Rome: Great Men, Dirty Streets and Two Soldiers in the Middle
Updated
Rome makes the ancient world feel inconvenient to live in. Streets are crowded, households are busy, somebody always wants a favour and public importance does not spare anybody private embarrassment. I love that about it.
The great political figures are here, and the actors playing them are excellent. But the series would be much less memorable without two soldiers trying to manage ordinary lives while history keeps interfering. Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson give it a centre that survives the changes in scale around them. It is one of the historical dramas I would most readily recommend.
Two men who would be difficult neighbours
Lucius Vorenus takes duty seriously. Titus Pullo is more likely to act first and deal with the consequences when they become unavoidable. It is a productive mismatch, but the writing gives them more than opposite temperaments.
McKidd makes Vorenus's rigid sense of what is proper both admirable and a considerable nuisance. Stevenson gives Pullo warmth without pretending he is harmless. Neither would be easy to live with; both are very easy to keep watching.
Their friendship works because it has friction. They annoy, misunderstand and depend on each other. The smaller scenes between them can hold their own against the political manoeuvring, which is no small achievement given the people doing the manoeuvring.
Caesar doesn't need to raise his voice
Ciarán Hinds gives Julius Caesar a remarkable calm. He seems capable of listening to a difficult proposition while already considering what use he might make of it. The authority comes from the performance, not merely from everybody around him saying he is important.
James Purefoy is an excellent Mark Antony: amused, physical and dangerous company. Where Hinds can make stillness decisive, Purefoy can make a casual remark sound as though it might develop into a very bad afternoon.
Their scenes are a major reason the political story works. Personal appeal and the appetite for power are allowed to coexist. These are people other people might follow, which makes the consequences of their decisions more persuasive.
Politics doesn't stop at the front door
Polly Walker is terrific as Atia. She understands status as something to be maintained actively, preferably before somebody else has the chance to improve theirs. The performance has an excellent sense of humour about how much effort that requires.
The households are not a respite from the public struggle. Relationships, marriages, money and reputation all matter there too. Lindsay Duncan's Servilia makes a formidable presence in that world, and the exchanges between these characters can be as charged as the scenes involving soldiers.
I liked that the series gives private influence practical consequences. A social slight is not necessarily trivial when the people involved have the resources to turn their resentment into somebody else's problem.
A place rather than a museum
The physical detail is one of Rome's real strengths. The city is colourful and used, not a collection of pristine white monuments with a few extras standing politely between them. Work, worship and family life carry on around the famous names.
That helps the performances. A conversation belongs to a house or street rather than floating in a handsome historical void. The crowd has business of its own; the principal characters are not the only people who appear to live there.
This is also why the smaller domestic troubles matter. The series lets an argument over money or expectations occupy the same world as a struggle over the Republic. History has somewhere to land.
Convincing drama, not a history lesson
The show draws on historical people and events but invents extensively around them. Vorenus and Pullo's names have a basis in Caesar's writing; the television characters' lives are dramatic constructions. I wouldn't use their adventures as a substitute for reading about the period.
What I value is the sense of a society with its own assumptions. Reputation, religion, obligation and family standing shape how people behave. The characters don't all sound as though they are waiting to deliver a modern explanation of themselves.
It can feel persuasive without being literally accurate. The distinction leaves room to enjoy the lived-in world while recognising that the writers are arranging a story, compressing events and giving private motives to people whose thoughts they cannot know.
The short run shows
There are only two seasons, and the later movement through events is quicker than I would have liked. Rome has built enough interest in its people and places that some developments deserve more time than they receive.
That is my main frustration with it: wanting to remain in scenes and relationships the story must move beyond. The pace doesn't erase what is good, but you can feel the difference between inhabiting a world and being hurried through the next stretch of it.
Even so, the cast gives the material continuity. The confidence of the performances keeps the series recognisable as itself when the historical canvas starts demanding larger jumps.
Its rough edges belong to it
Rome is violent, bawdy and frequently funny. The humour is important. Without it, the ambition and treachery could become an exhausting parade of solemn men discussing power. Pullo in particular brings a very welcome appetite for life.
I also like that dignity is not distributed evenly. Somebody can be imposing in public and ridiculous in private, or brave in one situation and hopeless in another. That makes the characters more substantial than a set of historical reputations.
The series asks for an adult audience, but the appeal isn't simply that it can show more than an old-fashioned epic. It is the freedom to make these people fallible, difficult and entertaining company.
Still one of the best
Rome has the scale of a historical epic and the intimacy of a very well-written ensemble drama. Hinds, Purefoy and Walker make the struggle for position a pleasure to watch; McKidd and Stevenson make the world around it feel personal.
If you enjoyed the family politics of Game of Thrones, this is an obvious recommendation. Deadwood is another excellent choice for a place brought to life through language, competing interests and memorable people.
I wish Rome had had more time. What it does have is enough to make it a lasting favourite: two difficult soldiers, a superb cast around them and a city that feels as though it keeps going when the camera leaves.
UK viewing: JustWatch lists digital purchases through Apple TV, Amazon and Sky Store; checked 13 September 2026.
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