I’m not sure why, but I no longer trust Vorenus. Something about his temper. I’m afraid that if he becomes emotionally charged again, he might well lash out at the closest available objects. Like his kids, for example.
I definitely think the story will go all the way to the battle of Actium. Then you’ve got one nice, fairly tidy ending.
They’re not going to waste an Antony-Cleopatra storyline are they?
Couldn’t. I don’t know how many episodes are left.
Liberal – yeah, I could see Vorenus doing something like that. There’s no indication that he’s fully reformed at all.
He pulled it last week, actually.
The new Octavian reminds me of Paul Bettany. He’s still doing a fabulous job of mimicking the stilted speech used by Max Pirkis for the younger Octavian.
We were thinking that he’s going to have to eat some hearty meals before he can reach Brian Blessed’s girth in I, Claudius.
I think last night was this season’s 5th episode and I think there supposed to be 12 eps in all, so they still time to take us all the way to Actium. I’ve just kind of assumed that’s what they were leading up to. I think the logical denoument would be Octavian voluntarily surrendering his army and Consulship to the Senate and the Senate, in turn, giving him the titles of “Princeps.” and “Augustus.”
The question is, how will they work in V&P with those historically significant events? Will they be at Actium?
I don’t think they can make it to Actium, people. We only get 10 episodes this last season, remember? This one was what, #5? Even if they run Philippi next week, that would only leave 4 episodes to cover how many years? Plus re-introducing Cleopatra and all the scheming that goes on with her and Antony. Goint to be tight if they do. It would be nice, but tight. (There is an Atia joke in here somewhere, but I’m not going to look for it!) 
Yeah, but if Phillipi is next week, what else would they do? What’s in between?
They’ve gone from assassination to Phillipi in 6 episodes (again, if phillipi is next week); they can go from Phillipi to Actium in 4 more.
That is a whole bunch of history to cover in 3.5 hours. I hope they can do it, but it will mean leaving so many threads hanging! I hate it when shows do that. But seeing Actium re-staged would be worth it. Of course they won’t…we’ll just see the edge of it.
They compressed the war between Caesar and Pomey, I imagine they’ll do something similar between Anthony and Octavian.
Dunno, from the “next time…” bit at the end of this episode, it looks like they’re going to do at least one full out battle scene, so it looks like they have the funding for some more extras/special effect/etc. this season. Maybe they’ll do a naval battle as well.
Just hitting the highlights, there’s Antony’s summoning of Cleopatra after Phillipi and the founding of the 2nd Triumverate, Cleo’s famous seduction of Antony by coming to him on a barge dressed as Venus, his ensuing relationship with Cleopatra, his falling out with Octavian and attempted reconciliation through his marriage to Octavia, his children with both Octavia and Cleopatra, his failed Parthian campaign, his snubbing of Octavia after Parthia to return to Cleopatra in Egypt, his growing unpopularity in Rome and Octavian’s eventual declaration of war against Cleopatra.
In addition to that, there’s still the V&P storyline.
Did you see the last episode of Carnivale? Damn HBO!
This was classic Atia (aka Alexis Colby). Octavian has the power (and the money) that she needs to maintain her position. She’ll fake anything to get it back. Don’t trust her for a minute to have anyone’s interest but her own in mind. She’ll disown her son when it suits her, and embrace him again when the tide shifts.
And the children. Won’t somebody think of them?
Not to mention Atia/Servilia, the Timon story, etc.
Yep, the key was that last close-up of her over Octavian’s shoulder. She was making crying sounds, but there were no tears, and she was looking all over the place as if trying to gauge reactions to her making-up with Sonny scene.
As for Octavia being an old maid, wasn’t she married early on, and Atia made her divorce him, and then betrothed her to someone else? I seem to remember him insisting on his betrothal rights to sleep with her and then regaging when someone better came along.
It’s even better than that. Atia made Octavia divorce her husband, presented her to Pompey in hopes that he would marry her, then she had the now ex-husband killed.
Given that I recently read Imperium by Robert Harris, which is the story of Cicero as told by his (historically real) slave, it was nice to see a bit more of said slave/secretary, who was quite a guy… most notably, he invented shorthand, presumably because Cicero talked so much, so quickly.
(One other interesting thing I learned was that the popular style of oratory before Cicero’s rise involved a lot of very artificial dramatic gesturing and moving about… the leading lawyer before Cicero was known as “The Dancing Master”. I wonder if that’s related to the gestures of the town cryer/journalist guy?)
Hortensius, and the style of oratory was called the Asiatic style. The rival school of oratory was called the Attic style. Cicero used a style that was in between the two of them.
If you get the chance, read his work “Brutus”, which is supposed to be a dialogue between him, Atticus, and Brutus upon the occassion of Brutus setting off to Athens to study. In it, Cicero talks about the various styles of oratory, as well as master orators.
Asiatic oratory relied on a kind of sing song delivery, rhetorically rich.
You seem to be the guy to ask. Is there a readable book on the history involved here that you could recommend?
Everitt’s biography of Augustus is the one I reached for when the series started. Well, that and Gibbon, but that was just for the later impacts. Now I’m getting interested in Cicero, so I’m digging through the bookshelves trying to find my old copies of Harvard Classics. 
I’ll bet they end at Actium. Here’s how they could break it down:
Episode 6: Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian defeat Brutus and Cassius at Philippi. Second Triumvirate formed. Show ends with Antony marrying Octavia.
Episode 7: Octavian battles with Sextus Pompeii. End episode near the end of the second Triumvirate on a down note with Octavian apparently losing his strength.
Episode 8: Renewal of the Triumvirate. Defeat of Sextus Pompeii. Lepidus exiled.
Episode 9: Antony’s break with Rome. War of words between Antony and Octavian. Octavian resumes power, and begins preparing to battle Antony.
Episode 10: Antony defeated at Actium. Octavian triumphant. Turns power over to the people. Series ends with Octavian being given the title Augustus Caesar.
Of course, in between them all we have to weave the various other threats - Vorenus and Pullo, Servillia and Atia, etc. They’d have to pack a little more than a decade into 5 episodes, but they’ve done it before.