It's great seeing Livius getting some attention, and on hackernews of all places.<p>Ab Urbe Condita is really much more of an epic tale than a proper history book by modern standards, even though, as Deveraux notes, the later bits are probably more or less accurate in the big picture (e.g. the 2nd punic war).<p>Livius mostly wanted to create a sort of national romantic work with Ab Urbe Condita. He was a republican who wanted to look back to the glory days of the republic, even as Rome became an empire. With his stories, he wanted to create an ideal of Rome to set an example to other Romans. Livius preaches to Romans about Roman justice, cleverness, and honesty. Livius has his own agenda, he does not represent every Roman.<p>Luckily we have archaelogy and the historical method to help us. I feel like ancient history is trending (at least on the internet). There's hope for more TV shows with more diverse casting.<p>Great piece, wonderfully researched, I'm excited for the next article in the series.
Deveraux's work is always a treat. Incidentally, so is hearing Latin spoken with an Italian accent - so that it actually sounds <i>spoken</i>, rather than rehearsed.
Unfortunately if I learnt it myself I'd be required to join the Civil Service.<p>> as well as some very salty Roman writing which I will not bowdlerize in the slightest a little later in the series<p>Heh, heh, heh. You're going to want to follow this one.
> The ‘newsreader’ from HBO’s Rome, played by English actor Ian McNeice. The Romans would have called him a praeco; it was an occupation which was looked down upon.<p>How else would I know which one is the true roman bread for true romans?
If anyone wants to learn more about Latin, Luke Ranieri's <i>Polymathy</i> channel has a lot of good stuff:<p>* <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PolymathyLuke/videos" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/c/PolymathyLuke/videos</a><p>He recent 'reviewed' the Latin in Civ5 and Civ6, as well as the "Romans go home" scene of <i>Life of Brian</i>. He does other languages as well as science-y stuff as well.
It's ironic in this context that one of the most prominent non-Roman characters in HBO’s <i>Rome,</i> the enslaved Eirene, who speaks English with a thick accent, was played by an actress from… Rome:<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1493547/" rel="nofollow">https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1493547/</a><p><a href="https://hbo-rome.fandom.com/wiki/Eirene" rel="nofollow">https://hbo-rome.fandom.com/wiki/Eirene</a>
> Many students are more than a little surprised to find that the actual contents of Latin literature are often rather less elevated than they might have expected<p>Our college Latin teacher was trying to get us to translate Catallus more faithfully, especially after one student gave a particularly polite translation. It was a moment in my career as a student I'll never forget - not only using pretty graphic language in class, and having a professor respond "Right, good."
I've long found it funny that this blog titled with "pedantry" has so many disclaimers. Pedantry is usually about poking all the tiny wholes in the <i>opposing</i> argument not your own!
Fascinating article. It's pretty ironic that Roman aristocrats are so often depicted by white, British actors, in no small part because that fits Americans' mental image of what an aristocrat is.