The show took some pretty big liberties with actual events, but I am wondering about the internal timeline of the show. I haven’t seen Rome since it was originally broadcast so I do not remember it that well. But I remember being confused about the timeline. The show covers roughly 22 years of history (from Caesar being ordered to disband in 49 BC to Augustus being named Princeps in 27 BC), but it is obviously compressed. Did the show not even try to create a consistent internal timeline? I think Caesarion might have jumped Lucius (bastard child of Niobe) in age. Does anyone know the timeline for the show?
One bump.
If you can find the old Rome threads, the timeline was discussed there. I’m not sure what happened to the knowledgeable people who participated in those threads.
There might be something at Television Without Pity too. They have even more nitpickers, er, experts than we have here.
The dates in this cannot be right. While this may match up the episodes to the real events, the timeline of the show has to be different because we do not see the characters age enough for the show’s timeline to match the real timeline.
James Purefoy (who plays Mark Antony) points out in one of the DVD commentaries that Vorenus’s kids obviously have something that stunts their growth, because they’ve aged from four years old to ten years old in 22 years.
I think it’s safe to say that in terms of character aging, the show wasn’t consistant, as the only ones who show any sign of aging on the show are Caesarion (baby at the end of season 1, 9-10 year old at the end of season 2), Vorenus’s kids (as Purefoy mentioned, age a few years…baby Vorenus is maybe 7-8 when the show ends), and Octavian (who one episode was a 16 year old Max Pirkis only to turn into a 20 something year old Simon Woods the next episode)