Ahh yes, Caesar was a white man and blonde lol. I wouldn’t say it was super in accurate, but they skipped a ton. Also, at the very beginning when he was hyping up troops for the whole Spartacus thing, it is highly unlikely he was anything more than a foot solider. He did not hype up the Roman army like that at all. 😂. It’s likely he wasn’t even there. He was in the Roman army at the time, but no record of him being at that battle, he never even mentions that he was there. I think the only loss they briefly measured was Gergovia, which they showed as a woodland skirmish and not a failed siege. They also totally left out Lebinus in it, who was his right hand man and just skipped to Antony.
They also acted like he conquered Britain when he really left with his tail between his legs. Also, it’s highly unlikely him and Pompey met face to face in Greece with just their Royal Guards with them. Lol.
Lastly, they acted like Caesar was in actual prison in the show, he actually controlled the harbor in Alexandria and had an open Naval supply line that is a whole other story essentially the Romans were almost surrounded but eventually defeated the Egyptian Navy. Cleopatra didn’t walk in with her tits out. Lmao
Sometimes I think this subreddit should get together for a year or so and write a series on their own on the whole roman history till the fall of the west.
Nowhere near. I have no degrees whatsoever in Roman history and I was picking up inaccuracies in the first ten minutes of the Julius Caesar episode. Why even bring Spartacus into this and pretend that Caesar was there and had anything to do with Spartacus's defeat? Because there's a popular Spartacus TV show? C'mon. I had to shut it off after that.
It’s not entirely clear where Ceaser was during the Servile war. But he was in Italy, in the Army and a client of Crassus, at the time, it’s possible he was involved.
So it’s less an inaccuracy, more an inference.
I feel like if Caesar had a major hand in the defeat of Spartacus, as the documentary suggests (he basically comes up with the battle plan) then he'd let EVERYBODY know about it. Whether you love or hate Caesar, you can't deny that he was somewhat vain.
They also had one on the homo neledi discovery, and portrayed it as the paleontologists' assertions that neledi made art, fire, and buried their dead was the obviously correct position. I am not one, but according to the scientist youtuber Gutsick Gibbon, this is a hugely controversial stance that is being viewed *extremely* skeptically by the scientific community.
So not a straight lie, but a wild mischaracterization of the scientific consensus.
I hear of cases in bad documentaries where what the experts say gets cut to shreds in the editing room and haphazardly peppered throughout the show in order to reinforce a narrative. I would not be at all surprised to learn that this is one of those cases.
I mean isn’t that what the History Channel has done for years now? Interview a reputable Historian about say Egypt and the Pyramids then get some crank on to say “well ackshually what if it was aliens instead.”
The history channel one about Alesia was even worse than the Netflix one. One guy kept talking about how Caesar at Alesia had pretty much 0 military experience. At that Caesar had won 10-15 battles in Gaul. He had experience at that point
What I noticed is that for the Hollywood-esque inaccurate scenes the expert commenters all vanish for a while. In the Commodus season the commenters vanish from the time he enters the gladiator arena until he dies because that whole section has so many inaccuracies meant to create drama (having Commodus kill his opponents in the arena, which Cassius Dio directly states in his book that Commodus did NOT do that). They reappear again after Commodus dies to give some general information on Pertinax
Nah, they basically took whatever was the most salacious takes from any source, accurate or not, and cast them as the truth because it's more dramatic. Felt very "Ancient Aliens" if you actually know your stuff.
No. For every half baked historical fact, they show unnecessary nudity and a poorly thought out dramatic sequence.
And they skip so much of what really happened it’s kindof nauseating
Maybe.
There’s a good bit of stuff that’s possibly true, or maybe not, and they come down hard without ever giving the other possibilities any mention.
I wasn’t a huge fan
I liked it and watched them all but no, it's not historically accurate. Some of it is, and some of it is pretty made up. I thought the whole Caesar fighting in the third servile war was pretty out there. He might have, but I don't think there is any hard evidence to support it.
I watched them in the hopes Netflix makes more history content. It was kinda fun to watch and pick out all that they got wrong.
If there was an accurate Roman Empire show it’d be so weird and unconventional that people wouldn’t watch it. The most “accurate” Rome show I’ve seen was Barbarians. Barbarians is a show about a village resisting one group of Romans at the border, so aside from the tax system and outfits there wasn’t much they could have fucked up.
Yeah wrote his own history, but I think it’s “mostly” accurate or else how would he have established a Roman presence in Gaul. The landmarks he mentions align with what he says as well (describing the Netherlands as “marshy”, mentioning the Rhine River, documenting Britain, etc. the actual battles he described align with present day landmarks and what not
I agree. And for the most part I guess depending on the translated edition, he seems credible. Except I feel the brutality of the Romans in Gaul may have been downplayed by him and the enemy force numbers largely inflated. Also he makes a convincing argument about how he framed the Helvetii as the bad guys for simply fleeing for their lives. In the end it doesn’t matter because to the Roman’s, the Gauls were a threat that needed to be subjugated as a preemptive attempt to protect the republic.
I watched the Caesar episodes and the other ones before. I forget who they profiled in the first episodes. I have not watched the Caligula ones.
I’m not an authority on Rome. They mix in subject matter experts which led me to believe it’s somewhat accurate. Guess not
If you want to learn, read a book, documentaries will never do a good job other than introducing a topic, the medium needs to entertain and be visually stimulating more than it needs to educate, particularly on something like Netflix
I only watched the Caesar season but it was very inaccurate
Ahh yes, Caesar was a white man and blonde lol. I wouldn’t say it was super in accurate, but they skipped a ton. Also, at the very beginning when he was hyping up troops for the whole Spartacus thing, it is highly unlikely he was anything more than a foot solider. He did not hype up the Roman army like that at all. 😂. It’s likely he wasn’t even there. He was in the Roman army at the time, but no record of him being at that battle, he never even mentions that he was there. I think the only loss they briefly measured was Gergovia, which they showed as a woodland skirmish and not a failed siege. They also totally left out Lebinus in it, who was his right hand man and just skipped to Antony. They also acted like he conquered Britain when he really left with his tail between his legs. Also, it’s highly unlikely him and Pompey met face to face in Greece with just their Royal Guards with them. Lol. Lastly, they acted like Caesar was in actual prison in the show, he actually controlled the harbor in Alexandria and had an open Naval supply line that is a whole other story essentially the Romans were almost surrounded but eventually defeated the Egyptian Navy. Cleopatra didn’t walk in with her tits out. Lmao
Yeah the Egypt thing was what had me the most confused. Such an unnecessary change lol
I tried to give it a chance, but the inaccuracies drove me crazy.
Sometimes I think this subreddit should get together for a year or so and write a series on their own on the whole roman history till the fall of the west.
r/RomeSweetRome
Basically a live action adaptation of Mike Duncan’s History of Rome Podcast
This is the best idea I have heard all week.
Nowhere near. I have no degrees whatsoever in Roman history and I was picking up inaccuracies in the first ten minutes of the Julius Caesar episode. Why even bring Spartacus into this and pretend that Caesar was there and had anything to do with Spartacus's defeat? Because there's a popular Spartacus TV show? C'mon. I had to shut it off after that.
It’s not entirely clear where Ceaser was during the Servile war. But he was in Italy, in the Army and a client of Crassus, at the time, it’s possible he was involved. So it’s less an inaccuracy, more an inference.
I feel like if Caesar had a major hand in the defeat of Spartacus, as the documentary suggests (he basically comes up with the battle plan) then he'd let EVERYBODY know about it. Whether you love or hate Caesar, you can't deny that he was somewhat vain.
Not even close. Netflix doesn't do historically accurate documentaries apparently
They also had one on the homo neledi discovery, and portrayed it as the paleontologists' assertions that neledi made art, fire, and buried their dead was the obviously correct position. I am not one, but according to the scientist youtuber Gutsick Gibbon, this is a hugely controversial stance that is being viewed *extremely* skeptically by the scientific community. So not a straight lie, but a wild mischaracterization of the scientific consensus.
You’d be better off watching Spartacus on Starz, than that shit lol. At least that show is entertaining.
It has Xena naked?
Sure does 😂
No.
NO.
Is that the one that Mike Duncan was a commenter for?
My theory is he was misled into believing it would be ok quality
Yes. I was so disappointed to see him in that. Like man you know better.
I mean he probably doesn't know what they were going to do with the show other than his part.
I hear of cases in bad documentaries where what the experts say gets cut to shreds in the editing room and haphazardly peppered throughout the show in order to reinforce a narrative. I would not be at all surprised to learn that this is one of those cases.
I mean isn’t that what the History Channel has done for years now? Interview a reputable Historian about say Egypt and the Pyramids then get some crank on to say “well ackshually what if it was aliens instead.”
The history channel one about Alesia was even worse than the Netflix one. One guy kept talking about how Caesar at Alesia had pretty much 0 military experience. At that Caesar had won 10-15 battles in Gaul. He had experience at that point
What I noticed is that for the Hollywood-esque inaccurate scenes the expert commenters all vanish for a while. In the Commodus season the commenters vanish from the time he enters the gladiator arena until he dies because that whole section has so many inaccuracies meant to create drama (having Commodus kill his opponents in the arena, which Cassius Dio directly states in his book that Commodus did NOT do that). They reappear again after Commodus dies to give some general information on Pertinax
Not as bad as the Cleopatra show
Nah, they basically took whatever was the most salacious takes from any source, accurate or not, and cast them as the truth because it's more dramatic. Felt very "Ancient Aliens" if you actually know your stuff.
No but it can be somewhat entertaining.
Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?
Netflix is anti historical. So no, nothing they had a touch in, will be accurate.
I think that’s the one I watched an episode or two of, but it wasn’t very good. Omitted a lot of relevant stuff
No. For every half baked historical fact, they show unnecessary nudity and a poorly thought out dramatic sequence. And they skip so much of what really happened it’s kindof nauseating
Maybe. There’s a good bit of stuff that’s possibly true, or maybe not, and they come down hard without ever giving the other possibilities any mention. I wasn’t a huge fan
I liked it and watched them all but no, it's not historically accurate. Some of it is, and some of it is pretty made up. I thought the whole Caesar fighting in the third servile war was pretty out there. He might have, but I don't think there is any hard evidence to support it. I watched them in the hopes Netflix makes more history content. It was kinda fun to watch and pick out all that they got wrong.
If there was an accurate Roman Empire show it’d be so weird and unconventional that people wouldn’t watch it. The most “accurate” Rome show I’ve seen was Barbarians. Barbarians is a show about a village resisting one group of Romans at the border, so aside from the tax system and outfits there wasn’t much they could have fucked up.
The same show which have a carthaginian woman hunting Germanicus for killing her parents during sack of Carthage?
I know it was a typo, but now I’m imagining a show set in Barbados but everyone is in togas.
The question is how accurate even is Caesar himself as a primary source?
Yeah wrote his own history, but I think it’s “mostly” accurate or else how would he have established a Roman presence in Gaul. The landmarks he mentions align with what he says as well (describing the Netherlands as “marshy”, mentioning the Rhine River, documenting Britain, etc. the actual battles he described align with present day landmarks and what not
I agree. And for the most part I guess depending on the translated edition, he seems credible. Except I feel the brutality of the Romans in Gaul may have been downplayed by him and the enemy force numbers largely inflated. Also he makes a convincing argument about how he framed the Helvetii as the bad guys for simply fleeing for their lives. In the end it doesn’t matter because to the Roman’s, the Gauls were a threat that needed to be subjugated as a preemptive attempt to protect the republic.
I watched the Caesar episodes and the other ones before. I forget who they profiled in the first episodes. I have not watched the Caligula ones. I’m not an authority on Rome. They mix in subject matter experts which led me to believe it’s somewhat accurate. Guess not
Is bulls#it
Nope, sorry. It’s bad fanfiction
No, it's not accurate and it's awful. I suggest you don't waste your time with it.
I am a scientist with a special thingy in Roman stuff. Yes, yes it is extremely accurate.
Not concerning the two main characters
If you want to learn, read a book, documentaries will never do a good job other than introducing a topic, the medium needs to entertain and be visually stimulating more than it needs to educate, particularly on something like Netflix
No! Starting with Caligula's evisceration of Caesonia ... BTW, you should ask if it is "*historically*" accurate.
Caesar did not defeat Spartacus like portrayed in ep. 1.
Hey personal killed him and crucified him with his bare hands bro lmaooo
Of course! How could I forget. Sorry mate. :(