What kind of accent did the Romans have?

Of course, the proper Romanitas response is "None, you Celtic git!"

But that would be wrong.

Aside from Eddie Izzard's little stand-up routine (and it was nice, even tho I found his role the other night on HBO's airing of "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" more amusing, at least when I wasn't enjoying Umma Thurman's more,ahem, reveling parts. But I digress...)there probably was a whole plethora of "Roman" accents back in the day.

The Falco and Gordianus the Finder novels oft make mention of Aventine and Palatine accents, as I am sure there were. There is little doubt in my mind that Cicero had to lose his rural Arpinum accent to make it in the big city. Livy is said to have had a distinct Paduan accent.

This is why I pretty much discount the critics when they bitch about the "English" accents in HBO's ROME. Those accents are a convenient shorthand for the audience to establish relative class in the series, more so than no accents, or faux American accents.