Yowser

Augur, I'm new here too and my reaction to dnewhous was the opposite. Hey, I used to float around the left spectrum and dnewhous pretty much nailed it. Distance and hindsight does wonderful things to the mind's ability to sees things in greater clairity. Personally I like to read stuff on the Roman Empire 'cause human nature don't change - much. Lately I'm getting reacquainted with Chinese history and from there I like to do comparisons, and then maybe throw the U.S. into the mix and see how the three stack up with one another.

That part did take me by surprise, more so than the fictional Tyrannus. At least with Tyrannus he was shown only once publicly Caesar and never with Ocativan, implying that he was just one of those many background characters that history never records. So his existence, though not likely, is not entirely implausible. After mulling over the "he despises me" from Octavius, I wonder if it was Ceaser's way of deflecting public attention alway from Octavius so others would not see him as a threat. I think in history people were surprised to learn that Octavius was Ceaser's heir after the funeral, so maybe this was the writers' attempt to bring that point across? As others said, the whole pageantry is wonderful and really makes you feel that you are at Rome in the cusp of their greatness. I really look forward to Tuesday for the rest of July.

Beautiful scenery, beautiful costumes, beautiful people, beautiful music.... screw history, I'm enjoying Empire for the sake of storytelling. And the wonderful lack/absense of CGI is going to get a whole lot of forgiveness points from me. Yeah, yeah, history tells us that Octavius was a cool, cunning, calculating kid with brains. Still, I'm okay so far of how Octavius is portrayed. I mean how would you react to finding out the most powerful man in the world who happens to be your (grand) uncle is killed in cold blood and now everyone is out to claim Rome and maybe your blood in a 24 hour period. I liked the scene of Tyrannus showing up at the villa, commanded Octavius to say goodbye to his mother and leave immediatley and Octavius sputtered, "I will not!" Or Tyrannus dragging/manhandling Octavius into the Vestral Temple and demanding the woman read Caser's will. A gladiator/bodyguard does not always make the most patient babysitter.