One of my all-time favorite TV shows was the I Claudius miniseries which was aired on BBC/ Masterpiece Theatre/ Channel 11 back when it was the best channel in Chicago. The show included a whole array of great performances including Derek Jacobi as Claudius, as Hera, as Augustus, as Messalina and my personal favorite, John Hurt as Caligula.
The remarkable series had some of the richest performances ever to grace TV but some of the historical portrayals of the characters are iffy (remember this all happened 2000 years ago and some of the texts are contradictory). Some historical texts have alternate theories which contradict the portrayals and some of the alternate theories were examined in the documentary The Last Days of Jesus.
Well in both films Tiberius mostly retired at some point while he was emperor. While he remained as the official figurehead leader of the Roman Empire, he delegated much of his power and many of his day to day duties to Sir Janus (masterfully played by Patrick Stewart who later played Captain Picard in Star Trek Next Generation and Professor X in Xmen).
Tiberius did this because Sir Janus saved his life and he felt he was one of the only men he could trust. The texts mostly agree that Sir Janus was power hungry and he sought to replace Tiberius as the official leader and subsequently Tiberius had him put to death.
In The Last Days of Jesus a scholar proposes that Sir Janus was hung for his transgressions but in I Claudius Tiberius basically bribed Janus’s second in command to set up Janus’s stabbing in return for Sir Janus’s position as military commander.
In both features Herod (who is portrayed much more sympathetically in I Claudius) thinks he might be the Jewish messiah and he wants to overthrow the Roman authorities (In I Claudius he is Claudius’s best friend.) But in The Last Days of Jesus Herod conspires with Sir Janus and he is part of the attempted scheme to overthrow Tiberius (in I Claudius the title character orders his death but in real life he was probably exiled.)
This all brings us to the whole conundrum of Pontius Pilot. In the Bible (and all the film portrayals including David Bowie’s one in Last Temptation of Christ) Pontius Pilot is hesitant to put Jesus to death and he lets the Jews decide whether to free him (they decide to free Barabbas instead).
Yet most historical portrayals of Pilot show him to be rather blood thirsty and he didn’t give a second thought to savagely condemning dozens to gruesome deaths. Some scholars thought the accounts were changed later on to justify anti-Semitism so that they could blame the Jews for Jesus’s death (with Judas playing the part of the stereotypical Jew motivated by greed.)
But The Last Days of Jesus offers another possible suggested theory. The movie proposes that Pilot knew that the Roman Empire was in a state of flux and he did not want to directly condemn a man many Jews saw as the messiah and risk a revolution so he let the Jews decide and take the fall knowing full well that the Zealots were unhappy for him for not leading a violent revolution against the Roman Empire (the recent book Zealot proposes the bizarre theory that Jesus did propose violent revolution.) Because of Judas’s last name many people believe that Judas was a zealot and the true reason he betrayed Jesus was that he thought he was not revolutionary enough.
More signs that the apocalypse is near: I saw an 80 something senior wearing a Black Sabbath shirt and Mariano’s no longer carried my favorite tea flavor, Healing Leaves Almond Chamomile.
** My friend Eric Allen Yankee (despite his name I don’t think he is necessarily anti Southern) Eric us one of Chicago’s finest resident revolutionary poets and he is involved in some interesting activities. He recently hosted a fun reading at the usual stomping grounds of GPA (Greatest and most humble poet alive) Let Them Eat Chocolate which unfortunately is scheduled to close sometimes this summer (unfortunately I live on the southwest suburbs so it is practically a continent away from me.) Poetry venues seems to be having a hard time surviving these days despite the supposed economic recovery.
Many poets read family friendly or children’s poetry (I read some of Shel Silverstein’s work including Kugs and Hisses from his book, Runny Rabbit, a poem based on humorous mispronunciation. Other poets who read there included Elizabeth Marino, Tom Roby, Jenene Ravesloot and some others. Unfortunately I had to leave early because my old friend the poet/comedian/vocalist, Sheila was going to move away, and it would be my last opportunity to have lunch with her (we met years ago at an anti-Iraq War demonstration.) I will miss hearing her perform and seeing her going out and enthusiastically announcing to everyone in every gallery at the Art Colony that she was about to perform.
Anyway Eric has a new venture. He has taken on the role of editor and he is looking for submissions for a new antiestablishment anthology (I hope I get in.) Here are the details direct from Facebook, the connective tissue between all modern cultural events (I am being sarcastic here.). I am looking forward to reading this book.
Chicago area Poets: If you already submitted to my Vagabond Press Chicago Poets Anthology then disregard this. However, if you haven’t –
Please send 3 poems and a 100 word bio to ericallenyankee@gmail.com with the subject line “Vagabond Anthology”.
What kind of Poems am I looking for? Poems for the Revolution, of course – Environmental Justice Poetry, Trump Poems, Overthrowing Capitalism, Systemic Racism, Military Industrial Complex, Homelessness, Building a cooperative society, and poems about other injustices in society. That’s a wide range, I know. Do not send it to me if it has been previously published (your private Facebook/social media page does not count as published to me – side note: When Editors consider a private friends only Facebook post as “published” I think that’s terrible. That is not published. Facebook is no more “published” than reading the poem at an open mic. /end of editor rant)
If I’ve tagged you here it’s because I want you to send me poems! This anthology is being curated by me for Vagabond Press out of California. The deadline to submit is August 30, 2017.
*Eric also has a new chapbook which is available for preorder. Details follow.
Hey friends:
You can preorder my (his) poetry chapbook Riot from Finishing Line Press right now!
Preorder sales help me get a larger print run, so I hope some of you will help me out by ordering one for yourself, maybe your mom, and even your Trump supporting Uncle who could benefit from reading poems about homelessness, the evils of war, and building a cooperative society.
It’s $13.99
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/riot-by-eric-allen-yankee/
Ships on August 4.
Thanks!
