Barbarians “The Brainy Barbarians” - (Greeks & Persians)

Terry Jones immerses himself in the world of the 'barbarians' of the East - the Greeks and the Persians - and discovers that it was they, and not the Romans, who were the real brains of the ancient world. The story begins and ends with a strange lump of rusty metal discovered on the sea bed in the Mediterranean in 1900. It turned out to be a 2,000-year-old piece of highly complex engineering, the like of which would not be seen for another 1,500 years. What had happened to halt the progress of ancient know-how? The Romans had happened.
From the great Parthian Empires of the East to their closer neighbours, the Greeks, the Roman world was surrounded by mathematical and scientific brilliance. But Terry discovers that all the Romans were interested in was conquest and money. Tragically, in the single-minded quest to expand their Empire, the Romans buried scientific treasures and wonderfully enlightened societies that are only just coming to light.