A Roman Centurion walks into a bar. Says, "I'll have a Martinum, please"
The bartender asks, "Don't you mean a Martini?"
"Look,", the Centurion replies, "If I'd wanted a freakin' double I'd have asked for one!"

.

So. Rome is over, and I am sad. True, it was never going to be an extended series; it was intended from the beginning as a set number of episodes spanning a specific time. But it was just so fucking good, I couldn't help but hope it would get a longer life somehow.

However, the production values were simply too high, and apparently there was no way to sustain that kind of cost. Hence the series's short life.

*heavy sigh* Seems the really good series are the ones that don't last, while puerile crap goes on for years. In a better world, a show like this one could go on for as long as the producers wished to keep it going. It certainly wouldn't lack for material; historically speaking, the series could have gone on for at least another eight to ten years, working its way through all the emperors from Augustus to Justinian. Wouldn't that have been something?

Ah well. At least it went out while it was ahead. Good ending, too.

Still bloody depressing, though.