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Julius Caesar\'s Greatest Battle
#1
Just drawing British members' attention to Timewatch this coming Friday (5th November) on BBC2 at 9.00pm. All about Alesia and Caesar's campaigns against Vercingetorix. It looks like the legionaries may actually be accurate. <p>Homo Homini Lupus Every Man is a Wolf to Another Man</p><i></i>
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#2
Everything good is on BBC. Come on history channel pick it up. <p></p><i></i>
"Freedom was at stake- freedom, which whets the courage of brave men"- Titus Livius

Nil recitas et vis, Mamerce, poeta videri.
Quidquid vis esto, dummodo nil recites!- Martial
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#3
I saw Timewatch and was a little disappointed. It never reached far enough into the tactics of Caesar (e.g. the use of allied Gaulish forces) and Vercingetorix (e.g. the fragility of the Gaulish alliance).<br>
What also struck me: the helmets of the Roman legionaries were way to big. Some of them couldn't see a thing before their eyes. Cheek pieces were dangling freely, striking into the face frequently. As if Deepeeka had had a bulk-sale of their huge helmets.<br>
<br>
Anyone else saw it?<br>
<br>
Hans <p></p><i></i>
Flandria me genuit, tenet nunc Roma
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#4
Hmmm, I was at least struck by Neil Faulkner's Big-Haired and too-stern-faced support for somebody called VerSINgetorix. Who he? A mad major figure supporting Seezar (what's wrong? Are the Great Unwashed deemed by broadcasters incapable of facing the horrible truth of how these people were really known?) gamely attempted to fill as many meeja-folk stereotype quotas as possible, the sports cars on either side of the river being the biggest laugh. I may have dozed off (who could blame me?) but did nobody mention Reddé's recent excavations at Alesia? If it was dumbed down any further I'd have had to lie on the floor to watch it. Give me CSI any day; at least it's <em>stylish</em> rubbish...<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles

Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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#5
I didn't think much of it but at least it had some reasonable aerial computer reconstructions of Gergovia and Alesia. The identical Dipeeka(?) Coolus type 'D' helmets and galvinised mail shirts weren't as good as they could have been, and the centurio with the trooper helmet and 'Caesar' in the Hollywood helmet certainly weren't, but at least, for the first time (as far as I know) on television they actually put Caesar's soldiers in mail with oval scuta, and the Coolus type 'D' could concievably have been around as early as the 50sBC. The centurio, for all his inaccuracy, at least wore a crista traversa and led from the front. The Gauls' helmets only came in two varieties (also Dipeeka?) but at least they were based on Celtic helmets for once, and Vercingetorix was kitted out in a mail shirt with 'cape' shoulder doubling and a torq. Not good then, but at least the costume department did a little reading for once and tried to produce something accurate, even if they did not succeed completely (they may have come up against a director with fixed ideas, as we did when we did filming for 'The Real Sparticus' a few years ago and were made to put down our own (hopefully) accurate standards and carry the most excreble 'Hollywoodish' reconstructions I have yet seen of Roman standards, along with a bundle of bamboo poles to represent fasces). Perhaps the director this time had the Hollywood helmet from the props department in the van and insisted it be used.<br>
<br>
Crispvs <p></p><i></i>
Who is called \'\'Paul\'\' by no-one other than his wife, parents and brothers.  :!: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_exclaim.gif" alt=":!:" title="Exclamation" />:!:

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.romanarmy.net">www.romanarmy.net
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#6
Can you explain, for your trans Atlantic cousins, what was this BBC program? <p></p><i></i>
** Vincula/Lucy **
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#7
<em>Can you explain, for your trans Atlantic cousins, what was this BBC program?</em><br>
<br>
Part of the BBC's Timewatch strand, produced in-house I believe (much of the history programming in the UK these days is farmed out to independent producers and prone to dumbing down). It considered JC's Gallic campaigns, in particular his struggle with Vercingetorix culminating in Alesia, with two proponents (one pro-JC, the other pro-V). It was a bit too heavy on the shock/horror at all those Gauls being bumped off, conveniently overlooking the fact that this was the way of ancient warfare, by and large, and ignoring JC's renowned (if politically convenient) <em>clementia</em> on other occasions.<br>
<br>
Perhaps it will turn up on BBC America (although examination of their current shows at www.bbcamerica.com/schedule/showsa-z.jsp suggests it may not;-).<br>
<br>
Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>
You know my method. It is founded upon the observance of trifles

Blogging, tweeting, and mapping Hadrian\'s Wall... because it\'s there
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