Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló.
We are going to analyze some of the most notorious kits of this successful television series Hispania which bases its staging and content more on an adaptation of “Curro Jiménez ” to the Roman than to a “Rome ” from HBO to Hispanic, with evil invaders, outraged people and courageous insurgents.
We will take as the common thread the most shocking at first glance, the names:
- Romans :
Galva :They have not been able to change this one… Servius Sulpicio Galva (190 – 135 BC) was a controversial Roman politician and military man, a magnificent orator and a man without scruples. How vile his management as praetor of Hispania Ulterior (151 – 150 BC) had to be for the tribune of the plebs Libón, and even a true unscrupulous man like old Cato, to blame him for exceeding his functions. He was recalled and tried in 149 BC, but his oratory and bribery saved him from being severely punished by the senate. Despite being elected consul in 144 BC, by order of the Senate he did not set foot in Hispania again... Will Galva last so little in the series?
Frame :According to the series they call him Marco Quinto Cornelio. That name is not believable. Marco is a praenomen, as is Quinto. There were only nine regulars and he was relatively irrelevant; It was only used on rare occasions, in very familiar settings, without accompanying it with the other nomen and cognomen. Thus, Marco Cornelio Léntulo (Marco, from the Cornelia family, the slow one) would have been plausible. In fact, we continue to do the same thing:nobody refers to José Luís as president of the government, he is known in public as Rodríguez Zapatero, or even just Zapatero… (Like César, Cicero, etc… a cognomen) Only his family will call him José Luis. His behavior in the series is serial, chasing outlaws with four escorts out of Asterix and playing bad at will. The Roman aristocracy was far above all that. In addition, a general, who being correct would be Legacy, would never pay attention to his praenomen (it is as if the senators, legates or tribunes called Caesar Cayo)
Claudia :Claudia what else? In the third episode she says that she is the daughter of a certain senator Tulio... Well, the correct thing would be Tulia:the daughters inherited the father's nomen in the feminine... If Marco's behavior screeches, Claudia's cries out to heaven. If Calpurnia had put on a number on her husband like the ones she usually puts on in the series during the siege of Alesia, Caesar would have had her quartered alive. Few women were inside the Roman camps; yes there were outside them, the concubines of the soldiers and those of payment.
Sabina :She is the only one who is saved. Her hair a little long and very low cut to serve in a camp, but she is fiction.
- Hispanics :
Here comes the scandal…
Viriato :The leader... of a gang of four fugitives, still a few years away from being elected as indigenous leader against the Roman occupation and really annoying the legions. His name comes from the Celtic word virias (bracelet), as only the chiefs used such gadgets, a bit out of tune for a presumed shepherd. He defines himself as “Hispanic”; it is as if Moctezuma said that he is Latin… In the Hispania of the 2nd century B.C. each tribe, city or ethnic group waged war on their own, for or against the Romans. Barely eighty years after this time, every corner of Iberia supported Metellus or Sertorius according to his own convictions during the Civil War. Hispania was not even remotely a state, it was a collection of scattered and unconnected tribes, in this specific case Celtic. By the way, he was elected leader of the Lusitanians in 147 BC. (So, his name will come from those dates, three years after what we are seeing... What would his name be before?)
Sandro :Botticelli? Pertini? It is an Italian medieval name derived from Alessandro… This is the first futuristic Lusitanian who anticipates his time. He is the blacksmith, the one who makes falcatas like churros, all the same and with damascened handles. Each falcata was made to measure for the arm of the warrior who was to wear it... except Sandro's.
Paulo :What Paul? Emilio Paulo, the father-in-law of Scipio? Another indigenous family with eyesight that named his son after a Roman aristocrat… This one looks like a gang member. I can't imagine a Plautus character speaking like that...
Dario :This is the best, he is named after the Persian king of kings, the great enemy of Alexander the Great. It is unlikely that any inhabitant of his village even knew where Persia was, at most they would know of the existence of Greece or Carthage. By the way... I have my doubts about that idyllic town on a plain and without walls... Could it be that they say it's called Cauca? That is Coca (Segovia); if it is Kaura, it is Coria del Río (Seville), both quite far from where the Lusitanians lived…
Nerea :The gang member's girlfriend, they gave her a Greek name... Showing off her feminine attributes among soldiers confined for a year in a stinking camp... unthinkable. She is a hero. After the lashes that were released from her, we wouldn't get up from her for three months... but for her, not a single circle under her eyes... She is the reincarnation of the goddess Ataecina!
Theodore :Only one wife is known to Viriato, although in the series he is presented as a widower. In fact, Viriato's father-in-law was called Astolpas (a real native name) They have also given him a Greek name, which sounds better... he looks more like a moneylender from Antioch than a Lusitanian oligarch...
Helena :Like that of Troy… By the horns of Cerunnos! What a fondness for Greek names! With the importance that names had in ancient times. They were not placed randomly, they all expressed some virtue.
Hector :We continue in the Iliad... A traitor who is missing a light that says "I'll sell you for a hundred sesterces"... pathetic.
Barbara :The last one is spectacular, a name of Greek origin (it means foreign) that did not become popular until the Middle Ages; a saint's name 150 years before Christ...
What would it have cost them to put Tarbantu, Ultinos, Touto, Indortes, Likinos, Kara, Nunn, Botilkos, Aius, etc…? Nothing, the same as me writing it, it's just laziness... total, they're going to see it the same.
For those who want to delve into this legendary era without seeing power lines in the landscape, I recommend Viriato by Joao Aguiar , an entertaining and believable novel.