The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)

This was the fall of the Roman Empire. A great civilization is not conquered from without until it destroys itself from within.

How and why do empires fall? Samuel Bronston’s 1964 epic drama The Fall of the Roman Empire tries to answer the question.

Some classify America as an empire. Those who do are not all "elitist intellectuals" who live offshore in Europe, but some are intellectuals who reside right here stateside. Within the last eight years when everything really started to run amok in a schizophrenic fast forward of excess and madness here and abroad because of the government’s policies and the continuing decay of the country’s social fabric, a number of books appeared about the empire.

Two intriguing sounding titles that I would like to read if I had time are:
Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Imperium
The Empire Has No Clothes

The author of Empire Burlesque also has a blog of the same name that can be accessed here.

I mention America of today because I too see some parallels between it and ancient Rome. Right now in cyberspace there are dire even fearsome predictions about what is about the happen to America within the next week and a half to one year. Some predict that on the day of the last quarter of the fiscal year, September 30, America will be technically bankrupt. The television news had not given a peep about this until the end of last week after the financial crisis hit full swing and all the bails came. On Friday I heard the first real hint of a catastrophe having been avoided by the end of the month on CNN. Some online predict that by the middle of 2009, the government will also be bankrupt and that the dollar will be a worthless piece of paper. The warnings are even on YouTube. Some predict the fall of America will only be a national disaster. They say that once there is collapse and widespread unrest, the government will totally disregard The Constitution and place the entire country under martial law. I will not mention some of the even scarier predictions which some say will occur here. I will only say the rumors and warnings are out there.

Some in cyberspace say that because other economies chained themselves to America, they will be sucked into a whirlpool along with us. The rest of the world will be hit by an economic tsunami that will sweep away everything that the global economy knew and held dear. Whether the empire falls in a few weeks or months or a few years is rather a moot point. The fall is coming sooner or later in any case. Witness the financial crisis that hit on September 14th. 117 banks are in trouble. Last Monday morning the news said that the number could be as high as 1000! Both of the wars the country is still locked into was entered through borrowed money.

Samuel Bronston’s The Fall of the Roman Empire which was made in 1964 examines why the Roman Empire fell and why in general all empires and civilizations great and small must inevitably die. It is one of the last of the great epics with a cast of thousands. Overlooked and sometimes ridiculed as slow, it was not a movie that Ridley Scott thought was awful because if you have seen Gladiator you have seen what some call a cheap rip-off of this great film. The Fall of the Roman Empire is a thinking man and woman’s film whereas Gladiator, that I did enjoy, functioned more on a gut level which today’s audiences can relate to more than its’ more intellectual predecessor. Director Martin Scorsese is an admirer of this film and sees it as having the makings of a lost art form. They just don’t and can’t make them like they used to in Hollywood. The writers and producers lack imagination, and the few who do are sidelined or run off. Plus there is just not enough money today to hire thousands of extras and build huge sets as was done in this film. Just computer generate and populate the empty spaces is the name of the game nowadays.

By the time The Fall of the Roman Empire was shown in theaters the period of the grand epic set in ancient times was over. After the failure of Cleopatra in the previous year, audiences had lost their taste for such historical extravaganzas. Some say one of the leads in the film, Stephen Boyd’s performance as the Roman general Livius was so wooden that his acting was what did the film in. I really think this evaluation of Boyd‘s performance is unfair. Probably his acting was so criticized because people were not used to seeing him playing a decent guy with high principles. Many remembered him playing the ruthless Masala in Ben-Hur, and may have expected more of the same.

In the end, The Fall of the Roman Empire was a costly box office failure for Samuel Bronston which led him to file for bankruptcy. He never produced another film.

The Fall of the Roman Empire is actually misnamed because the events of the film run from 180 to 193 AD, beginning near the end of the reign of Marcus Aurelius and going through that of his son Commodus. The Roman Empire actually did not fall until 476 according to Edward Gibbon. The movie shows the beginning of the empire’s decline and some of the conditions which can cause a great civilization to fall. It is also not a completely accurate chronological history either. Incidents from the reigns of other emperors are included along with some fictional reworking of the lives of some of the characters. Despite the inaccuracies, The Fall of the Roman Empire is a far more intelligent epic compared to previous others.

The film begins with the emperor Marcus Aurelius (played by Sir Alec Guinness) whose armies are camped in and near a fortress on the empire’s northern frontier. The Roman army is keeping an eye on the barbarian hordes. Marcus Aurelius realizes that his health is failing, and the fact worries him because his son Commodus (played by Christopher Plummer) is not the type of person he feels will provide stable and responsible leadership over the empire. Therefore, he decides to bypass his son to privately pick as his heir one of his generals, Gaius Metellus Livius (played by Stephen Boyd), who was raised in the imperial household. The character of Livius is fictitious. Livius is a man of honor, who is almost completely unselfish. He sees Commodus, though opposite of him in outlook, like a brother. Also there is the added complication of Livius being passionately in love with the daughter of Marcus Aurelius, the beautiful Lucilla (played by Sophia Loren). All of these people arrive on the northern frontier where Marcus Aurelius is about to present his plan publicly, but he is poisoned by one of his Greek slaves who was a conspirator with some of the Roman officers who were stationed at the
fortress.

Before the poisoning, Marcus Aurelius informs Livius that he has selected him to be the next emperor. Livius reluctantly accepts. He does not feel it is right for Marcus Aurelius to reject his own son even though Livius knows Commodus is unfit to be emperor. Livius argues that he is only a military man who knows nothing about governing an empire. Secretly he would much rather have Lucilla even over his career in the military.

Lucilla is very much like Livius. World weary after seeing her father suffer in an unhappy marriage to her unfaithful mother, she had for a period withdrawn from the world.

After getting notice of his glorious future, Livius is really not interested. Instead he begs Lucilla to run away with him, but she refuses saying that being Caesar’s daughter there would be no where for him and her to hide. She feels exactly like her father, that Livius should be the next emperor of Rome. If Livius would just accept the position, she expects she can be by his side. However, her father has a surprise for her too. She is to be married off in a political alliance to King Sohamus of Armenia (played by Omar Sharif). The empire needs Armenia as a buffer against the Persians, and poor Lucilla is torn from the man she loves to marry a stranger.

At Marcus Aurelius’ cremation, the sulking Commodus who has learned that his father has passed over him to choose his best friend as Caesar gets a surprise. Livius, being always selfless, does exactly what Lucilla does not want him to. In a surprise move he proclaims Commodus emperor. Commodus in return makes him head of all the Roman armies and a proconsul of Roman, second only in power to the emperor.

Commodus turns out to be as bad an emperor as his father and sister expected. He is an ancient version of the jock with charisma and ruthlessness thrown in. Rome crawls with gladiators, and Commodus fancies himself as being one of the best. He bleeds the eastern portion of the empire dry demanding taxes and tribute. Early on he makes it known that his father’s moderate ideas have no place in the new Rome of Commodus. Marcus Aurelius’ ideas are seen as weak. The world must remember to respect Rome and not get any ideas about having any special privileges and equality with people who are pure blooded Romans.

Tired of Commodus’ policies, the eastern provinces including Armenia rise up. Though Commodus has fallen out with Livius by now and banished him from Rome to head the armies along the northern frontier, he calls Livius back to Rome and demands that he leads an army to defeat the rebellious armies and provinces in the east.

Livius goes reluctantly to quell the rebellion. He is shocked to discover that Lucilla is also one of the leaders of the insurrection. She begs Livius to join the rebels in seceding from Rome and creating their own empire in the east. Though Livius dislikes everything Commodus stands for, he hates the idea of rebellion. To him, it is just not the logical or patriotic thing to do. He thinks all Lucilla and her followers will do is cause chaos. For the first time, Livius doubts that Lucilla ever really loved him. How could the woman he loves become a traitor? Shocked, angry, but still madly in love with her, Livius pleads with Lucilla to run and hide because his orders are to defeat and crush all of the rebels. Lucilla says she does not run.

Lucilla’s husband King Sohamus is killed in battle. He had given the order before his death that if he is killed, Lucilla is also to be killed. Livius learns of the order, and in the nick of time saves from Lucilla from being murdered. He does not punish Lucilla even though she was one of the leaders of the rebellion, but he takes her back with him on his way back to Rome. On the road, he is given the order that he is to have 5000 burned alive and 5000 crucified in each city that participated in the rebellion. It is Commodus’ orders, but fed up Livius tears up the order and arrests both of the messengers that bring it to him.

More boxed in than ever with famine and pestilence raging in Rome, Commodus has sunk into madness. He thinks he hears the gods laughing. He decides to throw gold and empty promises to the people in order to survive.

Livius arrives on the outskirts of Rome and gives Commodus an ultimatum: either Commodus must change or Rome will change Caesars. Both Livius and Lucilla are captured after Lucilla fails in an attempt to assassinate Commodus. They are to be burned at the stake, but at the last minute Commodus decides there should be a duel to the death between Livius and him to see who should be Caesar.

Livius reluctantly fights and kills Commodus, who in his last dying breath shouts that Lucilla and others already chained to stakes be burned alive. A dazed, but determined Livius rescues Lucilla from the flames. Even though Commodus would have killed him, Livius goes back to where Commodus has fallen and picks up his body, carrying it to up to a huge monument above the crowds where one of the generals and three of the senators who had turned against him and applauded Commodus’ order to burn him alive offer him the throne of Rome. Livius and Lucilla look at the group with utter distrust and exasperation in their eyes. Then they look at each other. What I think is one of the great lines from cinema is spoken by Livius, “You would not find me very suitable, because my first official act would be to have you all crucified.” Livius then walks off with Lucilla probably into the sunset as the crowds stand around, the unfortunate prisoners who were chained to the stalks are burned, and these men who offered Livius the crown of Caesar try to audition off the throne to the highest bidder.

I don’t blame Livius for his outburst because he could see that politics and the drive for power had turned too many around him into monsters. If he and Lucilla stuck around they would have been transformed into something they did not like too. I would have walked away just like they did and never looked back.

With Christian overtones, even in its’ theme song, I imagine that Livius and Lucilla may have converted to Christianity. Livius’ ideals of selflessness, decency, and honor are certainly Christian principles which many here in America who call themselves Christians don’t have or really understand.

There are a number of surprises and thrills in The Fall of the Roman Empire that I will not mention here.

Certainly a great civilization is not conquered until it has destroyed itself from within. The comparisons of America and ancient Rome do not have to be parallel on all levels. What is important to notice and recognize is that both civilizations have degenerated into excessiveness on so many levels. America like Rome is militaristic. Both have reached a point where there is no moral high ground left. Rome tried to stop and kill Christianity in its tracks. America has nearly killed true Christianity and replaced it with a mean spirited, brutish, self- and money centered, political and nationalistic religion that masquerades as Christianity. If the similarities cannot be seen, then one has to be blind.

When I started on this post earlier last week, I wasn't expecting to see The Fall of the Roman Empire broadcast on television. It was shown yesterday afternoon on Turner Classic Movies.

With the financial crisis of last week and the general social and moral decay that exists in America at this very second, is Pax Americana finished just like Pax Romana was nearly two thousand years ago? It is time we minded our own business here at home before there is no home left. What do you think?

(The Fall of the Roman Empire can be purchased in deluxe and collector's editions on DVD from Amazon.)