Willie O’Reilly: What have the Romans ever done for our entertainment? Quite a lot actually

Today, the media is society’s main conduit of entertainment via advanced technology, but the passing of 2,000 years has seen little change in what actually engages us

You could picture something like the scenes of the chariot races in Ben Hur taking place in the Circo Romano in Mérida in Spain

What have the Romans ever done for us? Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a freshwater system and public health. I mean apart from that, what have the Romans ever done for us?

It’s one of Monty Python’s funniest and most famous sketches and one that bears repeated viewing. In a nutshell it sums up the tension of losing your culture against the practical benefits of occupation.

I was ...