Naturally, there will be smartypantses making fun of the make-up; the emperors’ hair will probably get a social media following of its own. Yet the re-showing by the BBC of its greatest-ever television series, I Claudius, later this month, should by rights be the broadcast sensation of the year.
In theory, it sounds dry: a 12-part dramatisation of I Claudius and Claudius the God by Robert Graves, the First World War poet and classicist, which was in turn based on the histories of Tacitus, Suetonius (The Twelve Caesars, which Graves translated) and others. But the result was sensational: as Derek Jacobi said, “sex, violence, rock’n’roll and fun”. Brian Blessed, who was the emperor Augustus and who died on camera for about five whole minutes, declared that it was “the finest television ever made”. This series is what happens when you don’t dumb down a text; when you let the original simply come into its own, with a stellar cast — and it’s a who’s who of superb actors of the time. Because the thing is, you don’t need to sex up the Rome of the Emperors; they did that for themselves, thank you. Indeed, some scenes from the ancient authors — who retailed gossip as well as fact — needed toning down, as when Caligula (John Hurt), channelling the god Jupiter, eats a foetus from his sister Drusilla.
You don’t need to sex up the Rome of the Emperors; they did that for themselves
The Rome of the Caesars was a full blooded (very) riposte to those who want to make ancient history dull. It really was sensational. The bit about Caligula intending to make his horse a consul: that’s in Suetonius. Or Livia, Augustus’s wife, poisoning candidates (and there were lots) who stood between her son, Tiberius, and the throne; in the sources.
What this should do is return us to the actual history of those times. Tom Holland’s latest, Pax, starts with the marriage of Nero to the castrated male slave who looked just like his late wife Poppaea, and goes on from there.
What this should also do is make the BBC re-examine its archive. It’s an Aladdin’s cave there, only a fraction of which is on iPlayer. I rarely watch current TV; I pay the licence fee for the archive. And I want lots more of it. Meanwhile, here’s to a 12-part shocker. Hail Caesar!
