# HBO's "Rome": Major nitpick **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183 "2013-02-03T04:01:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jack\_tardiff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/43a26b/32.png) [@jack\_tardiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jack_tardiff)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/21 "2013-02-03T19:09:17Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Caesar was playing politics. “Oh, me? Oh, what do I know? I’m just a poor simple soldier, not wise and learned like your fine self.” Reported for insinuating Golden Age Romans coexisted with unfrozen cavemen lawyers.☹ ---
**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:** [February 3, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/22 "2013-02-03T19:18:41Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > This show is one I’ve watched dozens of times and I remember the scene clearly. He’s saying in a tone that clearly states “Support me and you’re going to continue being in charge. Why would a simple guy like me want to mess with things that we both know only a wise man like you could manage.” The scene basically went over the OP’s head. Gaius as presented in the show is one of the smartest motherfuckers I’ve seen in any series, even if he does wind up stabbed to death. Yep. There is no mystery here. You’d have to be autistic to not get the message being conveyed here. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/23 "2013-02-03T19:46:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > No, there was no division between “official” priests and “religious” priests, which is what you are implying. The [College of Pontiffs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_of_Pontiffs) were actual priests and the [_Pontifex Maximus_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifex_Maximus) was the chief priest. Of course, like the Pope (who also uses the title of _Pontifex Maximus),_ his duties were mostly administrative, but, like the Pope, he still conducted ceremonies himself. Caesar wasn’t physically in Rome for almost the entire period he was Pontifex Maximus, so he must’ve delegated most of the responsibilities for the office to somoene else, ceremonial or otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/24 "2013-02-03T22:22:54Z")
Can a nitpick be major? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/25 "2013-02-03T22:59:09Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Can a nitpick be major? Don’t nitpick the nitpicks. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/26 "2013-02-04T00:18:03Z")
_ **Thirteen!** _ ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/27 "2013-02-04T00:18:12Z")
What, only one?:dubious: I have given up on seeing anything really authentic on tv - to be blunt, most people don’t want ankle deep in shit and mud streets, people with disfiguring diseases, nasty deaths and all the _real_ details of historical life in many periods of history. They want pretty sanitized fluff. The best of the lot tends to be non-US programming, though occasionally they can get decent costuming in, and if they don’t screw with the books too badly [Lindsay Davis has a whole series set in Vespasian’s Rome, and she had one book turned into a movie that she promptly disowned.] I tend to treat anything on TV that predates 1900 as alternate universe fantasy fiction. It makes me whine and scream at the TV less. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/28 "2013-02-04T00:27:41Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I have given up on seeing anything really authentic on tv - to be blunt, most people don’t want ankle deep in shit and mud streets, people with disfiguring diseases, nasty deaths and all the _real_ details of historical life in many periods of history. They want pretty sanitized fluff. Eh, **Rome** was plenty gritty, and it and **Deadwood** seems to have created a trend for TV historical dramas to do the same. So I’m not sure your criticism holds. They still generally don’t have plots that follow history very closely. But that’s pretty much unavoidable. Actual historical events are almost always too complicated and sprawling to depict 100% accurately without ending up with an unwatchable mess. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/29 "2013-02-04T15:58:01Z")
This is half the fun of watching Rome, trying to figure out the political manipulations. The first few episodes simply spelled it out for the audience directly to teach us how to think like a Roman. In the first episode Octavian gives an out of place speech about why Caesar outwardly is concerned about losing the Standard, but in reality is pleased it is gone because that benefits him more. There are more in the first few episodes and after that the writers let the viewer try to find the manipulations themselves. This is one of those cases - what Caesar is saying outwardly is sweet and appears to be weak but in reality he knows exactly what he’s doing to gain power. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/30 "2013-02-04T22:22:54Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Atia of the Julii was based on Octavian/Augustus’s wife, Livia Drusilla, and not his mother. Whose younger son (father of Claudius and Germanicus, grandfather of Caligula and g-grandfather of Nero) is also gone. To make your head hurt, though, try figuring what relationships would exist if he had existed in the series and if Agrippa really had been the father of Antonia as in the series (before he left to become an Irish chauffeur), and try figuring it without paper. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/31 "2013-02-04T22:30:30Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > In the first episode Octavian gives an out of place speech about why Caesar outwardly is concerned about losing the Standard, but in reality is pleased it is gone because that benefits him more. And the character was about 12 years old when he said that, so it was a way of telling the audience that he was a very clever guy. (I think Lucius Vorenus was shown to be impressed by this statement.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/32 "2013-02-05T13:23:04Z")
> [@YourAdHere](#): > > Were they, though? I know you’re probably not entirely serious, but just how close are modern Italians (yeah, I know, the Mafia is from Sicily ) to Ancient Romans with all the migrations of various peoples? Are they genetically "the same "? For one thing, there seem to have been more red heads in Italy in antiquity.. Modern Sicilians would have a much higher Moorish admixture than Ancient Romans. As to all the redheads - it’s [not that strange](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_hairstyles#Dyes). ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183/33 "2013-02-05T13:57:52Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Modern Sicilians would have a much higher Moorish admixture than Ancient Romans. Anyone else have Dennis Hopper’s explanation of Sicilian genetics to Christopher Walken playing in their heads right now? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7ZMICczOzfQ/maxresdefault.jpg "True Romance - Sicilianos") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZMICczOzfQ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hbos-rome-major-nitpick/649183.md?page=1)