Best Shows To Watch If You Enjoyed Queen Cleopatra on Netflix

In his younger days, Julius Caesar went into hiding to escape murder by a political enemy, was kidnapped by pirates, and may or may not have had a affair with the King of Bithynia. None of this tends to make it into depictions of him as a confident older man in his later years. None of those details make it into Spartacus either, but at least here we can see a bit of the fiery character who made friends with his kidnappers while telling them that he would have them all killed later, and was true to his word.

Watch if you like: Graphic violence, the movie 300.

Accuracy rating: Not great, but we’ll give them some allowance for the fact the historical sources on Spartacus are terrible too. 3/10.

Most notable inaccuracy: Well, Caesar being there at all.

I, Claudius

If you watch STARZ’s Spartacus, then BBC/HBO’s Rome, then I, Claudius, you’ll get an almost coherent sort-of history of Rome in the first century BCE and the first century CE. I, Claudius, an adaptation of Robert Graves’ novel, picks up seven years after the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, and their shadow looms over the opening scenes, even as Octavian – now the Emperor Augustus – cements his position and adopts a new persona as a humble, first-among-equals, I-want-a-Republic-really leader.

I, Claudius’ main drawback is that it is a 1970s BBC period drama. This means that every scene is set in a small room on a soundstage, while actors who have been trained by the Royal Shakespeare Company to project to the back of the theatre shout at each other and mug for the camera. But don’t let that put you off. Stylistic issues aside, this is a compelling imperial soap opera full of poison, intrigue and twisted relationships. It is one of George RR Martin’s favourite TV shows – that tells you more or less what to expect.