List of films set in ancient Rome

This page lists films set in the city of Rome during the Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic or the Roman Empire. Where films are only partly set in Rome, they are so noted.

Founding of Rome

The_Avenger (1962) – Aeneas leads escaped survivors of the Trojan war to new land in Italy. Based on Virgil's The Aeneid. with Steve Reeves as Aeneas
Duel of the Titans (1961) – based on the legend of Romulus and Remus with Steve Reeves as Romulus and Gordon Scott as Remus

The Roman Kingdom

Reign of Romulus

Romulus and the Sabines (1961)
The Rape of the Sabine Women (1962) – about the Rape of the Sabine Women (dir. by Richard Pottier)

Reign of Tullus Hostilius

Duel of Champions (1961) – with Alan Ladd as Horatius and Robert Keith as Tullus Hostilius

Roman Republic

Early Roman Republic

Le vergini di Roma (1961) – French-Italian film (directed by Carlo Luigi Bragaglia and Vittorio Cottafavi), including characters of Etruscan king Porsenna and Mucius Scaevola
Hero of Rome (1964) – with Gordon Scott as Gaius Mucius Scaevola (directed by Giorgio Ferroni)
Coriolanus: Hero without a Country (1964) – with Gordon Scott as Gaius Marcius Coriolanus (dir. by Giorgio Ferroni)
Coriolanus (2011)
Brennus, Enemy of Rome (1963) – about the Battle of the Allia and sack of Rome in 387 BC, with Gordon Scott as Brennus

Second Punic War

Cabiria (1914) – a monumental Italian production (dir. by Giovanni Pastrone, after the screenplay by Gabriele d'Annunzio), touching on Hannibal's campaign in Italy, the siege of Syracuse and Battle of Zama, featuring such characters as Masinissa
Jupiter's Darling (1955) – with Howard Keel as Hannibal and George Sanders as Fabius Maximus
Hannibal (1959) – a great Italian post-war production about Hannibal's (starring Victor Mature) campaign in Italy including the Battle of Cannae
Hannibal – Rome's Worst Nightmare (2006) – TV docudrama directed by Edward Bazalgette, with Alexander Siddig as Hannibal
L'Assedio di Siracusa (1960) – about the siege of Syracuse, with Rossano Brazzi as Archimides
Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) – about the career of Scipio Africanus up to his defeat of Hannibal at the Battle of Zama

Third Punic War

Cartagine in fiamme (1960) – after the novel by Emilio Salgari, dir. by Carmine Gallone

2nd century BC

Episode four: Revolution (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about of the reforms of Tiberius Gracchus
The Centurion (1961) – about the Battle of Corinth (146 BC), with John Drew Barrymore as Diaeus

Third Servile War

Spartak (1926) – an early Soviet production (dir. by Ertugrul Muhsin-Bey), based on the novel by Raffaello Giovagnoli [now lost]
Sins of Rome (1953) – dir. by Riccardo Freda
Spartacus (1960) – with Kirk Douglas as Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as Marcus Licinius Crassus (dir. by Stanley Kubrick)
Il figlio di Spartacus (1962) – Italian sequel to Spartacus directed by Sergio Corbucci
Spartacus (2004) – with Goran Visnjic as Spartacus (dir. by Robert Dornheim)
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010) – with Andy Whitfield as Spartacus, Manu Bennett as Crixus, Peter Mensah as Oenomaus, John Hannah as Lentulus Batiatus, and Craig Parker as Gaius Claudius Glaber
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (2011) – prequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The plot of Gods of the Arena follows Lentulus Batiatus's (John Hannah) life as a lanista, and Gannicus's (Dustin Clare) time as a gladiator.
Spartacus: Vengeance (2012) – sequel to Spartacus: Blood and Sand, with Liam McIntyre replacing Andy Whitfield as Spartacus, after Whitfield's unexpected death in 2011.
Spartacus: War of the Damned (2013)

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar (1914) – a silent film, directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Julius Caesar (1950)(dir. by David Bradley). This is a film adaptation of Shakespeare's play.
Julius Caesar (1953) – deals with the assassination of Julius Caesar and Liberators' civil war, with Marlon Brando as Mark Antony and John Gielgud as Cassius (dir. by Joseph L. Mankiewicz). This is a film adaptation of Shakespeare's play.
Julius Caesar (1970) – deals with the assassination of Julius Caesar and Liberators' civil war
Caesar the Conqueror (1962) – an Italian film about career of Julius Caesar and his Gallic Wars (dir. by Tanio Boccia)
The Giants of Rome (1964) – Italian-French adventure film set in the Roman warfare against Vercingetorix (dir. by Antonio Margheriti), with Richard Harrison as Claudius Marcellus
Druids (2001) – the life and career of Vercingetorix (starring Christopher Lambert), a Gallic adversary of Rome in the film of Jacques Dorfmann
Julius Caesar (2002)
Empire (2005)
Rome (2005) – deals with the assassination of Julius Caesar and Liberators' civil war
Episode one: Caesar (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about Gallic Wars and civil war led by Julius Caesar

Cleopatra

Cléopâtre (1899) – French film made by Georges Méliès, the earliest known version considered to be lost, retrieved 2005
Cléopâtre (1910) – French film by Henri Andréani and Ferdinand Zecca
Cléopâtre (1912) – new silent version after the play of Victorien Sardou (dir. by Charles L. Gaskill)
Marcantonio e Cleopatra (1913) – Italian production from the era of the silent film, directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Cleopatra (1917) – American film with Theda Bara as Cleopatra (dir. by J. Gordon Edwards)
Cleopatra (1928) – the second American version (dir. by Roy William Neill)
Cleopatra (1934) – with Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra VII (dir. by Cecil B. DeMille)
Caesar and Cleopatra (1945) – with Vivien Leigh as Cleopatra VII and Claude Rains as Julius Caesar (dir. by Gabriel Pascal), after the play by G. B. Shaw
Le legioni di Cleopatra (1959)[1] – Italian film directed by Vittorio Cottafavi
Serpent of the Nile (1953) – directed by William Castle with Rhonda Flemming as Cleopatra VII
A Queen for Caesar (1962) – Italian film, starring fr [Pascale Petit (actress); Pascale Petit] (dir. by Piero Pierotti and Victor Tourjansky)
Cleopatra (1963) – including the Battle of Actium and Final War of the Roman Republic, with Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Richard Burton as Mark Antony and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar (dir. by Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Carry On Cleo (1964) – a parody of J. Mankiewicz's Cleopatra with Sid James as Mark Antony (dir. by Gerald Thomas), set in the reign of Julius Caesar
Cleopatra (1999) – with Leonor Varela as Cleopatra and Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar (dir. by Franc Roddam), based on the book by Margaret George
Asterix and Cleopatra (1968) – a Belgian-French animated film (dir. by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo), as well as Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002) a French/Italian film based on the same source, Goscinny and Uderzo's 1963 comic-book Asterix and Cleopatra.
The Cleopatras (1983) – BBC TV 8-episode series on the latter part of the reign of the Ptolemies (dir. by John Frankau)
Cleopatra (2007 film), by Júlio Bressane.

The Roman Empire

1st century BC

Empire (TV series) (2005)
Imperium: Augustus (2003)
Rome (2005-2007) – 22-episode TV series, a joint British-American-Italian production on Rome's transition from Republic to Empire (dir. by Michael Apted)

The Life of Jesus Christ

Ben-Hur (1907) – the first known version (15-minute long), dir. by Sidney Olcott
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) – silent film dir. by Fred Niblo, starring Ramon Novarro; this film is noteworthy for its color segments and for the female nudity in the parade sequence
Ben-Hur (1959) – a monumental Hollywood production directed by William Wyler, starring Charlton Heston; partly set in Rome
Ben-Hur (2003) – animated version (the fourth in all) of the novel by Lew Wallace
Ben Hur (2010) – miniseries by Steve Shill
Intolerance (1916) - silent film told in several time-periods with a segment set in 27 AD leading to the Crucifixion
Three Ages (1923) - a parody of Intolerance also with its own Roman section
King of Kings (1927)
King of Kings (1961)
Vie et Passion du Christ (1903) – the French Pathé-production (dir. by Ferdinand Zecca) [also known as La Passion de Nôtre-Seigneur Jesus Christ]
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) – dir. by Martin Scorsese, with Willem Dafoe as Jesus Christ
The Gospel of John (2003)
Passion of the Christ (2004) – dir. by Mel Gibson, with Jim Caviezel as Jesus Christ ; recorded in original languages (Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin)
Pontius Pilate (1961) – with Jean Marais as Pontius Pilate
The Life of Brian (1979) – dir. by Terry Jones
Risen (2016) – dir. by Kevin Reynolds

Reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius

Massacre in the Black Forest (1967) – about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (dir. by Ferdinando Baldi)
Los cántabros (1980) – about the Cantabrian wars with Paul Naschy (also director) as Marcus Agrippa
Agrippina (1910) – directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Messalina (1924) – directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Messalina, venere imperatrice (1960) – dir. by Vittorio Cottafavi, with Belinda Lee as Messalina
The Robe (1953) – based on the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas, with Richard Burton as Marcellus and Jean Simmons as Diana (dir. by Henry Koster)
Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) – sequel to The Robe (dir. Delmer Daves)
The Inquiry (2006) – with Max von Sydow as Tiberius
Caligula (1979) – with Malcolm McDowell as Caligula (dir. by Tinto Brass)
I, Claudius (1937, never completed) – with Charles Laughton as Claudius. This is an adaptation of Robert Grave's novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
I, Claudius (BBC TV series) (1976) – with Derek Jacobi as Claudius. This is an adaptation of Robert Graves's novels I, Claudius and Claudius the God.
Barabbas (1953) – Swedish version (dir. by Alf Sjöberg), the first based on the novel by Pär Lagerkvist
Barabbas (1961) – American version, dir. by Richard Fleischer, starring Anthony Quinn
Barabbas (2012) – the latest version based on the Lagerkvist's book, dir. by Roger Young, starring Billy Zane

Reign of Nero

Quo Vadis (1901) – the earliest adaptation made by Lucien Nonguet and Ferdinand Zecca
Quo Vadis (1913) – the second silent version directed by Enrico Guazzoni
Quo Vadis (1924) – Italian production directed by Georg Jacoby and Gabriellino D'Annunzio, with Emil Jannings as Nero
Fiddlers Three (1944) - British production. Stars Tommy Trinder, Sonnie Hale; with Francis L. Sullivan as the Emperor Nero.
Quo Vadis (1951) – with Peter Ustinov as Nero (dir. by Mervyn LeRoy)
Quo Vadis (1985) – TV miniseries directed by Franco Rossi
Quo Vadis (2001) – a Polish superproduction directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
Quo Vadis (2002) – TV six-part series following the main Polish production
The Sign of the Cross (1932) – with Charles Laughton as Nero
Fellini Satyricon (1969) – fantasy drama loosely based on Petronius's work (dir. by Federico Fellini)
Satyricon – fantasy drama based on Petronius's work (dir. by Gian Luigi Polidoro)
Nero (2004) – directed by Paul Marcus
Episode two: Nero (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about reign of Nero

Boudica's Revolt

The Viking Queen (1967) – film loosely based on the revolt of Boudica
Warrior Queen (1978) – TV series about the revolt of Boudica
Boudica (2003) – film about the revolt of Boudica

Eruption of Mount Vesuvius

The Last Days of Pompeii (1913) – a silent film directed by Mario Caserini and Elioterio Rudolfi
The Last Days Of Pompeii (1935)
The Last Days Of Pompeii (1950) – French film (dir. by Paolo Moffa)
The Last Days Of Pompeii (1959) – dir. by Mario Bonnard & Sergio Leone
The Last Days of Pompeii (TV miniseries) (1984) – ABC-TV miniseries
Pompeii: The Last Day (2003)
The Fires of Pompeii (2008) – new Doctor Who series 4 ep. 2
Up Pompeii – set in 79 AD, yet anachronistically shows Nero still reigning 10 years after his death (1971)
Up Pompeii! (BBC TV Series) (1969–1975)
Pompeii (2014) – directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Flavian Dynasty

Masada (1981) – TV miniseries about the siege of Masada in the First Jewish-Roman War, dir. by Boris Sagal
Titus Andronicus (1985) – fictional story of a general in the Roman army, based on the tragedy by William Shakespeare; BBC TV version dir. by Jane Howell
Titus (1999) – adaptation by Julie Taymor with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus
The Apocalypse (2000) – telefilm about Jesus Christ's last surviving disciple and his writings and visions (dir. by Raffaele Mertes), starring Richard Harris as St John of Patras and Bruce Payne as Domitian
Colosseum: Rome's Arena of Death (2003) – BBC Television docudrama which tells the true story of Verus, a gladiator fighting at the Colosseum of Rome, during the reign of Titus
Episode three: Rebellion (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about First Jewish–Roman War
Roman Mysteries (2007) – ten-part TV series for youngsters, directed by Paul Marcus

85-110 AD

The Dacians (1967) – Romanian film about Domitian's Dacian War, with Pierre Brice as Septimius Severus (dir. by Sergiu Nicolaescu)
The Column (1968) – Romanian film about Trajan's Dacian Wars (dir. by Mircea Dragan)

Reign of Hadrian

Centurion (2010) – an action film based on the massacre of the Ninth Legion, directed by Neil Marshall
The Eagle (2011) – adaption of the novel The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, directed by Kevin Macdonald

The Eagle of the Ninth (1977) a six-part BBC mini-series, based on the novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, starring Anthony Higgins

Reign of Antoninus Pius

Androcles and the Lion (1952) – set in 161 AD, after the play by George Bernard Shaw

Reign of Commodus

The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) – latter half set in Rome, with Christopher Plummer as Commodus (dir. by Anthony Mann)
The Two Gladiators (1964) – Italian prequel of the next one, dir. by Mario Caiano
Gladiator (2000) – latter half set in Rome, partly a remake of The Fall of the Roman Empire (dir. by Ridley Scott)

250-272 AD

Sign of the Gladiator (1959) [known also as Sheba and the Gladiator] – about the Palmyrene Empire of queen Zenobia (starring Anita Ekberg) and its re-annexation back to Rome (dir. by Guido Brignone and Michelangelo Antonioni)
The Magnificent Gladiator (1964) – Italian film being a tale of a gladiator from the times of emperor Gallienus (dir. by Alfonso Brescia)

Reign of Diocletian

Sebastiane (1976) – homoerotical version of the legend of St Sebastian ; remarkable also as the first film entirely recorded in Latin

310-315 AD (Age of Constantine)

Constantine and the Cross (1962) – up to the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in AD 312, with Cornel Wilde as Constantine the Great
The Fighting Gladiators, or Fabiola (1949) – Italian film with Michèle Morgan
The Fall of Rome (1963) – an Italian peplum-film, the story based on persecution of Christians after the death of emperor Constantine (dir. by Antonio Margheriti)
Episode five: Constantine (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about how Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire during the reign of Roman Emperor Constantine I

Attila the Hun

Attila (1954) – with Anthony Quinn as Attila the Hun and Sophia Loren as Justa Grata Honoria
Attila (2001) – a joint American-Lithuanian production with Gerard Butler as Attila the Hun (dir. by Dick Lowry)
Sign of the Pagan (1954) – with Jack Palance as Attila the Hun

Late Empire

Thais (1983) – Polish film (dir. by Ryszard Ber), after a story by Anatole France on an episode from the life of the 4th-century Alexandria
Agora (2009) – Spanish film (dir. by Alejandro Amenàbar) with Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female philosopher and savant from Alexandria
Katherine of Alexandria (2014) – about "the Christian saint who defied the Empire" (dir. by Michael Redwood), with Peter O'Toole as Cornelius Gallus (his last film role)
Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine (2010) – a biographical film about Augustine of Hippo, dir. by Christian Duguay
Revenge of the Barbarians (1960) – about the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD (dir. by Giuseppe Vari)
Kampf um Rom I (1968) – about the struggle in Italy ruled by the Ostrogoths, after the novel by Felix Dahn (dir. by Robert Siodmak)
Kampf um Rom II : Der Verrat (1969) – continuation of the (above listed) German production
King Arthur (2004)
The Last Legion (2007) – loosely inspired by the 5th-century collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the legendary-fantastic elements from the history of Britain (dir. by Doug Lefler), with Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley
Episode six: The Fall of Rome (Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire) – docudrama about the sack of Rome by Alaric's Visigoths

Undated

Roman Scandals (1933) – Eddie Cantor's dream sequence.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) Film version of the Musical Play - inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 B.C.) – specifically Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Mostellaria
History of the World, Part I (1981) – the section "The Roman Empire" of this broad satire is set in Rome
The Arena (1974) [also known as Naked Warriors] – a love story of the two women-gladiators from the arena of Brundisium, dir. by Steve Carver
Amazons and Gladiators (2001) – Australian action/adventure film of Roman times (dir. by Zachary Weintraub)