HBO's ROME

[fett527]

Once again the writing of Pullo's and Vorenus' story shines. They are definitely blessed by the gods. The timing Ceasar's visit this time around shows it even more.

 

[Mark CMG]

Imagine my surprise, finding my own weblog linked here.

Welcome to the boards, UmmRa!

 

[Fast Learner]

Loved the ep, love the show. My only beef is that Octavian looked no older, when a youth of the actors age who was two years older would look significantly different. I understand why, but it seems like Octavian has looked like he's 15 for about, what, 4 or 5 years of story time?

 

[mmu1]

Loved the ep, love the show. My only beef is that Octavian looked no older, when a youth of the actors age who was two years older would look significantly different. I understand why, but it seems like Octavian has looked like he's 15 for about, what, 4 or 5 years of story time?

It's hard to tell exactly how much time is supposed to have passed - the events shown so far actually spanned about 8 years, historically speaking (and we're quickly getting to the point of Ceasar's assassination - only a year or two at most are left). This means that, for the first time during the show, Octavian actually looks the right age (he's supposed to be 18 when Ceasar dies).

Based on things like Cleopatra's pregancy and Octavian being away at school for two years, the 3-4 years are probably as good a guess as you can make.

Still, I actually think they've made at least a small effort to make him look older - I think he either lost a little weight, or they're using makeup to make his features sharper, and I could swear they also gave him a hint of teenage facial hair.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm glad they are giving us plenty of reasons beyond just being jilted for Servilia to want to get some payback.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

I was thinking today about how unbelievable it would be if they set up the assassination plot and somehow it fails. Brutus loses his nerve, or Pullo (true to form) jumps in the way right as the conspirators are about to strike and clobbers them. And suddenly we go into Elseworlds mode, and the whole rest of the series is "What If Caesar Had Lived?".

 

[UmmRa]

A couple of years ago, someone (Christian Meier?) suggested that Caesar might have deliberately allowed the conspirators to murder him.

While, certainly, this hypothesis isn’t beyond reason -- by 44 BC Caesar was a very sick, very arrogant man and may have seen suicide-by-Senate as the only Roman way out -- we are second-guessing an account that’s survived 2000 years of scrutiny.

For me, Cato’s end was a bit of a let down. Future stoics would accord the man near messianic significance, so much so in fact, that Dante (c.1300) places him at the entrance to Purgatory and not in Hell with the other pagans.

Other interesting points: 1) Caesar was a notorious womanizer, in fact, he probably had a tryst with Cato’s wife. 2) Roman sources, though suspect here, relate that Antony was habitually very drunk, to the point that he’d actually loose control of his bodily functions.

Rome is an incredible series and much better than anything I’ve seen set in the period.

 

[Apollo]

I hope the show does not get to Caesar's assassination too quickly; he's a great character. Octavian went away for 2 years. Does anyone know how Caesar defeated Ptolemey? He had a 100,000 men!? I wonder what Pullo is going to do?

 

[Mark CMG]

I expect this season culminates with Caesar's assassination. With no guarenteees they would be picked up for more than their original mandate of episodes, it's the most reasonable place to end it.


I thought they made good use of costumes to age Octavian, btw. Now that they'll be doing another season, in which he will likely figure very prominently, I'll bet that he will be hitting the workout room in the off-season in a serious effort to grow into his role.

 

[fett527]

..I thought they made good use of costumes to age Octavian, btw. Now that they'll be doing another season, in which he will likely figure very prominently, I'll bet that he will be hitting the workout room in the off-season in a serious effort to grow into his role.

For some reason I thought his hair made him look older. Not sure what it was, I'll have to rewatch.