Swords and Cinema with Dr Jeremiah McCall

2026-03-05

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You know that the Partial Historians can’t resist talking about Ancient Rome on film, so we were thrilled to chat to Dr Jeremiah McCall about his book, Swords and Cinema.Who is our special guest?Dr Jeremiah McCall (or DMac as his students call him) is a teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School in Ohio with a PhD in Ancient History. Along with an interest in Roman military and political systems in the Republic, he has done a lot of work on pedagogy of using video games to learn about history, publishing Gaming the Past: Using V...

You know that the Partial Historians can’t resist talking about Ancient Rome on film, so we were thrilled to chat to Dr Jeremiah McCall about his book, Swords and Cinema.

Who is our special guest?

Dr Jeremiah McCall (or DMac as his students call him) is a teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School in Ohio with a PhD in Ancient History.

Along with an interest in Roman military and political systems in the Republic, he has done a lot of work on pedagogy of using video games to learn about history, publishing Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History in 2022.

He divides his research time between historical game studies and Roman history. Dr McCall’s other publications include The Cavalry of the Roman Republic (2002); the Sword of Rome (2012), Clan Fabius: Defenders of Rome (2018) and Rivalries that Destroyed the Roman Republic (2022).

Manly Men

We will touch on the battle scenes and depiction of the Roman military in all your favourite Roman movies and TV shows.

Things to look out for:

· The defeat of Spartacus - Spartacus vs. Rome: The Last Battle

· The battle of Alessia (52 BCE) in HBO’s Rome - Rome Fighting with Gauls HD

· The battle of Philippi in HBO’s Rome - HBO Rome - Battle of Philippi (Battle only)

· The opening battle sequence in Gladiator (2000) - Gladiator 2000 Opening Battle

· And a bit on Centurion (2010) and The Eagle (2011) to finish!

· The Eagle | Channing Tatum Fends Off A Midnight Sneak Attack

· The Eagle | Channing Tatum Leads Roman Centurions Into Battle

· Centurion 2010 Best movie Scene HD

· Plus some things that get set on fire!