1 ABSTRACT The thesis is divided into three major parts, the first giving an overview of the history of films and TV series about ancient Rome. This overview is based on scientific literature written in English. The second part, using scientific literature and classical sources, mostly pictorial, briefly describes weapons and armour of Roman soldiers from the Roman Republic until the end of the 2nd century A.D. The third part describes the costumes and weapon props in 25 films and TV shows picked on the basis of their popularity on Internet movie databases. The aim of this thesis is to find out, how does the stereotypical Roman soldier, created by this branch of popculture, looks like. The conclusion shows, that in the films and series about ancient Rome, the costumes rarely correspond to our historical knowledge about the armours from the times in which these films and series are set. Some costume attributes are constant and are supposed to serve as indicators, that the actor in the view of the camera is a Roman soldier. One of these attributes is lorica segmentata, armour made famous by its appearances in films like Ben-Hur, Gladiator and films about Asterix. Other attributes are attic style helmet, known from antique reliefs, big rectangular shields and bracers. Those pieces of equipment were not the...