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Letting my inner historian vent
Jan. 7th, 2004 06:37 pmSo last night I saw a TV movie about Augustus on TV, starring Peter O'Toole as the old Augustus and Benjamin Sadler as his younger self, Gaius Octavius. It pushed all the wrong buttons for me. I wouldn't have thought it was possible to idealize Augustus more than I, Claudius did, but then with I, Claudius I could excuse it due to storytelling necessessity. This Augustus propaganda, however, has no such justification and goes several steps further. The bloodshed during the second triumvirate is entirely blamed on Marc Antony. (Actually, this is in tradition with the historians during Augustus' life time and immediately after, who followed the party line and blamed Antony for just about everything; pro-Antony sources didn't began to emerge until the later emperors of the Julian/Claudian dynasty who were descended from him as well and had access to the Asinius Pollio memoirs. Asinius Pollio, for the record, served with Antony under Caesar and flat out refused when Octavius wanted him to join the campaign.)
When they had Octavius say that he wouldn't harm a child (re: Antony's son Julus), I was ready to tear my hair out. Let's see: Caesarion, Cleopatra's son from Caesar - dead on Octavius' orders. (There could only be one (adoptive) son of Caesar around, which makes ruthless political sense; Caesarion was a teenager at the time and not a child anymore in the Roman sense, but I suppose the writers of this movie didn't want their sainted Augustus be tainted by any kind of cold-blooded killing that couldn't be blamed on someone else.) Antony's eldest son from Fulvia, Antyllus? Ditto. Antony's second son from Fulvia, Julus, did indeed make it into adulthood, had an affair with Augustus' daughter Julia and ended up dead as well. (Which btw was part of the plot of this TV movie, and naturally they portrayed Julus as a snobbish cad as not to take any sympathy away from Sainted Augustus.) Antony's twins from Cleopatra, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene? Only the girl, Selene, made it into adulthood and was married off to a faithful client king of Rome's. The two daughters Antony had with Octavia were save as well, naturally, since they were Augustus' nieces.
Or not so naturally, considering that Augustus did order his great-grand child, the baby his granddaughter Julia the younger had when she, like her mother Julia, was accused of adultery and banished, to be starved in the cradle. Speaking of Julia's children: the movie only showed the two eldest, Gaius and Lucius, who might or might not have been killed by Augustus' wife Livia. (Who was played quite well by Charlotte Rampling in the film, but no one can match Sian Phillips' in that role.) No mention of Postumus (banished to an island like his mother, then killed), or the two girls, Agrippina and Julia the Younger. (Ditto, for both, though Agrippina's fate was due to Tiberius, not Augustus.)
None of which takes away Augustus' achievement, the ending of the Civil War era and the solidification of the Roman Empire. And you know, it's possible to portray him as a great statesman and a ruthless bastard at the same time. See also: Michael Corleone in the Godfather films who imo bears more resemblance to the first Roman Emperor than any of his TV counterparts. (Though Roddy McDowell as Octavius in Cleopatra isn't bad.) As fictional presentations of Augustus go, the best I can think of is ironically not set in ancient Rome at all. Susan Howatch took on Caesar, Cleopatra, Antony and the young Octavius and transported them into the early 20th century in The Rich Are Different, and continued the story with middle-aged Augustus, Agrippa, Augustus' daughter Julia, Julus and Tiberius in Sins of the Fathers. The great thing about these novels is that while if you know your Roman history it's easy to figure out who is who, you can also enjoy them, without any historical knowledge, as an early 20th century family saga with Howatch's speciality, different narrators giving us fascinatingly different views throughout the story. Her version of Augustus, Cornelius Van Zale, is appalling and sympathetic in turn; at the end, one does feel sorry for him but feels he created his deserved fate (utter human loneliness together with the power and wealth).
On a slightly different note, Neil Gaiman informs us about George Bush, hidden poet extraordinaire. ...
When they had Octavius say that he wouldn't harm a child (re: Antony's son Julus), I was ready to tear my hair out. Let's see: Caesarion, Cleopatra's son from Caesar - dead on Octavius' orders. (There could only be one (adoptive) son of Caesar around, which makes ruthless political sense; Caesarion was a teenager at the time and not a child anymore in the Roman sense, but I suppose the writers of this movie didn't want their sainted Augustus be tainted by any kind of cold-blooded killing that couldn't be blamed on someone else.) Antony's eldest son from Fulvia, Antyllus? Ditto. Antony's second son from Fulvia, Julus, did indeed make it into adulthood, had an affair with Augustus' daughter Julia and ended up dead as well. (Which btw was part of the plot of this TV movie, and naturally they portrayed Julus as a snobbish cad as not to take any sympathy away from Sainted Augustus.) Antony's twins from Cleopatra, Alexander Helios and Cleopatra Selene? Only the girl, Selene, made it into adulthood and was married off to a faithful client king of Rome's. The two daughters Antony had with Octavia were save as well, naturally, since they were Augustus' nieces.
Or not so naturally, considering that Augustus did order his great-grand child, the baby his granddaughter Julia the younger had when she, like her mother Julia, was accused of adultery and banished, to be starved in the cradle. Speaking of Julia's children: the movie only showed the two eldest, Gaius and Lucius, who might or might not have been killed by Augustus' wife Livia. (Who was played quite well by Charlotte Rampling in the film, but no one can match Sian Phillips' in that role.) No mention of Postumus (banished to an island like his mother, then killed), or the two girls, Agrippina and Julia the Younger. (Ditto, for both, though Agrippina's fate was due to Tiberius, not Augustus.)
None of which takes away Augustus' achievement, the ending of the Civil War era and the solidification of the Roman Empire. And you know, it's possible to portray him as a great statesman and a ruthless bastard at the same time. See also: Michael Corleone in the Godfather films who imo bears more resemblance to the first Roman Emperor than any of his TV counterparts. (Though Roddy McDowell as Octavius in Cleopatra isn't bad.) As fictional presentations of Augustus go, the best I can think of is ironically not set in ancient Rome at all. Susan Howatch took on Caesar, Cleopatra, Antony and the young Octavius and transported them into the early 20th century in The Rich Are Different, and continued the story with middle-aged Augustus, Agrippa, Augustus' daughter Julia, Julus and Tiberius in Sins of the Fathers. The great thing about these novels is that while if you know your Roman history it's easy to figure out who is who, you can also enjoy them, without any historical knowledge, as an early 20th century family saga with Howatch's speciality, different narrators giving us fascinatingly different views throughout the story. Her version of Augustus, Cornelius Van Zale, is appalling and sympathetic in turn; at the end, one does feel sorry for him but feels he created his deserved fate (utter human loneliness together with the power and wealth).
On a slightly different note, Neil Gaiman informs us about George Bush, hidden poet extraordinaire. ...
