THE TOP FIVE MOST MEMORABLE ROMAN EMPERORS IN FILM

by Empire & Revolution

Sword and sandal epics have long been a staple of the movie business. Rome, with its air of decadence and brutality, is a subject of endless fascination for filmmakers, playing fast and loose with historical truth. Among the most fascinating figures in any Roman epic is the emperor, usually but not always depicted as an incarnation of supreme power and total licence, often with endearing personal quirks. Here is a list of five of the most memorable of the emperors from cinematic history and the actors who portrayed them—in reverse order.

THE ANTI-CIVILIZATION OF THE WEST

First published in Radix: The Great Erasure in 2012.

by Colin Liddell

In his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the New World Order (1996) Samuel P. Huntington put forward the thesis, popular with large sections of the 'Right,' that the post-Cold-War world would be shaped by its major civilizations and their interactions.

For some it was the gently coded recognition of race that appealed, for others it was the stigmatization of Islam as a rather unpleasant civilization that rang true, so that the book became, for better or worse, a landmark of political science. This makes it an ideal starting point for considering the topic of civilizations in general and the problematic nature of the West in particular.

EXCERPT: APOLLONIUS OF TYANA AND THE ALTERNATIVE EMPIRE

by Colin Liddell

"I stood for a moment on the scent, smelling this shrill and blood-raw music, signifying the atmosphere of the hall angrily, and hankering after it a little too. One half of this music, the melody, was all pomade and sugar and sentimentality. The other half was savage, temperamental and vigorous. Yet the two went artlessly well together and made whole. It was the music of decline. There must have been such music in Rome under the later emperors." – Hermann Hess, Steppenwolf

Apollonius of Tyana is a mysterious marginal figure in the history of the classical world, and is only known to us in any detail because of the chance survival of a lengthy and highly anecdotal book written by the Greek Sophist Philostratus the Elder (c. 170 – 247AD).

Despite this obscurity, there is something fascinating about Apollonius. Like the last late pagan emperor Julian (361-3), whose unlucky death closed so many doors, he represents an alternative dynamic of the Roman Empire, one that could have avoided the political dead end that Christianity proved to be. His legend casts a wan light over the ruins of that great empire, and points to some of the clues of its demise.

NEVER SAY "NEVER AGAIN"

by Colin Liddell

It is not documented exactly when the monster Grendel left "his mossy home beneath the stagnant mere" to "drip his claws with mortal blood as moonbeams haunt the sky." But when he did, we can be sure that the results were rather tragic. Indeed, there may even be some truth in the rumours that "screams were his music, lightning his guide," and he may in fact have "raped the darkness, death by his side."

Likewise, closer to our own modern mythology, April 19th is the day on which, in 1943, the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, realizing the unpleasant fate in store for them, steeled themselves for an uprising against their Nazi oppressors – with tragic results (but the results would have been tragic anyway, one assumes).

RUSSIAN HOLIDAY

A lust for adventure.

by Ave Maria

Most Audrey Hepburn fans today are blissfully ignorant of the hidden edge in the title of Roman Holiday. When the ancient Romans wanted to take a holiday, it usually involved snacking on some peanuts at the Colosseum while watching slaves fight each other to the death or being eaten by lions. The phrase “Roman holiday,” current in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, referred to unusually cruel or scandalous entertainment; in the film, it refers to the scandal of Hepburn eloping with Gregory Peck.

We moderns have very little appreciation for the Roman sense of fun. Protestants and Marxists have preferred to take the side of the slaves. But at least on the abstract level, there is something to be gained from walking a mile in Roman sandals.

THE TRUE RIGHT: JULIUS EVOLA, SOVEREIGNTY & TRADITION

by Gwendolyn Taunton

"Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age?" ～Cicero

Evola’s theories concerning the role of the Kṣatriya varna (caste) in antiquity are both a progression on and a refutation of Rene Guénon’s work. Despite their sharing of the same foundational source in perennial philosophy, there are a number of points on which they differ, the most obvious point of contention being the role of the Kṣatriya in relation to a hierarchical model of civilization. Guénon held that the textual model in Hinduism was correct, with the Brahmin holding all power as priests/philosophers in Traditional India. Evola, however, declared that this model was theoretical only – in practice the Kṣatriya varna held all the power. Normally associated in the West with the military, Evola instead offered a paradigm which depicted the Kṣatriya as the aristocratic caste – composed of the nobility as well as the warriors. Because Evola links the Kṣatriya to aristocracy, this becomes a central motif that is of extreme importance.