Boris Johnson visited many of my favourite Roman sites, including the Forum Romanum and Palatine, Vaison, Arles, the Pont du Gard, Trier and the Saalburg, and chatted enthusiastically to a variety of people, fropm academics like Professor Wallace Hadrill by way of an Italian politician, to French peasant farmers, giving us a selective but illuminating overview of the Roman achievement. The famous Virgilian 'parcere subiectis et debellare superbos' phrase was given a fresh look by being described as a Mission Statement that lasted four centuries. He threw in 'mare nostrum' without translation.
An extract from the Times review of his book gives the flavour of the TV programme too:
And now, nearly 40 years on, here comes another politician not only writing a book on ancient Rome, but having the chutzpah to try and show us what we could learn from the Romans about making one Europe from a plethora of discordant parts.So, the kind of pleasure one might get from the best dinner party conversation. You don't have to agree with Mr Johnson's political viewpoint to find him an amusing and informed talker. And he isn't afraid of trying to speak Italian, French and German, which should be an encouragement to us Brits to have a go at speaking to people in their own languages.
What’s more, he makes a pretty good fist of it. Had he not already shown his paces in a clutch of métiers — MP, columnist, editor, television pundit and wit — he would have made an admirable Latin beak. He knows just how to keep his class on the edge of their seats with a hail of modern allusions. His metaphors glitter; his similes soar. He can grow quite lyrical when roused on his passion for Rome and the Romans. “It is the memory of a peaceful and united continent that is so appealing,” he enthuses. “It tolls to us across the ages, like the church bell of a sea-drowned village. It is like a memory of childhood bliss.” It was the Latin language that acted as cement to this arcadia, “with its quality of clicking together sweetly and unforgettably like perfectly dressed blocks of stone”.
