Domina

A dramatic and tense portrait of the personal and governmental affairs of the Julio-Claudian dynasty starring the main empress, Livia. Developing the complex life and difficult rise to power of Livia Drusilla, the powerful wife of the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. We are introduced to a brave heroine, Livia Drusilla, beginning with a vignette in which she smashed an attacker's head with a stone, showing that Livia was not a damsel in distress but a strong, willful woman who controlled her own destiny. Following Livia's journey from a naive young woman whose world falls apart after the assassination of Julius Caesar, and the tragic death of her father, but she becomes the most powerful and influential empress in Rome. The world inhabited by Livia Drusilla explodes caused by the assassination of Julius Caesar, then Rome is bleeding into a civil war between those who want to return power to the people and those who advocate respecting Caesar's orders and plotting to avenge him. And after going through a hell of obstacles, young Livia undoubtedly made use of her enormous intelligence and beauty to recover everything that had been taken from her and become the wife of the man of the moment, the one who would be the first emperor of Rome: August. In principle, Livia's secret objective is the reestablishment of the republic, following the wishes of her father, but her exercise of power alongside Augustus is intoxicating. Together they would form an unrepeatable duo that would shape the social and political future of Rome, and while she was crowned in the shadows as the true empress and Augustus would become the great emperor of Rome and also a God.

This series follows the history of the Roman Empire, from the first triumvirate: Crassus, Pompey, Caesar, following the death of Julius, while Livia is the cunning empress who little by little gets her son Tiberius to take the throne. This tangled story is about the Roman Julia-Claudian dynasty, during the bloody civil wars and the long Pax Romana ruled by Octavian Augustus that was replaced by worse emperors such as Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Octavius Augustus, nephew and heir of Julius Caesar, forms the second triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus. Antony is married to Octavia, Augustus's sister. After that, Antony marries Cleopatra and they are defeated by Augustus at Actium. Augustus married Livia, who had previously given birth to a son named Tiberius. The daughter, Julia, was born in a previous marriage to Octavio, and with a husband named Marcello who is suddenly poisoned. Then Julia married General Agrippa, a friend of Octavio, they had two children: Gaius and Lucius, who died prematurely. Agrippa, Germanicus and Drusus also die and Tiberius will inherit the Roman Empire.

This television hit within the historical framework was produced by Sky Atlantic that gives Ancient Rome the sex and swords treatment of "Game of Thrones" with many scenes of love, violence and confrontations. Interesting heroine and eye-catching production values elevate this tour of ancient Rome. So it has a great cast, a good budget and is full of killings and backstabbing. Sex and violence on the Roman scenarios in this peculiar crossover between ¨Rome¨ and ¨Game of Thrones¨, turning out to be quite entertaining. This epic series dealing with the extraordinary rise of Livia Drusilla who overcame adversity to become the most powerful woman in the world was created by Simon Burke (¨Fortitude¨, ¨Strike Back¨, ¨The Kaiser's Last Kiss¨) and starring Kasia Smutniak (¨Devils¨, ¨Silvio and the others¨), Matthew Mc Nutty (Versailles¨,¨The Rising¨, ¨The Musketeers¨) as Augustus, Nadia Parkes (¨Starstruck¨) as young Antigone, Earl Cave ( ¨The Unusual Pilgrimage of Harold Fry¨, ¨The End of the World¨), son of Nick Cave, and Liam Cunningan (¨Game of Thrones¨) as Livia's father.

I had no great expectations and was pleasantly surprised! I don't understand why people trash this show for allegedly inaccurate history. This is a series and not a documentary! The modern language only made the characters more believable to me. Again, I don't understand the criticism, should the actors have spoken in Latin?

Watch it! ;-)

7/10.

This is a fantastic series. Don't get put off by the reviewers who are upset that it isn't like Spartacus (TV show, not movie). Of course it isn't. Spartacus is a TV show isn't history. Domina is history. Livia lived in the public eye. There were witnesses. The writers did their research.

The series is historically accurate, more so than most historical dramas. It relies on contemporaneous sources, as well as writers within one-hundred years of when Livia ruled. And rule she did.

Rome was a dysfunctional mess in Augustus' time. They had just come out of civil war, and they had more slaves in Rome than they had citizens. They were living on a house of proverbial cards, and this show is about the end of the empire that was inevitable at the beginning of it.

For Augustus' to maintain power, he needed two things, an enforcer and a brain. Agrippa was the enforcer, and the actor who plays him absolutely nails the role. Bravo. Livia was the brain. Agrippa's quote: "Your wife is the smartest man in Rome" is from history. Augustus, who stayed in his tent during battles, and left it up to Livia to do his dirty work, was a great leader because he had the two people closest to him who made him great. And Livia, who was as brilliant in history as she was ruthless, made both of them possible.

The way Augustus is described in the first episode, BTW, as a gangster, a criminal, is not far from the truth. It was when he got Livia's connection with her patrician family, again, with her ruthlessness, with her understanding of Rome and how to rule, that he became a dictator. She created him, and she kept him in power until he turned on her. More on that later, because we haven't gotten to that episode yet.

Everyone should watch this, especially a scene midway in Season Two when the family is at dinner, all of them with reasons to kill each other, and, in some cases, where they have killed family members.

The moment when Augustus' sister, Octavia, another fantastic performance, greets and welcomes Livia -- who she despises -- back from exile is a study in every dysfunctional family, business, corporation that has ever existed and will exist.

It's why wars happen, why people screw each other over, and it goes on every day with various stakes. Maybe not the rule of Rome or just simply surviving murder as in Augustus' time, but, if you lose your job because of it, it can be just as bad.

Everyone should watch this.

A few responses to some of the unhelpful reviews:

For those who hate the costumes, well, welcome to 1st Century CE Rome. That's what they wore.

For those who don't like that there are black characters, well, black people lived in Rome, and some were slaves who became free. Some because heads of businesses. They had power. Deal with it.

Those actors, btw, nearly steal the show. Deal with that, too, because the posts here complaining about people of color or strong women say more about the reviewer than the show.

Germans, BTW, were brought to Rome in three ways, as slaves, as prisoners to be murdered in a Triumph, or to serve in the Pretorian Guard were white. You see what happens to them. That's accurate, too.

For those who don't like that the lead has a European accent, really? BTW, she's Polish-Italian. Her accent has hints of both. You have a problem with Italian in Rome? Come on. She's a fantastic actress and she chews the scenery (that's an acting compliment) as Livia.

Oh, one last thing. Romans were infamous for swearing. If you don't like the swear words in English, you should try the Latin equivalents. Wow. And, yes, they had the F word. The original Latin is where it comes from. And that's one of the milder words.

If you're going to review a program based on history, look up the history before you write your review. This one is as accurate as F :)

Deals with the tough time Livia and her son Tiberias had before her rise. And believable.

Not always accurate. Freed slaves were Freemen or Free-women and Roman citizenship was not lightly given. Also Dictator was a respectable office held for a limited period to overcome great dangers. It ended after Julius Caesar made himself Dictator for Life.

Octavius was probably more dependent on Agrippa than is shown, but is a convincing character.

It needlessly skips over the complex politics that had Cicero sponsoring Octavian against Marcus Antonius, before they became allies.

But it's the most accurate drama I've seen. Much more so than the earlier series Rome.

Each episode is better than the next. As an Ancient Roman (amateur) historian, this uses actual events to create a gripping narrative of the lives of the characters surrounding Livia Drusilla of the Claudii. Thie writing is as phenomenal as the acting. This cast is AMAZING! Edge-of-your-seat, non-stop intensity. This is officially my favorite show right now. Because of the plethora of instrumental characters with similar sounding names and appearances, sometimes it's difficult to keep track of who's who. This is the only reason I'm not giving this 10 stars. But each character is so engaging, and historically accurate.