10-12-2006, 09:20 PM
Right, after last week's disappointment we get back on track with a pretty good narrative of the Jewish war, though apart from hints at corrupt governors, insufficient info about the background to the revolt. Nonetheless, it got across well the continuing importance of military success to ambitious senators even in the mid 1st century AD. I thought the timing was a little unbalanced, with the lead-up to the fighting a bit leisurely, (and I seem to remember that Cestius was retreating from Jerusalem when attacked at Beth Horon, not advancing as implied by the drama), Jotapata dealt with in much detail so that the year of the 4 emperors and the fall of Jerusalem was a little bit hurried.
On the whole the military side of things was pretty good. If only because the BBC had so little lorica seg and imperial gallic helmets, we had a great mixture of seg, mail armour, montefortino & imperial gallic helmets. At last a non-uniform legionary army - yippee! Pity that they didn't mix it up a bit so that some actors in seg had montefortino helmets and some in mail had imp gallic helmets, but OTOH one might argue that you've got legions coming from different provinces so the different legions might be differently equipped.
Great details of siege warfare - towers, circumvallation (though can we have some criticism of Josephus' unlikely claim that Titus circumvallated Jerusalem in 3 days?). I still don't like the over-abundance of fire-arrows in night scenes, but it was nowhere near as bad as Ridley Scott's films, and I accept that the audience have to see where the stuff is going. And at least they resisted the temptation to show the baby allegedly knocked out of its mother's womb by Roman artillery or the bloke whose head goes flying. I did note that the battering ram lacked an iron head, and just seemed to be a tree trunk which would not have been very effective or tough.
I really liked the use of the tortoise formation - the legionaries - were they actors of one of the living history groups? - had clearly practiced the manoeuvres and it looked smart and realistic. Again, much better than Gladiator which looked more artificial.
The side of Rome that is absolute brutality was got across very well too, both in Vespasian's advance into Gallilee and in the fall of Jerusalem, pillage of the temple and punishment of the rebels. Not surprising given that the historical advisor was Martin Goodman whose Roman World 44 BC - AD 180 in the Routledge series presents an equally dark picture of the Roman empire.
So, full marks to the BBC this week. Next week you late Roman enthusiasts will be able to take over the criticism as we move away from my period and onto Constantine.
Oh, and finally, as with the Cato / Marcellus problem with actors in the Caesar episode, how did the chief spy from Spooks end up being emperor of Rome?!
On the whole the military side of things was pretty good. If only because the BBC had so little lorica seg and imperial gallic helmets, we had a great mixture of seg, mail armour, montefortino & imperial gallic helmets. At last a non-uniform legionary army - yippee! Pity that they didn't mix it up a bit so that some actors in seg had montefortino helmets and some in mail had imp gallic helmets, but OTOH one might argue that you've got legions coming from different provinces so the different legions might be differently equipped.
Great details of siege warfare - towers, circumvallation (though can we have some criticism of Josephus' unlikely claim that Titus circumvallated Jerusalem in 3 days?). I still don't like the over-abundance of fire-arrows in night scenes, but it was nowhere near as bad as Ridley Scott's films, and I accept that the audience have to see where the stuff is going. And at least they resisted the temptation to show the baby allegedly knocked out of its mother's womb by Roman artillery or the bloke whose head goes flying. I did note that the battering ram lacked an iron head, and just seemed to be a tree trunk which would not have been very effective or tough.
I really liked the use of the tortoise formation - the legionaries - were they actors of one of the living history groups? - had clearly practiced the manoeuvres and it looked smart and realistic. Again, much better than Gladiator which looked more artificial.
The side of Rome that is absolute brutality was got across very well too, both in Vespasian's advance into Gallilee and in the fall of Jerusalem, pillage of the temple and punishment of the rebels. Not surprising given that the historical advisor was Martin Goodman whose Roman World 44 BC - AD 180 in the Routledge series presents an equally dark picture of the Roman empire.
So, full marks to the BBC this week. Next week you late Roman enthusiasts will be able to take over the criticism as we move away from my period and onto Constantine.
Oh, and finally, as with the Cato / Marcellus problem with actors in the Caesar episode, how did the chief spy from Spooks end up being emperor of Rome?!
