I, Claudius

(Bored) Men's Night Out took a somewhat intellectual turn tonight. We ended up watching two episodes of "I, Claudius." Originally a novel by Robert Graves published in 1934, the BBC made it into a television series in 1976. It went on to become one of the most successful BBC productions of all time.

The series (and book) focuses on the Roman Empire with special focus on Claudius I. It begins at Julius Casesar's assasination in 44 B.C. and ends at Caligula's assasination in 41 A.D. The obvious theme in this series, as you may have guessed, is that after a few emperors, no one really wants to be emperor because more than likely they'll end up assasinated.

The two more interesting quips in the episodes from tonight:

Claudius I is forced to become emperor by the Roman military. His qualifications are challenged when he first faces the Senate. Claudius has a speech impediment and is partially deaf, so one serious question is that he is half-witted, to which Claudius replies, "What can I say, except that I have survived to middle age with half my wits, while thousands have died with all their wits intact. Clearly its not the quantity of wits, but the quality..." Ironically a very witty statement.

In a later scene, two Roman contractors (who surprisingly have very good British accents just like the rest of the Romans, by the way...) are discussing a construction project that must be presented to Claudius. One of the contractors, not wanting to see the project come to fruition because it will hurt his family business by lowering the price of corn, says to the other that they will give an artificially high cost to discourage the construction. The other replies "but that is selfish!" The first contractor then says something to the effect of,
"selfish, yes, but is the entire populace wanting lower corn prices not being more selfish than just me wanting higher prices?"

Wow...never really thought about it that way. All of us combined wanting lower gas prices is collectively more selfish than a handful of gas companies wanting to charge more? Interesting view.