The Old Rome

What American TV show’s story title is in Latin? Rome continues to astound and improve in its second season. Tonight’s episode, “Testudo et Lepus (The Tortoise and the Hare)” bathed viewers in the Roman world’s violence. 

One of my peeves is that the storylines often warp through historical events, usually when there’s a battle, but also when the dramatic tension slackens. In the first season, the campaigns between Pompey and Caesar were squeezed into about two episodes, with a major battle reduced to some near impressionistic blurs.  In “Testudo”, Octavian Caesar appeared in the form of a young adult performer, after being played by a boy just the episode before. Sure, it’s dramatic license, but it’s important to keep one eye on the facts.

The young Octavian suddenly appeared on the scene, announcing himself the heir to Caesar’s will, ready to make terms with either party – but only his own terms. Antony feared a rival, the conspirators saw a remorseless enemy. The Italian legions seemed likely to transfer their allegiance to the one they saw as Caesar’s son, Octavian. Decimus Brutus was in Possession of Cisalpine Gaul, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (d 13BC), Caesar’s former chief assistant, was in control of the old Transalpine Province. Caesar himself in his will (of course not knowing of his future assassination) had granted Macedon and Syria to his chief murderers Marcus Brutus and Gaius Cassius, both of whom left Italy to raise troops for the coming contest. A time of chaos followed in which Antony besieged Decimus Brutus, suffered defeat, was declared a public enemy after a series of brilliant speeches against him by Cicero, Octavian joined the new consuls Hirtius and Pansa who were soon killed in fighting Antony’s troops,

But, what the torture scenes were overwhelming. In two related scenes, two conspirators, a slave boy and a noble lady are tortured by their intended noble victim for the legal niceties.  In the process, a Judaean hireling finds his intolerance for torture, and begins to realize the gulf between Jews and Romans. One of the other interesting features of this season’s storyline (The first episode was entitled “Passover”) is the juxtaposition between Roman families and a large Jewish family working in the Julian household.

According to series historian Jonathan Stamp:

Two torture scenes in fifty minutes may seem excessive but it reflects a Roman reality, albeit a rather unpalatable one. The Romans were inured to physical cruelty. They saw it around them every single day. The horrors that are today meted out in secret torture chambers were an everyday sight, out in the open, in the Forum itself. Later of course, under the Emperors, torture also formed a titillating part of the entertainments put on in the theatre and amphitheatre. When the presentation, perhaps in the re-enactment of some Greek myth, called for, say, disembowelment, a real slave was provided for the purpose. The snuff movie is not a modern invention.

However, the real showstopper depicted torture of another sort, a slave brothel, where the lead characters go to rescue a lost daughter. 

My Latin teacher was entertaining, but even she wouldn’t have let us watch this program. Rome tears down the white marble of the classics and delivers another kind of human beauty.

The Year of Greed and Sanctioned Fornication

The Year of Red Pork (OK, Year of the Pig, or Boar) is approaching,and fertility and greed are in the ascendancy.  According to FP Passport, “The birthrate is expected to rise 10 percent from the previous average, fueling a baby boom not seen since, well, the millennium birthing frenzy of 2000.”  Children born during this lunar cycle are supposedly more likely to enjoy financial prosperity in their lifetimes (even without government tax breaks).  

Since it began living as a domestic animal in Korea some 2,000 years ago, pigs have brought a lot of myths and superstitions closely associated with wealth, good luck and sometimes a mythical supernatural power in sacrificial rituals.  However, pigs are also synonymous with greed, laziness, stupidity and dirtiness.

In America, many people say Christmas, and other religiously-inspired holidays are too commercialized. South Koreans even bemoan a similar trend in their own celebrations, such as exorbitantly-priced, pre-packaged gift sets.  There’s a certain amount of bloated self-interest involved when the government proposes tax relief for couples with children and laments the plummeting birthrate. 

The nation (???) predicts that birthrate is expected to rise 10 percent from the previous average because of the myths of the Year of the Golden Pig, helping maternity and baby related industries enjoy a boom much like the effects of the millennium baby boom in 2000.

However, many say that this will be debunked just as 2006, which was dubbed the year of “two springs” (lunar calendar) and also a lucky year for couples to get married, was just feeding wedding-related businesses.

Did anyone alert the porn movie studios, love motels, and prostitutes about the related effects?

Lunar New Year’s: a pump-priming mechanism to stimulate a different subset of businesses every year.

A Timid Glance Forward

I guess I could call this group of scholars’ opinions, the Hansun Foundation for Freedom and Prosperity, a slightly less progressive foreign policy proposal.  But, there are some nice zingers.

“So far, the government has sugarcoated North Korea’s nuclear development as a negotiating tool and spread the theory that the blame lies in the United States’ lack of acquiesce.”

“The new North Korean policy paradigm in the 21st century must focus on transforming the communist regime into a normal state and pursue unification based on freedom and democracy to improve the quality of life of North Koreans.”

It also criticized the government’s view that bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea are the only way to resolve the nuclear issue.

…the Unification Ministry should be downscaled into the “Office of Inter-Korean Cooperation” and called on lawmakers to stop using the North Korean issue in their politicking.

The government should also apply stringent reciprocity in inter-Korean relations and enhance cooperation with the international community based on national consensus. (whatever the last part means–I guess that’s the opposite of President Roh’s latest whim.)

(See also Sunshine Policy Tilted South Korea Left)

Yeah, but they also talk about Japan ceasing to militarize and China leaning on Pyongyang.  And, what does “normalize” mean, in an inter-Korean context? South Korean vision can only go so far.