Uncharacteristically for me, I binged watched the first six episodes of Sky Atlantic’s Domina over the course of the last couple of nights.

The main character is Livia, wife of first Roman Emperor Augustus. For students of I, Claudius - the book or series - Livia is well known as the evil manipulating matriarch of the Julio-Claudian imperial family, forever bumping off relatives that stand in her way. Of course, Robert Graves got his dirt from Suetonius in his scurrilous Lives of the 12 Caesars (Published around 100AD).

So she’s a well known literary & TV figure already.

We haven’t had decent Roman historical drama since HBO’s Rome Series 1 and 2, years ago. The BBC did a crap series on the Roman conquest of Britain a while back but that mainly seemed to be the writer and director wanking themselves in a frenzy of self-conscious weirdness. Didn’t watch it.

Domina is a more traditional series - historical characters, rendered historically with a good grasp of the available sources. I’m currently up to about 23BC the year Augustus was very ill and the whole experiment into an imperial system could have ended.

What’s good about the series is that it shows the uncertainty and the potential for missteps as the Roman world transitioned away from the republican form of government. Too many histories tend to gloss over the transitional period of, say, 39-23BC. In retrospect, you might get the impression that Augustus’ 41 year reign was all sweetness with nary a challenge or hiccup along the way. In reality, it was very different to this.

I read Appian’s Civil Wars last year. The transition from Republic through the dictatorship of Caesar, the 2nd Triumphant, Octavian v Anthony, Actium and then the settlements of 27 and 23 BC were not smooth. Augustus could have fallen at anytime; history puts it stamp on the past but the counter factuals could have been just as easy.

So I like this series in that it shows the struggles Augustus faced in this early Imperial era. Nothing was writ in stone. He was a man. Not the god he became. And Livia was right by his side, counselling urging and plotting. She is in many ways a very ahistorical figure, modern perhaps, in that, even at the time, it was acknowledged that she impacted on the great counsels of state. Unusually for this period, Augustus took his wife’s advice.

Like any series that covers a long period of time (the first 6 episodes cover 44-23BC), the casting director faces a choice of what to do about the characters ageing. With Domina, the decision was made to have two separate casts - young actors playing Livia and Augustus, Agrippa etc and then wheeling in the older variants. This is will known and a typical device. It was initially slightly jarring however that not only did Livia change faces between episodes 2 and 3 but she also changed nationality - Kasia Smutniak may be a polygot but the character Livia goes from a posh English accent when young to a weird nondescript European mash up.

I soon got over it.

The series has the bonking and orgies you’d expect as per the HBO Rome formula. The dialogue was replete with fucks and cunts. I suppose people do talk like that but, in places, it was a little overdone and for effect rather than to convey realism (especially in the first couple of episodes). The acting in the main was good, both Livias were convincing - being both attractive (she was meant to be a reputed beauty in her day) and believably strong characters. Young Augustus was perhaps a trifle too crude and boorish. Of course Augustus was arrogant and known for his cunning and playing the long game but the enfant terrible seemed a little trite. The older version of him seems to have got it right.

Best line? Livia to two wedding guests: “I’m younger, prettier and richer than you two. You’re lucky to be invited.”

And now? Well, I face a race to get my Galla Placidia screenplay off the ground. It amazes me that this remarkable woman - 400 years after Livia - who actually held power as regent - has been totally ignored by dramatists. Especially for those looking for strong female characters. Well, tap tap tap.

For further Roman reading, click here. I also reviewed the Netflix series Barbarians about the Teutoburg massacre.