4 Hours Of Ancient History's Deadliest Warriors

they are the elite special forces of ancient Germany they're known as the ghost Warriors a fanatical core of experts trained in night fighting these are men who could move silently through the forest they've been hunting since they were children now though they're not hunting deer and bear and bull they're haunting Romans they appear out of nowhere sowing fear and Panic among their enemies in the first century ad ancient Rome sent a huge Army against them the outcome still Echoes through history the Roman soldiers were caught in the perfect trap the Emperor Augustus was devastated this

was a personal defeat as well as a major political defeat this is the true story of the Germanic ghost Warriors [Music] [Applause] Germany the first century ad a wild and inhospitable place it's a region nestling on the Northern frontiers of the Roman Empire known as Germania for the Romans Germania was the final frontier it was the edge of the world it was still deep dark Ancient Forest this is the epitome of a barbaric landscape as Roman soldiers move into this landscape their minds fill with nightmare images this was as far away from the civilization of

Italy as it was possible to imagine it was a dark place it was full of strange people it was dangerous the local geric tribes are Fierce and independent they had a proud tradition of Independence German communities were very free very Loosely structured the individual German tribesman considered himself to be a free man they are warlike and dangerous Warriors are trained in a variety of weapons Dem manic Tri men were famous for fighting with Spears the word Germany comes from an old Germanic word for spear in many ways Germania was the land of the spears men

a spear is a really effective weapon which is why it's been used from all the way back into the Paleolithic with stone tip Spears right the way through to using a bayonet on the end of a rifle all a spear does is increase the reach of the warrior this means that they can strike to the face to the feet to the shoulders anywhere that's exposed by a Roman soldier they will hit it they're also taught to use the slingshot another formidable weapon John Naylor is an expert in its use simple science all you're doing is

doubling the length of your arm so it makes you twice as powerful as if you throw it by hand when you add into that rotary motion it's even more powerful with practice it can be frighteningly accurate a skilled Slinger at 100 m to 200 M would expect to be able to hit the target the size of a head 10 to 20 shots in a minute isn't impossible and if you've got 100 Slingers that could be 2,000 Stones flying through the air towards the enemy the Germanic Warriors would often combine this withering fire with another even

more deadly missile the javelin the javelin has a range of anywhere between 10 and 50 m it's not a huge long range weapon however it's perfect for the forest finally there's the most basic weapon of all the club the club is a very very effective weapon even through the male armor that the Romans are wearing it's going to have an impact you can break bones break limbs concuss through a helmet dirty strike fighting there's hardly any weapon to beat it Spears slingshots javelins and clubs a powerful Arsenal every young Germanic male has been using since

childhood they have muscle memory around these weapons these weapons become an extension of their own body but they're at their most deadly in the hands of one particular group of Fighters the ghost Warriors they're an elite group of Special Forces trained to fight at night the ghost warriors were a highly mobile highly motivated aggressive Force but above all they were familiar with the terrain these were a Black Ops unit or of Germanic Warriors trained specifically to fight at night it's said that one of the first fighting forces to employ full body camouflage something very familiar

to Today's Special Forces some things have remained constant throughout the ages and uh camouflage and concealement is an essential element of Warcraft and survival in the battlefield they paint their faces Shields armor and weaponry black all they need to do is take ash from the fires and the sock that collects on the bottom of their cooking pot and rub it over themselves instant camouflage it could create the same sort of mled patterns as we see in modern Camouflage fabrics they break up their shape and in breaking up their shape they're harder for the human eye

to recognize at night they know how to turn dark to their advantage they were fam familiar with working in low light levels they knew the tricks the simple tricks like bending your knees when you look at an enemy so that the enemy is silhouetted against the light the night sky is always lighter than the ground they're masters of stealth like Special Forces today they train in how to silently sneak up and kill [Music] to the Romans these night Fighters are a source of Legend fear even [Music] Terror they would appear out to the trees as

if by Magic and suddenly [Applause] attack and then they would hide back into the trees they'd hit you hard and then Escape before you knew what had happened this must have been absolutely terrifying though they would vanish Before Dawn [Music] nothing has changed the Knight is still the friend of the special operative it's very typical of Special Forces operations to lay up and all actions will be carried out at [Music] night it's a clear weapon you can use a psychological Weapon It's camouflage it's concealment it's capitalizing on your advantages of local knowledge the ghost Warriors

are the equivalent of our Black Ops people [Applause] today they're an unruly band of fearsome Fighters outside the control of Rome a it's a situation Rome accustomed to Total Control finds hard to accept in 7 ad the Roman Emperor Augustus decides it's time to tame the Germanic hordes and bring them into the Empire he thinks he knows was just the man for the [Music] job Publius quintilius varus is a leading member of the Roman aristocracy pentius varas was one of the best generals of his age he had been personal secretary to the emperor he knew

exactly how the imperial system worked he was even married into the Imperial royal family he was the right man at the right time for the right job job tarus taming Germania sounds an easy Mission he will deploy Rome's tried and tested practice for colonizing foreign [Music] lands as the Empire has expanded the Romans have co-opted local people and put them into Roman uniforms it would take senior members of tribes it would bring them into the Roman fold and it would show them the benefits of Roman civilization the idea was that these would become in a

sense ambassadors among their own people for Roman rule these co-opted Warriors known as auxiliaries would then be taught to fight Roman sty these were effectively mercenaries which had been brought brought into the Roman army in Germania Varys is confident he knows just the auxiliary who can help him tame the unruly Germanic hordes he's the commander of the powerful chusi tribe who live in the northwest of the country near present day Hanover his name is arminius he a member of the what we might call the royal family of a very powerful tribe very powerful group if

we believe the Roman authors who write that he was more intelligent than any other Barbarian they had ever seen then I think we have to assume that he must have been very charismatic convincing probably even goodlooking because of course these authors even describe his sparkling dark eyes he's 28 years old and has spent most of his adult life in the Roman army he Now commands a unit of auxiliaries for his efforts he's been rewarded with Roman citizenship Rome has given him a solid grounding in the part of War this was a very clever man who

understood strategy and above all understood how the Romans worked he knew how the Romans organized an army with 10,000 20,000 [Music] men he's regarded as a friend and Ally of Rome but arminius is not the loyal subject he appears he's traveled widely through the Roman Empire and seeing close up the violent impact of Roman rule the experience of of a Roman occupying force was very [Applause] unpleasant they would come in they would rape the women they would take slaves they would steal money this was an iron fist in an iron glove it was deeply [Applause]

unpleasant arminius hates the idea that this might happen to his people experience the past like never before with history hits award-winning original documentaries and adree podcasts with our expert historians like Dan snow Susanna lipsum Lucy Worley Mary beard Tristan Hughes and myself Matt Lewis sign up for an exclusive discount using the link in the description and embark on your historical Journey from the wonders of ancient Egypt and the life of an Berlin to the rise of Napoleon bonapart and the discovery of shackleton's endurance get history Wherever Whenever exclusively on History hit thoughts of resistance start

churning in his brain suddenly inside arminius his head the light is going on he's already witnessed Roman bullying in Germania he thought I will do anything to stop that happening to my people from the beginning when the Romans first met the Germanic tribes there was a resentment that anybody could come in and tell them what to do they were used to running their own Affairs arminius keeps these thoughts to himself but secretly he lays plans that will lead Varys into an historic and deadly battle with the ghost Warriors [Applause] [Music] today Minden is a pretty

town on the banks of the river [Music] Vasa 2,000 years ago it's varys's summer camp an isolated Roman Garrison in the tribal lands of arminius and the [Music] chusi in late summer ad9 he prepares Legions for their annual March South to their winter quarters suddenly arminius arrives with important news there are reports of a tribal Uprising several days March to the West He suggests the Roman Legions instead of marching immediately South should first Loop West to suppress it Varys suspecting nothing readily agrees for Vos aminos must have been a friend if you imagine that he

is living in this rather hostile environment and then there comes somebody who belongs to these barbaric people but nonetheless he is one of us to varus the idea that arminius might be plotting against him is inconceivable he didn't understand that people didn't want Rome it was completely unintelligible to him it's a serious misjudgment trusting arminius will be varus's first big mistake [Music] for weeks arminius has been laying his [Music] [Music] plans Amin was clearly shrewd he was also clearly charismatic he's been trying to Rally the local Chieftains and warn them of Rome's plans to colonize

their land it's not an easy task the Germans in those days were not the Germans of today they were not regarded as the efficient team players that they are today these were disorganized lazy inefficient primitive annoying pugnacious tribesmen who couldn't do anything without it all falling apart armenius is genius lies in pulling this rabble together he must have convinced them that I am the guy that is going to lead you to victory against this equivalent of the US Army to turn these fractious tribes even for one task into a lethally effective Army in a very

short period of time I mean it's Napoleonic in its in its achievement but to finally win over the tribesmen arminius must answer one last question how can they combat the might of the Roman Empire one thing is immediately clear the Germanic Warriors can never defeat the Romans in open battle the Roman army in conventional Warfare was the most powerful military machine in the ancient world Hightech immensely disciplined highly drill in Pitch battle in the first century ad the Romans virtually always won [Music] the key to Victory lies in luring the Romans into a situation where

all this power is useless the only way you could beat them was by drawing them into difficult terrain and then waging a hitandrun Guerilla struggle against [Applause] them have to take them on on your turn terms and strictly on your terms that means you have to use every Advantage Available to You of knowledge of the ground knowledge of the uh roots of your own people and their capabilities it requires coordination intelligence and a very deep knowledge of the terrain you're fighting on arminius now reveals to the doubting tribesman he's identified the perfect spot to maximize

their advantages the Roman Legions will have to pass through the vast tberg Forest here at one point between a wooded Hill on one side and a swamp on the other the track Narrows down into a natural pinch point this meant that the Roman army could could not March in its normal formation rather than marching 10 a breast the Roman soldiers at most could March six AB breast they will have felt slightly ill at teased they were out of their normal way of doing things it's the perfect place for an ambush here the Romans will be

trapped arminius will be free to attack them by day and night this is when the ghost Warriors will come into their own it's an inspired plan but can it really work against 20,000 Roman [Music] soldiers the Roman Force sets out from Minden Germanic spies track their progress the legions are accompanied by arminius and his auxiliaries up ahead of them deep in the woods the Germanic Warriors prepare their trap amanus has briefed them on exactly what to do they build a defensive Rampart beside the track it stretches for 400 m it's carefully disguised to blend into

the landscape mastering the terrain is a basic part of Black Ops Warcraft and training it's absolutely essential to identify good locations for the main kill group and the cut off teams each person might not necessarily need a tree to hide behind but uh you know they might need a bank or a natural lip on the ground it's a complex multi-stage operation and not any fo can do it with the rampart complete the Warriors spread out through the densely wooded Hillside and wait as varys's forces approach the Ambush arminius makes his move one of the things

that the Roman auxiliary soldiers did was they were used as reconnaissance forces arminius suggests to varus he takes his auxiliaries ahead of the main Force to scope out the route it's a perfectly normal practice vars suspecting nothing agrees it's his second major mistake arminius and his troops make their way to a pre-arranged meeting point here they meet up with fellow tribesmen you all their allegiances to Rome now Fall Away the combined Force moves off towards the Ambush among the Roman troops unaccustomed to the forest as growing concern the whole formation had to break up they

had to form a line and it was like a 20 km long train that was moving through the countryside the column of soldiers and retainers stretches back for Miles communication became even more of a problem than it had right at the beginning there was no way of the back knowing what the front was doing Roman legionaries never likeed marching through Forest they were places of fear bad things happened it's very unnerving you don't have local knowledge of the area normally knowledge dispels fear and that's something you totally don't have every level of every footstep there's

a massive sense of uh uncertainty it's a sensation former SAS member Ken Jones has experienced personally in Afghanistan you know that these guys have grown up with a weapon in their hand since they've been 11 years old and this extreme hostile environment it's their backyard you know they've already got that advantage on you no matter what your level of training or skill set this was an incredibly delicate dangerous situation for the Roman army but varus still suspecting nothing pushes on he was suffering from what we now call the sunk costs FY which is that you

put so much effort and invested so much trust in this case in armenius that you simply can't believe that he's not worth it and he's going to turn against you and destroy all your dreams it's varys's thirdd mistake at the Ambush the Germanic Javelin throwers ready their positions slingshots are prepared ammunition gathered all the way to arminius is order below them they can hear the approaching Roman [Music] column they would have heard the sound of trumpets they would have heard the sound of armor jingle this was loud there was no doubt this was the RO

Army approaching that's when the adrenaline search kicks back in again your body's fully charged with adrenaline and a kind of sick sense of excitement almost makes you want to vomit you can feel your stomach turn you start swallowing your mouth becomes extremely dry and you might perspire and sweat a little as well it's a a massive emotion you're facing but arminius holds his fire the plan is to attack the Roman column at several points points splitting it into sections breaking Communications between the head and tail and forcing each section to fight in isolation the minutes

take by time seems to to stand still and your your Consciousness system seems to shrink it's just focused on that one moment suddenly arminius gives the [Music] order a rain of javelins and slingshot shower down from the [Music] trees the Germanic tribesmen are in their element the Romans attempt to form a defensive Shield but they've been caught badly off guard the Roman soldiers won't have known what to do and rumor will have spread up and down the soldiers line very very rapidly soon afterwards the volley is followed by close combat the Warriors sweep down through

the trees and out of the forest [Applause] [Music] there's no room for hesitation doubt everything happens so quickly in such a blur you're so intensely focused on that one action time disappears it's a feeling soldiers never forget a 15-minute firefight can just seem like a couple of minutes it's so intense physically and uh mentally varus is Court completely unprepared before even the idea that there might be something wrong in this scenario people found himself already in this bottleneck the Roman soldiers were caught in the perfect trap in front of them were the Germanic Warriors and

it was sheer weight of numbers from behind meant that there was no way the Roman soldiers could turn around and go back as the Romans fall they're stripped of anything of value for the Roman army this was terrifying they understood an army that sat before them and then they could have a formal battle these Warriors didn't play by the rules the battle drags on until Nightfall finally arminius gives the order to withdraw Knight descends on a bewildered Roman army [Music] anybody who's been in the forest now at night military exercises or not will know it's

a very very mysterious place it's gods and Terrors and ghosts and spirits and fairies and malicious things that scream at you in the night and surp surprise you when you should be [Music] asleep it's a very different place at night than in the day the [Music] forest normal Roman tactics would have been to dig in and set up camp but varus worried he'll never escape the forest alive opts to make a break for it this is his fourth mistake now it's the turn of the ghost Warriors they blacken their faces the process of camming up

is is very much psychological as well as the physical action of putting it on hands neck face ears the back of ears it's adding an extra layer of Defense you do withdraw into yourself and you know when you put the cam on you know then it's becoming real they stare into the night preparing their eyes for the dark you normally allow yourself 15 to 20 minutes for your sight to get accustomed to the level of Darkness all your senses are heightened it's so much more intense at night finally they camouflage their weapons to stop them

glinting in the Moonlight then as the Roman forces appear below the night Fighters move in for the kill silently like ghosts they creep through the trees they know every sound and Shadow you get kind of a sick sense for what's lurking around the next Corner these are men who could move silently through the the forest they'd been hunting since they were children now though they're not hunting deer and bear and Bo they're hunting Romans [Music] the first thing a Roman legionary would see was the white of a German's eyes and his sword coming down on

[Music] [Applause] you they appear out of the dark as if by [Applause] Magic the Romans have never faced anything like it are they fighting men or Spirits the ghost Warriors must have seemed like demons the Roman army would have been completely psychologically under the [Applause] gun this was not the kind of warfare that the Romans were trained to fight they didn't know what was going on from the Roman perspective it was probably entirely chaotic and extremely frightening they were surrounded by enemy Mystery by the terrible forests the ghost Warriors cut SES through the Roman Legions

and then vanish before Daybreak [Music] the next day the Germans attack [Music] [Applause] again you do what damage you can with overwhelming local superiority that requires mobility and flexibility command and control that even today is remarkable [Applause] it's followed by another terrifying [Applause] night the German tribesmen are doing is to play to their sense of being at home in nature being at home in the forest our men strategy was non-stop Warfare was to grind down the Roman legionaries it was to make sure they didn't have a chance for a [Applause] Break by the third morning

the Romans are scattered through the forest the exhausted Legions are broken up and isolated as varus contemplates the Carnage defeat stares him in the face the question now for varis in his own mind was what could he do there was no chance for for a legionary commander to go back and say I'm terribly sorry I've lost all the legions um he was now at the edge of his life he now reaches a terrible decision varis knew exactly what kind of a reception he could have received from the Germanic tribesman he would have been cut up

he would have been nailed to a tree they did terrible terrible things to Roman soldiers that they [Applause] found that morning in shame and fear Varys falls on his sword [Applause] the Roman forces collapse the Germanic Fighters move in for the final kill [Applause] [Music] three Roman Legions have been completely wiped [Music] out it's an historic victory for arm minus' Germanic Warriors [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] surviving Romans are passed to priestesses for ritual blood letting ears and hands are nailed to trees after a battle there was an awful lot of ritual sacrifice priestesses would have

huge cauldrons and uh cut the roban soldiers until their blood ran into these cauldrons the blood letting is said to purify the land of Roman influence the Battle of tberg forest is the greatest Roman defeat for over 200 years 900 mil to the south in Rome there's Blissful ignorance then a messenger arrives with a box for the Emperor Augustus it contains the bloody head of varus the Emperor Augustus was devastated this was a personal defeat as well as a major political defeat [Music] we're told that he goes around the palace tearing out his hair and

wailing varas varas give me back my [Music] [Applause] Legions in just 3 days the Roman Empire has lost 10% of its fighting force it's difficult to exaggerate the scale of the defeat which the Romans suffered [Music] a huge great Gap is blown in the Roman Empire's Frontier defenses such was the shame such was the scale of the defeat that the legion 17th 18th and 19th were struck from the Roman military they were never used again no Soldier would ever have wanted to serve in those units today in Germany victory at the Battle of tberg forest

is remembered by a monument to [Music] arminius elsewhere excavations at the battle site have Unearthed a Grizzly tangle of smashed up bones and weapons and our many 's defensive Rampart has been reconstructed the Germanic ghost Warriors have become a legend for a new generation of [Music] Germans ancient Greece is under attack from a vast invading Army just a small Force blocks its path but these are no ordinary soldiers they are bred for fighting trained to endure pain to kill or be killed these are the Spartan 300 the Spartans were without doubt the elite troops of

their age uh thans they attack in close formation they moved relentlessly like a tank at the enemy it's a killing machine it was a bit like being fed face first into a Mina this is the true story of the Spartan 300's toughest mission to save Greece from the might of the Persian Empire sh the Persian Empire the largest the ancient world has ever known now has the free city states of Greece in its sights Athens the birthplace of democracy is about to be overwhelmed by the Persian hordes only a small form force of Warriors stands

in their way the resolve of these men to fight knowing they were likely to die is just incredible led by their 60-year-old King it's the toughest Mission they have ever faced they were willing to lay down their lives for the motherland a dawn a Persian Scout is sent to spy on these men he finds them oiling their hair and combing it out to the Persians it looks ridiculous [Music] they're womanish look at the way they're I'm worrying about their hair what the Persians don't know is that grooming is how these men prepare for battle they

are Spartans this means they're the most masculine the most um virile of All Greek warriors [Music] the Spy brings news of these girlish soldiers to his Emperor Xerxes he can't believe that these effeminate men are a threat xerxis demands that they surrender they've got absolutely no chance give up what's this all about guys and um lay down your arms but that's the one thing Spartans never do Spartan law dictated that a warrior on the battlefield had only two options that was Victory or [Music] death these Spartan warriors come from a rugged mountainous region Sparta is

the only Greek state with a full-time professional army they are on a permanent War footing they were trained for war the state was geared for war and that's all the Spartans knew [Music] Sparta's militarist regime starts at Birth every baby boy is handed over for a ruthless selection if they showed any signs of weakness while the Spartans weren't squeamish about taking that child off to a pit outside Sparta outside the actual living space and throwing them in a pit where these children these babies these infants were bound to die those young children who are chosen

to survive begin a lifetime of tough training starting when they are just 7 years [Music] [Applause] old if two boys are fighting and one of them shows a sign of weakness it what wasn't the young boy who got punished for crying out and breaking the code but it was his older [Music] [Applause] Mentor there's no soft life for a young boy in Sparta whatever the weather they go everywhere Barefoot to harden their feet the system was designed to instill obedience endurance resilience and everything else that the Spartan warrior would need on [Applause] campaign these Spartan

qualities are very familiar to Today's Special Forces Ken Jones is a former soldier in Britain's Elite SAS like the Spartan youths he has been trained to push through the pain [Music] barrier I draw upon a deep sense of Pride to keep going and to push myself and you know uh Pride at my soldiering ability and uh uh I try and draw strength from all the training I've done and past experiences I just F my head with all all these maxims like pain is temporary and you know it's just weakness leaving the body and you're just

trying and push yourself [Music] on it's this resilience that they are brought up with to endure pain in all of its forms whether physical and psychological that make the Spartan some of the best warriors in the ancient [Music] world catching their own food is a core part of Spartan training the boys have to become self-sufficient relying on their survival skills this self-reliance means that they are an army that can exist in the field where others would want to [Music] [Applause] withdraw today's Elite forces are still put through survival training very similar to the spart [Music]

soldiers are basically they self- sustained for one week where they can only eat what they can catch rabbits pheasants or or whatever pck berries or any food they can forage or steal if you fail this test in the SAS you could be out if a Spartan fails he could starve to death basically they don't feed these boys enough food consequently the boys have to improvise they got to be prepared to steal if you got caught stealing you were punished not because you were a thief but because you were a bad one and you actually got

caught and this promoted the sort of scaming abilities that were needed by the ancient warriors on campaign [Music] the idea of not getting caught is reinforced in a brutal ritual held every year the Spartans had a festival which roughly sort of translates as the steel the cheese [Music] festival hungry young Spartans have to grab hunks of cheese laid out on rocks the boys are encouraged to try and steal them to save their hunger at the same time though there are burly chaps with whips and and cels who are waiting to deter these chees [Applause] thieves

it teaches them stealth and skills of approach skills which are going to serve them well when they're facing an enemy the is to condition them for the brutality of [Applause] [Music] battle if the Spartan boys can learn to ignore pain then they can stand firm in the battle line and they can stand firm even when they're wounded and carry on fighting resilience fighting through pain without fear Supreme Fitness this is the stuff which marks out Special Forces Through the Ages from the Spartans to the Navy Seals it's a direct line when you come out of

training as a seal you're probably in the best shape of your life you're really like the world class athlete who's a warrior first and foremost the guys are extremely fit their mindset the combat mindset is unbreakable after 11 years intensive training a Spartan recruit is ready to graduate at 18 years old he is issued with the armor and trappings of a Spartan warrior [Music] his most precious possession is the large heavy Shield so important to Spartan soldiers it is drilled into them before every battle die rather than lose it the mother says to the son

come back with this Shield or on it in other words come back carrying your shield in Victory or being carried on it dead these new recruits are joining the finest military force in Greece it has a ferocious reputation they were terrifying quite often armies would see them and Melt Away Spartans marched to The Fray very deliberately they moved relentlessly like a tank at the enemy and all this contributes to the notion of um terrorizing the enemy before the fightings even [Music] started joining the Army is only the first stage every year the most fearsome Warriors

are selected to join the elite Spartan Special Forces the [Music] [Applause] 300 but even within this Elite there is a more select group The Best of the Best Known as the Crypt or secret operations Force these guys are the Elite of the elite within the Spartan military [Music] system just as in the US Navy Seals SEAL Team Six is the elite tasked with the toughest missions you know some people say SEAL Team Six are the best of the best when it comes to Close Quarters battle there's probably nobody better on the planet all they do

is Close Quarters [Music] battle to join the secret force of the crypta the Spartan youths have to carry out their own vicious initiation mission they are ordered to kill a member of the Spartan servant class the helots who do all the manual labor in Sparta it State sanctioned murder it basically allows the state to use the helit almost as a training tool for the more Elite members of the Spartan military [Music] for a wouldbe member of the cryp tea concealment is crucial if he gets caught he fails some things have remained constant throughout the ages

and camouflage and concealment is an essential element of Warcraft and uh and uh uh know survival in the battlefield for the cryp this is a right of passage designed to prove they can kill an enemy in Cold Blood they can demonstrate their skills and their press but more importantly demonstrate their commitment to the state are they ready to take lives in the name of Sparta [Music] today's Elite forces are still trained to be ruthless to switch off any sympathy for the Target you detach any sort of human association with them fact that they've got a

family and they you know a living breathing person you see it as as a distinct Target and uh you know it becomes easier to objectify it and to kill it but modern Warriors have it easy with a rifle or pistol they can kill at arms length the young Spartan just has a knife it would have been very difficult to get one stab and then slip away so he would need speed aggression and surprise the SAS AC CRI he need to have physical force behind him to try and FL whoever is is assailing it would have

been extremely aggressive violent motion to kill without flinching to face death without fear it's what what makes a member of the elite Spartan crya many of these men would be among the 300 Spartans preparing to take on the Persian army the massive Force invading Greece is led by the Persian Emperor himself for Xerxes the great this is personal just 10 years before his father's troops were humiliated by the Greeks now Xerxes Wants Revenge it was a combined Land and Sea invasion of Mainland Greece to actually subordinate the entire Greek Peninsula the mainland and incorporate it

as a new province of the Persian Empire [Music] it's a major crisis for the Greek States they don't have the troops in place to confront the Persians the Greeks summon a council they desperately need time to assemble their [Music] forces they turn to the Spartan King leonardus the commander of the only professional force in Greece eventually the council comes up with a plan they decide to use the size of the Persian army against itself by keeping it in the field as long as possible the massive Persian host would quickly run out of supplies and resources

it would literally strip the region bare of everything it needed to survive water food forage and so on and this would place them in quite a [Music] predicament the key to leonidas's plan is finding a location he can hold somewhere the Persians can't bring the weight of their numbers to bear the place he selects is a natural choke point between Mount Cadron and the Sea known as theropo or hot Gates because of the thermal Springs nearby here the only Road South Narrows to a path just 20 M wide along the [Music] beach it's an ideal

position to defend [Music] it would funnel the Persian troops onto the Greek formation this greatly favored the Greek fighting style which was designed for frontal face-to-face hand-to-hand combat what they didn't want was a position that could be outf flanked where they could be hit from all sides to carry out this vital Mission King leonardus chooses to lead personally his Elite Force the Spartan 300 supporting his highly trained Warriors is a reserve of several thousand Greeks but it's the 300 Spartans who will hold the front line and the key to their defense will be the Spartans

most feared fighting formation known as the fank a defensive Shield wall bristling with Spears this is a unit that can stand an awful lot of punishment being thrown at it but also is a killing machine it's a unit that can destroy enemy formations at it against listen in modern officer Cadets test out the Spartan tactics with weapons expert John Naylor what gives a man the confidence to stand against the enemy in the first place is this thing a large dished wooden Shield it protects 2/3 of the target area so as a warrior he's got the

confidence to fight where the the Spartans win is with their discipline together they form a mobile wall of shields the strength of the fank lies in meshing together the force of individual Warriors gentlemen he's no longer a simple individual Warrior he's part of a fighting machine a machine where all the cogs work in unison where the men are not only protecting themselves but they're protecting the men either side of them as [Music] well if the shields are the defense it is the spears which do the killing Spartan's primary weapon is this spear it's got an

extensive reach so much so that even the second rank can still engage and deliver a killing blow under the heat of the August sun in the narrowest part of the pass at theropo line after line of Spartans form up their phalance is some 35 men wide and eight or nine deep as they wait for the Persian attack they will be feeling the same surge of emotion that today's soldiers feel before going into action many soldiers going to feel an extreme Rush of adrenaline a highly charged State and an injection of pure fear as [Music] well

it's going to be a culmination of many EX absolutely extreme emotions they'd be willing to die for a cause or of very survival of their [Music] race as the Persians approach there was just time for King leonardus to remind his men of their Duty as Spartans this again shows just how fit these Spartans are that a king of 60 can still be out there leading his troops in the field the Persians launch their attack wave after wave of infantry Storm Into the narrow pass xerx is sent in first not his absolutely crack infantry troops but

the second division as it were I mean not far below but below the absolutely tops it's thousands against 300 the Persians expect an easy [Music] Victory but the Spartans stand [Applause] firm for the Spartans it's like a training EX exerise these guys are lining up to be killed because there's one and a half Spears aimed at every single Persian and the Persian might deflect one and that's where the canny switched on spoton just to the side that spear licks in and that's another kill the style of combat that the fank engages in is some of

the most brutal seen in any age most of your opponents are less than 2 m from you you'd be able to hear the screams of those that you attack you would feel the weapon impacts as they penetrated into an enemy's body it was a bit like being fed face first into a Mena before you know it the Persians are fighting in pools of blood over the bodies of their fallen comrades they haven't even got stable footing to attack attack from it's a Killing Zone and it just becomes a mechanical Slaughter rather than [Music] Warfare by

the end of the first day the Spartans have slaughtered thousands of Persians and sustained only minor losses themselves [Music] leonardus and his men are confident they can hold on for the freedom of the Greek States every day [Music] counts but then leonardus hears some troubling news there is a secret path across the mountains above theropo if the Persian find this track they could sneak round the Spartan defensive line and attack them from behind leonardus needs his own men at the front so he dispatches a reserve force of local Greeks Leonidas sent a contingent of Greeks

from the city of focus to hold the pass against the eventuality of the Persians coming around behind him the next morning the Persian Emperor orders fresh troops to prepare to attack and these are not ordinary soldiers these are his best men xeres ends up with only one choice he's got to commit his own elite special forces to try and counter the Spartans in this case it's the immortal these are seriously good Fighters and they are the the elite they are the crack troops of the enemy they were called The Immortals because they were 10,000 in

number and whenever a member of this contingent died he was immediately replaced so that there was always 10,000 of them again the odds are high 10,000 against the Spartan 300 but the Immortals reputation doesn't worry the Spartans they welcome the new challenge this was their chance to prove to the Greek world and the Persians exactly what the Spartans were capable of [Applause] funneled into the narrow pass even the Immortals cannot shatter the Spartan [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Defense the majority of the Persian Spears are less than 2 m long and they're lighter when you faced with

the Spartan 2 and 1/2 M long spear you simply can't get by this wall of spear points [Music] [Applause] this is Close Quarters combat at its most brutal the Persians were losing about one man every 3 to 4 seconds during the actual combat phases of the engagement but the battle takes its toll on the Spartans as well combat is always horrific the pressures on the body are immense your mouth becomes dry your heart's thumping the acids build up in your muscles most people can only fight for a few minutes at a time before they need

to take a breather [Music] theropo in August is like a furnace reaching temperatures up to 40° [Music] Centigrade for the Spartans it's a long hot day of fighting a test even for their stamina marshalling his scarce resources in these harsh conditions is the biggest challenge for King on [Music] us you have him as the overall leader of the Greek army looking at which contingents come forward to fight at which time which ones go back to rest he would also have overall command of logistics and everything else to do with the defense water is one of

his top priorities fighting in full armor in the intense August heat his men need some 10 lers a day leonus had been clever he positioned his defensive Force just in advance of the main spring line for [Music] water prepare to advance advance [Music] the Spartans are so well drilled they control the battlefield they can carry out highly disciplined Maneuvers like figing a retreat there is a large amount of bodies piling up in front of the Spartans so what the Spartans do is they Retreat back a small distance prepare to retire retire this means that the

Persians who are advancing have to climb over the piles of their own dead disrupting their own formation and then down onto a small now level area of Battlefield where the Spartans can engage them again in hand toand fighting the Spartans falling back can instantly reform that Shield wall that wall of metal and senu and muscle and wood a solid object for the enemy to hit against and then simply kill a few more for the Immortals it's a daunting sight as they head towards the front line this is not the place where you're going to win

this is the place you're going to die for the whole day the two Elite forces Clash neither prepared to give way but as the sun sets on theropo thousands more Persians are dead after 2 days of fighting the Spartans still hold the pass they just need to keep their discipline and their nerve but that night catastrophe strikes Xerxes is approached by a local Greek Who belongs to a people which has not joined the resistance and as often in Greece neighbors don't get on well the Greek traitor reveals the secret path over the mountains [Music] if

the Persians can sneak along the coast they will have the Spartans surrounded by [Music] [Music] Daybreak in the narrow pass of thop leonardus and his Spartan warriors are exhausted but proud they have withstood the Persian threat for two long days but they have no idea of the new danger looming on the mountain above [Music] [Music] them that night the Immortals begin their climb up to the ridge above the Spartan position night missions are almost unheard of in Ancient Warfare due to the amount of confusion that the darkness can cause and this shows just how desperate

Xerxes is getting to push these Greeks out of the theropo pass and how effective their holding strategy is actually working the immortal's plan is to outflank the Spartans and launch an attack from behind them at first lighted leonardus thinks he has this route covered but the Greeks he's placed up on the mountain are not Spartans they are part-timers no match for the Immortals the Persians start to descend down behind the Greek position Runners from the Greeks holding the path also race ahead to inform Leonidas and the rest of the Greeks that they are about to

be encircled this changes the entire Mission leonus received the worst possible news he was about to be outflanked his position would be [Music] engulfed but Spartans never give up leonardus has sworn to hold back the Persians as long as possible and that is what he's going to do on the one hand he couldn't easily simply flee because flight is not in the Spartans military vocabulary so he's got to stay he's got to make the most of the way in which he [Music] stays leonardus realizes he cannot win in open battle it's now so one version

of The Story Goes that leonidus turns to Men of the crypta the Spartan's secret operations [Music] Force the plan is to decapitate the Persian army by killing the emperor Xerxes was he simply going out in a blaze of glory was he trying to kill Xerxes an attempt to as it were cut the head off the snake in the hope that the rest of the Persian army would wither away and March back to Persia if you can eliminate the command and control mechanisms you eliminate the cohesiveness of the army [Music] this will be a mission very

familiar to Today's Special Forces leonardus is ordering a nighttime assault Behind Enemy Lines with a specific Target to take out to operate at night you need to be fully alert and focused on all of your senses and your six sense as well so you can be more focused on your surroundings but also more aware of uh your own movements and actions from their base on the beach the Spartans most obvious route to the Persian Camp is along the shoreline you've always got the element of surprise especially attacking at night and that brings with it a

surge of confidence in your ability to get the task done the first problem the Spartans face is how to infiltrate the outer lines of [Music] Defense Reflections in the Moonlight could betray them so they wrap up their polished iron [Music] swords this form of combat is exactly what the crypta taught the young Spartans as they came up through their educational system Persian guards are not expecting any trouble because night missions are so unusual to carry out a nighttime raid on enemy camp or position your adrenaline's absolutely [Music] surging the aim is to get to xery's

tent which would be very conspicuous because he brought his Caravan he brought his slaves his women his you know that's how Persian kings didy the Spartans now prepare their weapons they unwrap their dreaded Copus a vicious hacking sword its short thick blade can cause horrific injuries first they have a Sentry to take out it has to be done with a different weapon silently in classic cryp style with a knife they done this sort of thing as 16 17 18 year old [Music] boys this idea of specific strikes at a single Target the Spartan night Raiders

now approach the main Persian Camp they have to find the heavily guarded Emperor and kill him they would be most likely using their swords to hack down any Persian that got in their way as they tried to reach Xerxes it isn't clear what happened next but the Persian Emperor survives when Dawn breaks all the remaining Spartans can do is make a final heroic stand but now the Persians can attack them from both sides the fance is basically useless it can't take on two directions at once so the Spartans pull back to a small hill to

defend themselves prepare to retire retire by this stage many of the Greek Spears are broken so the Spartans and the other Greeks resort to anything they can get their hands on Stand Out ease when the fance breaks up when the unit cohesion is gone that's when you need a weapon to get up close and personal [Applause] fighting with their deadly short swords even with broken Spears the Spartans Won't Give [Music] [Applause] Up finally having now lost some 20,000 men the Persian Emperor decides to finish off the Spartans at a safe distance he calls in his

archers even this doesn't D the Spartans someone says you know the Persians have so many archers that when they release their arrows it will blot out the sun to which de we're actually given the name of the Spartan says great we'll have our battle in the shap [Music] made when you can shoot enough arrows to blot out the sun okay the Spartans figh in the shade but those arrows are going to ultimately find their [Applause] Mark staring death in the face the Spartans fight [Applause] gone leonardus is fatally wounded the last of the 300 fall

around him but the Spartan sacrifice is not in vain what the defense at thopi did was it bought the Greeks more time time more time to assemble their army more time to prepare themselves for the eventual invasion of Southern Greece by the Persian [Music] host within a year zerx Imperial force is defeated both on land and at Sea Sparta and its Greek allies remain [Music] free The Fearless reputation of the Spartan Special Forces was forged at thop their epit recalls their heroic stand go tell the Spartans stranger passing by that here obedient to their laws

we [Music] lie Jerusalem in the decades after the death of Christ a city under foreign occupation plagued by violence behind it a ruthless band of covert operatives known as the Sakari the modern parallel might be the young men who join Al-Qaeda they're famed for their fanaticism and their vicious dagger let's call them what they are terrorists committed to overthrowing the existing order by violent means the Sakari are one of the only Guerilla groups never to bow to the might of the Roman Empire but finally the Roman Legions Pinn them down in a seemingly impregnable desert

Fortress what happens next is one of the most extraordinary and Infamous last stands in history [Music] he [Music] Jerusalem in the 1st Century ad it's an outpost of the Roman Empire then as now it's a city with a heavy military presence for the ordinary Jew the Roman occupation was experienced as living under bullying brutal racist [Music] soldiery the Romans weren't Mr Nice Guys I mean they meant [Music] business and if you wouldn't abide by whatever rules they made then You' pay the price and the price often was they were ruthless the Roman right was the

Roman right among the Jewish population there's widespread but hidden resentment I imagine that right the way across Palestine you've got those blank faces that don't reveal anything because there's fear of authority but behind the Mosk there is hatred it's a hatred that still has echoes in Israel today yet there are some who have always been willing to take action a cross occupied Jerusalem there are a mysterious series of terrorist attacks the targets were Roman soldiers the targets were collaborators or anybody who supported the Roman rule the victims include Jewish religious leaders and tax collectors these

are the people who are enforcing tax payments tithe payments rent payments Force labor and so on these people were seen as collaborators as people who were siding with the foreigners in oppressing the Jewish people it's a pattern of violence familiar today the question then as now who lies behind it the answer members of one of the most fanatical Black Ops organizations of the ancient world a group of Jewish assassins known as the Sakari the sari were one of several groups of Fanatics gorillas let's call them what they are terrorists committed to overthrowing the existing order

by violent means I suppose a modern parallel might be the young men who join Al-Qaeda it's that kind of real determination real anger boiling over into militant action against the authorities [Music] the Sakari Fighters are motivated by a deeply held belief in God freedom and the independence of their country they're strictly observant Jews their goal the complete removal of Roman rule it's not that they wouldn't accept a Roman rule they won't accept any rule only God's rule the Sakari felt that they had an obligation to cleanse the Holy Land the promised land that had been

given to them by God of all of the defilement the involvement of foreigners in the governance of Palestine there was to be an apocalyptic cleansing these fiercely held beliefs turn members of the Sakari into Fearless assassins happy to embrace a martyr's death but opposition to Rome is not easy the Roman Legions are overwhelmingly the most powerful fighting force of the ancient world the Sakari must fall back on their few advantages their knowledge of Jerusalem's narrow streets their ability to mingle with the crowds and their understanding of the people they know how far it is from

one place to another they know the shortcuts they know the Escape Routes they speak the language they don't need interpreters that gives you force multiplication it's known today as asymmetric Warfare the poorly equipped terrorist against the might of an occupying Army in the 860s Jerusalem becomes a city living on its nerves The Mastermind behind the Sakari is a religious fanatic called manim Ben like many of his kind he claims direct Authority from God he's motivated by a deep hatred of Roman rule menahem seems to belong to a family of revolutionary Fighters going right back to

the middle of the previous Century he's a very brave revolutionary you have to be because of the repression his task to turn his band of religious zealots into a disciplined fighting force The sari's Chosen weapon is a curved knife known in Latin as a sarus it's perfectly designed for stealthy sneak attacks you can hide it under robes you can tuck it under a cloak even have it in a basket it's also devastatingly effective it can curve around Shields and curve around a defense and cut through lots of Flesh and all the way down to the

the bone they were aiming for surgical strikes at individual soldiers individual officers individual Servants of the Roman [Music] state menim is a natural organizer Wy shrewd and experienced he plans each attack to make maximum use of his limited resources if you're going to send guys into action if they're going to carry out assassinations they have to be very very carefully planned his first all important question who to Target you don't choose a Target lightly because you're going to have to direct some of your best assets at that Target like terrorist groups today the symbolism of

the target is all important if your Target's big enough and you can do it the very Act of Killing that Target makes a massive statement there's a kind of propaganda of the deed about what the sikarians are doing demonstrating to the common people you can hit back effectively and there's a possibility that if we all move together we might actually cleanse Palestine of these Outsiders with the target selected it's time to move onto the next [Music] stage what happens next has become a routine part of the training of all Special Forces the target is tracked

[Music] observers watches every move they need answers to a number of critical questions what's the target's vulnerability what kind of security has he got is he conscious of being a Target in order to determine all that we need to look at what we call pattern of Life his usual movements his comings and going wherever he goes to the pub wherever he has a drink habit wherever he goes to the market at 12:00 on a certain day gradually The Observers build a detailed pattern of the target's lifestyle it's a long process it's a detailed process and

people's lives depend on it meanwhile the Sakari Hitmen are through intensive training it's more than just knife fighting it's psychological preparation you need an extreme amount of aggression or cold-bloodedness to carry out such an action it's something that's beyond the most people not everybody can kill Close Up In Cold Blood it's extremely messy and difficult job to pull off it's intense it's personal you're going to get covered in that person's blood the trick is to practice on something that simulates the real experience I know from the Paras we practice intensely carrying out bayet attacks on

sandbags full of chicken innards and and pig blood just uh to go through the machinations of sticking a knife into an object and withdrawing it and seeing Blood and Guts come out it's something best left to spies and other coldblooded individuals or assassins every aspect of the mission is exhaustively rehearsed finally the details are checked One Last Time Target identified routine established training complete weapons distributed it's time to make the hit a Sakari hit squad infiltrates the crowd their techniques are familiar to special ops units today they would go in broad daylight they go to

the market you mingle among on hundreds or maybe thousands of people you will have people watching all the time teams dedicated to reconnaissance the reconnaissance team locates the target are there any signs of unexpected danger finally the mission gets the goahead [Music] now it's the turn of the Strike Team The Hitman the Strike Team very lightly armed because he wants to attract his little suspicion as possible the assassin moves into position there's a rush of emotions familiar to all Black Ops assassins your spine feels like it's injected with ice you're full of fear adrenaline excitement

a buzz but at the same time you need to control all of that so you're [Music] coordinated The Hitman quietly un sheaths his weapon and waits for the exact [Music] moment it doesn't take long to make that strike 2 seconds get in close strike [Music] hard strike after before you yourself are overwhelmed then the Sakari melt back into the [Music] crowd they kill the man dro the daggers and then become part of the crowd reeling in shock at this terrible murder that happened who could have done it [Music] almost immediately fear spreads through the crowd

you can imagine how quickly the rumors of a new Killing would have gone through the streets to add to the confusion the Sakari join in the Hue and cry they'd start yelling whoa what happened what happened and people would get confused who did it [Music] this is what asymmetric Warfare is all about what they're demonstrating is that they can strike anywhere anytime camouflaging cover out increase of demonstrative effect the Sakari know that with just a few men they can put a whole city on edge it's a tactic familiar to Security Forces worldwide you make that

market very unsafe not for the sari but for the other people because you don't know who the enemy is and who who is not and so you create an an atmosphere of uncertainty you create an atmosphere of fear of anxiety and that's what they wanted what terrorists are about and not eroding the enemy forces through killing them they're about making statements if we can get him we can get you it's classic gorilla Warfare the Sakari know a Roman response is [Music] inevitable in the year ad 66 the Romans cracked down [Music] [Applause] The Man In

Charge is gessius Flores the governor of Jerusalem gessius Flores is from a town in what is now turkey uh so he's a member of the provincial aristocracy not the latin-speaking Roman aristocracy very much therefore a man on the make for Flores this is an opportunity to shine in front of his Masters in Rome [Music] in an now Infamous command he orders his men to steal Treasures housed in the second temple on Jerusalem's Temple [Music] [Music] Mount this is the great holy Center for all Jews symbolically to do something like this for the temple where God

is you know where the holy of the Holiness oh I mean no no no no no no no no no the psychological impact of such a thing is is tremendous here they remove the equivalent of a quarter of a million pounds of treasure in lie of unpaid taxes it's an act of sacrilege it's difficult to imagine anything but could have angered the Jews of Jerusalem more than that there were people who were willing to die for that the reaction follows a familiar pattern outraged Jews gather on the streets of Jerusalem there are noisy demonstrations the

mood in Jerusalem after this attack on the temple treasury was was absolutely electric it provokes Flores into making a serious mistake he sends in troops to restore order protesters are publicly whipped some 4,000 people are executed or crucified but like dictators Through the Ages Flores has misjudged the popular mood the whole of the city rises in Revolt Jerusalem's Jewish population turns on the Romans there are now tens of thousands of new Young Jewish fighters on the streets determined to cleanse the city of this alien Infidel Pagan presence a little bit like the way in which

you imagine it kicking off in parts of the Middle East when it's the uh Islamic resistance fighters who suddenly find that they've got Mass recruitment on their hands Flores has unwittingly played into the hands of the Sakari mahim gains a flood of new recruits suddenly all the young guys in that street want to join the resistance because they can see that there's a massacre happening on their own streets and who do they go to they go to the local Saran because they know that those are the guys who organized the resistance but the sheer number

leave the Sakari with a problem there are simply not enough weapons to go [Music] round the solution to steal them from the Romans that summer manah leads a group of Sakari Warriors in a stealthy Guerilla raid they travel to an isolated Roman fort on the shores of the Dead Sea here they break in [Applause] they overwhelm The Garrison seize the Armory and use those arms to equip themselves as the Revolution begins to take off the hall includes swords daggers and javelins [Music] armed with new weapons manim hurls his recruits into the attack they felt that

they they have nothing to lose they have to you know stand up to the rights and fight and throw the Romans out because it's their country within weeks the Roman Garrison in Jerusalem is overrun [Music] the Romans are forced to flee the City Jerusalem has been [Applause] liberated but it soon starts to go wrong the Newfound Jewish Unity falls apart the Jewish Elite led by the high priests argue that in the long run Rome can never be defeated it's time to cut a deal the Jewish moderates are looking for a deal because in the past

they've done rather well out of the collaboration with [Music] Rome they want to talk to the Romans they want to reach some kind of compromise settlement with the [Applause] Romans but the Sakari will have none of it factions form Hardline Guerilla groups like The Sakari are not interested in [Applause] negotiation as far as the Sakari are concerned there's to be no compromise we're going to go the whole way this is a revolution that is going to cleanse the holy land of infidels and of Injustice once again Jerusalem erupts into fighting but this time it's Jew

against Jew there was a struggle for for for control a struggle for leadership each faction claims Authority from God imagine you know you have God sitting on your lap and God tells you that if you're a real good Jew this is what you should do and you have other Jews who says well God sits on my lap and God tells me different differently then what are you going to do in a series of running battles the Sakari kill moderate Jews and [Music] Priests but then they go too far the Sakari attempt to impose their own

extremely Pious form of religious law on the rest of the city how the city should look like how people should act what they should eat how they should pray you don't do this forget it I mean if you're not with me you're against me you're dead meat the Sakari have overreached themselves the population of Jerusalem Rises up against them their leader benim Ben is [Music] killed the Sakari are forced to pull out they fled the city they didn't just March out you know to to the sound of drums on red carpets they fled as quickly

as they could before they were all killed they decide to return to what they know best Guerilla Warfare they may have been beaten but they're not defeated they choose as their base the the almost impregnable Roman Fortress at [Music] Masada Mada is an extraordinary place it's an immensely powerful natural Fortress and you have the Fortified Palace right at the top of these sheer Cliffs an incredibly difficult position to attack and capture it's a perfect camp for a Guerilla unit that's going to be raiding in the surrounding [Music] Countryside the sari's new Commander is elazar Ben

Yer a relative of their assassinated leader and a veteran of the fighting in Jerusalem elazar like all Sakari is a religious fanatic who claims to receive orders from God he must have been not just a very determined fighter but a very charismatic man as well you look at the decisions that apparently had to do with him and you realize you have a ruthless person I suspect you're dealing with psychologically a very strong person very committed person Pious Jew somebody who wouldn't take no for an answer and would go all the way all the way I

mean to [Music] death the Sakari Rebels are joined at Masada by their wives and [Music] children it's said that by ad71 there are hundreds of of men women and children living in the Fortress we know quite a lot about this community at Mada because there have been excavations which have told us a lot about how they were living their daily lives Masada becomes a Guerilla headquarters crossed with a religious [Music] community we have to imagine I think a simple Community but a very religious a very devout Community as well it's not a comfortable place food

and water are a constant problem Masada is a tough place to live I mean temperatures are extremely hot if you don't have water if there is not enough rainfall then you know you have a problem because you also have to accumulate the waters for uh for the summer were the conditions forced the Sakari to take violent measures they were equipped for that they had the knives they had the ideology and they had C you don't want to argue with that elzar's plan to raid surrounding villages once again the Sakari follow modern special force procedures each

raid is carefully planned the key to a successful Guerilla raid is reconnaissance reconnaissance reconnaissance it's a mantra closely followed today you want to know how many people are in a particular given Village what weapons do they have is there a security Force are there any garrisons nearby that could cause you difficulty what is your weighin going to be and of course because your purposes to gather supplies or weapons or money you need to get out to it's a big job to to do it properly because failing in any of those respects comp promises the entire

team as well as the [Music] operation one of the best recorded raids is on the small Oasis Village of iron gedy it's a brutal attack [Music] here the Sakari steal food and sees whatever they can find of value we know that they chased the Jews out killed 700 women and children took all the food supplies to mas and it probably reflects other rates they did but they don't just need food they also need money along the shores of the Dead Sea there's one obvious source of it one of the Commodities they were seizing was Bolam

which was an immensely valuable fragrance that was widely used in the ancient [Music] world bam is an aromatic pleasantly smelling resin it comes from plants that grow WI in the surrounding area it was one of the ancient world's most lucrative trades it seems eleazar's aim is to control the Bome Market I imagine that they were selling it on and perhaps using it a little bit like the way in which the Taliban today use opium to fund their armed resistance 3 years after leaving Jerusalem the Sakari camp at Masada is the last pocket of resistance to

Roman occupation of the Holy Land finally the Romans lose patience they unleashed the full military might of Rome on the mountain stronghold The Man In Charge is a politician and general called Flavia Silva Flavio Silva was a very experienced military commander determined person he knew what he was doing he knew how to do it and he was very successful in his raids whatever objection he encountered he was able to overcome he brings with him a force of up to 15,000 legionnaires and thousands more Jewish prisoners of [Music] War soon Messengers arrive from Lookout points around

Mada The Fortress is completely surrounded the Romans are laying Siege from the top of the rock you would look down and you would see The Siege lines forming all around you 15,000 Roman soldiers many thousands of Jewish prisoners who were being used to do hard labor it's a terrifying sight Silva's scheme is to isolate the sukari from the surrounding Villages he uses prisoners of War to build a wall around the entire [Music] Mountain it's designed to stop the Sakari leaving and supplies arriving it's still there today in a way what leazar faces is the very

opposite of what a gorilla fighter is seeking to [Music] do suddenly the Sakari lose the one advantage they have their [Music] Mobility they turn their advantages of mobility of presence amongst the people into disadvantages because they then found themselves fixed to a position lightly armed and probably with very little military idea of how to defend themselves properly against a highly disciplined very motivated well Tred and extremely ruthless [Music] fools meanwhile Flavia Silva studies the terrain and makes an important discovery Masada is not as impregnable as it appears Masada had an ailles Hill and the Achilles

Hill was the the West Side running up this flank is a natural spur of rock here Sila orders the prisoners of War to build a ramp up the mountain is this a major operation I mean Roman Engineers were very good they they cracked other fortresses the Romans Legions were not trained for a moving battle they were trained to crack fortresses to fight back and forth once you choose to sit in a fortress you're doomed elazar rallies his [Music] followers they fight hard to obstruct the Roman ramp sending down volleys of rocks but it's useless late

one night huddled groups of Sakari and their families hear the Romans battering at The Fortress walls they face a terrible Choice fight on or Surrender it was clear that the Romans are going to breach in going to enter the The Fortress and what choices do you have that was a terrible night what they face the following morning is the Roman army breaking into Mada probably killing all of the men almost certainly raping all of the women and possibly killing them or then enslaving them possibly killing their children or if not enslaving their children but for

the Sakari surrender is not an option fanatical groups like The Sakari Never Surrender and they never surrender because what their aims are are not negotiable therefore from their perspective the only solution is to fight on to The Bitter End fight on to the death we see it time and time again in history whether it be the ancient world with the sari all the way up to the modern day with Al-Qaeda elements and the only way to uh end the situation is to annihilate them unable to surrender elazar is left with only one option he takes

a faithful decision that still shocks today [Music] elazar makes an impassioned speech he tells his followers since we long ago resolved never to be servants to the Romans nor to any other than to God himself let our wives die unabused our children without knowledge of slavery it's a call for mass [Music] suicide according to the Roman account the Sakari Set Fire To The Fortress immediately afterwards they follow elzar's plea what they did was quite extraordinary extraordinarily Brave each man killing his own wife and his own children [Music] the worst crime imaginable in a sense and

then among the men 10 were selected by lot to kill the others men that they had fought with through long years of hard struggle and then among those remaining 10 one man taking the responsibility for killing the other nine and then before this sea of corpses killing himself [Music] [Music] [Music] when the Romans finally enter The Fortress they're confronted by an appalling sight in the words of an eyewitness account there was an awful Solitude Flames within and silence the suicide pact is quite difficult to understand psychologically until you put it into the context of a

powerful religious movement where people think that they are the soldiers of God but what they are doing is deeply righteous where it becomes preferable to end your own life and presumably enter the presence of God than to face enslavement or rape or Slaughter at the hands of your enemies even battle hardened soldiers are shocked only two women and three children are said to have survived it's an horrific end to one of the most successful campaigns of resistance to Roman occupation in the ancient [Music] world today in Israel the sakaria remembered by many not as terrorists

but heroic Freedom Fighters hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to the site of their last stand at Masada every year their Rebellion has become the staff of myth and Legend it's even said the disciple who betrayed Jesus Judas es scariot got his name from the Sakari whatever the truth the Sakari remain for many people the most fearsome Black Ops assassins of the ancient world they are crack Warriors in a land dedicated to war Warfare had been going on for centuries relentlessly drilled to break every bone in their enemy's body people were killed literally beaten to

death their weapons are crude but deadly if you want to kill somebody with a stone axe you need to be very strong now these Stone AG special forces are about to come up against the modern [Music] world the arrival of of the British is going to change everything everything what happens next will go down in history and he's knocked down blooded and tries to rise up they all want to be in at the kill this is the true story of how the Hawaiian COA Warriors took on the might of the British Empire and won [Music]

[Music] two Royal Navy ships position 19° North 155° West on board HMS resolution Great Britain's most famous Navigator Captain James Cook he's in the third year of his voyage and steadily filling in the vast Blanks on the 18th century map of the world [Music] a few degrees south of the Tropic of Cancer land is spotted it's not on Cook's charts but it soon becomes clear it is inhabited [Music] as his ships approach the islands cook observes Polynesian canoes coming up fast but the Islanders bring gifts they want trade not war cook honors their Chief but

it's the man standing next to him that really catches his attention his name is kameha Maya kameha Maya creates an impression because he's clearly a little bit different to the others many of them wrote in their journals about this Fierce looking warrior with the the darting eyes and these eyes are hard at work Kamehameha takes in the ship the men and most of all their Firepower and Steel weapons he would see the weapons that were uh being worn by the the Marines aboard cook ship he's the one who seems to understand that the arrival of

of the British is going to change everything [Music] cook and kameha Maya will meet again Cook's state-of-the-art force and kameha Maya's Stone Age Warriors are on a collision course and for one side it will end in disaster the story starts in this previously Uncharted land James Cook calls The Sandwich Islands Kamehameha and his Warriors use the name we know it by today Hawaii to Outsiders like Cook Hawaii may seem like a Tropical Paradise but cut off from the rest of the world this Society has become dominated by armed conflict this land is presided over by

the all powerful coup the Hawaiian God of War by the time that Kamehameha is born and the years when cook comes there's almost constant Warfare it is a close societ the islands are isolated thousands of miles from anything else so this is a lot of dynastic struggle the high Chiefs of the five main islands Kawaii Oahu mikai Maui and the Big Island Hawaii itself are all battling for Supremacy each island had a ruler had a elite or high chief but the rulers were struggling with each other there's a chief there's somebody who's in in overall

charge there's a Priestly class who have authority over things beyond the natural there's a warrior Elite these Elite Warriors are handpicked from the nobility the Ali they are Hawaii's Special Forces F they will be selected on the basis of their origin who's their father and their aptitude so are they are they the right stuff to make warriors they are both the chief's personal bodyguard and his champions in battle they are called the COA Warriors [Music] the COA are named after the tree from which they fashion weapons a lot of the Hawaiian weapons are going to

be kind of very heavy wooden clubs Stone clubs shorter throwing Spears and then a lot of daggers and that's kind of how a lot of the battles were decided at the end is this close hand-to-hand combat in Hawaii we're looking at a Warfare that's going to call on a great deal of physical strength and power you want to kill somebody with a stone axe you need to be very strong they would have stood out from the crowd physically by they dress by their physique they will have strutted about like a professional military class [Music] but

COA Warriors are not simply mindless killing machines they fight to gain a sacred substance they call Mana it's probably most easily defined as spiritual energy or spiritual power it's like a um a life force or you know life Essence but it was also something that could be increased through Warfare Mana is gained by victory on the battlefield one of the features of Hawaiian fighting would have been not only to increase your Mana but to insult or to challenge your opponents as well and to reduce their status through Warfare defeat in battle leads to an instant

loss of Mana if they fail in war they will lose their status and they they would could be reduced to slavery so they need to be very good in their Relentless struggle for Mana some COA units have developed a unique form of close contact martial art they call it lure well Lou is the bone breaking and joint dislocating Arts of the Hawaiian Chiefs the nobility in the 19th century the violent art of lure was suppressed and went underground today its secrets are being passed on to a new generation by a handful of grand Masters such

as Mitchell Eli strike to the neck we like to demonstrate for you now the fighting art of the Lu a there's the break of the little finger in the thumb dislocation of the wrist breaking of the elbow and finally dislocation of the shoulder we didn't use Shields or helmets because it was unmanly so the preference was to close with the Enemy and fight hand to hand then you ride up in each other's face and no guy that strikes the best blow of the killing blow there's winds one man is to become the most celebrated COA

Warrior of them all kameha Maya the man who stood out on Cook's ship Legend has it that this man was destined for greatness it was dictated from [Music] birth we don't know for certain when he was born but the ancient Hawaiian records indicate that there was perhaps a comet and we know that Haley's Comet is comes in 1757 or 1758 some folks will go and Associate the appearance of the Comet with the birth of the great leader there was a prophecy that he would be a destroyer of chiefs [Music] the high chief feels so threatened

he decides to act against the child even though it's his own nephew he immediately ordered that the child be killed and so kamehameha's family and his supporters actually hid the child The Story Goes the young boy is Spirited Away to a remote Valley on the wild North Coast and guarded by a special unit of COA Warriors the boy had been raised only by Warriors charged with his protection and there were no other children in his life he had only been raised um to be a leader and this single boy growing up in the company of

Warriors now earns his name the name Kamehameha translates the lonely one [Music] the young boy is relentlessly drilled in the way of the COA and it becomes clear he has the makings of a mighty warrior well as he begins to grow his physical size becomes apparent the Chiefs in general were physically larger than than the common people and even in a Land of giants keho was a very large [Music] Man Hawaiian tradition states that it's now that Kamehameha determines to grasp his Destiny young man takes on the legendary Maha Stone all 5,000 lb of it

according to the story similar to uh Arthur and the Sword and the stone if anyone would be able to move the stone they would be able to conquer the entire Island down the years countless Warriors have taken up the challenge of the Stone but all have failed until [Music] now this would have been something that added to his status and reputation someone who was a contender for unifying all of the islands of the Hawaiian chain kameha now proves his status as a great warrior when Hawaii wages war on neighboring Maui keho took no prisoners he

came in to kill everybody who stood against him or die trying kamehameha's prowess in battle is soon recognized by the king he makes kameha the war Chieftain he's responsible for the war god so that clearly indicates that he must have been a very proficient Warrior to have that high of a responsibility given him when the British arrive the young COA Commander knows exactly what his job is he must check out these strange Outsiders who are clearly of a warrior race are these men a threat to his King his people and his manner likewise cook takes

the measure of the young Warrior standing before him he realizes if there is trouble this is the man to watch we soon discovered amongst the chief's attendants kameha Maya a savager looking face as I ever saw cook badly needs to go ashore to resupply his ships but if there's any Clash with the Warriors he realizes he will be outnumbered cook decides to show them if there is a fight he's the one who will always have the upper hand cook ordered that the Cannons be fired to give a Display of Power and they loaded powder but

no ball and gave the command B fire and ready fire when the Cannons were fired the great roaring sound caused the Hawaiians to drop to the deck in fear and tremble Kamehameha again the officers noticed he didn't drop he didn't even Flinch but cook simply doesn't seem to consider that kameha Maya is any real threat he gets down to business circumnavigating and meticulously charting the Big Island before entering the broad shelter of kakaka bay as the ships drop anchor hundreds of canoes come out to meet the Royal Navy [Music] vessels it seems like the whole

of the world has come on board the ship and these 300 ton vessels are starting to move around a bit and start to heal over there are so many very big Polynesian people on board them and everybody's very enthusiastic there's something which isn't it's not a greeting it's not a trading opportunity it's a religious [Music] event what cook doesn't realize is that he has arrived at a highly unusual time in the normally War torn Hawaii the arrival of cook is associated with the the Harvest Festival called the makahiki makahiki was associated with the god Lono

who was the god of Agriculture and also in a sense the God of Peace and so during this time there would have been uh no Warfare cook ships have moed in a bay directly linked with Lono kilak kakua literally means the pathway of the Gods Lono was a fair skinned God he promised he would return on floating islands so when cook ships were spotted with the great sails billowing from the yard arms it was assumed these were the floating islands of Lono finally coming to return there certainly is quite a bit of evidence to show

that the Hawaiians believe that cook was luno some would argue that he was treated almost as a god some Hawaiians there's accounts of them basically prostrating themselves on the ran in front of him cook plays up to his newly anointed status as a god being Lono is proving highly profitable in securing some badly needed supplies they came looking for provisions and they came at a time when the way you showed off your righteousness to the God was to give away as much as you possibly could while Provisions are gathered for the ships cook Sailors discover

almost anything can be traded for a handful of iron Nails one of the things we know about the interaction of the cook Expeditions with Polynesian societies is very high levels of social interchange between Sailors who went ashore native [Music] women high on the Hawaiian shopping list is anything made of iron when the Hawaiians saw all of the metal on the ships they saw a huge wealth we don't have iron ore as in the Raw state only pieces of shipwrecks that came ashore would provide bits of metal that could be used for tools and even small

[Music] weapons but not everyone is caught up in this flurry of sex and hard bar the one group in this society that doesn't have a great deal to trade are the Warriors because British don't need any Warriors and the Warriors don't have any anything that that the British want kameha Maya's coers need metal to make weapons but unlike their women folk they have nothing to offer so they're on the sidelines watching all of this happening and they're watching their Prestige within their own Society collapsing in front of them during makahiki the Warriors are forbidden to

wage war but they are determined to put on a show of [Music] strength I think there's a lot of status anxiety going on here and some of that PO ing on the beach is look at us we're big and strong Cooks men describe it as a boxing match but this goes Way Beyond sport frequently people were killed in these matches literally beaten to death [Music] but for now the Warriors are kept in check by the taboos of makahiki beneath the surface though tension is rising many of the trades at least would we would perceive today

to be very unfair to say I'll give you 30 hogs for One Nail or such might be an indicator that the Hawaiians felt that it they were justified in in taking certain things from the British there is now a Spate of petty pilfering the Warriors begin to display an attitude the British describe as too much bordering on insolence there's an account written in in one of the journals that the British had sort of been exploiting the Hawaiian for resources and one of the Hawaiians rubs the belly of a of a British sailor and says well

it seems like you're about full now it's time for you to move on once again cook seems either unaware or unconcerned by any of the warning signs after 16 days in Hawaii cook finally set sail the great Explorer returns to his primary mission to discover the elusive Northwest Passage believed to be located in the Frozen wastes of North America Cook's initial visit to Hawaii is is very largely successful you know it's a classic visit to a Polynesian Island it's it's the kind of thing that maybe Naval men will will dream of after leaving the shelter

of kilak kakua bay fate now intervenes cook ships ride the storm for 3 days and then disaster strikes the forast on HMS resolution shatters the crew has no alternative but to limp back to kilak kakua for major repairs cook arrives back in Kilik kakua Bay and he and his men must have expected that they' meet the same happy enthusiastic positive friendly Hawaiians and they don't for kameha Maya and the Hawaiians the strange return of Lono is profoundly disturbing according to their religious beliefs this simply shouldn't happen rather than being open and friendly most of the

people reced and hide from the ships instead of welcoming them what the British don't realize is that makahiki the season of peace is over it's a different time of the year it's a different season and nothing it's going to be the same Second Time Around the seasons are changing between makahiki in the time of loo in the time of war that was beginning again at long last the Warriors can shake off the religious taboos of the god of peace they know there is now one clear way to regain status they're all important Mana the COA

must take on the men who have undermined their Authority the British led by their chief Captain James Cook they're checking the British out they want to know if these are really worriers because most of the British crew the Marines uh and even the sailors are not going to look very impressive physically to the Polynesians the Warriors want to find out just what the British are made of and know there is a Sure Fire way of provoking a reaction things start to go missing from Cook's ships the British had things that they wanted and the easiest

way to get them was to pick them up and carry them away they had no moral compunction in in stealing theft is actually a skill in the Hawaiian culture in the Polynesian culture there are people that are famous thieves you need a thief from time to time and unlike on the first visit it's no longer Petty pill pilfering now the Hawaiian steel items essential to the success of Cook's Mission and the safety of his men tension boils over when a warrior makes off with a blacksmith's chisel and [Music] tongs cook is provoked into action he

decides it's time to teach the Hawaiians a lesson in British justice 40 Lashes in full view of the Warriors watching from the beach the uneasy piece is now seriously under threat it's begin to break down and the thing that cook had always been so good at was keeping that that level of tension so that the British didn't overstep the bounds of course the Chiefs would certainly not appreciate this type of behavior and now that they weren't restricted by the makahiki season they could go ahead and react as they felt they should react rather than holding

back the COA are burning to Revenge this humiliating loss of Mana one Warrior slips on board unnoticed steals the tools again and makes [Music] off now it's Cook's turn to taste humiliation he swiftly assembles his Squadron of Marines he's determined to give Chase and in person he's laughing at cook not because it's funny but because he's trying to humiliate he's saying come on run catch me you know this is a game uh it's a very dangerous game but it's a game the veteran commander and his fully laden Marines stand no chance of catching the strapping

young Warrior British would be frustrated they would not be able to chase down the thief so the idea of being able to steal something and get away with it was quite the game for the Polynesians and the object of the game is to provoke a response from the British the thieving is not about the goods it's a challenge kameha Maya and his coers have made a fool of the British but the monor hungry Warriors are out for blood but while kameha Maya has superiority in numbers he realizes if it comes to open conflict he's outgunned

to take on cook and win Kamehameha knows he must find a way to even up the odds he was a warrior and he wanted metal daggers it will give him and his small group of followers an edge in battle whoever they're figh if they end up fighting the British a knife is still better than a stone axe kameha Maya has worked out his game plan he doesn't even need to steal the knives he'll get the British to Simply hand them over Kam comes on board in his outstandingly striking feather cloak and he wants something he

wants nine knives such exchanges are common place during Cook's Pacific voyages to his second in command Charles clerk there is nothing Sinister about kameha Maya wishing to trade a valuable cloak for knives there a standard tool for almost all kinds of work that you do with wood with rope and most of the PO iians who acquired knives use them for pretty much [Music] everything but kameha Maya doesn't work with rope and wood he is a warrior Chief and knows exactly what his job is he's a highly trained killer [Music] Kamehameha passes out the new weapons

to his Squad and now Reveals His plan to take on the British it's a covert operation aimed at striking right into the very heart of Cook's Camp kameha Maya's bold scheme is to steal Captain Cook's most important boat the ship's cutter the boat is how you survey it's how you chart it's how you go ashore to get food and supplies and they will take this indispensable boat from right under the very noses of the British it's the sort of thing that you would have to associate with the warrior group they're the people with the the

training the expertise and the the sensibility that would lead them to do something dangerous like this Kam Maya's strategy is simple he wants to anger cook into overplaying his hand and provoke him into making a strategic blunder by stealing the cutter the Hawaiians will have known that this was going to annoy the British far more than anything else they attempted to steal before the day of tension draws to a close and all now seems calm out on the water but below deck cook is still raging at his earlier humiliation at the hands of the Warriors

he orders clerk to double the watch and commands have the muskets loaded with ball instead of shot and if there is any more Stone throwing or insolence fire upon them so much as breae down below a lone COA Warrior is stealthily moving in they're taking the British on and they're challenging them and they're going to see if the British are as tough as they claim to be the consequences of of challenging the British are not predictable first light the officer of the watch immediately realizes the ship's cutter is gone its Mooring rope has been cleanly

sliced through and by a knife clerk breaks the news to cook good morning you have to remember that in Cook's world there's nothing much more important than a good ship's boat a sailing ship without boats is a disaster cook quickly comes up with his strategy to get his boat back cook wanted to make an example and his decision was to kidnap the elui or the king of the big island in order to get the cutter back and this in hindsight maybe seems like a very bad idea clerk desperately tries to make cook change his mind

but the veteran Commander is adamant one thing that so he's going to use the full ceremonial of taking his Marines his red jacketed soldiers his Elite Warriors as it were ass sure he's going to use the overwhelming Firepower at his disposal to intimidate the Hawaiians and there's now a danger that something is going to get out of control to the British all seems quiet on the beach but kamehameha's Warriors are all around for now they are content to buy their time and wait for cook's next move Cook's State of Mind during the second period in

kilua Bay he's quite clearly balanced this was irrational it was not a sensible response it was not an intelligent response it was not a cook [Music] response when cook marches into the Royal compound he immediately quizzes The King about the missing cutter colal puu isn't aware that it's been stolen he was asleep during the entire incident nobody asked him they just did it so so he's a little bit confused as to what's going on cook tries to get the king to come with him the king doesn't defy cook but his attendance and such are very

worried about this situation kanano puu seems under the impression that cook is inviting him to visit his ship and initially he is more than happy to go along with this proposal but as the party approaches the seafront the king starts to waver and he becomes confused and so he shows his refusal by sitting down in the trail right in front of cook despite his rage cook backs off he realizes manhandling the ruler of Hawaii is not his best move cook is a practical man he sees that the chief is refusing and immediately decides to scrap

this plan we'll go back to the ship we'll come up with Plan B cook is about to order his men back to the the boats and [Applause] then a gunshot is fired at another part of the bay that Echoes off the great Cliff face now news reaches the king he hears that a British unit at The Far Side Of The Bay have shot a warrior chief dead and a word of that came to where cook and his men were the tension was [Music] increasing it's the moment that kameha Maya and his Warriors have been waiting

for news spreads very quickly cooking grossly oversteep to the m Warriors now Rush In from all angles the COA know exactly what their job is to repel the British and protect their King and by any means necessary the Hawaiian become more threatening very large crowd gathers and cook is now in a very difficult position [Music] weapons begin to appear at the ends of the crowd and make their way [Music] forwards cook and Phillips face the Hawaiian crowd and now the standoff becomes quite close the Hawaiians are doing what we'd recognize as is some kind of

hacker somebody steps out of the crowd it's a very short range c f is it either misfires or he's loaded one side with bird shot it stuns the warrior but doesn't kill him which must have encouraged the Hawaiians now another Warrior runs forward this time towards Marine leftenant molesworth Phillips the crowd was absolutely boiling this is what being a COA Warrior is all about years of intense training now kick in automatically the Hawaiian begin to press the attack and the Marines begin to fire into the crowd [Music] [Music] to the shock of the British kamehameha's

Warriors stand their ground Cook's men underestimated the reaction of the Hawaiian to Western weapons and it was was not something that deterred them the ship can't fire to cover them and the crowd surges [Music] forward the Marines have no chance to [Music] reload the order goes up to retreat to the boats cook moves back to the water's edge but suddenly he stumbles he's knocked down bloodied and tries to rise up and call the boats in the Hawaiian see this as a sign of weakness he can't be a God if he is now suffering like [Music]

this and once they see him bleeding the call goes out that he's a man just like any other man and he's leapt upon in great numbers he's stabbed almost certainly with one of the blades that kamehame has exchanged with Clark only days before they're taking daggers out of one guy's hand so they can use it to poke HS in him when they take him down they all want to be in at the kill [Music] and as soon as they'd killed cook it was done [Applause] Kamehameha and his COA Warriors have taken on the might of

the British Empire and they've won all the Warriors wanted was to prove themselves to to reestablish their their Kudos their credibility and they achieved that very swiftly they've secured an enormous increase in their Prestige they've seen off the enemy Chief he's dead [Music] ironically their triumph over cook is the beginning of the end for the COA Warriors Kamehameha now launches his campaign to unite the Hawaiian Islands but he relies more on Modern Firepower than on The Bravery of his Warriors Kamehameha finally succeeds in uniting all the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 and now the writing is

on the wall for the co Warriors once unification happens there is really not the same sort of need as there had been for warrior classes after unifying the island I think the society starts to change the Warrior's Lust For War and Manor is replaced by a new Hawaiian spirit it's called Aloha signifying peace compassion and mercy Aloha encapsulates modern Hawaii a Tropical Paradise attracting visitors from all across the [Music] world but in recent years many are now rediscovering that very different Hawaii the land of proud skilled and fiercely independent Warriors they were the elite the

special forces of medieval Japan ruled by an ancient code The Way of the Samurai is death they have no other skill to sell except their ability to kill people they are obsessed with death at the heart of their world is the deadliest blade ever made when you pick up a Japanese sword it actually feels it's almost alive their mission protect the honor of their Clan there is no alternative absolutely impossible not to take revenge absolutely impossible the 47 roning were doing exactly what they had to do this is the true story of the 47 Ronin

an epic tale of Revenge in ancient Japan the last and the greatest of the Samurai Black Ops [Music] it's 1703 the city of Edo in Japan is a teaming Metropolis it's the capital of a major Eastern power and the headquarters of a military dictatorship in one of its smarter suburbs a top government official has been enjoying a party for the cream of Edo Society Lord Kira yoshinaka has served the Shogun Japan's absolute Ruler all his life he's an influential bureaucrat and he's cleverly ensured that he and his family enjoy the protection of his Master Kira

is uh an older man he is a hatamoto a high ranking Knight we would say he's married well and his daughter has married extremely well and he's well connected he lives by the rules of Conformity and has made his name with the courts philosophy of obedience and fitting in if you know your place and you perform in the place you are supposed to perform the world will be a harmonious Place everything will work everyone should be Linked In This Very powerful strong hierarchy everyone must do what they're [Music] told but to get to the top

he's made many formidable enemies one group has been worrying him for some time but tonight Kira is letting himself relax a little he's had some encouraging intelligence the group seems to have [Music] disbanded it turns out to be a fatal mistake because what he doesn't know is that 47 Samuel I Commandos are closing in on his mansion and they have one objective to find and kill him in the utmost secrecy a band of Outlaws has resurrected a near forgotten way of War now they're hellbent on wreaking terrible Revenge when they turned up in Edo it

was a massive shock and they were using all the weapons sword spear bow everything and they knew how to use them and so far Lord Kira and his household are completely unaware of the danger they're in they are about to come face to face with a force who will become one of Japan's greatest legends the 47 [Music] Ronin just a few years earlier the possibility of a violent attack on a senior politician in Japan's ancient Court would have been Unthinkable the court life of Edo in 1701 is extremely refined politeness and correct behavior is everything

it might be a military dictatorship but this is no place for the straightforward Soldier type it's a world that's the ultimate in perfect manners artistic Beauty and highly polished courtly etiquette everything is so rigidly defined the wrong shoelaces will get you into trouble everyone titters behind their hands because you're wearing green on a Sunday there's all these kind of rules that no one bothers to explain into this delicate world comes a Highborn Prince with a serious attitude problem as a noble aano naganori is obliged by law to spend six months a year at the court

of the Shogun to show his loyalty he has to fit in keep his emotions under control and play the game name the trouble is he's just not cut out for the job you have these very intricate rituals going on and Kira is there explaining to people you need to move that to there then you must wait you must nod you must bow you must walk backwards no not now then everything is incredibly delicate and intricate one wrong move everyone's going to laugh [Music] aso's country seat is far far away from the refined Hees of Edo

he's a man of the countryside and the highlands and his people are not City types above all he's from a special class in Japan one that defines the nation's military pride and tradition more than any other aano is a samurai samurai were essentially a hereditary warrior class that was best known for ruling Japan for about 6 or 700 years until they were eliminated in the wake of modernization of the late 19th century they're identified by Harr Styles they're carrying two swords so their dress definitely sets them apart by the time asano arrives at court Japan

has been at peace for a 100 years it's been a long time since anyone saw real conflict but the samurai are still special and everyone at the Edo court is all too aware of their Fierce military Traditions asano included The Way of the Samurai is death and that was the way to face battle to say that you've got no ties to this world you're just going in to kill people they have no other skill to sell except their ability to kill people and so that becomes like a death cult to them they are obsessed with

death above all the samurai are fearless the height of Excellence for any Warrior is bravery and the samurai take it to extremes being a samurai is about mastering your body your emotions your skills and then Perfection them to the point that it is that full Mastery that determines your ability to perform in battle but in Japan of 1700 the samurai like aano have a problem they are an Elite Class of expert soldiers in a country that has abolished War [Music] there is quite simply nothing for people like asano to [Music] do the Shogun had issued

a decree saying there will be no more Wars stop spending money on castles when there's no fighting to be done and in fact in 1703 it's exactly 100 years after the last real battle of the Samurai everyone sitting around it's the great grandchildren of the original Samurai Victors and they argu about how a samurai should behave and nobody really knows the samurai or bushy of the 18th century may never have seen actual Warfare but they still have all the pride you'd expect from a group backed by a thousand-year-old military tradition and in aso's country estate

The Way of the Samurai or bushy meant perfecting your horsemanship and keeping your fighting skills up the courtiers in the shogun's palace they were all Samurai busy they'd kept their fighting skills alive in the Hundred Years of Peace but they weren't what the country Samurai were they were so much stronger than the ones that had been weakened by years of Court life [Music] the Edo court is a world away from aso's country estate and he simply doesn't fit in there but it's not because he's a Country Gentleman he's also got a Wild Streak asano is

a problem asano is a problem child there's a kind of Shogun or report and it didn't say anything negative about asano but it did say he was fond of drink and it did say he liked the ladies and it kind of implied that he was a bit of a wasal and not real kind of high rank material the Shogun requires asano to carry out certain official duties but the prince doesn't have much of an idea of the correct courtly procedures so the Shogun appoints the bureaucrat Lord Kira to show him how to behave properly at

court Kira is the ultimate Insider and asano is a complete Outsider it's a disaster waiting to happen Kira doesn't have any real power the the only Power he can exercise is being sned with people and luckily for him there's plenty of opportunity because he's in charge of explaining to these country bumpkins whove come out of nowhere how they're supposed to act in the shogun's palace and Kira makes a point of showing his pupil just how much he has to learn he rubs asan's pride in the dirt and Delights in showing him up during long tedious

lessons on correct Behavior two personalities are immediately on a collision course that will have devastating consequences some k something before long Kira's insulting attitude towards his pupil kiss pushes asano to the limits of his endurance he was really treated as a country bumpkin uh and in the end he was so insulted that he just couldn't take anymore he just drew his sword and slashed Aira Aira of course that was absolutely forbidden would be like drawing your gun in bucking and Palace you just don't aso's attack on Lord Kira is a shocking event and the whole

of Edo Society is stunned no one has ever done anything like it before in the shogun's palace it would have been bad enough if he'd just drawn his sword but to actually wound a minister of the government was unforgivable really asano has crossed the line it doesn't take the Shogun long to decide what to do with this Troublesome Young Prince the only thing really that they could do as a punishment was to order ASO to commit suicide [Music] the decision from the Shogun is unequivocal asano has to die preferably as soon as possible as a

samurai he's allowed a unique form of [Music] execution The Honorable way for asano to accept his fate is to die by his own hand but it has to be done in a very specific way laid down by law and tradition it requires exceptional bravery to carry out it's called seppuku seppuku means cutting the belly and it is an incredibly painful way to die it is as far as a samurai could work out the most painful way to die it'll take you two or 3 days to slowly bleed to death you'll be in agony and that's

why they did it because anyone can step themselves in the throat anyone can jump off a cliff that's what the civilians would do but a samurai has to take the boldest [Applause] option sabuku originated in the heat of Samurai Warfare cutting your own throat or disemboweling yourself was a way of showing that you were not afraid of a painful death it was the ultimate Defiance if you knew you were being defeated while battle is Raging around them the castle is on fire if they were being defeated they would simply accept their fate take out a

knife and they would open up their bellies [Music] this would let them bleed out and die but it was done by their own hand this was saying to the enemy I am still a warrior you will never take me I have my honor asano may be dead but the consequences reverberate far and [Music] wide his country seat is at AKO 400 m away it's a grand castle and substantial estate with hundreds of loyal Samurai who have served aso's family for [Music] Generations as the Terrible news of aso's crime disgrace and death is read out the

truth starts to sink in they knew what was going to happen that the castle would be taken and and the lands taken they would have no work they'd have no leader so their lives would be destroyed nearly 400 Samurai formerly under asan's command now now have nowhere to go they've lost their jobs and face a dramatic drop in status the term for a leaderless samurai is a ronin or a Drifter if you're a Samurai and you lose your job there's no low exchange no one's hiring no one wants a samurai from a failed domain you

become cast a drift your Flom and Jetsam you are RoR in you are a waveman you probably only had one cable skill which was the ability to beat people up and kill people losing your master is about the worst possible thing that can happen to a Samurai and many never recover from the catastrophic loss of [Music] status they would really become itinerant mercenary soldiers so they were looked on as troublemakers the Ronin in Edo which is Tokyo now um caused a lot of trouble you know they fighting and brawling and probably drinking asano may have

left no hires but there are people who are loyal to him and one in particular is an important family servant called Oishi yoshio he's a faithful Guardian who's asano since childhood oi was probably responsible for the education of aano asano is in modern paran's child of a broken home his father dies when he's eight or nine years old he's raised by the samurai when a sonor misbehaves when he causes this trouble I'm sure o isi thinks this is my fault I have to deal with this in some way with nowhere to turn the Ronin make

Oishi their leader they're cornered and they want action they want Oishi to come up with a plan as well as losing their jobs they're outraged because they think the execution was unfair in particular they're angry that Kira has not been arrested in their eyes aso's death has all the Hallmarks of an illegal killing it's as if their master has been murdered and for a samurai that means only one thing a samurai who does not take revenge is not a true samurai he would be laughed upon so what happens is if a member of your family

usually a higher ranking member is killed it is your duty if not the law that you have to go and kill his murderer so sometimes Samurai could not even inherit their lands unless they Avenged the death of their father this could lead years tracking down the murderer until you killed him and when you did you'd bring the head home in proof that you had committed Revenge the Ronin now demand a Death Or Glory Revenge attack immediately even if it's suicidally dangerous but Oishi knows that that is exactly what Kira and the Shogun are expecting so

he counsels caution he wants the Ronin to put their faith in the shogun's Justice Oishi is actually one of the pacifists he's a dove he says well we better do what we're told there's a bunch of other samurai from a say no no let's siize the castle let's start to see let's start a fight let's attack Kira right now Oishi is the one who goes no we must obey the Shogun we must do what's right although outwardly calm Oishi is just as outraged as the Ronin but he wants Justice more than revenge he hopes Kira

will be punished that at least would mean some kind of fairness and then comes the news Oishi had not been expecting Kira is to be completely exonerated it's only when Kira gets away with it and when it's clear that there's no hope for them that this Vendetta officially begins their Fates are now sealed and for o she there can be only one course of action there was only one thing they could do absolutely impossible not to take revenge absolutely impossible oish She Wants Revenge but he knows the full frontal assault favored by the young Ronin

will be no more than a gesture he wants Kira dead and his vision depends on organization and stealth if it works it will be a proper Samurai Revenge but it will also be an awesomely difficult task Kira always travels with a large force of bodyguards the only way of hitting him will be at home but that is heavily defended and it's in a high security District surrounded by government buildings not just that the attack will have to be coordinated from their base 400 mil [Music] away it's already starting to look like an impossible job to

make matters worse Kira's agents track oishi's every move while Kira anxiously waits to see what he and his Ronin will do next will they launch a symbolic attack or accept their downfall and live out their days as despised Ronin Oishi decides to play a long game and wait and while he waits he's going to act out an elaborate [Music] deception his plan was to show the government that they weren't going to take revenge which is very difficult because at that time Japan was a police state the shogun's government had spies everywhere there were secret police

everywhere and whatever the yo Ron did would have been reported immediately back to the shogan they would have known that they would have been arrested immediately C to throw Kira and the shogun's spies off the scent Oishi pretends to do what Kira had hoped he would and he gives up he even pretends to let his life slide and goes to gisha houses where he gets drunk so the Ronin under o started drinking and and sort of dissolute life which is clever very CL clever cuz they weren't those kind of people to start with complete change

of character and sure enough Kira spies report Faithfully that Oishi appears to be a Broken Man gradually Kira and his Agents come to believe that Oishi is finished and his men have dispersed [Music] with Kira's suspicions aay Oishi has another problem how to physically get his men from AO to the capital without being seen it seems an almost impossible task so in a classic maneuver of Special Forces deception he instructs his men to go undercover and live ordinary lives as sleepers they all disappeared they scattered to the winds [Music] secretly more than 2 years pass

and gradually the court at Edo forgets the Dreadful business of aano naganori as the winter of 1703 closes in and the nights darken Oishi senses that his plan is ready the word goes out to the scattered sleeper units to make their way to Edo in secret it's time to kill Kira as if on the eve of a mighty battle each man dresses with a meticulous care and ritual Precision of a samurai going into battle for his Lord and at the heart of the ronin's preparations is the sword a weapon of devast ating ferocity and Samurai

are the only class in Japanese Society allowed to carry them over centuries of development the sword of the samurai or bushy has become sharpened to a pinnacle of perfection unmatched anywhere the Japanese sword is one of the wonders of the world it's the best metal work that has ever been made at any time in history anywhere the Japanese sord is the life of the Bushi that was his status his culture and his life and his power because throughout Japanese history the bushy and the sword has had complete control over the country using techniques unknown outside

Japan swordsmiths combine razor sharpness with near indestructible toughness they take the concept of the sword to another level swords are designed to be made out of composite ingots of Steel so you have very hard steel for the edge softer iron for the core and medium hard steel for the sides and the back and those different ingots of iron are all fused together then hammered out into the whole blade so that you get this artificially made composite steel structure the curved shape of the samurai sword ensures every blow automatically incorporates a slicing action that dramatically ramps

up its destructive power it's a wonder of the Samurai's World a unique part of his Armory and Central to who he is when you pick up a a Japanese sword you you can actually feel it it's not just a piece of metal it actually feels it's almost alive and you can feel the energy that's gone into making it the skill the design the shape the sword is a weapon it's an absolutely Lethal Weapon but it's a masterpiece of technology and art but it's not just the technology that makes the sword such a powerful part of

the Samurai identity caring for it and ensuring its Optimum Effectiveness through constant sharpening and polishing is Central to Samurai training It Isn't So Much a weapon as a way of Martial life Japanese SS required a certain degree of care in order to remain particularly sharp polishing your soul or keeping it always very sharp is very similar to the type of physical and mental training that as a samurai you have to go through in order to achieve the Stillness of the mind and the maximum strength of your body but Oishi knows that even the finest sword

will not protect his men against the forces of the state at Edo he's going to need the big Armory he can muster and for that he digs deep into the past of the Samurai battle in the nitty-gritty of battle um they were far more likely to use Spears bows and arrows axes anything that came to hand the Ronin go back to their roots and adopt long forgotten techniques and weaponry of the medieval battle Feast they were behaving in an incredibly practical way and they were behaving like real Samurai like people in the Middle Ages would

have behaved they were armed with odd weapons they had Spears clubs they had axes to to smash down doors they were incredibly practical tools as well as Weapons the Ronin are going to need something else if they're to Prevail in a full scale assault traditional armor is world class combining lightness and flexibility with the capacity to take anything the battle can throw at it if they can get hold of any Oishi and his men will be well served by the armor of their grandfathers it's mainly made up of Steel with the silk braiding holding it

all together and then it's covered in lacquer to uh protect it from the elements it makes it a very mobile armor you've got great dexterity and and so the speed of mve isn't limited the arm on the outside is excellent but on the inside is very vulnerable and the same with the the areas around the lower part of the body now the strong dough the the body part is is excellent and also of course it's designed in such a way that you still got plenty of movement left and right and forward and backwards it's a

fantastic Balancing Act you got protection on one side and Mobility on the other but when two using their armor the Ronin have a problem after years of Peace few have any and buying new armor even if they can afford it will be a major security giveaway so many of the Ronin have to improvise their armor was made out of bits and pieces of scraps that they' found of fireman's helmets and uh and kind of rags and bits of leather stuck together why do they do that because if you walk into the armor shop and say

I'd like 47 suits of Samurai armor please it's going to set off a flag someone's going to be worried about [Music] that the Ronin have done everything they can to prepare for battle a band of Fighters the kind of which Japan has never seen and a mission unlike any other and then Oishi has a breakthrough his own intelligence sources have managed to get detailed information about Kira's house they knew where his house was they'd spied out the land they knew the the the layout of the building and then there's another problem before oishi's men can

get anywhere near Kira's house they have to penetrate a huge and heavily defended perimeter wall a Japanese house like that has a very strong wall and quite a high wall you're talking about heavy heavy heavy duty defenses it's not like a modern house but no windows no glass windows so it is a mini castle and even if they can get over the wall the Ronin will not have the advantage of a surprise attack for very long moving through Kira's house undetected will be nearly impossible the samurai house is designed to detect Intruders they didn't have

electronic burglar alarms but they had other ways of detect Intruders the floor or the way the mats the tatami mats are laid out in the house is designed to detect footsteps and then there's another problem the house is full of secret hiding places to buy time for Kira to make good his Escape it makes a quick operation all the harder for oishi's men and time is critical because nearby is a massive Garrison of the shogun's army any delay and the Ronin will be wiped out very quickly and Kira has his own security Force permanently stationed

inside the house compound as well once inside Kira's house the Ronin will have minutes to find seize and execute Kira before backup troops arrive it's all starting to look like a long shot at best the time for waiting is over the 47 Ronin must go [Music] in they've waited two years to do it uh it's a perfect Black Op they go in at night it's snowy it's raining now it's a Race Against Time Oishi knows that as he closes in on his Target the shogun's Army will be summoned against him and his tiny band of

men the chances of being killed before they get to Kira are extremely high Oishi now orders his men into action units steal forward through back streets and undergrowth getting into position to take the compound to stop neighbors raising the alarm when the attack starts two units announce that the Ronin are on official business and amazingly it works when they started the attack on the compound uh some of the ronin's job was to knock on the neighbor's doors and say Don't Panic nothing to worry about go back to bed it's just a vendetta because vendettas are

actually legal um but there's a very strict set of regulations what they wanted the neighbors to do was to say oh okay the Shogun approves we'll go back to bed o she's next challenge is to get his men into the compound in a double strategy an Attack Force scales the walls of the perimeter while a second unit takes the guards of the gates they had people climb over the walls there would have been guards inside and there was a fight in the courtyard with the guards the Ronin who scaled the walls now must open the

gates but the guards refus to hand over the key it's all adding time and attracting attention the attack is already losing vital momentum there's only one option the locks need to be smashed the whole force of ronin inside the compound found Kira's own soldiers now must be immobilized and locked down in their Barracks they go in with these iron clamps that they shove on the doors to keep the soldiers in the barracks so they've neutralized a huge chunk of Kira soldiers now the Ronin need to take the house inside Kira is asleep along with his

household only speed ruthlessness and stealth will get the attack us through Kira's personal bodyguards will fight with all their might to repel the attackers [Applause] while Kira scrambles to escape the Ronin start a frantic surge spreading through the massive complex knowing that at any minute the might of the Japanese national Army might be summoned against them Japanese house has very little Furniture everything is stored in cupboards with sliding doors so they would have had to fight their way through the house and open all the cupboards to see where he was [Music] hiding with time nearly

up the Ronin seem to have lost the Target in a desperate measure a unit of attackers is sent to check out one last possible hiding place they did find him so then they had to go outside and look around the gardens and it's in the gardens that Kira is found and seized the moment that Oishi and his Ronin have waited for for two long years has arrived Kira is given the option to take the honorable way out and commit zuku but he's too cowardly a must die a shameful [Music] death but simply killing Kira is

is not enough they have to prove and account for the kill and once again Oishi turns to time honored Samurai convention the samurai are a cult of Head Hunters they get rewarded for the types of head they bring back the position and Prestige of the head or the amount of heads their entire honor system is based on the quality of the decapitated head that they come home with and according to the samurai code there is only one person who can reward them their Master asano if you want to talk about getting medieval that's exactly what

the 47 Ronin did they walked for five miles to leave his head on aso's Tomb that is an incredibly Samurai thing to [Music] do now the Ronin have restored the honor of their master and walked the way of the true samurai as no one has for nearly a 100 years they have no place in the realm of the living and are resigned to meet asano in death they turn themselves into the authorities and within days all are dead by seppuku these men had kept their martial skills alive for 100 years when they didn't really need

them for battle they weren't corrupted by Court life and they they were probably really rough country men who just would not take that sort of treatment an insult and they stood up to [Applause] it as Edo reels from the extraordinary attack the 47 Ronin become instant celebrities even if the repressive regime of the show forbids open discussion of the terrible events today Lord Oishi and his followers are still celebrated as symbols of ultimate loyalty and are honored as heroes in Japan [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]