h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Even if stories of Roman (alright, Greek with Roman names) are considered fictional, they're still pretty damned fun to read. Lying, cheating, conniving, reproducing, interesting gods and great epic heroes like Ulixes, Aeneas and Achilles have made for some good entertainment in the modern world.

A lot of films are based on Roman life and the stories. 'Gladiator'. The recent 'Troy'. 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?' is based on the Odyssey. 'Ben Hur'.

Wasn't the Odyssey Greek?

B

It's pretty much all Greek, but Roman as well once you change Poseidon to Neptune and change the language Who knows, the stories may have not survived the test of time if not for the influence of Rome.

So as long as you change all the characters and the language, it's exactly the same thing?

B

There are plenty of Roman stories
The Anaenid (that is almost certainly spelt wrong) by Virgil is much the same sort of thing as the Illiad
More recently the film Gladiator ripped off, "The Fall of the Roman Empire", that 1 with Liz and Richard Burton, Spartacus
Also endless novels
The Ross Leckie trilogy about the Punic Wars
The McCullough series about republican Rome
The Allen Massie series Caesar, Anthony, Augustus, Tiberius and Nero
I'm sure theres many more

Asterix the Gaul? (No, I suppose he's French.)