SWORDS AND SAND(ALS)

ROME (2005-2007)

BBC site
HBO site

An intimate drama of lust, love and betrayal; soldiers, masters and slaves; husbands, wives and lovers, set during the last years of Julius Caesar's reign. The series centers on Julius Caesar (Ciarán Hinds), his extended family, political allies and adversaries, and on two common Roman soldiers, Lucius Vorenus (Kevin McKidd) and Titus Pullo (Ray Stevenson), and their lady loves and lives. ♥ ♥ ♥

Ladies, hold your breaths for FOUR STARS:

* Kevin McKidd (b. 1973, "Anna Karenina", "Gunpowder, Treason and Plot", "Kingdom of Heaven", "The Virgin Queen") as the honorable if somewhat dour Vorenus, loving his beautiful peasant princess Niobe

* Ray Stevenson (b. 1964, "King Artur") as the roguish Pullo, who finds love and slave girl Eirene

* James Purefoy (b. 1964, "Mansfield Park", "A Knight's Tale", "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", "Beau Brummell", "George and the Dragon") as Marcus Antonius, the dashing commander and on/off lover of Caesar's niece, Atia of the Julii

* Ciarán Hinds (b. 1953, "Excalibur", "Persuasion", "Ivanhoe", "Jane Eyre", "Jason and the Argonauts") as the man behind it all, Gaius Julius Caesar, married to Calpurnia but old lovers with Servilia of the Julii, the mother of Brutus