The “look” was very authentic. As a student of Roman history (who wrote his bachelor’s thesis on Augustus), I felt that their getting the look right was worth all of the creative license they took with the actual events.
I remember when Gladiator came out I told a number of friends that I was thrilled with the return of the sword-and-sandal epic, but figured that the only way that classical Rome could ever be depicted accurately would be a cable series. TV and mainstream movies just would never have the nerve to show giant decorative phalluses, naked slaves in the streets, child prostitution, and a thousand other aspects of life that one probably would have seen in a single daily trip to the Forum Boarium. Not to mention that the accurate portrayal of Roman attitudes towards the status of women (remarkably enlightened for their time, for what it’s worth), slavery, exploitation of children, genocide – without some degree of moralizing – is something few filmmakers would willingly embrace.
A quick question to those that have watched this series. I was given the box sets from a friend that’s done with them and ripped them all so that I have them on my AppleTV for watching. But I’m not positive that when I pulled them from the DVD that I got all the titles on the right files. Is there a title screen at the beginning that can tell me which episode is which without me watching the whole episode? Especially as I haven’t started watching yet, so I have no idea who all the characters are.
Actually, the same question applies to Deadwood too. I have two seasons of that show that I’d like to watch too, but don’t know which file to start with, or what the order is after that.
If you mean something that says “Episode 1” or “Episode 2,” no, I don’t think so (if I remember correctly), for either series. When HBO showed them, there was always a recap of the previous show, so that might be helpful.
SPOILER ALERT.
My favourite part (going from memory) happens during the Battle of Filipos.
Augustus: (watching the battle) What’s going on? you know
Mark Anthony: (eating a piece of bread) No idea (drops the bread unsheats the sword) On my command!
A: What are you doing?
MA: When in doubt… CHARGE!
They took a lot of creative licences, for example neither Casio nor Bruto dies fighting (they both kill themselves) but the show captures the atmosphere perfectly.
Watch “Spartacus” “Rome” and “I Claudius” and you have a trilogy about the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire.
Does HBO even care about ratings? It’s a subscription channel, so I would think what it wants is shows with enough “buzz” (e.g., The Sopranos) that people feel compelled to subscribe to it.
They were definitely setting up for a third season that would take place at least partly in the Holy Land. They introduced Herod and several zealots, but as others said, the series was too expensive to continue.
ARTE started showing this, but they don’t have background on their website. I’m noticing a lot of visual details and some events I’m wondering about - I’m sure there’s a lot of meaning and thoroughly researched stuff behind everything, but I have no idea what exactly it means that e.g. Caesars slave / super secretary wears a small tablet around his neck.
I also would like to know which attitudes of Vorenus esp. (who’s the most obvious hero, as in the most obvious good guy modern audiences can relate to) and of others were changed to accomodate modern viewers better. E.g. his love for his wife Niobe expressing as that he didn’t have sex with other women while on campaign in Gaul with Caesars’ 13th … for 7 years! And that his sex with Niobe is always missionary position. Wouldn’t a typical, virtuous Republican Roman man of that time have sex when he liked because love was completely different to being monogamous; and wasn’t most sex attergo style (from behind)?
Is there a website (or an older thread) listing all the visual clues and explaining all the differences, and all the correct attitudes (e.g. the way Vorenus talks about slaves, and even his daughters being his possessions - that sounds shocking, but realistic for that time).
Actually, Pullo is more the hero of the series. Especially towards the end. He evolves a lot more than Vorenus does (Kevin McKidd’s limited acting range is probably to be blamed for that). But I agree that Vorenus seems to be the leading man of the duo in the beginning of the series.
As other noted, the series was cut short because it was just too expensive. The second half of the second season seems pretty rushed because it is – they found out halfway through that there’d be no third season.
I read an interview before with the [writer? director?] who said they had originally envisioned the series leading into the time of Christ. There’s a few hints of it in the second season – it’s been too long for me, but I believe they mention an upcoming census and perhaps Pilate. It’s in the subplot involving the Jewish guys.
Edit: And I totally missed that this was a zombie thread, older than Rome itself.
It’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but if you can get your hands on the DVD/Blu-Ray copies, there’s a special feature called (IIRC) “All Roads Lead To Rome.” Basically, it adds a ‘pop-up video’ style commentary that explains various historical details–very interesting, if you’re a Roman history geek at all. I actually think they explained the tablet ol’ whazzisname wore around his neck, though I can’t remember anything past that.
As to when the show ended–sure, it was disappointing, but it’s hard to see how they could’ve taken it too much further. Vorenus and Pullo would’ve been heading towards old age, and they were (IMO) the real protagonists, not the Major Historical Figures. Without them, the show would’ve lost its heart.
There was talk of a Rome movie a while back. The article I read discussing the film contained an interview with the shows creator. He mentioned that they had envisioned 5 seasons - the second season was supposed to end with the death of Brutus. Antony and Cleopatra would have developed over seasons 3 and 4 with Octavian gaining power at the end of the 4th. Season 5 would have jumped ahead and been about the introduction of Christianity to Rome.
[quote]
(Rome (TV series) - Wikipedia) on the Wikipedia article from the show’s creator about what he intended with future seasons, “I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end. The second was going to end with the death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There’s certainly more than enough history to go around.”
Too bad, as I loved the show and would have liked to have seen it completed properly.
I love that feature. In addition to “The Battle of Mutina was fought yadda yadda” factoids it tells you tons of facts about everyday life (what the prayers they are saying mean, what goddess is being invoked and why, parts of the insula [apartment building], etc.), or how much money Pullo and Vorenus would earn and what it would buy, etc… Even the info about the very well known figures like Julius Caesar is often way beyond what you would read in history books (e.g. Caesar gave Servilia a black pearl worth 5 million sesterces) and explains why the news reader is making the gestures he’s making (they were historically accurate and based on actualy 1st century BC “How to speak in public” guides).
I bought the DVDs (albeit on a loss leader sale at Christmas) just for ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME. When I read that there was a tie-in book to the series coming out I was hoping it would include all these great tidbits, but unfortunately it’s basically just a coffee-table book with a glorified episode guide.
That explains a lot, especially about the historical omissions. They omitted Octavius’s wife Julia and one of Livia’s sons for example, which totally screws up history since Caligula, Claudius, and Nero descend from one or the other or both of these kids. (They also omitted one of Antony and Cleo’s children but that’s not such a biggie since their kids weren’t important to the empire.) Then there’s also the major time discrepancies- Niobe’s son who should be grown by the end is still a kid for example, while Pullo and Vorenus are still in the prime of life.
One thing I did like was how they handled Caesarion. While he’s generally believed to have been killed on orders from Octavius it’s not certain and is actually possible (if not likely) he lived out life under a pseudonym somewhere in Egypt. And while he wasn’t likely conceived in history as he was in the series it was also far from certain even at the time that he was Caesar’s son; J.C. never acknowledged him and Cleo only really started making a huge deal out of it after the Ides of March.
I have to go against the consensus here. I was not very impressed by the series. I felt like they added in all these soap opera elements which were a distraction from the world-changing events that were going on. And I didn’t like the way they threw these two fictional characters into the heart of real historical events and then made them the pivot on which these events turned.
Each their own of course, but now that we’ve had a couple of Rome inspired shows, I think adding Pullo and Vorenus was really a good move. Shows like the Tudors and Borgias suffer from having almost all their characters be historical personages, which means that we more or less already know what going to happen to them. They’re also, as a general rule, almost always from the same socio-economic level, so we only ever get to see throne-rooms and mansions, and not how the rest of society lives.
Pullo and Vorenus allowed for a major part of the plot to be free from the constraints of history, and let us see how people that weren’t in the Senate lived. And it kept the show from being just another retelling of the fall of the Republic, which has been rehashed a couple hundred times between now and Shakespeare.
(also someone will come in and nitpick that Pullo and Vorenus are technically historical, in that they’re mentioned in one of Cesaers histories, but beyond the names they’re effectively fictitious).
Pullo was bullshitting Niobe. Sort of. He knows that Vorenus is truly in love with Niobe but he was bullshitting her on the “he hasn’t been with any other woman” thing.
Um, Vorenus said this to Pullo himself while they were on the way back from Gaul to Rome, how he could hardly wait to finally get home to Niobe. And since Pullo had been with him the whole time, and didn’t call him on it, I take it to be meant as truthful.