The Power of Convention

I think it was less a matter of convention and more a matter that it was a co-production with the BBC.

Since most of the actors were English, it would probably sound worse had they faked American accents. Leaving aside the impossibility of having a British accent since an accent is by definition a variation from English. Speaking English with an American accent works. Speaking English with an English accent is a redundancy.

It’s also worth pointing out that I’d imagine British accents sound sophisticated and lofty to the average American viewer, which is something we also associate with Romans. After all, anything said in Latin immediately sounds profound.

There’s already quite a variety of accents on Rome, it sounds diverse already to British ears at least. There’s definitely an attempt to map UK accents to equivalent Roman ones, in terms of social position. Most of the senators (particularly Brutus) have very upper class South East accents, with a wider variety of accents associated with UK regions and middle/working classes representing everyone else.

Interestingly, there’s a huge number of actors in Rome suppressing their normally very distinct regional accents - Ciaran Hinds (Irish) and Kevin McKidd(Scottish) being the obvious examples. Ray Stevenson lets a fair amount of his Geordie through though, which seems almost appropriate to my ears being a lowly legionaire.

I do see your point though. There’s no logical reason for the mapping of Roman accents to UK rather than US equivalents. I’d find it close to unwatchable, however, if it had been like that. It just doesn’t seem right. It’s an interesting question as to precisely why that should be, other than convention.

I think British culture maps better to Roman culture than US culture does. That may not constitute a ‘logical reason’ but it’s part of the why it makes sense to us. England’s been shaped by centuries of being an imperial power, and a millenium of being firmly settled — whereas the US draws of its archetypal identity from the exploration and conquest of a continent, as a colony that broke free of its imperial chains and stepped into the light of manifest destiny. The USA and Rome have nothing in common. There’s a reason the convention remains strong.

You know, I just saw Night at the Museum, and Octavius (the roman general) had a british accent too. It must be a conspiracy.

Alright, i’ll accept that everyone has an accent but the day the British Isles have only one accent is probably long after i’m dead - unless the West Country becomes incredibly fashionable, of course.

In this case… it’s because it’s the BBC.

I’ve always commented on how it’s funny that we believe everyone in Europe who speaks English has a Birtish accent (except Germans and French people). Then again, if anyone in the Roman times knew English, they would have learned from a British person, and therefore would have had a bit of a British accent.

Seriously, have you heard the way most Europeans who speak English really well sound (except for the Swedes, who pretty much just watch American TV and have our accents more so than British ones)?

Whatevah, I do what I want.

I think they should have given them Italian accents.

I think the comment about British and Roman imperialism matching up is a valid point. It seems like the best movies and shows about Rome have always been from UK.

-Carl