Original release 14 juillet 2014
Previous episode S08E02 - François-Ferdinand ou la fin du monde
Number S08E03
Episode runtime 43 minutes
Country France
Original language French
Genres Documentary, History
External links TheTVDB page
IMDB page
TheMovieDB page
Last update 23 octobre 2026 - 05:37
on 11 databases

Danton, aux armes citoyens !

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Stéphane Bern conte la vie de l'homme politique Georges Danton (1759-1794). L’itinéraire de ce tribun exceptionnel est évoqué depuis les lieux mêmes où se sont déroulés des moments forts de l’histoire : le moulin de Valmy, où l'armée française triompha en 1792 des Prussiens - bataille qui fut considérée comme la première victoire de la République, la prison du Temple où fut détenu Louis XVI, le Tribunal révolutionnaire où eut lieu le duel entre Danton et l’accusateur public Fouquier-Tinville. Des historiens, le ministre de l'Economie Arnaud Montebourg et Jacques Arnoux, descendant du patriote, témoignent et expliquent pourquoi Danton et Robespierre, les deux hommes-clés de la révolution naissante, ont fini par s’entretuer.

BetaSeries' opinion

Secrets d'histoire Season 20 Finale: Stéphane Bern's Messalina Episode Ends a Season About Reputations on Trial

Twenty seasons in, "Secrets d'histoire" can still surprise its audience. The Season 20 finale aired on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at 9:10 p.m. on France 3, and Stéphane Bern closed the season with one of the most notorious women of antiquity: Messalina, the third wife of Emperor Claudius. If you watched it, you already know it was more than a parade of Roman scandal. It was a careful re-examination of a woman whose name has been shorthand for depravity for almost two thousand years. If you haven't caught up yet, this debrief shows why the episode, and the whole season, deserves a place in your watchlist.

A finale that puts history's verdict on trial

The question at the centre of the finale was simple: does Messalina deserve the brutal nickname history gave her? Roman writers handed down a woman driven by insatiable desire and a hunger for power. Bern's team took that portrait apart piece by piece. They asked who wrote the story, why they wrote it, and what they gained from it. This is the series at its best. It doesn't simply retell a legend. It looks into how the legend was made. Messalina's world gave the episode plenty of drama: Caligula, Nero, Agrippina and the freedman Narcissus all appear, each with their own agenda in the deadly politics of the Julio-Claudian court. Without spoiling anything for latecomers, the finale's real emotional pull comes from the gap between the caricature and the young woman caught up in a machine much bigger than she was.

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