Similar to Byzantine history, Archaic Rome has not gotten much attention by filmmakers. Generally speaking, any age that involves a primitive European culture is going to have a tough time getting the audience’s attention. European history, at least in popular understandings of such history, ignores the prehistoric aspects which are embedded in the traditions of every nation. Italy was in the 18th Century sometimes called an antique shop of Europe due to the huge amounts of historic sites in the country. However, Archaic Rome, a time shrouded in mystery and myth, has not been so passionately shown on screen as in the Romulus TV series that was made in Italy for Sky Italia.
Romulus is not a prefect series. It is a slow series which make discourage viewers with its rather barebones depictions of Iron Age Italy, where there is only depictions of mud huts and bare bones interiors. You can clearly see that this series is trying to be the Phantom Menace of Rome in a sense. If you are highly engaged with history and have an imagination, you can see the contours of what is to be Roman society, at least its Republican expression.
The series, much like many depictions of primitive European societies seems to dislike idealizing these cultures in comparison to the Mesoamerican or Native American cultures. These European natives in many ways are like those Native Americans across the ocean. They are one with nature, in a sense that their belief systems respect natural aspects of the environment one does not see with the modern age in the West even with the obsession with environmentalism and issues. However, this is not a cozy style of environmentalism which tries to remove any ugliness of human endeavors, but one that complements that beauty with the savagery that is inherent in the natural state of animals. The show has many instances of the Latins, Sabines and others who trying to grasp the power of the natural environment and seeking to bend it to the purposes of man.
The issue is that the series seems to want to combine realistic visions of a primitive Iron Age Latium with a melodramatic plot which seeks to project Modern Italy’s own views on women onto Archaic Rome.
The region known as Lazio in that time was not a place friendly for such views on women. The Italic tribes were a practical people, distinguishing themselves from Etruscan culture, which was pretty lax with regards to women. However, that practicality allowed for a more conservative culture, which was able to marshal its citizens in conscription to protect the Republic from its many enemies, such as the Carthaginians.
The series seems to want to believe that Ilia, one of the main characters in Romulus can simply go from Vestal Virgin to hardened warrior without really showing how she can maintain it. She is living in a culture where personal relationships are paramount, and she cannot just simply change her role just because she can. The writers have this view that she can defy gravity and not have to deal with her culture’s own expectations of her role in that age. While it is possible Illia could have become a warrior, she already had been in the Vestal Virgins since she was young. She has a mind which has already been set by that religious organization she was in. It would make sense that she just be an ordinary woman who was no longer a Vestal Virgin out of a sense of loyalty to her beloved she was planning to marry when circumstances made her have to change her plans. However, the series cannot resist having the character become something like what we see in the Vikings series, where the characters are more akin to rock stars than historical individuals.
While people may say that historical accuracy may not matter, it is true that emotional accuracy captures the spirit of an age. Romulus is somewhat successful in this, however, I think some of the aspects of Ilia’s warrior aspects are way too exaggerated to be realistic. It is possible for her to become something that resembles a warrior, but the series really aims to connect to her other warrior characters we have seen in these historical movies, such as Centurion. Romulus is a great effort though it still has issues with modernisms being implanted into the environment that give the series a somewhat uneven presentation in how it shows us Iron Age Italy and its views.
Byzantine-Empire.com 