Such courses are typically popular with students and can be fun for faculty. In universities today, "ancient history through film" courses are common ones that many (myself included) have taught. Within just a few more years, nearly all the standard figures and tropes that would recur endlessly in cinema had already made their appearance onscreen, among them, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Nero, Jesus, gladiators, generals, emperors and empresses, soldiers, statesmen, slaves, charioteers, and Christian martyrs. Hatot's short also exhibits several of the core characteristics that would dominate the ancient film genre over roughly the next century and a quarter:, a fascination both with depicting actual historical people, and doing so in as lurid and spectacular a manner as possible. No sooner had the new art form been invented than filmmakers turned to antiquity for inspiration and subject matter, as exemplified by an 1896 film short made by Georges Hatot that shows Néron essayant des poisons sur des esclaves ( "Nero Trying out Poisons on his Slaves"). December 1895 is often cited as the starting point for commercial cinema since it was then that the Lumière brothers held the first public showing of a film, projecting images with a cinematograph. This connection goes back to the very dawn of cinema.
Such interest testifies to the enduring allure of depictions of antiquity, and especially to filmmakers’ longstanding quest to bring the ancient world to vivid cinematic life. Whatever the specific film, however, the particular aspect that they almost always want to know about is: how historically accurate is it? I suspect that this sort of experience is likely familiar to nearly everyone who studies the ancient world. Depending on the age of the inquisitor, the work in question might range from the 1963 version of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor, to director Ridley Scott's Gladiator from 2000, to the STARZ Spartacus premium cable miniseries of the early 2010's.
#PAINTING ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS CAESAR TV#
One of the most common reactions that I encounter when I am casually talking to someone outside of academia and they learn that I am an ancient historian is that they immediately ask my opinion of their favorite film or TV miniseries set in ancient Rome. 125 Years of Films Set in Ancient Rome by Gregory S.
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