Posted on 03/23/2007 5:03:13 PM PDT by veronica
The pre-Christian is not to be missed.
The most pro-Christian show on television doesn’t have a single Christian character in it — and it couldn’t have. Rome, the hit series now in its second season on HBO, is a surprising affirmation of the Western tradition. While it is packed with sex and violence, its (probably unintended) message is that Rome was desperate for Christianity. Although recognized by critics as one of the best new shows on television, less frequently noted is how the show rebukes those who would reject the West’s Christian heritage and go back to “neo-pagan” life. In fact, Rome illustrates that historians like Christopher Dawson were correct in emphasizing the revolutionary effect Christianity had on the pagan Roman world.
The show is set in the closing days of the Roman republic; the first season ended with the assassination of Julius Caesar on the floor of the senate by his friends Brutus and Cassius. The new season is concerned with the emergence of the Empire under Octavian, Caesar's nephew and adopted son, who becomes Caesar Augustus, reigning reigned from about 27 B.C. to 19 A.D. Tracking their more famous fellow Romans are (fictional) soldiers Lucius Verenus and Titus Pullo, whose lives allow the directors to explore sides of Roman life not often seen in the history books.
Three features stand out, amidst the thrilling story lines, well-crafted battle scenes, and first-rate acting. The first is the casual cruelty of the Roman world, seen especially in its treatment of slaves. Rome was, after all, a slave society, and slaves had no rights — indeed, almost no recognized existence except as property. They are treated like commodities (such as when Atia, a noblewoman and Octavian’s mother, offers her female slaves to Marc Antony, with whom she is having an affair) and are routinely brutalized (as shown in a sequence set in a slave farm where Verenus goes to find his children). The show treats this matter of factly, not for shock value or with a false sentimentality. Life in the ancient world could be rough for everyone; it was just worse for slaves.
The Romans did develop a legal culture that is the basis of the Western legal system, including notions of natural law and rights, but that system was harsh: Testimony from slaves in court, for example, was not admitted absent torture. It had not yet been enlightened through the principles of equity that would make their appearance with the Catholic Church’s canon law and admonitions of charity.
The brutality towards slaves evidenced in the show is echoed in its depiction of the family. Wives and children had almost as low a status as slaves, and again the show portrays harsh realities without exaggeration or superficiality. Husbands could, and did, beat their wives with impunity, their children were only extensions of the father’s will, and the wife was clearly not the equal partner. Marriage was a religious event, but not, as it would later become, a sacrament. Women without husbands would become destitute, be sold into slavery, or become prostitutes.
Finally, there is religion. Rome is saturated with it — there are prayers and oaths, offerings made to deities known and unknown, and religious processions and priestly orders. A pagan world, in other words, is not one in which we control the gods, as trendy leftists suppose, but in which we are ever at risk of offending some god for failure to make the right offering or sacrifice. Moreover, these gods rarely provide a guide to conduct or right behavior — they are inscrutable.
There may be some quibbles with historical accuracy, but in the main the show has it right. Rome was not all marble columns and noble rhetoric, and those wishing to reject the West’s Christian heritage should take a hard look at what that world was like before the arrival of Christianity
This Sunday is the final episode. Ever.
I absolutely love the mini series.
It has really ignited more of an interest in that time period for me. I just finished watching Quo Vadis. Imagine what those people went thru being used as human candles, killed by wild animals just because they were Christians.
One thing I found interesting was that Muslims have historically killed people if they didn't convert to their fake religion. Imagine these early Christians not giving up their faith when they were confronted with death.
oh that makes me so sad
Robert Graves wrote about Rome, and the mini series about Claudius' life was pretty fun to watch. I actually bought the collection.
Rome seems like an upgrade of that "I Claudius" production with a lot more blood, swearing, and other things. Most especially, it is very fun to watch.
The Season is simply too short in my opinion. I just love watching it.
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
It hasn't been cancelled, it's just ending. It was designed to run as long as it has and no further. By the end of the next episode, most of the main characters will be dead.
But I think they should keep it going into Augustus' reign and "I, Claudius" territory, with their different spin on things as opposed to Robert Graves'. Or, they should jump ahead three hundred years and do the history of Constantine and his family - there's plenty of juicy, hitherto untapped scandal and bloodshed there.
A large segment of the modern Western world has reverted back to paganism. What we have to show for it is the daily killing of babies for any reason or for no reason. If we, as a society, can't get the question as to the sanctity oh human life right, then we can't hope to get anything right. This makes our society just as barbaric as the ancient world. When society is able to concede that abortion is wrong, in fact a horrible evil, then all other problems of society will start to melt away. As long as abortion is accepted as noble and right, we can expect that the spiritual condition of mankind will get progressively worse.
I thought they were just stopping production. It's my favorite show. :(
Rome is a prequel of course. I like the perspective of the two soldiers and life in the common neighborhoods.
According to Wikipedia, and we know how inaccurate that piece of trash can be, those two actually existed and were legendary friends who started out as bitter rivals.
I'm hooked on the show though you definitely get the feeling that hollywood(?)/hbo is once again doing its best to impose its morality, or lack thereof, on people who lived 2,000 years ago. I suspect those ancients were slightly more inhibited than hollywood would like us to believe.
A world that was fine if you toed the line.
A pity if you were a Cathar, though.
From what I've read, it was not designed to end, the bean counters caught up with it.
I love the show, but it has become rather silly this year.
...or a Dacian catamite! Yikes!
I've never watched this series mainly because it was an HBO production. I've never watched the Sopranos either or Sex in the City. I don't do serials. The only program I ever watched that was produced by HBO was Band of Brothers, and that wasn't until it came on the History Channel. I'm a history buff, but just couldn't bring myself to watch it on HBO. I guess there is an advantage to not watching it, since I don't have to be bummed out now that its cancelled.
I think it was intended to go for at least three seasons, but HBO decided at some point that it was just too expensive so they've been forced to race through a lot of material very quickly to wrap it up. The whole third season should have been Anthony and Cleopatra and the final showdown with Octavian/Augustus instead of just last episode and this next one. Whole plot threads, such as the Jewish guy, have just vanished.
It's my favorite dramatic show.
Completely inappropriate for the kids, but what a great collection of stories.
It wasn't cancelled. They just decided it was too expensive and decided that 2 seasons were enough. Its the most expensive television series ever I believe.
THIRTEEEENTH!!!!!!
The sets and costuming are fantastic, I can understand why the costs are prohibitive.
I love the show and have followed it with great enthusiasm over its two seasons. I was upset when I learned this would be the final season. True, this season they've accelerated the storyline almost to the point of being a joke, but it's still the most entertaining show on at the moment, IMO.
In Sunday's final episode, I'm hoping Pullo can sidestep Octavian's order to kill Caesarian, and instead, take the boy home with him as his son.
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