Rome (televised series)

See also: Rome (homonymy)

Rome is a Televised series américano - British of 22 52 minutes episodes, created by John Milius, William J. MacDonald and Bruno Heller and diffused between the August 28th 2005 and the March 25th 2007 on HBO and the November 2nd 2005 and the July 22nd 2007 on BBC2. In France, the series is diffused since the June 29th 2006 on Canal+. In French-speaking Belgium, after being diffused into encrypted by Be TV, the series is diffused on the One since the January 9th 2007. In Quebec, the series is currently diffused on Super Screen and with the autumn on Historia.

Synopsis

This series reports the events having involved the fall of the Roman République and the birth of the Roman Empire.

The first season begins when Jules César returns de Gaulle at the end of her mandate of proconsul, refuses to release its legions according to the order of the Senate, and is crossing the Rubicon with the head of its legions and on the point of going on Rome. Consequently, one follows the power struggles between Pompée and César, until the assassination of this last to ides of march in 44 av. J-C. The second season finishes on the suicide of Marc-Antoine and Cléopâtre in Egypt.

The two main characters of the history, Lucius Vorenus and the legionary Titus Pullo, of return to Rome in these agitated times, cross and mix unceasingly their destiny with the large characters with ancient Rome: Pumped, César, the young Octave - future emperor Auguste - and his/her mother, Atia Julii (Atia Balba Caesonia of its true name), the poisonous niece of César, Cicéron, Marc-Antoine, Brutus, Caton the Young person, Cléopâtre, etc

The two legionaries, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo are two anecdotic characters cities in the Commentaires on the War of Gaules by Jules César (fifth book: to see chapter 44). They are there two rival centurions who save the life with the combat in turn.

The second season takes again the topic of the power struggle between Marc-Antoine and Octave after the assassination of César.

Distribution

Rewards

  • Emmy Award 2006 : Better artistic director for the episodes a throne for two , Triumph of César and Ides of march the
  • Emmy Award 2006: Better costumes for the episode Triumph of César
  • Emmy Award 2006: Better hairstyles for the episode Bons omens, ill omen
  • Emmy Award 2006: Better special effects for the episode Flight of the eagle

Episodes

First season (2005)

See also: Season 1 of Rome

  1 (1 - 1) : Flight of the eagle ( The Stolen Eagle )
  2 (1-  2) : A fragile republic ( How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic )
  3 (1-  3) : The Venom of Cerberus ( An Owl In has Thornbush )
  4 (1-  4) : Good omens, ill omen ( Stealing From Saturn )
  5 (1-  5) : Sets of easily deceived ( The RAM Has Touched The Wall )
  6 (1-  6) : Octave becomes a man ( Egeria )
  7 (1-  7) : To overcome or die ( Pharsalus )
  8 (1-  8) : A throne for two ( Caesarion )
  9 (1-  9) : Fools' deals ( Utica )
10 (1-10) : Triumph of César ( Triumph )
11 (1-11) : Disappointed hopes ( The Spoils )
12 (1-12) : Ides of march ( Kalends off February ) the

Second season (2007)

13 (2-  1) : The Heritage of César ( Passover )
14 (2-  2) : Wire of Hadès ( Its off Hades )
15 (2-  3) : The Message of Cicéron ( Thesis Being the Words off Marcus Tullius Cicero )
16 (2-  4) : Enemy brothers ( Testudo And Lepus (The Tortoise And the Hare) )
17 (2-  5) : Octave, young consul ( Heroes off the Republic )
18 (2-  6) : The List of Octave ( Philippi )
19 (2-  7) : The Marriage of Marc Antoine ( Death Mask )
20 (2-  8) : Secrecies and Treasons ( has Necessary Fiction )
21 (2-  9) : The Voyage to Alexandria ( Deus Impeditio Esuritori Nullus (No God Can Stop has Hungry Man) )
22 (2-10) : About your father ( Of Shepherd Vostro (Butt Your Father) )

Comments

History

In a general way, even if the red wire of the series is the civil war between the factions of Pumped and César (season 1), then the fight between Marc-Antoine and Octave, (season 2) the fact that one follows both plebeian Vorenus and Pullo instead of the point of view of a patrician shows that the creators of Rome endeavoured to show the History under an appreciably different angle, that of the small Roman people.

The credits show it well by giving life, by the means of the computer graphics, with the graffiti similar to those which the Romans left on the walls of Pompéi, because it is in the dark lanes that sometimes the history is played. It is besides the party taken of the creators of the series to knowing that ancient Rome was to be closer to the streets of Calcutta than of the stuccos of the Forum.

Production

Rome is the first anglophone series entirely turned in a country not-english-speaking, the Italy. It is indeed in the decorations of Cinecittà that the decorations were made up, of which faithful reproduction of the Forum. But an important part of the decorations were destroyed at the time of the fire of August 10th, 2007 of the Italian studios Cinecittà, which would be besides the origin of this catastrophe.

This series was launched under the impulse of chain HBO in partnership with the BBC. Indeed, HBO, famous for its atypical series, having met a critical success like public, fact face with the competition of chains which go up and which launch projects quite as daring. HBO launches out then in a policy of mini-series (one normal season of a series comprises 24 episodes, here, it has only one dozen of it there) to large budget, as neat as of films, in casting as in the decoration. Rome is an example. Moreover, to share the production with British chain BBC makes it possible to put a foot in Europe and especially to share the costs and the risks.

The budget of the series for the first season, including twelve episodes, rises to 100 million Dollar S, to which the BBC contributes for an amount of 15 million dollars. A record for a series.

Historical fidelity

Although Rome is a very credible and faithful series in its reconstitution of Roman manners and historical facts, some errors are present, like the presence of the Papier, which, although created in China to the III E, appears in Europe only about the 11th century, or the character of Atia Julii which is in fact inspired of Atia Balba Caesonia, niece of Jules César and mother of Octave.

Another deformation: with the reading of the War of Gaules , of César, it is known as that Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus were in fact both Centurion S, and large rivals in their will to obtain the rank highest at the end of each year. However, they saved the life mutually on several occasions.

Jules César known as their exploits:

There were in this legion two centurions of a great bravery, who approached the first ranks, Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus. It was between them a perpetual competition to which would pass before the other, and each year the question of advance put them as a violent one conflict. Pullo, at the time when one fought with the most eagerness with the rampart, exclaimed: “Why hesitate, Vorenus? which other occasion wait you to prove your value? it is this day which will decide between us. ” With these words, it advances out of the cutting off, and choosing the densest place of the enemy line, it sinks. Vorenus does not remain more behind the rampart, but fearing the opinion of the troops, it follows closely its rival. When it is not any more that with little distance of the enemy, Pullo throws its javelin and reaches a Gaulois which had been detached from large from the enemy to run ahead; transpierced, dying, his/her companions cover it their shields, however that all at the same time they launch their features against the Romain and prevent it from advancing. It has its crossed shield of a javelin which is planted in the cross-belt of the sword: this blow moves the sleeve, and delays the movement of its hand which seeks to declad; while he gropes, the enemy the envelope. Its rival, Vorenus, run to his assistance. At once, all the multitude of the enemies is turned against him and leaves Pullo there, believer whom the javelin bored it right through. Vorenus, the sword with the fist, fights body with body, in keep silent one, draws aside a little the others; but, carried by its heat, it is thrown in a hollow, and fall. It is in its turn to be wrapped; but Pullo carries help to him, and they return both to the camp, healthy and safe, having killed many enemies and being covered of glory. Fortune treated of such kind these rivals, that in spite of their enmity they helped one the other and saved the life mutually, and that it was impossible to decide with which returned the price bravery|Jules César, Of bello gallico , delivers V, § 44

Nothing proves that these two characters belonged to XIIIe Légion, Xe Legion having more importance in the writings of César.

In addition, contrary to certain assertions, these two characters are quoted only once in the VII books of the Guerre of Gaules .

Lastly, as for the “Flight of the Eagle”, it is not made by it mention nowhere, but it is true that the Commentaire on the War of Gaules is before a a whole work of propaganda.

In the first episode

César learns death from his/her Julia daughter. Actually, it disappears into 54, i.e. two years earlier. This “error” can be explained by the need for the scenario writers for introducing a reason for rupture between César and Pompée.

It reigned a strong endogamy inside these families patricians, all dependant between them by politico-matrimonial bonds. Shortly after the disappearance of Julia, César, undoubtedly conscious of the need for reinforcing its bonds with Pumped, tried a new operation which showed a failure.

In order to remain the relative and the friend of Pumped, there offered the hand of Octavie, grand-daughter of its sister to him, who had been married in Gaius Marcellus; and he asked him for itself the hand of his daughter, intended for Faustus Sylla. |Suétone, César XXVII, 1
If it had made a success of its blow, Caton would have still had what to foam in front of the Senate during days! Concerning Octavia, she was married with Gaius Claudius Marcellus, a man who, far from being assassinated on order of Atia, became consul into -50! It was pure “a pompéien”, cousin of another Marcellus, which it had succeeded, which in -51, had illegally tried to recall César to Rome (once deprived of sound imperium, this one would have been an easy prey for its enemies which would not have been deprived to prosecute it). Octavia, become widowed into -40, married Marc-Antoine.
Octavien had a sister older than him, but of another mother: she had been born from Ancharia and him, later, of Atia. He liked over all this sister who had become a beautiful bit of woman. She had married Gaius Marcellus which had died very recently and was thus widowed. |Plutarque, Marc-Antoine XXXI
De Gaius Marcellus, Octavia had three children, two girls and a son, Marcus. There thus never was of “Glabius” in the life of Octavia.

The respective ages of the main characters are not respected: Cicéron and Pumped, born into 106, is appreciably older than César while Caton d' Utique born in 95, on the contrary, far from being an old man, was 5 years its junior.

In the second episode

One notes in particular:
1. the centurion who declares that its family (see episode 1) fought in Zama and Magnésie (- 202 and -190)
2. Marc Antoine to call Atia the “Venus crucifix”

The titulature of Cléopâtre, such as it, stated on several occasions by various characters, is highly whimsical: nothing to see with “sage and the bay-tree” (it is an effect of the French postsynchronization, the original version preserving the literal translation of the two signs who introduce, for the Pharaonic period itself, the name of crowning of the king: the reed and the bee)! Above the cartouche which bears its name to Dendérah, one can read (inter alia) “Main (sse) of the Double-Country”. The costumes and the wigs are also whimsical.

The death of Caton was not as sordid as we see it in the 9th episode, but it was certainly even more atrocious like describes it Plutarque:

Caton says to him to close the door and recoucha as to still rest the remainder of the night. Butted once left, it fired the sword and was inserted it in the chest; but, as it made use of its hand with less strength because of its puffiness, it did not commit suicide on the blow. It had sorrow to die. It fell from its bed and made noise by reversing a table of geometrical figures placed auprès. Also the servants, who realized some, pushed great cries; and his/her son and his friends entered immediately. By seeing it very soiled blood and almost all its fallen entrails with ground, but still breathing and the opened eyes all, were terrified, and the doctor who occurred tried to position back the entrails remained unscathed, and to close again the wound. But when Caton, taking again its directions, realized this attempt, it pushed back the doctor, tore his entrails of its hands, and, reopening its wound, it died|Plutarque, Life of Caton the Young LXX

In the twelfth and last episode

Do the scenario writers make the dead end on all the events which preceded Ides of march, culminating in the scene of Lupercales (provocation of the conspirators or attempt to make crown César?) during which César pushed back three times the royal crown that Marc Antoine presented to him, privileging the intrigues deprived between Atia and Servilia. It is it should be noted that no author mentions rupture between César and Servilia, it seems that their relations were at the very least friendly until the end, although it was very dependant with the principal conspirators (Brutus was his/her son and Cassius its son-in-law).

It is not specified in the intrigue, that Servilia was the half-sister of Caton d' Utique, enemy of César!

All the classic authors having described the assassination of César agree on a point, that did to the foot without the statue without Pumped, in this “locus sceleratus” that Octave made wall thereafter (in -32). The Senate met in this time with the Théâtre of Pumped, old the Curie having burned into -52. It is astonishing that the realizers neglected this element of a certain dramatic interest, especially if one thinks that it is César itself which made raise the statues of Pumped.

Only Suétone makes mention of the famous sentence “you as my son” and still by specifying as it brings back hearsays. All the authors specify that César had the reflex to cover the head with a side of its toga so that no one does not see it dying.

Contrary to the actor Ciarán Hinds, who camps an extremely credible character in addition, César suffered, seems it, of its premature baldness and brought back its hair forwards dissimulating it as much as it could it, so much so that Cicéron had fun some publicly:

“… but when I look at his hair so skilfully arranged, when I see it scraping the head of the end of the finger, I then to believe that such a man can conceive the so black intention to reverse the republic. ”|Plutarque, Life of César IV

Supposed wire naturalness of Pumped, Quintus, which one is skilfully brought to think that he was the instigator of the plot against César, existed forever. Pompée had of Mucia his third wife (one of the mistresses of César if it is necessary to believe Suétone of it) two wire: Cnaeus Pumped the Young person and Sextus. Cnaeus was killed in Spain into -45, shortly after the Bataille of Munda (of which it is not made mention in the series) and Sextus was carried out summarily into -35 by one named Marcus Titius, legate of Marc Antoine.

The serial lets think that Pompée was made assassinate noblement, of a clean blow and Net; reality is not so simple:

However Magnus, under the sound blows striking its back and its chest, had preserved the noble dignity of its majestic beauty; its face marked only irritation against the gods; the last moments had not deteriorated anything of the expression nor of the features of the hero; it is the testimony of those which transfer its distinct head. Because cruel Septimius invents, in the achievement even crime, a larger crime still: it tears off the veil which covered the majestic face of expiring Magnus, it seizes the head which still palpitates and transversely places on a bench of oarsman the neck which subsides. Then it slices muscles and veins, it breaks the vertebrae, lengthily; it was not yet an art to cut a head of a circular blow of the sword. But as soon as the head falls separate from the trunk, the satellite of king de Pharos asserts the right to carry it its hand. Does degenerated Romain, good soldier for the supporting roles, your sword sacrilege slice the majestic Pumped head of one, so that the another door? O destiny of the last ignominie! So that an impious child recognizes Magnus, this roughcast hair, object of the veneration of the kings, ornament of a generous face, a hand seizes it and, on a lance of Pharos, while the face still saw and that rails agitate the mouth in a last murmur, while the still revealed eyes solidify, one plants this head which, ordering the war, drove out the peace of the world; it is it which agitated the courts, the Champ de Mars, the platform; it is on these features, O Fortune of Rome, that you enjoyed to contemplate you. It is not enough for the infamous tyrant to have even seen this spectacle, it wants that there remains a testimony of the crime. Then, by a cursed art, one removes the pus of the head, one empties the brain, one dries the skin, and, when one exhausted all corrupted mood of it, one pours there a juice which hardens the face. |Lucain, Pharsale, VIII, towards 663-691

Anachronisms

  • the strong dichotomy presented between patricians (downward of the most former Roman families) and plebeian is debatable: this cleavage corresponds well better to IVe and IIIe front century J. - C. that in Ier front S. In this context of civil war, the opposition takes place between the populares (favorable to the reforms gracquiennes of IIe century, in general with the people) and those which Cicéron calls the optimates , which the modern historians name the conservatives. It is thus necessary well to distinguish these two categories which obligatorily do not recut (César is of origin patrician, and yet it is popularis )
  • He is shown on several occasions short scenes of burlesque theater. This shape of theater " populaire" , believed enough, existed (on buildings out of wooden) on the other hand there is not very probable, even if one is far from Greek rigorism, that there were actresses on the boards. The feminine roles were in general reserved for male actors whom one disguised.
  • In the 8th episode, Cléopâtre smokes of the opium, on which it is dependant. Opium was not unknown in antiquity gréco-Roman, on the other hand it was not smoked, a priori .
  • In the 9th episode, Octave, which is one of the most perspicacious characters of the series, is presented like a deist to the manner of Baruch Spinoza, refusing the existence of the the anthropomorphic Pantheon with the profit of one only universal principle. It evokes the possible existence of a Main cause, which can perfectly refer to its interest for Greek philosophy, presented by the series in the former episodes. The term evokes in particular the work of Aristote and does not have anything anachronistic consequently.
  • the Romans did not practice the circumcision. Even the Jews at this period did not practice it completely.
  • For the art lovers Roman: attention with the details! In several episodes, at the time of the scenes restoring the interiors of the rich person Roman houses (house of Atia, in particular), one sees murals belonging to the 3rd style pompéien (traditional classification of the Roman mural). However this style, which is characterized by refined and delicate elements, often on dark bottom (sometimes even black), and by the absence of simulated architectural prospect, appears only towards -15 front J. - C., under Principat d' Auguste. One also foresees in the house of Servilia of the frescos of IVe style, which appear under the reign of Néron (here, flat tints of color occupied by a free figure). However, the series perfectly succeeded in restoring the environment of specific luxury to these rich person houses, and whose for example the vestiges testify to Pompéi. Another detail: at the time of the scenes showing the old Roman forum in season 1, one on several occasions sees a triumphal arch to which typology is more than close to that of the famous arc to Titus, built by the Domitien emperor with the memory of his brother and dated towards… 80 a. J. - C.
  • Last episode, season 2, towards the 30e minute. Amusing small detail. When Octave makes its entry in the palate of Cléopâtre, one distinguishes very clearly, on the left of the door, a hieroglyphic inscription comprising two cartridges. From right to left, these two cartridges are read " king de Haute and basic Egypt, Ousermaâtrê-Setepenrê (a little special C-W communication), Re wire, Ramsès-Mery-Amon". Nothing to see with Cléopâtre, it is the titulature of Ramsès II who lived more than 1200 years earlier!

Stop of the series

The series was abandoned because of the important cost of the episodes and this, in spite of its international success.

References

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