Few genres have been subject to such critical scorn as the Ancient World epic. Yet, they have regularly achieved huge box office success. This book tells the history of the Ancient World epic from the silent screen successes of Intolerance and The King of Kings through the 'golden age of the epic' in the 1950s (Quo Vadis, Ben-Hur, Spartacus, Cleopatra etc) through to the 1990s revival with Gladiator, its successors in cinema (Alexander, Troy, 300) and on television (Rome). Geoffrey Richards examines the cultural, social, economical and technological circumstances that dictated the rise and dec