Augustus Sillyness

Roman Warrior in battle from AC:DG The Movie

Ancient Historians can be a grumpy lot. I remember boggling at the astonishingly clean streets of Rome in Gladiator. Phil has complained about the trireme scene in Troy. Kirsty panned Alexander. So it’s nice to see a film that gets it right. The still above is from the British film Augustus Caesar – Diamond Geezer.

I’ll admit there’s no actual evidence that the Romans fought with big floppy ears and plastic paddles, but equally no ancient historian explicitly says that they didn’t either. I’m pretty certain that if the battle of Actium had been fought in a British park by Romans with big floppy ears and paddles then this is what it would have looked like. I’m not sure that the exploding spaceship is 100% accurate, but then there was a war on. You can’t expect every single detail to be recorded.