Druids, President Bush and Caesar

Terry Jones: Blood and circuses

Terry Jones, Python turned historian, travelled from Ireland to Iran to debunk the myths of Rome. Boyd Tonkin talks to him about imperial power - then and now

Published: 19 May 2006

Terry Jones is rather keen on Druids, whom he sees not as sheet-draped shamans squinting at the sun but as a highly trained "class of professional intellectuals" entrusted with all the learning and lore of Celtic societies. So you might imagine that a born-again Druid in search of a blessed location would like nothing better than an airy modernistic dwelling tucked away down a sort of enchanted grove, just a sacred bough's throw away from Hampstead Heath. Jones, of course, is no professional historian, but the Monty Python veteran does rank as an unusually gifted amateur. As birds twitter around his secluded patio, he explains that "What fascinates me about history is turning received opinions on their head". Other subversive raids on the past have resulted in cliché-busting documentaries and books on medieval themes: Crusades, chivalry and Chaucer. Now, the guerrilla scholar-entertainer has dared take on the might of Rome.

Co-written with producer Alan Ereira, Terry Jones's Barbarians (BBC Books, £18.99) partners the four-part TV series - made by Oxford Films - that begins its run on BBC2 a week today. To say that his project aims to cast doubt on the virtue of the Roman Empire and the value of its legacy is rather like suggesting that Queen Boudica of the Iceni - inevitably, one star of this show - had a few tiny contractual niggles with her overlords. After almost two millennia, it's payback time.

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Latin resurgence

Dead language alive at Monmouth-Roseville

Saturday, May 20, 2006
BY CIGI ROSS

The Register-MailA poster reading "Latin didn't fall with Rome" hung in a room at the top of the stairs on Monmouth-Roseville High School's third floor.

A map of Rome hung on the wall underneath.

Five students sat in plastic chairs behind wooden desks looking over white papers that had been marked in red over black ink.
Brian Tibbets, a lean 32-year-old in black pants and a white- and red-striped shirt, leaned against his desk at the front of the room, going over answers from a quiz with the juniors in his Latin III class.

Tibbets took over the Latin program at Monmouth three years ago after it was saved by a petition from parents and students who supported the program. Now, 76 of the school's 550 students are enrolled in the program.

Saving Latin
In 1999, there were only six freshman enrolled in the Latin program at Monmouth High School. The school board was ready to close the program, but several parents and students did not want to see it go.

"We begged for one more year," said Christine Ayers, a mother three, all of whom have taken Latin in Monmouth.

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Roman iron false teeth

Although this is an old article (1998) it certainly shows that the world lost a vast amount of knowledge with the demise of Rome, and not for nothing do we refer to the years following the collapse of the Western Empire as the Dark Ages.

That said, the demise of iron false teeth, with all the problems of rust, is undoubtedly a good thing!

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New issue Nova Roman sestertii

The new issue of Nova Roman sestertii has gone on sale. These can be purchased through:

The Harpax Store