Discussion The Utterly Awful Completely Contemptible Please God Make The Suffering Stop Rumors Thread

My thought was that they would focus on the more cinematically appealing Mark Antony era, as that eventually brought both of their deaths and ushered in the golden age of Rome when Augustus was the head of state, but who knows. I'm sure Caesar will be in it. Hopefully we won't have to pay $50 to see it debut on streaming channels.

 

Cleopatra is in Star Wars now? That's it, give it all back to George, Disney.

 

Bring back Ciaran Hinds!

 

Being a Roman history nut... Rome is still probably (after I Claudius) my favourite TV show. It was a huge missed opportunity when they condensed several years into season 2, which seemed to end the series abruptly. If it had continued, I always thought Vorenus and Pullo would end up being embroiled in the rise of early Christianity (or proto-Christainaity)... that might have been interesting to see that play out.

 

Easily the best Rome depiction was Caligula with Malcom McDowell.... OK maybe not....

The docudrama on Netflix was pretty interesting ("Roman Empire") and mostly well done. The episodes on Caligula show why he was so unhinged; he learned his sick ways from Tiberius, the great uncle he took over from (who was almost as sick as Caligula). They did a good Cesar series, but I was disappointed they didn't do Octavian, the consensus greatest of them all.

 

Well, aside from great names...

I don't think anyone topped Julius Cesar as a conqueror, if that is the top measure of greatness.

No one can touch Octavian for bringing peace (ushered in Pax Romana), prosperity, and the advancement of society (plus, he put down Cesar's killers and drove Antony and Cleopatra to suicide, so that's something too).

For the king of debauchery, I'm told by my historian friend that it's a 3 way tie between Caligula, Nero, and Tiberius (I favor Caligula just because of the sheer twisted will of some of the things he was rumored to have done on a more personal level to people).

 

Nero probably thought he was the greatest military leader too.

 

lol, Nero is an example the serious problem you have when a sexual deviant is in charge of an army. Although to be fair, he was far from the only Roman leader you could say that about.

 

That is if you see Caesar’s killers as unjustified in their actions. Caesar was a dictator that ended the Republic. So I’m with Brutus and his crew. They were greater than Caesar in their commitment to the Republic.

Also, none of my cats are named after Roman Emperors for this reason.

 

I think it is more complex than that (the empire I mean, not your cats ).

They were only dedicated to their own piece of the pie, not the Republic. The reason it was a good thing was that Octavian (later Augustus as we know) needed to do that among other perhaps questionable things to ensure that he didn't meet Cesar's fate, and could go on to do better things with Rome (which he most certainly did).

But let's not talk about bloody transitions of power, it might hex us with the month of November coming soon and all.

 

Lol. History is alive in here!

Just for the record, I was simplifying things for effect (just recreating the propaganda-driven lines of division at the time to create artificial conflict here). Roman trolling, basically. Putting the knife down now.

I know the Roman system at the time was by no means a representative republic, as we understand one, and that the Roman Senate was hardly a standard-bearer for democracy. It was a racist, sexist and classist oligarchy. That said, Caesar was also a dictator, and his excellent memoirs aside (and an admirable effort to give the outer provinces representation in the Senate), he isn’t worthy of the vast scale and scope of praise he gets from genuflecting historians. Even if positive reforms did flow from the upending of the Roman aristocracy.

Maybe I should hold onto this knife though. I hear “Never Forget Caesar’s Assassination” is going viral.

@A Chorus of Disapproval The Transylvanian and Walachian Voivodes, on the other hand, I have serious issues with to this day.

 

I feel dumb now.