The Ides of March

So, everyone saw Ciarán Hinds being stabbed in the back in the BBC production, 'Rome' am I right? And with Hinds' Caesar you kind of understood why they did it. I mean at times he was a GREAT leader and at other times he was whacko, still others, downright cruel. And most probably that's how he was.

The BBC over time has fed our modern obsession with ancient Rome. An early example of democracy for us. Hmm....and the Mediterranean diet. According to Eddie Izzard (another of my video teaching assistant gods) the Romans saved us from eating nothing but gruel. Hail Caesar.

Gaius Julius Caesar didn't really conquer Britain, but he spent an awful lot of time tramping around Gaul. And the sight of Vercingetorix, the leader of the Gauls being summarily garotted at Caesar's triumph in 'Rome' was so shocking.

We had to translate one of the books of De Bello Gallico (Caesar's Gallic Wars) from Latin when I was at school. Not the one that Vercingetorix was in. Caesar wrote his own history. So the Caesar that we knew through those pages was through his own voice and he seemed more reasonable, more beneficent somehow, how could anyone even contemplate killing him? they must have been evil.

Vercingetorix was a conflicted man. The Gauls wanted a war leader but not a King, so he had to fight for his people without knowing where that leadership would lead. He was hounded and harried by Caesar. He held out against him and led him like a fox through warrens, but finally he was forced to surrender. He had no example to follow, he didn't know how to do this gracefully. He spent seven years simply languishing in captivity before his inauspicious end. I wonder when his Ides were. I started writing a fictitious account of this some time ago but it has stalled.

Meanwhile back in TV world and in 1976 we had the post Julian Roman Empire in 13 parts. Through 'I Claudius' we got to know Derek Jacobi and Patrick Stewart. We were appalled by the antics of John Hurt's Caligula. We marvelled at the intrigue and treachery as one might when one isn't the target of it.
And Britain was finally conquered. The Romans were about spreading their empire, so when they did come, they shed what blood was necessary, then improved things, protected us from ourselves, started the process of civilisation. When the garrisons finally withdrew a certain amount of chaos poured back in.

Further back still, to 1969. Frankie Howerd as Lurkio showed us a high-camp view of pre-eruption Pompeii. How the BBC's view of the Romans has changed over the years, and by extension, ours.
The slopes of Vesuvius have been resettled and re-planted and while people go about their lives, Vesuvius sleeps and dreams.

The BBC showed us the beginnings of modern Rome, the Borgias, still intrigue and treachery but for a different god.
Rome today is synonymous with the Catholic Church. How goes it in the Vatican? What hints of shadow trickle out from the hidden city?

The Ides of March were Caesar's own destiny, but the soothsayer's plea to beware applies to many.
The great leader who is warned of their fate, who knows in their water that they are out to get him or her and yet who accepts the poisoned chalice of fate.
Embrace destiny oh great leaders, but beware your own Ides of March.