Roman army in film

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Originally Posted by abou

L.C. Cinna, I would disagree with you on hellenistic influences. I would argue that the monument is overwhelmingly Plebian in style.

Awesome link though.

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Oh well, when you look at the helmets you'll notice that many of them contain several attic helmet features while some are a mixture. The hellenistic influence is even stronger on Marcus column. the thing is that probably many of the artists working on the monument were eastern or only knew the attic helmets depicted on sculptures of praetorians in "parade uniform".

btw on the same page you can see Marc Aurel's column too:

here

and here the Arch of Septimius Severus:

scroll a bit down and click on the pictures

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

To all those who think that it's ok to portray history as was done in ROME I would say that the inaccuracies I have highlighted are merely the easiest to demonstrate. Such inaccuracies plague historical dramas of all eras and until the media are willing to listen to the archaeologists and historians they will continue to do so.

As a result an errenous version of history is perpetuated which damages our understanding of the realities of the past.

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But since the understanding of history is changing continually and there are many uncertainties and disputes I think you are asking the impossible. Rome did not feature lorica segmentata or imperial shields, so it's accurate enough as far as I am concerned. I am more worried about their tabloid reconstruction of history than about not getting Roman equipment entirely right.

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Originally Posted by Ludens

But since the understanding of history is changing continually and there are many uncertainties and disputes I think you are asking the impossible. Rome did not feature lorica segmentata or imperial shields, so it's accurate enough as far as I am concerned. I am more worried about their tabloid reconstruction of history than about not getting Roman equipment entirely right.

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You completely missed my point, as I said, the equipment issues are merely the easiest to highlight from a historical point of view Rome is complete dross. Depiction of politics, religion and society is pretty badly done in a lot of cases. About the only thing they got really right was the value of human life.

Oh, and LS and square shields were both evident, the Hollywood version of the latter even appears in the first series. The LS is the crud from Trajan' column.

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

You completely missed my point, as I said, the equipment issues are merely the easiest to highlight from a historical point of view Rome is complete dross. Depiction of politics, religion and society is pretty badly done in a lot of cases. About the only thing they got really right was the value of human life.

Oh, and LS and square shields were both evident, the Hollywood version of the latter even appears in the first series. The LS is the crud from Trajan' column.

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Hello Calicvla,

I see that you don't have a very favorable opinion of HBO Rome. I was wondering if you heard the audio commentaries from here:

http://www.hbo.com/rome/behind/rome_revealed/rome.html

What are your thoughts about what they are saying, particularly in their section on the Roman army? How much is accurate and how much of it is questionable at best?

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

You completely missed my point, as I said, the equipment issues are merely the easiest to highlight from a historical point of view Rome is complete dross. Depiction of politics, religion and society is pretty badly done in a lot of cases. About the only thing they got really right was the value of human life.

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I quite agree that their representation of politics and society were very incomplete, and sometimes downright wrong. But you simply haven't got the time to explain everything in a TV series (much less a movie), and you can't afford to bewilder the viewer by just presenting reality without simplification. Even documentaries often are too incomplete to satisfy historians.

Out of curiosity, is there any TV series or movie you do consider accurate enough?

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Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla

Oh, and LS and square shields were both evident, the Hollywood version of the latter even appears in the first series. The LS is the crud from Trajan' column.

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I stand corrected.