Firstly this is not, let me repeat this not, in my estimation, an accurate historical documentary. There's license taken with some of the historical facts in order, I suspect to fit the flow of the story line(s) crafted for this short series.
Casting that not inconsiderable fact aside, what this series does do and does well, is bring a general facsimile of ancient Western history alive. This is a positive in so much as it that may encourage the interest of those who have no academic background in the subject.
What assists Barbarians Rising immensely, is a quality, mostly British cast. There are some well known faces here who breathe life, in a convincingly down to earth way, into key historical players from the period.
As a note I'd add some have criticized this series because of its title. Its true many of the civilizations the Roman's labelled "Barbarian" were sophisticated. Some more so than Rome itself. What this refers to is the Roman "attitude" towards other civilizations. This is clearly defined at the beginning of each episode and indeed, does accurately reflect Romes general attitudes, to anyone not Roman or classically Greek.
All in all, as is often the case where historical truth meets the commercial imperative to entertain, some license has been taken but there is still enough on offer here, to say this series does have some general educational value too. 7/10 from me.
