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+--- Thread: Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar (/showthread.php?tid=21411)
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Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - mike_espo - 10-10-2012
Just watched this installment. Never saw it before.
This idiotic episode shows just how low and lousy the History Channel has become. Years ago, I used to love the History Channel, now, a shadow of its former self, it is just a channel for "reality" TV. No longer showing scholarly, objective histoy. Instead, we get sensationalized history full of violence, sex.
The episode put Caesar in the worst, possible light imaginable. Most if not all of the source material is from Seutonius, which I cannot believe. :grin: Seutonius was the "national enquirer" of the ancient world. Its like writing a biography about George Bush or Obama using a tabloid newspaper as your primary source material! :grin:
It is a shame that people will watch and believe that Caesar was really a despot. When in fact, he was the same as all other conquerors of the ancient world. Unbelievable how the History channel forgets that societal norms were vastly different 2000 years ago. Stop trying to judge antiquity with 21 century standards of behavior. It does not work.
Why, why is the Roman Empire always depicted as the 'nazis' of the Ancient world???? :?
Ridiculous!
Will never watch the History Channel again. :x
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Kegluneq - 10-10-2012
Quote:Why, why is the Roman Empire always depicted as the 'nazis' of the Ancient world???? :?Well they were fascists who took great pride in genocide... That show does sound pretty awful though.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Macedon - 10-10-2012
Well... I would actually argue that Hitler and the "nazis" are also deliberately mispresented and demonized so often disconnected from early 20th century reality.
I can only say that for many decades now there has been a very conscious intention to imbue the masses in the Western World with a type of passive, critical morality that condemns all forms of violence and "non-democracy". Plus, scandals, sex and violence sell...
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Epictetus - 10-10-2012
I don't think I've seen anything I've enjoyed from the History Channel in years. The BBC is where I find real historical documentaries nowadays.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Dan D'Silva - 10-10-2012
Quote:Seutonius was the "national enquirer" of the ancient world. Its like writing a biography about George Bush or Obama using a tabloid newspaper as your primary source material! :grin:Well, and isn't the History Channel pretty much the National Enquirer of history?
I think we need to face the fact that proper historical documentaries are a niche market, and probably not one that can support a commercial TV channel. Any other channel that does documentaries does them as part of a diverse lineup. But if your theme is "all 'history' all the time," and you've got a choice between a lineup of calm, serious professors and their jargon-packed theses and, even worse, books on the one hand, and on the other, blood and guts, panicky Apocalyptic doomsayers and Giorgio Crazyhair, which do you think is gonna keep more viewers coming back for one more season?
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - starman2012 - 10-10-2012
Quote:Why, why is the Roman Empire always depicted as the 'nazis' of the Ancient world??
Well, it was at odds with democracy and judao-christianity which are so prevalent now, and was part of the inspiration for would-be modern hegemons such as the third reich.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Flavivs Aetivs - 10-10-2012
I saw the one on Attila the Hun, it made the Roman army look like pathetic weaklings. The history channel has NEVER been accurate when it comes to anything prior to the American Revolutionary War of 1776
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Marja - 10-10-2012
Quote:Well... I would actually argue that Hitler and the "nazis" are also deliberately mispresented and demonized so often disconnected from early 20th century reality.
I can only say that for many decades now there has been a very conscious intention to imbue the masses in the Western World with a type of passive, critical morality that condemns all forms of violence and "non-democracy". Plus, scandals, sex and violence sell...
It looks to me like the media, at least in America, has been pushing passive acceptance of violence and authoritarianism. They helped sell the Iraq War. They mocked anti-war protesters and in some cases encouraged violence against us. They glorify all kinds of violence. I for one have been attacked for protesting against the Iraq War, and badly beaten, and have received death threats [which I didn't keep].
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Virilis - 10-10-2012
Let`s keep the modern politics out of this topic, please! :whistle:
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Kai - 10-11-2012
Quote:It is a shame that people will watch and believe that Caesar was really a despot.
Ah, yeah. I am sure noone in antiquity would have ever even dared to imagine that :lol:
![[Image: Brutus_Eid_Mar.jpg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Brutus_Eid_Mar.jpg)
Sic semper tyrannis!
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Agricola - 10-11-2012
I haven't seen this episode but I did catch one on Attila the Hun. I think the've also done shows about Caligula and Nero. I think the purpose of these programs was to get modern psychologists to analyse ancient records and ascribe to the person they were analysing a rating, such as sadist, psychopath, insane etc.
Pretty much everyone comes out of the ancient world as mad and bad though, and they would be if they did the things they did today. Unfortunately the series didn't once take the time to analyse if these sources were reliable or not. Considering how trashy and sensationalist the series could be at times, it isn't surprising.
What is surprising is seeing the History Channel make shows about the ancient world. I thought they only did World War 2, Ice Road Truckers, UFO's, and conspiracy theories.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Eleatic Guest - 10-11-2012
Quote:Why, why is the Roman Empire always depicted as the 'nazis' of the Ancient world???? :?
Because it was the largest empire of Western civilization and the script is now dictated by multiculturalism which is diametrically opposed to Western values and history, or, as Samuel Huntington put it, an anti-Western ideology. That's why we are hearing favourable views about the great unified Eurasian trade zone made possible by the Mongolian genocidal campaigns, while the Roman coloniae with their aqueducts, thermae and paved roads were only cunning colonialist means to pacify the native population.
It should be said, however, that there is still enough unbiased quality documentation out there, but when you switch on the wrong channel or documentary, it is all over the screen the West is the pest.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Simplex - 10-11-2012
Stefan,
....what are you trying to say by this :
Quote:Because it was the largest empire of Western civilization and the script is now dictated by multiculturalism which is diametrically opposed to Western values and history, or, as Samuel Huntington put it, an anti-Western ideology. That's why we are hearing favourable views about the great unified Eurasian trade zone made possible by the Mongolian genocidal campaigns, while the Roman coloniae with their aqueducts, thermae and paved roads were only cunning colonialist means to pacify the native population.??
....well, just in case, -- I supect you dont't mean the Samuel Huntingdon, one of the founding fathers of the USA , --so let's assume "worst case", you mean THAT other one --- then you should remember posting #322513 -- that says :
Quote:Let`s keep the modern politics out of this topic, please!
If my assumption is wrong -- then go ahead.
Greez
Simplex
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - Macedon - 10-11-2012
Hey, guys, let us not overdo it on the "no modern politics" policy. The very issue calls for at least some modern speculation... I think that the way modern or not that modern politics affect how history is presented, taught and propagated is relative to the nature of this forum. Will it be a political comment if I claim that "History is written by the victors"? This is what has always happened and what is still happening. IF certain historical practices are nowadays presented as evil, demonic, virtuous etc, it is because our society has been made to develop certain moral values. History itself is neither good nor bad. Yet, such discussions are important in helping us assess history as we ourselves perceive it, as we are all seeing things through our own biased spectacles, being raised and educated in certain ways, prisoners of well-planted ideologies and ethical codes.
...as long as specific party politics, modern national disputes and anything that will most possibly raise the spirits is left out. Yet, if anyone feels politically challenged, threatened or insulted by such a discussion, we may want to leave it alone.
Ancients behaving badly: Julius Caesar - mike_espo - 10-11-2012
regarding 'modern' politics, not to get on a tangent, but Faulkner made the comparison of "to cross the Rubicon" to the U.S. and Iraq!!!
hock: Come on!!!
Faulkner did another anti-caesar episode on Alesia
The one thing that is the utmost importance to a historian is objectivity. I detest historians who put their personal bias on topics! :mad: