On Rewatching HBO's Rome

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 20:10:35 GMT

I'm rewatching Rome for the first time in years, and it's interesting how it hits different in 2022. The two seasons chronicle the rise and fall of Caesar and the Republic, with an emphasis on how Octavian is cold and smart af, and the dictatorial nature of his power grab. One of the final scenes, when he marches in his Praetorian Guard to surround the Senate as he makes a speech, is rather like most of the times Daenerys burns shit down in Game of Thrones: the audience is meant to enjoy it.

But what strikes me during this rewatch is how the show continuously presents the Republicans as stupid and/or as emphasizing the status quo of Roman class relations. "The plebs are revolting" is a recurrent theme. Brutus is an absolute dummy. Cato is his Stoic self, but gets a bunch of the pleb lines. Cicero gets treated similarly. It's such A Choice, to consistently show dictatorial control as....what smart people do and how the non-elite classes benefit from it.

Incomplete thoughts. But there's a paper in here.

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Link: Hillary Clinton meets Mary Beard

Sat, 02 Dec 2017 22:11:57 GMT

"The presidential candidate and the classicist discuss winners and losers" by Decca Aitkenhead.

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Just a Sci-Fi Kid Like Me

On Rewatching HBO's Rome

Link: Hillary Clinton meets Mary Beard