>>Atia is way too demonized

"Atia" is a fictional character. She bears no resemblance to the historical person.

"I am sorry but Atia is way too demonized. There's no way a woman could get ahold of another aristocrat and do such horrible things without being penalized.."

Well, as Forrest says, she doesn't resemble what we can guess about the historical Atia at all. Roman matrons of the time weren't like that. Though just a few decades later ... they most certainly were. Read up on what Julia (Octavian's daughter), or, say, Valeria Messalina or Agrippina (Nero's mother) was like. They did far more horrible things than Atia. Really though, Atia of the Julii displays a character more suited to modern Hollywood than any era of Ancient Rome. That was the main defect in the series, and in almost all depictions of ancient Rome. All of the old 50s Hollywood epics were like this. So was I, Claudius, really. I thought Fellini's homo-erotic Satyricon (of all things I have seen) best captured Roman character.