Has anyone been watching the new HBO series Rome? I've enjoyed it so far but Roman history is not something I'm comfortable addressing. So any critiques/ observations? I'm just impressed that I don't think I've seen any Lorca Segmentata so far.....

It's not bad for HBO. I'd rather see more combat and less political manuvering, but it is Rome after all. It's nice to see lorica hamata being used, at least something that resembles the hamata as the basic pattern is off. The helms are supposed to be bronze but are obviously plastic, and all of the officers are in the typical Hollywood leather armor. It could be better but I don't think it's a bad effort considering what we usually see. At least the armor is a bit above the Xena Warrior Princess look.

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I'd give it a "B" so far. There are some logical inconsistencies that I don't care for. For example, why inquire about the contents of a wagon when you're not going to search it after killing almost all of the soliders guarding it? Why allow a fairly large group of seedly looking characters into the city, reportedly on business for which they're not equipped? I think the show would greatly benefit from better writing. To me, this is classic HBO: Overly dramatic and sexual, and lacking in substance and quality.

(I don't want to be too specific here just in case someone hasn't seen these episodes)

The 'suspension of disbelief' factor is good enough for me to enjoy it. Nice job, HBO!
Btw I don't have a TV either and download the episodes off the internet.

I've been catching it. At first I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I have to admit, I'm hooked. It took 3 or 4 episodes but I’m so there now. I think they are doing an excellent job of balancing the politics and the fighting. I think it is very worth while.

I don't have cable, so I will need to wait for it to come out on video.

In the Ttels to the second episode, is there anybody else who saw the small man with the giant fallos and A R M A under drawn on the wall ;)

Just a reflection....

Martin

This has just started in England and I was very impressed with the first episode. Anyone else see it?
Has it begun in the US yet?


http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/rome/

http://www.hbo.com/rome/


Paul

It's been on here for some time. We're now well into the series with perhaps 7-8 episodes so far. Unfortunately the combat you see in the first few opening seconds of the first episode is all there's been so far. A lot of sex and intrigue but very little military stuff shown.

Paul,

Your question has been merged with an already existing thread on this subject.

Thanks Patrick.

The website says that all the helmets are made from brass.


Paul

I quite enjoyed it, although i cringed at the opening battle when I saw Roman soldiers in fantasy helmets and with rectangular scuta (or should that be scutums). I quite enjoyed the rest.

I do wonder though with all the books about the Roman army, not just scholarly works, but books for the general reader like Connolly's Greece and Rome, countless Osprey books, not to mention all the reenactment groups in Europe and the USA, Why do film makers still get the armour wrong? It strikes me as just... I don't know what to say. Surely they must have done some research, did they just not like what they found? Did they think Montefortino-style helmets were boring? The armour was marginally more accurate than the live-action Asterix with Gerard Depardieu. :)

Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but there were some major problems with the big fight in the last episode. It was still entertaining but it could have been so much better. My first big disappointment with this series.

Beefs:

1) No pilum. NO PILUM!!! No missiles of any kind in fact other than arrows at one point, strangely enough (did the Roman army even really have archers at that point? I don't know...)

2) the usual bit about Armor not working. Why wear that mail at all if you can push a gladius through it like a hot knife through butter? I mean ok maybe they could have pierced the mail in some cases, but I saw very slow thrusts repeatedly depicted as pushing right through mail armor with nary any resistence. I really don't understand what lay people think the purpose of Armor was....

3) Where was the cavalry?

4) The armies marched into battle nicely enough, but immediately disintegrated into a disorganized rabble within seconds of meeting in combat. I wanted to see cohorts (maniples?) charging out of the line and retreating back into it in good order (throwing pilum too!) I wanted to see flanking manuevers and penetrations of enemy formations. If this was the best they could do maybe they should have kept the whole fight off-screen. I think that would have been a good choice. In fact they could have borrowed a session of Rome Total War and just cleaned it up or filtered it through smoke or something that would have been way better.

5) All the officers wearing leather body armor, and even what looked like leather helmets. Is there any evidence that the Romans wore leather body armor? I hope Matthew Amt can chime in here...

At least they did the Testuodo but that seems to be a concept Hollywood has grasped, it was done in "Gladiator"

I do commend them for NOT having any scenes where tens of thousands of Roman catapults hurl bathubs full of napalm accross the night sky....

I liked that they used Italian extras to make up the Roman legions who looked like Romans instead of Englishmen.

J

I wonder why you worry so much about accuracy of peplum movies.

they will never get it, as long as you don't get one of that british documentaries doing some serious work the rest will just be pulp magazine quality.