Rome (HBO 2005-2007, with Ciaran Hinds, Indira Varma)

The year is 52 B.C. Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome is the wealthiest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people, epicenter of a sprawling empire. The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now, those foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess. The ruling class has become extravagantly wealthy, with a precipitous decline in the old values of Spartan discipline and social unity. There is now a great chasm between the classes.

Legal and political systems have weakened, and power has increasingly shifted to the military. After eight years of war, Gaius Julius Caesar has completed his masterful conquest of Gaul, and is returning to Rome. He brings with him legions of battle-hardened, loyal men, unimaginable riches in slaves, gold and plunder, and a populist agenda for radical social change. The aristocracy is terrified, and threatens to prosecute him for war crimes if he enters Rome. The delicate balance of power lies in the Senate with Caesar’s old friend, partner and mentor, Pompey Magnus.

Such is the situation when two soldiers of Caesar’s 13th Legion, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, are ordered into the wilds of Gaul to retrieve their legion’s stolen standard, the unifying symbol of Caesar’s legion, setting off a chain of circumstances that will entwine them in pivotal events of ancient Rome.

An intimate drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, and husbands and wives, ROME chronicles epic times that saw the fall of a Republic and the creation of an empire.

cast
Ciaran Hinds as Gaius Julius Caesar
Indira Varma as Niobe
James Purefoy as Mark Antony
Kenneth Cranham as Pompey Magnus
Kerry Condon as Octavia of the Julii
Kevin McKidd as Lucius Vorenus
Lindsay Duncan as Servilia of the Junii
Max Pirkis as Gaius Octavian
Polly Walker as Atia of the Julii
Ray Stevenson as Titus Pullo
Tobias Menzies as Marcus Junius Brutus

key behind the scenes crew
Anne Thomopoulos as Executive Producer
Bruno Heller as Creator/Executive Producer
Eugene Kelly as Co-Executive Producer
Frank Doelger as Executive Producer
Jim Dyer as Co-Executive Producer
John Milius as Creator/Executive Producer
William J. MacDonald as Creator/Executive Producer

show type
historical drama

broadcast from
8/28/2005 – 3/25/2007
2 seasons with 22 episodes in total

network and production companies
HBO – BBC Worldwide Productions