What idiom conveys the glory that was Rome to a modern audience? As Hollywood bows to Britain on all things foreign or classy, the default model is a toga-draped Laurence Olivier or Richard Burton intoning limpid iambs. “Rome” updates that model, but not always enough. One of the show’s wealthy idlers describes Macedonia as “filthy climate, vile food, beastly people,” and the general Agrippa, having just blurted out his love to Octavia, apologizes like a stammering Hugh Grant: “Horrid imposition on my part, of course. You barely know me. Ridiculous.” Meanwhile, commoners mutter Cockney slang such as “Bollocks to ’is, we’ll be away for a bevvy.” Perfect for the BBC, perhaps, but not for the American ear.What interests me is that an American critic thinks the British accent is for 'things foreign or classy'. From this side of the Atlantic it seems that the British accent is for villains.
Newsweek doesn't seem to be worried by accents. Its critic has recently been reading the Aeneid in translation, and is, surprise, surprise, impressed by it. So the article is a comparison between the values of Vergil and those of 'Rome'.
Maybe it was the effect of Robert Fagles's superb new translation of the Aeneid, because this section rings with such chiseled immediacy that it's hard to remember the story he is recasting in modern English was written 2,000 years ago. More likely it was because I'm also hooked on "Rome," the seamy, grandiloquent and compulsively watchable HBO series that begins its second season this week. "Rome" is set when Virgil lived—the Aeneid was actually written to flatter Augustus—roughly a half century before the birth of Jesus. The scriptwriters know their history—and their Virgil. In a surprisingly touching scene, Octavian's sister recites the passage, "The descent to the Underworld is easy ... but to retrace your steps ... there the labor lies."Thanks to Explorator for the links.
