Hollywood is just lame

So, yeah, I know I am a geek, but I just got peeved last night. I was watching a 2 hour show on Caligula on the History Channel, and they were talking about the Praetorian Guard receiving a donation from Caligula upon his accession. The lady was emphasizing how they received "1,000 gold sestertii" as a gift.

Seriously? Is there no such thing as fact checkers in this world any longer? What kind of "experts" do these places hire?

Ok, end of geeky rant.

Chris

 

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So for those of us who aren't into ancients, what is so terrible about that?

 

A sestertius was a large orichalcum, (brass), coin. It was never gold. The aureus was the gold coin of the early Roman empire. It would be identical to someone 2000 years from now bragging how they received "1,000 gold large cents".

 

She may have just misspoke. Sestertii (abbreviation HS) were the primary unit of account until the 3rd century. She probably intended to say that the soldiers recieved HS 1000 in gold aurei.

Of course, this is the same network that gives you such educational gems as Ancient Aliens and Pawnstars. I think I liked it better when it was still The Hitler Channel.

 

Yeah, I am sure the two things just crossed, but it just bothered me that all of these "experts" with titles on the show make such errors. But, the average viewer is going to believe these people were paid 1,000 pieces of gold each, much different than 1,000 sestertii worth of gold, which would have been 10 aureii.

Its a function of education I suppose. It seems the more education I received, the more I learn, the more I come to realize that most information out there is wrong in one way or another. Finance is much worst, with most things being half truths at best.

 

This is precisely the reason why critical thinking is the most important skill schools can teach.

 

Wasn't the sestertii used as the base unit to quantity assets, perhaps they meant to say gold equivalent to 1000 sestertii (well not that it changes that they didn't)?

 

Yes. That's what I meant by "money of account." Sorry about the jargon - I've read and written quite a bit on the ancient economy. I sometimes forget what is in common parlance and what is specialized!

 

Yes a redundancy in semantics, terminologies are adapted to their own fields and this one is not mine.

 

Gold, No way, here is his successor Claudius. Yep Hollywood is vain, elitist propaganda machine. But not as awful as Bollywood....yet.

 

I assume that they just meant "money of account" as well, but it did invoke a image of a thousand sestertii sized coins in my head at first I liked the program though. At one point they showed a pile AE which looked authentic, only one I could make out was an AS of Agrippa.

 

Yes, they looked authentic, but my problem with that shot was they also looked they had been buried for 2,000 years, (which of course they have been). Not quite what they would have looked like back in his day, but I gave them points for at least using authentic coins.

 

Same here. They coulda used crappy reproduction/fantasy pieces though

 

History Channel - All Hitler All Day:dead-horse:

History programmes produced for PBS tend to be the most accurate and balanced. History Channel is created for commercial advertisers marketing to people with rather short attention spans which is why they have to keep repeating info over and over until it sinks in as a form of drudge fact.

 

Speaking of historical accuracy, I'm watching "The Eagle" right now lol.

 

Alas, but many of journalists and writers are don't know a history. But they are talking about a History with a very clever and serious look. A few month ago I read a book about the Ivan IV the Terrible (it was a novel about an adventures of a Russian nobleman). And when I read about "silver roubles of Ivan IV", I long was spat and used foul language. 'cos a first Russian roubles were minted during the reign of Alexei Michailovich Romanov (1645-1676). During the reign of Ivan IV (1533-1584) a rouble was not a coin but nominal unit only.

 

Actually Siberian, Hollywood likes to mess up history of Russia too. "Enemy at the Gates" is prime example of rewriting of history. Movie "K-19" was another fraught with inaccurate information - but I have to admit the submariners mooning the USA helicopter were pretty funny.

 

agreed!

 

Yeah, I think Hollywood messes up all history, but even larger I think most media messes up all history. I think we are the only ones who really care, and catch the errors. Makes you nervous about all supposed truthful documentaries, and how little "truth" is probably there.

 

Lol, what I sometimes due is if its something historical on tv or a movie I will end up pausing *if its taped* or talking through it explaining what was wrong. Its annoying but damn it I want my friends or moms to know what was right and what was "hollywood".

I do the same thing to comic book movies. I know most of the storylines from the 60s and 70s and then hollywood comes in and most of it is thrown out the door.