Rise and Fall

“Follow the saga of two ordinary Roman soldiers… and their families amid the rise and fall of the Roman republic and the creation of an empire,” says the sleeve of Rome Season 1, Disc 1. Probably the story doesn’t trace the generations of ancestors of these soldiers from the time of Lucius Junius Brutus to the first century BC, so “rise and fall” must just be careless sleeve writing. Think “Rome,” and “rise and fall” comes to simple minds; never mind that it took about 500 years in the case of the republic.

Still, I’m looking forward to seeing how HBO handles the interesting times of the first century BC. Can’t get much more interesting source material than that for your historical fiction. We’re further promised that the “fates of [the soldiers] become entwined with those of Caesar, Mark Antony, Cleopatra and the young Octavian…” Which probably means that the series eventually ends after the accession of Augustus since, after all, there was no more civil warring for two ordinary Roman soldiers to do after that, not at least for a few generations.