Rome: Season Two Premiere

“Those citizens and plebes left in the wake of his disastrous campaigns are here left to squabble over (exit) strategies to return “Rome” to its height of power and prestige, diddling in the margins while Baghdad, I mean Rome, burns.”

Oh please spare us all the cheap, tendentious, pontificating.

As some singers would be well advised to ‘shut up an sing’, TV critics should perhaps tread lightly in the realm of political science.

Caesar’s campaigns were hardly ‘disastrous’(well the Gauls might differ, but they were hardly unpopualr in Rome) . Although he himself was murdered by a delusional self-interested remnant of the failing Roman Aristocracy, he did in fact herald the formal end of the Republic. A Republic which had in fact been in terminal condition for decades prior to his accession. And in case you missed it in your history classes, Rome’s GREATEST IMPACT, and GLORY was felt long after the decayed Republic had fallen. The Republic as it truly existed, was well represented by Cicero’s character. A man of ‘principle’ unless those ‘principles’ might cause him any problems. A self-centered snob who loved his personal position more than he ever really loved Rome.

Rome as a Republic was NEVER a ‘democracy’ as we might understand that term ,and to blithely state that, “Rome demonstrates the establishment of democracy isn’t easy, especially if that democracy is imposed through military power”, is so far from reality that it truly boggles the mind.

Republican Rome was not about ‘democracy’; it was about countervailing power centres, of which the monied Senate was by far the most powerful. And since it has clearly escaped your notice, ‘military power’ was the SINE QUA NON of the Roman State(both the Republican State and the Empire which followed). Without ‘military power’ and the will to use it, Rome would not in fact have existed, and OUR HISTORY would be quite different.

So different in fact that perhaps we would now be in the same boat as say the Middle East, where ‘progress’ stopped centuries ago. No-one will ever know what the alternative history might have been without the ‘military power’ of Rome, but one has some serious doubts as to its attractiveness. You appear to like the omelettes welll enough, but conveniently forget about all those poor cracked eggs.

As to the show itself, it is great, and your observations are pretty much on target. Regarding the show.

Too bad you couldn’t just review the TV, and spare us the ‘revisionist’ history lessons.

Comment by dougf from Canada — January 21, 2007 @ 1:00 pm