A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
Fifty-five local extras were cast as "Roman Legionaries" and sent to a two-week boot camp, living in tents, to train as Roman soldiers. Training included military discipline (waking at 5 a.m., bed by 9 p.m.), marching, swordsmanship, camp building and dismantling, group training, and maneuvers (day and night time training). Bathing was restricted to the local lake, without soap, at night. Forty-three extras completed the boot camp.
Gaius Julius Caesar:
He refuses to meet me!
In the close-up views of sandals, especially the legionaries' sandals, a modern rubber sole is visible. Shoes of the period had leather soles.
Because episode three is 37 minutes long, it was hard for BBC2 to schedule in the UK, and it was also felt that the short running time would make the episode feel curiously light. The first three episodes were therefore edited down into episodes one and two for the UK. This was mostly achieved by trimming within existing scenes; few scenes were actually lost. The final two episodes of the first series were also edited into a single double-length episode, possibly because it was around the Christmas period and was easier to fit into the holiday schedule than two regular-length slots.
English
$100,000,000 (estimated)