49 Fun Facts About Rome (HBO)

Rome was co-produced by HBO and which British broadcaster?

The BBC: it had already backed HBO's Band of Brothers, and it recut Rome's opening three episodes into two, so British viewers got an 11-part season.

Which chieftain surrenders to Caesar in the opening episode of HBO's Rome?

Vercingetorix is brought before Caesar and made to surrender, which ends eight years of war and wins Caesar the people's adulation and the enmity of rivals in Rome.

The real Vorenus and Pullo are mentioned in which ancient text?

Caesar's Gallic War commentaries give them a single passage: two centurions locked in a bitter rivalry who charge out to outdo each other and end up saving each other's lives.

Who plays Lucius Vorenus in HBO's Rome?

Kevin McKidd went from Rome's stern centurion to trauma surgeon Owen Hunt, the Grey's Anatomy part he took up in 2008.

Who plays Titus Pullo in HBO's Rome?

Ray Stevenson went from Rome's brawling legionary to two Marvel roles, starring as Frank Castle in Punisher: War Zone and then playing Volstagg in the Thor films.

Who plays the scheming Atia of the Julii in HBO's Rome?

Polly Walker played Caesar's cheerfully amoral niece with such relish that the part brought her a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a drama series.

Rome's historical consultant said the show's Atia drew on which notorious real woman?

Clodia: little is recorded about Octavian's real mother, so the show's Atia borrows the scandalous reputation of other Roman noblewomen of her day.

Who plays Julius Caesar in season one of HBO's Rome?

Ciarán Hinds divided the critics: the Guardian's reviewer found his Caesar 'pretty convincing', while one Italian paper called him a parody, 'too young and with too much hair'.

Who plays Mark Antony in HBO's Rome?

James Purefoy later swapped Antony's swagger for something darker, taking the lead villain's role as cult-leading serial killer Joe Carroll in the thriller series The Following.

Who plays Brutus in HBO's Rome?

Tobias Menzies, later Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones, played 'noble Brutus' with a drawl that one classicist reviewer said belonged at an English public school.

Who plays Servilia, Brutus's mother and Caesar's lover, in HBO's Rome?

Lindsay Duncan had won a Tony for Private Lives three years earlier, and the Guardian's reviewer tipped her, not the leads, 'to be the star of the series'.

Who plays Octavia of the Julii in HBO's Rome?

Kerry Condon was barely into her twenties as Atia's much-manipulated daughter; she went on to play Stacey in Better Call Saul and to an Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin.

Which actor plays Pompey Magnus in HBO's Rome?

Kenneth Cranham played the great general as a man past his prime, 'with plausible realism' in one review, and a decade later won an Olivier Award for the stage play The Father.

Who plays Cicero in HBO's Rome?

David Bamber, the oily Mr Collins of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, played the Senate's greatest orator as a man forever torn between his principles and his ambition.

Who plays Cato in season one of HBO's Rome?

Karl Johnson, once the lead in Derek Jarman's film Wittgenstein, played the Republic's fiercest die-hard as a frail old man, which one classicist reviewer called the show's only miscasting.

Who plays Niobe, Vorenus's wife, in HBO's Rome?

Indira Varma's Niobe spends season one hiding a child born while her husband was wrongly reported dead; the actress later played Ellaria Sand in Game of Thrones.

Which two actors share the role of Octavian across the two seasons of Rome?

Max Pirkis and Simon Woods: Pirkis, a teenager fresh from Master and Commander, plays the boy until early in season two, when the story jumps ahead and Woods takes over as the cold young Caesar.

In HBO's Rome, what is the name of Caesar's Greek slave and confidant?

Posca quietly supplies many of his master's neatest solutions; freed in Caesar's will, he throws in his lot with Antony and later defects to Octavian.

In HBO's Rome, what is the occupation of Timon, Atia's bodyguard and assassin?

Horse trader: the show's press notes call Timon 'an amiable but rapacious brigand', and by the end he has walked out on Atia to leave for Judea with his family.

Ian McNeice plays which character in Rome, who addresses the crowd with elaborate hand gestures?

The Newsreader booms out the state's version of events to the citizens; McNeice went on to play another orator, Winston Churchill, in Doctor Who.

Who plays Cleopatra in HBO's Rome?

Lyndsey Marshal, seen earlier in The Hours, first appears as a guest in season one, sprung from captivity by Vorenus and Pullo, and returns as a regular in season two.

Which future Downton Abbey actor plays Agrippa in HBO's Rome?

Allen Leech played Octavian's loyal right-hand man in season two, then found far wider fame as Tom Branson, Downton Abbey's chauffeur turned member of the family.

Season one of Rome follows Caesar's civil war up to what event?

His assassination in 44 BC closes a season that began in 52 BC with victory in Gaul, and sets up season two's struggle between Mark Antony and the young Octavian.

Season two of Rome ends with the suicide of Antony and Cleopatra after which battle?

Actium: the head writer admitted to a 'blazing speed' through history near the end, because two further seasons of planned story had to be folded into this one.

In Rome's second season, Titus Pullo is sent to kill which famous senator?

Cicero: his name goes on the death list drawn up by Antony and Octavian, as it did in history, when the real orator was hunted down and killed in 43 BC.

Where would Rome's planned third and fourth seasons have been set?

Egypt: two of the five planned seasons were to unfold there, but once the axe fell the head writer telescoped that story into the end of season two.

Rome's planned fifth season would have covered what?

The rise of the Messiah in Palestine was the plan, the show's head writer said later; told midway through writing season two that it would be the last, he never got there.

Who co-created Rome with John Milius and William J. MacDonald?

Bruno Heller was the series' chief writer as well as its co-creator, and afterwards swapped togas for crime drama, creating The Mentalist and then Gotham.

At which studio was most of Rome filmed?

Cinecittà: the ancient city rebuilt on its five-acre back lot was so convincing a slum that rats, pigeons and stray dogs moved in, to the delight of the crew.

What happened to a large part of the Rome set in 2007?

It burned in a studio fire that swept part of the complex in August 2007; filming had finished the year before, but most of the damage fell on the show's sets.

Which Doctor Who episode reused part of the Rome set in late 2007?

The Fires of Pompeii was shot on the standing sets in Italy that autumn, with guest roles for Peter Capaldi and Karen Gillan, who later returned as the Twelfth Doctor and the companion Amy Pond.

Rome's historical consultant coined what term for the spotless screen version of the city that the show avoided?

Hollyrome was his word for the Rome 'we've all got in our heads', all cleanliness, marble and pressed togas; the show's streets got mud, gaudy paint and graffiti instead.

In season two of Rome, who is married off to Mark Antony to seal a political truce?

Octavia: her brother arranges the match to bind Antony to him, to the dismay of Atia, who is both the bride's mother and Antony's lover; the real marriage sealed a pact in 40 BC.

Rome was first pitched to HBO as what kind of project?

A miniseries was the pitch, but after reading the first few scripts HBO and its partners thought them good enough to carry a full series.

Which director's three opening episodes of Rome were cut down to two for British television?

Michael Apted, maker of the Up documentaries and a Bond film, directed the openers; with his work cut down, British viewers got an 11-part season where Americans saw twelve.

What is the title of the first episode of HBO's Rome?

The Stolen Eagle: a legion's standard goes missing in Gaul and Vorenus and Pullo are sent to bring it back, only to find the theft was Pompey's ploy to embarrass Caesar.

In the opening episode of Rome, Caesar learns in Gaul that which member of his family has died?

His daughter: Julia was married to Pompey, so her death in childbirth cuts the family tie between the two most powerful men in Rome and their alliance soon falls apart.

Who composed Rome's score using live instruments from the ancient world?

Jeff Beal won the job with a demo written straight after HBO's Carnivàle, and played the duduk, oud and percussion parts himself; he later scored House of Cards.

Before filming Rome, Italian extras cast as legionaries were put through a two-week what?

Boot camp: a former Royal Marine drilled them in marching, sword work and camp-building while they lived in tents, and about a fifth of the recruits dropped out.

The biggest filming day on Rome's first season, with 750 actors and extras, was for which scene?

Caesar's triumph: the episode built around it shows five days of parades, feasting and games after the Senate makes him dictator, and its costumes went on to win an Emmy.

HBO marketed Rome with a custom theme for which web browser?

HBO spent about $10 million promoting the series.

In HBO's Rome, which woman becomes Atia's bitter enemy?

Servilia: Atia's jealousy brings humiliation on Caesar and despair to his lover Servilia, who turns cold and sets out on a long path of revenge.

How was Rome altered for its first Italian broadcast on Rai 2?

Toned-down sex and violence: 'safe' alternative takes had been filmed for the Italian market, yet the sanitised version still drew only a 10 per cent share in the country where it was made.

Which Italian newspaper called Rome 'historical misinformation' and its Caesar a 'parody'?

Corriere della Sera also called the affair between Atia and Mark Antony 'ridiculous', part of a chilly Italian welcome that Variety headlined as a thumbs down.

HBO ended Rome after two seasons mainly because of what?

High production cost: with its partners' two-year deal running out, HBO's chairman announced the end in July 2006, before season two had even aired.

Rome's second season was originally meant to end with the death of which character?

Brutus: that was the plan until word came that the show was ending, and the writers pressed on to the fall of Antony and Cleopatra so the story would have a finish.

Historical consultant Jonathan Stamp said Rome aimed for what rather than accuracy?

Authenticity: Stamp's team researched how Romans dressed, gestured and behaved because it enriched the drama, but, as he put it, 'We were not, however, making a documentary.'

Empire magazine called Rome 'not as good-looking as' which film, though richer in history?

Gladiator: Empire's four-star review preferred the longer HBO cut on DVD to the broadcast version, saying the extra scene-setting helped without slowing the pace much.

Which Oxford classicist called Rome 'splendidly ambitious' in the Guardian?

Robin Lane Fox, whose book Oliver Stone drew on for his film Alexander, praised the casting, sets and lighting, then blamed a conception that had 'thrown too much fascinating history off the set'.