Rome on HBO

[Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom]

Did anybody else watch this excellent HBO series. It took place between Caesars crossing the Rubicon to his murder by the Senate. It was bloody excellent, but sadly I dont think there will be another season... Oh yae I havent posted in a long time so lol, how much longer till .08, and does that Roman UI patch for, .74 have all the new citie graphics, and newgrass by Prometheus or is that just in the pics.??? ttyaull

[iberus_generalis]

i've seen it, at least 5 times...it's awesome...
it shows Rome for what it really was, a place where the rat eats the cat, with agressive politics, and cultural values quite diferent from today's hipocritical values...far from the politically correct, with beautiful blonde maidens, of the american roman period movies of the 50's/60's that although were quite beautiful(loved ben-hur and Spartacus..), were uttely incoherent and inacurate...

but last time i checked the 2nd season was being made, and was to air on 3rd quarter 2007....don't tell me they cancelled it??? i see that historical stories can't be too acurate, otherwise, religious zealots, conservative ppl, and educated ignorants, start to whine about the language used by the ppl, and the attitute towards sex very well retracted in this series... at least here in my country some of this said pressure groups rebeled against this features, but fortunately the channel airing the series, didn't got bullyed, cuz they are a state cultural channel, who (fortunatly) doesn't give a damn about share, and still today pass good, educative and cultural (and not reality shows and hollywood movies) programs...=)

let's then form a pressure group, so that Pullo and Vorenus get into the second series, and we can see Pullo being promoted to one of Octavians centurions, and voreno following M Antony...and see this die hard friends face wich other at war...

therefore i am a:

[Orb]

In general:
I much preferred I, Claudius, myself, I thought Rome was good in its own way, but it doesn't really compare...

@Iberus:
Well, the nudity and sex was overdone too much. I think it actually weakened the overall quality of the production because of the excess.

And - how can you praise it, in that it wasn't 'inaccurate' yet complain about the complaints of history buffs who know what they are talking about. The people who complain about the historical accuracy (I'm not one of them) might well be right, but the intention of the series was drama/ratings rather than accuracy.

[EdwardL]

Yes it was a good series.. just checked HBO.com and reads that they are still shooting the second season

[-Praetor-]

Yea, I haven`t heard that they were going to cancel the series... for all I know, they were filming the second season as we speak.

Hope they show it up here in Chile, I`ve been waiting too long for the second season...

[Geoffrey S]

I enjoyed it; in particular, the episode in Egypt and the final episode were absolutely brilliant. The stabbing of Caesar by Brutus (oh, spoiler) at the same time horrific and sublime. There were historical inaccuracies, and I personally missed Pharsalus not being shown in full (budget constraints, probably), but I felt it gave a very atmospheric impression of what Rome may have been.

As for a second season, I heard they were filming a new season documenting the rise of Octavius, but that was a long time ago.

[Simmons]

As for a second season, I heard they were filming a new season documenting the rise of Octavius, but that was a long time ago.

This is what I heard as well I look forward to the 2nd season the 1st was quite enjoyable.

[Dayve]

It was absolutely brilliant and i bought it the first day it was released on DVD. There wasn't too much sex/nudity in it at all... Back in those days before christianity ruined the west, nudity and sex were normal things not to be frowned upon, so don't come in here whining about nudity and sex like they're bad things that spoil everything.

And for the record... Polly Walker (Atia) is so effing hot...

[iberus_generalis]

yep, atia is hot, those eyes and that red hair...woo lol, let me stop being a pervert...but i think i've never seen any other movie of her...any well known movie featuring her?

[pezhetairoi]

Apart from the fact that most of the Romans speak with freakin' obvious British accents (especially Verinus, but he's such an adorable character it's hard to mind), Rome was excellent. Caesar's death throes were stunningly shocking, and very very bloodily realistic, down to his veiling his own face before dying. That was a wonderful touch.

[Obelics]

I saw it in our first state channel (a channel for general audience, and it was at 9 o'clock in the evening, so it was censured a bit), but i liked it, expecially the first and the last episode... Tito Pullo was a good charachter (but it was as usually a bit too "Marines/Green Berets" like, but it was good in the end), and i found it a good product, liked also Kaesar (It was the best charachter in my opinion), it was a very good approximation of the real charachter, it was kaesar as i imagined him... so i liked.

[iberus_generalis]

pullo was in my view both a son of Fortune, and a forsaken of Fortune...he is a good guy, but sometimes his almost simple mind made him do bad things, i loved his character...he loved to play hard, get drunk and was loyal to his friends, even if sometimes they tended to forget him cuz of POWER(vorenus)...i identify myself with him, i guess we are a bit alike..both are loyal and both enjoy getting drunk...=)

[Geoffrey S]

It was absolutely brilliant and i bought it the first day it was released on DVD. There wasn't too much sex/nudity in it at all... Back in those days before christianity ruined the west, nudity and sex were normal things not to be frowned upon, so don't come in here whining about nudity and sex like they're bad things that spoil everything.

I found the amount of sex (particularly in the first episode) unnecessary and gratuitous; the fact that it was so prominent in the first episode and the amount and intensity declined from that point on shows that the makers also viewed it as such and purely used it for shock value at the start of the series. Later on in the series the use of sex and nudity was far more effective and felt less contrived.

[Simmons]

Apart from the fact that most of the Romans speak with freakin' obvious British accents

I understand it was filmed there sort of like how the original starwars has lots of extra's and minor characters with british accents.

[Foot]

HBO stuff is usually in partnership BBC so there are quite a lot of British actors. Band of Brothers, for example, had quite a large number of british actors playing american roles; the main guy himself was a british actor.

Foot

[Krusader]

I liked Cato, Caesar, Pompey & especially Vorenus.

The three senators were IMO well acted, not superbly, but still I liked how Cato was a conservative bastard & how Pompey was shown as a a bit self-centred man (like the scene where he is talking about his battles against pirates and seems to think the ladies are interested).

Vorenus though, was kind of a good guy, but a bit naive. He fervently believes in the goold old days and mos maiorum and thinks the aristocracy and Rome is as good as the propaganda says it is, even though he witnesses several things that contradict his beliefs, and he ignores or suppresses that.
And as a sidenote, the scene where he orders the crucified men to be taken down again and with the legionarie sighing at the extra work made me laugh.

[Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom]

So they are making another season then! YES! The series was excellent, and I agree that the sex was necesary, and before christianity it was a very normal thing, even down to those people watching Pullo and Cleopatra getting it on LOL! that was funny that noise they made.lalalala!!
I though the scene with Caesar was definitley the best scene yet, it was horrifying, and made one absolutley hate those old bastard senators! But did he say "et tu brvte"? I dont think he did oh well, cuz i dident hear it. Im surprised so many people have got to watch it. I though it was only watchable here in the states, and in the U.K. But anyway excellent news of another season its a fine testament to accurate Roman history. And oh yea Attia has go to be one of the hottest characters. But shes kinda old. Well im only 17 so its different. lol ttyl

[Foot]

"et tu brvte"

I swear thats just from Shakespeare's play and not something actually recorded as something he said. Which would explaing why it wasn't in the Rome.

Foot

[iberus_generalis]

The "et tu Brutus" is shakespeare added material....even the pompei statue and the face covered is questionable and hazy, but the truth we may never know....

[Dayve]

So they are making another season then! YES! The series was excellent, and I agree that the sex was necesary, and before christianity it was a very normal thing, even down to those people watching Pullo and Cleopatra getting it on LOL! that was funny that noise they made.lalalala!!
I though the scene with Caesar was definitley the best scene yet, it was horrifying, and made one absolutley hate those old bastard senators! But did he say "et tu brvte"? I dont think he did oh well, cuz i dident hear it. Im surprised so many people have got to watch it. I though it was only watchable here in the states, and in the U.K. But anyway excellent news of another season its a fine testament to accurate Roman history. And oh yea Attia has go to be one of the hottest characters. But shes kinda old. Well im only 17 so its different. lol ttyl

She's not too old... I'd say she's about.. Late 30's maybe... I'm 18 and i find her absolutely stunning... She's got an awesome figure and she's pretty as hell man... I want a poster of her for my wall.

The amount of sex is not unnecesary in the slightest bit. They had no TV or video games and life was hard, what else was there to do other than sex? Also women could use sex to gain power or things they want, as Atia does, so no, the sex isn't over the top.

And they all have posh English accents because they couldn't do it in ancient Roman latin and English is the next best thing i guess since 90% of the actors were English.

[toxicseagull]

just so you know the accents are becouse as stated previously it was a joint production by HBO and the BBC. it came out on the BBC about 6 months ago from memory

[Redigo]

Direct from HBO's website: "Rome is back on the set at Cinecitta Studios filming season 2." Cinecitta's actually located in Rome, so apparently they're filming on location...or on location but two thousand years off.

[Orb]

Dayve, if you want to rant against Christianity, go to the Backroom.

I thought the series was excellent, I thought the nudity was overused - removing some of it and replacing it with something relevant would have made a better series, imho.

IIRC, Suetonius reports the last words of Caesar as Greek 'kai su, teknon' ('and you, child').

I agree that Polly Walker is stunning, albeit a little old for me. I think I also saw her in one of the Poirot films/episodes a while back.

[Obelics]

well, tu quoque brute fili mihi, is from Shekspeare, i forgot to mention i liked also senator Kikero, (not the charachter itself, but the way it was transposed in the movie, it was just what you can call nowadays a sort of Centrist, i dont know the exact english word, somethink beetwen Rightist and Leftist)

Edit: checked my italian version of G.C. there is written Et tu Brute? bah...

[Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom]

Dayve isent bashing Christianity hes simply stating the truth, that yes! the catholic church did and does indeed shun sex, and the human body, and that after Christianity came along it was a darker thing. Thats not opinion thats fact.

[iberus_generalis]

servillia, might have been pretty a some years ago too, but now you can clearly see she's 50..ish... i was expecting for Cleopatra to be much more beatiful than she is the series...well a pretty beatiful brat, but beautiful all the same..the actor the casted for her, didn't filled my fancy.. and niobe although looking like a peasant girl, looks good too..but Attia beats all the girls of the series...

yes the catholicism as well as all the hebrew based religions(islam, jews, and cristians) devilish the human body, sex, and speacilly women..acording to this religions the woman is a weak sorry excuse for a being, being the agent of the devil, tempting men to sin, and bla bla...it also states that killing is wrong and bla bla..it's a fact... and i defend that it was cristianity that utterly destroyed the roman empire, and not the economical stagantion and the barbarian invasions..when the barbarians took the western empire, Rome as a state of mind was long dead, substituted by a bunch of christian zealots, who couldn't live with thei'r neighbours who adored Mitras, and the original Roman gods, as well as Endovelicus...many endovelicus, mitras and roman temples were vadalised by this ignorant mobs who couldn't see past the "teachings" of priests, and Rome was no more...Constatine you should have burned your mother in the circus...Octavian, you should have exterminated the jerusalem province when you got to the power...=)

in great part our hipocrisy, and our tight view of sex and the human body is a seed of the first puritan jews(who said were the followers of christ) that spread the "Word"..in ultimate annalysis i find it dificult to believe anthing the church says...every disciple said a diferent thing, some gospels of certain disciples were banned, some disciples even devilished by its brothers...it's dificult for me to believe any of the things the church pushs on us...
if there was a gospel of jesus, that i might happily believe but i would have to be able to be sure it was really his, and not the words of a greedy, grumpy, and jealous peter...

and the hebrews is the same story, i can't read the old testament and belive much of it..a merciful god, but this merciful god destroys the world with floods, encorages the genocide of societies, takes the hebrews away from the most fertile place in miles round, destroys cities...and stuff...devilishes again the human body, and women...

i'm not agnostic nor am i atheist..i do believe there is divinity in the bible, but not all of it, i believe there was a man Jesus, and he made great things, and had a filosophy that was create to bring ppl to heaven and end suffering, but i don't believe, being jesus the son of god, would like for ppl to treat each other the way they do cuz of religion, and would want women to be devilish...


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oh crap..i'm Inocent!!! lol

[Orb]

Roderick, the statement that 'christianity ruined the west' is bashing Christianity. And I, at least, disagree with it.

[iberus_generalis]

but you must agree that cristianity caused extremely important unrest and unstability in the empire...

and im not bashing anyone, as im a catholic cristian, but unlike many of my countrymen and some abroad i see my religion for what it really is, and for what it really has been doing through out history....

[Sargon the Great]

Polly Walker is in Robinson Crusoe alongside Pierce Brosnan.

[Orb]

but you must agree that cristianity caused extremely important unrest and unstability in the empire...

I don't exactly see how that's related to 'ruined the west'. Also, didn't one later emperor try to revert to paganism, which turned out to be extremely unpopular.

You could, equally, say that Christianity was what led to the Byzantines and Franks repelling the Muslims where the Pagans had been completely unable to.