Why do movies always make Marcus Aurelius look so old?

That was when I watched it too (Free Hulu sign-up HBO promo). Eventually switched over to FUBO, but not before finishing "Handmaid's Tale" -- that's a different story altogether.

Yeah, IMHO, "Rome" gets better as it goes along.

Although, originally scheduled for something like 4 seasons of production, they had to condense everything to finish the story in the 2nd season; making it seem sort of 'rushed' at the end.

Apparently the production budget was too high for the producers to want to continue the show.

GoT sort of met a similar fate in that the series outpaced G. Martin's output.. Having to haphazardly tie everything together in the final season. That, and essentially having killed anyone and almost everyone as a character off.

 

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Yeah I don't know about that. I watched a documentary on Constantine, he had a British accent and it just sounded off to me. I like what the Spartacus tv series did, they used a more Latin sounding version of English, saying things like 'gratitude' instead of 'thank you' idk, I think it worked better than a British accent. Barbarians on netflix used latin, or something close to it and I think it works. I personally don't mind reading subtitles but I realize not everyone does.

 

Did you know there is a prequel to GoT coming out?

It’s called “House of the Dragon”.

It takes place a few centuries before GoT and is a story about House Targaryen.

 

And always be aware:
In "classical" Latin Caesar and Cicero were pronounced "Kaiser and Kikero"
The shift to today's pronunciation started only in late antiquity

 

Meh. Kaiser sounds less cool. It reminds of Kaiser Wilhelm.

Kikero just sounds hilarious xD

 

Yes..

It's well understood that Kaiser(German) stems as a remnant of the HRE, as well as Czar(Russian) also sharing its origins with Caesar.

It's sounds so odd to pronounce GUY - YOOSE / EE - YOO - LEE - YOOSE / KY - ZAR; having known its Anglicized version for so long.

OW - GOOSE - STOOSE
TEE - BEAR - EE - OOSE
CLOWDI - OOSE
VESS - POSS - EE - ON - OOSE
TEE - TOOSE
DOHMI - TEE - AN - OOSE

 

I think I can read it!

OW-GOOSE-STOOSE = Augustus
TEE-BEAR-EE-OOSE = Tiberius
CLOWDI-OOSE = Claudius
VESS-POSS-EE-ON-OOSE = Vespasian
TEE-TOOSE = Titus
DOHMI-TEE-AN-OOSE = Domitian

Did I win??

 

I suppose. Considering that my feeble attempt at phonetics is piss-poor.

Domitianus ought to be ON-OOSE (akin to Vespasianus).

Point being that the English pronunciation is quite far from what it likely sounded in Roman times -- sans hard Js, soft Cs, various long and short vowels mixed up.

Your favorite emperor's name likely sounded more like [AH-OO]-REH-LEE-OOSE versus UH-REALLY-US.

 

I think it’s more like:
“Marc-oose Ow-rell-ee-oose”.

 

Fow-STEE-na. Loo-KIL-la. Criss-PEE-na.

 

I think you forgot the N in Faustina

 

Close, I believe. But stressed more like Mongoose(MON-GOOSE).. MAR-KOOSE perhaps. LOL

 

Well, let me fix that.

 

xD

 

Well to bring the thread back on topic.. Alec Guinness played a more youthful looking Aurelius.



Antonio Banderas might have made a good fit a few years back, but his Spanish accent might have confused an audience expecting a posh accent.


So perhaps..

H. Jackman?


T. Hardy?


M. McConnaughey?


T. Fimmel?

 

I think Gary Oldman would make a great Marcus Aurelius!

He would need to grow out his beard though.

What’s crazy is Marcus Aurelius statues look SO much like Commodus statues. They looked a lot alike.

 

Dan Cheatham would make a good Marcus Aurelius.

 

Who do you think would make the best Commodus?

I liked Joaquin Phoenix but he just didn’t look at all like what I would expect Commodus to look like. He didn’t even have a beard or the muscles physique that Commodus actually had.

Say what you want about Commodus but no one can say he was weak (physically). Apparently he loved sports and was very strong and well muscled.

 

There is a YouTube channel called “Classical Numismatist” and he does an excellent job pronouncing the words like they should be pronounced.

I think @Roman Collector was the one who referred me to a video of his about coin debasement in the Roman Empire because he knew it is something that I’m interested in.

He has other videos there and when he reads what is written on coins he does a fantastic job.

Like he will read something that says:

“Imperator Caesar Traianus Germanicus Optimo Principe Tribunicia Potesta Pater Patriae” (I just made that up as an example) and then he explains what it all means.