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I've just completed the first season of Rome and I thought I'd write some comments on it. I found it very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to finding season 2. I'll write comments on the series itself after I briefly discuss a couple of historical misrepresentations. Now, I understand that these are necessary, particularly in the way that the show absolutely races through big events. Generally, these are not damaging to the show and I am able to hold my tongue. It is also remarkably accurate and plausible in conjecture for a television series. There's just a couple of things I felt were important.
In the first episode (52BC) Cato makes reference to Pompey's co-consul, Caesar, being absent. I can't stress enough how silly the idea of Caesar being a consul in 52BC is. Caesar had been in Gaul since 58BC, with only a short intermission to return near to Rome in 56BC when he travelled to Luca to meet with Pompey and Crassus and arrange their co-consulship for 55BC. At that time, there was no way that somebody, especially Caesar, was going to elected while absent from Rome, or be able to fill out their term as consul while absent from Rome. The whole point of consulship was that you governed Rome while you were in Rome, and then would be able to take a proconsular command to govern a province. That is how Caesar was able to go to Gaul. He had been consul in 59BC and arranged to take Gaul for a period of 5 years, which Pompey and Crassus then extended for him. As for 52BC, what makes it a remarkable year is that the hard-line conservatives in the Senate (Cato's faction) allowed for Pompey to be appointed consul alone, without a consular partner, to deal with the civil strife that had gone out of control in 53BC. Why the show decided not to highlight how remarkable it was for Cato to grant Pompey sole consulship, but chose to fill it in with the impossible and unbelievable idea of the hard-line conservatives having let Caesar become consul beside Pompey while Caesar was still engaged in a proconsular command, is beyond me. Caesar actually tried to arrange for himself to be eligible for the consular elections of 49BC while absent (it was unconstitutional to be standing for election and be outside of Rome) by coercing the 10 tribunes to pass a law outside of Senatorial veto. He wanted to be elected and immediately after his year-long term take another province to command. The point is that while he was a consul or while he was the governor of a province outside of Rome through proconsular command, he was sacrosanct - he could not be charged for criminal activity. It's a misrepresentation of the situation in Rome in 52BC and quite misleading.
Less importantly, but to do with the lead-up to civil war as well as how a character in the later part of the season is represented... Cassius was not a Pompeian who Caesar pardoned and allowed to return to Rome. Cassius was a tribune in the same year that Mark Antony was a tribune, and he was also under Caesar's employ, working with Mark Antony to veto Senatorial decisions about Caesar. Together they did veto several measures before finally they were told that the tribune sacrosanctitas would not protect them, and the two of them fled Rome and joined Caesar's army. Cassius' involvement in the plot to kill Caesar is more interesting because he was initially one of Caesar's men.
On to the show - I thought the acting was top notch. Ciaran Hinds as Caesar was truly magnificent, and the rest of the cast did a fine job. I felt that the characters of Vorenus and Pullo took a long time to warm up to, but eventually did become a good part of the show, particularly as their status and influence over events increased. Polly Walker's Atia, another of the fictional characters (but an entirely plausible and actually very likely creation) was a very deft creation in terms of incorporating Octavian and Octavia to the show before their influence on history begins, as well as providing a firm balance for Servilia, whose influence in the course of events is another conceit of the show's that works very well for the series.
For the historically important characters, it's so interesting knowing how each and every one of them will end and watching the show. The scene in which Mark Antony threatened to cut off Cicero's hands and nail them to the Senate House absolutely made me cringe, knowing that Mark Antony will demand that very thing from Octavian and receive it. And the dynamics of writing in an affair between Mark Antony and Atia, considering Mark Antony and Octavia's future marriage and the fact that Octavian will eventually crush Mark Antony and Cleopatra adds layers of depth to the show. The same thing goes for the fictional plotlines that run through the show - the way that the writers have woven Niobe's illegitimate child, Servilia and Octavia's affair and Vorenus' rather improbable rise to the Senate together to contribute to the conspirators' plot in assassinating Caesar.
There were a number of standout scenes for me - such as the scene in which Pompey's head is delivered to Caesar, or when Cato and Metellus Scipio committed suicide. The final episode was amazing - and the writers' inclusion of so many allusions to Julius Caesar worked very well. Calpurnia's dreams, the man on the street trying to stop Caesar, Brutus refusing to kill anybody but Caesar himself, and of course Ciaran Hinds' amazing expression as he looked upon Brutus, convey "et tu, Brute" without even needing to say it.
Unfortunately as I was writing I was reminded of one more inaccuracy that bothered me at times. I felt that the attitudes towards the plebeian families throughout the series were greatly exaggerated - Pompey was plebeian (as is mentioned several times by Atia, I suppose), as were Mark Antony and Cassius (you had to be of plebeian class to be able to stand for tribune). But where it really bothered me was in the final episode, when Cicero made a fuss about Vorenus being raised to Senatorial rank when he was just a plebeian. Cicero himself was a plebeian, and a "novus homo" in that nobody in his family had ever been elected consul before him. He started out as a lawyer. The objection is not that they are plebeian, because those lines had been blurred many years earlier, but that they didn't have the money to go into politics.
With all of that said I'm glad I've been able to see this highly enjoyable and well-made series. I'm very much looking forward to season 2. I think it's only a shame that they didn't start it about 30 years earlier, because there's so much stuff there, such as the civil war between Marius and Sulla, and Pompey's rise to power, which was in so many ways far more extraordinary and unconventional than Caesar's.
In the first episode (52BC) Cato makes reference to Pompey's co-consul, Caesar, being absent. I can't stress enough how silly the idea of Caesar being a consul in 52BC is. Caesar had been in Gaul since 58BC, with only a short intermission to return near to Rome in 56BC when he travelled to Luca to meet with Pompey and Crassus and arrange their co-consulship for 55BC. At that time, there was no way that somebody, especially Caesar, was going to elected while absent from Rome, or be able to fill out their term as consul while absent from Rome. The whole point of consulship was that you governed Rome while you were in Rome, and then would be able to take a proconsular command to govern a province. That is how Caesar was able to go to Gaul. He had been consul in 59BC and arranged to take Gaul for a period of 5 years, which Pompey and Crassus then extended for him. As for 52BC, what makes it a remarkable year is that the hard-line conservatives in the Senate (Cato's faction) allowed for Pompey to be appointed consul alone, without a consular partner, to deal with the civil strife that had gone out of control in 53BC. Why the show decided not to highlight how remarkable it was for Cato to grant Pompey sole consulship, but chose to fill it in with the impossible and unbelievable idea of the hard-line conservatives having let Caesar become consul beside Pompey while Caesar was still engaged in a proconsular command, is beyond me. Caesar actually tried to arrange for himself to be eligible for the consular elections of 49BC while absent (it was unconstitutional to be standing for election and be outside of Rome) by coercing the 10 tribunes to pass a law outside of Senatorial veto. He wanted to be elected and immediately after his year-long term take another province to command. The point is that while he was a consul or while he was the governor of a province outside of Rome through proconsular command, he was sacrosanct - he could not be charged for criminal activity. It's a misrepresentation of the situation in Rome in 52BC and quite misleading.
Less importantly, but to do with the lead-up to civil war as well as how a character in the later part of the season is represented... Cassius was not a Pompeian who Caesar pardoned and allowed to return to Rome. Cassius was a tribune in the same year that Mark Antony was a tribune, and he was also under Caesar's employ, working with Mark Antony to veto Senatorial decisions about Caesar. Together they did veto several measures before finally they were told that the tribune sacrosanctitas would not protect them, and the two of them fled Rome and joined Caesar's army. Cassius' involvement in the plot to kill Caesar is more interesting because he was initially one of Caesar's men.
On to the show - I thought the acting was top notch. Ciaran Hinds as Caesar was truly magnificent, and the rest of the cast did a fine job. I felt that the characters of Vorenus and Pullo took a long time to warm up to, but eventually did become a good part of the show, particularly as their status and influence over events increased. Polly Walker's Atia, another of the fictional characters (but an entirely plausible and actually very likely creation) was a very deft creation in terms of incorporating Octavian and Octavia to the show before their influence on history begins, as well as providing a firm balance for Servilia, whose influence in the course of events is another conceit of the show's that works very well for the series.
For the historically important characters, it's so interesting knowing how each and every one of them will end and watching the show. The scene in which Mark Antony threatened to cut off Cicero's hands and nail them to the Senate House absolutely made me cringe, knowing that Mark Antony will demand that very thing from Octavian and receive it. And the dynamics of writing in an affair between Mark Antony and Atia, considering Mark Antony and Octavia's future marriage and the fact that Octavian will eventually crush Mark Antony and Cleopatra adds layers of depth to the show. The same thing goes for the fictional plotlines that run through the show - the way that the writers have woven Niobe's illegitimate child, Servilia and Octavia's affair and Vorenus' rather improbable rise to the Senate together to contribute to the conspirators' plot in assassinating Caesar.
There were a number of standout scenes for me - such as the scene in which Pompey's head is delivered to Caesar, or when Cato and Metellus Scipio committed suicide. The final episode was amazing - and the writers' inclusion of so many allusions to Julius Caesar worked very well. Calpurnia's dreams, the man on the street trying to stop Caesar, Brutus refusing to kill anybody but Caesar himself, and of course Ciaran Hinds' amazing expression as he looked upon Brutus, convey "et tu, Brute" without even needing to say it.
Unfortunately as I was writing I was reminded of one more inaccuracy that bothered me at times. I felt that the attitudes towards the plebeian families throughout the series were greatly exaggerated - Pompey was plebeian (as is mentioned several times by Atia, I suppose), as were Mark Antony and Cassius (you had to be of plebeian class to be able to stand for tribune). But where it really bothered me was in the final episode, when Cicero made a fuss about Vorenus being raised to Senatorial rank when he was just a plebeian. Cicero himself was a plebeian, and a "novus homo" in that nobody in his family had ever been elected consul before him. He started out as a lawyer. The objection is not that they are plebeian, because those lines had been blurred many years earlier, but that they didn't have the money to go into politics.
With all of that said I'm glad I've been able to see this highly enjoyable and well-made series. I'm very much looking forward to season 2. I think it's only a shame that they didn't start it about 30 years earlier, because there's so much stuff there, such as the civil war between Marius and Sulla, and Pompey's rise to power, which was in so many ways far more extraordinary and unconventional than Caesar's.
But yeah, the compressions don't bother me too much. Sometimes I think that some of the things compressed/eliminated for time would make for great TV (like Caesar bringing Cleopatra to Rome and seriously offending Brutus et al by building a statue of her in a temple) but were not necessary for the tight structure of the series.
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