HBO\'s Rome - inaccuracies

[Alexand96]

The clothing generally is rather outlandish - lots of curious fabrics and embroideries

Yeah, I noticed that too. In the making of extras on the DVD they said they tried to make everything in Rome feel like modern-day Mumbai, in the hopes of capturing the clutter and confusion, along withe bright colors and so on. Almost all of the fabric was imported from India they said.

And the stage sets were remarkably convincing!

Agreed. Despite some glaring mistakes which I've seen referenced (I believe it was that Augustus's triumphal arch was included on the forum set), the feel of the sets was terrific.

In regards to some of the other knit-picking details that I've observed (which are mostly concerned with the way the legions were depicted):

Most of the armor used is (alas) fantasy - such as very fake Mainz and Pompeii style swords, to brown leather armor and the so-called "praetorian helmets" for generals (Pompey, Antony, etc.), inaccurate helmets for the legionary, and the list goes on.
I'm sure that others here on RAT could (and probably have from what it seems) go on ad nausea about the errors on the show.

I still love it though. Better than the rest of the crap on TV.

Alexander