I admit I am a bit of a sword-and-sandal junkie. I was mesmerized by Gladiator, giggled through Troy, and even sat through Angelina Jolie’s bizarre turn as the wicked mother in Alexander. It’s not surprising, then, that I would be eager to take a look at HBO’s new epic series Rome, which has famously been six years in the making at a budget of $100 million.
Besides, everyone from GLAAD to HBO has been touting the fact that in Rome, sexuality isn’t limited to the hetero-men slept with men and women slept with women, though they may not have identified as “gay.”
So I tuned into the program with interest: What would Rome have to say about the lives of women? The answer, though disappointing, wasn’t necessarily surprising. The lives of women, it seems, revolve around men.
The 12-episode series, which was filmed on five acres of backlots at Rome‘s Cinecitta Studios (reportedly the largest standing set in the world), is about “Rome from the street level,” according to executive producer Bruno Heller. That means a good deal of the series is supposed to be told from the point of view of two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson).
But the majority of the first episode focuses on the political and military machinations behind the two rulers of Rome in 52 B.C.: Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham) and Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds).
There are some women, of course. There’s Atia, Caesar’s niece, played by the scene-stealing Polly Walker (Patriot Games, Control), who doesn’t hesitate to pimp out her daughter Octavia (Kerry Condon, Angela’s Ashes) to the much-older Pompey after his wife dies in childbirth. Atia’s disregard for her daughter’s reluctance to bed Pompey is disturbing, but Atia is such a character that it’s hard to hate her.
Atia’s main rival for behind-the-scenes power is Servilia (Lindsay Duncan, Under the Tuscan Sun), who happens to be Caesar’s favorite lover. Servilia appears on the surface to be a calm and quiet woman, but it seems that she may have more steel in her than is immediately apparent in the first episode. Finally, Indira Varma (Bride & Prejudice, Kama Sutra) plays Niobe, the wife of soldier Lucius Vorenus.
The series’ producers have gone out of their way to insist that women were the “shadow rulers” of Rome, going so far as to produce a special 15-minute documentary about the “Women of Rome” (airing on HBO On Demand). In the short film, even the actresses chime in to insist that though their characters are wives, sisters, and mothers, they exercise great power “at the end of the day.”
But this argument is merely another adaptation of the old saying “behind every great man is a better woman,” which was, frankly, a spoonful of sugar to sweeten the bitter taste of sexism.
But Rome isn’t simply a tale set during an undoubtedly sexist period of history. By publicly situating these women as “shadow rulers,” Rome‘s creators are also inviting us to read a particular allegory within this series. The official website for the series declares: “The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now, those foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess.”
The political allegory in this statement is easy enough to read; if you’re stumped, substitute “U.S.” for “Republic” and “W.” for “one man.” But considering the issue of women as “shadow rulers” is much more interesting.Atia, the master manipulator and sexual siren, is clearly one of the most open “shadow rulers” on the series. She doesn’t hesitate to use her sexuality and her cunning to get what she wants; nor does she let her maternal instincts prevent her from using her children to further her own goals. In one of the most visually?and viscerally?stunning scenes in the first episode, Atia kneels beneath a sacrificial ox and bathes in the blood that comes streaming down upon her when it is killed.
The image of Atia, breasts heaving, beneath this crimson shower, is both arresting and shocking?more so than the several other instances in which she is naked, either bathing or having sex. It positions her as closely aligned to her “natural” state: earthy, bloody, feminine.
It’s not clear yet how the other women in the series will shape up as “shadow rulers.” Servilia so far has done little more than play the part of a loving mistress, and Niobe hasn’t even appeared yet. Will these women appear to govern from places of emotion rather than reason, as is typically suggested of women in leadership positions? Will their shadowy leadership be respected or will their plans be thrown into chaos when their men dismiss them as mere females?
Atia’s daughter, Octavia, doesn’t seem to be vying for the position of “shadow ruler” in the first episode; all she has done is obey her mother and allow Pompey to have sex with her against her will.
But Octavia is the one female character who is definitely going to have a same-sex adventure.
When actress Kerry Condon spoke to The Scotsman last August, she admitted that the nude scenes were difficult for her at first. “The hardest bit,” she said, “is knowing that my family will watch, but my mum came out to see me once when I was filming a lesbian sex scene, and she just chose to stay in my dressing room.” (Which does beg the question, would her mum have watched if Condon was filming a straight sex scene? Um, probably not.)
We don’t know if her lesbian sex scene was enacted for the benefit of a male character?we’ll have to tune in to find out?but given the tone of the series so far, it’s likely to be as brash and bold as possible. After all, this is HBO, the channel that brought us Sex and the City and The Sopranos.
Women, gay or straight, are not going to be at the center of a series set in ancient Rome that is based on the lives of men. The women in the series will be beautiful, manipulative, virginal, or seductive, but they will always be defined by their relationships with men. Nevertheless, a series that gives its central female character a blood bath on its first episode might go further than expected in exploring the lives of Roman women.
Then again, I do love a bloodthirsty historical epic?and on that note, Rome definitely delivers.
