Emperor: The Rise & Fall of a Dynasty

It was one of the bloodiest, most vicious eras of history; the birth of the Roman Empire. Ultimate power of life and death over millions of people rested in the hands of one man... or did it? Behind the scenes, pulling the strings, were a line of cunning, ruthless women. These dangerous wives and mistresses were the real power behind the throne. Narrator Dame Sian Phillips returns to the role that chilled the nation's blood in TV's I, Claudius, as the calculating cold-blooded empress Livia Drusilla. In this edition: Livia Drusilla, the first Empress of Rome, ruthlessly ensures her son becomes emperor through poison, murder, and political cunning. As Augustus secures the throne, Livia eliminates rivals, including her daughter Julia, and manipulates her way to power-setting the stage for a dynasty marked by terror and depravity.

Livia, Rome's first empress, comes to regret the scheming that placed her son Tiberius on the throne. Tiberius, paranoid and ruthless, begins the Tiberian Terror, executing anyone who speaks against him. He isolates himself on a private island, where horrific rumours of his depravity spread. Tiberius's heir, Caligula, smothers him to gain power but quickly spirals into madness. His reign is marked by incest, cruelty, and insanity, culminating in his assassination. One unlikely figure survives the butchery though - Claudius, his uncle - who becomes the next emperor.

Livia Drusilla's 100-year imperial dynasty reaches its brutal and bloody conclusion. Her bumbling grandson Claudius surprises everyone by taking Rome to its greatest heights yet, only to be brought down by ‘The Whore Empress' Messalina and the seemingly unkillable mother of his successor, the psychopathic Nero. The aged and infirm Claudius has only survived by posing no threat to previous emperors, but the ailing runt of the imperial litter transforms himself from laughing stock to living god by successfully conquering Britain. His greatest threat, however, is his insatiably unfaithful wife Messalina, "The Whore Empress". She earns the dubious honour of being the first empress to have her throat slit, and the only woman left for Claudius to marry next is his own niece Agrippina. Ruthlessly ambitious, Agrippina persuades the emperor to adopt her own son Nero as next in line above Claudius' son. Claudius is then promptly poisoned by mushrooms… and fingers point at Agrippina. Livia would be proud. Agrippina's sixteen-year old son Nero is now emperor to 60 million subjects. He establishes his uniquely cold brand of psychopathy by poisoning Claudius' son as they celebrate his fourteenth birthday, and when Nero tires of his mother's guiding hand, he hatches a bizarre Bond villain plot to crush her in a collapsing boat. She survives long enough to order executioners to stab her in the womb, "The origin of the evil". Then Nero alienates the people by using the devastation of the great fire of Rome to build an enormous golden palace for himself. Bleeding the coffers dry, he is finally declared an enemy of the state, and kills himself to avoid being dragged through the streets naked. Livia's dynasty may have died with Nero, but by carving out a role for women to steer their emperors to greatness, she has changed the course of history.