Peplum: The Chronological Threads of Ancient History

It's a Timeline of Ancient Western History, listing 200+ Films, mostly Italian and Hollywood Productions from the 50s and 60s.

Peplum spans the mythological beginnings of the Ancient World and the fall of Civilization at the hands of the Barbarians. Watch it chronologically unfold, up until 1099 AD.

Soon, Atlantis is a sunken ruin. Babylon fights, but cannot halt the incoming Deluge. Great, peplum-clad Heroes bring progress to the Greeks. Hercules, Samson & Goliath campaign in the Promised Land. We see the decadence of the Roman emperors, with their cruel gladiatorial games. The Christians rise from rags to riches. Then, the barbarous Hordes will sack Rome repeatedly. There are many interwoven threads, long-winded and colorful, in the fabric of this peplum collection. Huns, Avars and Saracens despoil Europe. Rome is stripped of all. Then, the Vikings will open up America and Russia for further exploitation. Vae victis! Roman yarn intertwine with strands spun by vengeful Norns. At last, Peplum-clad Heroes spring forth from Hell in resurrected christian triumph. The Crusaders stand in liberated Jerusalem, at the twilight of ages.

After the conclusion of these events, the peplum of antiquity would be refashioned. For another hundred years or so, that passé, loose tunic would linger on among the less fashionable. However, from the 12th century onward, we see more fitted garments starting to be worn by the European Aristocracy, causing a break with 12 000 years of peplum history, as dutifully recorded here.

1914 marked, among other fateful events, the return of the peplum. This was the release year of Cabiria, an Italian silent proto peplum, set in ancient Carthage and the first of its kind in cinema. Peplum-draped pop culture would have its cinematic Renaissance in the decades that followed. By the mid-1960s, it was time to wrap up though – on short notice, the Italian peplum had metamorphosed into the Spaghetti western of epic soundtrack fame. Until then, an impressive amount of pepla had been made. Much peplum was shown as part of double features at the drive-in theaters in America.

After the decline and fall of classical style peplum, a previously marginalized subcategory of peplum would gain prominence. By the 80s, Conan the Barbarian brought us fantastical pepla from the Dark Ages. Predictably, the barbarian peplum was only to be a short and trashy thing.

The legacy of peplum, I suppose, lies in continuing the tradition to make new mythology. The lively peplum matter billowed out and was at best loosely fixed to the Greco-Roman corpus. Historical figures and mythical archetypes could be given atributes relevant to modern man. Eternal human nature gave rise to cravings, which were transplanted to myth and fitted to the modern sensibilitets of the era.

Events have been dated meticulously. The fates of peoples irrevocably intertwined. This Chronicle of the Age of Peplum is complete.