When I was a student I rented a room just off campus from a lovely septuagenarion who let me share the kitchen and TV room. At the time the BBC was airing the "I Claudius" series based on two books by Robert Graves. Landlady had had some Latin education and read some of the Roman histories Graves had used in framing his narrative, and we watched the series together.

The series showed its meagre BBC 70s budget in its set construction but the actors from Derek Jacobi to Brian Blessed, Siân Phillips and John Hurt chewed that scenery in the best way possible.

One of my favorite quotes from the series was a Roman historian being judged by a dictatorial figure he had displeased (said figure being played by a rollicking young Patrick Stewart as Sejanus) that it was a danger when mankind had lost its "sense of smell".

The protagonist, Claudius, for most of the story, longs for the re-establishment of the Roman republic, but when he himself is installed as emperor, is unable to achieve it.