Melvadius Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 As part of the advertising for Mary Beard's new TV series Meet the Romans' the BBC is carrying this article pointing up the fact that child prodigies even in the Roman period were both known and also suffered problems with pushy parents leading in some cases to unfortunate outcomes... What were the Romans really like? Different from us in many ways, but there is much that is familiar in Roman family life and in particular parenting. In 94 AD young Quintus Sulpicius Maximus died. A Roman lad who lived just 11 years, five months and 12 days, he had recently taken part in a grown-up poetry competition, a sort of Rome's Got Talent. He had composed and performed a long poem in Greek. And, though he hadn't actually won, everyone agreed that he had done amazingly well for his age. The sad thing was that only a few months later he dropped down dead. ...continued Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docoflove1974 Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 I read the article, too, and thought it was a curious read. I have no doubt that Roman parents were pushy, although somehow I don't think they were quite as demanding as Spartan parents <grin> I'm curious to see if/when this is coming to the US; I'd be curious to see how she portrays the different aspects of Roman life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostOfClayton Posted April 23, 2012 Report Share Posted April 23, 2012 I managed to catch this on iPlayer on a recent (rare) evening at home. Mary B never disappoints. Looking forward to parts 2 and 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted April 30, 2012 Report Share Posted April 30, 2012 I caught about half an episode on BBc one night. A really good series, from the brief clip that I saw; I just hope that the BBC release a DVD as I'm hopeless at catching programs when they are being aired, although I could always try to get it on BBC iPlayer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crispina Posted May 1, 2012 Report Share Posted May 1, 2012 I want to watch it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryaxis Hecatee Posted May 3, 2012 Report Share Posted May 3, 2012 For those who want it, it seems that the shadows of the interweb are holding some downloadable versions of the program. An italian site (.it) with the name EZTV offers it to all roman lovers out there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecimusCaesar Posted May 16, 2012 Report Share Posted May 16, 2012 My attempts at finding out if there's going to be a DVD for this series have turned out fruitless. It doesn't really bode well that Mary Beard's other series on Pompeii has never been released, and that came out quite a while ago. We can still hope, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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