Are You Ready for Some "Empire"?

[RomanBuckeye]

ABC Network in the U.S. is starting a 5 part mini-series called "Empire" this Tuesday at 9 PM. It was filmed in Rome and runs about 6 hrs. The series covers Julius Caesar's last days and the rise of Octavian/Octavius. A picture in the newspaper shows Roman soldiers from the series with round shields and wearing Imperial "Gallic/Italic-esque" type helmets. Looks like the costume department has got it wrong again!

[Carlton Bach]

I don't know about the round shields. The parma may have been more common than we think, especially on non-battlefield duty.

Or they may have had some left over from 'Age of the Vikings'...

[Quintius Clavus]

They have a still of one of the actors from the miniseries on the front of my newspaper's weekly TV program schedule. Yuk!!! Fantasy leather quasi armor. Admittedly, the guy pictured is likely to be a gladiator (I sincerely hope he is not intended to be a soldier!).
I'll watch it, just to have the full info to comment on it.
I still have to figure out how I am going to see "Rome" this fall. They are definitely promoting it on TV. I do not subscribe to any of the "premium" channels such as HBO, on which it is being shown. :roll:

Marcus Quintius Clavus/Quinton

By the way - glad to see Matthew Amt posting again on Roman Army Talk!

[richsc]

Glad to see you got your access worked out, and to see the both of you.

[Matthew Amt]

What, who, me? Is it safe to come out? We'll see...

I'm not going to watch the ABC thing. Aside from all the dorfy historical mistakes that would drive me batty (not even mentioning the hardware and costuming problems!), the last sentence in the TV magazine article said that this is really a show about--get this--modern American imperialism! Gads...

To the producers' credit, it must have been very hard for them to design spiffy leather armor that still reveals the star's hunky pecs and biceps! There's even tooling on the manica. Check the Museum Replicas catalog next month for the full line of repros.

Enjoy the show!

Valete,

Matthew

[A_Volpe]

we ought to print out pictures of us in our kits and cut out our bodies and then when the cheese-fest Romans come on screen we just put our cutouts infront of the image, that way the show will look a little more accurate and it'll makes us feel like WE'RE the Big Stars!

:wink:

[Neuraleanus]

:x all that I can say is, plastic, plastic, and more plastic! Oh that opening gladiator scene. Who ever designed that watched too many scanes of the hercules TV show.

[A_Volpe]

Who ever designed that watched too many scanes of the hercules TV show.

That's most likely the problem. It takes way too much effort to do any kind of research or re-doing the costumes to remotely reflect anything authentic. Just *too* much time, money and energy apprently.

*sigh*
:roll:

[Paullus]

Equipment and history drove me batty! But all that aside, I did find Empire quite entertaining. Will have to see how the next couple of episodes do. Too bad they didn't take the historical route for the story, which was far more compelling than this one.....as we all know

[Niedel]

Oh my God! Just watched the second part of this dreck last night.
"Combat dungeons of Arkhon", anyone? I just couldn't believe it.
The HBO Rome series starting August 28 looks very cool, though.

[A_Volpe]

Yeah, I finally had a chance to sit down and torture myself with that Prison Episode too....BLECH!

Could "Octavius" be any more Anakin Skywalker Whiny-Bratty??

I think the only thing remotely accurate in that excuse for trash was the Republic Counsuls bickering and being a bunch of Doobers! Sheesh!

I wish I had HBO to see that "Rome" series, that at least looks entertaining and engaging, even with leather-armored Romans.

I guess it's just too much to ask.

UGH.

[Theodosius the Great]

"Augustus" starring Peter O'Toole was a better production, IMHO :roll: ....

[JasonNovak]

I don't think it's too bad, I'm not taking it very seriously though They seem to be a little fixated on gladiators. Nice to get roman-related stuff out there.

The only thing that bugs me, especially in the first episode, is how the senate's gladiator "thugs" basically take control and do anything they want unopposed, with no troops to be found anywhere.

They basically walking into Caesar's house and started ripping the place up and taking prisoners, including his family. You'd think with the assassination it would be a fortress, especially if Marc Antony thought a will might be there being a likely successor.

[RomanBuckeye]

It maybe worthwhile to see the whole series so at upcoming reenactment events you can discuss it with the attending public who have seen it. There you can correct any misconceptions given in the series by telling them what current historical research has found.