Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire
The city of Rome is the capital of the Roman Empire and located in the heartland of Italy.
The city itself was founded in the 8th century BC and in Roman mythology was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus who were said to have been raised by wolves. Rome conquered the entire Italian peninsula by the 3rd century BC, and throughout the following centuries became a thriving military and economic powerhouse. Rome's most famous ruler, Julius Caesar, conquered the province of Gaul (modern day France and Western Europe) in the 1st Century BC, expanding Rome's influence from the Mediterranean Sea, to the English Chanel and the Rhine river on the border of Germany. The Roman Empire itself was founded in 27 BC by Octavian, later known as Augustus, who was both Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive son.
For centuries Rome ruled much of the known world, using supremacy over the Mediterranean sea and military dominance to conquer lands as far off as North Africa, the British Isles and modern day Turkey. In it's many golden years, Rome became the beating heart of civilization, art, and western culture, and exported it's culture throughout the world, laying the foundations of the world as we know it today, until centuries of constant war against barbarians and infighting destroyed the western half of the empire, leading up to the dark ages.
Game[]
Rome's depiction throughout Ryse: Son of Rome is for the most part not historically accurate. Many different aspects of the empire's history are embellished or otherwise out of context.
The game correctly depicts Rome's military prowess and constant struggle to maintain it's empire in the face of barbarian invasion and under the rule of an unfit Emperor, and uses the names of several historical figures that shaped Rome's history to color the game's story. These characters include, Rome's most tyrannical Emperor, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; the gladiator Emperor, Commodus; and one of Rome's greatest barbarian adversaries, Boudica, warrior queen of the Iceni.
However, it misrepresents many of these characters and their role in history. Emperor Nero, represented in Ryse as an elder statesman, actually became emperor at 17 and died at 30. Commodus did not live for some hundred years after the setting of the game, and there is no evidence he was ever in Britain. And though he was the son of an emperor, Nero was not his father (Nero himself had no sons).
Boudica and her revolt against Rome are perhaps the most changed elements. Boudica's father was not King Oswald, who ruled Northumbria some six hundred years after she died. And though she did burn several Roman-British cities, including York, her revolt was defeated while still in Britain.
The city itself is only seen briefly throughout much of the game, but is the battleground for both the first two and final two chapters.
External link[]
Rome on Wikipedia