Blood (a lot of it). Sex (often in brothels). Gore. Violence. Sword fights. Power play. Battles for succession. Enormous budget. CGI animals. A slightly surreal quality… and Iwan Rheon, calmly being completely depraved and torturous. No, it’s not Ramsay Bolton, and this isn’t a surprise new series of Game of Thrones. But blink and you may get your epics confused.
It is Rome, in the year 79AD, and Anthony Hopkins portrays the elderly Emperor Vespasian, who rose to power following the civil war that followed the death of Emperor Nero. Vespasian, stern and unsmiling and delivering some solid one-liners, is head of the Flavian dynasty.
