what?
only 12 episodes?
why? why only 2007?
Dunno, but I speculate that they spent SO MUCH on the scene/set and they were unsure of how a "swords and sandles" show would do. Remember, we have Troy, Alexander, etc...which didn't do as well as they thought it would...so HBO was skeptical....Kudos to BBC which I think have done one of the best casting jobs I have ever seen in a mini-series.
2007? Dunno why so long...ask Tony Soprano.