by Ian McKellan). The story line works up to a point. The device of the fictitious Fabricius and Verlius helps to personalize the problems and decisions. On the other hand, there are side issues -- the conflicts between the Gauls and Romans, the hatred of the Druids, the corruption of officials -- which, in my view, become distractions to the fascination of how things were actually built. A couple of the fictional secondary characters quickly become irritating when they show up for some humor. <
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>On balance, I think this is an hour-long program that fans of engineering and ancient Rome will enjoy. I did. But I'd encourage anyone who gets this to also get a copy of David Macaulay's book. It's excellent throughout with none of the distractions. PBS also did programs based on three other outstanding Macaulay books, Pyramid, Castle and Cathedral. <
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>The DVD presentation looks good. There are no extras.

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You'd be better off staring at the cover of your textbook
This was HORRIBLE! i saw it in history class and coudn't understand anything. my classmates agree with me. Don't waste your valuble time. You'd be better off staring at the cover of your textbook. Then you'd at least learn something, unless you do that a lot.