What did they mess up in this episode?
Caesar and Pompey fought two battles in Greece, not one. The first one, Pompey won. Pompey put all of his captives to death, Caesar spared his. The Romans in Pompey's army weren't too happy about this. It had a deleterious effect on their morale. The episode was correct that Pompey wanted to adopt a Fabian strategy against Caesar.
What's a Fabian strategy? During the Punic Wars, when Hannibal was in Italy, Quintus Fabius Maximus was made dictator to oppose Hannibal. Knowing that Hannibal was a better general, Fabius adopted a strategy of hit and run and declined any major battle with Hannibal. By this strategy, he hoped to wear down Hannibal and save his army. He was considered a coward, as was Pompey after his victory over Caesar in their first battle. Fabius was replaced after a year and his replacements were defeated by Hannibal, the most decisive defeat was at Cannae where the Roman army suffered a devastating defeat.
This is the kind of stuff you learn when you've had a classical education.
Back to Pompey. The morale was very poor in Pompey's army. Morale was sky high in Caesar's army and the soldiers begged him to engage Pompey again so they could atone for the first defeat. Caesar's army was outnumbered, but they won. A sumptious feast had been laid out in Pompey's tent to celebrate his victory. Instead, Caesar ate dinner that night in Pompey's tent, while Pompey fled on horseback (not on a wagon). His wife and children were not with him, but joined him at Mytilene as he made his way to Alexandria. There he was stabbed and beheaded. (They got that part right.)
Wow! The only sex we had in this episode was some lesbo love action between Octavia and Servilia. I never saw that coming. As I have said many times before, Octavia was happily married to Marcellus at this time. I don't think he would have been too happy about Servilia telling Octavia (or was it the other way around?), "Lesbe friends."
I guess next week we get to see Cleopatra. They'll probably mess up the military action that occurred in Alexandria, when once again, Caesar was outnumbered but managed to win.
I see by the credits that they have a history consultant for the show. They must not be listening to him.
Posted by denny at October 11, 2005 12:14 PMAll I want to know is, what the hell was Pompey doing in Alabama?
Posted by: Elisson on October 11, 2005 05:06 PMTheir history consultant might be the guy writing the alternative history they teach in Our schools today, or one of his students.
Posted by: Jeremy on October 11, 2005 06:00 PMBest I remember ole Jules got pretty hot about
Pompey losing his head. Wonder if the TV will show that part
Best I remember ole Jules got pretty hot about
Pompey losing his head. Wonder if the TV will show that part
The preview for next weeks episode seemed to show Caesar getting mad about it.
Posted by: Mark S. on October 13, 2005 11:04 AMI hope this gets posted. I tried commenting on previous Rome posts but they never show up. So I switched the Explorer. I was doing them in Firefox.
Anyway, since this is a drama focused on the two soldiers with the historical stuff as the back drop, they can't fit the details of history into these hour long stories. There is too much to cover. Besides, Caeser chased Pompey around Greece for almost two years as I recall.
I don't have a problem with them abbreviating and merging some elements of history to fit their story because they get a lot of the details correct on the Roman life. Though I think it's actually too tame. The Romans liked porno mosaics for example. They had phallus statues all over the place. They were also pretty mean to slaves. On the show slaves are treated like modern servants.
The actors in this show are really good. I especially like Caeser and Marc Anthony's portrayal, though no show I've seen has got Marc Anthony right. He was a big, bearish guy. Not a lounge lizard type as he's usually portrayed.
BTW: There is a TV movie out on DVD I picked up called Augustus with Peter O'Toole playing old Augustus recounting his youthful exploits. It's not bad except, again, it is way too tame and they make Augustus too nice. Like Claudius, he was a good leader (great even) but he was no saint. Marc Anthony would agree.
Posted by: James Hudnall on October 16, 2005 02:36 AM