Deadly DYNASTY

The politics and power struggles of ancient Rome are brought to life this week in a sweeping Sky Atlantic drama series that follows the rise of noblewoman Livia Drusilla to become the first empress of Rome.

- SEAN MARLAND

Eight-part series Domina begins with a young and naive Livia watching her world fall apart with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC and the end of the Roman Republic, followed by the death of her father, Livius, a few years later.

Livia is forced to flee Rome with her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero, but a decade later she returns to the city, determined to regain her inheritance and honour the pledge she made to her father before he died to restore the republican state in Rome.

The first two episodes feature Nadia Parkes as a young Livia, with Kasia Smutniak taking over the role from the third episode.

‘Domina tells the story of the beginning of the Roman empire from the female point of view,’ says Smutniak. ‘It was an extremely cruel and tough era in which women’s lives were worth less than men’s. But Livia acts with real cunning. She grew up in a noble family and her father taught her the importance of the republic, so she never forgets the promise she made him.’