I’ve recently re-viewed the HBO/BBC TV series Rome. And I’ve found some things interesting in it.
In the 5th episode, at the party held at Attia’s house in honour of Caesar’s return to Rome, Octavia recited some gloomy lines of verse when she was asked by Attia, her mother, to say something amusing and witty. The poem goes as the following: “easy it is to go down to the hell, for the doors of death are forever open. but to step out again, that’s the difficulty.”
It seems to be a translation from the following lines from liber sextus of Vergil’s Aeneid:
Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis;
Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras,
Hoc opus, hic labor est.
But in 49 BC when the symposium was held, Vergil was a young man in his twenties and his patrons Octavian and Maecenas were mere boys, so there seems to be a chronological mistake which the producer has made deliberately.
Or has Ennius composed some simmilar lines from which Vergil drew his ideas, and Octavia was just reciting Ennius instead of Vergil?
By and by, Rome is a very high quality tv-film, you cannot have imagined actresse singing Sappho in classical Greek (though she pronouced the th in athanatos as three in English) in any other film…and the delicately-written conversations, just wonderful!
Actually there are quite a few “factual” errors that indeed were deliberate. I don’t think “factual accuracy” was the primary goal of the production, but they certainly took a lot of facts into their account of life during the late Republic and early Empire.
By and by, > Rome > is a very high quality tv-film, you cannot have imagined actresses singing Sappho in classical Greek (though she pronouced the th in athanatos as three in English) in any other film…and the delicately-written conversations, just wonderful!
Julius Caesar recites lines from Catullus (in Latin) at Pompey’s funeral rites (IIRC). Augustus also recites a translation of another famous poem by Catullus (Passer, deliciae meae puellae). I was also very surprised when Althea began singing “Poikilothron Aphrodite”, I didn’'t expect that at all.
And I love the graffiti. 
Ok, you’ve convinced me I need to see this series. From what I know of HBO I won’t be disappointed. Finally a chance to combine my love of Latin with addicting screen-play.
Oh graffiti I like them too. One that I remembered reads: LABIENVS FVI, and my Cassell told me that Labienus was one legate of Caesar who deserted to Pompey at the breaking of the civil war. It is quite amusing to see it written on the wall when Caesar has got the city, sc. come and catch me if you can.
Many graffiti appear when the camera is moving, so I often paused and replayed in order to see what they really are. Those who watch on TV are going to miss a great many of them, and sometimes I wonder why HBO has made thus lavishly everything into details.
The DVDs are wonderful in that respect. You can set them to display concise “info boxes” during playback that call attention to and describe the details in sets and other aspects of the show.
Btw, after reading Plutarch on Marc Antony I’m inclined to believe that Mark Purefoy’s rendition of the character was largely based on Plutarch’s bio. Scoundrel, rakehell, opportunist, and courageous general, Antony was, by repute, all of these and more. Men like Julius and Antony make the powerful men of our day appear petty and puny in comparison, not worth emulating in any respect.
My, they did live large then, did they not ?
Does anyone know what Cicero was doing when he sprayed what seemed like dark ashes on the letter he’d written to let Brutus know about Octavian and Anthony’s alliance? I believe it was later episode in season 2, right before Cicero was killed by Pullo.
Sand, to soak up any ink that hadn’t yet dried so it wouldn’t smudge.