Those About to Die stars break down how historically accurate series is
"We could assume something like this happened."
The cast of Those About to Die, Prime Video's 10-part epic set in ancient Rome, have been speaking about just how historically accurate the series is.
"I'm no great historian [laughs], I'm not an academic, but I think it's pretty close in many ways," Iwan Rheon told RadioTimes.com. "I don't think there's too much that has been embellished."
But he did go on to say that "it's very difficult to know exactly what went on in that period" because many of the sources were "written later" and "generally biased".
"We all know how emperors, in particular, used propaganda to change their truth," he added. "So it's impossible to really know."
Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson also discussed how Daniel Mannix's non-fiction book on which it's based used a "variety of historical facts" as a jumping off point to "make up stories".
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"So that's what we're doing on the show," he continued. "Based on facts, we could assume something like this happened."
But as Moe Hashim notes, little is still known about certain figures who were living in Rome at that time.
"The series is just scratching the surface of what really happened," he explained. "My character is probably one of the ones that is more of a fictional type of thing because there's not a lot of story behind North Africans and North African gladiators, especially."
Those About to Die follows a cross-section of people living in Rome in 79 AD, including Jóhannesson and Hashim's gladiators Viggo and Kwame, and Rheon's crime lord Tenax.
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The rest of the cast incudes Anthony Hopkins, Death in Paradise's Sara Martins, Victoria's Tom Hughes and Spooks's Rupert Penry-Jones, among others.
"I know of no other period in history that has so many echoes and resonances with today's world," said writer Robert Rodat (Thor: The Dark World, The Patriot, Saving Private Ryan).
"Though set firmly in the past, the show is a lens through which we can look at today in terms of entertainment, violence, immigration, gender, poverty, ambition and wealth."
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