When Mark Antony left his wife, Octavian's sister Octavia, for Cleopatra, he provided Octavian with a propaganda gold mine. Octavia was painted as the chaste, proper Roman matron, abandoned by her irresponsible and increasingly emasculated husband for an exotic foreign temptress. Rome tells a similar story, but substitutes Octavian's mother for his sister in terms of narrative drive. This chapter will explore how and why Rome adapts a narrative over two thousand years old and why the emphasis is shifted from Octavian's sister to his mother.

ROME’ SAFFAIR : ATIA AND ANTONY

Rome established an ahistorical affair between Octavian's mother Atia and Antony as early as episode 2 (“How Titus Pullo Brought Down the Republic”). In the first season, this relationship was portrayed as largely motivated by political interest as well as a fairly casual affection on both sides. Atia shows a glimmer of vulnerability in episode 6 (“Egeria”), when she first brings up the subject of the two of them getting married. When Antony asks why, she first says because she loves him, which he assumes is a joke. She then outlines political reasons for them to get married, in a conversation that quickly turns into an argument. Polly Walker's performance as Atia, first quietly suggesting that she loves Antony, then shifting into a more confident tone as she comes up with a political plan so unexpected and cold-hearted that it leads Antony to call her a “wicked old harpy,” implies that it was the first reason she gave – love – that was the truth, and her political machinations were a cover-up to protect her hurt feelings. But the relationship is balanced out, to a degree, in episode 11 (“The Spoils”), when Antony enlists Octavia to help reunite them as a couple, placing himself, as Monica Cyrino has pointed out, in the position of the elegiac lover desperately pursuing his elusive mistress.

In Season Two, however, the dynamic in the relationship shifts. The unequal affection hinted at in episode 6 becomes increasingly prominent and it becomes clear that Atia is more in love with Antony than he is with her.