***Spolier Alert***

One thing Rome has not shown viewers much of thus far is male homosexuality. This is notable given its ancient Rome setting. Some viewers have criticized this absence, though to be honest it never bothered me personally. There were far too many other fantastic aspects of the show for me to quibble about LGBT representation.

A major subplot involved a nobleman who deflowers a powerful warlord's teenage nephew. The offended warlord says, "no one in my family s**** c**** unless I say so," and then exacts vigilante justice by castrating the nobleman. In retaliation, the warlord is treated to a "swirly" in a filthy roman lavatory while simultaneously being sodomized.

A separate plot has a beautiful young male house-servant getting sodomized by his major domo. During this, he looks merely bored. His mind is elsewhere -- scheming about how to poison the lady of the house.

Yet another plot has brutish Marc Antony trying to intimidate the effete Roman Senator, Cicero, by relieving himself in the Senator's wine goblet.

Throw in not one but two gratuitous scenes of full-frontal nudity (Marc Antony played by James Purefoy & Brutus played by Tobias Menzies) and you have an episode that seems intentionally "gayer" than the fourteen episodes that have preceded it.

Obviously, Roman society was barbaric in many respects, so some barbaric representations of homosexuality seem par for the course. The trouble is, the show doesn't offer any meaningful male homosexual relationship to balance things out a bit. At least last year the show provided a moderately sympathetic (though ill-fated) lesbian relationship between Servillia and Octavia. They need something similar for the guys.

Unless and until the show gives viewers an actual homosexual male relationship, I find myself wishing they'd refrain from exploring the topic of homosexuality altogether. Then I could watch (and enjoy) the show in better conscience.