Greek and Latin literature and culture are at the very foundation of Western civilization and especially of our own. In February 2023, a parallel project to E Muto Fu was launched: the Italian-language podcast Lingue Vive, dedicated to ancient literature. As many of you know, I hold a degree in Classics and, even though my career path eventually led me away from teaching, I could never set aside what has always been one of my greatest passions. It was equally impossible for me not to bring these two creations of mine together, in the hope of connecting with others who share both of these interests.

I’ve said it many times: E Muto Fu, and now Lingue Vive, have never brought me some money, but they are projects born out of my irrepressible desire to share with others what I truly love.

So the question came naturally: which films draw inspiration from the Greek and Latin world? And above all, how many of them have survived and can still be accessed today? Below you’ll find a list, constantly updated, of such films, with links to their reviews. Most of them are Italian, which is telling: from the very dawn of cinema, there was already a strong fascination with the peplum.

– List of Films in Chronological Order:

1909: Julius Caesar (Giulio Cesare) – Giovanni Pastrone
1909: Nerone: La caduta di Roma – Arturo Ambrosio, Luigi Maggi
1910: Didone abbandonata – Luigi Maggi
1910: Il ratto delle Sabine – Ugo Falena
1911: Agrippina – Enrico Guazzoni
1911: La caduta di Troia – Giovanni Pastrone, Luigi Romano Borgnetto
1911: L’Odissea – Giuseppe De Liguoro, Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan
1913: Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei – Eleuterio Rodolfi
1913: In hoc signo vinces – Nino Oxilia
1913: Jone o Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei – Ubaldo Maria del Colle
1913: Marcantonio e Cleopatra – Enrico Guazzoni
1913: Quo vadis? – Enrico Guazzoni
1914: Cabiria – Giovanni Pastrone
1914: Gaio Giulio Cesare – Enrico Guazzoni
1924: Helena – Manfred Noa
1924: Quo vadis? – Gabriellino D’Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, Arturo Ambrosio
1926: Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei – Amleto Palermi, Carmine Gallone
1931: Dafni e Cloe (Δάφνις και Χλόη) – Orestis Laskos