Brandon Minich
New Member
As a Roman history nerd, I enjoyed reading Mallory's depiction of Rome, both for what it got right and wrong. (Note when I say Mallory here, I'm not excluding the poem this is based on.)
First off, there's no contemporary Emperor Lucius (shocking, right?). There WAS an Emperor Lucius, Marcus Aurelius' adopted brother, so it's a perfectly serviceable Roman name.
The claim of Constantine for England is interesting. He probably wasn't born there, but he is associated with England. His father was stationed there, and had brought his son along. Constantine's father died while being Emperor, so Constantine took up that mantle in England, and ended up leaving to go win a civil war.
Mount St. Michel . . . never knew the giant Arthur slew there was quite so bad. Ironically, there IS a church up there now, a quite famous one at that. Wonder if it has a reliquary . . .
I took note of a part of the battle that was fascinating from a Roman history buff's perspective . . . Arthur's forces captured a Roman Imperial Standard. That's a BIG DEAL, and it's cool to see that hundreds of years later, people still remember it as such. Rome went to great lengths to recover those, they were never supposed to be lost. It was an insult to Rome itself to lose one Imperial Eagle on the field of battle, and the whole populace felt that. Having Arthur get one is a great omen in and of itself.
The prominence of Milan is also interesting. It had become quite prominent in the waning days of the Empire, and retained that for a while after Rome fell, so it makes sense for Mallory to mention it as important, and as a place Arthur wants to make an impression on the locals.
Finally, the Rome of Arthur's period was in the decline, at least the Western part of the Empire Arthur was in. It isn't depicted this way by Mallory at all. Rome had abandoned England at this point because they couldn't afford to hold it anymore, they weren't in position to demand tribute and be the overwhelming favorites in a fight against an invading army. (Probably still favorites, but not to the extend portrayed by Mallory.) Another reason Arthur gets set here in the first place, I think, because you can historically claim Rome is falling and the Empire is being passed on to England.
All in all, really interesting stuff here.
First off, there's no contemporary Emperor Lucius (shocking, right?). There WAS an Emperor Lucius, Marcus Aurelius' adopted brother, so it's a perfectly serviceable Roman name.
The claim of Constantine for England is interesting. He probably wasn't born there, but he is associated with England. His father was stationed there, and had brought his son along. Constantine's father died while being Emperor, so Constantine took up that mantle in England, and ended up leaving to go win a civil war.
Mount St. Michel . . . never knew the giant Arthur slew there was quite so bad. Ironically, there IS a church up there now, a quite famous one at that. Wonder if it has a reliquary . . .
I took note of a part of the battle that was fascinating from a Roman history buff's perspective . . . Arthur's forces captured a Roman Imperial Standard. That's a BIG DEAL, and it's cool to see that hundreds of years later, people still remember it as such. Rome went to great lengths to recover those, they were never supposed to be lost. It was an insult to Rome itself to lose one Imperial Eagle on the field of battle, and the whole populace felt that. Having Arthur get one is a great omen in and of itself.
The prominence of Milan is also interesting. It had become quite prominent in the waning days of the Empire, and retained that for a while after Rome fell, so it makes sense for Mallory to mention it as important, and as a place Arthur wants to make an impression on the locals.
Finally, the Rome of Arthur's period was in the decline, at least the Western part of the Empire Arthur was in. It isn't depicted this way by Mallory at all. Rome had abandoned England at this point because they couldn't afford to hold it anymore, they weren't in position to demand tribute and be the overwhelming favorites in a fight against an invading army. (Probably still favorites, but not to the extend portrayed by Mallory.) Another reason Arthur gets set here in the first place, I think, because you can historically claim Rome is falling and the Empire is being passed on to England.
All in all, really interesting stuff here.
