Rome

razil

OK let's face it Rome is just an excuse for people to watch a bit of 'soft' porn, with a bit of educational stuff thrown in..

To be honest what are they trying to achieve, in this day and age surely people just watch porn if they want to see this stuff, I'd much prefer to see more battle scenes to be honest.

Views?

Riscardo

Dont you watch Relocation, relocation, relocation ...

Henry Irving

Disagree. Good drama with great fight scenes (when Pullo bite out Memio's tongue!), dramatic tension and intrigue which used the lives of two ordinary men (Lucias and Pullo) to tell the story of Rome's move from a republic to an empire.

What they did really well as to avoid the famous bits (Ceasers murder, Anthony's speech, the Battle of Antium (sp) and focused on the personal.

I really enjoyed it. Haven't seen a TV show I enjoyed as much for ages.

I'm sure all the sex scenes were required to move the plot forward.
:-)

nolly

agree with henry,excellent show,wonder if there be another one,though octavian didnt do much after that.

razil

that full frontal of Otavian and his missus, not quite sure how that moved the plot forward, not saying I don't like the rest of it though. It does draw you in and you actually feel for some of the characters.

Henry Irving

[cite]Posted By: razil[/cite]that full frontal of Otavian and his missus, not quite sure how that moved the plot forward, not saying I don't like the rest of it though. It does draw you in and you actually feel for some of the characters.

Showed you that Octavian was a cruel sadist in private and that his actions in killing so many and wishing Ceasers child by Cleopatra dead was not just politics but an aspect of his cruel nature.

The sex scenes were no less important than the fight scenes (the one at the end of series one when Pullo is sentanced to fight the gladiators and Lucias jumps in the ring shouting "13th" was great). You could have had the drama without both eg I claudius but they make for more exciting TV.

kigelia

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's excellent, but it is more entertaining than the average TV fair (I was forced to watch 1/2 an hour of big brother last night - I learned that it is possible to be allergic to punctuation). It is basically a big budget historical soap opera.

Rome is well written and whilst the characters are a bit 2-dimensional at times the events tend to gloss over it. The loose morals is there both for some low rent entertainment but also because that is generally how the Roman citizens were believed to behave.

BlackForestReds

[quote][cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Disagree. Good drama with great fight scenes (when Pullo bite out Memio's tongue!), dramatic tension and intrigue which used the lives of two ordinary men (Lucias and Pullo) to tell the story of Rome's move from a republic to an empire.

What they did really well as to avoid the famous bits (Ceasers murder, Anthony's speech, the Battle of Antium (sp) and focused on the personal.

I really enjoyed it. Haven't seen a TV show I enjoyed as much for ages.

I'm sure all the sex scenes were required to move the plot forward.
:-)[/quote]

The Battle of Antium was fought around 400 years before Caesar's and Pompey's civil war (ca 50-45 BC), and that was when Rome was a large City state battling it out with the Etruscans, Volsci and Aequi.

The Battle you might be thinking of was Caesar's greatest victory - Alesia, in France, where Casear surrounded the Gallic Chieftain Vercingetorix and then despite being heavily outnumbered proceeded to beat him. This just about ended the Gallic Wars, Vercingetorix surrendered and was later paraded in Rome in Casear's triumph (which was originally denied him by the Senate, sparking the civil war). Anyhow, Vercingetorix was ritually strangled at the end of the triumph.

razil

you seem to be arguing against yourself there Henners, I'm not sure I agree about the Octavian business either, although if you are saying he is without emotion then perhaps, his wife is pretty much the same creature however..

razil

PS Riscardo, sky plus I watch both...

:)

Henry Irving

[cite]Posted By: BlackForestReds[/cite]

[cite]Posted By: Henry Irving[/cite]Disagree. Good drama with great fight scenes (when Pullo bite out Memio's tongue!), dramatic tension and intrigue which used the lives of two ordinary men (Lucias and Pullo) to tell the story of Rome's move from a republic to an empire.

What they did really well as to avoid the famous bits (Ceasers murder, Anthony's speech, the Battle of Antium (sp) and focused on the personal.

I really enjoyed it. Haven't seen a TV show I enjoyed as much for ages.

I'm sure all the sex scenes were required to move the plot forward.
:-)

The Battle of Antium was fought around 400 years before Caesar's and Pompey's civil war (ca 50-45 BC), and that was when Rome was a large City state battling it out with the Etruscans, Volsci and Aequi.

The Battle you might be thinking of was Caesar's greatest victory - Alesia, in France, where Casear surrounded the Gallic Chieftain Vercingetorix and then despite being heavily outnumbered proceeded to beat him. This just about ended the Gallic Wars, Vercingetorix surrendered and was later paraded in Rome in Casear's triumph (which was originally denied him by the Senate, sparking the civil war). Anyhow, Vercingetorix was ritually strangled at the end of the triumph.

Apologies I meant the naval battle of Actium. Only one letter out and Roman history is not my thing. I went to a comprehensive in Eltham and that's my excuse ; -)

English civil war, The Victorians, the Dark ages, 20th century social history, WWI - now you are talking.

BlackForestReds

Actium was fought around 31 BC, but Octavain was under threat, the opponents to his rule were trying to promote Caeser's illegitimate son (Caesarion) with Cleopatra to be Caeser's rightful heir. He was only a child, but his DNA was politically useful for notably Mark Antony who of course was having an affair with Cleopatra.

The Senate sacked Mark Antony but substantial numbers of the Senate went with him, including both Consols and after a couple of defeats in what is now Northern Italy Mark Antony was surrounded in Greece with what little was left of his army plus Cleopatra's navy and some ships of his own. This lead to the naval battle Actium in the Ionian Sea. Mark Antony was no admiral and it didn't help that his main admiral defected to Octavian and so under-manned and inexperienced in naval warfare he was defeated. The Civil War lingered on for another year or so but most of his soldiers deserted him and rather than surrender he committed suicide, soon after Cleopatra followed him and Caesarion, whose existence as a political tool meant he was a threat to Octavian and so he met a sticky end. This ended the Civil wars and led to the Pax Romana, Octavian (who then became Augustus) pretty much ruled unchallenged for the next 40 years and Rome became an Empire ruled for the next few generations by the Julio-Claudius family.

pickwick

Imperium by Robert Harris anyone? The story of Cicero through this same period jolly good read, didn't Octavian change his name to Augustus?

SantaClaus

Loved the show and it's great to see what the Brits can do with an American budget. Talking of which HBO crapped themselves when the BBC gave them the bill for Season 2 so don't expect any more installments.

S.