The rise and fall and rise of Rome

We have finally finished watching both seasons of the HBO series Rome. The DVD experience was the way to go, as each disc has a viewing option called "All Roads Lead to Rome" which features pop-up bits of historical background information. Some of the info was tedious and repetitious--they told us 8 or 9 times that stories of the decadent behavior of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra were backed up by historical sources--but some was quite interesting; in one scene, Brutus wishes Cassius a happy birthday just before they begin the disastrous battle at Philippi, and just as I wondered to myself if the Romans really marked their birthdays, a pop-up told me that they did, and, at least according to Shakespeare, the battle of Philippi really did start on Cassius's birthday. The entire series is worth seeing, though it does bog down a bit in season 2.

The first season begins in 52 BC, with Julius Caesar having conquered Gaul and on his way to declaring himself dictator for life, and follows the rest of Caesar's life and the lives of his family and associates through to his assassination. The second season covers the political intrigues involving Brutus, Cassius, Marc Anthony, and Caesar's heir Octavian (later known as Augustus, the ruler in power at the birth of Christ) to the defeat of Antony's forces in Egypt and the suicides of Antony and Cleopatra. But don't let all that history daunt you--it was all almost completely unknown to me before we started watching the show, and it remains rather murky, but the series is enjoyable simply as a high-toned soap opera, albeit with lots of violence, vulgarity, nudity, and sex. The large-scale story is made more manageable by being told through the adventures of two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson) who, like Woody Allen's Zelig, manage to be around whenever history is being made--and in the case of Pullo, even making some history when it's implied that it is he rather than Caesar who fathered Cleopatra's son (and theoretically Caesar's heir).

McKidd and Stevenson are fully up to the challenge of carrying the show, and Ciaran Hinds is very good as Caesar, but two other actors (both pictured at right) deserve even more credit. Polly Walker gives a wonderfully full-blooded soap-opera queen-bitch performance as Atia, Antony's lover and Octavian's mother. She manages to be great fun and also to make her character believable and even sympathetic. I'm trying to figure out ways to use my favorite line of her dialogue ("Die screaming, you pig-spawned harlot," delivered in a delicious whisper) in my everyday life, but the near the end of the series, as Atia falls on harder times, Walker gets even better, and the climactic moment of the entire series is a shot of her face, proud, bitter, sad, and victorious all at once. Almost as good is James Purefoy as Antony; he not only gives a great performance which gets better and better right to the end, but he's also incredibly hot, and it's a treat to see him in carnal action every few episodes. If HBO's DVDs weren't so damned expensive, I'd buy these two sets, as this is one series that would definitely reward repeated viewing (there are commentaries on many episodes, though the one we listened to in the first season was only so-so). As it is, maybe Santa will check my Amazon Wish List in December.