Essay: Return of the Roman

[Virgil61]

Return of the Roman

By Allan Massie

 

Knowledge of Latin may be in decline, but novels, films and documentaries about the Romans have never been more popular. We are still dimly, unconsciously, aware that our culture grew out of classical civilisation

 

Excerpts:

 

Why are so many novelists in the modern age drawn to write about the ancient world, especially Rome but also, to a lesser extent, Greece? The line of those who have done so goes back at least to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and The Last Days of Pompeii, written at a time

[phil25]

Interesting, Virgil, but I note the cited works and quotes are all C19th.

 

I once recall reading a book on "The Historical Novel" (published by Penguin years ago) which focused on Scott and Tolstoy etc. No mention of more modern works.

 

To me it is interesting that many of the C10th works - Ben Hur in particular, are still in print. Films and TV series are still made of all those novels cited (Last Days of Pompeii and Quo Vadis as well as BH).

 

Will Massie's own novels, or the mass of Roman detective novels (do the French refer to them as Roman roman policiers?) bu such as Saylor, Davis, Wishart et al last very long?

 

The Roman detective novel it seems to me has little to do with interest in Rome per se (except on the part of the author) and more with the overwhelming success of Ellis Peter's Cadfael series. Look at all the historical whodunnits, by people like Doherty (several medieval series and one ancient Egyptian); Elizabeth Peters (ancient Egypt), Peter Tremayne (Dark Age Ireland) and others in more recent times (Regency, Edwardian, Elizabethan and Jacobean etc).

 

For serious historical novels on Rome, Anthony Burgess wrote one to go with the 80s TV series AD, but it is no longer in print. There have been odd attempts to do books on Commodus and other figures. Colleen McCullough's massive saga has sold well I assume, given the multiple covers I have for different editions. I like her and admire what she has done, but is she highly rated generally? Will people still read her in 2106? My own personal favorite is Wallace Bream (Eagle in the Snow which has a real feel for the period and subject, but it has been out of print for years and has only recently re-emerged in a small scale re-print edition.

 

So is this indicative of a real increase in interest in ancient Rome? I am unconvinced.

 

Look at what is I suppose the biggest current seller, Conn Iggulden. I have not read his series, but by all accounts accuracy is not a key priority. This is surely spin off stuff for the post-Gladiator generation?

 

The C19th authors reflected a society in both Europe and America which was classically educated, sympathetic to the cultures of Greece and Rome, knowledgable about ancient authors, excited by discoveries at Pompeii and herculaneum, collectors of vases, statuary etc, and prone to build in the classical style (Capitol in Washington, many stately homes in the UK

 

We have none of that. A film, an exciting book may generate some curiousity, there will be an ebbing and flowing of demand for books etc; but today there are many other cultures to compete for interest - Egypt, mezo-America; the Far East. I don't think the classical world has had a resurgence of interest to match that which accompanied the Tutankhamen exhibition in the late 60s early 70s.

 

Oh that things were different.

 

Or am I just an old cynic? Maybe I am wrong - I hope so, and I'd love to be proved so.

 

Phil