His mind is elsewhere - scheming about how to poison the lady of the house. In retaliation, the warlord is treated to a “swirly” in a filthy roman lavatory while simultaneously being sodomized.Ī separate plot has a beautiful young male house-servant getting sodomized by his major domo. The offended warlord says, “no one in my family s**** c**** unless I say so,” and then exacts vigilante justice by castrating the nobleman. Was it just me or did last Sunday’s show seem like a calculated attempt to “gay up” the series a bit? And may I say, not in a good way.Ī major subplot involved a nobleman who deflowers a powerful warlord’s teenage nephew.
I may have to rethink things after the most recent episode.
There were far too many other fantastic aspects of the show for me to quibble about LGBT representation. Some viewers have criticized this absence, though to be honest it never bothered me personally. This is notable given its ancient Rome setting. One thing Rome has not shown viewers much of thus far is male homosexuality. It shows us how each character– from slave to emperor– is intertwined. Along the way it also tells the stories various slaves, soldiers, prostitutes, etc.
The second season follows the fortunes of Marc Antony, Brutus, and Caesar’s nephew and heir, Octavius. The first season tracked Julius Caesar’s rise to power and ends with his death on the Ides of March. The series plays like a sort of Upstairs Downstairs set in ancient Rome. I have been a big fan of HBO’s historical drama Rome, which is now in its second (and last) season on HBO.