![\"blog-rome1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/blog-rome1.jpg\")
That\u2019s until recently when I had the opportunity to catch the first season of HBO\u2019s highly acclaimed TV series, Rome<\/a>, which seems to have drawn a great deal of inspiration from McCullough\u2019s novels. Ling has watched quite a few episodes of the series with me, and though she\u2019s remarked at how vulgar the series is, seems equally fascinated too.<\/p>\nThe series takes place in a smaller time frame compared to McCullough\u2019s novels: specifically the beginning of Pompey Magnus<\/a>\u2018 fall out with Julius Caesar,and finishes with Octavius Caesar<\/a>\u2019s ascendancy. Truth to tell, there\u2019s a good deal of expletives-use (though still far less than any given season of The Sopranos<\/a>), and both female and male nudity – though in order to reach the local shores here, the DVD set has been butchered by way of mosaic blurring. But that\u2019s Roman civilization for you: they thought little of homosexuality, having young boys as lovers was fashionable, as was the wasteful and brutal civil wars the Roman politicians and generals waged on each other.<\/p>\n The TV series is as good an introduction to Julius Caesar\u2019s time as you can get once you get past the Asterix comic books and The Bard\u2019s romanticized retelling of Julius Caesar\u2019s last few days. You get reasonably authentic looking costumes and sets, and a relatively accurate retelling of the major events in that timeline. For folks who become truly interested to read up more, there\u2019s always the novels, which you can find a list of right here<\/a>.:)<\/p>\n Oh, and finally; astute fans of the Asterix comic books will have seen before the title in these two posts: \u201cAlea jacta est\u201d. It\u2019s Latin and means \u201cThe die is cast\u201d. This quotation is attributed to Julius Caesar as he led his army across the River Rubicon in Italy, marching towards Rome in defiance of the Roman Senate\u2019s order for him to relinquish command of his forces and return to Rome to face charges of treason. Thick stuff eh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (This one\u2019s continued from the last entry.) I didn\u2019t find McCullough\u2019s subsequent books as refreshing as the first, so aside from computer city-building games based on the Roman empire, over the last decade I didn\u2019t find similarly engaging material to<\/p>\n