Netflix series: Roman Empire
I found this series on Netflix. It is a historical drama / documentary. Pretty well done.
Television review: Netflix’s Roman EmpireRoman Empire is produced by Netflix and available on its streaming service. It is an ongoing series, the first season having been released in 2016, the third one just a few weeks ago. The idea is to focus on specific moments of the history of ancient Rome by using a combination of acting and academic commentary. Much of each episode is taken by the unfolding story as interpreted by actors. However, we also get a peppering of short commentaries by a number of leading academics who help putting things in context. It’s an interesting formula, and it works pretty well, overall.
The first season is comprised of six episodes devoted to the reign of Commodus (161–192 CE), Marcus Aurelius’ son. The second season, with five episodes, then jumps back in time, to the end of the Republic and the life of Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE). The third season, with 4 episodes, shifts again to imperial time and the reign of Caligula (12–41 CE). I hope the trend toward making shorter and shorter seasons is not going to continue with the next one, and I am looking forward to a fourth season, since the first three are both enjoyable and instructive.
There are two general features of Roman Empire that I particularly appreciated: the sympathetic approach to the major characters, and the focus on minor characters who may not be familiar to the general public, but in fact played crucial role in the unfolding events, like the Senator and historian Cassius Dio, who lived during and chronicled the reign of Commodus.
Julius Caesar was perhaps the easiest to approach with sympathy. Sure, he was a tyrant who for all effective purposes destroyed the Republic. But he was also a great general and statesman, who was genuinely trying to do good for the Roman people (he was a member of the so-called Populares party, which backed long due land reforms in favor of the general population, as opposed to the Optimates party, which jealously guarded the interests of the entrenched aristocracy). In sharp contrast with the above mentioned tragedy by Shakespeare, it is Caesar, not Brutus, who is the main character here. We see the humble beginnings of his career as a soldier and how he made his way up the ranks by way of his unusual combination of courage and genius. He eventually comes to cross the river Rubicon with his army, thus effectively declaring war on the Senate and his former ally, Pompey. We get a taste of his relationship with Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and of course with Mark Anthony, his lieutenant and friend. The last episode focuses on the Ides of March and the assassination of Caesar by a group of conspirators intent in saving the Republic from what by that point was its inevitable destiny: Empire.
The historians commenting on this season do a very good job of putting things in perspective, and also of depicting a nuanced picture of both Caesar himself and several other larger-than-life figures that characterized that turbulent time in Roman history. The most clear message we get, I think, is that Caesar — while certainly personally ambitious and determined — really did have what he considered Rome’s interest in mind, and acted in what he saw as the necessary way to pursue such interest. However, the more powerful (and isolated) he became, the more he truly began to think of himself as almost god-like (he claimed direct descent from Venus!), which led him to amass more and more personal power, until the conspiracy against him was almost inevitable. As my friend Spider-Man keeps telling me, with great power comes great responsibility, but not even the greatest figures in history seem to be able to internalize that message in time to avoid catastrophe.