I must admit, I'm a bit stunned. Since HBO's ROME series began, the individual daily hits on my web site have gone from roughly 1500 per day to OVER SIX THOUSAND per day. Whoa!



We've been discussing on the designated thread for the series, how Ciaran Hinds the actor, and the writers, are portraying Caesar. I can easily say it's the most serious portrayal attempted in my lifetime. It has its positive points, and some negative!

On the whole, I highly approve of Hinds' performance and the lines they give him to play with, but it's rather as if Caesar is the spice of the series - you get him and his part of the story in small clumps, it's not Caesar straight through. But when you do have scenes, I believe they do him justice. So far we've seen the charm, the political savvy, the power, the ruthlessness, the vulnerability (one episode when he has an epileptic attack is very scary), the manipulation - but you see the determination, the intelligence, and the iron will as well. If I had one minute criticism, I've always thought that Caesar would be one of those easy-going genius types who was easy and charming in conversation - with Hinds, you never forget that he is Caesar. But perhaps they're right, and I'm wrong!

Anyway, I suspect more people around the world are paying attention to Julius Caesar than anytime I can ever remember, so we Caesarians should be thanking ROME for not only doing it at all, but doing it so well!