Rome
In view of the next very interesting article focused on the film set of the TV series Rome, shot in the Cinecittà studios in Rome, a short article could not be missing to present the show to those who still did not know it or who instead had the opportunity to follow it.
Rome is an American, British and Italian historical-dramatic television series created by Bruno Heller, John Milius and William J. MacDonald. The two seasons of which it is composed for a total of 22 episodes, were broadcast on HBO, BBC Two and Rai 2 between 2005 and 2007.
The series is set in the first century BC, a time marked by the transition of ancient Rome from the republican to the imperial phase. The rich cast includes both historical characters (Augustus, Mark Antony, Caesar, Cleopatra, etc.) and pure fantasy, such as the two soldiers Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, who see their lives intertwined with some key historical events of the era.
The show has received considerable media attention since its inception, due to its somewhat realistic setting, and has received numerous awards and nominations during its two seasons.
The plot
The series is set in Rome in the second half of the first century BC, in the period in which the Republic, now at its end, is shaken by violent civil wars. Within this context, the stories of real historical characters alternate and intertwine.
The series not only focuses on the lives and deeds of the rich, powerful and historically significant characters, but also focuses on the lives, fortunes and related families of two common men, two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo (characters really existed and named in De bello gallico, which both covered the role of centurion).
The first season focuses on the civil war of Julius Caesar of 49 BC. against the conservative traditionalist faction of the Roman Senate (the Ottimati), its rise to the dictatorship over Rome and its fall, which extends between the end of his Gallic wars (52 BC) until his assassination during the infamous Ides of March ( March 15 44 BC). Against the background of these events, we are witnessing the emergence of the figure of the young Octavian, destined to become Augustus, the first emperor of Rome.
The second season deepens the struggle for power between Octavian and Mark Anthony, which broke out following the assassination of Caesar, and therefore deals with the period from the death of Caesar in 44 BC to the suicide of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra in 30 BC after their defeat in the battle of Actium.
Filming and set
Rome was filmed in co-production with Rai Fiction between March 2004 and May 2005 in the Cinecittà studios, in the theater 6 in Rome. It is the largest of the factories and covers an area of almost four hectares. The Rome TV series is still considered one of the most expensive series in the history of television. The reconstruction of the set was also a monumental undertaking lasting about 9 months which involved all Cinecittà workers and an international team of more than 300 people.
The set fits perfectly between the theaters of the factories and allows you to make a real journey back in time bringing the spectators to the Rome of the first century BC.
On the recreated square of the Forum overlook the temples of Jupiter and Venus, the Curia (seat of the Senate) and the Basilica Giulia, but also a triumphal arch and a domus patrician, the home of the wealthiest Romans. Next to the latter, another area of the set opens, a scenography in the scenography, with a single step, in fact, you move to the Suburra, the poor and popular district of ancient Rome, animated by the artisans’ shops and the market.
Let us start by saying that, however, the scenography is not at all a faithful reconstruction of the ancient city, especially as regards the size of the buildings and the proximity between them, much greater in real Rome. However, the scenographers concentrated on one aspect in an accurate way, that is, in the rendering of the color, a very important feature of ancient architecture. In addition to its obvious monumentality, the main feature of the set is its marked chromaticity: the reds, blues, greens, together with the lively decorations, ensure that the public – accustomed to viewing the ruins “in white” – can find out which they were really the original colors of Republican Rome.
Unfortunately, a significant part of the set was destroyed because of fire, which reduced part of the Cinecittà studios to ashes in 2007. A further fire devastated part of the same scenography in July 2018.
Free adaptations of the script
- Tito Pullo and Lucio Voreno really existed, but not exactly in the roles proposed by the stage fiction: they were two centurions of the XIII legion who were reaching the highest ranks, in constant competition with each other to earn the promotion of rank. The Latin names (the only ones of low-ranking soldiers to be mentioned by Caesar himself in de Bello Gallico) were Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus respectively. Although there is no further information on their fate in the aftermath of Vercingetorix’s surrender, it is highly unlikely that they followed the fate of Caesar, Anthony and Octavian from the countryside in Gaul to the empire of Augustus in the manner shown in the series.
- Even in the case of Octavian Augustus there is a substantial reversal of the portrait that has been handed down by historiography: in the series, he is represented as a superb person, who despises people of lower rank and who does not show (unlike Cesare) the least scruple to physically eliminate his opponents. Even his devotion to the family, together with the observance of Roman customs, becomes the pathological appendage of his obsession with the rules.
- Caesarion, in the series, was conceived in the desert by Cleopatra and Tito Pullo, he would therefore not be the son of the Egyptian queen of Julius Caesar. In the show Cesare, unaware of the thing, recognizes. Caesarion as his son to the people by raising him above his head, publicly showing in this way that he recognizes him as a son (a circumstance of which there is no historical information).
- The licentious and manipulative character of the character of Azia, Octavian’s mother, is not reflected in historical sources: in the Dialogus de oratoribus, Tacitus describes her as an exceptionally religious and moral woman and one of the most admired matrons in the history of the Republic.
- In the second episode of the first season (“How Tito Pullo overthrew the Republic”), while Cesare is crossing the Rubicon, his then lieutenant Marco Antonio winks at a boy who fishes nearby. However, the wink did not have the current meaning of complicity at all: at the time it was used to express a sort of “password” between military allies.
Historical errors
Here one could not fail to refer to the different historical errors present in the two seasons of the show.
• In the television series, the death of Julia, daughter of Caesar and wife of Pompey, occurs two years after the actual date of death (in 52 BC instead of 54 BC).
• The figure of Tito Labieno, Caesar’s most important lieutenant during the campaigns in Gaul – a role that is instead entrusted in the series to Mark Anthony – is completely omitted, while later he passed into the ranks of Pompey’s supporters.
• Ottavia and Gaio Claudio Marcello never divorced; Octavia remarried with Mark Anthony after the death of her first husband in 41 BC Furthermore Ottavia and Gaio Claudio Marcello had 2 children.
• When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in arms on 10 January 49 BC, Mark Anthony was in Italy and only met later with his commander.
• Caesar’s military campaign in Iberia to defeat the Pompeian legions stationed there is completely omitted. Similarly, the campaign in the Carthaginian province led by the Cesarian general Gaius Scribonio Curione is also omitted and ended with the total annihilation of the troops led by the latter.
• When Caesar was assassinated, Octavian was not in Rome – at Servilia’s home with his mother, as seen in the series – but in Apollonia, Epirus, in present-day Albania. When he heard of Caesar’s death, he decided to return to Rome to claim the rights of his adopted son and heir, however he arrived there more than two months later. For this reason, he could not intervene on the decisions taken by Mark Anthony immediately after the assassination of Cesare.
• The two Cesaricides Mark Giunio Bruto and Gaio Cassio Longino did not die during the course of the Battle of Philippi, but committed suicide at the end of it.
• During the second season, Senator Mark Tullio Cicero is shown assassinated at the hands of Tito Pullo while staying in his villa in Tusculum. Although the senator had a villa in Tusculum, historical sources report he was killed in his villa in Formia at the hands of the assassins of Mark Anthony in 43 BC. Furthermore, just before killing Cicero, Titus Pullo asks him for permission to pick peaches from a tree, which is also impossible since the peaches arrived in Rome only after the first century AD.
• In the third episode of the first series, an ox-drawn cart with a rigid shoulder collar appears, a bridle which, however, appears to have been invented only in the 11th century.
• Octavian’s mother, Azia major, died in 43 BC, the year after the murder of Caesar, while in the TV series she appears alive even after the battle of Actium of 31 BC.
• Upon Cleopatra’s death, Caesarion is represented as a 12-13 year old boy. When he was killed on Octavian’s orders, he was 17 years old.
• When Lucius Vorenus destroys the statue of Concordia, he claims to be the son of Hades (the Greek god of the underworld), instead of his Roman counterpart Pluto.
I finished. if other errors come to your mind, report them in the comments!
Trained at the University of Turin, where she obtained her three-year degree in Cultural Heritage Sciences and her master's degree in History of Archaeological and Historical-Artistic Heritage, she specialized at the University of Milan, graduating in Archaeological Heritage. Freelancer, she deals with computer archeology and virtual heritage, museum displays, 2D graphics and multimedia products applied to cultural heritage. Collaborates with various public and private bodies in the field of projects related to the research, enhancement, communication and promotion of cultural heritage. She deals with the creation of cultural itineraries relating to the entire Italian Peninsula and the development of content (creation of texts and photographic production) for paper and virtual publications. Her study interests include the development of new techniques and means of communication for the enhancement of cultural heritage and the evolution of the symbolism of power between the Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.
3 Comments
Stephanie
Cato the Younger is shown as a very old man when in reality he was five years younger than Caesar.
The women’s hairstyles were shown a couple generations too early to be so elaborate, and I don’t believe we have any indication that respectable women wore their hair down as doing so, I believe, was more associated with prostitutes or the lower classes; referencing the simple hair knots we have evidence for of Late Republican women such as Fulvia, Octavia and Livia. While Octavia and Livia’s portraits are subject to Augustus’ idealized image of a respectable Roman matron, Fulvia’s off-the-neck braid is a good indication of acceptable hair styles; if any elite woman would be pushing edgy hair styles, Fulvia would be one of the few who could (would)!
L.C.
thanks Stephanie for your further information, very interesting!
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