I, Claudius (TV Series Wiki Article)
I’m a dedicated fan of HBO’s “ROME”. Even though somewhat dramatized, it was well done and very entertaining.
I remember, I had a lib teacher who had no problem not keeping his ideas from the class. But one thing he did.
He made us memorize the names of all the president’s cabinet (we had a test on it), and bring in articles about them where we discussed their jobs. It made me aware for the first time of how the executive branch really worked, and that it was a living lesson, as opposed to history.
I’d watch this. We watched everything we could find on ancient Rome (except the HBO series - NOT for kids!!) before we took our boys there in 2009.
The fact that this a ‘proposal’ for a show disappoints me. I want to watch it now. Oh, however, I don’t have cable, so it will have to go on Netflix Instant Watch or on DVD.
In the Roman Empire there were no blogs to pimp.
Like the History Channel will actually do a history documentary instead of more reality shows, UFO’s, and cryptozoology.
Crassus is purported to have said "You are not really rich until you can afford your own army."
Actually 15 to 20, depending on how you figure it.
“Throughout the 20th century History was made more politically correct, more timid, bloodless, and unfocused, more a vehicle for social engineering, more wimpy. Soon History had all the intellectual excitement of an infomercial for a new vegetable slicer.”
Through some oversight, we don’t have a state-mandated test for World History here in NC....so, I can bend the curriculum somewhat...and pretty much stick to war, politics, philosophy, science and technology, in my teaching. Drums and trumpets.....
There are some BBC series like this regarding Hannibal and Rome. You can find them in their entirety on YouTube.
Here’s the first of the Hannibal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXnxdVcnqI0
Here is one from the Rome series:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s101upMAOmY&feature=related
Anything that the History Channel would do would probably be polluted by a leftist “narrative”. The BBC isn’t perfect, but has higher standards than PBS or the History Channel.
Amazing that Ancient Rome still intrigues us 1500 years after it’s “fall”.
So this is history stripping out the “politically correct” about Rome? What does it change? Is it Carlylean “Great Men made history”? Or something else?
I’ve always been wary of the Carlyle/Spencer approach. Social demands may be articulated by the Great Men - but do they create them, or speak of stirrings already in the populace? Do they bring Enlightenment to the benighted masses, or Interpretation? Do the masses even matter?
The Great Man theory is refuted by the Tea Party’s success, a movement which has no one speaker.