A new article of mine about torture and its (changing) depiction in films about the ancient Romans has been published on The Awl: Now We Are Rome: Ancient Roman torture on film, and modern American torture in the news
I look specifically at “The Sign of the Cross” (1932), “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964) and HBO’s “Rome” (2005 & 2007). I also discuss the history of torture both in Rome and the US, and specifically about our troubling representation of torture in movies.
