# HBO: Rome. Who's watching it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 28, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018 "2005-08-28T21:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/81 "2005-08-31T17:04:33Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I really like Caesar. Hope nothing happens to him. No spoilers! I want to see if Octavian really succeeds in his ambitions, whatever they might be. I see him as a great atheist poet! ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/82 "2005-08-31T17:19:21Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I really like Caesar. Hope nothing happens to him. Sources say mid March might be a tough time for him. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/83 "2005-08-31T17:27:15Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Or Caesar used one of Pompey’s slaves in an effort to implicate Pompey. No, there was a scene where Pompey sent that very slave out on an unspecified but vaguely ominous sounding errand to Gaul. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/84 "2005-08-31T17:29:25Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > The scene where Octavian tells the two solidiers about Pompeii and Ceaser was just bad. Bad writing, bad directing, and bad editting. At least let the boy think about things for more than 1/2 second before he delivers his master’s thesis on the subject. Well, didn’t Octavian have a few days to think about it while he was riding to Gaul? And, as noted above, he was wrong anyway. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/85 "2005-08-31T19:31:22Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#): > > Well, didn’t Octavian have a few days to think about it while he was riding to Gaul? And, as noted above, he was wrong anyway. No. He didn’t know the standard had been stolen until the two soldiers told him. He put all the pieces together (rightly or wrongly) in less than a hearbeat. I don’t know why they didn’t make the first installment 2 hrs and take some time to set things up. Everything seemed very rushed. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/86 "2005-08-31T21:32:57Z")
**DMark** wrote: > [@](#): > > I really like Caesar. Hope nothing happens to him. Let’s just check his horoscope… > [@](#): > > Martius 15, a.u.c. 707 > > **Cancer** > Commodus est in publicum non hodie prodire, sed amicos inter suos considerare. Hmmm… Pretty vague. That could mean anything. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/87 "2005-09-02T06:03:54Z")
> [@YPOD](#): > > I was glad to see a Roman officer shown with the proper crest - side to side, not front to back. > > But I did see a lot of unpainted statues. Didn’t the Romans paint their statues? Or was that just the Greeks? I watched the “making of” show, and remember the producers talking about how the sets would use lots of color because the Romans loved color, and would paint everything they could, like statues, etc. I guess they just haven’t shown us the painted ones yet. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/88 "2005-09-02T11:42:19Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > HVBBA HVBBA! VERY FVNNY. I HEREBY DECREE THAT ALL POSTS ABOVT **ROME** BE WRITTEN IN THIS SILLY STYLE. > [@commasense](#): > > In his speech to the soldiers, Octavian says that the loss of the eagle is useful to Caesar because Pompey “is no deep philosopher…and will take the symbolic loss as a real weakness,” and attack his old friend, a move Caesar doesn’t want to make first. **Octavian gives the impression that he thinks that Caesar probably arranged the theft himself.** > > But seconds later, Pompey’s slave is found with the eagle, and dispatched. So it turns out that Pompey arranged the theft (with the fake blue Spaniards), and so was not being maneuvered by Caesar into striking first, but was in fact striking first, and in a somewhat more subtle fashion than Octavian would have given him credit for. > > So although Octavian understood the basic outlines of the struggle between the co-consuls, he was blinded by class prejudice and family attachments. I WOVLDN’T GO SO FAR AS TO CALL HIM WRONG. (ok, enovgh of that) I thought that Octavian gave the impression that Caesar didn’t actually MIND the theft because he could use it to his advantage. . .but not that he arranged it himself. If you view it that way, it changes whether Octavian was right or wrong. Did I miss some dialogue that indicated Caesar arranged it, or did we just interpret his speech differently? In my view, Pompey struck first, played up the eagle loss as weakness, so that he could. . .strike first. Caesar will look upon it as a fortuitous opportunity. The only thing we didn’t know was that Pompey was behind the theft, although he gave that “two birds with one stone” speech, apparently referring to Caesar and Octavian? ---
**Author:** ![Torgo\_ate\_my\_hamster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71c47a/32.png) [@Torgo\_ate\_my\_hamster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo_ate_my_hamster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/89 "2005-09-04T00:19:24Z")
I finally got around to watch it and I liked it. One of the best scenes was the Gaul chief Vercingetorix (sp?) throwing his sword before Caesar’s feet although as a huge Asterix fan I must say the lack of his sword smashing Caesar’s toes was a bit disappointing. Well, i guess you can’t get smashed toes and frontal nudity in the same show. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/90 "2005-09-04T00:22:56Z")
> [@Torgo ate my hamster](#): > > I finally got around to watch it and I liked it. One of the best scenes was the Gaul chief Vercingetorix (sp?) throwing his sword before Caesar’s feet although as a huge Asterix fan I must say the lack of his sword smashing Caesar’s toes was a bit disappointing. Well, i guess you can’t get smashed toes and frontal nudity in the same show. People are probably going to laugh at me, but what show is Asterix? ---
**Author:** ![Torgo\_ate\_my\_hamster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71c47a/32.png) [@Torgo\_ate\_my\_hamster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo_ate_my_hamster)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/91 "2005-09-04T01:25:07Z")
It’s not a show but a comic book and I gues it’s pretty European thing. Here’s [Wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix) where you can learn some more, so that I don’t steal the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbo-rome-whos-watching-it/319018/92 "2005-09-04T04:08:07Z")
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