One Thing Leading To Another
Apr. 22nd, 2006 09:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloRemember Michael Praed?
First he was Robin Hood in the dippy-hippy Robin of Sherwood; then he was Prince Michael of Moldavia in a couple of well-beloved episodes of Dynasty.
He was devastatingly beautiful and his Robin was a whole lot better than Jason Connery's.
He was going to be big.
Then something must have happened. Or, perhaps, more accurately, something didn't happen.
Anyway, these days he appears in odd episodes of the British soaps and has a steady gig doing voice-over for the BBC's history/archaeology show Timewatch.
Last night on Timewatch he was telling us about a bunch of decapitated skeletons that have been unearthed in a Roman cemetery in York. An unprecedented find. It seems likely they're the victims of a purge of the palace old guard conducted by the Emperor Caracalla after the death of his father Septimius Severus.
Thrilling. Thanks to Dio Cassius we know some of their names. Archaeology rarely gets this personal.
Setimius Severus was a dude. A North African who campaigned against the Scots and made York the capital of the Empire. He died there and his funeral was like nothing Britain had ever seen.
So how do you pronounce Severus? The Rowling crowd say "sever", but Praed and his experts were all saying "severe".
Septimius Severe-us? It sounds all wrong to me.
First he was Robin Hood in the dippy-hippy Robin of Sherwood; then he was Prince Michael of Moldavia in a couple of well-beloved episodes of Dynasty.
He was devastatingly beautiful and his Robin was a whole lot better than Jason Connery's.
He was going to be big.
Then something must have happened. Or, perhaps, more accurately, something didn't happen.
Anyway, these days he appears in odd episodes of the British soaps and has a steady gig doing voice-over for the BBC's history/archaeology show Timewatch.
Last night on Timewatch he was telling us about a bunch of decapitated skeletons that have been unearthed in a Roman cemetery in York. An unprecedented find. It seems likely they're the victims of a purge of the palace old guard conducted by the Emperor Caracalla after the death of his father Septimius Severus.
Thrilling. Thanks to Dio Cassius we know some of their names. Archaeology rarely gets this personal.
Setimius Severus was a dude. A North African who campaigned against the Scots and made York the capital of the Empire. He died there and his funeral was like nothing Britain had ever seen.
So how do you pronounce Severus? The Rowling crowd say "sever", but Praed and his experts were all saying "severe".
Septimius Severe-us? It sounds all wrong to me.
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no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:22 am (UTC)But- obviously- I accept your expertise.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:22 am (UTC)Or not, I'm afraid...
I say 'Severus', with no long 'e's, although most classical Latinists would also say that the 'v' should really be pronounced more like a 'wh', and I do that sometimes too.
The name did carry the same meaning as our word 'severe', though, so I can't see any harm in bringing that out for modern English-speakers by lengthening the second e. The fact is, neither he nor any of his comtemporaries is here to tell us what they said.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:36 am (UTC)Pah, I'm disappointed in the Beeb.
Though glad to learn that Severus may not have been the genocidal brute they made him out to be.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 03:57 am (UTC)I'm with you on that one, though as
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 05:15 am (UTC)Obviously, that's an anecdotal example. But the point is also clear from the differences in the spelling mistakes people made when writing ordinary, everyday documents (accounts, letters, receipts, etc.) in different parts of the empire.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 01:32 pm (UTC)But from an entirely appropriately named site!
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Date: 2006-04-22 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 01:44 am (UTC)All those dreams and omens....
no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 05:33 am (UTC)Just ask Richard Harris (oops, can't ask him), Maggie Smith, Kenneth Branagh, et al.
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Date: 2006-04-22 07:10 am (UTC)OK, Richard, you hearing me? Knock once for yes, twice for no....
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Date: 2006-04-22 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-22 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 02:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 01:47 am (UTC)He turns up on TV every now and then, but always in supporting roles.
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Date: 2006-04-23 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 09:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 11:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-23 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-24 01:48 am (UTC)