Ancient Rome re-created

Ancient Rome was vividly brought to life in the HBO series of ‘Rome’ which recently concluded its second season. But how real was the celluloid interpretation of the city during the time of Caesar?

There is no absolute evidence of how the city looked, but Rome’s producers gathered a veritable “who’s who” of historians to ensure the authenticity of their small-screen city. Thousands of man hours were spent recreating the city based on written accounts from those who lived at the time. The results on-screen were spectacular and, with the help of CGI technology, gave the viewer a fantastic insight into how the city looked.

Fifty years before the birth of Christ, Rome was the centre of the known world and the most powerful and rich empire in history. Almost one million people lived in the city, which boasted an advanced infrastructure, capable of sustaining its growing population.

Rome was a bustling and noisy city that would have contained a huge amount of smoke and smog as a result of the amount of fires being burned. Chances are, especially if the wind was blowing towards them, that any visitor to Rome would smell the city long before they saw it.

Entering Rome through the Aventine would take the visitor through a working class area of high-rise tenement blocks, some as high as six or seven storeys, with laundry strung everywhere. The alleyways were narrow and the pavements were packed with goods for sale. Every square inch was used by tradesmen, including blacksmiths, all conducting their business in the street.

Coming in through the Via Appia would have taken the visitor straight past the gigantic stadium of Circus Maximus, which could seat as many as 300,000 spectators, all there to watch one of four chariot racing teams. Many of the hotels in Rome, or what passed as hotels in those ancient days, were found in this area; six-storey blocks containing a number of barely furnished rooms with one small bed, available for rent by the day.

At the centre of ancient Rome was the Forum. This was the political, financial, and religious heart of the city where the day-to-day business of Rome, and indeed the Empire, was conducted, with large impressive marble buildings and a massive square providing the backdrop.

Throughout Rome, graffiti was scrawled everywhere; political statements, personal insults, marketing messages, and even news, was liberally painted on walls throughout the city. In addition, massive wall paintings, akin to modern day billboards, were commonplace in ancient Rome and most public buildings Those owned by wealthy citizens were brightly coloured.

Even in 50BC Rome was already an ancient city and, in amongst the new buildings, there would be ruins, some hundreds of years old. All of that was brought to life, vividly and authentically, by the set builders and computer engineers employed on the set of ‘Rome’.

While we’ll never know exactly how accurate HBO and the producers’ recreation of ancient Rome really was, it certainly is an awe-inspiring vision for anyone with an interest in the history of the Empire.

Daniel Collins writes on a number of topics on behalf of a digital marketing agency and a variety of clients. As such, this article is to be considered a professional piece with business interests in mind.