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The Ides of March - a big day for "Rome"
Today is the "Ides," or 15th of March, the month whose name comes from Roman god of war, Mars, who also lent his name to our angry red planet of a neighbor. Our calendar was designed by Gaius Julius Ceasar, who was famously stabbed on this day back in 44 B.C. - "Beware the Ides of March!" - murdered by his enemies and a few of his friends, all Senators in the Roman senate. They murdered him not because he had named the month July after himself but because they thought that doing so would save the Roman republic that had lasted for four centuries but which had degenerated into very rich and very poor, with slaves doing all the work for the increasingly effete Roman elite and the poor Romans either victimized by or joining the roving street gangs that couldn't be contained because there was no police and the army was forbidden from "crossing the Rubicon" into the sacred precincts of Rome, something that Julis Ceasar so famously did, thereby risking his life with this rebellious act and starting the events that led to his stabbing on the Ides of March.
The scene of the crime is so graphically and beautifully portrayed in the HBO 22 episode series, "Rome," an incredible artistic achievement that has moved me like no other filmed entertainment ever has. I've watched it once through already and I'm presently watching it while listening to the commentaries of its various creative artists and it gets better with each watching. The actor who played Julius Ceasar so perfectly - you have to see him do it to believe it and that's the point, he's so believable! - is Ciarin Hind, who is also in "There Will Be Blood" and "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," which are currently playing as I write this blog.
Why do I relate so strongly to "Rome?" I've been asking myself the same thing. Years ago I had my "life reading" done and I was told that I had been a successful gladiator in Rome, so successful that I had earned my freedom and became rich, actually advising the Roman government on the creation of bigger and more horrendous displays of bloodshed to distract the populace from the heavy taxation they were laboring under. I'm not sure I believe in reincarnation - who am I talking to when I do psychic readings if the spirits of those on the other side have been reincarnated? - but I certainly relate to being a gladiator. I learned at an early age that I could easily hurt people physically because I'm big and I've been a gentle giant almost all of the time ever since my father the NYPD sergeant explained that to me (after I'd knocked a bigger boy's front teeth out, I'm sorry to say).
But there's more reasons that I love the series "Rome." It is an incredible achievement on all levels, acting, sets, costumes, and story - sort of Forrest Gump meets Julius Ceasar, and I could write about how everything on the five acre set of the Forum, the largest movie set ever built, and every other set was completely real, but I suggest you rent or buy the DVD and see for yourself what real artistry in film making can accomplish.
But at it's core, I strongly relate to the mixture of religions that was the norm there. They worshiped a confusing array of gods and goddesses but it worked for them. And without Christianity or Islam or Judaism to limit the Romans they had no body shame - none - and the actors reflect this and it works. The stupidity of treating women as second class citizens (when they weren't slaves!) and incredible cruelty that was also a part of Roman daily life did, indeed, cry out to be tempered by the Christian ideal of love for one's fellow man, but the sexual repression that resulted from the distortion and usurpation of the Christian teachings, when added to that of Judaism and Islam, has led us to today's world and a level of guilt and fear about sex that is unhealthy, unproductive, and bad for business (ask former NY governor Elliot Spitzer!)
I do hope you'll check out the series "Rome" and see what I'm trying to say. We are only now at the end of the Dark Ages, and I mean that literally. We stand on the brink of a time where people can free themselves of the idiocy that has wrapped itself around organized religions like spider webs and walk unencumbered by nonsensical dogma and superstition into a great future; a future that can take the best messages of organized religion and marry them to what it is to be human. The potential for a new race that can do new and great things exists within that possibility. One thing's for sure, we can't go on the way we've been trying to go on. Fundamentalists have to realize that the past is dead and no amount of killing is going to kill the future. Come to think of it, two thousand years of trying to eliminate barbarity from daily life has worked for some religions but not for all. It's time for all of us to wake up and finally eliminate the stupidity of the Dark Ages from our daily lives. It can and must be done if we're to live lives of quality and meaning. Once we free ourselves we can help others who want to be free but need assistance to do so.
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