This episode felt pretty slow, could have sped up through the multiple war scenes and focused more on additional history.
3 Reviews
Hail Caesar
Calicodreamin11 November 2020
Why give us fiction?
InspectorPuncher18 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I don't understand why this show chooses to lie to its audience.
Yes, Pompey and his allies in the senate abandoned Rome. No, Caesar didn't say the city "can wait." In reality, he did go back to Rome to deploy a major propaganda campaign. Going to war against other Romans was going to take some good PR moves. He pulled it off by being generous to the people and telling everyone who left Rome with Pompey that they'd be forgiven without consequence. As far as the people were concerned, he was a great general, generous and merciful. Caesar LOVED to show mercy on his rivals. It made him look good and subtly humiliated a proud Roman.
When it came time to battle Pompey, many of his soldiers actually didn't want to join him. They had just spent years fighting for Caesar...and they didn't want to kill fellow Romans. (This is something that both Caesar and Pompey also would have hated about the situation so any dialogue in the show about needing every last man dead is total BS. The soldiers on the losing side likely would have been forgiven regardless of who came out on top). To get his men to join him, Caesar basically bluffed with a guilt trip. This is obviously paraphrasing but he pretty much said, "it's okay, fellas. I know we've been through a lot together and they want to punish me for everything we did together, but don't worry about it. I'll go fight Pompey all on my lonesome *gives puppy eyes*"...and it worked.
Also, if Caesar and little Ptolemy were ever in the same room together, the power dynamics would have been very different than what was shown in this episode. He might have been king of Egypt, but Caesar was the personification of an entire empire. He was besieged when Ptolemy felt he favoured Cleopatra but he was never taken prisoner.
Caesar also would have been more than disappointed that Pompey was killed. Ptolemy robbed him of the chance to show mercy, and he wouldn't have felt that Ptolemy was worthy of killing such a great Roman.
I could probably go on but I've only watched half the episode so far.
Yes, Pompey and his allies in the senate abandoned Rome. No, Caesar didn't say the city "can wait." In reality, he did go back to Rome to deploy a major propaganda campaign. Going to war against other Romans was going to take some good PR moves. He pulled it off by being generous to the people and telling everyone who left Rome with Pompey that they'd be forgiven without consequence. As far as the people were concerned, he was a great general, generous and merciful. Caesar LOVED to show mercy on his rivals. It made him look good and subtly humiliated a proud Roman.
When it came time to battle Pompey, many of his soldiers actually didn't want to join him. They had just spent years fighting for Caesar...and they didn't want to kill fellow Romans. (This is something that both Caesar and Pompey also would have hated about the situation so any dialogue in the show about needing every last man dead is total BS. The soldiers on the losing side likely would have been forgiven regardless of who came out on top). To get his men to join him, Caesar basically bluffed with a guilt trip. This is obviously paraphrasing but he pretty much said, "it's okay, fellas. I know we've been through a lot together and they want to punish me for everything we did together, but don't worry about it. I'll go fight Pompey all on my lonesome *gives puppy eyes*"...and it worked.
Also, if Caesar and little Ptolemy were ever in the same room together, the power dynamics would have been very different than what was shown in this episode. He might have been king of Egypt, but Caesar was the personification of an entire empire. He was besieged when Ptolemy felt he favoured Cleopatra but he was never taken prisoner.
Caesar also would have been more than disappointed that Pompey was killed. Ptolemy robbed him of the chance to show mercy, and he wouldn't have felt that Ptolemy was worthy of killing such a great Roman.
I could probably go on but I've only watched half the episode so far.
Terrible History
rikalonius7 October 2019
I'm greatly saddened that a show with obvious access to a good budge and a strong narrative voice can be so bereft of historic accuracy. If this were just a show, and not a documentary style offering, I might be more forgiving. Even Rome, the HBO series, got far more right than this or any of the season 2 episodes I've watched.
There is nothing here, save the names of certain players, that is accurate to recorded history. There is a reason that Cleopatra smuggling herself into the palace is the default setting for all narratives, because it is recorded by two ancient historians and Caesar's own commentaries. The idea that Ptolemy kidnapped Caesar and Cleopatra had to rescue him is the worst kind of historical revisionism, and worse, the actually events would have been much more exciting than anything that was shown.
There is no reason to go line by line, because there is more wrong than right. Suffice it to say it isn't entertaining and the viewer who isn't already familiar with the events will come away more ignorant of Caesar's life than had they seen nothing at all. What a shameful waste of resources and time.
There is nothing here, save the names of certain players, that is accurate to recorded history. There is a reason that Cleopatra smuggling herself into the palace is the default setting for all narratives, because it is recorded by two ancient historians and Caesar's own commentaries. The idea that Ptolemy kidnapped Caesar and Cleopatra had to rescue him is the worst kind of historical revisionism, and worse, the actually events would have been much more exciting than anything that was shown.
There is no reason to go line by line, because there is more wrong than right. Suffice it to say it isn't entertaining and the viewer who isn't already familiar with the events will come away more ignorant of Caesar's life than had they seen nothing at all. What a shameful waste of resources and time.
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