Rome--The Series (2005-2007)

This series is great, and it represents the convergence of two things that were working for my youngest son this semester--the saw the first episode in his class on Film Sounds of the Past.  Another of his classes is about the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Republic, which is right about where this movie starts  (ok, it actually starts with the rivalry between Sulla and Marius, which predates Julius Caesar, but not by a long shot.  Caesar was a young soldier at the peak of their power struggle).

The series opens with the end of the Gallic Wars.  Caesar and his men have been in France for 7 years and they are about to ride into Rome victorious.  The first season covers the reign of Caesar, up to his death at the hands of Brutus and Cassius.  There are a few details that do not quite match what the historians say (which is apparently why historians hate historical films--they would rather that people remain completely ignorant rather than that they learn a largely realistic rendition of what happened.  Weird.  Because the more people crave history, the more historians we will need, and not all historians can agree, so why be so uptight about it?  Well, it is posited that they are).  The second season delves into the struggle for power that happens after Caesar's death and ends with Mark Anthony and Cleopatra's suicide and Octavian beginning a long and stable reign in Rome.  Since we have four more emperors to study, we are sad to see the series ended, and that we are left to learn history without visual aids.