Love those Romans!

Originally written and published 30 April 2012

Thanks to my friend Simon the Letter Carver, I watched the first episode of “Meet The Romans” last night on BBC iPlayer entitled “All Roads Lead To Rome”.  He said it was worth a look because of the wonderful examples of carved lettering that was featured in it and he was right.

Prof Mary Beard brought the ordinary citizens of the empire to life – their professions, pastimes, social habits – through inscriptions they’d left behind.  Those Romans certainly had a lot to say!  They loved chipping away at blocks of stone, not just for special occasions or epitaphs, but for noting details of their daily lives, probably as much as we like blogging or tweeting today.

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And I was captivated watching and listening as Mary Beard followed the lines of Latin words with her finger while she translated them aloud into English (as she did with one or two Greek ones too). It almost makes me want to learn to read Latin before my next trip to Italy, or is there an app for that?

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She enthused as much about small tablets etched with casual Rustic lettering as impressive monuments adorned with beautifully carved, classic Roman capitals.  I might try to capture some of those images of lettering… [update : got a couple of screenshots, now added to this post as you can see!]

And as a complete aside to the lettering aspect of this post, one of the highlights of the programme was the incredible site (and sight!) of Monte Testaccio, ‘broken pot mountain’. You’ll have to watch it to see what that’s all about!

Episode 2 “Streetlife” is also on BBC iPlayer and is on the cards for tonight’s viewing.

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Mary Beard’s blog on the BBC website.
Simon the Letter Carver's website.

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