Roman Holiday and Byron

The 1953 film, Roman Holiday, is still widely loved here in Japan but viewers are rarely aware that its title is based on the phrase, “butchered to make a Roman holiday,” which is found in Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. An article published here, which discovered this connection, failed to grasp the full implication of the phrase, which means “enjoyment or profit derived from the suffering or discomfiture of others.” In this essay I have focused on the following three aspects relating to this phrase of Byron’s: 1． The relations of this phrase to the story of the film, Roman Holiday 2． The relations of Byron’s views of the Coliseum, on which the phrase is centered, and the film, Roman Holiday 3． Byron’s way of thinking and that of Dalton Trumbo, who wrote the screenplays not only of Roman Holiday, but also of Spartacus Regarding the first aspect I assert the following: （1） To analyze the film we need to pay attention not only to “enjoyment”, but also to “profit” in the meaning of the phrase “Roman holiday” （2） The hero of the film, Joe the news reporter, attempts to make a “Roman holiday” in the sense of acquiring a $5,000 profit by getting a scoop on the trusting princess （3） The princess also attempts to make a “Roman holiday” not only in the sense of deriving a day’s enjoyment at the expense of her entourage and her country’s embassy staff, but also in the sense of discarding her duty of future ruler and marrying the man she loves, the news reporter （4） Roman Holiday is an appropriate title as these two “Roman holidays” are in progress in the film （5） Both Joe and the princess eventually decide not to make a “Roman holiday,” and this negation of theirs moves the viewers Regarding the second aspect─the relations of Byron’s views on the Coliseum to the film, Roman Holiday, I state: （1） It was a new way of Byron’s to look at the Coliseum from the viewpoint of the slave-gladiators, who were killed for the enjoyment of the Roman spectators （2） Without this change of viewpoint by Byron, the film Roman Holiday could not have been made, as it was inspired by the phrase “butchered to make a Roman holiday” （3） Figuratively speaking, the princess is in the position of a victim in danger of being killed in the arena as her escapade may well have been scandalously reported, whereas her social ancestors in Imperial Rome were at the center of the spectators in the Coliseum （4） Modern people, who expect to enjoy the princess’s scandal at her expense, are descendants of the people who made a “Roman holiday” at the Coliseum in the past Regarding the third aspect─Byron’s way of thinking and that of Trumbo─I assert the following: （1） Both of them saw Ancient Rome from the viewpoint of the slavegladiators （2） Both thought that in order to be free, slaves should create their own rebellion （3） Both trusted the power of language and legenddepartmental bulletin pape