Rome is an American-British historical drama television series released in 2005–2007 and created by John Milius, William J. MacDonald, and Bruno Heller.

The show, consisting of two seasons for a total of 22 episodes, aired on HBO, and BBC Two from 28 August 2005 to 25 March 2007, and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray.

[1] Accordingly, the series has been praised for high detail of accuracy and scenery of its daily life, including both its Roman and Egyptian language used in the script.

The series primarily chronicles the lives and deeds of the rich, powerful, and historically significant, but it also focuses on the lives, fortunes, families, and acquaintances of two common men: Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, fictionalized versions of a pair of Roman soldiers mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico.

[2] The fictional Vorenus and Pullo manage to witness and often influence many of the historical events presented in the series, although some dramatic license is taken.

William J. MacDonald and John Milius pitched the idea to HBO as a miniseries, but the network made it a full-fledged series.

[8] The filmmakers stressed that they wanted to portray Rome as a gritty and realistic city as opposed to what they call the "Hollyrome" presentation that audiences are used to from other films, with "cleanliness and marble and togas that looked pressed.

A collection of massive sets in Cinecittà studios' back lots comprised an elaborate "period reconstruction" of sections of ancient Rome.

Funding was generously employed to recreate an impressively detailed set featuring a number of Roman Villas, the Forum, and a vast slum area of the ancient city of Rome.

[12] A portion of the set was also used in late 2007 by the crew of the long-running BBC sci-fi drama series Doctor Who, for the fourth-season episode "The Fires of Pompeii".

What also makes me very grumpy is that I was told that the cuts had been introduced by the BBC because they thought British viewers already knew the historical background.

Based on head writer Bruno Heller's desired gritty pre-Christian feel for the series, and HBO's interest in a non-modern sound, Beal chose to compose and record with live instruments from across the ancient Roman world.

[18][19] HBO re-aired the pilot 11 times in the week following 28 August 2005 premiere, garnering a total viewership of 8.9 million for all 11 airings.

A "sanitized" version of the first series of Rome – with toned-down nudity and violence – aired on Rai 2 in Italy, garnering only a meager 10% audience share.

The paper also called the relationship between Atia of the Julii (Polly Walker) and Mark Antony (James Purefoy) "ridiculous".

[1]In a February 2008 interview with Movieweb.com, actor Ray Stevenson stated that a Rome film was in development, with Heller working on a script.

[1] In an April 2009 interview with the Associated Press, actor Kevin McKidd stated the Rome film was "in development", and Lucius Vorenus would likely be a part of it.

"[35] Rome: The Complete First Season was released as a six-disc Region 1 DVD box set in the United States in 2006, distributed by HBO Home Video.

[41] James Poniewozik from Time magazine commented on the "slow start" but further stated that the series "draws you" to the ancient city of Rome.

[42] Empire magazine reviewer Helen O'Hara said: "Not as good-looking as Gladiator, perhaps, but richer in (reasonably accurate) history and texture", and gave season 1 of Rome four out of five stars.

[51] Capping its successful first season, Rome won four Emmy Awards out of eight nominations in 2006, for the episodes "Caesarion", "Triumph", "Kalends of February" and "Stealing from Saturn".

Michael Apted won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in the category "Outstanding Directing – Drama Series, Night" for "The Stolen Eagle".

[57] For season 2 (2007) Alik Sakharov won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series, for the episode "Passover".

[citation needed] The show is generally told from the perspective of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, and while they were real people who were briefly mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, almost all of their adventures in the series are fictional.

[68] Series Historical Consultant Jonathan Stamp also notes that the show aims for "authenticity" rather than "accuracy":[6][67][69]We did everything we could to make these episodes historically authentic, which meant researching and incorporating every kind of detail we could about the way our characters behaved, the way they interacted, how they dressed and gestured, the kind of streets they walked down, the way they conducted their private and public lives.