Who cares about the plot lines and historical accuracy, Rome has half naked sweaty men and some of them are in leather harnesses. That’s all the plot I need! 
I have to give them extra points for accuracy in one area - they had real live oxen pulling that cart. When was the last time you saw oxen in any movie or TV show?
The obscene Latin graffiti was a nice touch as well, but did anyone else catch all of it? I saw Cinaed… on the door, which was probably the beginning of cinaedus, (roughly, “cocksucker”) Atia Amat Omnia…something and Atia fellat…something. (“Atia loves all [something].” and “Atia sucks [something]” but I couldn’t see what she loves and sucks).
I am watching in slo-mo now. It is “CINAED”. “ATIA AMAT (OMAIES or OMNES)” under that is scribles. .“ATIA FELLAT(AATT or AATI)”.
CINAEDUS would be basically “cocksucker” (to be more exact, it’s someone who allows himself to be used as a passive sexual vessel (usually orally). I think it usually referred to males , though, but perhaps CINAED without the masculine ending (but without a feminine ending either, apparently) could be applied to women.
That would be OMNES in the “ATIA AMAT…” part “Atia loves all…” FELLAT is from FELLO, “to suck.” So that part means “Atia sucks…”
I have no idea what the AATT means. I think it must be an abbreviation that I’m unfamilar with. Either that or it’s an unrelated bit of scribbling. I wasn’t able to make out what was directly beneath ATIA AMAT OMNES but it wouldn’t suprise me if it said something like VIRI (“men”) and that “Atia loves…” and “Atia sucks…” were both intended to be read with “all men.”
It stands for the American Association of Teachers of Turkish languages. It’s meant to suggest that Atia is a cunning linguist.
[ashamed]I saw this thread title and thought that the History Channel had created their own version of Comedy Central’s Reno 911…[/ashamed]
It says, “Romans go home!”
But is it spelled and conjugated correctly?
It is accurate that most of the characters have an Engligh accent? I know the show is produced in association with the BBC, but was that the typical accent for Rome in that era?
They spoke Latin. The English language didn’t exist yet, much less English accents. The accents are intended to be analogous in showing how people from different classes and regions have different manners of speech. Also, the actors are mostly British.
No it is definitly not “ROMANES EUNT DOMUS or ROMANI ITE DOMUN”
:smack: Of course it didn’t. Well now that was a dumb question.
I gotta say that Niobe is the hottest of the Roman women. If you check her bio, the writers cleverly made her a “A peasant princess from a large and influential Roman clan”. I was wondering why her accent wasn’t as “low class” as her neighbors’. She does doll up pretty nicely, too. I wonder when we get to see her like this.
Maybe at her daughter’s wedding?
Good guess!!
If anyone’s interested, here’s a spoiler from an upcoming episode.
A naked Mark Antony orders two topless women to fight each other with swords. When one is injured he comes to a rescue by licking blood off her chest.
:eek:
Ah, thanks, I couldn’t remember if that had happened yet or not.
There’s an interesting implication in Masters of Rome*, that Servilia had her servant poison Caepio, so Brutus would inherit his fortune and so it would hurt Cato, who loved his brother to distraction.
If you ask me, Niobe looks MUCH hotter right now than she does in the HBO website pic.
One of the funniest moments was during Atia’s wonderful party, throngs are rioting in the street and trying to smash down the front doors and Atia blithely turns to her guests and says, “you may spend the night here if you wish…”
That made me laugh. What are they going to do? Leave and walk right through the murderous crowd outside the front door?