Political intrigue, wars waged for profit and a senate rife with sycophancy, calumny and hypocrisy. No, it's not a new reality TV show set in Washington, but the ingredients that make up HBO's new US$100 million drama series, Rome (today, Monday and Tuesday at 10pm).
Beginning in 52BC, at the time of Julius Caesar, Rome tells the story of the ancient metropolis' turbulent conversion from republic to empire and the Machiavellian machinations that engendered the change. As the curtain rises on the first episode, Caesar (Ciaran Hinds) has just completed his conquest of Gaul and is set to return to Rome after eight years of warfare. Back in the city, his co-consul and long-time friend Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham), who has been ruling in Caesar's absence, publicly welcomes his return. But, as viewers of this show will quickly realise, what the characters say in public and what they do in private are often worlds apart.
Also hungry for power is Atia of the Julii (Polly Walker), Caesar's cunning and amoral niece who will stop at nothing - and I mean nothing - to secure ever-greater influence over the senate. Indeed, she displays such startling ruthlessness in the first episode she could be described as one of the most fiendish femme fatales ever to disgrace the small screen.
Caught up in the power struggle are two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson), who are members of Caesar's army in Gaul. As well as providing a forthright balance to the decadence and corruption of the nobles, Vorenus and Pullo are the vehicle by which much of the action is driven forward, particularly in the first episode, in which they are dispatched to retrieve Caesar's stolen standard.
The cast are uniformly excellent and after the first episode, viewers should have a feel for the characters. What quickly becomes apparent, however, is how different the Romans' morals are from
our own. Vorenus, for example, who is essentially an honourable and heroic soldier, thinks nothing of crucifying prisoners to obtain information. It is also worth noting that all of the principal characters are based on factual Roman figures.
The attention to historical detail doesn't stop there. Extras were sent on a two-week boot camp run by a former British Royal Marine to teach them Roman combat manoeuvres. As well as the physical preparation, the recruits were deprived of soap, deodorant and other modern trappings to help them get into character. Costumes, meanwhile, have been made only from materials available at the time and they, along with the thousands of props and weapons, have been meticulously researched to ensure verisimilitude. Yet all of this pales in comparison to the set. Erected in Italy at a cost of US$10 million and occupying more than 20,000 square metres, the fantastically detailed reproduction of Rome is the largest free-standing set in the world.
