{"id":1535,"date":"2010-04-24T16:03:33","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T22:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2010-04-24T16:20:03","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T22:20:03","slug":"roman-britain-on-the-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1535","title":{"rendered":"Roman Britain on the Big Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a recent conversation over margaritas in the old provincial capital, Peculiar <\/a>mentioned two new forthcoming movies set in Roman Britain.<\/a><\/p>\n

There is an added resonance to Americans flocking to films set during the rise and fall of ancient empires as they contemplate their own long-dominant place in the world amid economic upheavals at home and protracted wars abroad.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And I told him about how Troy<\/em><\/a> (2004) subtly supported the archaeological theory of diffusionism.<\/a><\/p>\n

The movies in question are Centurion<\/em><\/a> and The Eagle of the Ninth<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both should be regarded as “inspired by” rather than as any attempt at accurate history, I reckon. The so-called”disappearance” of the Ninth Legion is something that historians still squabble about\u2014and bloggers too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists have shown that they were happily in garrison in York in AD 108, which is rather a long time after their supposed demise in Caledonia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(And it’s amazing how many people think “centurion” means “Roman soldier” rather than what we would call a company commander<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Clash of the Titans<\/em> has not fared well <\/a>on blogs that I read, so I am skipping it.<\/p>\n

The Roman province of Britain lasted longer than the United States of America has thus far (just for comparison), so there are plenty of movie-making opportunities left.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During a recent conversation over margaritas in the old provincial capital, Peculiar mentioned two new forthcoming movies set in Roman Britain. There is an added resonance to Americans flocking to films set during the rise and fall of ancient empires as they contemplate their own long-dominant place in the world amid economic upheavals at home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,56,17],"class_list":["post-1535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-movies","tag-rome","tag-scotland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-oL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":341,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=341","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":0},"title":"\"Amazons\" in Roman Britain Via\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 26, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Amazons\" in Roman Britain Via Cronaca: the Times mentions a new archaeological find suggesting that Roman auxiliary forces in Britain included at least some female fighters.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13427,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13427","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":1},"title":"Ronald Hutton’s Gresham Lectures Available Online","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The five lectures that Ronald Hutton gave this past spring in the Gresham College series Finding Britain's Lost Gods are available for viewing online. Each lasts about an hour. Gods of Prehistoric Britain Paganism in Roman Britain Anglo-Saxon Pagan Gods Viking Pagan Gods in Britain Finding Lost Gods in Wales\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/hutton-anglo-saxon-1024x582.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2366","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":2},"title":"The Anatomy of Diesel Punk","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"For when you are tired of the fussiness of steam punk\u2014diesel punk explained: Generally, dieselpunk can take inspiration from '20s German Expressionist films, film noir, 1930s pulp magazines and radio dramas, crime and wartime comics, period propaganda films and newsreels, wartime pinups, and other entertainment of the early 20th century.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"culture\"","block_context":{"text":"culture","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=culture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mediatropes.info\/pmwiki\/pub\/external_link.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5419,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5419","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":3},"title":"One Ring","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Is this Roman ring the inspiration for J. R. R. Tolkien's ring of power? Maybe, maybe not. It makes for an interesting story, and at least you can say that he was thinking about magical rings before Lord of the Rings was written.","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/66715000\/jpg\/_66715594_66715560.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2640,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2640","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":4},"title":"Quick Review: Caesar’s Druids","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a little more than halfway through Miranda Aldhouse-Green's Caesar's Druids: Story of An Ancient Priesthood. As the British archaeologist Stuart Piggott pointed out back in the 1960s, there are no texts written about Druids by Druids. The sum of what ancient writers of the Greco-Roman world wrote would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover image of Casar's Druids by Miranda Aldhouse-Green","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/I\/51AAWVY--yL._AA160_.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11105,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11105","url_meta":{"origin":1535,"position":5},"title":"Fimbul Winter and the Plague: The Horrible Mid-6th Century","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The mid-6th century must have been a terrible time in the Mediterranean world, in Western Europe, and probably other places as well. If you look up \"the plague of Justinian,\" you will find that much has been written on a bubonic plague outbreak during the rule of the Eastern Roman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"archaeology\"","block_context":{"text":"archaeology","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=archaeology"},"img":{"alt_text":"Raids on Britain following end of Roman rule","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/End.of_.Roman_.rule_.in_.Britain.383.410-241x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1535"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1542,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1535\/revisions\/1542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}