Rome: Rise and Fall of an Empire (DVD by The History Channel)

The eminent historians who took part in this series have really good observations to share, but the first two volumes of the DVD suffer from the very close focus on war and martial exploits.  While I agree that the army is a very important, perhaps the most important, element of the Empire's rise and fall, there is little discussion and less recreation of anything but battles.  Unfortunately there is a lot of footage used over and over again to illustrate different conflicts, and that can be distracting.  There isn't much footage of art and architecture, which would surely help illuminate the conclusions this series is making.