Lecture – HIST 291 Summer Session 2011/2012

Week 2 (Wednesday class)

Title: History, Barbarians and HBO’s Rome (Episode 12: ‘Kalends of February’ )

Lecturer: Robert Carr

Outline
Introduction
1. The Roman Republic to the Death of Caesar
2. Historical interpretation and HBO’s Rome
Conclusion

Introduction
HBO’s Rome (season 1) was released for UK audiences in 2006, though it didn’t air
on Australian screens until 2008. From the moment of the rolling credits, we are
drawn into ancient Rome – the walls are alive, with everyday Romans speaking to us
via their graffiti. The first image of the skull and butterfly is a mosaic preserved from
the walls of ancient Pompeii. Rome’s streets literally come to life as the cityscape is
animated with pictures of Medusa’s slithering snake hair. Soldiers painted on walls
are having a duel, and the vibrant plaster décor is lifted straight from Pompeii as well.
Images of everyday satire, including depictions of the male phallus, tell us more than
reading about Roman life ever could. A closer look reveals a calendar, too, in which
the months July and August have not yet been inserted. This is pre-imperial Rome,
the very late Republic - the time of orators like Cicero, Caesar and Cato, and
legendary generals such as Pompey. What is constant in the opening credits is the
theme of blood, indicating the central place of violence and mortality in Roman
society at this time.

The series provides both a macro view of Roman history (focussing on the rise of
Caesar and the politics of the ruling class), as well as a micro view (focussing on the
lives of Roman plebeians, soldiers and slaves). Episode 12, the topic of today’s
lecture, was written by Bruno Heller, and directed by Alan Taylor. It is the finale to
season 1, in which the dictator of the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar, is assassinated.
Today I will discuss a brief history of the Roman Republic to the death of Caesar, and
provide some context for Roman politics at the time of his death. Then, we look at
whether the makers of HBO’s Rome follow a trajectory roughly similar to historians
as they tell their stories. I will not be discussing military successes and tactics of
ancient Rome. Rather, I will be making some parallels between “ordinary” life in the
city and how we can relate to the social history of what was once the world’s most
successful classical civilisations.

1. The Roman Republic to the Death of Caesar

a. Beginnings: Romulus, Remus and The Aeneid
The Romans constructed their origins by blending myth and history. In myth, and
according to Virgil, the founding tribes of Rome were said to be descendants of the
Greek city-state of Troy, who fled when the city fell during the Trojan Wars. One of
the descendents of the tribe, Romulus, declared himself to be the founder of Rome in
753 BCE. Legend suggests Romulus, and his twin brother Remus, were conceived
from a relationship between the god of war, Mars, and their mother. Details aside, the
boys were cast away and reared by a she-wolf. Having grown up, they set out to build
a new city, which Romulus named after himself after killing his brother in a squabble
over power. The kingdom of Rome lasted until 510 BCE, when the last king
(Tarquin) was expelled by the nobles (patricians) for abusing power.

b. Class system in the late Republic: Democracy, Consuls, Senate and the Plebs
In place of the king, Rome established a Republican system of government based on a
form of democracy. The Romans elected two Consuls to head the gathering of the
nobles (the Senate), who would be elected annually. Power was shared in the Roman
Republic between the plebeians (lower classes) and the Senate. Representatives of the
plebeians known as Tribunes headed the assembly of the people (Comitia
Centuriata), and could veto the Senate.1 A Consul could only be elected from within
the Senate, which was largely inaccessible to plebs. Senators were (initially) elected
by the Consul, and served for life. A single Consul could only become dictator upon
the consent of the Senate, and during times of war. In short, democracy in Rome was

1
In Latin, ‘veto’ means ‘I forbid’.
tiered; plebs could vote for plebeian representatives as tribunes, and patricians for the
Consul.2

c. Tensions in the late Republic: the Triumvirate and the death of Crassus
In the TV series Rome, Episode 1 begins following the annulment of the first
triumvirate (‘rule of three’)3 formed between Pompey, Crassus and Caesar in 59 BCE.
Pompey, one of Rome’s most successful generals, was a plebian by birth but had risen
through the ranks to become known as the “kings of kings” in the Eastern
Mediterranean. He also was given the title Pompeius Magnus (‘Pompey the Great’),
having subdued the East in similar fashion to Alexander the Great some 300 years
earlier. Caesar was born into a patrician family, but his use of mob politics was the
key to his political success, which also made him many enemies in his own class.
With the growth of Rome as an Italian and then Mediterranean power, came the
centralisation of wealth within rich Roman families. Crassus, Rome’s richest patrician
at the time of the triumvirate, made most of his money from real estate in Italy
(particularly around Naples), whereas Pompey had gathered immense wealth on his
Eastern military campaigns.

Although Caesar was the lesser of the three, his ambitions were certainly greater. Due
to ruinous political loans, Caesar’s debts forced him to pursue wealth by scrupulous
means. If Caesar could gain the Consulship of Rome, like all former consuls, he
would be offered the military command (‘proconsul’) of a province. Caesar knew
that, at the end of his Consulship (59-58BCE), he would be able to exploit such a
province for all its wealth. Caesar settled on the Senate’s offer to become proconsul of
Illyricum (the Balkans) and Gallia Togata (‘toga-wearing Gaul’, on Italy’s northern
frontier). Upon the death of his rival Mettellus Celer, Caesar then received a third
province - Transalpine Gaul (the far side of the Italian Alps and into modern France),
full of barbarians and untapped wealth. Caesar quickly adapted to this role,
decimating the Helvetian tribe (modern Swiss) and setting his eyes on Gaul, claiming
to the Senate that a military campaign there was for defensive purposes (a kind of
2
see Wells, J., A Short History of Rome to the Death of Augustus, (Eight Edition), Methuen, London,
1907, p. 72. Here, it is noted that plebians had begun to be elected into the Senate in the 5th century
BCE, and even more so in the 4th century BCE. This was due to a plebiscite (plebiscitum Ovinium, 318-
312 BCE) that changed the right to appoint persons to fill vacancies in the Senate from the Consuls to
the Censors (public magistrates).
3
The second triumvirate was Octavian, Marc Antony and Lepidus after Caesar’s death.
“pre-emptive strike”). From 58-50 BCE, Caesar subdued 300 tribes and forced the
surrender of 800 cities.4 Some estimates claim that he sent home a million Gauls to be
sold as slaves, while killing around the same number – a fete comparable to Hitler.
The most famous of his victories was the battle of Alesia, culminating in the siege and
surrender of the Gallic leader Vercingetorix. We see this at the beginning of HBO’s
Rome, in Episode 1. The siege of Alesia saw Caesar build a 30-mile siege wall around
the hilltop city – one to defend against the warriors of Alesia, and one to defend from
a horde of Gallic tribesmen that vastly outnumbered the Romans.

There were a variety of reasons for the political alliance of the triumvirate. The main
catalyst was Pompey’s quarrels with the Senate over land distribution for his soldiers,
and Caesar’s desire to be Consul. Caesar also promised a whole range of concessions
to the capitalists. Crassus, Rome’s richest capitalist, supported Caesar and Pompey’s
policies, and the whole deal was secured with a marriage between Caesar’s teenage
daughter Julia and the old solider Pompey.

The triumvirate ensured legal immunity for Caesar during his 8 years campaign in
Gaul, with Pompey guaranteeing to use his Consular veto on Caesar’s behalf during
his absence. When Crassus and Pompey were re-elected to the Consulship in 55 BCE,
another deal sought by Caesar came to fruition – the extension of his proconsular
command of Gaul for another five years. The deterioration of the triumvirate was a
gradual series of untimely events. First, Julia died in childbirth in 54 BCE, severing
the bond between Caesar and Pompey. A year later, the triumvirate became a
duumvirate (‘rule of two’) when Crassus died on campaign against Parthia in 53
BCE.5

4
Holland, Tom, Rubicon; The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, Abacus, London, 2003, p.
xx
5
Crassus had initially gone East to Syria in 54 BCE, attempting to subdue the Parthians on Rome’s
border regions. Crassus was also looking for a get-rich-quick scheme in Syria, with Caesar and
Pompey quickly rivalling his wealth as a result of their own campaigns. Crassus led his legions hastily
into the desert, where he was captured in the battle of Carrhae and beheaded by the Parthians in 53
BCE. One of the secret weapons the Parthians had was their superior mounted-archers, whom could
fire arrows riding forwards, backwards and even sideways and were much more flexible than the
legions during battle. One of the handful of survivors of Carrhae (only one division escaped) was
Cassius, one the conspirators in Caesar’s eventual murder. The battle quickly became synonymous
with Cannae (during the Punic Wars) as one of Rome’s most enduring defeats. The Parthians invaded
Syria after Crassus’ death, but were eventually repelled in 51BCE under Cassius’ leadership.
The duumvirate gradually split into two rival camps (the Caesarian party and
Pompeian faction), leading to Civil War. Caesar was on a personal quest for power,
and Pompey led the Republican cause to restore the balance in favour of the Senate.
Pompey also began to see very plainly that his own prestige among the people was
threatened by Caesar’s growing popularity. In 50 BCE, the Senate, led by Pompey as
Consul, formally requested Caesar return to Rome and disband his legions - his term
as proconsul had finished, and Caesar had no legal right to continue his role there.6

Civil War broke out on 13th January in 49 BCE, when Caesar crossed the river
Rubicon in northern Italy with one legion – the Legio XIII (a mere 4000-5000
soldiers).7 Tom Holland describes the moment as a ‘gamblers fit of passion’,
engulfing the whole world in war.8 Today, the whereabouts of the Rubicon, a small
stream to the north of Italy, has been lost to history. However, the symbolism of the
river remains with us, Holland says, to describe ‘every fateful step taken since.’9 By
crossing the Rubicon, Caesar brought about the end of self-government for Rome,
eventually leading to dictatorship, a brief restoration of the Republic, and then the
Principate (or empire) under Augustus.

At first, Pompey was undaunted by the news that Caesar had forded the Rubicon,
announcing he merely had to stamp his foot and his legions would spring up all over
Italy. However, Caesar’s popularity with the local towns of Italy, generated by stories
(that he himself propagated) of famous victories all over Gaul, quickly undermined
any efforts by the Senate to defend the city. Caesar walked into town-after-town a
hero, and veterans raced to Caesar’s camp. 10 By 18th January, Pompey ordered the
evacuation of Rome. He and the Senate rallied to the South at Corfinium, while
Caesar occupied Rome.11 With Caesar rapidly pursuing Pompey, the entire
Republican camp sailed for Greece on 17th March.12

6
The Senate further forbade Caesar’s bid to be elected Consul for a second time in absentia (which
would have secured him legal immunity from accusations of treason and waging war without legal
justification in Gaul)
7
Wells, op cit, p. 271
8
Holland, op cit, p. xxi
9
ibid
10
ibid, p. 307
11
Wells, op cit, p. 273
12
p. 273
The Civil War ended with Pompey’s eventual defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus (in
Greece) in August 48 BCE. Once again, despite being outnumbered, Caesar’s military
genius and luck secured the day. The republicans, including Cicero and Brutus,
surrendered to Caesar, but Pompey fled to Egypt where he was murdered. Caesar
arrived in Egypt to find Pompey already dead, but decided to stay for nine months. In
that time, he secured the throne of Queen Cleopatra and peace in the region that had
become the breadbasket of Rome. From the years 48-45 BCE, Caesar subdued rogue
elements in Spain and Africa, while working to centralise government around his
leadership.

By 44 BCE, the Senate declared Caesar dictator for life (dictator perpetuo). As
Roman historian Tacitus says, under the Republic, ‘Dictatorships were assumed in
emergencies.’13 So under what circumstances was Caesar offered dictatorship for life?
His immense military and economic resources were, evidently, important factors. Yet,
without popular support, Caesar would not have been able to secure such a title.
Caesar mastered the art of mob politics, drawing on the experience of Tiberius
Gracchus in 133 BCE. After his death, the Roman people declared him a deity for the
glory and honours he had bestowed upon their city-state. For Romans, Rome - which
was now the Mediterranean superpower - and its imperium was the known world.

On 15th March 44BCE - also known auspiciously as the ‘Ides of March’ - Caesar was
stabbed to death by a conspiracy of Senators, with some accounts suggesting he lay
slain at the foot of a statue of Pompey. The image is one of the great twists of fate
abounding the story of the great characters of the ‘Roman revolution’,14 although not
all sources agree with this version.

2. Getting it right: historical interpretation and the facts in HBO’s Rome

a. The plot of Episode 12: inserting plebs into Roman history
According to Episode 12 of Rome, Caesar had conquered Gaul, won the Civil War
and secured Rome’s grain supply from Egypt by making Cleopatra his mistress and
producing with her a son. Caesar has been declared dictator for life. He has brought

13
Tacitus, The Annals of Imperial Rome, (translated by Grant, Michael), Penguin, London, 1996
(revised edition), p. 31
14
Holland, op cit, p. xxiv
Rome’s new Gallic allies into the Senate. He has made them, and some plebeians -
around 100 in total – part of the new, expanded Senate. Records tell us that Caesar
actually expanded the Senate from 600 to 900 at this time, most of who were from
outside Italy in the provinces.15 Caesar’s enemies have grown exponentially, but they
cannot do anything about it - at least legally, because democracy is, in effect, non-
existent.
One of the problems Caesar faces at this time is that his thousands of veteran
soldiers are bored and out of work – a problem Pompey had tried to reconcile, though
without Caesar’s support - and this becomes the focus of the previous episode
(Episode 11.) Desperate times mean desperate measures, and so our hero and veteran
legionary Titus Pullo becomes a knifeman-for-hire, employed by one of the local
gangs. Pullo kills one of Rome’s respected patricians, and, after being caught in the
act, was tried and convicted for his murder in court, and sentenced to death in the
arena. This puts Caesar in a bind, and exemplifies one of the many great twists that
emerged in the television script. In Episode 11, it comes to light that it was Caesar
whom had hired Pullo’s gang to kill said patrician because he was a vocal opponent of
Caesar’s dictatorship. So, if Caesar steps in to save one of his veterans from
execution, then his soldiers would be seen by the public as being allowed to get away
with all kinds of banditry unpunished by the law. At the end of Episode 11, Pullo
enters the arena for execution via gladiatorial fight. At first Pullo refuses to fight,
having given up on life. As we can see, never insult the 13th Legion! [See clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iJTi_OITEo&feature=related]
Episode 12 begins with a public “mime” (the Latin name for these kinds of
shows) depicting the arena spectacle. It shows Vorenus’ rescue of Pullo during the
execution, and how the public applauded the “brotherly love” shared between them.
And so, via popular acclaim, Caesar, on behalf of the public, pardons Pullo for his
crime. Caesar also promotes Vorenus to the Senate as a spokesperson for the plebs.
The storyline for Episode 12 centres around this tension in the Senate, culminating in
the plot that takes Caesar’s life.
For our perspectives of Roman history, it is important to understand the
emphasis in the script upon giving Pullo and Vorenus a prominent role in the eventual
downfall of Caesar. The great sources we tend to drawn upon for our knowledge of

15
Wells, op cit, p. 282
Roman history, like Tacitus’ Annals, largely exclude the lives of the plebs, what we
might call history “from below”. As Holland says: ‘In Roman history, to search for
details of anyone outside the ruling class is to pan for gold.’16 The script for Rome re-
inserts plebs into Roman history, giving Titus and Pullo the chance to be more than
simply secondary players in the politics of the Roman elite. To deepen this further,
the script also includes colloquial sayings likely used by everyday Romans, such as
‘Juno help me’ (ie. ‘oh my god!’) (Juno being the goddess of marriage and the home).
Pullo also calls out to a girl on the street: “Hey! Venus! Guess who I am!” Attempting
to cash in on his recent fame, Venus refers to the goddess of love and sex.
Cicero’s outcry at allowing plebs into the Senate is ironic – he was born a pleb
and via merit became one of Rome’s most prestigious lawyers, orators and even
Consul. He was what the Romans called novus homo – a ‘self-made man’. One of
Cicero’s most remembered outcries was against Mark Antony for being a patrician
who acted like a rowdy pleb and without the dignity of his class. (See also Cicero’s
Philippics against Marc Antony.)

b. Historical accuracy on the set of Rome

Caesar’s death in HBO’s Rome extends from a common misreading of the
assassination. Historical records suggest that a group of senators had summoned
called Caesar to the Forum with the intention of presenting him with a petition asking
him to return power to the Senate. The Senators intercepted Caesar just as he was
passing the Theatre of Pompey, taking him to a room adjourning the East portico.
Caesar is said to been stabbed by up to sixty men, though it is unclear whether stories
about him dying at the foot of a statue of Pompey are factual.
Scenes featuring the Senate house in HBO’s Rome are questionable. The
Senate house in the TV series is the shape of the real life Curia Porticum, a tiered
entrance to the Curia Hostilia where most Senate debates would occur. Some records
indicate the citizens were permitted to observe Senate debates from the porticum,
whereas debates themselves would take place in the hostilia. The Curia Hostilia itself
was a rectangular rather than a round room. Thus, the Australian House of
Representatives is closer in shape to the Curia Hostilia than the HBO version. Why
does HBO’s Rome depict the Senate chamber as round? I would suggest a blend of

16
Holland, op cit, p. xxv
dramatic effect and Arthurian mythology, and the idea that democracy is best acted
out in a round chamber or around the “round table”.
The natural scenery depicted in Rome is quite astounding. The streets in the
late Republic where Vorenus lived, in the district of the Subura, were desolate and
poverty stricken. Plenty of times in Rome we see people throwing buckets of faeces
into the streets, despite having one the very best sewer systems in the world running
under the Forum. The sheer number of beggars represents how, despite the immense
wealth in the city, most of the work was done by slaves and not by citizens hiring out
their labour. In regards to the natural scenery, the Cyprus trees in the countryside are
still very common around Rome and the Italian countryside.17 Even the starlings –
which comprise the haunting face of “death” in the dream experienced by Caesar’s
wife Calpurnia – still swarm around the city skies of Rome at dusk during the cooler
months.
The Via Appia is the road that features at the start of Episode 12. It was the
first great trade and military road built by the Romans heading southwards. Closer to
the city, the Via Appia was flanked by funeral stones (as can be seen at the start of
Episode 12) called mausoleums as well as the major aqueduct system that still feeds
some of the city’s fountains today. This is because burial of the dead was forbidden
inside the city walls.
The Forum itself is, according to the show’s historical consultant, accurate to
the last stone. The Forum was the central town square of Rome, which held market
days and provided the public calendar. It was flanked by religious temples, and was
overlooked on the West by the Capitoline Hill and in the South-East by the Palatine
neighbourhood (the wealthy district). The Senate house and Temple of Jupiter were
the most important buildings within the Forum, catering to both State and religious
affairs, which were often one and the same.

c. The characters: Vorenus, Pullo, Cassius, Brutus

Vorenus and Pullo are semi-fictional characters we can relate to two of the very few
plebeians/soldiers mentioned by Caesar in his writings, whose names appear as ‘Titus
Pulcio’ and ‘Lucius Varenus’. The first mention of Varenus and Pulcio comes in
Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War (5.44), regarding their personal rivalry for

17
Dury, op cit, p. 85
the post of primus pilus (‘first spear centurion’). Caesar tells us that the camp of the
XIII legion was attacked by the Nervii in 54 BC and was about to be overrun. Pulcio
jumped the ramparts to fight hand-to-hand with the Nervii. Varenus, not wanting
Pulcio to reap all the glory, then jumps the ramparts too, killing many enemies. As a
demonstration of “brotherly love” and comradeship, they each save the other’s life at
certain points during the fight. To their dissatisfaction, though, Caesar said it was
impossible to decide who was braver.

A major irony teased out by the Rome script is spelled out in an earlier episode, “Titus
Pullo Brings Down the Republic”. Here, Pullo starts a riot at a critical juncture in the
history of the Republic when he is embroiled in a fight with one of Pompey’s men. In
Caesar’s later Commentaries on the Civil War (3.67), we learn that Pulcio has gone
over to the Republican cause to fight against Caesar. Of course, in the script, if
anyone was to do this, it would have been our sullen Catonian, Lucius Vorenus.

Cassius Longinus is one of the key conspirators in the plot to assassinate Caesar.
Marcus Junius Brutus is compelled by Cassius to use his name as a symbolic
counterweight to Caesar’s popular support. After all, it was Brutus’ ancestor who had
driven the last king from Rome. Brutus was rumoured to be Caesar’s son, and spent a
year with Caesar in his youth learning from him. He was rumoured to be the lovechild
of Caesar via a relationship he shared with Brutus’ mother, Servilia.18 Showing the
love they shared, Victor Dury points out that Caesar gave Servilia a ring that cost six
million sesterces (about 2 million donari).19 The love between them in the script is
profound, though Caesar cannot act on his feelings because of his marriage to
Calpurnia, a strategic political match. Whether this was the case is not clear in
historical records. However, it is known that Servilia was a key player following the
death of Caesar as a mediator between the conspirators and Marc Antony.

Brutus’ loyalties are torn between the Republic and his father figure Caesar. This
tension is cleverly exploited in the script for Rome. In the scene where Brutus and
Cassius are looking down over the Senate floor, Cassius goads Brutus. Referring to
Vorenus, who stands side-by-side with Caesar in the Senate, Cassius describes the

18
Holland, op cit, p. 308
19
Dury, Victor, The World of the Romans, Minerva, Geneve, 1972, p. 32
relationship as very close, saying they “might be father and son”. While Brutus is
clearly angered, he bites his tongue.

d. Gender roles and women’s rights

At the end of Episode 12, Vorenus discovers the truth about Niobe’s love child
(Lucius). He is more than heartbroken; he is legally entitled to kill Niobe and her
illegitimate son too. Dury describes how: ‘The home was a sacred refuge which was
impenetrable even to a representative of the law… the power of the father grips the
child at the moment of leaving its mother’s womb and controls its right to life or
death.’20 Paternal authority, he goes on, lasted until the death of the person invested
with it and was passed on to all descendents in direct line.21 This included the right of
life or death, which the father retained throughout their children’s lives no matter
what social status they might achieve.

This part of the script symbolises the death of everything Vorenus stands for - the
death of the Republic and its traditions. His inability to deal with this fact – or at least
to remain pragmatic to historical shifts – is best captured in Series 2, when Vorenus
endures a gradual, extended death for no real reason at all. Cleverly, the idea is that
Pullo, always jovial and willing to accept to life’s chances, is able to live. However,
those who have difficulty adjusting to the new world - a world of dictators and the
Principate – are left behind to the pages of history.

For aristocratic women, the same rules applied. Father’s (or head of household) had
complete control over whom their daughter’s married, and it was certainly a system
for political marriages rather than reproduction or love for its own sake.

e. “I saw that one selling fish in the Forum!”: Plebs and rowdy gauls in the
Senate house.
The Gauls were the terrorists of the late Republic. They had sacked and left Rome a
burning heap in 390 BCE, and then retreated back over the Alps.22 They were the only
enemy that had sacked Rome until that time, and symbolised the greatest threat it had

20
ibid, p. 67
21
ibid, p. 76
22
Wells, op cit, p. 39
known for later Romans, alongside Spartacus and Hannibal. As Holland says: ‘The
Republic had no fiercer bogeyman than the pale-skinned, horse-maned, towering
Gaul.’23

The outrage of Cicero at Caesar bringing Gauls into the Senate is, thus,
understandable. As he says, ‘It’s the end, hey? The Gauls invaded’, not by war, but
rather by invitation. The outrage of the conspirators is expressed when Gauls and
Belgians enter the Senate for the first time, in which they take note of the fact they
wore earrings, had long hair and probably sold “fish in the Forum”. The Romans
indeed had a hair complex. It was a routine in Roman life to have ones hair plucked
from the body, and to be clean-shaven. It was considered barbarian to be bearded and
have long hair; such was what distinguished Romans from their northern foes, the
uncivilised Gauls.

f. Depictions of slaves
In the late Republic, it has been estimated that slaves comprised 70% of the
population of Rome. The most prominent slave attendant to Caesar is Posca, an
educated man probably from Greece. Many patricians bought educated Greek
bookkeepers to maintain their affairs. Many slaves in Rome were Greek doctors, who
can be seen attending to Pullo and dressing his wounds. They wear Greek tunics,
rather than the Roman toga.

Pullo’s love interest, Eireni, was a slave captured from Germannia. She was given her
freedom in Episode 11 by Pullo. Any slave owner could free a slave at the public
register, but slaves could not normally become Roman citizens (gain ‘civitas’) but
were instead remained “freedmen” or “freedwomen”. Still, they remained subject to
slave laws rather than laws for citizens. It was very prestigious for plebs to own
slaves, though it was much cheaper to rent them from the local slave dealer. Slaves
were often granted their freedom in the wills of their deceased owners.24

g. Religion and customs

23
Holland, op cit, p. 242
24
see Dury, op cit, p. 92
You are probably wondering what Vorenus and Niobe were doing down in the dirt in
Episode 12. Well, to bless their newly acquired farmland, the priests suggest they
fertilise the land in the traditional sense. The priests offer chants to the agricultural
gods Insitor (‘the sower of seeds’) and Ocator (‘plower of the fields’) while this is
happening.

Common delicacies in Rome included dormouse, which is offered by Servilia to Atia

and Octavian in Episode 12, and was usually dipped in honey. Food became a symbol
of Rome’s extravagance in the late Republic. The city was by the 3rd century BCE
‘ringed by ponds’, with wealthy Romans building saltwater ponds and developing a
sophisticated system of pisciculture at incredible expense.25 In the 60s BCE, a
patrician known as Lucullus, caught up in the mania for fresh fish, had excavated
tunnels through mountains to maintain both the flow and temperature of his saltwater
fish ponds. Cicero described Lucullus and those like him as ‘piscinarii’ – “fish
fanciers” - a word used half in contempt and half in despair at the extravagance and
waste.26 This kind of mania and extravagance that emerged in the late Republic
corresponded with Cicero and Cato’s concerns about a growing apathy for more
honourable Republican values.

Oysters became a major craze in the late Republic, and were farmed quite extensively
around the bay of Naples, which was a major holiday spot for Roman citizens and
only 2 days ride on horseback. Naples also allowed Romans to avoid malaria
outbreaks at home in the summer.27 Ice and salt was imported to the city from around
the Italian countryside. Ice was brought in from the southern hillsides of Italy in great
sealed cases, and salt was harvested to preserve meat products (much of Rome’s salt
would come from Britain during the imperial period).

Episode 12 begins with Pullo in hospital at a town called Avernum. Taken there by
Vorenus after the arena fight, it accurately depicts how there were no public hospitals
in Rome. This one is a military field hospital located outside the city. Bathing was an
important daily routine, not just because of the need for personal hygiene, but because

25
Holland, op cit, p. 187
26
ibid, p. 189
27
Dury, op cit, p. 33
it was a sacred public duty to do so. Hence, wherever we find Roman ruins, there are
most always public bathhouses. This was also the case with public toilets, in which to
wash ones behind you would simply use a sponge on the end of stick and then wash it
in the water stream that ran beneath your feet.

Formal dress for the Roman Senator and upper classes included the toga, which was
equally subject to strict washing instructions. The best was to keep a toga white was
with ammonia – a chemical that is plentiful in human urine, and usually collected in
great pots outside of public toilet houses. The Roman toga was much different to the
Greek tunic, and the young Caesar was known to wear the tunic ‘loosely belted’ in
public to the scandalous outcries of fellow patricians.28 According to Dury, by the late
Republic, it seemed as though each generation assumed a duty of making the fabric of
their tunics both thinner (more see-through) and “looser”.

Conclusion
There are several main aspects we can take from HBO’s Rome about accuracy and
historical depth. In one sense, the series reinserts plebeians into history, providing a
visual re-creation of what life may have been like for the lower classes of Roman
society. The script very cleverly provides insight into various levels of Roman
society, with the focus drifting between the lives of plebs, shopkeepers, workers,
peasants, accountants, criminals, patricians and slaves. There is very little to be
questioned about time compression, as the storyline adheres to the macro view of
what we know about Roman history from sources such as Pliny, Tacitus and the like.
There is very little compression of the landscape, although at times we are given the
incorrect impression that places like Ravenna are only an afternoon’s horse-ride from
Rome itself (see earlier episodes). Of course, the details of Caesar’s plans and the
genius of his battle tactics and political thinking are significantly watered-down.
However, it does provide a useful overview of what happened in the bigger scheme of
the late Republic, how it happened, why it happened, and the intrigues of Roman
citizens during this period.

28
Holland, op cit, p. 120 and p. 197. For images of Roman dress, see http://www.roman-
empire.net/society/soc-dress.html