History Main / SwordandSandal

[[AC:Films]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' (1997) - Disney's entry into the genre

* ''Film/SinbadAndTheEyeOfTheTiger'' - mainly an ArabianNightsDays movie, but has elements of this genre, with Sinbad traveling to Greece to recruit the alchemist Melanthius for his journey. The movie takes a lot of its fantasy elements from Greek myths as well, most specifically the concept of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperborea Hyperborea]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Achilles}}''
* ''WesternAnimation/HerculesAndXenaTheAnimatedMovieTheBattleForMountOlympus''

* ''{{Film/Stargate}}'', oddly enough, is a remake of Exodus {{in space}} with AncientAstronauts.

* ''Film/TheScorpionKing'' series, a SpinOff from ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'', whose films have prologues set in this era.

* ''Literature/TheEpicOfGilgamesh'', one of the oldest surviving pieces of writing

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresI'' -- It starts in the Stone Age, but one of the main goals in any scenario is to upgrade your civilization to this trope. The Expansion, The Rise Of Rome, also fits here.

* ''Film/HerculesAndTheCaptiveWomen'' (also known as "Hercules And The Conquest Of Atlantis"). Introduced British bodybuilder Reg Park as Hercules. Was also featured on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''.

** ''Hercules, Prisoner of Evil'' was marketed as the third in the Reg Park-as-Hercules trilogy, but is actually another DolledUpInstallment, as its original Italian title translates better to ''Ursus, Terror of the Kirghiz''. As you can guess from that title, Reg's character wasn't originally supposed to be Hercules (and isn't even really the hero of the movie), and it's set in Central Asia during the time of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Mongolica Pax Mongolica]]. The American distributor figured that the setting would be exotic enough that most viewers wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

* ''ComicBook/LesAiglesDeRome''

Some of these films may also be set in the Middle East or North Africa, but are differentiated from ArabianNightsDays by time period: that trope refers to works set in the Islamic Golden Age (during what was known as the Middle Ages in Europe), while this trope refers to works set much earlier.

[[AC:Films]]

The subgenre of low-budget Sword And Sandal Italian films of the late '50s and early '60s is known as ''Peplum'' [[note]]The name comes from the ''peplos'', an Ancient Greek garment, a little like a toga, that became a mainstay of these movies' wardrobes[[/note]]. These films in particular tend to have the WorldsStrongestMan as the hero (often Hercules, but not necessarily). Much like the {{spaghetti western}}s that followed them, pepla tend to star non-Italian, Anglophonic leading actors ([[NonActorVehicle if they're actors at all]]) alongside an Italian supporting cast. If an Anglophonic lead could not be secured and they had to cast a fellow Italian, he'd take on an English pseudonym - Sergio Ciani, for example, became Alan Steel. These movies also tended to get [[MarketBasedTitle wildly different titles]] when released outside their home country, to the point where [[DolledUpInstallment entire franchises can be fashioned out of what were originally stand-alone movies]]. The term "peplum" can also refer to a second wave of Italian fantasy films that came out in the 1980s, though not all of these were SwordAndSandal movies, instead being SwordAndSorcery films [[FollowTheLeader overtly modeled]] on ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1981''. Sandals or not, the '80s pepla tended to be [[DarkerAndEdgier grimmer]], [[BloodierAndGorier more violent]], and [[HotterAndSexier sleazier]] than their relatively family-friendly forebears.

The subgenre of low-budget Sword And Sandal Italian films of the late '50s and early '60s is known as ''Peplum''[[note]]The name comes from the ''peplos'', an Ancient Greek garment, a little like a toga, that became a mainstay of these movies' wardrobes[[/note]]. These films in particular tend to have the WorldsStrongestMan as the hero (often Hercules, but not necessarily). Much like the {{spaghetti western}}s that followed them, peplum tend to star non-Italian, Anglophonic leading actors ([[NonActorVehicle if they're actors at all]]) alongside an Italian supporting cast. If an Anglophonic lead could not be secured and they had to cast a fellow Italian, he'd take on an English pseudonym - Sergio Ciani, for example, became Alan Steel. These movies also tended to get [[MarketBasedTitle wildly different titles]] when released outside their home country, to the point where [[DolledUpInstallment entire franchises can be fashioned out of what were originally stand-alone movies]]. When the fantasy genre had a big boom in the 1980s, and [[HeroicBuild bodybuilder physiques]] came into style, the Italian film industry [[FollowTheLeader responded]] with a new cycle of peplum films starring a new generation of beefcakes, although only a few of these movies qualify for this trope; many of them tended to eschew the Classical world and its expensive sets in favour of cheaper-to-produce works featuring a BarbarianHero in a pure fantasy world. They would usually compensate for their lower budget by being [[DarkerAndEdgier grimmer]], [[BloodierAndGorier more violent]], and [[HotterAndSexier sleazier]] than their relatively family-friendly forebears.

ReligionIsMagic tends to apply here: any fantasy elements will be the work of [[Myth/ClassicalMythology the gods]]

The subgenre of low-budget Sword And Sandal Italian films of the late '50s and early '60s is known as ''Peplum''[[note]]The name comes from the ''peplos'', an Ancient Greek garment, a little like a toga, that became a mainstay of these movies' wardrobes[[/note]]. These films in particular tend to have the WorldsStrongestMan as the hero (often Hercules, but not necessarily). Much like the {{spaghetti western}}s that followed them, peplum tend to star non-Italian, Anglophonic leading actors ([[NonActorVehicle if they're actors at all]]) alongside an Italian supporting cast. If an Anglophonic lead could not be secured and they had to cast a fellow Italian, he'd take on an English pseudonym - Sergio Ciani, for example, became Alan Steel. These movies also tended to get [[MarketBasedTitle wildly different titles]] when released outside their home country, to the point where [[DolledUpInstallment entire franchises can be fashioned out of what were originally stand-alone movies]]. When the fantasy genre had a big boom in the 1980s, and [[bodybuilder physiques]] came into style, the Italian film industry [[FollowTheLeader responded]] with a new cycle of peplum films, although only a few of them qualify for this trope, as many tended to eschew the neo-Classical world and its expensive sets in favour of cheaper-to-produce works featuring BarbarianHero in a pure fantasy world. They would usually compensate for their lower budget by being [[DarkerAndEdgier grimmer]], [[BloodierAndGorier more violent]], and [[HotterAndSexier sleazier]] than their relatively family-friendly forebears.

The subgenre of low-budget Sword And Sandal Italian films of the late '50s and early '60s is known as ''Peplum''[[note]]The name comes from the ''peplos'', an Ancient Greek garment, a little like a toga, that became a mainstay of these movies' wardrobes[[/note]]. These films in particular tend to have the WorldsStrongestMan as the hero (often Hercules, but not necessarily). Much like the {{spaghetti western}}s that followed them, peplum tend to star non-Italian, Anglophonic leading actors ([[NonActorVehicle if they're actors at all]]) alongside an Italian supporting cast. If an Anglophonic lead could not be secured and they had to cast a fellow Italian, he'd take on an English pseudonym - Sergio Ciani, for example, became Alan Steel. These movies also tended to get [[MarketBasedTitle wildly different titles]] when released outside their home country, to the point where [[DolledUpInstallment entire franchises can be fashioned out of what were originally stand-alone movies]].

Contrast SwordAndSorcery, on which the name is based (or vice versa). Strictly speaking, the two genres are distinguished by SwordAndSorcery having explicitly fantastic settings, typically a pseudo-Medieval European style ConstructedWorld. Conversely, Sword And Sandal at least pretends to depict real-world historical settings, usually being set during classical antiquity in the Mediterranean regions. There is often some overlap though, especially when mythology gets involved, but it is usually existing mythology based directly on Hellenic tradition.

* ''Film/HerculesAgainstTheMoonMen'', actually another Film/{{Maciste}} film [[DolledUpInstallment repackaged for US distribution]]. Would later turn up on ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''.

** ''Film/HerculesAgainstTheMoonMen''. Despite its English-language title, this is another Maciste movie. The distributor figured that [[MarketBasedTitle Hercules had more name recognition than Maciste in the Anglophonic world]]
** ''Film/ColossusAndTheHeadhunters'' - Another Maciste movie.

* ''Film/GoliathAndTheBarbarians'' (originally titled ''Il Terrore di Barbari'', literally ''The Terror of the Barbarians''), loosely based on the Lombard invasion of Italy in 568 CE. It tells the story of a musclebound hero named Emiliano (Creator/SteveReeves), who must repel the invaders. In the English language release by Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures, Emiliano was renamed to the more Roman and less Italian-sounding Emilius, but mostly called by the nickname "Goliath" (though he's not meant to be the Biblical Goliath). Although it was originally a standalone movie, AIP tried to make a franchise out of it by [[DolledUpInstallment redubbing other peplum movies]] to be about Goliath/Emilius - namely ''Film/GoliathAndTheDragon'' (originally a Hercules movie, though one without Reeves) and ''Film/GoliathAndTheVampires'' (a Film/{{Maciste}} movie).

* ''Film/KingArthur''

* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' - An AffectionateParody.

* ''Film/HailCaesar'' is not an example in and of itself, being set in 1950s Los Angeles, but its plot revolves around [[ShowWithinAShow the filming of]] a Biblical epic called ''Hail Caesar!: A Tale of the Christ''. It seems to be mainly about a pair of Roman soldiers (Creator/GeorgeClooney and Creator/ClancyBrown), present at the Crucifixion, who are so moved that they convert to Christianity

* ''Film/TheProdigal'' (1955) - An adaptation of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The message was somewhat undercut by its marketing, which prominently featured the image of Creator/LanaTurner sexily draped across the idol of Astarte and making [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing a pretty convincing case for being a heathen]]

The subgenre of low-budget Sword And Sandal Italian films of the '50s and '60s is known as ''Peplum''. These films in particular tend to have the WorldsStrongestMan as the hero (often Hercules, but not necessarily). Much like the {{spaghetti western}}s, peplum tend to star non-Italian, Anglophonic leading actors ([[NonActorVehicle if they're actors at all]]) alongside an Italian supporting cast. They also tend to get [[MarketBasedTitle wildly different titles]] when released outside their home country, to the point where [[DolledUpInstallment entire franchises can be fashioned out of what were originally stand-alone movies]].

* ''Film/{{Hercules 1958}}'' and sequels. The first one, starring Steve Reeves, is the [[TropeNamer first movie to be called]] a "sword and sandal" one. A few of the Reeves films - including the original - would later appear on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'', which got a lot of mileage out of this kind of movie.

** ''Hercules, Prisoner of Evil'' was marketed as the third in the Reg Park-as-Hercules trilogy, but is actually another DolledUpInstallment, as its original Italian title translates better to ''Ursus, Terror of the Kirghiz''. As you can guess from that title, Reg's character wasn't originally supposed to be Hercules, and it's set in Central Asia during the time of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Mongolica Pax Mongolica]]. The American distributor figured that the setting would be exotic enough that most viewers wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

* ''VideoGame/TotalWarSagaTROY

[[caption-width-right:350:ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?]]

* ''Film/HerculesInTheHauntedWorld'' - Another with Reg Park as Herc. Director Creator/MarioBava, best known for his very stylized horror movies, brings kind of a DarkFantasy tone to this movie, with a very vivid depiction of [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Underworld]]. Creator/ChristopherLee, another horror icon, plays the villain.

* ''Swords And Sandals'' A flash game series where you play as a gladiator. It's even in the name!

** Referenced in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'''s "Sweet Transvestite" number, when Dr. Frankenfurter invites Brad and Janet to join him in watching "an old Steve Reeves movie". Given their campy tone and the [[MrFanservice acres of beefcake on display]], it's not at all surprising that Frank would enjoy these movies.

** ''Film/HerculesInTheHauntedWorld'' - Another with Reg Park as Herc. Director Creator/MarioBava, best known for his very stylized horror movies, brings kind of a DarkFantasy tone to this movie, with a very vivid depiction of [[FireAndBrimstoneHell the Underworld]]. Creator/ChristopherLee, another horror icon, plays the villain.