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There seems to be much interest in the BBC/HBO
'Rome' series, with Caesar as central character. Its habit is certainly to
go for the crude and lurid effects rather than anything subtle. Perhaps
this is right for conveying something of the sheer bloody horror of civil war
and for conveying the extraordinary (bad?) luck of first century Rome in
generating so many remarkably vivid characters. There sometimes seems to
be a policy of disconcerting those of us who think we know the story, as with
the change in the received account of Pompey's death to emphasise its bloodiness
and underemphasise its pathos. I think that it's unlikely that Caesar
would have recited lines of Catullus over Pompey's remains, but the words
'fraterno fletu' in this context are a way of taking something of V's view that
the conflicting warlords were concordes animae. Though this whole approach
understates the importance and power of ideas, I think that the series does
convey an interesting, even in the end subtle, view of Caesar as someone half
convinced of a half truth, that he is acting in the end from religious rather
than self-interested motives. Also the view explored by V in E5?? - Martin
Hughes
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