Many of us, confronted with the challenge of devising engaging remote lessons, have been scouring the internet for ideas and resources. Look no further! In this post I would like to spread the good news about a wonderful resource for Classics teachers that crossed my path about three months ago, the animated historical documentary YouTube channel Kings and Generals.
Kings and Generals is an example of a wider phenomenon on YouTube of historical documentary videos fashioned with the help of the engine of a computer game, in this case that of the Total War series. Indeed the creators of Kings and Generals originally started out making gameplay videos, and only after considerable trial and error came to produce the sort of video they publish now. They have produced 270+ videos to date, of which just under 100 pertain to ancient history.
So what makes a typical piece of Kings and Generals output? First, their videos tend to focus on military, diplomatic and political history. A typical title is Carrhae 53 BC – Roman–Parthian War DOCUMENTARY. This 20-minute video not only fulfils its promise of explaining what happened in the battle itself; over half the time is devoted to putting the campaign in the context of the international politics of the period, as well as the domestic situation in Rome and in Parthia, with much fascinating backstory about the origins of the Parthian empire. Not all are campaign-focused, though; take as an example the related 7-minute video Crassus: how did he become so wealthy?
Second, the documentaries are extremely well-researched. References to the primary sources are frequent and it is abundantly clear that enormous time and care has gone into the crafting of the scripts.
Third, they are visually stunning and avoid repetitiveness. Map sequences alternate with battle reconstructions with impressive graphics (original archive footage, I tell my pupils). Large quantities of original graphical content from outside the Total War engine also feature. As a rule, the more recent a video, the slicker it is, but all are impressive. They are fast-paced and tend to be 10-20 minutes in length, which can be ideal for breaking up a double lesson.
The result is something that pupils love to watch, and something I am delighted to show them, so great do I feel the documentaries’ educational – and inspirational – value to be. I started incorporating the videos into my lesson plans a month before my school shut its doors and I intend to make greater use of them now that we have shifted to remote learning.
What I want to do now is suggest some ways that you could use these documentary videos to support your teaching. For teachers of Classical Civilisation or Ancient History their use will probably seem obvious, so I shall focus on teachers of Latin and Greek.
Set texts: many of the videos relate closely to the texts set for GCSE or A-Level. Darius I and The Greatest Lie in History (above) ties in well with the current Herodotus GCSE Greek text, while on the Latin side Idistaviso 16 AD – Roman-Germanic Wars DOCUMENTARY provides useful background for Tacitus’ Germanicus et Piso. When Annals 4 comes back at A-Level next year Sejanus: Almost the Roman Emperor will come into its own. There are many other examples.
Textbooks: most Classics textbooks commonly used in the UK feature historical material. Teaching CLC book 4? Then how about using Siege of Jerusalem 70 AD – Great Jewish Revolt DOCUMENTARY? Part 1 of John Taylor’s Greek to GCSE? There are a great many videos pertaining to Alexander the Great, and don’t miss the ones on Philip II while you’re at it (Armies and Tactics: Philip II and Macedonian Phalanx is a favourite of mine).
Unseens: When we ask pupils to translate an unseen passage on a historical subject, whether taken from a past paper or a published resource such as Cullen, Dormandy and Taylor’s Latin Stories, it is easy to miss the opportunity for them to learn something new about the ancient world. Kings and Generals can provide context in an engaging way. One of the first Kings and Generals videos I showed was Caesar and Gallic Wars: Battle of Bibracte 58 BC DOCUMENTARY (above). This provided context for and illustrated the actual content of Hyde Passage 54 (= B.G. 1.12) which my year 12 Latinists had just translated in test conditions.
The possibilities are manifold and I hope these suggestions will encourage you to have a look at some of the Kings and Generals documentary videos and to start experimenting as to how they could supplement your teaching.
This link will take you to a list which puts the videos in chronological order by subject matter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHpmLrWBjnM&list=PL2eDLj_mdbyuHMTr0kd-xwriNlSMRU3NM
P.S. If you want to become part of the community supporting the Kings and Generals founders Nolan and Ilkin in their endeavours, their Patreon page is: https://www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals/posts.
P.P.S. Yes, the narrator is a real person! His name is Devin and he has his own YouTube channel, OfficiallyDevin.
