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bedlamsbardUm. Now I want a dramatic HBO series about the Peloponnesian Wars. (Although only if they get a really good military advisor and fight choreographer, none of that nonsense from the first season of Rome.) The great Plataean escape, y'all! It would be so cool to see on film. (I really am of the opinion that most stories work better as TV series or miniseries than as movies; movies are just too short and too limited.)
Just think of the dramatic trireme race after the Athenians reverse their decision to put all the Mytileneans to the death, and the second trireme is racing hard to catch up with the first; it pulls into the harbor just as the decree is being read, just in time to reverse it -- dramatic landscapes of Greece and the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor -- the Spartan army massing up -- Pericles debating in front of the Assembly -- Athens stuffed to the gills, the plague ravaging the city and its refugees as the Spartans ravage the fields outside -- the Persian ambassador offering money to the Spartans to hurt the Athenians, then taking it back when he decides they haven't done enough -- the thematic question of democracies v. oligarchies -- the earthquake, the revolt of the helots, the siege at Mt. Ithome and Sparta sending Cimon and company back to Athens -- the building of the Parthenon and the chryselephantine statue of Athena (okay, sue me, I just like the word chryselephantine) -- Archidamus trying so hard not to start the second Peloponnesian War and Pericles going, "No, actually, fuck you, Sparta" only much more eloquently -- the trial of Aphasia! ("WOULD THESE BREASTS LIE TO YOU?")
Um. Anyway. THIS WOULD BE COOL.
Just think of the dramatic trireme race after the Athenians reverse their decision to put all the Mytileneans to the death, and the second trireme is racing hard to catch up with the first; it pulls into the harbor just as the decree is being read, just in time to reverse it -- dramatic landscapes of Greece and the Aegean and the coast of Asia Minor -- the Spartan army massing up -- Pericles debating in front of the Assembly -- Athens stuffed to the gills, the plague ravaging the city and its refugees as the Spartans ravage the fields outside -- the Persian ambassador offering money to the Spartans to hurt the Athenians, then taking it back when he decides they haven't done enough -- the thematic question of democracies v. oligarchies -- the earthquake, the revolt of the helots, the siege at Mt. Ithome and Sparta sending Cimon and company back to Athens -- the building of the Parthenon and the chryselephantine statue of Athena (okay, sue me, I just like the word chryselephantine) -- Archidamus trying so hard not to start the second Peloponnesian War and Pericles going, "No, actually, fuck you, Sparta" only much more eloquently -- the trial of Aphasia! ("WOULD THESE BREASTS LIE TO YOU?")
Um. Anyway. THIS WOULD BE COOL.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-26 05:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-28 01:49 am (UTC)...or in a movie, come to think of it. Hollywood! Deliver unto us triremes!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-26 05:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-28 01:51 am (UTC)Can you tell I was reading Thucydides when I wrote this?
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 02:56 pm (UTC)Nope, not at all :)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-30 04:05 pm (UTC)Pylos! OMG, I had forgotten about Pylos, which would be so cool to see on TV, because the Spartans are so badass you have to burn down an island to take them alive. And the daring night swims of supplies to the island...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 05:03 pm (UTC)I guess the main reason they can't be on tv is the fear that their awesomeness would not be properly conveyed and then their ghosts would come back to kick the asses of people shaming the Spartan name.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-01 06:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-26 07:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-28 01:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-27 01:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-28 01:58 am (UTC)