In 2000, director Ridley Scott breathed new life into the Roman based sword and sandal adventure with his blockbuster film Gladiator. The film follows the exploits of Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius from the conquests of Germania to the gladiatorial battles of the Colosseum and the intrigue of the Senate. The movie took home five Oscar awards for the year, including the award for Best Picture. Its aftermath saw classical antiquity based films such as Troy and Alexander, plans for a Gladiator sequel expected to be released next year, and a slew of Greco-Roman themed video games. The latest work to take audiences to the Roman Empire is the HBO/BBC television series Rome, which finishes its first season tonight with “The Kalends of February.”

The series takes place during the last years of Julius Caesar, centering around the lives of Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, two soldiers of the 13th Legion mentioned briefly in Caesar’s De Bello Gallico. The first season has followed them from Caesar’s campaign in Gaul to his struggle for power with Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and eventual rise to political domination over Rome, with all of the lies, scandals, and intrigue that was included. Like Gladiator, Rome presents audiences with a very dark view of corruption in the Roman Empire.

Such depictions of Roman politics stand in stark contrast to more traditional views of Rome as a beacon of culture, art, and philosophy. As Gladiator’s Maximus puts it, “I have seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal, and cruel, and dark. Rome is the light.” Yet Maximus, an outsider to Roman politics, has this view challenged when he himself comes face to face with the city’s corruption. Later in the film, Senator Gracchus says to Gaius, “Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they’ll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they’ll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the Senate. It’s the sand of the Colosseum. He’ll bring them death, and they will love him for it.”

This dichotomy has important implications in today’s political climate, in which America is often compared by defenders and critics alike to the Roman Empire. No other state since the fall of Rome has possessed the sort of domination over the rest of the world that America now enjoys. While some criticize the United States’ foreign policy for this sort of imperialism, others see the country’s similarities to ancient Rome as a positive thing. Supporters of U.S. policy, most notably among the American neoconservative movement, see it as America’s duty to use its military supremacy to enforce the Pax Americana.

In his October 2001 article “The Case for American Empire” about the response to 9/11, Max Boot of the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard writes,

The solution is obvious: The United States must become a kinder, gentler nation, must eschew quixotic missions abroad, must become, in Pat Buchanan’s phrase, “a republic, not an empire.” In fact this analysis is exactly backward: The September 11 attack was a result of insufficient American involvement and ambition; the solution is to be more expansive in our goals and more assertive in their implementation.

Pointing to U.S. involvement in Bosnia, he goes on,

U.S. imperialism–a liberal and humanitarian imperialism, to be sure, but imperialism all the same–appears to have paid off in the Balkans.

HBO’s Rome comes at the perfect time, its dark vision of the depths of the empire’s corruption forcing us to consider whether the position Rome held is the position we want to be in ourselves. Along with the supremacy Rome held over the world came all of the pitfalls of increasing complexity that make societies more susceptible to downfall. Indeed, much of Rome’s dialogue, story, and imagery are reminiscent of modern political issues. For instance, the pilot episode “The Stolen Eagle” features the Roman senators debating Caesar’s “illegal war” in Gaul. Visual depictions of the Roman army, while historically accurate, also seem purposely designed to conjure up images of the fascists of the 1930s and 1940s, which themselves borrowed much of their ideology and symbology from the Roman Empire.

If today’s politicians and policy makers are going to use Rome as a standard for their vision of America’s future, it is important for people to understand what Rome was. Thus, Rome is an example of the media serving an important function. In addition to providing weekly entertainment, it educates audiences about the darker side of Roman society and challenges the more conservative view of Rome as “the light.” Ultimately, we will have to decide if we really want to follow in the footsteps of the City of the Seven Hills.