On March 02 2020 04:09 JoinTheRain wrote:
Tbh, I actually really admire Cicero's writing style and mostly his philosophical works on ethics, like Tusculan disputations and On duty. Yet his character seems to be wildly controversial, some claim he was the embodiment of Roman civil virtue, others - that he has been a spineless coward that goes with anyone in power. I guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle. If you can point me to some works on his life and deeds from which I can form a really educated opinion on him, I would appreciate it immensely.
I know that his character, whatever it actually was, does in no way diminish the quality of his writing yet I am curious.
I can say the same about Lucius Seneca actually. Yes, Cicero and Seneca. And Gaius Pollio, Julius Caesar's lieutenant. I hope I am not overwhelming. If I am, just ignore me, I won't mind.
As it is now, I will surely take your suggestion and read Adrian Goldsworthy's 'Augustus, after I finish The Roman revolution.
And I can only finish with saying how awesome and kind and polite you are to be taking the time and helping me develop my knowledge. Thank you!
Ah, you like the great writers? They are quite fascinating - it's always kind of hard to imagine these great writers and philosophers also as generals and ruthless politicans. They lived in complicated times and had to navigate them accordingly - no one as close to power as Seneca and Cicero would have survived for so long had they not blood on their hands or made plenty of enemies. As you say, this doesn't diminish their literary achievements, but rather adds another layer onto them.
Anyways, here are some books cited by other authors in their works about these persons that are more about their politics and lifes than about their writing:
- Griffin, M.: Seneca. A Philosopher in Politics (1976)
- Wilson, Emily R.: The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca (2014)
- Fuhrmann, Mannfred: Cicero and the Roman Republic (1992) (Available here: https://archive.org/details/ciceroromanrepub0000fuhr)
- Stockton, David: Cicero: A Political Biography (1971)
As far as I'm aware at the moment, no grand monographs exist about Pollio, unfortunately, so a few articles and mentions of him in other works about his timeframe are probably the best way of getting more about him - Syme, as you will know, talks about him a bit.
- Llewelyn Morgan: The Autopsy of C. Asinius Pollio. In: The Journal of Roman Studies 90 (2000), p. 51–69.
I hope you find something interesting! And you're very welcome - I love history and it's always a pleasure to share that with someone else.
On March 02 2020 07:58 DeepElemBlues wrote:
The people who make these things regard their audience and themselves with contempt.
We can't have accurate costumes, they need to look like Lord of the Rings / Game of Thrones or people won't like what they're seeing and turn it off!
We can't bring in any ambiguities because this stuff happened thousands of years ago and we don't have and never will have the full story, people get frustrated and bored if they have to think and aren't spoon-fed a simplistic dramatic narrative! They don't like it and then they watch something else! So just make shit up. As long as it's dramatic and reminds people of LotR/GoT, we're good.
Battle scenes gotta look like the Avengers as much as possible (considering the subject matter) because that's what people like and if we filmed a more accurate battle scene, people probably wouldn't like it and would stop watching!
It's a deep insecurity about their ability to tell an entertaining tale without following the basic conventions set by Hollywood and places like HBO, and a condescending view of their audience that they don't want accuracy, they want another dramatic action extravaganza of the kind they've already seen dozens or hundreds of times in the last 20 years.
Very well said, and pretty much my thoughts as well. It's like they're afraid of doing things differently than the usual formula, even if the medium they're working in - a documentary - should have very different rules.
EPT
