Those About to Die review: Anthony Hopkins swords and sandals drama is more about titillating than convincing [Video]

How often do you think about the Roman Empire? That was a question that went viral on social media last year, exposing, to a generation of girlfriends, just how much time their partners wasted thinking about what was going on in Italy at the turn of the first millennium. People now regularly describe arcane nonsense – for me, the 1946 New Towns Act or the Nancy Meyers movie, The Intern – as their “Roman Empire”. But for people whose Roman Empire is still the good ol’ Roman Empire, Roland Emmerich – the man behind Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow – brings the Eternal City back to our screens in Prime Video’s 10-part epic, Those About to Die.

Rome, AD 69. For those in the know, this year represented …