lesbiassparrow | Entries tagged with rome

You know, I was all set to write up a proposal for the APA's HBO Rome Panel in San Diego in 2007 (the APA is the big society for Classics in North America) about Rome on the internet and fanfiction and slashy goodness. And you know what? There isn't actually that much out there. And remarkably little fanfiction for Vorenus and Pullo who you would have thought would have been the OTP to end all OTPs. It is very strange and has weakened my faith in the internet's ability to provide me with instant crazy and entertainment in one go. However, it is probably just as well as giving a paper on men doing it in fanfiction is not exactly a winning move in the sober field of Classics. Also, I would no doubt giggle a lot even as I made talked about modern mythmaking.

Also, go Sweden! You may not have won the gold but good on you for making women's hockey a more interesting place.

ETA: but not a complete proposal writing loss day because I did get one written on mad Irish poet's 18th century parody of the Aeneid. Excellent, obscure stuff that. Please let it be accepted so I can justify a trip to Cumae to my employer.

Current Mood: geeky

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Also I finally got my DVDs of Robin of Sherwood. A lot of fun revisiting my childhood crush, Michael Praed. I hadn't remembered the leggings they stuck him in at times. Or the mad 80s hair.

One of the things I like about Rome is that is the way that it comments on its own improbable narrative. Lucius and Pullo are like Forrest Gump, they're always there at key moments in history: they recapture stolen eagles, save Antony in front of the Curia, find the treasure, meet Pompey, etc., all in about 6 episodes. But last week they had Caesar at least talk acknowledge this. I thought it was clever because as an audience member I am beginning to raise my eyes when our heroes happen in upon yet Another Important Event In The Fall of the Republic. I liked the idea of working in their incredible good fortune (if that's what it is) into the generally superstitious nature of the Romans, while acknowledging that it is a wee bit improbable.

Sadly the battle of Pharsalus was terribly cheap - it looked like one of the documentaries that I own that has fat middle-aged academics trying to pretend to be gladiators. They do a lot of blurring but it doesn't obliterate the sheer awfulness of the idea.

And if this show continues down to battle of Actium you know it will end with our two plebian representatives on different sides. I call Pullo for Antony and Lucius for Octavian.

Current Mood: contemplative

Rome broke my heart in all sorts of good ways tonight.

( Wibbling about Rome behind the cut (spoilers ahoy) ).

Also I am beginning to get the feeling about Veronica Mars I did when Wonderfalls was on; many people whose taste and judgement I respect and often share really like it, but I just can't get into it. I've tried and given up. Which is probably good as I don't really have the time for another show right now. I'm sticking with Threshold until it gets cancelled.

Current Mood: content

Since I have recently become a wee bit disenchanted with BSG and am actually rather glad they are going on a break so I don't become one of those mad, bitter people who blather on and on about what they don't like about a show, I will just post my liking for Threshold and Rome.

( be warned there's a wee nit-picky comment on obscene terminolgy behind the cut in addition to other thoughts )

So why are they using ne in questions in Rome? They aren't using any other Latin except for the odd graffiti. And the Latin teacher in me wants to point out that sometimes they use it when they should be using nonne or num instead. And that's when I realise I am quite, quite mad.

And if they are going to use Virgil, I really hope that they have Atia say at some point 'If I cannot bend the gods above, I will move hell.' (Aeneid VII.312) She's got that crazy Juno vibe going.

ETA: Also it would be nice if one Emmy season I didn't see on various sites the endless retread of how Buffy and Angel were robbed of an Emmy when they were on TV. You know, maybe now is the time to let that go. I bet you could do it if you tried!

Current Mood: crazy

I've seen a lot of love for Rubicon recently on various LJs of those who watch HBO's Rome. It's a good book, but I wanted to recommend Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution for anyone who might be interested in a classic and brilliant look at the fall of the Roman Republic.

This is a great, great work of history. It is a must for anyone who is vaguely sympathetic to Marc Antony as it attempts the almost impossible task of writing a history of the rise of Augustus from the perspective of the losing (Antonine) side. But most of all it is superbly written. Here's a sample of Syme's style:

"In all ages, whatever the form and name of government, be it monarchy, republic, or democracy, an oligarchy lurks behind the facade; and Roman history, Republican or Imperial, is the history of the governing class."

And on Tiberius' accession to power after the death of Augustus:

"From first to last the dynasty of the Julii and the Claudii ran true to form, despotic and murderous."

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Current Mood: grateful

PS. Rome

If you want to know the names of elite and politically important women outside of the two that you've decided are all we need to see I would be happy to send you some books. Also you can be ambitious as a woman and not have to shag everything in sight or hit your daughter on a repeated basis (though I can't really blame Atia on the Antony front).

Shall I give you a description of Cornelia, Pompey's last wife, just to get you started? "The young woman had many charming qualities apart from her youth and beauty. She had a good knowledge of literature, of playing the lyre, and of geometry, and she was a regular and intelligent listener to lectures on philsophy." (Plutarch, Life of Pompey)

Yours,

Me

pps. I don't care about historical accuracy really, I'm just a bit tired of the same old representation of ambitious Roman women as nasty sex-monsters who will boink anything that moves. Not every Roman matron was mommie dearest in a stola.

Current Mood: informative

Dear Rome:

Please stop sticking the worst and least sexy sex scenes I have ever seen on any TV show into an otherwise not too bad hour of TV.

Thanks.

Me.

( Other Romish Thoughts )

Current Mood: historical

Given that I am currently teaching a course on women in antiquity I am shockingly uninformed about Roman depilatories. But I do know that according to Ovid, crocodile dung was used in rouge, that Pliny the Elder wore a bra on his head to cure headaches, and if a menstruating woman walked through your crops they would die. Oh and wombs would wander all over a woman's body if you weren't lucky. (And you don't want to know how you would fix a blocked womb.)

Next week I will post on the fun of the lupercalia and nearly naked aristocrats running through the streets of Rome beating willing women. I really hope they film Mark Antony's participation in those festivities.

Current Mood: uninformed

Went tonight to see Etta James at the Hollywood Bowl, which was great. Though it was a little disturbing to see her dance sexually with her chair. And there was nearly a bust-up between the people with one month old baby and the people with the world's most bored teenagers.

Courtesy of a link in

meyerlemon's journal I've been reading the description for HBO's new series, Rome (http://www.hbo.com/rome/). And I am not at all sorry that I made the recent decision to cancel HBO based on what I read. I don't mind cheesy goodness, but any show for which someone can actually write the following lines is not something I want to actually contribute to the viewing numbers for:

"The die-hard leader of the hard line conservative faction in the Senate. Porcius Cato is a man in whom sharp intellect and high moral stature are made sinful by the fierceness of his zealotry."

I've looked at that description a few times and I can't make head nor tail of it. How on earth can high moral stature be made sinful by anything? Moral stature could be undermined, which is what the author seems to mean, but surely not made sinful. Having read this I think I will have kinder feelings towards badly written fanfic from now on. At least the authors of that aren't being paid.