Wouldn’t showing full scale battles really slow down the production? It’s not exactly easy to get a few thousand people together to film such a thing.
Why would you automatically assume that any portrayal of nudity (regardless of age) is illegal?
The SCOTUS ruled (no, I don’t remember the case) that child pornography laws were written to protect the rights of children from being exploited. Therefore, “virtual kiddie porn” - be it photoshopped pictures of children’s faces on adult bodies engaged in sex acts, or flat-chested 18 year-olds in pigtails passing as 13 year-olds - is perfectly legal. And this doesn’t even address your central question - which was decided in yet another case - that nude pictures of children taken for artistic purposes are not illegal (actually, I believe the exact language the SCOTUS used was that “non-prurient” photographs - that is, pictures where sexual arousal is not the main intent - were OK. The original case involved a chain bookstore that was cited for selling a coffee-table book of nudes of children; SCOTUS found that the law (as written) was so broad that pictures of children in “baby handbooks” and other medical\how-to books could also be deemed obscene).
$100 million isn’t enough?
Here in Texas, I’ve had to use that line twice already this week. Prolly continue to use it until the hurricane gets here. I can’t wait till Fall gets here, maybe next month, or the month after that. Sigh.
As long as I live here, “Wetter than October” will never make a lick of sense either.
Damn – I have to see this. I missed that episode.
Cleopatra is usually portrayed as a temptress and an exotic woman. It’s certainly how she’s shown in Shakespeare and in the Elizabeth Taylor version.(Mario Puzo said she was an accomplished fellatrix in “The Godfather” - I don’t know where he picked up that tidbit from.) Maybe because of that, I’ve preferred the Shaw version, which has her younger, more naive, and virtually sexless (and IIRC she was on the young side when she met Caesar). The HBO series has generally tried to be both accurate and outrageous, so I suspect what they showed was supportable but not necessarily accurate. Opium, IIRC, originated in Turkey/Asia Minor, and was known in Classical times, so Cleopatra’s using it is certainly believable, but I haven’t heard it attested to.
“Cleopatra”, by the way, is a Greek name. A queen of tyhat name appears in the Iliad. Caesar’s Cleopatra was something like the seventh Egyptian ruiler of that name, and was IIRC, of Macedonian ancestry.
There is a character guide on the HBO website dedicated to this show, including the names of family members of some characters. They mention both of Lucius Vorenus’s daughters and both are given the name Vorena. I assume that’s the feminine version of his name, but why do they have the same name? Was that common?
It’s a good show, but it does come across as cheap at times.
They are simply trying to do to much. Instead of the focus on Ceaser, the focus should be on things back in Rome. They could still show an interesting view of life at the time, keeping it edgy and entertaining. But, everything Ceaser does is big budget. The battle against Pompei, the siege of Alexandria, the crossing of oceans with armies, etc. If you can’t do this big, then don’t do it at all.
It would be more powerful, IMO, to simply have the “speaker” character back in Rome announcing what’s going on with Ceaser than by trying to hire six black guys with spears to represent the siege of a huge city.
I’m hoping their saving up their money for the battle of Actium. (Perhaps, somewhere, there’s a producer scrounging amidst couch cushions, on a quest for spare change.)
There are so many tricks they could have used instead of trying to show a battle scene . . . showing the carnage and mess left after a battle, shrouded in smoke, or the shadows of a huge mob of people against the gates of the Alexandrian palace.
And yes, (though I’m too ladylike to duel 
) I do object to the portrayal of Cleopatra. There’s no evidence she was a slut-- those rumors were purposefully started by her enemies.
Exactly. The budget amounts to about $8 million per hour-long episode. That’s a lot more than most episodic television drama. Perhaps we’re unfairly comparing this to a big-budget Hollywood movie where $100 million buys a two-hour film.
Wow, do you ever have my condolences today.
Yes, that was the practice. A man had a given name(Gaius, Lucius, Marcus, or whatever. Then he had a name indicating his clan(Julius, Atius, Octavius, etc.) His third name was indicative of his particular line within the clan, and was sometimes derived from a nickname. Fourth or fifth names might be awarded to generals when they conquered major territories, Creticus, for Crete, or Atticus. A lot of nicknames were used, because Romans had relatively few given names, and some clans only used a few of what were available. So quite a number of men might have the same name, in a large family.
So Gauis Julius Caesar is Gauis of the clan Julius, of the family Caesar. Caesar derived from a root word meaning “a full head of hair”, so an ancestor was probably noted for that. Cicero, the family name of Marcus Tullius Cicero, came from a root word meaning “chick-pea”. Maybe the family ancestor had a big wart or something.
Women only had two names, the clan and family name, and no given name. So all sisters would have the same name, and be distinguished by nicknames perhaps, or their birth order. The older sister might be referred to formally as Vorena Major, and the younger as Vorena Minor.
Did the episode portraying her as a slut? I don’t think so, She had some very good reasons for fucking who she did.
At least she got someone who knows where the “button” is. 
When Cleopatra first appeared, my SO and I said, “she doesn’t look at all like Elizabeth Taylor”…
I am glad it has been renewed, but sort of surprised. Just the other day there was some comment on an entertainment show mentioning how dismal the ratings for Rome were, and that HBO was not happy about it after plopping down so much money for the show. Maybe they have high hopes for the DVD collection.
Maybe the DVD collection will have more sex in it. 
Good point - and as Atia would say, “everybody likes big penis.”
Cleopatra’s slave told Vorenus that “Majesty is an excellent lover,” which implies plenty of practice.
I simply don’t believe that Cleopatra, daughter of kings and the living incarnation of Isis, would have selected a Roman soldier at random to father her child. Bloodlines were too important back then. Ceasar and Antony were fine-- they had good Roman bloodlines (noble) and they were obviously favored by the gods.
If I’m not seeing way more subtext than there actually is, I got the impression that the timing was important for some reason. She was “between the floods” right now, and might not be when she met Caesar. It was important for her to become pregnant as soon as possible, and if that meant doing the deed with whoever was available, so be it.
Time appears to be a bit flexible on the show, so its not clear if it took a day or maybe a few weeks once Vorenus and Pullo found Cleo to get her back to Caesar.
Timing was what I got from it also, she knew or thought at least that that night was the best timing.
Another thing. Did Vorenus turn down Cleopatra because he felt it was wrong to be used for sex like that or because he wanted to honor his marriage? He seems like such an honorable guy that it might be the latter.
From the speed those poor guys were carrying Cleopatra’s palace-in-a-box, unless Alexandria was about 200 yards away, I’d say it took at least several weeks.