HBO\'s "Rome" to present more realistic look at the

[john m roberts]

Give 'em a break. At the time of Caesar's return to Rome the old Curia hadn't yet been restored after the damage it suffered from the fire that followed the rioting at the funeral of Clodius. For several years the Senate met elsewhere. The day Caesar was assassinated the Senate was meeting in the Theater of Pompey on the Campus Martius. This made for the neat dramatic irony of Caesar expiring at the base of Pompey's statue. There were other meeting places: the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol, the Temple of Bellona on the Campus Martius, where they met to discuss war and receive foreign envoys, and others. It's conceivable that some of these places featured semicircular seating arrangements. We don't know so we can allow these guys some latitude.