2007-01-07 a child's interpretation of an adult's world

when i first read this, i was intrigued and enthralled by it.

times change.

on that first read, there was a vague uneasiness about what felt like an overtly christian moral. nothing wrong with that in itself, but christianity wasn't around (in force) in this period, and thus has no place.

nevertheless, i could forgive it. as narrative, it was gripping and entertaining.

now though, must say im no longer a fan.

it's gripping and entertaining, but that's because its oversimplistic; style over substance.

anyone who saw the atrocious kingdom of heaven, or those "factual" mini-biographies of the princeps/caesars bbc2 had on a while ago will know what i mean.

the flipside of this is that 'tgoe' makes for some decent soundbites:

"The overriding problem for Rome, as he (Octavian) saw it, was rapacious, inconsistent and corrupt control from the centre by a limited number of interbred families, whose 460-year-old system of rule by constant reshuffling of annually elected magistrates - designed for running a small city state - was hopelessly inadequate for governing a sprawling empire of tens of millions of people of many races, creeds, and levels of development"

"the freedom they (Brutus, Cassius, etc) sought was for their traditional right to subjugate and exploit all other classes and races"

and that's what the extra star's for.

holland is guilty of the greatest crime a historian can commit (barring just making it up). he attributes his own society's ethics and morality concepts onto the roman one. hence why he can criticise Ronald Syme's portrayal of Brutus:

"`He did not believe in violence.' So why did Brutus stab Caesar, lead a huge army against his fellow-Romans, and crucify a slave for being disrespectful to his master and mistress?".

indeed, syme's 'the roman revolution' takes a battering in 'the godfather of europe', but this only serves to bring 'tgoe' into a comparison with a proper work on the period. holland's complaints take the form of a stroppy teenager throwing a tantrum at their teacher who's patiently trying to explain a concept they don't have the capacity, experience, or intelligence for.

and this permeates the rest of his work. its less of an investigation into what happened as a 'this is how i'd like it to be'.

in other words, fiction.